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“Warrick…”

“A tantrum?” he said, his voice pure grit.

“Yes, a tantrum. I gave you a hand job, alpha, I thought you enjoyed it. But you’re acting like I stole the cookies from your lunch box right before recess.”

More silence.

“Warrick…”

The line went dead.

“Hello?”

Nothing.

I stared at my phone in shock.

He hung up on me. He’d actually hung up on me.

Muttering under my breath, I climbed in the Morris, fired her to life, tore down the driveway, and out onto the road. Unbelievable.

Okay, maybe what I’d done had been uncool. But I had a little bit on my damn mind. God, I thought human males took rejection badly. The hound took sulking to a whole new level. It wasn’t like I needed him. I was capable of looking after myself. I had been for a hell of a long time. I had magic, and my dagger, and that was all I needed.

Just as long as Warrick didn’t tell Ren about our conversation, we’d be fine. Because Ren knew me better than almost anyone, which meant he’d know I wouldn’t just sit around at home because Warrick told me to.

But then Warrick would have already realized it himself by now, the great big freaking stalker.

The question was, would he do anything about it?

* * *

Twenty minutes later, I climbed out of the truck at the edge of Wolf Hill Woods, the last place we’d seen Edric, and pulled on my jacket. Muttering a protection spell, I slung my satchel across my chest. The spell was simple yet effective, and witches in my family had been using it for generations, something we all recited every morning.

The spell wouldn’t make me invisible or untouchable, but it did put luck more firmly on my side. I could seriously use all I could get. Anything stronger would defeat the purpose, which was to get Edric as close as I could, then try to coax the spirit to chat.

I was also wearing an onyx pendant. The stone wasn’t as effective as getting naked and covering myself in the Thornhearts’ special spiked oil, like I had at the hellhound den, but it was fairly effective at protecting against your average, everyday spirit. Smaller layers of protection would work better in this situation, since I still needed to attract those malevolent bastards.

I paused at the tree line when the growl of a motorbike engine echoed in the distance.

Apparently, the furious, furry one had changed his mind.

I wasn’t in the mood to argue or trade scowls, or…whatever. My belly squirmed as visions of what we’d done, what I’d done, last time we were here flashed through my mind.

I shoved them the hell away and headed into the woods. Nope, I wasn’t hanging around to wait for him. It wasn’t like he’d have trouble tracking me.

Dried leaves crunched under my boots, the shadows closing in as soon as I walked deeper, and my knife was vibrating at my hip before I’d even taken half a dozen steps. And not a gentle nudge either, it shrieked. A full-on red alert.

There was a crash, and a demon ran at me full-speed. Taking my blade in a loose hold, I aimed and let it fly.

The blade embedded in her throat, and she fell to the forest floor, clawing at it. Warrick would be right behind me, so I didn’t expend the time and energy of removing her head when he could do it with his bare hands. It was also too dangerous to stay still for any length of time, so instead, I sliced through the tendons in her legs to slow her down, and carried on.

Another came at me about three minutes later. This one wasn’t a demon, though, it was something else. Some kind of goblin maybe? I honestly didn’t know, but it meant to kill me. So, pressing my palms together, I called to the earth beneath me, then jerked my palms apart. The earth opened in a jagged split beneath the goblin’s feet. He fell in up to his thighs and I brought my hands back together with a loud clap, the split earth closed, trapping it there, growling in fury. By the time I reached the clearing where Edric and Warrick had fought, I’d taken down two more demons and some other creature I couldn’t name, leaving a trail of blood and groaning bodies behind me.

Still, no Warrick.

But then, he was probably doing what he had the last few nights, staying back so he didn’t have to actually talk to me. Whatever, if he wanted to act like a spoiled child who wasn’t allowed to play with his favorite toy, so be it.

I strode to the middle of the field, put my fingers to my lips, and whistled. “Edric! You out there?”