Then she saw the prey on the ground—saw exactly who he was—and fury rolled within her.
Brian. The witch who had imprisoned her. His throat had been slit, from ear to ear, and blood pooled beneath him.
“It shouldn’t have been so easy for you,” she snapped, the rage clawing inside of her, raking and ripping open her guts. He’d been on her list. Hunting him, killing him—that promise had gotten her through so many days and nights. To see him like this…
“Those are the claw marks left from a werewolf attack,” Jamie said as he bent to better study the body. He shook his head. “Guess Latham got pissed at his witch.”
Surprise froze her breath. “You knew Brian?”
After the briefest of hesitations, Jamie gave a slow nod, but then said, “Never met him personally, but most paranormals out West, yeah, we knew of him.” He glanced up at her. “He’s the one who imprisoned the Blood Queen. He kinda got infamous for that bit.”
Blood Queen.
The name still hurt, not that she’d let him see her pain. Her father’s men had given her that name. When she’d escaped the fire, her father had sent mercenaries—the most vicious he could find—to kill her.
She’d been covered in their blood when she went to destroy dear old dad.
“Guess Latham turned on the witch.” Jamie closed the man’s eyes. Brian’s blue eyes had been wide open.
Hope you are seeing hell.
Jamie stared down at the witch. “After the guy lost his powers, I’m surprised Latham kept him around for this long.”
Now that was news. Brian had lost his powers? Good.
Jamie rose to his feet. His nostrils flared as he sniffed, probably trying to catch Latham’s scent.
Iona grabbed his arm before he could head back to the car. “How did Brian lose his powers?”
“By caging you.” His hand lifted. Stroked lightly down her cheek. Heat bloomed within her belly, but Iona refused to let her reaction show.
Fifteen years.
“It’s not easy to cage a queen.” His hand curled under her chin. “Want to tell me how he did it?”
She remembered screams. Pain. An agony that she’d thought would never end then—can’t move. Help! “No.”
She didn’t trust him. There was no point in telling Jamie her dark secrets. Not then.
I must get more blood. Iona knew she had to get her strength back to her maximum level. So she straightened her shoulders, took a long look at the wolf and said, “This is where we part ways.”
Jamie stared at her like she was crazy. I so am. She knew her own weakness. Fury was boiling inside of her right then, and she was going to let that fury out. Jamie needed to be away from her when the rage broke free. I should have been the one to kill Brian.
“Get back into the car, and just drive away,” she told Jamie, fighting to keep her voice steady. Iona figured he deserved the warning to get the hell away from her.
Jamie’s jaw clenched even as his hand dropped. “We’ve been over this. You need—”
“I don’t need anyone or anything.” She stepped back. Glanced down at Brian’s body. He certainly looked dead.
But then, according to Jamie, she’d appeared dead, too.
Let’s make sure.
“Don’t worry about Latham,” Iona told him as she tossed a quick glance back at Jamie’s tense face. “He’s next on my list.” Latham wouldn’t escape their battle alive. “So consider whatever little war that you had with him, well, consider it over.”
Jamie shook his head. “This isn’t…”
She lifted her hands. “There’s something you should know. I’m not just a vampire.” If she had been, then Brian would have never been able to bind her. Kill her, yes, but a binding wasn’t the type of magic that would normally work on vampires.
Binding. That was what he’d done. Not just a curse or a spell. He’d performed a ritual binding on her. One witch…
To another.
Flames began to flicker above her palms. Not touching her skin, never that, but spinning, burning, right above her flesh. “You need to leave now,” she told Jamie.
This time, he backed the hell up.
Smart man.
She stood near Brian’s body. Her father had known what she was so long ago. That was why he had tried to burn her. If you wanted to destroy a witch, truly destroy her, then you had to use fire.
Iona drew back her hand and sent flames rushing right at Brian’s body. “Burn,” she whispered as the fire greedily leapt onto his flesh. “Burn.”
One down. One to go.
***
She was everything he’d hoped that she would be…and so much f**king more.
Jamie stalked behind Iona, being careful to keep a safe distance between them. He was downwind of her, but with her enhanced vampire senses, he was still worried she’d catch his scent.
He didn’t want her aware of him, not yet.
She’d stirred fire.
Vampires didn’t control fire. As a rule, they were just bloodsuckers. Sure, they could be super strong, they could live for freaking ever—provided they didn’t get staked or lose their heads to a werewolf’s claws—but they didn’t stir fire from nothing.
Only witches could do that.
The stories had been right about that point, too. Iona wasn’t just a Born Vampire. She was a very, very powerful witch.
No wonder she’d been locked up. Caged near the water so the energy from the ocean would work to reinforce the spell. She might just be the most dangerous woman he’d ever met.
That fact only made him want her more.
Perfect. In so many ways. And Jamie wasn’t about to let her go. Not when he’d risked so much to find her.
Not when he’d had to make his own deal with the devil to claim her.
So now…yeah, okay, probably not his finest moment, but he was following her through the dark. Keeping his gaze on her as she slipped through the shadows.
Of course, Jamie knew what she was doing. Hunting. Going for another taste of blood.
Not gonna work, baby. You’re stuck with me. Did he feel guilty about that? No. These days, he couldn’t afford to feel guilty about anything and—
And she was gone.
Jamie hurried forward as his heart raced in his chest. It had only been a moment and—
He was tossed against the side of a dumpster.
“Following me? Really? What must I do?” Iona demanded as she put her hands on her hips. “Rip off your head in order to make you stop?”