Replica(88)

But mostly how he’d planned to use that information to capture Rachel and me. He’d planned to use me as a blood donor to change him, and Rachel as leverage…and a whore in a much more literal sense. I shivered and spat him out. “Fuck, that was nasty.”

I grabbed his head and twisted it sharply to one side. The dirty thoughts he’d had about Rachel were enough to make me not want another single thought from him.

To my surprise, it was Antonio who asked the question. “What did you see?”

“You don’t want to know.” Rachel went green and I nodded.

Antonio shook his head. “This mind reading shit between you two is getting old, fast.”

“Get over it,” Rachel snapped.

As if that was going to calm him down.

I deliberately sent Rachel a thought. According to Hades’s memories, the witch blood—broken down into its base elements—was what had powered the other compounds in the suicide pill. Without it, the pill wouldn’t have done anything to a vampire. Magic had been the key factor in making it work.

Rachel nodded. “So that means Stravinsky has a witch working for him?”

I squinted one eye. “Or captive.”

Antonio’s jaw ticked. “Are you going to fill us in?”

“In the truck. Elena won’t wait forever and that child’s life is in the balance as well as our own,” I said.

We piled back into the Humvee. Rachel snorted. “I feel like a teenager again, taking my dad’s truck and cramming all my friends into it for a joyride.”

Ivan glanced at her. “So...we’re all friends now?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Whatever. Wolf.”

He grinned at her. “Witch.”

Antonio shrugged and mock-glared at me. “Vamp.”

I snorted. “Wannabe.”

He burst out laughing, as did Rachel and Ivan. The released tension felt good, and it was needed. Because I was about to tell them the story I knew of Sangre de la Bruja, which would add a whole new level of pressure to our group.

For good or for ill, we were tied together.

I only hoped all four of us would make it through alive.