Our voices were low, quiet, deep.
“Vampire speed.”
“No. This all happened too fast. There was no time for a lesson.”
Roran snickered. “Well, there was, but…”
My face heated. “You enjoyed me punishing him.”
“Of course I did because I got to help.” He tossed me a sidelong glance. “Don’t be fooled,ilati. He liked your punishment.”
“Well, I liked punishing him. I’ll do it more often.”
“Shh!” Carolee’s voice cut through the quiet of the midday forest and had us all dropping to the ground.
I listened.
There was nothing for a moment, and then the padded footfalls of someone further in the forest.
Vitas moved toward us silently and pressed a finger to his lips. He grabbed a broken branch and scribbled in the dirt.
Thought I heard something earlier. Dismissed it. Definitely deep in the woods.
Concern wrinkled my forehead, and I wrote in the dirt as well.I cast out before. Not five minutes. No one.
Roran wroteVamp speed.
They could have been following us all along, and we wouldn’t have known because of how fast they could run in close, spy, and run back out.
Carolee took the branch.Shit.
That was the most accurate statement of all.
Vitas tapped on the ground again and scribbled.We have to make noise. We have to blow something up. If we don’t, they might realize we are the decoys.
He was dead on. We had to.
I grabbed the stick.We keep moving. Everyone needs to cast out and see if there’s someone out there.
Everyone nodded, and we spread through the group with us to tell them what we were doing. Vitas and Roran pulled the pack off Roran’s back, and I could see some long thick sticks that looked like huge fireworks.
My brain supplied the answer: dynamite.
They were going to be ready to blow something up.
On Carolee’s signal, the group stood and started walking again, even more quietly. I trotted up next to Roran and leaned into his ear.
“What if you ran ahead to see where we are and if there’s anything coming up? You can do it, so why not use it?”
He smiled and tapped his temple. “Good idea. Just keep walking forward, and I’ll see what I can do.” He pressed a kiss to my lips. “You’ll have to make sure I have power tonight.”
“Mm. I’ll have to come up with some ideas.”
“You two are gross,” Vitas whispered.
“Please. Half of S’Kir heard you two going at it last night,” Roran said. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
He was gone.
