“Nothing has followed us thus far, so it should be okay. If not, there’s no real choice but to keep moving forward,” he replied. “I’ve taken all the back roads I can, and when we’re on my turf, we have a chance to fight or outrun anyone. I have supplies all over the area. I’m not risking anything less than full armament at this point.” His voice was strained as he caught me up in a look. His eyes were filled with a deep craving. “You know, this is not easy for me either. You sitting so close to me, within my reach. It’s making my head pound in agony and my beast is beyond reasoning with.”
My wolf howled in frustration. “Once we finally step outside this car, I’m ripping your clothes off. Enough is enough.”
The steering wheel cracked and Rourke shot a glance at me, his irises radiating a beautiful emerald fire. Through clenched teeth he managed, “We’re not doing anything until we get to the cabin.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, like that’s happening.”
“Jessica—”
I sprang forward in my seat. No more reasoning. It had left the building thirteen hours ago. “Listen,” I said, barely resisting shaking my finger in his face. “Our mate bond is all but choking us to death in this godforsaken car. I’m a newborn wolf in every sense, and my rationale left a long time ago. I need to finally be connected to you, and it’s overpowering any good judgment I’ve ever had.” I ran my hands through my hair and leaned over and plucked a bag of pretzels off the floor. Dry convenience-store food was a sorry substitute for sex, but it’s all I had. I grumbled as I popped a handful in my mouth. “Honestly,” I said around a mouthful, “I’m surprised I haven’t straddled you while you’re driving.”
The car swerved as Rourke made a strangled sound. “You have to stop saying things like that!” His voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “Like you, my control is hanging on by a single thread. Do you know how much I want that? Want you? But our first time isn’t going to be hurried like a couple of teenagers in the front seat of a car.” He snarled his frustration. “I will take my time with you. Our first bonding means something.”
“Fine,” I grumbled like a petulant child, tossing the bag by my feet. “But I’m hiking to the cabin naked.” I crossed my arms in front of me.
“Jessica!” The car bumped wildly off the road.
He straightened it with effort as I craned my neck behind us, recognizing the area. “Isn’t this near the place you stored your motorcycle last time?” It was dark as night outside, but the area looked familiar. My arms prickled in anticipation—not only at the thought of being with Rourke, but I was excited because I’d fallen in love with this place once before and I thought I’d never see it again.
“Yes,” Rourke said grimly. “And it couldn’t have come at a better moment.” He ran a slightly shaky hand over his face as he took his foot off the accelerator.
“Where are you going to park?” He’d stowed his bike behind the brush in a shallow indent of rock. “The car won’t fit with your bike.”
“There’s a place up ahead, closer to the sulfur stream, which means less walking in the water.”
“Do we have to douse ourselves again? It didn’t really work out for us last time.”
“The pool is mandatory.”
I turned, resting my head against the seat, my eyes blazing. “You don’t say?”
He gave a strangled cough. “We need to do it because it will give us an advantage if we have any unwanted visitors. They won’t scent us as easily, and I want to know who’s on my mountain before we hit the cabin.”
“Hmm, yes, that sounds like a perfectly good explanation to get all wet.”
“Jessica”—he turned to me, his face set—“if we do anything in that pool, we’re never getting out.”
“And I don’t see anything wrong with that scenario.” He shouldn’t be surprised at my reaction. I’d told him five seconds ago there was nothing rational left rolling around in my brain. He shook his head and I sighed. “Okay. Fine,” I conceded. “I get it. We swim, we splash, we hike, we investigate, and then we—”
He slammed on the brakes so hard the car skidded to a stop, gravel from the shoulder fanning in an arc around us, alarm all over his face. “I just saw a flash of something in the trees.” His arm went up, pointing directly into the forest next to the passenger side of the car.
“Where?” I asked, immediately at attention, scanning the trees. The moon was out, but it was cloudy, which made it harder to see.
“It looked like two people, but then they were gone before I could see what they were doing.”
I squinted. “I don’t see anything.”
“The only reason I haven’t sped off in the other direction is because they weren’t focused on us, and it could’ve been two humans.”
“If they were humans, we’d still see them bumbling around.” I leaned forward in my seat, still searching.
“Maybe they were apparitions.”
I raised my eyebrows, turning to him. “Are you talking about ghosts? I’ve never seen one, but that seems highly unlikely. You know, all we need to do is open a window and scent the area.” I was sick of this hermetically sealed car. It was time to make a break. “We’re getting out anyway. Let’s see who’s here and then we can decide what to do.”
“Let me straighten the wheels out first,” Rourke answered, resigned.
The hairs on my arms started to rise to attention. “Hurry,” I said. “I’m starting to feel something.” Otherness was seeping through the witch’s spell on the car. Every supernatural had the ability to detect the other. I had no idea how it worked, I was just happy it did.
“I can feel it, too, but it’s muddled in here.”
“I’m cracking the window,” I said as Rourke put the car into park. “You ready?”
He’d angled us into a semisheltered place on the side of the road. “Fine, but I’m keeping my foot on the gas pedal, so don’t get any ideas about leaving until we find out what’s going—”
My window went down less than a centimeter and I knew who was out there and so did Rourke.
I flung my door open before anything else could register.
“Naomi! We’re here!” I yelled as I ran headlong into the forest.
6
I slowed to a jog, turning my head from side to side trying to search for Naomi’s scent trail.
“Jesus Christ, you can’t keep doing that,” Rourke growled, running up alongside me. “In the future, I’m going to have to shackle you to my wrist with some spelled handcuffs.”
My wolf barked at the word “handcuffs,” but I was too preoccupied. I stopped and inhaled as I spun in a slow circle. “Why isn’t she here?” Then I picked up a new scent. It was familiar, yet changed. I grabbed on to Rourke’s sleeve. “Do you smell that?” I started running again. “Naomi!” I called. “Where are you?”
Rourke moved behind me, keeping pace with me easily. “He smells pissed off.”
“I know.” Ray’s signature had changed, but he still smelled like his usual malice. But I guess that was to be expected. At least we knew he had survived the transformation. Ray was going to be angry whether he lived or died. He always smelled pissed off. Now he just smelled like a pissed-off vampire.
We both jogged farther into the forest, into thicker tree cover, our noses finally leading us in the right direction. We covered a mile in a few minutes, running parallel to the river, heading toward the sulfur. Their scents were stronger here, even though the sulfur was doing its best to interfere.
“There’s a break in the trees.” Rourke pointed. “Let me go first.”
“Let’s go together.” I slowed next to him. “I’m not breakable china.”
Rourke snorted as his hand shot around my wrist, bringing us to a stop. “Just be prepared for the worst. He smells lethal.”
I tried to steel myself. Get ready, I told my wolf. This is going to be ugly. “If Naomi was forced to bring him here early, there must have been major complications. It’s lucky we arrived when we did.”
“There’s a possibility something went wrong with the transformation process,” Rourke said.
I didn’t want to think about that.
I was ultimately responsible. I’d made a split-second decision to let Naomi try to save Ray’s life. My logic had been if Ray didn’t want to be a vampire, we could end his life again. But this way he had a choice. In the end, I felt I owed him something. For all his orneriness, he had begun to accept us, to understand there was something different in the world. He had tried to help me and had his throat torn out for his efforts.
I hoped I’d made the right choice.
Rourke and I crept through a natural parting in the trees and entered a small clearing right by the stream’s edge.
“Ma Reine, it’s good to see you again,” Naomi said as she moved forward. “I’m sorry I could not come out to meet you. I could not leave him alone, even for a minute.”
I was shocked by her appearance.
But I was even more shocked by the scene in front of me.
Chains rattled as an angry voice ripped through the air. “Nice of you to join the party, Hannon. Glad you could finally pencil us in. Do you like what you see?” His irises shot silver one beat before a blanket of cruel black cascaded over them completely, leaving no white. He looked feral. “This is your fault,” he accused. “You did this to me.”
“Ray,” I whispered.
“No, not Ray anymore.” He hissed, his fangs snapping down sharply, distorting his sneer. “Was this your plan all along? To make me into a freak? You wanted me to sign up for your cult from the very beginning. But then on the road you made me start to trust you. Hell, I even helped you. And this is my reward? I’m going to eat your intestines once I’m free. Do you hear me?” He raged against his chains, which were wrapped tightly around his chest. They held, but just barely. “I’ve got nothing better to do than hunt you down, Hannon. For a goddamn eternity!”
