Wild and Free (The Three #3)(136)

“Fuck,” he clipped, sprinted to the witch and shoved a hand through the fire and into her chest with such force, she flew backward through a wall and outside, where he heard her short scream as she fell.

He also heard her scream die when she landed.

He raced back, hooked Aurora at the waist, and felt her body move like a ragdoll as he bolted through the house, locating the last of the enemy coven and eliminating them, all with Aurora held close to his side, her arms locked around him.

He stopped, dragged in a deep breath, and opened his senses.

There were humans alive in that house, not many, but they were all from Barb’s coven.

The rest were dead.

He put Aurora to her feet, whispering, “It’s clear.”

“Thank the goddess,” she whispered back.

At the sound of her voice, Yuri let her go and took a step from her as he took in another breath.

A breath that didn’t work.

Therefore, he bent toward her and roared, “Are you out of your mind?”

Her body gave a jerk before her expression turned placating and she said softly, “Yuri, I was just—”

“Living out a death wish?” he finished for her irately.

“No, I wanted to—”

“See the end of your days?”

“Let me—”

His voice turned deathly cold when he informed her, “You’d already earned a spanking, my sweet. This f*cking stunt,”—he threw out a hand to indicate the house they were in— “means writhing.”

She blinked and asked, “What?”

He bent closer. “Writhing,” he hissed. “What you’ll be doing, along with begging, before I allow release.”

Her eyes rounded as he heard her pulse spike. “I—”

“Nearly got us both killed.”

She straightened her shoulders. “I saved your life.”

“Something that would not have occurred if I hadn’t first saved yours,” he retorted.

Her eyes shifted side to side before they fell to his throat and she admitted, “That’s kinda true.”

“There’s nothing ‘kinda’ about it,” he clipped.

She lifted her gaze. “I was worried about you.”

“And this, my sweet, is the only reason you’ll be writhing and begging for hours rather than days.”

“Yur—”

“Is the coast clear?” they heard Barb call from downstairs, and Yuri clasped Aurora about the waist again, dragging her to him, and took her with vampire speed to the bottom of the stairs.

There, Barb, Ruby, and one of the other remaining members of their sisterhood stood. The other witch was bent to the last survivor, who was unconscious on the floor of the foyer.

“Okay, that didn’t go too good,” Ruby muttered.

Yuri kept Aurora clamped tight to his side as he took in Ruby, then slowly turned his infuriated gaze to Aurora’s mother.

“Were you aware they were that formidable?” he asked.

She had the good grace to look abashed before she answered, “I had an inkling.”

He let that go and noted with false calm, “According to the intelligence you reported to me last night regarding their numbers, the entire coven was here.”

“Apparently, they were having a party,” Barb shared.

Yuri gritted his teeth.

“That was good,” Barb noted. “They were involved in that, which meant we could get their protections down so you could get in and help.”

“Indeed. You achieved that, leading your daughter to it and your sisters to slaughter,” he grated.

“And our other option was what?” she snapped back.

“Gather more intelligence and hit them when their numbers were fewer,” Yuri returned.

“We can’t sit on this house. They’d know,” she retorted. “We had to go with what we had and hope for the element of surprise. The Sacred Triumvirate has been united. There was no time to waste and we both know that.”

He couldn’t argue that, but that didn’t mean he was done.

“Regardless of popular culture saying otherwise, I do not relish taking the lives of twelve living beings,” he bit off. “And you lost eight.”

“I’m standing,” she shot back. “That doesn’t mean my heart isn’t bleeding.”

Yuri snapped his mouth shut.

Tense moments passed before Aurora asked quietly, “What do we do now?”

Yuri took in Barb and Ruby and noted the other one was helping her now-conscious sister to her feet.

“You four, find the implements and secure them,” he ordered. “I’ll call The Vampire Council and have them send someone to deal with the carnage.”

“Witches require a pyre,” Ruby told him.

“That will be arranged,” Yuri replied, “for all of them.” He looked back to Barb. “How is this going to read on your witch vine?”

“The quieter we can keep it, the better it will be,” she answered.

Yuri pulled in a breath before deducing, “They have allies.”

“Pretty much everyone is scared of them, but a vampire taking out a coven isn’t gonna go over too great, even if the true story is told and nobody much liked this coven,” Barb shared.