Unchained Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 5)

Dray clears his throat before vanishing from the room.

“Kya, you said you tried reading Slade’s journal, but when I saw it, it was in some dead language he didn’t give me details on.”

Her hand goes beside mine, and I feel the baby shift its attention from me to her. Kya startles a laugh, then her eyes flash to mine. “I’ve never felt this power before,” she states in awe.

“It’s just like Dice when he does it, but he must do it so subtly that we don’t usually notice,” I quickly explain. “The journal,” I prompt.

She shakes her head and looks over at me. “It’s always in various languages, but English was one of them. I could tell by the letters. I would have been happy to read it in any language, just so I could know the plan.”

The plan.

“The centuries of planning that were written down in it,” I say to her, as if reciting something Slade has said over and over. “And what parts of those plans have you put into action?”

“We just recently killed all those funders, transporters, and informants, not to mention all the ones we still have left to kill. We’ll deal with that after the war,” she says, not even batting an eye.

“He learned those names from Gavin recently, so how was that part of the plan?”

“The plan was obviously to learn their names and kill them. At least part of the plan. The main objective is killing Hannah right now.” She hisses a low breath. “Man, this baby is seriously hungry, and I

think she’s a girl. I don’t know how I can tell that, but I think she’s a succubus instead of an incubus.”

She keeps talking, but my mind has already strayed.

Slade called Hannah mild in comparison to her predecessors, so why focus so intently on her? Why did Dray make me start overthinking everything?

“Did he ever tell you about me at all in the rings?” I ask her.

“Slade? No,” she says absently. “When they weren’t ripping him apart, he kept his eyes closed mostly, possibly meditating.” Watching me. “After they did rounds, he’d read his journal or write in it, and he’d always promise me we’d be free. I liked it when he read his journal, because I liked hearing him sound…different. Hopeful, almost.”

“Yet he still wanted to die despite feeling hopeful?” I ask her quietly, drawing her attention solely back to me as she frowns.

“I guess he did, but clearly that’s changed. Hell, everyone in the camp has noticed how different he is since finding you. His sole focus is you when he’s not planning for D-day. You know he plans to drain the prison he built for Alton in order to kill her, right? He’s going to use Alton as a conduit, I think.”

The Alton-conduit part is new.

“How?”

She shrugs. “Twin thing, I guess. His blood is Alton’s blood or something, so they can both use the prison’s power to channel into Hannah.”

Why wouldn’t he have told me that? He hasn’t mentioned Alton at all.

“I need to do something real fast,” I tell her, dematerializing before she can stop me, and I land in a familiar cave I haven’t visited in too long.

Dull, silver eyes meet mine, and Alton gives me a sad smile.

“To what do I owe this unworthy pleasure?” he asks.

I take a seat near him, warily watching him. “Tell me about that prophecy again.”

Chapter 27

SLADE

The power slices through my hand, obliterating the last line of ravenous, vampiric savages. Kya staggers, drained.

“She has all kinds of powerful slaves she’s brainwashed or put under blood oath, so why is she sending these fleets again?” she asks as Chaz starts burning the dead bodies of the fallen.

“Because she needs her strongest soldiers at her side for the end-battle,” I tell her as I pull out my journal, flipping to the back pages and scribbling down this variable to inspect later.