Rasmus shrugged. “No colder than my family’s ancestral home in the Carpathian Mountains.” He’d conjured a gray wool coat and red scarf to wear before we left Texas. Very fancy, and more practical than the stupid leather pants I’d been stuck with. But it was better than being naked, I supposed.
Kai still wore his usual shorts and sneakers. The wind whipped his long hair as he stared out over the short wall. For his sake, I hoped there was a hot spring or something inside the mountain, like the one in the caves where we’d discovered Rasmus.
The poor merman didn’t do well without water, and it had been a while since his last swim.
“You okay?” I asked him in a low voice. He blinked in surprise.
“I’ll be okay once we find Raven.” He pressed a palm to his chest, right over his heart. I nodded in understanding. My chest ached too, like there was a hole inside that I couldn’t ever fill until I had my little mate back in my arms, safe and sound.
“We’ll find her,” I promised.
“Damn right we will, care bear.” The incubus had been listening because he didn’t understand the concept of personal boundaries and private conversations. I almost rolled my eyes, but a door opened to our left and a tall figure appeared, backlit by golden light.
Blessed heat wafted out. Zane groaned appreciatively. “Thank fuck. I think my dick’s frozen.”
“Welcome to my home,” a deep voice rumbled. “Come inside, friends of Kenji.”
19
Raven
No matter how hard I tried, I’d failed to leave my corporeal body again during sleep. Whatever had taken me to Alaric that one time no longer worked. It was both infuriating and upsetting.
Not because I wanted to spend quality time with the mage, but because I needed to find a way out of this lunatic asylum.
After more trips to donate blood and contribute medical data, it was rapidly dawning on me that most of the inmates here were insane. I’d not seen the vampire female again, but I had passed more rooms where unknown species screamed and howled, all of them incapacitated by magic-blocking cuffs or collars.
No kitsunes, thankfully. The thought of little Kenji lookalikes being subjected to inhumane experiments made me want to smite someone. Preferably Tiberius, but Brianna was an acceptable second choice.
Even though I’d asked the staff what was happening here, they all refused to answer my questions.
At least they were feeding me. Not the sort of food I’d have chosen for myself, but mostly it was edible.
I was desperate for a shower, though. My scalp itched like crazy, and my hair hung limp and greasy down my back. Even I could tell I smelled worse than a skunk shifter. Did skunk shifters exist? I felt sorry for any poor female with a skunk shifter mate. Goddess save them all from the stench of a frightened skunk mate.
My cell door swung open and hit the wall with a bang, making me jump.
“Time for your meds,” announced the surly guard who’d been my miserable companion today. He smelled bad. Almost as bad as a mythical skunk shifter. He also had nothing interesting to say. Goddess knows I’d tried to engage him in stimulating conversations about diverse topics such as poisonous herbs and candle making.
Nothing landed. The mage apparently had no personality, which didn’t bode well for his dating life.
“Are you a skunk shifter?” I needed to know. Silence wasn’t my friend. Talking to myself for hours had bored the pants off me, which suggested I was a basic bitch. Goddess, did my mates think I was boring?
I cringed.
My poor mates.
No, I refused to think about them in the presence of a skunk shifter. Who knew what mind-reading abilities the magicals in here had. I didn’t want to risk giving important information away. Alaric’s warning about Montgomery rang in my head. For all I knew, the headmaster had extracted every juicy nugget of information from my head that day in his office.
The guard sneered. “I’m a mage, you moron. Jobs like this are for high-ranking mages, not lesser magicals likedumb shifters.”
Wonderful.A mage supremacist. “It can’t pay that well,” I muttered.
The guard pulled out a syringe. “What the fuck are you talking about, bitch?”
“I’m guessing you can’t afford antiperspirant.”
“How fucking dare you—”
