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“So, are we going to address the elephant in the room, or am I just supposed to pretend that everything’s hunky dory with you guys?” Darla asked me when she and I stopped to drink from our canteens. The Blairs had thought to put them in their freezer the night before after Darla and I passed out, so the melted water within was delightfully refreshing.
“How long do you think we should wait in this town?” I asked instead of answering.
“Oh, is that how we’re playing this now?”
“I think we should probably head out after tonight. If the Shriek knows we’re in the area, we really don’t want to linger for long.”
I swore that Darla’s head nearly did a one-eighty. “Excuse me, now thatwhoknows we’re here?”
“You didn’t know?” I realized Darla hadn’t been anywhere near me when I’d first encountered the Shriek. There was a whole lot I needed to tell her.
Before I could do any of that, I heard a sound not too far from us. I tensed for a fight and even pulled out my dagger.
Only to have Tristan nearly fall into our laps, covered in dirt and blood.
“Hey there,” he said, nearly breathless.Whew, he really looked like he’d gone through Hell and back. “I thought I heard a pretty psychic stomping around out here.”
Before either of us could respond, he turned and let out a shrill whistle. Less than a beat later, a large, tawny wolf jumped into our little break spot.
“Mad Dog!” I said, thoroughly surprised. “You’re both alive!”
“Uncertain on my account,” Tristan said with a heady sigh. “If my back didn’t hurt so much, I might think I was actually a ghost.”
Mad Dog shifted back into a human, and he looked just as filthy as Tristian.
“What have you two been doing?” Darla said, tilting her head. “Rolling around in the mud?”
“We’ve been laying low in the area. Considering where we were, we couldn’t be sure there wouldn’t be enemy soldiers in this town. But when Tristan said he overheard people talking about a pretty woman who showed up out of nowhere and charmed her way into a free dinner, we hoped it would be one of y’all here.”
“That tracks.”
While they talked, though, I was busy looking for the last member of our party. “Where’s Irina?” I asked. “Have you seen her?”
They both shook their heads, and my heart sank. What if her sun-repelling protection had broken or worn off? What if she was trapped in a cave, all alone and starving without blood?
“Don’t worry, Irina is a class act. I’m sure that while you’re worrying about her she’s already found some oil tycoon and hypnotized him into giving her the presidential suite at a five-star resort.”
I recognized he was trying to make me feel better, and while I appreciated it, it didn’t really work. It was hard to imagine what, beyond actual death itself, would manage to keep Irina away for so long, unless she’d gone back in the direction of Canid after we were separated.
Instead of fretting, I collected myself and gave them what I hoped they would find to be a kind smile.
“You two hungry?”
It was like I’d just told Mad Dog I was the messiah of all witchkind, because he looked at me with the adoration of a thousand worlds. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Yeah, Mad Dog and Tristan were definitely hungry.
Really, they were absolutely ridiculously famished. They ate the available food that the Blairs had, which we did pay them for, as well as whatever Mrs. Blair was able to fetch at the local bakery and grocery shop. By the time Kai returned, they’d worked through a dozen croissants and had finally calmed down enough to actually chew their food.
It made me wonder what our human hosts thought about the display. Were they amused at the seemingly bottomless stomachs and overflowing words of praise from two hungry men, or did they just see monsters? I hoped for the former over the latter.
All of my worries faded when Kai entered the front door, a wide grin across his face and a light in his eyes I hadn’t seen since our fight after his leg was ripped off.
“You found them,” he said breathlessly before striding over, though he did pause when he realized the table was one short. “Irina?”
I shook my head and watched several expressions play across Kai’s face before he was able to get his smile back into place. “I’m sure she’s secured lodging for herself. You don’t get to be centuries old without resources.”
“Yeah,” I said, wanting to hold onto hope where I could. “I thought maybe she would've headed back to Canid, even, to alert the others and maybe return with another party.”
