“Honey, what picture are you talking about?”

Donovan was right beside me. He lowered himself onto one knee and kept a hand on my back.

“What’s going on?” she asked, but I looked up at Donovan.

Donovan!

Donovan?

I blinked, knowing in the back of my mind that my mouth sat agape. Which couldn’t be flattering. “What are you doing here?” I brought the trio surrounding me into focus.

Eric stood beside us, his lean frame at the ready.

Michael stood back as usual, coolness wafting off him as he rested against his Harley, arms crossed over his chest, an amused smirk on his face. “Still causing hell, I see.”

I scrambled to my feet, then threw my arms around Donovan’s neck. He lifted me off the ground and hugged me tight.

“What are all of you doing here?” I asked when he set me back down. “You’re wanted men. You can’t be here.”

Eric nodded. “That’s what we tried to tell that guy. Nobody listens to us.”

I shook my head, trying to absorb a thousand layers of information at once. “What guy?”

Donovan grinned. “That man of yours, sugar. We’ve been holed up across the road from you, keeping watch.”

“Reyes? Reyes asked you to come? Why? And keeping watch for what?”

“This,” Michael said, smirk firmly in place. “Said you have a habit of running off when you shouldn’t. Seems he was right.”

I was so flabbergasted, I didn’t even know how to respond. Why would Reyes bring these guys here? He knew I had a weak spot in my heart for them. A really weak spot. As in, Donovan-was-an-incredible-kisser weak spot.

Then something a tad more important hit me. Cookie and Amber hadn’t been taken. Someone wanted me off the grounds, the sacred grounds. They wanted me dead. I whirled around, watching the road from where I’d just come, waiting for the sounds of paws tearing through the forest. For the sound of snarls and teeth gnashing as they drove closer and closer to the kill. Because I finally remembered why I was not to leave the convent. But the only sound I heard was the breeze whispering through the trees. A bird calling out overhead.

Slowly, realization dawned. There was a reason the Twelve didn’t follow me. They were going after Beep. My hand flew over my mouth, and a paralyzing fear gripped me.

“Sweetheart,” Donovan said, trying to coax me back to him.

“I have to go back. Now!” I started for Misery, but Donovan tucked an arm around my waist and hauled me toward his bike. “I’ll take you. We’ll come back for your Jeep later.”

“Yes. Yes, good idea.” I hopped on the back of Donovan’s Harley and wrapped my arms around him. “Please, drive fast,” I said before he brought Odin, his Harley, to life with a roar.

“My favorite way to drive!” he yelled back to me. Only after we started back did I realize I’d left Cookie hanging on the phone, probably frantic. And my phone lay somewhere between here and there.

15

LIKE THE SUICIDAL RACCOON,

I, TOO, WILL FUCK UP YOUR ALIGNMENT IF YOU RUN ME OVER.

—T-SHIRT

The second we pulled to a stop, I tore off the bike and ran for the front door despite Donovan’s insisting otherwise. When I got inside, I was met with exactly the scene I’d been expecting. The first things I noticed were the bloodied bodies of Osh, Garrett, and Reyes. Denise sat in a corner, her fear so great, she was probably crippled by it. And the hounds, the ones who couldn’t come onto sacred ground, stood encircling Beep’s bassinet.

My lungs seized when I saw their silvery black hides shimmer, then disappear, their massive heads more shadow than substance, and their razor-sharp teeth glinting off the low light. A terror of nightmarish proportions ripped through me so fast, I could hardly focus. With legs shaking, I lowered myself onto one knee.

I had so few options. With Osh, Reyes, and Garrett down, what could I do?

I could slow time, but they would only match it before I could reach Beep. I could let the energy inside me explode, the light like acid on their hides, but they’d recover too quickly for me to get to her. I could offer my life, but could hellhounds be bargained with? And Lucifer wanted Beep, all because of a few verses some guy wrote centuries ago. He wouldn’t settle for me when he had the very being prophesied to destroy him at his fingertips. Or his hellhounds’ claws.

Artemis took up position beside me, her hackles raised, a low growl reverberating from her chest.

Garrett was out cold, but Osh got slowly to his feet, a smile on his face as he dusted himself off. “I live for this shit,” he said, but he wasn’t looking at the hellhounds. In fact, the hellhounds seemed quite at ease. He was looking at Reyes as he followed suit and stood. He cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders before testing his jaw.

I blinked in confusion. Was Osh betraying us after all? Reyes hadn’t wanted to trust him, but I thought we could. I really thought he was on our side.

I rose to my feet to try to reason with him. Osh, I could reason with. The Twelve, not so much.

“Charley, no!” Denise said. She started to get up, but I held up a hand to stop her.

Still, her cry was enough to get the attention of the others in the room.

“’Bout time,” Osh said, doubling over and panting as the bikers came in behind me.

Reyes watched Osh for a moment, turned his attention to the bikers, then focused on me. And I suddenly understood. The man before me, while in Reyes’s body, was not my husband.