34

HAWK

THERE was an uncomfortable tightness in my chest as I guided Ivy down into the coolness of the basement where two SUVs waited. The blonde had the kids, who didn’t seem to put up much of a fight now that the wolf was gone.

As soon as we hit the final step, I released her and watched as she rushed over to the girls. Their soft voices were drowned out by the explosions and fighting above, so much so that I couldn’t hear any part of their conversation.

Grey appeared beside me, her face a careful mask of calm, barely covering the quiet rage I knew she’d be feeling right about now. “Where’s Elias?”

I gritted my teeth and shook my head. “Bear shifter was brought in. He stayed back to keep it from trying to follow.”

I felt her stare leave me and drift over to our soon-to-be Queen and her family. Tension wound throughout the vampire and thickened the air between us.

“Be prepared for her power to potentially cause issues,” Grey murmured. “Elias is not her only bonded mate, but if he’s out there fighting, he can’t be with her helping contain the potential blow up.”

The curse fell from my lips before I could stop myself. I hadn’t thought of that. And I’d had an inkling of their bond, which drew that uncomfortable tightness out again, but I hadn’t expected it to cause…problems.

“Adrian recently bonded her from what I’ve gathered,” Grey warned. “He can only do so much.”

“So, he needs to stay with her.” Our eyes met, and she nodded. “That might change things.”

Her eyes shifted from mine to where the soon-to-be Queen stood. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

~

“We’re going to need to split up,” Grey started, crossing her arms over her chest. She gazed out over the gathered crowd. Most of mine were on the surface fighting, while Jessup remained close, and Zeph stuck around for the evac.

“Thea, you’re going to take the girls and get into SUV one with Zephyr and Rowan to the new safe house,” Grey continued, motioning for the newly established evac team. “Ivy will be put into SUV two with Adrian and me, and we’ll meet you at the house. From there, we go to the ferry to Avalon. Since we’ve been compromised, we cannot leave like we’d intended.”

I observed Ivy carefully as her face fell and her arms tightened around the kids. “Why do we have to split up?” she asked, shaking her head as she did. “Why can’t they stay with me? Maeve, I can’t leave them. I can’t—” She pressed her lips into a thin line and averted her eyes, but I had a feeling I knew what she was about to say.

An unfamiliar feeling tugged in my chest, but I pushed it aside as I explained. “The purpose of splitting you is safety.” Debris shook free from the ceiling as the house rattled with another blast, and I swore under my breath. “We’re out of time. We need to split you up and take you separately to protect both groups. You’re a beacon of power, and everyone here can feel it. The kids will be safer without you.”

I knew I fucked up as soon as her eyes fell, and she took a step back from the kids. The internal war she fought played across her face and in the darkness of her eyes. What was she thinking about?

I shook my head. I didn’t have time to wonder about that. Not when we had a plan.

Grey stepped in then and motioned to the vehicles. “Let’s go. We’re out of time.”

The fight slipped from the would-be-Queen as she turned back to the children. I wasn’t sure why, but I watched, raptured, as she pressed gentle kisses to each of their foreheads and tucked them into her embrace. She whispered things to each of them and promised to be with them soon.

A throat cleared beside me, and I found myself staring at Zephyr as Jessup approached the stairs leading back up to the house. “You good, boss?” He lifted a questioning brow and looked between me and the now departing group. From the corner of my eye, I watched as Ivy helped each kid into the SUV, gathering the youngest two into the middle seat between the blonde and the eldest girl.

As Ivy said more to them, I shook my head. “I’m fine. Get ready for a fight. We aren’t getting out of here without some injuries.”

Zeph snorted and checked his weapons over before striding towards SUV one. The Seer’s son, Rowan Archer, glanced between us warily before sliding into the passenger seat.

I straightened as my man pulled himself into the driver’s seat. The wards around the vehicle went up a moment later, a dim shimmer of magic that disappeared in the blink of an eye as it settled over the black exterior.

Grey walked around it once, checked the wards, and then tapped it three times. It was protected.

The second the SUV roared to life, I stalked towards the next car in the line-up, where our Queen waited, her hand tucked into her mate’s. That same discomfort from earlier reared its head, and I forced myself to look away from the pair and join Grey in front of the vehicle.

“You ready?” I asked, crossing my arms.

The vampire looked me over. “I have our coordinates. We’ll be safe where we’re going.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Thought the same thing with this place, yet here we are.”

She didn’t give away her annoyance, but Ivy huffed and dragged her little mate around the side of the SUV to join us. “Seriously? It seemed like it was safe before you and your team got here. We get, what, a week with you, and we’ve been found?” She raised her brows at me before shaking her head. “Can we get going now? As you keep pointing out, it’s not safe and we have to leave. Before—” another shock rocked the house above us, causing the prince to wrap his mate in his arms. “—we end up with a house where the basement should be,” she finished warily, her eyes finally leaving me to fall on the vampire.

Grey didn’t argue, of course. She simply nodded and motioned for our soon-to-be Queen to get in. But I couldn’t help but watch how Kingsley and Grey swarmed her. One would think Grey was a little too close to our soon-to-be Queen. But I didn’t say anything. It wouldn’t do me any good to point it out, especially with my jealousy rising.

It seemed Ivy had everyone wrapped around her finger.

I wouldn’t join them. I couldn’t.

Grey took the driver’s seat, so I rounded the SUV and climbed in beside her. A shiver raced over me, lifting the hairs on my arms as the wards fell into place around us.

The vampire pressed the call button on the dash, and the speakers beeped loudly twice before reaching our people. “This is Grey to Phoenix Compound,” she started, putting the SUV into drive. “Patch me into Sir Ya’Dahir’s office.”

I felt my body stiffen as we waited for the Queen’s mate to answer our call. The house shook again, forcing us from our idling position. The first SUV passed us, drove up the winding path to the ground floor, and we followed. The garage door groaned as it opened, and we were met with blasts of magic that shook the first SUV, but didn’t destroy it.

From the backseat, Ivy gasped, her fear and worry palpable. “The SUV is fine,” I muttered, “the vehicle camouflaged and unseen. They’re blindly attacking because the garage is open. That’s why they’re uneasy.”

Ivy made a sound but didn’t respond. My gut twisted, but instead of focusing on her and her distress, I took in the damage wrought by the enemy. I spotted three of my own, and the wolf shifter fighting the front lines and keeping the enemies from going any further into the house. It looked like reinforcements had arrived since being in the basement.; two SUVs were parked in front of the house—or at least, what remained of it—and there were agents I recognised fighting alongside my men.

“Is that Jay?” Ivy whispered, pointing to a half-demon I vaguely recognised from the compound.

“Yeah. And you can see Elias. He’s fine. Jay has his back.”

The growl that passed her lips almost made me laugh, but then her magic spiked, potent and unbelievably strong as it filled the SUV.

“Calm her down,” I snapped, half-turning in my seat. “They’ll sense it, and we’ll be fucked over.”

From the corner of my eye, I watched her suck in deep breaths, but that didn’t seem to be doing anything. Her magic continued trickling over us in waves, calling desperately to my Fae side. A side I would much rather ignore right now.

“Adrian.” The SUV rocked as we moved. The first car drove through the rubble, barely missing the now-injured bear that dove out of the house towards us. We swerved, barely missing the shifter. “You’re mates. Do something.”

“But we just mated,” he replied, almost desperately. “I don’t know—”

“Absorb some of her power,” a voice said, deep, rich, and all too familiar. “Your proximity is helping, but she needs more. Skin-to-skin contact preferably.”

“Like a kiss?” the prince asked.

“Yes,” Sir Ya’Dahir replied. “Has she fully bonded anyone yet?”

I grunted and turned away before the prince could lock lips with our new Queen. Almost immediately, her magic slipped back, reeled in by the touch.

“Yes. She has two mates.” Grey’s voice grew tight as she manoeuvred her way through the destruction. There were felled trees blocking the main road, but Konrad, with his power, moved them across the gravel and back into the forest. “There is another update regarding that, but this isn’t the time.”

Queen Greer’s mate stayed quiet momentarily before asking, “What happened?”

Grey recounted the attack as we drove. From the trees, an unmasked Fae leapt at us, landing behind the SUV. She was lithe, likely Spring Court if I had to guess, and as she lifted her arms, I sucked in a breath. Vines crawled from the darkness of the forest floor, answering her magic in droves, and it was powerful.

I swore under my breath. I called upon my own magic from the darker courts of Unseelie. It lived beneath my skin and begged for release, somehow louder than it usually was when locked away.

It ripped through me and slammed into the Spring Fae, tearing her apart. The vines, which had been propelling through the air towards our vehicle, fell in a heap.

Ivy gasped. I hadn’t realised she’d been watching. “Holy shit,” she murmured, “what the hell was that?”

I grimaced and sat back in my seat, spearing my senses out for any others waiting for us.

“Keep the enemy away from the ferry,” Sir Ya’Dahir said, pulling me back to the car. “They cannot know where the crossing is. We’ll lock it down for now.”

“Understood, Sir.” Grey moved like she was sighing as she turned onto the road leading into the small town a few miles from the safe house. “We’ll touch base once we reach the location.”

“Queen Greer will be alerted to the attack and the changed circumstances immediately,” he replied. “Keep the new Queen safe.”

The call ended without another word, leaving us in tense silence. My blood roared in my ears as I remained vigilant. We’d lost SUV one as soon as we made it into town, and we followed our own route onto the main highway.

“What now?” Ivy asked, her voice quiet. I looked up and met her stare in the rear-view mirror.

“Now we move on, and we await the other teams.”

She shuddered but tucked herself into her mate’s side. Again, that thing deep inside me grew uncomfortable seeing her so at ease with him.

Once again, I pushed it away and retrained my gaze on the road in front of us. But deep in the back of my mind, I was too aware of her, and I didn’t know why.

~

We drove for nearly five hours before we made it to the city. It wasn’t one of ours, but it was one of the larger human cities. Plenty of human-passing supernaturals migrated to places such as these for the convenience of a human life—despite our laws on such.

Ivy slept, her head resting on Kingsley’s shoulder, while he wove charms quietly from the back seat. He pressed several into her skin while she slept, unbeknownst to her, but I said nothing. The tension filling the SUV was thick enough to cut with a knife, and I wouldn’t add my thoughts to that.

Grey drove easily through the busy streets, having let up the glamour as soon as we entered the suburbs. And as the only person with the location of the next safe house, I was forced to observe our whereabouts quietly.

My head ached from the power usage, but I ignored it as best I could. I wouldn’t get to rest until we made it to the next location, and even then, I was too wired to let myself relax.

It was a wonder Her Highness could sleep, though with the way her magic was expelling itself, it didn’t surprise me that she was exhausted. The silence had forced me to go over everything I’d learnt in my time with these people—with her—and it was clear something else was going on.

“You and I will scope the new safe house first,” Grey said, obliterating the silence. She didn’t look at me as she took a cramped side street that opened to a parking garage. “We’ll clear it, ward it, then let Ivy in.”

I nodded as she pulled the vehicle to a stop beside a box. The window rolled down, and she pressed the code in without any hesitancy.

The clunky metal gate rose, awakening our sleeping Queen. “Where are we?” she asked, her voice thick with exhaustion.

Grey pulled the SUV down into the garage without answering, only speaking once the car was parked in an unnumbered spot by a darkened set of doors. “Somewhere safe and off the grid.”

The vampire turned to me with a nod before looking over her shoulder. “Ivy, stay here while Hawk and I do a walk-through. Adrian will stay with you. We’ll return once we have confirmation that it’s safe.”

“Are the others here?” she asked.

Grey hesitated before shaking her head. “No. For now, it’ll just be the four of us. The rest of the teams will meet Rowan and your family at a second location to regroup.”

Ivy pressed her lips into a thin line instead of responding, barely nodding her acknowledgement. And only then did Grey and I slip from the vehicle. It locked behind us, the wards shimmering as we stepped away.

Grey breathed in, her chest rising and falling deliberately as she eyed the parking garage. There were several other cars, some expensive looking, others basic, filling the space. But she shook her head when our eyes met.

“Let’s go.” She started for the doors I’d noticed before. There was a keypad beside them, which she used to punch in another code.

“This doesn’t feel like a Phoenix safe house,” I muttered, watching carefully as the doors swung open to reveal a small lobby. There was no one else inside.

Grey stiffened slightly before entering, motioning for me to follow. “Because it’s not,” she replied quietly. The room was bare, save for what looked like a private elevator. The walls were a cold stone-grey, and the floor marbled. She walked up to the single button and pressed it. “This is a private dwelling.”

“That goes against protocol.” I stepped up beside her as the elevator dinged its arrival. “You don’t seem like the type to say ‘fuck the rules’. Especially with our new Queen involved.”

As the doors slid open, Grey extended an arm and grabbed me by the throat. I felt the extension of her claws against the skin of my neck, the warning clear.

“I know someone on the inside is giving away our locations,” she murmured, eyes flashing red, “and I fully plan on making sure you and your team are cleared. Our enemies likely have both locations, only we are not at either. During the drive, Adrian disabled all your additional charms and wards, including all ways to communicate with your team.” Anger rose within me, and I gritted my teeth. “Right now, you are here because you have to be. But make no mistake: I will kill you before you know what’s happening. If you prove to be putting Ivy in danger, then I will make sure you and your entire team suffer.”

I couldn’t help the sneer working its way across my face as I stared down at the vampire. “Why not kill us all when we arrived? Or drink our blood to check if we were your enemy?” Her dark brows rose. “Yeah, I know what you’re capable of. Do you know what it’s like being one of the best teams, only to be shafted on the most important mission we will ever see? I get why you were chosen, but the others? A prince and the Seer’s son. What the hell can they do that others can’t?” The disgust in my voice wasn’t lost on her.

Grey threw me back into the wall, and I grunted from the impact, my shoulder blades screaming as I tried to give them some relief where my wings came through. “I know what you’re capable of, too, Hawk Nash,” she replied, baring her fangs, “and you do not scare me. None of your team does. If it truly is the case of jealousy over not being on the initial team, fine, prove your worth to Ivy by keeping her and her family safe. But you are under my orders only, and I will be keeping an eye on you—all of you.”

With that, she released my throat, and her claws retracted with her fangs. “Now, we will go up, check the apartment, then retrieve our Queen so she can rest. Is that understood?”

Scrubbing a hand through my hair, I sighed. I didn’t know what I expected when getting this assignment, but I certainly wasn’t prepared for any of this. And neither was my team. My team, my family, was now under her thumb.

So, I met her stare and gave her a single nod. The smile that twisted across her lips shouldn’t have scared me as much as it did. I knew the rumours of her Change. I knew the strength she wielded, and I knew her threats were genuine.

“Good,” she replied. “Now, let’s get to work.”