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“Thank you,” I say as I pull my phone from my pocket. Checking the display, I meet Jesse’s eyes. “I got a text from Bernadette.”
Looking back down at the device, I swipe my finger across the screen to unlock it and pull up my texting app.
Bernadette: I found something. The original Grundelier settlement was located in Terremagie Parish.
I read the text out loud to Jesse, and he smirks, shaking his head. “I thought they were supposed to be hiding.”
“What do you mean?”
“Terremagie Parish. They named their community ‘magic land.’ Appropriate, I guess, but definitely not subtle.”
I stare at him for a moment, then a laugh bubbles out of me. “I didn’t expect it to be this easy.”
“We haven’t actually found anything yet. We’ll get some directions tomorrow morning and go check it out.”
“You don’t want to go today?” I ask, feeling slightly disappointed. “There’s still plenty of daylight left, not that we need it with our super-strong eyesight.”
“Steph will insist on going, and she’s impaired by the champagne she drank in the limo. Plus, she actually needs to rest.”
“Right,” I breathe, following him back inside the room.
He spins and pulls me into his arms, plastering our bodies together. “Besides, I really want to strip you out of these clothes and take you to bed.”
His voice drops to a whisper by the end, then he presses a trail of kisses along my jaw to my neck. Hunger spikes inside me, and it has nothing to do with drinking blood and everything to do with the man currently running his hand up beneath my shirt.
“Then, by all means, have your way with me, your highness.”
“Oh, I will, your highness,” he replies.
An orgasm explodes through me, and he catches me against him as my knees buckle. Lifting me up, he carries me to the bed as my body trembles through the aftershocks.
“You should really warn a girl before you do that,” I say with a breathless laugh as he strips my jeans off.
“Now, where’s the fun in that?”
6
THINGS ARE GETTING INTERESTING
Iblink slowly as the yellow caution light flashes in a steady, hypnotizing rhythm. Leif slows the rented SUV as we pass beneath the light, no other vehicles in sight, then turns into the small dirt lot beside a weathered building. The sign above the door declares it as Terremagie Mercantile, and it sits directly across the street from a small gas station, the only other business visible from the intersection.
“Is this it?” Steph asks. “This is the whole town?”
No one offers an answer as we climb from the car. I walk toward the rear of the vehicle and look around, but there’s not much to see other than the two businesses and the pitch of a tin roof through the trees that line the road to my left. A rusted mailbox next to a dirt drive tells me it’s most likely someone’s home.
I can’t see anything else in the immediate area, and my spirits dampen.
“Don’t worry. If there are answers here, we’ll find them.”
Jesse’s arms wrap around my waist from behind, and he presses a kiss to the side of my neck. Folding my own arms over his, I sigh.
“I can’t smell any magic other than Steph’s. Can you?” I whisper.
“No,” he says, squeezing me tighter. “But I couldn’t smell your magic at first, either. Whoever bound your magic and hid it so effectively could have cast a spell here to hide themselves.”
“Two humans inside. An older woman behind the counter, and a man in the stock room. They both appear to work here.”
I turn to face Erik as he approaches us, his words ringing loudly in my ears though he’s speaking under his breath. Steph and Leif move in beside him, completing our small circle.
