Chapter Thirteen
MARIUS
“So, what do you think?” Roux asked when we reconvened on the front lawn.
Bene yawned and stretched his belly. “I think it’s been a long night. And, shit.” He looked at the sun, now fairly high over the horizon. “A long morning, too.”
“Fine. Go tuck yourself in while the rest of us figure out who nearly killed Mina last night,” I snarled.
“Says the last guy on the scene. Want to know who got there first? Oh, right. That was me.” Bene patted his chest.
“Because I sent you,” I grumbled.
The truth was, if I hadn’t been out stargazing/soul-searching/fantasizing about Mina last night, I wouldn’t have picked up on the intruder at all, and Mina could be dead.
The thought chilled me to the bone.
A damn good thing something had prickled in my subconscious, setting off my inner alarms.
Not just something, my dragon reminded me. Mina.
That was the scary part — well, one of the scary parts. I could sense her emotions, at least the more extreme ones. Which shouldn’t be possible, unless—
Destiny, my dragon hummed. My destined ma—
I tried cutting off the thought, but it stuck stubbornly in my mind and heart.
She’s ours, my dragon insisted.
Well, that’s what fate thought. But a guy like me wasn’t cut out to be anyone’s mate, least of all to a nice girl from a nice family — apart from the godfather, but he didn’t count — with an entire fucking chateau to her name. A sweet, slightly bookish schoolteacher, for chrissakes!
My dragon chuckled, sending all kinds of inappropriate images into my mind. Like her and me getting it on on a desk vigorously enough to make the apple there wobble, then tumble away. Pens, pencils, and notebooks would rattle too, and soon, she would be moaning my name in ecstasy.
We would be moaning too, my dragon assured me. It would be that good.
I had no doubt, because underneath that cool, collected exterior was a soul simmering with passion and desire. Passion and desire that tortured me every time I ventured too close — or too far.
“Whether it was Szabo or someone else, he wasn’t after Mina,” Bene reasoned.
Maybe not, but he couldn’t have failed to notice the way we’d rushed to her aid.
“No, but if someone wants to get to us, he would target our weakest link — and that’s Mina,” Roux said, voicing my fears.
She’s not weak, my dragon snarled.
No, she wasn’t. The night Henrik had snuck through the attic had proven that. I had no idea what she’d done, but one moment, I could clearly sense her there, frightened in bed, and the next…
Vanished, my dragon whispered in awe.
Well, not quite, but blurred. There, but not there. I’d circled over the chateau countless times afterward, trying to puzzle out what she’d done.
Clearly, our hostess had a few supernatural powers of her own.
One of a kind, my dragon sighed dreamily.
Bene kicked the ground. “Let’s say it wasn’t Szabo. Who — or what — was it?”
“No scent. That points to a vampire,” Roux observed.
Henrik grimaced but didn’t protest.
“Getting this close wouldn’t take any special skill.” Roux motioned to the woods. “Not with zero security.”
I bit back a growl. All four of us were highly trained, yet no one had been on watch last night — or any night over the past week.
Well, that had all changed now.
The morning was chilly, and the sun had just climbed into a layer of cloud. But a moment later, a brilliant beam broke through and warmed my back.
I turned, and oops. Still cloudy, but Mina marching toward us from the house made the whole world brighter.
“Watch what you say,” Bene warned the others as she approached.
“Anything new?” Mina asked, coming up with a tray of steaming coffee mugs and croissants.
“God, I love France,” Bene murmured, helping himself, though careful to avoid the mug printed with a painting of blue horses — Mina’s favorite and strictly off-limits. “Tell Gordon I want all my future assignments here, okay?” Then he winced as Mina’s expression fell. “Or maybe not,” he mumbled.
I jutted my jaw. If lions had multiple brain cells, you could have fooled me. Or maybe ninety-nine percent were devoted to grooming, leaving one percent to manage everything else.
“Nothing new to report, unfortunately,” Roux admitted.
Mina scoffed. “You’ve been out all night and most of the morning, and you haven’t found anything? Either Gordon needs to fire all of you, or you’re lying.”
Bene sighed. “He’s lying.”
“No kidding.” She thrust the tray into Henrik’s hands and snatched her own coffee and croissant from it. Then she pointed the croissant at the garden. “Show me.”
Show me implied someone else leading the way, but Mina was the one who marched us over at a pace that said she meant business.
I hid a grin and followed, taking my own coffee and pastry with me.
“Do I look like a waiter?” Henrik grumbled in our wake.
“You do now,” Bene chuckled over his shoulder.
“Hey, where’s Claudette?” Roux asked. “Isn’t she supposed to help with breakfast?”
“Apparently, she left town,” Mina muttered.
I exhaled. I’d had enough of Claudette hitting on me for a lifetime, not to mention watching her hit on the others. So, whew.
“Was it us?” Bene looked hurt.
Mina snorted. “A good guess, but in this case, probably not. Claudette has a reputation for being a little, er…spontaneous.”
Leave it to Mina to find a nice way to say unreliable. It was easy to picture her composing understated report cards. What would mine say?
Must learn to harness his impulses… Social skills still developing…
Bene’s would say, Encouraged to develop his focus more, and Roux’s, Strong leadership and responsibility, but recommend activities that are not directly linked to achievement. As for Henrik, probably something like, Should strive to interact with peers in ways that foster mutual comfort.
Her pace brought us to the garden in no time, and she didn’t let up until we approached the derelict fountain.
“So, I was about here…” She slowed, then stopped, and pointed into the bushes. “And he — or she — was over there. Have you checked that area?”
“Of course we checked,” Roux groused.
Mina took another sip of coffee, placed her mug on the lip of the fountain, and charged off into the bushes.
“Feisty, isn’t she?” Bene chuckled while Roux hurried after her.
“That’s one word for it,” Henrik grumbled, catching up at last.
I hurried after Mina and found her inspecting the ground behind the bushes.
“What about this?” She patted one trampled area. “Or this?”
Roux clearly didn’t appreciate being questioned by a schoolteacher. She might know a lot about math, spelling, and social studies, but what did she know about tracking?
More than I expected, frankly, because the spots she indicated had also caught Roux’s attention, and he was the best tracker among us.
“We checked those,” he said. “Someone was there, but there’s no scent.”
“So, a vampire,” Mina mused.
Roux and I traded surprised looks.
“You know more about supernaturals than I thought,” he said.
“You should have seen the parties my grandmother used to throw,” Mina muttered, still focused on the ground.
“Your grandmother, the…?” Roux tried.
Mina hesitated, leaving me to fill in the blank with my own guesses.
Fox shifter? She was that crafty. Wolf?
Dragon? my inner beast hummed hopefully.
“My grandmother, the socialite,” Mina said, evading the heart of the question. Then she patted the ground again. “How heavy a vampire? Can you tell?”
Roux nodded. “Someone around my size.”
Or my size, I nearly growled as she looked him over. Not that I was jealous or anything.
“So, probably not a woman,” she concluded.
“Henrik passed through here too, so we’re seeing two trails, which makes it difficult to judge,” Roux said. “But, yes. Probably not a woman.”
Mina followed the path of trampled vegetation. That took her — and us, in her wake — through the jumble of the garden and onto the north lawn.
“Any indication that he came from the road?” She looked toward the long, tree-lined driveway.
“No. He came and went through the forest,” Roux said decisively. We’d all combed the area carefully and reached the same conclusion.
“So, he probably came alone,” Mina mused. “No accomplice dropping him off, for example.”
“That’s what it looks like, Sherlock,” Roux snipped.
Mina shot him a sharp look, and he stuck up his hands.
“Sorry. It’s been a long night.”
“And I appreciate you staying out so long to gather information,” she said evenly. “But I’d appreciate you even more for sharing that information.”
He nodded wearily and led her toward the forest, pointing along the way.
“His in- and outbound trails overlap. Traces here, here, and here, but no scent anywhere.”
The bushes behind us rustled, and Mina whirled, raising her fists.
“Sorry, just us,” Bene said, emerging with Henrik.
Mina lowered her hands slowly. So, being here did put her on edge, but that hadn’t stopped her from coming to see for herself.
I doubt anything can stop this woman, Roux sighed into my mind, having caught my thoughts.
A good reminder for me to keep up a mental barrier.
So I don’t find out you have the hots for the teacher? he goaded.
I do not have the hots for her! I snarled into his mind so fiercely, he took a step back.
Sure. Right. No feelings whatsoever, he muttered.
None, I told myself. Nothing I wouldn’t soon rid myself of…somehow.
“This way?” Mina asked, oblivious to our silent communication.
Roux nodded and took the lead, indicating the trail we’d followed a dozen times in the past few hours.
“He came from that angle, but he fled, well…”
“Let me guess,” Mina deadpanned, staring down a hundred-meter strip of charred forest. “He fled that way.”
Everyone stood quietly for a good minute, taking in scorched skeletons of trees and clumps of smoldering vegetation.
I fidgeted.
“Did he, um…” Mina waved at the far side of the burned patch.
“Continue out the other side?” Roux said somewhat diplomatically. “Yes. We picked up his trail there.”