Instead, I’m trying to control some power I should not have as I follow the faint bond that ties Paxton to Jeremiah. Neither of them can feel it, but I think now they know that it’s there. My power pulses. I could break this one, I think, though I won’t. I could feed it too, make it stronger, unbreakable.
I press my lips together and exhale through my nose. As I war with myself, irritated at the dismal turn my thoughts have taken, the bond I’m looking at sparks and shudders.
My eyes snap open, heart suddenly racing. “Something’s wrong.”
“What?” Paxton blinks his eyes open more slowly, then frowns at the expression on my face. “What did you feel? What were you looking at?”
“You—” I shake my head. “I think Jeremiah is in danger.”
He stares at me for another moment before he jumps to his feet. I stand too, watching as Paxton rushes out into the hall and snatches up his boots. Upstairs, Vlad’s phone rings. I hear him answer, then the thunder of his steps down the stairs.
“Wait,” he says and Paxton stops, but only just. I can see it. Vlad’s phone rings again and he frowns, jabbing at the screen to make it stop.
I almost jump out of my skin when my own phone vibrates in my back pocket. Fuck. I pull it out and frown when Njáll’s name flashes on the screen.
Should I have the vampire crai’s personal number? Maybe not. But I figured Maurice was going to lose track of his phone at some point anyway and now—
“Hello?”
“Grant. Something is wrong with Maurice. Where is he?”
I look helplessly at Vlad. He’s talking to Paxton in low tones but glances up at me as though he feels me waiting.
“Where’s Maurice?” I ask.
Vlad shakes his head and strides over. I hold out my phone before he even asks. Paxton is still standing in the hall, pacing like he’s a second away from bolting.
“No. I will let you know as soon as I can. He is with Jeremiah, so they should be—Yes. Of course, yes.”
Vlad hangs up and gives me my phone back.
“Wherearethey?” Paxton demands.
“Bromley. Maurice called me today and told me he had a lead on Merletta. We will go.”
I take a step forward. “I—” I don’t know where the sentence is going. All I know is that waiting around here for them all to come back is going to kill me. They’ve never left me entirely on my own before. Vlad never has.
“You will remain here.Insidethe wards.” Vlad’s eyes flash, and I gasp at the strange pressure coming from him, evidence that our sire-turn bond still exists.
He can keep me here if he wants to. It’s the only reason I truly know he hasn’t meant to do that this entire time. If he wanted me inside this house at all times, all he’d have to do is flex that power and here I’d remain.
“But I—”
“No,” Vlad says, already heading towards the door. I follow, pausing just inside the living room doorway. “We will be back soon. Do not leave the wards, Grant. I do not have the time to worry about you right now.”
“Be—” He shuts the door, and my voice goes quiet. “Safe.”
The house is silent around me in a way it has never been. I let out a shaky breath and clutch my phone so tightly it hurts. They’ll be okay. I have to believe it. They’ll be okay.
Chapter Four
Vladimir
Ittakesfarmoretime than I like for us to track Jeremiah and Maurice to Chislehurst Caves. Getting in is easy, considering it is so late in the night, and it is a fight to keep Paxton slightly behind me when he so clearly wants to reach his mate.
Jeremiah would not forgive me should anything happen to Paxton, and aside from Grant—who is not a fully-fledgedmember of the Hunt, of course—he is the youngest among us. He already has a knife in his hand, though, and his blessing is ready.
We stalk down one dark tunnel, and I clench my teeth at the sudden rise of magic ahead. They are still fighting. I can feel the distinct vibrations of Maurice’s magic, if nothing else.
