Chapter Sixteen
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AMAROS COULD HEAR THE girls talking, but they were speaking too quietly for him to overhear their conversation. Hoping they weren’t plotting any pranks against him, he performed a thorough search of the south wing. It was closest to the cliff and worried him the most.
“It looks sound,” he murmured as he checked the perimeter first. There were cracks in some of the walls, but they could be repaired easily enough. “We’ll have to dig out the trees that have grown inside,” he said. That would be a big job, but his men would be up to the task.
The foundation needed to be repaired in some areas.
Made of ancient stone, there were a lot of gaps.
He made a mental note to find concreting supplies.
They needed to make the structures as solid as possible.
Windows and doors would also need to be added.
It would no doubt snow copiously in winter, so they would have to move fast.
“We can start on the main wing first,” he figured, stopping to gaze through a window of the south wing.
It overlooked the cliff and gave him an amazing view of the nearby ranges.
“This will be our room,” he decided, then stiffened when he realized what he’d just said.
His subconscious was working against him.
It was already planning to bond with Zoe and turn this spacious room into their private bedroom.
It even had a fireplace. All of the rooms on the north side and south side of the outer wings had them.
They were back-to-back, so two rooms shared a chimney.
They had stone walls between them so each room had privacy.
“You’ve lost your damn mind,” Amaros muttered to himself, trying to shake off the growing compulsion to become bonded to Zoe. The cambion became more appealing with each day that passed. Soon, it would be impossible to ignore his need to claim her as his own.
For now, he had plenty of work to keep himself occupied.
Standing there, gazing out through the window wasn’t going to help.
Amaros continued his examination of his new base, amazed by its size.
There were more rooms than he’d expected.
It stretched back further into the trees than he’d realized.
There would be plenty of room for all of his men and the cambions who might choose to bond with them.
The only thing missing was a garage for the vehicles they would no doubt acquire.
With thoughts of building something to house the truck in tucked inside his mind, the knight headed back to the main wing. The girls passed him and smiled in greeting. He was glad to see they were in a good mood. He nodded and resumed mentally mapping the place.
“I love this view,” he heard Zoe exclaim a couple of minutes later. From her direction, he was pretty sure she was in the same room he’d mentally claimed for them both.
“You should stake your claim on it,” Grace suggested.
“I’ll grab a sleeping bag and put all my stuff in here,” Zoe agreed.
“Do you mind if I stay in here with you?” the teen asked.
Amaros suppressed a groan of frustration. How was he supposed to seduce Zoe if she was never alone? He scowled at his mind for betraying him again.
“Sure,” Zoe replied. “We’ll both feel safer staying together until we get some doors and windows in place.”
“At least this wing has an intact roof,” Grace said.
Amaros figured he and his men would be making a lot of trips to the nearby towns.
They would have to secure a supply of gasoline for their vehicles.
That meant they would need to build another structure to keep their stocks of fuel in.
It would be too dangerous to store it in the main buildings, or in the garage.
When he was done with his examination, Amaros had figured out where everything would go.
One of the bigger rooms in the main wing would become the kitchen.
It had a huge fireplace and crude stone counters.
Bathrooms needed to be added. It would take a lot of work to make them operational, since the structure lacked plumbing.
“What do you think, Amaros?” Zoe asked when the females joined him at the truck to grab their gear. “Can we turn this wreck into a home?”
“I’m sure we can make it habitable,” he confirmed. “We’ll work on the main wing first, since it’s the biggest. Once it’s done, we can repair the other two wings.”
“How are you going to find your team?” Grace asked.
“I’m hoping Zoe will be able to assist me with that,” he said. “Usually, we all arrive in the same general area. Sometimes, it can take weeks or months for my team to show up.”
“Why?” Zoe asked.
“Time moves differently in the Void. A month here can be a day there.”
“Does that mean we’ll have to drive all the way back to my hometown to find them?” Zoe asked in dismay.
“I have a feeling they won’t be that far away,” Amaros replied. “Is there a large city anywhere nearby?”
“New York isn’t far away,” she replied. “It’s one of the most well-known cities in the United States.”
“Lots of movies are made there,” Grace agreed. “There should be tons of bad guys left, so your enemies will have plenty of goons to recruit.”
Amaros had the prickling sensation in the back of his head that meant they were on the right track. “Hopefully, Zoe will have a vision about my team, which might narrow down where they are,” he said.
“They don’t work on command, but I’ll do my best,” the cambion promised.
“Have you ever been to New York?” Grace asked Zoe.
“I’ve never been anywhere,” she replied ruefully. “Mom took me on a religious retreat two years ago. It was three towns over and we only stayed for one night. That’s the furthest I’ve ever been from home before I met Amaros.”
“I’ve been to New York a few times, but I’ve never stayed there long,” Grace said. She glanced down at a badge pinned to her sneaker. It was shaped like the Empire State Building.
“Why not?” Amaros asked.
“Too many cops,” the kid joked. “You can’t even turn a corner without bumping into someone who wants to arrest you.”
“It’s bound to be bedlam in the city,” Zoe warned Amaros. “Manhattan is the center of New York. I have a hunch that’s where we’ll find your men. It’s on an island, with a bunch of bridges and some tunnels to get there.”
“Let’s hope we can make our way there without too much trouble,” the knight said. “Was the city busy at night?”
“The City That Never Sleeps is literally what people called it,” Grace said. “We won’t know how much it’s changed until we get close enough to see it for ourselves.”
They both looked at Zoe to see if she’d seen any visions of New York. “I’ve got nothing,” she told them. “We should start lugging our gear inside,” she suggested.
The girls carried their belongings to the room Zoe had chosen. Amaros picked a room nearby, so he would be close enough to go to their aid if anything happened during the night.
Once everything was stored inside, they gathered in the ancient kitchen. “We can set up the grill in the fireplace,” Zoe mused. “It’s big enough and the smoke will be sucked up the chimney.”
Amaros had filched a folding table and several folding chairs from the sporting goods store.
Grace set them up, while he figured out how to attach the propane tank to the grill.
Zoe heated up some patties Grace had cooked at the café and toasted a couple of buns.
She had to use a portable halogen light to see, since there were no windows.
Patrolling outside, Amaros couldn’t sense anyone else in the vicinity. He was confident that their base wouldn’t be discovered by his enemies anytime soon. Still, he wished he could erect a ward on his own. Unfortunately, he needed at least a few members of his unit to pull that off.
It quickly became cold once the sun went down.
Tired from their long trip, the females retreated to their room.
Tomorrow, Amaros intended to search the area to see if he could find a stream.
They had plenty of bottled water, but they would need a far larger supply once more people were added to their group.
Finally feeling tired enough to turn in, the knight glanced into Zoe’s room as he passed the doorway.
Both females were tucked safely inside their sleeping bags.
Zoe opened her eyes, saw it was just him checking on them and smiled sleepily.
His heart kicked in his chest, then began to beat hard and fast.
“Good night, Amaros,” she murmured. “Have pleasant dreams.”
He nodded, afraid to open his mouth in case he blurted out something stupid. He faintly heard Grace snickering as he made his way to his own room.
“That warrior wants you bad, Zoe,” the kid whispered.
“Go to sleep, Gracelyn,” Zoe ordered. He wasn’t sure if the longing in her tone was real, or just his imagination.