Dark Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 1)

He drops to the sofa beside Ella, and he puts his head in her lap. She gingerly runs her fingers through his hair, and he closes his eyes while shifting and wincing from the move. He must have exerted a lot of power to fight tonight, even though I didn’t get to see him fighting.

“Traitor in the Somage?” Ella asks, looking up from Chaz.

I frown while leaning back against Gage. There really isn’t any rest for the wicked.

“Yeah,” I say in answer. “We set it up to call the Somage in last and fill them in on just ce

rtain parts of the plan. We made it known there would be an ambush, but we left out all the details. They knew the details that only the Somage had heard. They didn’t catch wind of the slave ring invasion until one of the alarms was triggered, and the Somage wasn’t in on it. But they knew about this.”

Her mouth falls open, and then she curses. “Shit. There’s a lot of power in the Somage.”

“It’s not all of them. Maybe one or two. There’s no one who could convince them all to shift sides so easily. But we don’t know which ones have, so we can’t use them anymore.”

Zee walks around the living room, pointing to his chest and arms very dramatically.

“Biggest problem is right here,” he says. “What the hell does this mean?”

He throws his hands up when no one answers, and the whole damn wall behind him blows up. Gage covers me, pushing me to the solid wall behind me, and we all look on in shock.

“Son of a fucking bitch,” Drackus says on a breath.

The pounding of numerous feet coming down the stairs finds us, and I look over to see Chaz sitting down after having shielded Ella. He grimaces when trying to move, and Alyssa goes to him while warily investigating the tragic wall.

“What happened?” she asks, her eyes examining Chaz’s bruised side.

“To the wall or the duster?” Dice asks, his eyes wide as he pulls Karma to him. “Because I really want to know about the fucking wall.”

“Holy fucking hell,” Kane says, walking over to Zee. “When did you do this?”

“Are you really asking about tattoos right now?” Thad asks incredulously.

“That’s what he did,” Gage says, pinching his brow.

“Huh?” Zee asks.

“That’s what Gavin did. Shit. He essentially called you weak, remember?”

Zee looks down at his arms, then his eyes shift to the decimated wall, and then he looks back to Gage.

“So he did what? Gave me magic? That’s impossible.”

Everyone exchanges confused looks, especially the ones who just got down here.

“With all the shit that has gotten free from purgatory, there’s not too much that’s impossible anymore,” Gage groans.

Kane walks over to Zee, cocking a brow at him. “He called you weak and gave you powers? Why?”

Gage is the one to answer since Zee looks as confused as everyone else. “Because you’re only as strong as your weakest link. That’s his favorite saying. He wanted Zee to be stronger.”

Zee’s jaw unhinges. “The incubus is totally weaker than me.”

Dice holds his finger up, and then makes a dramatic show of putting it on the tip of his sword’s handle. “Not anymore, night stalker. Not anymore.”

He grins over at Zee, taunting him, and Zee rolls his eyes. “I need a fucking drink.”

Gage drops his eyes to me, and then we’re suddenly out of that room and forming in his bedroom. I grin against his lips when he starts kissing me again. I guess he’s not mad.

“Despite everything he did to you, you didn’t deny him a chance to be heard,” he says against my lips. “Because of me.”