Raini’s surroundings flashed white, and then all three of them stood in the fucking mausoleum.
“I can’t have you telepathing your lair members to seek help, can I?”
Raini ground her teeth, and her demon lost its mind, demanding retribution, intent on ripping this prick apart with its bare hands. “How the hell did you get out of the monastery?” she asked.
Euan grinned. “I wasn’t inside it when Castiel and his minions arrived. I was in the vegetable garden. I teleported to the lower level of the cathedral out of sight.”
Raini stared at him, her lips parted. “You didn’t think to call for help? You deserted your own lair?”
He gave an unrepentant shrug. “It can be rebuilt.”
“Oh, I see; you’ll be its new Prime, huh?”
“Of course. Admittedly, I will not be whatsoever sorry to see the others go—they had their chance to make me their Prime; they didn’t.”
God, there was something so disturbing about seeing someone so satisfied at the prospect of his entire lair being wiped out. “So, you’re hoping the archangel and his helpers will do your dirty work and destroy them all?”
“I do want some part in taking Maddox down. The easiest way to do that would be through you.” Euan’s finger flexed on the trigger of the gun he was pointing at her head. “If I kill you, I weaken him, and he’ll then be easily defeated by Castiel. I’m not going to kill you right here, though. You see, he won’t be only physically weakened by your death, he’ll be devastated. I want to see that devastation on his face.”
Her gut roiled, and a knot of fear built in her throat so thick she could almost choke on it. No. No, Maddox would do just as Carmen had assured her he would—he’d survive this battle the way he had survived the others. And Raini would be damned if she’d let this pathetic asshole use her to bring down her own mate. No, not happening.
Silently ordering herself to calm the fuck down, she took in a slow breath and fought the urge to lift her chin in defiance. She couldn’t let Euan see her determination to fuck up his plans. She needed to do as she’d done with Maddox for months—remain cooperative, say nothing to piss Euan off, give him the illusion of complete control.
Seething, her demon wanted to peel the flesh from his bones, but it didn’t urge Raini to attack. It understood the value of biding its time. They would bring Euan down. Their opportunity would come. They just had to be patient, which would be a whole lot harder than it fucking sounded.
“The Black Saints are vicious, but they’ll be overpowered eventually,” Euan went on. “The three of us will hang out here until the halo-bearers have decimated as many of the Black Saints as possible.”
She could only pray that the battle would be over before Euan teleported them out of there; that he’d make his move too late.
He released a satisfied sigh. “Hearing your voice coming from the attic earlier, I knew it was a sign to act. Fate put you in my path tonight.”
“Is that so?” she asked, wishing he’d give her some kind of opening so that she could lunge. Wishing he’d look away, drop his guard, sneeze, something. And then an idea came to her.
Raini let out the tiniest sliver of a sexual pheromone, so subtle he wouldn’t sense it. She wasn’t aiming to arouse him, just make him a little flustered. She had to move carefully, though; had to let the effects build so slowly he wouldn’t notice until it was too late.
“You know, I didn’t originally plan to drag you into my game,” he said. “But my attempts to undermine Maddox didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. Not even when he inserted himself in your life. I had to take … other measures.” He smirked. “How is your sister, by the way?”
Raini froze. “You were the one who kidnapped her; the one who kept her captive.”
“I needed people to look at others for any moves I made against you. Your sister and her anchor were the obvious choices, given that they were both possible culprits of the boycotting, so I took them. I wasn’t entirely sure that either of them was guilty. I didn’t particularly care. I just needed scapegoats. Taking them was necessary, since I couldn’t very well have left them wandering around. Maddox would have delved into their minds and seen that neither was responsible for all that was happening. Then he would have looked much more closely at other suspects, such as me.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean neither were responsible for ‘all’ that was happening? Wait … it was you who sent those texts to my lair members,” she realized. It had to have been him, because both Dwain and Demi were already missing at that point—missing, and in Euan’s custody.