Albeit a shaky one.
Maverick’s reaction to the fresh bite mark on my neck and my new tattoo had led to more growling and stomping around.
Honestly, I was over stupid males and their ridiculous tantrums. I was also sore and exhausted. Two rounds of sex and some swimming thrown in for good measure, while great in some ways, had worn me out.
All I wanted to do was sleep for a week.
Maverick disappeared once I’d settled down between Kai and Zane and he knew I was safe. He’d shifted into his bear and gone to guard the tunnel exit to make sure nothing tried to eat us.
Kenji blinked into view as I lay on my back staring at the darkness above my head. At least it was warm in this cavern.
“Where have you been?”
“You don’t need to know,” my familiar replied. He dropped a watch on the floor of the cave before dragging my jacket next to my pack and turning it into a nest.
“Whose watch is that?”
Kenji ignored me while I silently seethed. “Why do you refuse to tell me anything? We’re supposed to have a close, loving bond.”
“It’s safer if you don’t know.”
If he’d been closer, I’d have fried his ass with magic.
“If you get arrested, I won’t bail you out,” I muttered.
Once again Kenji ignored me, and a few seconds later, he started snoring.
Goddess, he was annoying.
I lay still for a while longer before my thoughts returned to the vampire. He was close. I could feel the faint connection between us pulsing away in my chest. If only I knew a spell that would show me exactly where he was, I could go there now.
I hoped he wouldn’t suck any of us dry. Zane had explained that a starving vampire lost all control when a blood source got close. In the past, vampires had caused carnage when imprisoned and starved. The ones who escaped had gone on killing sprees before their sanity returned.
Nobody wanted to risk waking Rasmus and triggering a massive atrocity. While Maverick could probably immobilize a weakened vampire, there was no point in taking any unnecessary risks.
My bladder twinged.
I fidgeted for a few minutes before crawling away from Kai and Zane. After casting a small magic light, I padded over to the far wall and peed behind a rock.
Just as I pulled my pants back up, a sharp tug in my chest made me jump.
“Little witch,” the vampire’s voice whispered in my head. “So close.”
“Where are you?” I didn’t know if he could hear me, but it was worth a try.
“Follow your magic.”
Well that made no sense. My magic was temperamental at best of times. I had no faith it would show me the way to Rasmus’ secret hideaway. But what did I have to lose?
I walked back over to the tunnel entrance and stood still with my eyes closed. For ages, I felt and heard nothing. Only Kenji’s snores and Kai muttering in his sleep. Just as I was about to give up, something in my chest pulled. So slight I almost missed it. Like a feather brushing across the back of my neck.
I focused hard, channeling the mage’s lessons about picturing my magic as strands in my chest. One of those strands glittered like rubies as it spun out from behind my ribs and floated through the air toward a side tunnel off the main one.
The cave system branched off in multiple directions, and there might be dozens of tunnels leading who knew where.
If Maverick were here he’d yell at me for putting myself in danger, but this felt like the right thing to do.
So I let the thread guide me, feeling like Theseus following Ariadne’s trail through the labyrinth, all the while praying there wasn’t a minotaur lurking somewhere inside this mountain.
