It was a fair question, and a topic he’d like to get out of the way. “My job is dangerous and my path is bloody. That isn’t going to change.”

“I understand.” She let her body relax into his heat. “It’s just, why not take more of a force with you?”

“Strategically, two of us makes more sense. We’re not starting a new war—it’s more of a random attack. I mean, the Seven know we’re at war, but many of the other groups don’t, and we’d like to keep it that way.” Her scent wrapped around him, awakening nerves and an awareness that caught him off guard.

“Why?” she whispered, leaning back so she could meet his gaze.

He held her securely. “The ritual we created to become the Seven violated several laws and twisted the heck out of physics. Many people would want us put down for breaking those laws.” It was a fact he’d always known, one that had made keeping the vow of silence pretty damn easy. “The longer we keep the Seven a secret, the longer the Keys are safe, too.”

She rubbed her nose. “This all seems so farfetched, although I’ve seen your back and know your torso is fused. But why Ulric? I mean, why does he want to kill all enhanced females? Are you even sure that’s his plan, if he ever makes it back here?”

“Yes.” He didn’t want to frighten her, but she had to understand the gravity of the situation. “Ulric killed a hundred enhanced females and used their blood to fuse his entire body. It was an abomination of the worst kind, which is why one of his early victims created the Keys before dying. A psychic witch who saw the end but couldn’t stop it.”

“But why kill all the remaining enhanced women?” she asked.

“So he can never be killed.” Adare shook his head. “Our theory is that all of the Keys have some enhanced blood in them. Even Mercy. If all three of you die at the same time, legend says the Keys will end. Legends are often wrong. But if all enhanced females die, then…”

“No more Keys for certain,” she murmured, rubbing her right temple. “Life was a lot easier when these kinds of stories happened just in books and not in reality.”

He grinned, smoothing her hair away from her tempting neck. “Where do you think fairytales come from?” Every fairytale he’d ever read had been rooted in history, even if the author got most of the facts wrong. Like vampire legends. In real life, vampires didn’t sparkle, they didn’t hide under the cover of darkness, and they didn’t take blood to survive. But still…they did exist. “We’ve talked long enough. Are you ready?”