“When this is all over, you will be even stronger,” Kai told her. “I know you can do this.”

Well, she didn’t have much of a choice. She had to do this. She had to be stronger, to unleash her magic and fully link with her dragon side. Only with all of her magic—from her mage and dragon sides—would she have any chance of defeating the Grim Reaper. One of the unique powers of the Dragon Born mages was the ability to break any magic. If she could break Alden’s magic, they might just be able to stop him once and for good.

“When Alden is gone, we’re taking a vacation,” Sera declared. “A real vacation.”

“I will take you anywhere you want to go,” he promised.

“I’m going to hold you to that,” she said with a grin, setting to work on packing her suitcase. “Somewhere tropical. With absolutely no monsters. Or other people. Just the two of us.”

“I will make it happen.”

She leaned back to kiss him softly, then resumed packing her dozen jeans and tank tops. Maybe she needed to start thinking about a bit of variety in her wardrobe.

“And when we’re back, you’ll resign from Mayhem,” he said.

She paused, a black miniskirt in her hands, the only one she owned. Mayhem was where she currently worked, the oldest mercenary guild in San Francisco. Mayhem was also her natural state, what she created wherever she went. But she didn’t think he meant that mayhem. She could no sooner stop creating mayhem than she could stop breathing. It was in her nature—in her blood and her magic. Mistress of Mayhem. Hmm, that had a nice ring to it. Alex got to be the Paranormal Vigilante. It was high time Sera got a nickname too.

His gaze caught on the skirt, his lip twitching. “Are you going to put that on?”

She smirked at him. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I will later if you’re nice.” She tucked the skirt into her suitcase.

“And then after you quit Mayhem, you will come work for me,” Kai said, his words simmering with satisfaction.

He was teasing her. Or was he? He’d been trying to get her to come work for him since basically day one, even before they’d been together. She had to admit there was some appeal to his offer. At Drachenburg Industries, she’d get her own office and her own personal armory closet. She’d also get to work with the commandos, who were Kai’s three go-to agents for dealing with supernatural messes, not to mention all-around awesome guys. And best of all, she’d get to spend more time with Kai—well, when he wasn’t in meetings. Heading the San Francisco branch of his family’s business meant lots of meetings. Kai hated meetings almost as much as she hated vegetables on pizza.

Sera had only just come back to work at Mayhem after being put on forced leave while she sorted out her magic ranking. That’s what happened when you hid your magic for most of your life. Your magic rank determined how much you got paid in the monster-hunting mercenary business. Not that her boss Simmons cared if she made enough to eat more than ramen three times a day. He tended to forget people were, well, people. He saw them as tools. As weapons. Not in a malicious way, just in an entirely practical and mercenary way. That’s why he ran one of the world’s most successful mercenary guilds. He knew how to use people. Mayhem’s clients were snooty rich people from the world’s oldest magical dynasties, people to whom magic was everything. Your rank on paper was everything. The juiciest jobs went to the mercenaries with the highest magic ranking because that kind of client only wanted the best. Now that Sera was classified as a first tier mage, one of only a few at Mayhem, she made a bit more money, but it was Simmons who really came out ahead. Mayhem could take on more high-profile clients, which meant more money for the guild. First tier mages got to do things like exclusive jobs for rich clients. It was positively shocking how much money some people would pay a highly-trained mercenary unit to clear their yards of mostly harmless monsters like garden gnomes and silk spiders.

The moment Sera had been reinstated at work, Kai had hired her for an exclusive job. But he hadn’t hired her to hunt gnomes or spiders. He wanted her to help him figure out what Alden was up to in Munich. So far, all they’d figured out was that the supernatural community was closer to upheaval than any of them had thought.

“I don’t think Simmons would let me go,” Sera told Kai. “He’s enjoying his cut too much. I saw the look on his face the last time you met with him to hire me for a job. He almost smiled.”

“It must be my stellar personality.”

Sera zipped her suitcase shut. “Or the stellar pile of money you left on his desk.”

“Not on his desk, sweetheart. That would have been crude. I deposited the money into Mayhem’s bank account.”

“Like any self-respecting mage who shifts into a big, scary dragon would do?”

“Exactly.”

Sera’s amused grin melted, growing serious. “Alden is a threat to us all. You know I would have helped you for free.”

“I know.” He kissed the top of her hand. “And that’s why you’re always poor.”

Sera punched him in the arm.

He favored her with a cool smile. “Was that supposed to hurt?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Yes,” she said, resisting the urge to cradle her aching hand.

His smile never faded. “Sera, you’re a good fighter and a good person, but when it comes to money, you’re not a very good mercenary.”