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Arman didn’t take a seat with his friends and ran his hands through his hair. “I’ve…I’ve got to go to Portland, Oregon.”
“What?” Ruric wasn’t joking about anything now.
“I need to be gone for a while and I need to do it alone.” Arman knew they wouldn’t go for it as soon as the words left his mouth.
Levka folded his arms. “What exactly are you saying, Arman? You know we always stick together. We watch each other’s backs. We’re safe here. Jasmine has her assassin job here and is taking down murderous rogues. Caitlin’s learning new witch’s skills every day. We’ve overthrown the League of Vampire’s old guard and we’re doing well for a change. Why would you want to go to Oregon?”
“Where are Caitlin and Jasmine?” Arman asked, surprised they weren’t there.
“Caitlin is buying more ingredients for her potions in the city and Jasmine is trying to track down a rogue vampire that she needed to eliminate. Jasmine left a couple of hours ago. Even though Stasio wanted to go with her, he isn’t in the assassin’s guild and besides, she prefers going it alone,” Levka said.
Arman was surprised Levka hadn’t gone with Caitlin. Even though she could manage on her own now, he still worried about her overly much.
Unable to come up with a really good reason that Arman had to go alone, he shrugged. “Sometimes we need to take a break from each other.”
Stasio shook his head. “When we fought the Marcher Lords, you were on hiatus that time, too. And we had to rescue you from the earl of Chester’s wrath when he caught you with his daughter.”
“A duke had torn the girl’s gown. It wasn’t me who did such a thing. How many times do I have to remind you of that? Just because I heard the girl screaming and showed up to aid her, the earl of Chester thought for certain it was me who had been the culprit. The girl was too scared to speak out against the duke who had done the deed since her father owed allegiance to him.”
“Yeah, well, the duke wouldn’t have gotten away if we had been with you,” Stasio said.
“That was centuries ago,” Arman reminded him, knowing that Stasio would use yet another history lesson to deter him from leaving them behind.
Ruric cleared his throat, and everyone glanced at him. He had a mop of wavy red hair that he said made him look more like his Viking ancestry, though Arman still thought he might have Celtic origins.
Arman raised his brows at Ruric who had their attention, but still didn’t speak.
“What?” Arman couldn’t help feeling annoyed. He had to do this, and he didn’t need his friends to get involved this time. Especially if this all turned out to be dreams or nightmares and none of it was real.
“I’m ready to make plane reservations, if we’re all going to be flying somewhere,” Ruric said, opening his laptop on the coffee table.
“This isn't about some girl, is it?” Levka’s dark eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward on the chair. “You can’t go back to the States. Not without us.”
They heard footsteps and everyone turned to see who it was. Smiling, Caitlin entered the living room, carrying several small sacks of herbs and other items she needed for her potions. “I picked up some essential ingredients for my new online assignments and…” She paused and considered everyone’s dark expressions. “What’s wrong now?”
The princes were so often in trouble that it wasn’t hard to presume that something was gravely the matter. Again.
Levka rose and joined Caitlin, giving her a searing kiss on the lips, which caused a few woots from the other guys. She deposited the bags on the floor and then he moved her to the sofa to sit with him. “Arman wants to return to the States.”
Caitlin didn’t say anything for a moment, then she smiled brightly. “Okay, so we go.”
“Alone,” Arman said, pacing. “I’m going alone.” He just knew Fiona desperately needed his help, and he hadn’t seen his friends in the dreams at all. That must mean he had to do this on his own. Not only that, but she seemed to really be into him. Kissing him even. All he knew was he was in love. So he thought. What if when he went to rescue her, she didn’t feel the same about him? That it was all just a dream? Or that she wouldn’t even be where he thought she should be? That it was just a mixed-up manifestation of having really liked her from the first time he’d seen her.
Then again, he hadn’t had any dreams of her until more recently and then the blond-haired guy seemed to confirm she was in trouble. Arman still needed to learn the truth. If she was in Portland, and she needed him, he would help her no matter what happened afterward.
“What is this truly about?” Levka asked. “Ruric will make our plane reservations, but we need to know what is going on and where we actually need to go.”
Arman sat down on one of the soft plaid sofas. “Fiona Wilder needs my help.”
“Fiona Wilder?” Ruric said.
“Yeah. She’s in peril,” Arman said. “I just keep having dreams of her and then I had one last night of a man who said I need to save her before the blood moon. That she was in trouble. He said to bring her to the safe house?—”
“Fiona Wilder?” Stasio snapped his fingers. “The girl who ran into you, literally, at the Dallas mall and she dumped a cup of icy soda all over you? That was the night we had to save the teen girls in the warehouse district from some guys, but then we had to flee, right? We all knew she had intrigued you, but she was just human. But…you’re having dreams of her? Like of the soda-spilling incident?”
“No. It has been different. Like current dreams. She’s nearly eighteen.” Arman wasn’t about to tell them that he had been kissing her in his dreams. He knew they would think he was just dreaming what he wanted to see, not what was potentially going to happen. He had never had premonitions of anything before. “It started several weeks ago. I think they’re dreams, but what if they’re visions, premonitions of something to come? I can’t stop thinking of her. But last night, a man came to me, beseeching me to save her. Then I saw her, and I tried to take her away. In the dream, I know she’s in trouble. She was…”—he knew they would really think he was off his rocker—“surrounded by dead people who were dancing.”
Arman swore everyone’s jaws had dropped at the same time. But no one was laughing, which surprised him. “I have to help her.”
