Addict (Hunter #2)(105)

I had to give him something to do. “Not dead. It was a tranquilizer. I need you to take her and lock her up somewhere. I don’t know if they’ll still be in the same state when they wake up. We have to be prepared. When you’ve found a place to stash the sleeping wolves, go back to the bar and grab Trent for me, please. I had to leave him there.”

Someone grabbed me from behind, jerking me off my feet. I lost the rifle as Gray and I were separated. I heard Gray call out my name, but I was suddenly in a crowd of outliers.

“Hey, look what we have here,” one of the women said. “Looks like a human decided to sneak in.”

A big shifter walked right up to me and sniffed my hair. “She smells good. Almost good enough to eat.”

Someone needed to learn some manners. I brought my elbow back and up, crunching his nose while I kicked out and shoved the female down.

“Kelsey Jean, heads-up,” Gray shouted.

I put a hand up and the rifle was perfectly placed for me to catch and start firing. Gray and I were a good team when we weren’t fighting.

“Shit.” I saw Scott up ahead. He was standing at the bathroom doors, his hands claws against the metal.

Not only did it make a horrible annoying sound, it proved how far gone he was. He didn’t seem to be making progress at getting the door open, and I had so few darts left. I could see that Jamie and Quinn had made a dent in the army Winter had sent, but there were still so many of them.

A calm wave washed over me, and I turned toward the office door in time to see Marcus and the king at the top of the steps.

I expected the king to jump straight into the fray. I was actually kind of looking forward to it. Donovan, it seemed, had gotten lazy in his old age. He let me take on all the fights now that he was a father of three, but I’d heard stories about what the man could do when he decided to take someone out. If Donovan wanted to, he could probably take on all these guys. The only trouble was he would have to kill them, and that wouldn’t look good on his royal resume.

Instead of leaping into the fight, Donovan searched the floor. I wasn’t sure who he was looking for until Marcus pointed my direction.

“I think they want us over there.” I gestured to the office so Gray could get a lay of the land. He hadn’t been in Ether more than a few times. Most of the times he’d been in the club, he’d been raiding it or getting himself tossed out on his ass.

“Why isn’t Donovan fighting?” Gray asked as he took my six.

We had to fight our way through the crowd. The weres and shifters now seemed to be fighting amongst themselves. They hadn’t caught Donovan’s scent yet or they would have been all over him. I was going to shove the king right back in Quinn’s neat as a pin and probably hyper-secure office.

I looked up at Marcus, happy to see his face. “Things didn’t go the way we’d hoped.”

Marcus nodded. “They never do, bella.”

“We need Donovan to get up to his condo. They’re after him,” Gray shouted.

“I can’t,” Donovan shouted back. “I can’t do a damn thing until I find my son.”

A chill went up my back as the place suddenly went quiet. I was staring at Donovan, the words not quite processing in my mind.

Donovan went pale, and I didn’t want to turn around. Gray closed his eyes and when he opened them again, there was a horrible resignation there. As though he’d seen the available futures and he hadn’t liked the outcome.

“Lee,” Donovan said, his face tight with emotion.

I turned and Lee Donovan-Quinn had slipped his bed again. Unfortunately, this time he was in the hands of a demon. Julius Winter stood in the middle of the dance floor, one hand around Lee’s neck.





Chapter Twenty-Two



The door behind us opened and I heard the queen cry out.

“Zoey, get back upstairs,” Donovan growled, his hands tightening on the railing.

“He has my son.” The queen’s face was streaked with tears, but there was more than fear. She was pissed.

I was, too.

“Don’t you think it’s time we talked, Your Highness? You seemed to have effectively taken my shifters away, but I promise you more will come. These will wake up and there won’t be anything you can do to stop them.” Winter stared up at us.

We were standing on the landing right outside the safety of Quinn’s office. If I thought a tranq dart would take the f*cker out, I would have had a spectacular shot. As it was, I could jump on the *. I wasn’t sure what I would do then, but I could provide a hell of a diversion.

“Don’t, Kelsey,” Donovan said, a plea in his voice. I’d never heard the man sound so desperate. “If Winter turns on his power, Lee dies.”

“That’s right, Your Highness. Your boy here is very curious. I found him sneaking about in the kitchen. Apparently he was looking for something sweet. I can give him something cold,” Winter promised.

“We have contracts,” Marcus insisted. He shook his head as he glared down on the demon. “They state plainly that demonkind cannot interfere with Vampire or anyone belonging to Vampire.”

Winter hissed and used his free hand to pull a dart out of his arm. “Tell your snipers the next one to fire on me can bury this little f*cker.”

“Dev, come down,” Donovan commanded. “No one fires another shot.”