“Fine. But you have to promise to answer all my questions. No evading.”
“I promise.”
Comfortable he would remain true to his word, Penelope hurried to her bedroom, stunned when she opened her closet to see everything exactly as it should be. All her clothes, her shoes … no damage whatsoever.
“This is crazy,” she whispered, snagging her suitcase.
Really, really crazy.
WHILEPENELOPEPACKEDHERTHINGS, OBSIDIANSTEPPEDout into the hall to call Reidar.
“We’re out of here. Tonight,” he informed hisladeare.
“Wow. That was fast.”
A quick rundown of the destruction to Penelope’s apartment, as well as his dealings with theimpietanshe’d encountered was all it took to have Reidar’s full attention.
“Shit. All right. I’ll have Gryffyth and Alden pack everything up. Gerran and I will be right behind you.”
“Send Asmia, Acadia, and Taayin ahead,” Obsidian instructed. “I want the mansion on lockdown. Have them check and recheck everything. Let theheurospknow to prepare it for our arrival.”
“Will do.”
Obsidian paced down the hall, lowered his voice. “One more thing, Reidar. Before you head out, I need you to grab the brother.”
“Grab him?” Reidar’s tone reflected his amusement.
“I don’t care what you have to do. Knock him out if necessary, but bring him to the mansion and make sure Seraphina’s not on your ass.”
“All right. Mind if I ask why?”
“She’s involved for a reason. Either to torture Penelope or use him against her. He’s safer with us.”
“Understood. Will you make it by sunrise?”
“Night’s not long enough.” Being a nine-hour drive, they’d already lost too much of the dark. “We’ll get as far as we can before the sun comes up. I’ll keep you updated.”
“We’ll stick close,” he replied.
After tucking his phone in his pocket, Obsidian walked into Penelope’s apartment. She was grabbing a handful of books along with her iPad, stuffing them into a duffel bag.
“Ready?”
She glanced around once more, then nodded. “I think so.”
“We’ll need to take your car back to the hotel.”
When she agreed, Obsidian retrieved her keys from the hook near the door, then took her suitcase and the duffel bag while she grabbed her purse. A few minutes later, he was crammed behind the wheel of her tiny Honda.
“Okay, time to spill it,” Penelope stated, her attention directly ahead. “I’ve tossed it around in my head and come up with… I don’t even knowwhatto think.”
He glanced her way briefly, confused as to where she was going with this train of thought.
“The fangs, the glowing eyes, that whole teleporting thing. Then there was the snappy cleanup. My first thought is vampire.”
“Not a vampire,” he assured her.
“No? But the fangs. Okay, fine. What then?”
