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She shrugged. “He thinks he does. Me, I think we're in pretty damn good shape.” She hesitated, her gaze dropping to his thigh. “Well, I am, anyway."
He smiled and wrapped a hand around her waist, pulling her close. Her body was warm and familiar, the rapid beat of her pulse a siren's song that called to the man in him rather than the vampire. With her breasts pressed so snugly against his chest, he couldn't help being aware of her arousal, just as she was no doubt aware of his. He wished they were home—wherever home might be. Wished he had the time to give in to passion's flame and love her as thoroughly as she deserved. But that wasn't an option right now. Not when there were a couple of madmen running around... Or were there?
He remembered what she'd said earlier, remembered what Kinnard had just said, and frowned. “Have you seen Dunleavy at all?"
Her sigh was a sound of frustration. She stepped from his embrace and reached for the still steaming cup on the kitchen bench. “Once,” she said, “Just after he'd kidnapped you."
"But not since then?"
She shook her head and leaned her hip against the bench. The sunlight streaming in through the window behind her lent warm highlights to her hair, and in that moment he realized her natural color was brown rather than the blonde he kept seeing.
"Why?” she asked.
He crossed his arms. “Because I think it's odd we haven't seen him at all."
"I thought we'd decided that all this magic happening around us had him drained and basically immobilized?"
"We did. But what if that's what we were supposed to believe?" She sipped her coffee and said, “Even if that were true, how come we haven't seen him?"
"Maybe we have. Maybe we just haven't realized it."
"You're the one who said you'd be able to see Dunleavy if he was around. Are you telling me now that's not true?"
"No. I said if Dunleavy was here, I should be able to see him, because you cannot hide the basic energy readout of a vampire."
"And Dunleavy is definitely a vampire, so why haven't you spotted him?"
"Didn't you say Dunleavy was also a shifter?"
"And a sorcerer. So?"
"So, what if he's a type of shifter we've never seen before? His energy pattern wouldn't be the same as most vampires, because most vampires come from human stock rather than nonhuman races, such as shifters."
"But even if that is the case, wouldn't you have noticed the difference? There's only us, those people down in the town, and Kinnard here.” She shuddered. “And whatever Kinnard is, he's definitely not human."
"No. He's that slug thing we saw taking advantage of the woman." Blood drained from her face. She took a quick drink of her coffee, but it didn't bring the color back to her cheeks. “I knew he was a slime bucket, but I didn't suspect—” Another tremor ran through her.
“Yuck."
"Indeed. But I'm beginning to suspect he's a whole lot more than just a nasty little creature."
"Meaning?"
"When I was talking to Kinnard in the stable, he said and did some things that got me thinking." She took another sip of her coffee, then said, “Like what?"
"He said we'd seen Dunleavy more than a dozen times already. He also said that Dunleavy was a shifter with several forms."
"I told you that yesterday."
"You told me he could be a shifter like his brother, able to take the shape of anyone he has consumed. What I'm saying is that I think Dunleavy is restricted to two other forms."
"Kinnard's obviously said something else to make you think that."
"It isn't so much what he said, but what he did."
"And that was?"
"I threw the knife at him and got him in the shoulder. Blue fire erupted across his body." She nodded. “That's consistent with silver being used against a shifter."
