Terra's Victory (Destiny's Trinities Book 7) by Tracy Cooper-Posey Page A

you!”
    Declan held out his arm and she went to him, desperate for the comfort. She pressed her face into his shoulder, feeling the perfectly normal, very human softness of flesh over muscles and tendons and bones. He even seemed warm, except that illusion would not last long out here in sub-zero temperatures.
    That just made her cry harder.
    She ignored the buzz of her phone in her pocket. The war, everyone, could go screw themselves. She was staying right here.
    “Hi, Lindal,” Cole said, behind her. “Yeah, they’re back.”
    Zoe put her arms around Declan’s neck and his arms tightened. She turned her face to shut out the sunlight.
    “ Where ?” Cole asked sharply.
    Unbidden, an image invaded Zoe’s thoughts, of a red sun sinking down behind low hills, touching the open land with crimson and gold. Long grass waving in the clearing…and creatures emerging from behind a derelict barn. Over the top of the image was a compulsion to hurry, lathered with Seaveth’s unique mental signature.
    Zoe had never been there, yet she knew exactly where the place was. “Georgia,” she said, reluctantly pulling herself out of Declan’s arms. She wiped her cheeks. “They’re massing in northern Georgia, west of Clarkesville.”
    “What’s in northern Georgia they could want?” Declan wondered.
    Cole’s mouth turned down. “Clarkesville.”
    * * * * *
    There were hundreds of vampeen, clustered together in the long grass. Wyatt watched as more of them emerged from the trees, crossing the little creek at the south end of the field and from the hills to the west. There were four files of them moving like ants, collecting in the center of the field.
    The vampeen already there didn’t look at the trinities as they arrived. They barely looked at each other. Most of them were crouched down on their haunches, staring at the ground, their jaws grinding so that their teeth, which showed brightly in the last of the sunlight, kept moving. It was almost as if their teeth-filled jaws were uncomfortable.
    Perhaps they were. Wyatt stared at them, fascinated.
    The incubus, Aithan, jogged up to them, his long curved knives in both hands. “As much as possible, we leave the vampeen alone. It’s the Grimoré we want. As soon as you see one of them, jump there and try to take it out.”
    “Leave them alone ?” Mia said, sounding outraged.
    Alex put his hand on her shoulder. He looked sick with worry already and her bloodthirstiness wasn’t helping.
    “We’re trying something,” Aithan said. “There hasn’t been any time to fill everyone in. After, we will. For now, focus on the Grimoré themselves.”
    Wyatt nodded. “I have always hated the ugly fuckers. No problems,” he told Aithan.
    Aithan nodded and moved on.
    Wyatt turned to Alex and Mia before she could react and Alex responded. “I know you have to be here,” Wyatt told Mia. “I accept that we are useless if you’re not. Please, please , hang back behind us. Can you do that?”
    “You’re better with a gun, anyway,” Alex added.
    Mia sighed. “Truth is, I’m starting to waddle. This bump slows me down.” She pressed a hand against her belly. “I can watch your asses for you instead.”
    “You’ll protect our backs while you’re doing it, right?” Wyatt asked.
    She rolled her eyes. Alex grinned.
    * * * * *
    Zack nudged Beth’s arm, drawing her attention away from the hasty last minute conversations she was having with trinity people both in her head and face to face. “Look,” he said.
    Materializing around and among the trinities were dozens of black-hooded elves, their tall figures almost invisible in the steadily deepening shadows.
    Beth broke off in the middle of a sentence to look. Cairo, whom she had been talking to, also turned to see.
    The elves, almost as if they had been cued, all dropped their cloaks. Out here in the middle of a field, there were few humans to care about their other-worldly features and clothing. Beneath, they wore the light