At her side, Santiago pulled his sword from its scabbard, his eyes scanning the shadows. “I left my truck hidden outside town.”

She rolled her eyes. Of course he would have a truck. A heavy bully of a vehicle with a too-powerful engine that wouldn’t be stopped by a mere roadblock. Her lips thinned with annoyance at her unruly thoughts.

“After that.”

He shrugged, his gaze continuing to search the thick line of trees that bordered the road.

“North.”

“North? That’s it?”

“That’s all I got.”

“Are you being deliberately vague?”

“No, I only have a faint sense of Gaius,” he explained. “I told you, once I’m closer I’ll be able to pinpoint his location.”

She believed him, even if she didn’t want to. The bond she’d formed with her own sire had been destroyed several centuries ago, but she did remember that she rarely had more than a vague impression of his direction.

But the thought of spending several nights with Santiago as they searched for Gaius was more disturbing than she wanted to admit.

“We could travel much faster if we use my medallion.”

He hissed, shooting her a startled glance. “No fuc—” He bit off his crude response, but his expression remained resolute. “No way.”

“Why not?” She lifted her fingers to touch the warm medallion that rested just above her unbeating heart. “It would be much quicker.”

“I just regained my bond with Gaius. I’m not going to do anything to risk it.”

She tilted her head to the side. “And that’s the only reason?”

“You want me to admit that popping from one place to another freaks me out?” he growled, clearly still pissed at the last time she’d taken him mist-walking. “Fine. It freaks me out.”

She resisted the urge to tease. Not because Santiago couldn’t laugh at himself. His ready sense of humor was one of his more disarming traits. But because with this man it felt too much like flirting.

“Perhaps it’s for the best.”

His eyes darkened with suspicion. “Why do you say that?”

“The medallion that Gaius possesses is connected to mine.” She allowed her fingers to drop from the metal that always felt alive. Even sentient. “I can’t be certain he wouldn’t sense me if I use it.”

His pace slowed, as if he’d been struck by a sudden thought. “Have you used it since you returned to this world?”

“It’s necessary to travel through the Veil, but I haven’t called on its powers since I’ve been here. Why?”

“It seems more than a coincidence that Gaius would abandon his lair only a night or two before we arrived.”

Ah. Smart vampire. Gaius might very well have sensed her approach if she’d used the medallion. Instead it had been Siljar who’d opened a portal a few miles from the house.

Which meant that she had no answer for why Gaius had abandoned his lair.

“There was a scent of humans in the area,” she speculated aloud.

He nodded. “The witch?”

“Her scent was distinct and fading,” Nefri said, making a mental note to tell the Oracles that there’d been something odd about the witch’s scent. She was more than she seemed. “The humans were more recent,” she told Santiago. “Within the past day.”

Santiago accepted her claim without argument. He was one of the few men who didn’t seem intimidated by her superior powers.

“How many?” he instead demanded.

“Impossible to say, but there were more than a dozen.”

He considered the various possibilities. “A search party?”

“That was my thought. Such a large number of missing humans wouldn’t go unnoticed.”

“Typical,” he growled. “If they’d just waited a few days we would have had Gaius cornered.”

“Maybe,” she hedged, unwilling to fool herself that it would be simple. The Oracles wouldn’t have sent her if it was just a case of finding Gaius and asking him to come along nicely.

He turned to study her with a searching gaze. “I don’t like the sound of that ‘maybe.’”

“Gaius has obviously been altered,” she hedged. “We don’t know what new powers he might have.”

“No,” he abruptly denied. “Not altered.”

Tread warily, Nefri. . . . “What do you mean?”

“The witch said he acted like he was under some sort of compulsion,” he said, his tone accusing.

She bit back her words of annoyance. The witch was not only more than she seemed, but she was far too observant for her own good.

She needed to be watched. If only for her own safety. “He’s too powerful a vampire to be enthralled,” she pointed out.

“Then you’re saying the witch was lying?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Is he alone?”

“Possibly not.”

His flare of irritation swirled through the air, biting into her skin.

“Let me guess—you can’t tell me anything about his companion,” he rasped.

Her lips twisted into a wry smile. The buzz of insects fell silent and a dozen small animals scuttled away in sharp fear at Santiago’s sour mood. How long had it been since she’d spent time with a man who was willing to stand up to her?

Too long, if the strange sensations sizzling through her veins were anything to go by.

It was one thing to feel a measure of admiration for Santiago after centuries of being surrounded by sycophants who rarely dared to question her decisions, let alone treat her as if he were her equal. And quite another to shiver in sizzling arousal.

“I can’t because I truly don’t know,” she informed her companion, her voice coated in an extra layer of ice. There was no way she was going to allow this man to sense her growing vulnerability. He was a predator who would pounce on the first hint of weakness. “I’m merely a servant of the Oracles, not their confidante.”

Santiago growled, but before he could express his smoldering frustration, there was the rustle of leaves above them and the pungent scent of granite.

“Gargoyle,” Santiago instead muttered, stepping back as Levet floated down on his fairy wings to land on the path between them.

The gargoyle stuck his tongue toward the male vampire. “I do have a name.”

“I thought you were hunting,” Nefri intruded into the male sniping.

Levet readily turned in her direction. “I was until I noticed the herd of people heading this way.”

Santiago frowned. “At this hour?”

“It could be another search party,” Nefri suggested.

“More like a lynch mob,” Levet corrected, his tail twitching. “Sacrebleu. They were shouting and waving their guns like they were overdosed on steroids.”

A lynch mob? Nefri deliberately avoided Santiago’s sharp gaze, a bad feeling growing in the pit of her stomach at the gargoyle’s warning. Not because there was a group of people out there looking for trouble. Humans took a peculiar delight in stirring their passions to a fever pitch. She had a terrible premonition that this was more than just an overabundance of testosterone.

“How far?” she asked.

Levet pointed up the path. “Five miles and headed this way.”

“We’ll cut through the swamp,” Santiago announced, taking instant command. “Once we’re clear of the town we can circle back and pick up my vehicle.”

Nefri didn’t protest. She didn’t have any more desire than Santiago to run across a group of humans looking for blood, even if she was more accustomed to giving orders than taking them.

“Tromp through the bogs? Ewww.” Levet wrinkled his snout . “I am no slimy lizard. I will join you on the other side.”

Nefri reached out to lay a gentle hand on the gargoyle’s shoulder. “Take care, Levet.”

“Merci, ma chérie.” He offered a low bow, a sparkle in his gray eyes. “You have my promise I will take the greatest care. And if you have need of me you only have to call my name.”

She nodded. “I will.”

With a flap of his wings, Levet was headed upward, dodging the overhanging branches with astonishing grace.

“Thank the gods,” Santiago muttered. “That creature would try the patience of a saint.”

“And you’re no saint,” she muttered, pointing out the obvious.

“Not even close.” With a wicked grin he leaned forward and claimed her lips in a short, bone-melting kiss. Then, before she could slug him, he was turning to jog off the pathway, sliding his sword back into its sheath so he could pull out a large dagger and battle through the overgrown vegetation.

Nefri stoically followed in his wake, pretending that his lethal kiss hadn’t inflamed the sensual hunger that was becoming more than a mere inconvenience. That her lips weren’t tingling with an excitement that she felt to the tips of her toes.

Damn it all. Why this aggravating vampire?