A few days. I planned to be home that night if I could. Planned.

Yeah, my plans always went exactly as I hoped.

Right.

Chapter 12

Jack’s manor was dark except for a single light in what I knew was the library. I also knew Liam was going to be pissed. Didn’t matter that we’d taken out a few more demons, what would matter is that Will defied him and had taken me into danger without Liam at my side. Saying the two alphas did not get along was the fucking understatement of the century.

“Will, you can’t come in,” I said, stepping out of his car.

“I’m not afraid of him,” Will said, his green eyes far too intimate in the way they traced my face.

“It’s not about fear. He’ll kill you for this stunt. You don’t get it; you don’t have a shot with me. End of story.” There we go, spitting it out and probably breaking his heart. A part of me hoped it worked; the other part knew Will was stubborn enough to ignore my blunt, mean words.

Erik ignored us both and headed in. “I’m tired and hungry. You two figure this out.”

The door slammed behind him. Shit, it would only be moments before Liam came out ready to strangle Will. I had to speed this up.

“Thanks for the ride.” I slammed the car door shut and headed for the house. Will was right behind me.

“Rylee, I love—”

I spun on him and smacked him in the chest with the palm of my hand. “NO. That is not coming out of your mouth. Ever. You are my friend. And not a very good one right now. You let me walk into a fucking nest of demons without even a simple warning! Why would you do that?”

Will’s hands fisted at his sides. “Because I knew what he was, but there was no way for me to kill him! When you said your uncle was a Slayer I knew it was a shot. Maybe the only shot to get Denning out.”

I pushed him back. “You are a supernatural. You’re telling me you didn’t talk to Deanna about this? Didn’t consult your destruction about making a full scale attack on the station?”

“And do what, Tracker?” He snarled at me, his eyes shifting to his kitty cat green. Oh yeah, now he was getting angry. About fucking time.

“Something. Anything. We can’t hide in a corner anymore. We have to face this together or no one will survive.”

“How would I survive getting covered in that bile that spewed out of him? It ate Erik’s sword. Damn. Well. Ate. It.” He shoved me, I stumbled back, and I had to give him props. There was some tough shit coming our way. He needed to be tough too. He needed to be angry enough to fight.

“There’s got to be a way. That’s why I’m pissed at you. You didn’t even try; you just set me up and hoped to hell I could handle it.” I turned my back on him and walked away. Shit, I was going to alienate our current allies before we ever got to a battle with Orion.

Damn, I could almost hear Jack’s voice. Good job, Rylee, good fucking job, you little idiot.

But I was doing things the only way I knew how. Straight forward, no games, kill or be killed. I slammed the door behind me and locked it for good measure. Without thinking, I stormed toward the library where Liam and Erik sat across from each other, digging into what smelled like stew.

“Hungry?” Alex held up a bowl, balanced carefully between his claws.

“Yes. No. Shit, I don’t know.” I wanted to rant and rail, to throw things around. Instead I stomped to the kitchen and swung open the freezer. There was a half tub of cookies ‘n cream ice cream from when we’d last been here. My stomach growled and I yanked it out of the freezer, grabbed a spoon and headed to the library. Good for me? No, but I wanted something that would make me feel better. The top of it was covered in ice crystals I scraped off to reveal sweet, sweet ice cream and cookie chunks below.

I slumped into Jack’s chair and dug into the ice cream. Around a mouthful I said, “Did Erik tell you what happened?”

“Yes.” Liam kept his eyes on his bowl. “Will is gone?”

I nodded. “Yes.” I pulled his clothes out of my jacket and tossed them at him. “Here. I kept them warm for you.”

He caught them and put them on the table. The silence in the room was rife with an uncomfortable tension I hadn’t felt in a long time. Not since before Liam and I were together as a mated pair. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

Liam turned to me. “About what?”

“Will, the demons, I don’t know. Getting the wool pulled over our eyes by our pussy cat friend?”

His lips quirked. “I know you can take care of yourself, hell, you did for a lot of years without my help.”

And just like that I knew something was wrong. Sure, Liam had been doing his best to not be over protective, to let me do what I had to do, but this was a step too far.

“You don’t care that Will made a move on me?”

His shoulders tightened and his breathing changed. “I don’t like it. But I’m not going to kill one of our allies because he makes a pass at you. Blaz flirts with you, Alex climbs into bed with you whenever I’m not looking, Doran grabs your ass on a regular basis. You want me to kill them too?” His eyes flicked over me and while there was heat in his voice, nothing matched it in his eyes. No, his eyes were tired.

Resigned.

“That isn’t how it was last time we were here. Every move Will made you were ready to pull his balls up through his throat.” What the hell was going on with him? If there was a logical reason he was no longer a jealous wolf, fan-fucking-tastic. But there didn’t seem to be any logic here, just a sudden change of feelings and that was not like Liam. There was always a reason for what he did, for how he acted. Which told me again that something was being kept from me. A reason he didn’t want to share.

Like the pro he was, he changed the subject. “Have you tried Tracking a necromancer here? Isn’t that the person we need to get to Pamela and Milly?”

It was a good idea and for that moment I let him move on. “We aren’t done talking about this.”

“I wouldn’t for a minute expect you to let me have any secrets,” Liam said, his voice dry as a popcorn fart. Ass.

I drew in a deep breath, then took another bite of ice cream, getting a good chunk of cookie in the process.

With very little belief that I would get anything back, I tried to find a necromancer, Tracking them as a group. I sucked in a sharp breath and a half mouthful of cookie crumbs as I got two strong threads. One to the north of us and one way to the south east, on the tip of the island. Both were about the same distance from us, a few hours away regardless of which direction we took.