The Warrior Vampire (35 page)

Ronan's tongue flicked out at the wounds before he pulled away and a shiver chased across her skin. She flashed Luz an apologetic grimace, which she responded to with a dramatic roll of her eyes. “Let's just get on with it,” she said as she sheathed her dagger at her back.

Luz and Naya held their cupped palms over the bowl as though warming their hands. Magic glowed, rose and lavender, and after a moment the blood reconstructed itself into a three-dimensional image. A relief map of sorts. Fascinating.

“That looks like one of the trailheads at Del Norte,” Luz said. “The one at Mill Creek Campground that we partied at last June.”

“It does,” Manny agreed. “That's only about ten minutes from here.”

“Remember how wasted Jules Everett got?” Luz snickered. “Oh my gods, she totally—”

“Later, Luz,” Naya interrupted. She swiped her hand over the bowl and a flash of heat hit the blood, incinerating it. “Let's get moving.”

Powerful witch.
Ronan stared at his mate with wonder. So full of surprises.

 

CHAPTER

30

Naya didn't like to start a hunt at midnight. Her mother had always said it was a bad omen, but Naya didn't have a choice. The cusp of time where night bled into day. Sunrise was still several hours off, but they couldn't waste a second, let alone a few minutes. And so she swallowed down the ominous feeling that rose in her throat and set out for Del Norte.

Manny was quiet in the backseat beside Luz. He was the most at risk in this endeavor. Being human was a definite disadvantage. Among the three of them, however, Naya was confident that they could keep him safe.

“Here's how it's going to go down,” Naya said as she drove. “Manny, it needs to look like you're alone, so you'll go out first. But we're going to be close and Ronan is faster than any of us. The mapinguari won't get the chance to latch on to you.”

“I'm not worried.” The words belied the quaver in his voice. “I trust you, Naya.”

The air was thick with tension as everyone filed out of the car at the Mill Creek Campground ten minutes later. Naya handed Manny a short dagger that wouldn't do much in a fight but might distract the mapinguari if need be. He took a steadying breath and gave Naya a shaky smile. “Well, looks like I can cross ‘act as demon bait' off of my bucket list.”

He was the bravest human she knew. Not many others would put themselves on the line like this. “I've got your back,” Naya said. “We all do.”

“I'll run point,” Luz announced. She was noticeably wound up, and the music of her magic played at a frenzied clip. Naya had always suspected that Luz's feelings for Manuel were a little more than friendly. This confirmed it. It also made for a complication.

“No. You're too emotional.” This wasn't a seek and destroy mission. They needed to contain the mapinguari and use it to lead them to whoever was creating demons. If Luz let her fear and feelings for Manny rule her, she'd kill first and ask questions later in an effort to protect him.

“Bullshit,” Luz argued. “I'm not the one who almost got it on in the middle of a scrying ritual.”

Low blow, but Naya was willing to let it slide. Luz was worried about Manny, and Naya felt the same way about Ronan. Which was why she was willing to use Manny as bait in order to track down the source of the dark magic. But that didn't mean she was going to give her cousin her way. “No, Luz. This is my responsibility. I'll run point. You flank the path that leads to the trailhead. It'll give you a straight shot to Manny if this goes bad.”

Luz's gaze bored through her. “You drank vamp boy's blood,” she said after a quiet moment. “What did it do to your
magia
?”

“Supercharged,” Naya admitted. “Like the Red Bull of magic.”

“Good,” Luz said. “You're going to need it. Come on, Manuel, you gorgeous hunk of man meat, let's get going.”

Even overcome with worry, Luz was able to keep things light. Naya wished she could do the same.

“Are you ready for this?”

Ronan's breath was warm in her ear. His presence at her back was a welcome comfort, and Naya fought the urge to lean into his chest and guide his arms around her. Right now she needed to be hard. Tough and emotionless. She wasn't going to be any good to anyone if she let her more tender emotions get the better of her. “We've only got one shot at this. There's no room for mistakes. Just remember, don't kill it. I need to find the source and that won't happen if we extinguish the dark magic.”

“Naya, I need you to know—”

“Don't, Ronan.” She refused to look at him. If she saw the emotion undoubtedly shining in his eyes, it would undo her. “We'll talk after.”

“There might not be an after.”

How could he say that? She whipped around to face him, this time fueled by anger and frustration. “You don't get to say that.” Her voice was nothing more than an angry hiss. “I'm doing this for you. For
us
. I'm going to rid that poison from your body and then we're going to find Chelle.”

“You said it yourself, Naya. This magic, it needs to feed. I can feel it rising up in me, and my thirst for blood is
nothing
in comparison to the hunger of this darkness that's eating me alive. If it comes down to it, I want you to kill me. Do you understand? Don't hesitate. And when it's done I want you to get the hell out of this town. Go to L.A. and find Jenner. He'll know what's happened and he'll protect you.”

A sob worked its way up Naya's throat, but she forced it down to the soles of her feet. Damn it, why was Ronan doing this to her now? It wasn't fair of him to force the reality of their situation in her face when she was trying to keep a freaking optimistic outlook. She hadn't wanted to admit it to anyone, not even herself, but Naya knew that their odds were bleak. The mapinguari were stronger than any she'd ever faced.

“Drink.” Naya had used Ronan's blood to fortify her magic; now she was going to give him hers to fortify his body against the magic's dark influence. She gathered her hair up and secured the length with a hair tie. Standard procedure when she was going out on a hunt. Hair could be pulled, snagged easily. She tilted her head to one side to give Ronan unhindered access to her throat. “I need you strong, Ronan.” She refused to let him succumb to this evil force. Wouldn't let him go without a fight. “Do it.”

*   *   *

The scent of Naya's blood was a siren song he couldn't resist. Her heart beat steadily, filling his ears with the only music he needed to hear. A beautiful sound as its rhythmic thrum pushed the blood through her veins. His need left Ronan shaking, and his fangs throbbed painfully in his gums. When would enough be enough? When would his thirst for her slake? And why had she so quickly become his drug of choice? An addiction he'd never,
ever
be able to kick. He doubted even Mikhail thirsted for his mate with such dire intensity. It was the magic inside of Ronan that hungered for Naya. For the power inside of her.

In the pit of his gut the cold chill of dark magic ate away at him like a cancer, and malicious thoughts picked at his brain, digging in like a tick.
Drink. Drain her.

Ronan seized Naya in his grasp and pulled her roughly to him. He buried his face in her throat and bit down with abrupt force. She cried out, clutched his shirt in her fists. Blood flowed warm and sweet over his tongue and Ronan took gulp after gulp, groaning against her flesh as he drank. Naya went limp in his arms, her own heavy breaths bordering on desperate gasps. “More.”

Gods, when she ordered him like that, her tone forceful yet breathy, he was helpless to do anything but obey. As he sucked, Ronan fought the urge to answer to the darkness inside of him. To drain her. To take everything she had to give. Through their tether, strength flared within him, helping to banish this insanity from his mind. Naya was his strength. His life. And there wasn't a force on this earth that could convince him to harm her.

He scored his tongue and sealed the punctures, kissed and nuzzled her fragrant throat when he was through. The gods only knew what he and Naya would be facing tonight. The dangers, the sacrifices they might be required to make. “I love you, Naya.” Ronan didn't know if he'd get the chance to say these words again and he wanted her to hear them and know that they were true. “Gods, I love you.”

It was too soon for words like “love,” but that didn't make them any less true. Sure, they hadn't spent enough time together for him to learn the little, inconsequential things like whether she liked chocolate or vanilla ice cream, scary movies or action flicks. Did she prefer to shower or take a bath? And most important, pretzel or peanut butter M&M'S. Because everyone knew that peanut butter were the best. The pretzel ones just didn't cut it.

Those weren't the things that determined whether or not you loved someone, though. Ronan knew that Naya was fierce, strong, and protective. Passionate. Smart. Demanding when she needed to be and giving when she wanted to be. She was loyal. Tough. So yeah, Ronan could say without a doubt that he loved her. Those were the things that mattered. They'd have time enough to learn each other's nuances.
Maybe.

Hopefully.

Fuck.

“Do you hear it?” It wasn't going to do Ronan a gods-damned bit of good to lament his impending death like a sniveling pussy. If these were his last moments, he was going to live them to their fucking fullest. Dark magic be damned.

“It's faint. The mapinguari has to be pretty deep in the forest. Without Manny, we'd be out here chasing it for hours. Once it catches his scent, so to speak, we'll be golden.”

“What then?” If Ronan had it his way, he'd kill the fucker. “How do we subdue it?”

“I'm going to bind its power,” Naya said. “And if it works, the mapinguari will be as helpless as a little kitten.”

“If?” Ronan didn't like ifs.

“It's going to work.” Naya hopped over a moss-covered log as she headed farther up the trail, and Ronan followed. The scent of the forest enveloped him, so similar to Naya's natural scent.

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because I drank your blood, vampire,” she said in a teasing tone. “Big juju. My
magia
is
strong
.”

“You think so?” Ronan wanted to believe it, but fear for her safety, and a nagging doubt, ate through any confidence he might have felt.

“Oh, I
know
so. Can't you feel it through the tether? I'm practically vibrating with power. If I'd known vampire blood would supercharge my magic, I would have been out looking for you, not waiting for you to tackle me to the ground in an unconscious heap.”

Had he known about Naya, he would have begun searching for her, too. “What can I say, I know how to make an impression.” They came upon some heavy foliage and Ronan reached over her to clear the way. She turned back and beamed.
Gods.
Just looking at her made his chest ache. Ronan reached out through their tether, searching for some evidence to her claim that his blood had given her magic a power boost.

There it is.

Holy. Shit.
Naya hadn't been kidding. Ronan didn't know how he'd missed it. Power pulsed through their bond to fill him with a sense of strength and vitality that rivaled what he felt when he drew on Claire's and Mikhail's stores of power.
Amazing.

Maybe the future wasn't as fucking bleak as he thought.

“Watch out!” Naya's arm shot out behind her. Ronan's heart rocketed up into his throat as Naya's throaty laughter surrounded him. “You almost got beaned in the face by that limb.”

Jesus.
He was a fucking wreck. So worried about Naya's safety that he could barely put one foot in front of the other.
Focus. You won't be protecting shit if you can't get your head straight.
Instead of letting her truck out ahead of him, Ronan reached out and took Naya's hand, gently urging her toward him. He put his lips to hers for a slow, gentle kiss. Her mouth was so damned sweet.

“Oh, gods!” Naya pulled back with a gasp. “I can hear it, Ronan. It's close.”

Naya took off at a sprint, negotiating the steep forest trail as though she could see as well as Ronan in the dead of night. The canopy above blocked out the starlight and they were shrouded in a fragrant, damp darkness that chilled his skin as he chased after her.

Ronan was kidding himself if he thought it was simply the late-autumn air that made his blood run cold. Despite the blood he'd taken from Naya, the strength that she offered him through their bond, the darkness inside of him had woken.

And it was hungry.

 

CHAPTER

31

Naya's vision blurred and the cacophony that assaulted her ears nearly brought her to her knees. But she pressed on, running like a wild thing through the forest, focused on capturing the mapinguari before it had a chance to infect Manny with a healthy dose of dark magic. Ronan was close behind her, his own footsteps pounding on the earth as he chased after her. With him at her back, she didn't have to worry about an ambush, though it left him vulnerable. There was no place for worry or anxiety right now, though, and Naya refused to acknowledge the fear that pierced her chest like an arrow.

Magic pooled in her gut and the dagger warmed her back through the sheath. She drew on her power as she pressed forward, dodged tree branches and bushes, tangled with thick ferns as she raced to cut the mapinguari off before it got to Manny. Gods, she hoped he'd had enough time to surround himself with salt.

She drew her dagger as she came upon the footpath that led to the trailhead. Manny couldn't have been more than ten or twenty yards ahead and Luz was somewhere to the south, ready and waiting to jump in. The trap was set. Now it was time to spring it.