I rested my forehead against Ben’s shoulder and sighed. For just a moment, I’d been able to forget about everything, everyone, but him. We’d had our own little sphere of perfection, however fleeting. Ben kissed the top of my head and kept his arms around me, holding me close. Yeah, we could stay like that for a while longer.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, trying to keep the conversation between us.
His breath ruffled my hair, which felt marvelous, comforting. I reveled in the smell of him. “I’m feeling kind of stupid. I lost it. Completely.”
Obviously. “Why? You got through two fights without losing it. What happened?”
“When you didn’t answer, I panicked. I didn’t know what to do—so I lost it.”
“And came looking for me?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s sweet, you know.”
“I’m glad you think so.” We kissed again, a reassuring touch of lips. “What about you? You’re hurt, your leg—” He put his hand on my right hip, which twinged at the touch. But I held his hand there, not wanting him to move.
“I fell,” I said. “Broke something, I think.”
“But you’re okay? It healed?”
“It’s taking awhile, but yeah, I think so.”
“We have to get out of here,” he said.
“Yeah. But we can’t, not yet.”
“I know.”
I nestled closer in his embrace, finally feeling strong enough to deal with the situation outside.
Boss was still grinning at us like he thought we were cute. Cormac was back to standing guard. He didn’t particularly look like he was standing guard, but he’d put himself between the two of us—huddled on the floor, vulnerable—and the rest of the gathering. The arrangement suggested us against them.
Anastasia was talking to Grace.
“I didn’t count on any of this!” the young magician said.
“Your family understood what was asked of them—”
“That was hundreds of years ago! What do you expect me to do? I wasn’t going to stick around and try to fight monsters. I can’t do that.”
“Do you honor your ancestors or not? We’ve lost time, it may be too late.”
“I have to butt in,” I murmured to Ben, extricating myself from his embrace, as much as it pained me to do so.
“Of course you do,” he said, his smile turning crooked. He wrapped the blanket firmly around him after my departure. Which was a shame. If we’d been alone I’d have stripped down to join him. Later …
“Anastasia, chill out,” I said. “She did the right thing when she ran.” Both Anastasia and Boss arced brows at me, as if surprised by my interruption. I hoped they were impressed by my assertiveness. “Roman’s here. But he doesn’t have the pearl or those werewolves wouldn’t have been asking us for it. So we still have a chance of finding it. Don’t we?”
Anastasia set her mouth in a frown—grim and hopeless. She didn’t think there was a chance.
“Grace,” Cormac said. Everyone looked at him, startled. He was quiet enough most of the time that he almost blended into the background. That was exactly how he planned it. “I might be able to work out a way to search for it, but I don’t know what it is, what it looks like. If you can give me something to look for, we might be able to find it.”
The young woman raised her arms in a gesture that was half pleading, half frustration. “Have any of you considered that if this terrible Roman guy doesn’t have it, and we don’t have it, then someone else got to it first—someone who put the huli jing in a cage? Someone more powerful than any of us? You really want to go after that?”
Anastasia frowned. “If you had not failed in your duty to your ancestors—”
Grace put her hands over her ears. “Oh, stop with that, please! You sound like my grandmother!”
Taken aback, Anastasia pursed her lips.
“Grace,” Cormac said again. “You think we can do this?”
Deflating, she fidgeted, taking off her glasses, wiping them on the hem of her shirt, putting them on and glaring through them, giving the vampires surly glances. “Yeah, I think so.”
“We’ll need some space and quiet,” Cormac said to Boss.
“Can we watch?” he asked.
“Sure. Long as you’re quiet.”
“This way, then.” He started toward the other side of the room, where a door stood.
Ben got to his feet, keeping the blanket wrapped modestly around his waist. The look was kind of cute, showing off his lean body. I had an urge to pull his hand away so that the blanket dropped …
“I could use some clothes,” he said.
Cormac reached to the floor behind one of the chairs and produced several items of clothing, stacked and folded—and Ben’s battered semiautomatic. And that answered the question of whether he’d been searched. Boss and company obviously didn’t think we were much of a threat. It was almost insulting.
“I picked up what you dropped. Some of it’s kind of mangled.” He handed the stack to Ben.
“You shouldn’t even be holding this thing.” Ben gestured at the gun.
Cormac shrugged him off. “Won’t happen again. I thought you might need it.”
“For all the good it’s done so far. Anyway. Thanks.” He set the gun on a table and surveyed the clothing.
“It’d be nice if you could avoid that sort of thing from now on.”
“I’ll put that on the list: ‘Don’t lose your shit.’ Then you won’t have to use those silver knives of yours on me.”
“I wouldn’t—”
Ben pointed. “You would if you had to.”
Cormac looked away. So did Ben. I wondered if I should shove in between them to keep from saying anything else—something either one of them would regret.
“Sorry,” Ben said finally. “I’ll try to keep from freaking out too badly from now on.”
Cormac shrugged him off and headed to the doors. “Let’s see that room.”
Boss led the way, and the others followed, leaving us alone for a moment, and I was grateful. Ben handed me the pile of clothes, taking the shirt off the top and holding it up. Sure enough, the I ESCAPED ALCATRAZ shirt was ripped at the seams, Incredible Hulk–like, as a result of
