Page 71 of Vampire Visions

I grinned at him. “I was right there the whole time.”

“Yeah, withholding the good stuff.” He sarcastically replied before biting his lips together to keep from smiling back.

Stone held a hand over his mouth, his eyes closed as his shoulders bounced with soundless laughter. The rest of the guys were staring at York, trying to decide if we were exaggerating the story or not.

Brilliant lapis eyes landed on me, Stone’s blue and black irises sucking me in. “He called and complained,” my demon confessed to me. “I told him to deal with it. His feet would heal and so would his pride. Then I called him an idiot for going without shoes.” Stone turned to York. “Really. Being barefoot isn’t always the answer. Especially when you aren’t running on dirt, York.”

While we were all snickering at York’s expense, my hellhounds bayed in the distance. Closing my eyes, I sought Helios out, using our mental connection to see what he saw. Careening through the woods, Helios, Cronus, and Atlas chased after Jack’s hellstead form. I sensed no ill-will or joy from him, only a determination to get to me.

Furrowing my brows, I stood from my chair and trudged from the patio to the open expanse of the yard. I could hear paws and hooves beating against the ground, thundering in my direction. Jack was normally so quiet and agile that the sudden change had my hackles raising.

The hounds weren’t picking on Jack. The four of them weren’t playing. They were following his lead without being commanded. When they broke free of the tree line, Jack shifted mid-stride, wobbling on his two human legs without breaking his pace. He skidded to a stop in front of me as the hounds circled the yard like hungry sharks, never removing their eyes from Jack’s feet.

“Summon Grim,” Jack urged me, panic making his voice shake. “He’s coming, Lo. I can feel him calling to me. Summon Grim!

“I am, Jack.” I smoothed my hands down his arms to calm him, focusing my mind on Grim. “Did you summon him too?”

Jack’s whole body shook, sweat pouring from his face as he fought off the magic working against him. “I did, but if we both do it, then he’ll know.” I’d never seen Jack so freaked out, but we’d never been in this situation before either.

A thin circle of orange hellfire began to light up the ground around Jack. He shoved me away with enough force to knock me on my ass. The circle closed and Jack’s tremors increased with his struggle to stay on his feet. My mates gathered, inspecting the magic, as Jack’s ebony eyes pleaded with me, his voice sad as it echoed through my mind.

“Lo, don’t deviate. Do not come for me until it’s time.”

The begging tone made me tear up, but the mystery behind his words pissed me off.

“If we can't stop it now, then I’ll bring you back as soon as you land.”

Jack shook his head. “He’ll just call me to him again. It’s taken him twenty years to find the right blood magic to get past all the protections our parents put on me. I may not be a Stead by name, but I am by blood, and that’s something we cannot change.”

The flaming circle widened, a horseshoe with horns popping up right underneath Jack’s feet. My hounds howled, unable to do anything but watch the threat as it happened. Stone stepped too close and Jack screeched at him, “Stop! Don’t touch it!”

Stone glanced at me, his mouth pulled down in a frown. “I know this magic,” he whispered to us. “This was in one of the tomes that my parents were trusted to guard. A set of four books too powerful to be kept in plain sight. It’s not blood magic, it’s warped angelic magic that Lucifer hid from the angels.”

Jack dropped to one knee, groaning as the fire grew thicker. “Sloane, it’s him. I know it is.” His hoarse voice tugging at my heartstrings. “Take Grim and go to Dolyn. Hide.”

“Jack,” I screamed, lunging to grab him just as the flames began to swallow him whole.

“He’ll come for you,” he vowed, the vortex of hellfire swirling and sinking into the ground.

The pain in Jack’s last words was my boiling point. I fell to my knees, uselessly digging at the ground. Instead of crying, I raged, harder than I ever had before. Fighting to keep my demon inside for just a little bit longer, I shifted into my wolf. Snapping and snarling, I paced around the burned spot in my yard.

Focus, bitch. Think!

I was losing my godsdamned mind. My best friend. My fucking brother. He’d just been sucked down some fiery drain by a piece of shit. The bastard thought he had a claim over a King because he’d knocked up the woman who’d birthed Jack. Jack’s mother may have had a heart of gold, but his father was pure evil.

Oh. Hannibal Stead had just given me all the reasons that I needed to let my demon out to play. I may have only won by a hair when it came to Kadence, but there was absolutely nothing, and no one, that could stand in my way when it came to the revenge my demon sought. She’d claimed Jack as her family the moment she’d burst forth from my flesh.

I knew I needed to calm down, to rationalize my next step, to remember that it wasn’t just me anymore. I had mates to protect, not that they couldn’t take care of themselves. They’d follow me into the fray without looking back, which meant that I didn’t have to do this alone. But I needed to track Jack, and to make that easier we had to be in the Underworld, where he was.

Briggs trailed his fingers through the fur between my ears, the touch soothing but not enough to calm my rage. “What do you want to do, Barbie?”

I growled in agitation. Shifting back to my human skin, I could still feel my demon too close to the surface. My shoulder blades ached from fighting to keep my wings in. My horns had pierced my skull, poking out of my hair but remaining short as I tried to reel them in. I took a deep breath, struggling to hold myself together as I admitted my intentions aloud. “I’m going to kill Hannibal Stead.”

“I thought he was dead,” Stone remarked.

“He’s not,” Grim replied, stepping out of the Void with his head hung low. “He’s very much alive and stirring up quite a commotion in Hell. He’s after Sam, Lo, and planning to use Jack as leverage.”

Stone sighed, sounding angry and frustrated. “It’s time to go to the Underworld, isn’t it?”