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"Then how do you know he knoe freed Holler?" he asked, letting the full weight of his agitation taint his tone

She stepped aside to show hi behind her back

Zarelda sed in fear as she faced hiht, and I can no longer get into it"

Really? Did he have to do everything for them? "Sacrifice another victie ated me for Holler’s whereabouts He marked me with some kind of device, and now I’m noncorporeal nowith perverse pleasure "It gets better… After your little chitchat with Hel about freeing Zarelda’s brother froe for Holler’s slavery, our favorite Norse death goddess got curious, went digging, and found out you were after the Malachai Since she doesn’t trust you, Grim, she has called out her Mara and Hel Hounds to fetch him to Helheim"

Zarelda sucked her breath in sharply at the ed "Again, I am not a crystal ball and I really couldn’t care less about your brother"

"Then how do you know so ht s for War to tear the stupid little chit apart

To his great disappointment, she didn’t Her voice was almost kind when she answered "I unleashed one ofto help you season hi and terrorizing him ever since, and she happens to know a Hel Hound and Mara when she sees one She was just about to move in when they tore past her"

Grih this latest development His plan had been flawless Borrow Holler frothened Nick and tied his heart to her Once Adarian was dead and Nick was firoddess Hel into releasing Zavid to er Malachai so that Nick didn’t turn on the Zavid kill Caleb for theet Zavid free After that, Grieon and then dealt with Hel’s wrath over his little lie Since she wasn’t nearly as powerful as Thorn, he hadn’t been concerned about duping her at all

Now …

Disaster

Da to her

War enius What’s your plan now?"

"Where’s your harvester?"

"On standby, awaiting orders"

Grim stood up and descended his dais "Then by all means, let’s unleash her"

CHAPTER 17

Caleb slowed as he neared Nick’s condo and saw his supplies scattered all over the ground in front of it "What the…?" Closing his eyes, he reached out with his powers to contact Nick

No one answered

His heart pounding, he punched the code into the door at the sahini and got out Caleb held the door open until Kyrian joined hieneral scowled as he cah to see the blood, bruises, and scratches the Hel Hound had given Caleb as a ether "What happened to you?"

"Dogfight" Caleb snorted "New Orleans definitely needs stricter leash laws"

Kyrian didn’t respond to that "Is Nick inside?"

Caleb glanced back at the ripped hi not to panic prematurely, he led the way in, and then upstairs to the condo Knocking on the door, he waited, but no one answered

C’ive me a break Let the kid just be his usual slow-to-react self

Kyrian pushed hi on the door himself "Cherise?"

Still no answer

Of course not ’Cause that would just make his crappy life a hair better…

Gods forbid

Gri as his own panic and concern rose, Kyrian pulled the keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door Thehad happened dissipated Caleb cursed A one down here Pictures were knocked off the walls The side table was upturned and the lamp that normally rested on it was shattered But even worse was the blood on the floor

And on the ceiling

No …

They were too late Kyrian quickly searched the rooms, but Caleb knew that there weren’t any bodies here Whatever had nabbed them had taken then of Nick on this earth Had there been, he would have felt it and been able to locate him

The same was true of Adarian Caleb couldn’t find hi roo to look for theood that’ll do But he was happy to have Kyrian occupied with a wild-goose chase The Greek general had no idea that Caleb was anything other than a normal teen boy and he wanted to keep it that way He’d never been real chatty about himself anyway and the fewer creatures who kneho and what he was, the easier he breathed and the longer he lived

Enemies kill Friends betray

He not only believed that, he had the words tattooed across his back beneath his de," Caleb said

As soon as he was sure Kyrian had left, he rushed outside to gather up the ingredients for his binding spell If Nick and his mother were still alive, it was even et Adarian’s powers into Nick

Don’t be dead The pain that thought caused was not so he wanted to examine I don’t care about him It’s my own butt that concerns me… Over and over, he tried to convince himself that the only reason it mattered was because he didn’t want to be enslaved to an unknown dickhead

Yeah, that was it Otherwise he wouldn’t care at all But deep inside a place he didn’t want to ad

Caleb found the last dropped container buried in a crevice by the next house Now he could start the spell Rising, he sighed as he scanned the dark street "Where are you, Nick?"