I nodded, and reached for the globe tightening the view, zooming in, until it showed the barn on my farm, and the burnt out shell that had been my home. “Here, this is where we’re going.”

Another monster rumble sent us all to our knees. Bella gasped. “I have to help them. This is how the armbands work. You put it on,” she shoved a smooth wooden band onto my upper arm. “With this hand,” she tapped the one with the band on it. “You touch the spot you want to go. With the other hand, twist the band clockwise. Counterclockwise will bring you back here.”

She looked at us one last time as she stood in the doorway. “Good luck.”

Alex didn’t hesitate, just waved and followed her up the stairs. As if he were going on a date or to a party, not into a war zone. But that was Alex.

“Berget, you first,” I said. “Take Jonathan with you and hunker down in the barn.”

She slipped the band on and touched a spot of ground on the globe directly on the west side of the barn. Where the morning sun hadn’t touched yet. Jonathan wrapped his fingers around the belt at her waist.

“A piece of advice?” he said.

“What is it?”

“Whatever you do, don’t let go.”

Berget touched the map and twisted her armband at the same time. A blast of wind roared through the room and their bodies were sucked into the globe with a pop of air and a burst of light.

“Fuck me,” I whispered.

Liam grunted. “You have to admit, that is far more impressive than jumping the Veil.”

I looked at the map, and though I knew what I had to do, I didn’t think Liam was going to like it.

“We’re not going to the farmhouse, are we?”

Damn, was I that easy to read? “No, we aren’t.”

“Marcella?”

Gods, I wanted to go after our daughter, but not yet. I swallowed hard. “No.”

“Then who?”

“Orion.”

CHAPTER 22

LIAM

HE WASN’T SURE he’d heard her right. Because there was no way she’d said they were dropping into Orion’s lap.

“No, no, no.” He held up his hands and a demon flew into the room. He grabbed it and held it out for her as if it hadn’t interrupted him. She cupped the demons head and whispered to it, and it dissolved.

“Yes. I need to see him, to get close enough to touch him.” She looked him straight in the eye. “I have to bind him to me, Liam. It’s the only way I will ever beat him.”

“Bind him to you? Are you out of your mind?” he roared as she touched the armband.

“You can either come with me, or I can leave you behind to fly home with Alex,” she snapped. The fear in her voice calmed him. She wasn’t being wildly reckless.

“You actually have a plan, don’t you?”

Her eyebrows rose. “Is that so hard to believe?”

“Of you, yes.” He grabbed the waistband of her jeans and let out a breath. “Where you go, I go. That’s the deal. But how are you going to convince Orion to touch you?”

She adjusted the globe until it hovered over Washington, D.C. “He’s in the White House, with the president.” With a flick of her fingers, the view shifted from the steps of the White House to the Oval Office. “I need you to bite me, and then invoke the bite to make me fast enough if he decides he doesn’t want to go along with my plan.”

With a flip of her hair, she bared her neck to me. “Do it, please.”

Invoking the bite . . . it would temporarily give her the speed and strength of the vampire. A bonus for those willing to share blood with a vampire, but it was also one more tie to Faris.

Inside his head, the vampire laughed. I think we are far beyond those worries, aren’t we?

Faris was right. Liam bent to her neck and brushed his lips against her soft skin, placing a kiss where his teeth would go. He slowly punctured the skin, allowing his fangs to carefully slide in. The moan that slipped from her nearly undid him. Holding her tightly, his body pressed against hers, the surge of emotions and blood enough to send his libido into overdrive. Her fingers tangled in his hair. “Don’t stop.”

Around them, the world shook on its foundations, and all he could think about was how good it would feel to rip her clothes off and take her right there on the floor. To remind them both how very alive they were.

With a great effort, he pulled back from her and licked the two pinpricks where his fangs punctured. Faris said nothing.

“The Oval Office,” he said carefully. “That will be loaded with security, guns, men, and probably the president.”

“You bar the doors, I’ll do the rest,” she whispered.

Liam’s gut clenched. He knew what the security would be like, and while bullets wouldn’t kill him, they would kill Rylee. “Are you absolutely certain that’s where he is?” He made himself let go of her, at least for the moment.

She snorted and gave him a look that told him everything he needed to know. Her eyes only swirled that fast with the three colors when she was Tracking. “I think I should know.”

He put his other hand on her waist and closed his eyes. “Can’t blame me for trying to talk you out of this.”

There was the sound of the rushing wind, a flash of light, and he opened his eyes. The Oval Office looked like the movies portrayed it, with a large desk and white, rounded walls.

Except that most movies didn’t have a demon sitting on the edge of the desk with one leg bent, and the other on the floor, his mouth hanging open in shock.