Dark Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 1)

“She said you told her it was strong enough to hold even you. It should be strong enough to hold him.”

I fucking hope so. To be sure he hasn’t gotten out, I slam on the gas, jutting us forward even faster.

“Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?”

“Do you have any idea how thorough I am?” she quips. “It greatly depreciates the danger factor.”

She’s not taking this as seriously as she should.

I glance in my rearview

to see Zee’s car right on my ass. Chaz is riding with Karma and Dice, because Karma knows what’s going on. She also understands why Dray can’t heal him. His injuries are sustained from his own magic, which means Dray can’t heal him, and Chaz wants his secret kept. Which means he’ll need a lot of rest and privacy. Something I can offer him at my house. I owe him a lot more than that.

As soon as we reach the oversized, underground garage, I leap out of the car, ignoring Kimber as I dematerialize, but Zee pulls me out of my shadowed form, using his night stalker abilities, and forces me to reassemble.

“What the hell?” he growls.

Kimber sells me out quickly. “He’s going to see his brother.”

“Not alone,” Zee says. “Take me with you.”

Considering the others couldn’t keep up, they don’t know what’s going on. Everyone will want a piece of the action if I waste time arguing.

“Fine,” I grumble, and he releases his hold to let me dematerialize us both. Using my magic, I make the chains come to life and find him to pin him down before we even make it underground. When we reappear, Gavin is resting his hand on his knee, sitting on the stone floor, and wearing a smile he shouldn’t be. At least the shackles are in place.

“Guess your girlfriend made you promise not to kill me before you came down here,” he says smugly.

“I’ve broken promises before,” I remind him, watching him as he runs a hand through his dark hair.

“So you have. But not to this girl. She forgave me for torture because she loves you. Hell of a girl to lie to, wouldn’t you say?”

Grinding my teeth, I glare across the room at him.

“I didn’t make any promises,” Zee says, his smile slowly crawling up in warning.

Gavin rolls his eyes. “You’re a young night stalker with a weak sire. I’ve done my homework on all of you. You aren’t strong enough to subdue me, let alone kill me. Your strongest venom is too weak to even leave a mark on someone as strong as me.”

Smug son of a bitch. Even in an underground cell, unable to use magic, and shackled to a wall, he manages to act as though he’s better than everyone.

Zee gets closer to him, and before I can warn him to back off, he’s suddenly getting jerked down, gasping as Gavin grabs his face in his hands. I sling my hand to knock him away, but my power comes back at me, and I’m knocked against the wall.

Zee yelps and struggles, while I leap to my feet, but before I can grab him and get out, Gavin releases him.

Zee staggers back to me, keeping his eyes warily on Gavin, and I take several breaths to make up for the adrenaline rush.

“The fuck?” Zee gripes, pulling the sleeve up on his arm as ink begins to crawl up him.

“What the hell did you do to him?” I demand, looking over at my brother as he smiles and rests his hands behind his head.

“How can I possibly tell you my master plan?”

The words strike a chord to me, and so many things fall into place. Gavin’s thing has always been wording things, ever since we were little and couldn’t speak freely inside the coven’s home where we were enslaved.

“Motherfucker!” Zee gripes, ripping his shirt open as the ink continues to crawl up both of his arms, creating tattooed sleeves, and it slithers across the top of his chest until the two sides connect.

“Let’s get out of here,” I tell Zee.

He narrows his eyes on Gavin, but my brother just used magic in a cell that should forbid magic. Yet he’s not escaping. He’s strong enough to override some parts of the restraints, but not all of them.