Did you feel that, Andre? He’s there. I need to hear more to find his trail and follow it. That one note out of place.
Teagan Joanes was a true miracle. Andre felt the note through her. He would never have discovered a master vampire’s lair. Never. They didn’t leave blank spots, giving away to the hunter that their presence was close. Not if they were a true master. They were far better at vanishing than that or they never would have survived so many centuries to become a master.
The discordant note grew stronger as the two owls began to narrow in on the jangle of sound, so out of place among the beauty of the song Teagan could hear and had shared with him.
Teagan had been so beautiful, so unexpected, so sexy, waking him up, replacing nightmares with her sweet, sensual body. Giving herself to him. He didn’t know what other males had, what went on between lifemates, but he was thankful she belonged to him and that she understood he belonged to her. She had taken him into her keeping in the same way he had her.
He stayed very alert in her mind. She wasn’t flying headlong into danger. She felt her way, sharing with him without holding back. She was afraid. Her fear beat at him, but that didn’t stop her. It didn’t slow her down or make her hesitant. His woman had a backbone of pure steel.
To the right. We need to drop down closer to that area in the mist there, Andre, but I think if we do, he’ll know we’re here.
Popescu’s pawns had used a web inside the fog to find victims. Andre had seen that particular trick used in the past, but it wasn’t a well-known one. Not many vampires had managed to acquire the necessary knowledge to do such a thing. It was complicated, and most didn’t have the cunning or patience. But Costin Popescu did, and that said a lot about his battle knowledge.
Let me move ahead of you, Andre said. Stay circling right here until I can get a feel for what he has wrought there in the fog. If I can find a way for us to move through it undetected, we will get closer and try to pinpoint his exact location.
Why didn’t he leave?
He was either wounded much more severely than I first thought, which I doubt and will not count on, or he is not moving so he does not leave a trail for me to follow. A master will forgo his meals to throw a hunter off the trail. This one is very dangerous, Teagan. He poured a warning into his tone, hoping she understood the knowledge he imparted to her.
I have no wish to encounter him up close and personal, Andre, she assured.
He found himself wanting to smile at the snippy little tone she used. He liked her snippy. He liked the way, when she was nervous, she blurted out anything that was in her mind. He found the trait both funny and endearing.
Neither do I, he admitted. Keep your mind in mine, just in case I find us a way in.
He was using his bossy tone, which he knew she disliked as a rule, but she didn’t seem to mind so much when they were hunting vampires.
She made a little sound in the back of her throat. I don’t know what I’m doing hunting vampires. That’s your territory so be as bossy as you want. Anything else, you might want to consider I’ve been known to bash people over the heads with frying pans.
You hit a serial killer over the head, he reminded. That was entirely justified. Hitting me would just be mean.
Um. No. What exactly is the definition of a serial killer? Doesn’t that label go with multiple bodies stacking up?
He choked on his own laughter. She had a point, but she didn’t need to make him laugh when he was entering the web of a master vampire. He had to go delicately, and without a body of any kind that could trip the shimmering wires trailing back to the undead.
Andre shifted, leaving the form of the owl to become nothing but molecules moving through the air. He entered the mist cautiously, feeling for each of the fine filaments that would lead back to the master.
Now you have called me an old dog and a serial killer.
I’m just saying.
The smile was gone from her voice, even though she went along with his teasing. He didn’t like that she was afraid for him, and he knew she was. She was in his mind, just as he was in hers, and she knew what he was doing was very dangerous. The vampire’s traps surrounded him.
Sivamet. He tried to wrap the endearment in his love. I have done this for centuries. Believe in me.
I do.
She said it fast. Sincerely. Meaning it. But she was terrified for him, just as he had been terrified for her when she’d been so close to the vampire. He had never considered that his lifemate would feel the same intensity of fear for her man as he did his woman when she was in the path of danger, and he didn’t like it. He more than didn’t like it. His woman shouldn’t have to ever feel that kind of fear.
You do, she shot back, revealing she was becoming even more adept at reading his thoughts than she had been at rising. She learned at an outrageous pace. He was going to have to work hard to stay in front of her.
It is not the same thing. Deliberately he made his reply decisive.
She would never convince him, although he knew she would try, that she had every right to worry over his safety as he did hers. For him there would always be a difference. She was his woman. Precious. A treasure to cherish. No matter that she had a spine of steel, she was fragile in his world. She might not think so, but she was. She always would be. It was his duty and his privilege to protect her.
You make me crazy when you think like that, Andre. Of course I am going to worry about you facing monsters. I love you. You’re my . . . family.
That was everything. Family, to Teagan, was her everything. Sacred. For her to say that, she was revealing her vulnerability to him. She was giving him another gift and he knew it was huge. He wasn’t going to spoil it by arguing with her. He was who he was and he couldn’t change his nature. He could find ways to compromise because above all, he wanted her to be happy, but he didn’t want her worried or in danger.