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With another gentle tug, Ensley followed me to the Jeep and unlocked the doors with the fob. He didn’t start the engine and stared blankly at the pattering rain obscuring the view out the windscreen, a stitch in his brow.
“It’s cold,” I said, encouraging him to turn over the engine—for his benefit, not mine.
“Oh. Sorry.” He started the Jeep and angled the vents in my direction. “Better?”
“Thank you. Have I upset you?”
“No. I didn’t expect it.”
“Understandable. May I explain?”
“Tell me this first.” He shuffled to face me. “Are you in danger?”
I considered my words carefully before speaking. “So long as my uncle’s captors don’t discover my presence in the city, I should be fine. However, when they do…” I shrugged.
The rest of the sentence felt unnecessarily complicated, so I let him fill it in as he saw fit. Ensley didn’t have to know how great the risks to myself and potentially my kind were should I fail. In fact, I would have a small, perilous window to aid my uncle in regaining his strength. Once rejuvenated, Valerius and his hunters would be the ones at risk.
But if the ritual was interrupted…
“Have you gone to the police?” Ensley asked.
“I can’t involve the police. It’s… complicated.”
“Who took him? Why? I don’t understand.”
“My uncle is an important man in a position of authority.”
“Like, government? Oh my god, are you some kind of top secret official sent to hunt him down? Are you military? Secret Service? What’s the UK equivalent? Do you have one?”
I couldn’t contain the smile. “No, Ensley. Nothing so glorious, but I am his rightful heir, and—”
“What? Are you royalty?”
I waffled my head from side to side. “In a manner of speaking, but here’s the thing. I don’t want to succeed him. I want to return him to power so I can resume my quiet life away from the spotlight.”
I’d told no lies but omitted many truths. It was the things left unsaid that were the real bones of the matter, but even with a layer of secrecy, I felt vulnerable. Exposed.
The deluge of rain offered a layer of privacy from the outside world. I didn’t like the way Ensley studied me, as though he didn’t know me at all. As though I was a mystery he wanted to solve. In essence, I was, but he couldn’t know the whole truth. What we’d shared the past few days was nothing more than a blissful reprieve. A taste of a life that was no longer mine to live. Glorious in its simplicity and crushing in its impermanence. Ensley would not be easily forgotten.
This was what happened when I allowed myself even a small dose of normality. I became addicted. I craved. I yearned. I longed for so much more.
“How do you know he’s in Owen Sound?”
“I have people who were able to track his location this far. Where in the city is unknown, and I was hoping you might help me locate him.”
“And when you find him?”
“It’s best I don’t share that part. It will not be a task you’re involved in.”
“It sounds dangerous.”
Extremely, I didn’t say.
“Why you?”
“It’s required.”
“What does that mean?”
