Hot Blooded

He sat up slowly, glancing around, his gaze landing on Naomi and then back to me. “Fine. I’m coming,” he said, rubbing the road out of his hair. “It feels like my brain is skewered open, but a human being able to fly is no magic trick I’ve ever seen.” He looked at me for a quick second and then dropped his eyes. “But if anyone comes after me, I will not hesitate to fight. Just because you crazies exist, doesn’t mean I’m signing on the dotted line.”

“Ray,” I hissed on the end of a frustrated breath. “You exhaust me. You can fight all you want, but you’re not going to win. That’s been your biggest obstacle all along—thinking you actually have a chance against us.” I motioned for him to stand. “Once you get that through your impenetrable skull,

your brain will thank you for it. And you will indeed sign on the dotted line, either that or you’ll be dead.”

“A well-fought battle isn’t a loss, Hannon. Only a loser doesn’t try.”

“Ray, my name is Jessica. No need to refer to me as Hannon anymore.” It seemed another lifetime ago that I’d gone by that name.

He stood, but Eamon swooshed down in front of the group before he could answer. It was kind of incredible to see him land from full speed. It should have been a train wreck, but instead he looked like an Olympic gymnast sticking a perfect landing. The pavement didn’t even wiggle. It seemed as if the velocity stopped right as his feet came in contact with the ground.

It was pretty cool. I could grudge him that much.

“The Goddess is close,” Eamon proclaimed with stuffy arrogance. “I can feel her strength. When she detects us, as she will, she will not stand idly by and let us attack. We must move now.”

I focused on Naomi, choosing to deal with the more rational of the two. “It will be daybreak soon.

Can you travel during daylight hours?” My guess was no, but I had to ask. Maybe she and her brother had gifts I didn’t know about.

“Non,” Naomi said. Her accent was more pronounced than Eamon’s, plus she used French words,

which might be one of the reasons she seemed somewhat more agreeable. “We will sleep during the daylight hours. The oldest of us can tolerate sunlight, because as our bodies age we become stronger,

but we are still too young for that.” They had to be well over five hundred years old, judging by the level of power they emitted. The stronger the supe, the more power flowed, manifesting itself like tiny pressure points on the skin. The closer you were to the source, the more it needled you. Rourke’s energy was the strongest I’d ever felt, but his power felt delicious against my skin, like a surge of tingles flooding my body continuously. The vamps’ energy felt tight and concentrated, built to intimidate. If five hundred was considered young, how old did one need to be to withstand light?

Instead of asking, I replied, “To keep up the pace, we will continue on during the day. You can catch up to us when you wake.”

“The mountains you are looking for are a great distance northwest of here.” Naomi moved forward,

stopping in front of me. “They border a large body of water, a lake five times the size of all the others surrounding it. The area she resides in is remote; its rocky passes are impregnable to humans without flight. You must drive until the dirt road dead-ends into the west side of lake and wait until nightfall.

It will not take us long to find you once we wake. Do not venture any farther than the road if you value your life. The pathway to her lair is littered with lethal obstacles.” She was obviously the tracker,

Eamon the sensor. “Selene has protected herself well from harm.”

“You’ve scouted the entrance already?” I asked, somewhat surprised. I knew the two of them had spent the previous day locating Selene’s trail, or we wouldn’t have had any direction to follow, but pinpointing her fortress so quickly was more than I’d hoped for. “I guess when you can fly, you can cover a lot more ground.”

Flying was definitely a skill lacked, but having the vamps fly us there would’ve been impossible.

We outnumbered them four to two, plus we had all our gear. Even if it had been an option, there was no way on earth any wolf would willingly let a vampire carry them. It wasn’t something I was willing to risk either, even though Naomi appeared to be somewhat trustworthy. There was too much dissention between the Sects, and even though they likely couldn’t kill us outright this time because of the oath their Queen swore to me, there were sneaky ways around that. They could easily have an

“accident” and still be within the parameters of the oath. Dropping us or slamming us into the nearest mountain would be the quickest way to try and kill us for good, something I was certain Eamon would love to do. They could also take us anywhere without our consent. It was too risky. Traveling close to the ground was the only way to ensure our survival.

“Non,” Naomi said. “We did not go to the entrance of her lair. We went only as far as the perimeter. Eamon can sense many different magics, and a fresh imprint of her was all over the mountains. Though Eamon can detect magic is present across her boundary, we will not know what it is until we arrive. There is no doubt that Selene has anticipated your arrival. She is likely taking her time with her prisoner until you arrive. You will be the crudites to her final encore, which will be ending his life.” My wolf snarled and flashed a picture of a bloodied Selene. Yep.

“There is another reason we did not go closer,” Eamon added. “There is a chance if she senses too much danger she will flee. She will not risk harm, even when she is caught up in her games. She will kill him and disappear if she believes she will be overpowered.”

“How do you know that?” I asked curiously. “From my experience, her vanity would fool her into thinking she’s infallible to just about anything. She surely wouldn’t think two young vamps and a newborn werewolf and her cohorts would be anything too strenuous to overcome. The thought of us overpowering her would make her laugh.”

He looked uncomfortable for a moment; then he straightened, donning his usual persnickety face.

“We have… dallied before and I understand her ways.”

Danny coughed. “Dallied? That sounds a bit interesting, mate.” There was humor in his voice.

“From what I’ve been told, Selene packs quite a punch in those delicate fingers of hers. Can you attest to that then?”

“She’s a warrior without rival,” Eamon snapped. “She will strike you down as an afterthought and leave your body to rot if you’re not vigilant.”

This conversation was going nowhere. I hadn’t expected Eamon to know Selene, which was curious at best. It was useful information to store away for later. From the passion in his voice I could tell it had been a close relationship, and from his pinched expression I knew there were zero odds he would talk about it. I turned toward Naomi for an answer, but she was looking away.

I faced the group. “We’ll drive the rest of tonight and all day tomorrow. We regroup at the edge of the lake by sunset tomorrow.” I had scanned the maps and if we made good time, that seemed like a doable distance to get to the Rockies. “We can formulate another plan once we get there, depending on what we find.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.” Danny gave me a mock salute.

“Hardy-har-har,” I said.

He winked in response.

Tyler headed back to the Humvee.

“Ray,” I said. “Let’s go. It’s time to prove how ready and willing you are.”

Ray followed, but peered warily back at the two vamps as he trailed after me. He came around the passenger side and yanked open the side door on his own. Finally a step in the right direction.

“Hannon,” he grumbled. “What kind of crazy mess are you in? Where exactly are we going?”

“We’re going up against the nastiest goddess you’ve ever seen. You’d better buckle your seat belt.”

8

It took us all day and several failed attempts to find the mysterious dirt road that dead-ended into the lake. It’d been easy to find the lake, which was a gigantic crater fed by a few small glaciers surrounding the area. But every single road leading toward the west side of the lake was impenetrable.