“The witch. I knew I should’ve killed her, too. If Julian couldn’t have his betrothed, she would’ve been better off in a grave with his remains than be bonded to a dog. In fact, thank you for reminding me. It’s still hours until dawn. I believe I’ll pay a visit to that witch right now.”
Oh, no. No, no, no. That wasn’t what Adam meant to do. The last thing he wanted was to paint a target on Shea’s back.
Good thing he had every intention of ending Rafe before he could lay a fang on her.
Adam stuck his claw in the hilt of his dagger, swinging it as it woosh-ed to its enchanted state. “You’ll have to go through me if you want to get to Shea.”
“I don’t think so. Now excuse me.”
What?
“No. Fight me.”
“No.”
Adam rotated his wrist, slashing the blade through the air, drawing Rafe’s attention toward it. “Why not?”
“I believe in being fair.”
“Fair? Are you fucking with me now?”
“Not at all. Look. Your mutt killed my king so I killed his cop. Your turning and actually surviving was just bad luck all around, but Julian wanted it so I guess I’ll let it go. We could’ve left it at that. A life for a life… the debt is paid. We were square. You shouldn’t have come looking for me, fledging.”
“You ripped out my throat.”
“So?” Rafe said lazily. “The bastard wolf ripped Julian’s head clean from his shoulders. You should be grateful I left yours attached. Of course, maybe that was a mistake.” His lips quirked, appearing to thin as his fangs grew midway down his chin. “Bow to me.”
It was Adam’s turn to stare at Rafe. “What did you say?”
“I’m your king. I control the Nightwalkers. Julian sired you, but I brought you into our family. Bow to me.”
“I’d rather die.” He waited a beat. “Again.”
“That can be easily arranged.” Rafe leaned forward. Before he moved off of the dais, though, he went still. “Where’s the slayer?”
A shiver ran down Adam’s spine. “What slayer?”
“You know exactly who I’m talking about. You were with her in Woodbridge when the witch cursed the shifter to destroy her. When that failed, and the uppity slayer showed up in Wolf’s Creek, Priscilla tried to fix the problem herself. But then the Society confirmed she lived when Alexis invited you here. Where is she?”
Adam clenched his jaw, thoughts whirring inside his brain.
Well, that answered a few questions that Adam had actually forgotten he had. Priscilla Winters had sent the cursed shifter Bowers after Tabby, squeezing the life out of him when he failed, cutting him off before he could ask any of Tab’s questions. And when the witch chose Tabby out of the crowd as the target for her spell—
“She hit her on purpose,” he ground out.
Rafe scoffed. “Of course she did.”
“Why?”
“Because she shouldn’t have been there.”
So it was Adam’s fault for bringing her along. Fucking great. As if his guilt over that night hadn’t been bad enough, now Rafe had confirmed it.
He hated the other Nightwalker a fraction more for that alone.
“This is between us Paras. We didn’t want the human cops interfering when Julian was moving the family into town. We certainly wouldn’t let one of those trumped-up human slayers try to stop us now.”
“You don’t have to worry about that tonight. Alexis invited her, but I didn’t let her come. She’s not here,” Adam lied.