“But they took Rafael,” Sami persisted.
“Yes, and he’s their only bargaining chip,” Aric noted. “I don’t think they’re going to hurt him, Sami. They’re going to want to trade him.”
I stirred. “They can’t possibly think that you’ll trade Sami for him. I mean, you love him, but she’s your daughter.”
“We don’t love him,” Aric argued.
“We do so.” Sami folded her arms over her chest. “He’s going to be my husband one day, which means you have no choice but to save him.”
Aric rolled his eyes, as if asking some invisible deity “why me.”
“We’re going to save him,” Zoe promised. “However, they’re not going to try to trade him straight up for you. They’re going to try to maneuver us to trade something else and then attack again when they think they’ve got us exactly where they want us.”
“What will they want to trade for?” Gunner asked.
Zoe held out her hands. “I don’t know.”
“When do you think they’ll want to do this?” I asked.
“I don’t know that either. It won’t be tonight. That means we should all get some rest and go from there.”
“I don’t want to rest.” Sami jutted out her chin. “I want to find Rafael. You know they’re just going to ask for the Archimage anyway. Why can’t we contact them and offer a trade? They won’t be able to fight us if we’re all together.”
Archimage? The word niggled something in the back of my mind but I filed it away for later. “We can’t move on them tonight,” I said. “We have no idea where they’ve gone or what they have planned. They’re not going to engage with us anyway. We have to wait.”
Sami didn’t look happy at the prospect. “But—”
“We’re going to do everything we can, Sami,” Aric promised. “We’ll get him back.”
“You’d better.” Sami was morose. “I’ll be alone for the rest of my life if you don’t save him. He’s my soulmate, like what Mom is to you.”
Aric shook his head. “That’s not making me want to save him, Sami.”
Zoe stood, dusting off her hands. “Double your wards overnight and think hard. We need to come up with a plan. They’re not going to wait long.”
I nodded. “I’ll see what I can come up with.”
“I’ll do the same. I honestly don’t think killing him will get them what they want. He’s likely safe for the night.”
“He won’t talk?” Gunner asked.
Zoe laughed hollowly. “He’ll die before he betrays us. You don’t have to worry about that.”
Sadly, that was the thing I was most worried about. Wherever he was, the tanned vampire was in for an uncomfortable night.
Eighteen
Aric cradled Sami to his chest walking out, Zoe alert and keeping watch. Rather than climb in the passenger seat, Zoe slipped in the back with her daughter and Aric got behind the wheel. They were a well-oiled protection machine when it came to their child. They didn’t even have to communicate out loud.
To outsiders looking in, they would appear to be a family in crisis. I knew better. Zoe would reclaim her vampire by whatever means necessary, and Sami was essentially an errant missile looking for her guidance system to lock onto something.
Things were a mess.
Gunner headed straight for the shower once they were gone. On another night, I might have made a play to join him. Not tonight, though.
The first thing I did was find Merlin. Just like Sami said, he was curled into a ball under the bed, spitting and hissing when I tried to pull him out. Rather than traumatize him further, I set about strengthening the wards. By the time Gunner exited the bathroom, a towel slung low on his hips, I’d positioned myself so I was flat on the floor, an unsealed can of tuna in my hand.
“Don’t you want me to pet you?” I said in my softest voice. “You’ll feel better if you climb into bed with us.”
Gunner snickered as he leaned against the doorjamb, arms folded over his chest. The water gleamed on his cut torso, giving me ideas even though I was perplexed. It was hard for me to discard the shape we’d found him in.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He dropped to his knees so he could get a gander at the kitten. “You don’t need to worry about me. I feel like I’m as good as new.”
“I just want to be sure. If you have poison in you—”
He shook his head to cut me off. “Something tells me Zoe has handled situations like this before.”
“She seemed pretty calm,” I agreed, rolling to a cross-legged sitting position. “Even when we were heading inside, when we didn’t know if Sami was here, or taken ... or something worse, she never fell apart.”
“No.” Gunner positioned himself so his knee touched mine. “I think she knew Sami was okay.”
I thought the opposite. “I think she was braced to do whatever she had to do to help Sami. If we’d found Sami dead, I hate to think what sort of wreckage she would’ve left behind when going after the guilty parties.”
“Oh, she’s terrifying.” Gunner tugged a strand of my hair, settling it behind my ear. “She’s going to go ballistic finding that vampire. You realize that, right?”
I nodded. “Do you think she’s right? Is the vampire still alive?”
Gunner shrugged. “If I were in the position of those shifters, I would kill him and run. He’s dangerous. He could tear them limb from limb if he gets loose. He’s stronger than a normal vampire.”
“They might not know that. Did they see him walk during the day? I’m pretty sure they didn’t. It’s possible they were positioned in the trees or something, but I have to believe they would’ve attacked the cabin if they knew where he was.”
Gunner pursed his lips, his forehead wrinkling. “I hadn’t really thought about that. You’re right, though.”
“I’m always right.”
He smirked and moved his hand to my back. He seemed to understand that
