Conall’s hand closed over her arm, and he practically dragged her toward the exit, because her half-walk, half-tug at his arm, could not be considered following. The door was a yet few feet away when a loud, staticky noise, reminiscent of nails being dragged across the blackboard combined with a scrambled television channel, touched her ear. Both Vivienne and Drew watched in fascination, then disbelief, and finally horror as a black hole appeared directly before them. The wall had disappeared, the dark pit all that remained. What was even crazier was that people started walking out of it, one after the other, men dressed from head to toe in black garb. Immediately, Conall pushed her behind him and began to move back. Max did the same with Drew, who whimpered at the sight.
***
“Oh my God,” Drew began to incant. Vivienne noticed her friend was shaking her head and peeking out from behind Max to look at the spectacle. Vivienne did the same, and gasped at the number of men that now stood where the hole had been. She counted five before she stopped and stared at the man standing slightly forward, in the center. Dressed like the others but for the face mask, he seemed to be thirty or forty, and with his thin, pointed features, looked more accountant than ninja.
Information sometimes has a way of bypassing the brain as it goes through the eyes. It was in that moment that the shock of what she’d just seen hit Vivienne. She couldn’t have seen what she’d just seen, she reasoned, and then took another peek from behind Conall to prove herself right. Wrong. The men were still there, looking ominous and staring at Conall and Max. Her eyes traveled down their bodies, widening when she recognized weapons. Swords, long, thin blades, hung at their sides.
Who were these guys, how did they appear out of the hole, what was the hole, and was she dreaming again? Was meeting Conall a dream, too? She stared at the breadth of his back. No, this was real. He was real. But that meant the men were real as well, didn’t it?
“Max, bring the girl,” someone said loudly, and Vivienne jumped.
“No.” It was Max who answered, his voice easy and slightly bored. “Come get her yourself.”
“What girl?” Vivienne asked, her voice rising slightly. “What do they want? Who are they?”
“You’re defying a direct command?” the voice continued, shocked. Seconds passed in silence and the voice spoke once more. “Ah, I see. You switched sides, turned traitor.” There was a pause, and Vivienne could hear the rapid beating of her heart, and wondered if anyone else could. The voice continued, “We have no quarrel with you, wolf, but we will kill you if you stand in our way. Step aside. This is not your fight.”
Wolf? Vivienne’s eyes widened and she looked to Drew, who was staring at her with a look of fear across her features.
“It’s okay,” Vivienne whispered, though she knew it to be a lie. Something was…horribly wrong. Men did not appear out of black holes that formed in the center of walls!
“It is when you’re after my mate.” Conall’s response was slow, and almost lazy. Mate? Who was his mate? What was a mate? Vivienne looked between the two men. What the hell was going on?
The man in black inhaled sharply and scoffed. “She’s a witch. You’re an animal. It’s forbidden by both races.”
***
Conall snorted, letting the slight pass. Calling any of the weres an animal, despite the truth of the theory, was almost the equivalent of calling him a human—an insult. Men had been killed for less, but Conall was saving his energy for the fight that would come. He’d counted ten, many of them fidgeting nervously, telling him they were just out of training. A few were older, more experienced, but he was old, and had fought witches and vampires both when the odds weren’t in his favor. He’d lived to remember it. His opponents hadn’t. He remembered what the tracker had said about Vivienne. So she was a witch. Maybe she was like Max, able to hide that side of her under a human façade. It did not matter. Either way, witch, human, or something entirely different, she was his.
Max lifted a brow and shook his head. “It’s always amazed me why my father made you captain.” He paused and crossed his arms before his chest. “You never were the brightest bulb, were you, Merikano?”
Merikano’s eyes flashed angrily but he dismissed the comment with a wave of his hand. “There are two of you; ten of us. Either way, the girl is coming with us.”
Conall took another step back, placing a hand at Vivienne’s middle. He gave her a light push, motioning for her to move back.