King Cave

I stood back, more than shocked at Cahal’s outburst after his studious calm during his grieving process. He didn’t want to kill Antonio. This was different. This was hurt that a friend would keep a secret from him. The kind of secret that would wreck his insides like losing a mate would, shredding his Core, the pain horrifying. One glance at Ezra, and I moved, grabbing his hand where he stood frozen from his dad’s explosion.

Cahal grabbed fistfuls of Antonio’s shirt, slamming his back against a wall, his whole body trembling. “I loved her.”

Antonio finally spoke quietly, his eyes down. “She was your mate. I know you did.”

A whisper. “Did you know?”

Antonio’s chest expanded. “If I had,” his eyes slowly lifted to meet Cahal’s, “you know I wouldn’t have been able to tell you, so does it really matter if I knew or not?”

It was a growl. “Yes, it matters.”

Swiftly, Antonio turned his head away, his jaw clenched.

Suddenly, oddly, Cahal froze. “Fuck.” He stood motionless for a few moments before he slammed Antonio once more against the wall, then released him and swiftly strode out the back door, breaking it clean off its hinges he hit it so hard, his Vampire growling in fury.

Ezra swiftly kissed the top of my head before blurring out the back door after his dad.

I stared at Antonio where he leaned against the wall, head tilted back toward the ceiling. “So, Tony, huh?”

He grunted, his eyes closing. “Don’t even think of calling me that damn name.”

“Wouldn’t think of it.” I moved to lean back against the wall next to him, staring at the unremarkable ceiling where he had been, and calmly, I asked, “Did you know?”

He was silent for a few moments and then stated evenly, “I knew one day she would die, but I didn’t know it would be on this trip.”

Truth.

I tilted my head toward him. “Why didn’t you just tell him that?”

His lips tilted in a self-mocking smile as he glanced down at me. “You keep forgetting,” he tapped his ear, “about Vampires, Lil. I just did.” As I blinked, he turned and walked outside.

Following him, I saw that Cahal had indeed heard. He rested against the Hummer with his bag at his feet, face back to blank in Elder Zeller fashion, but he watched Antonio until he looked his way, giving him a half-nod of appreciation for the information he so desperately wanted before turning to listen to whatever Ezra was saying to him.

I picked the door up, which lay in the middle of the yard, walking past Lynn, who was settling his kids in their child seats, and I murmured, “Anything you see or hear while with us, I would appreciate your silence about.” And yes, I put a little command behind it, letting him know it was the Queen speaking.

His lips tilted crookedly. “Mum’s the word, Your Highness.”

Throwing the door inside the house, clean-up duty done for now, I turned to Antonio. “I need you to change the color of the Hummer and alter the tags.”

Instantly my Hummer was black with different tags, which I was positive would work on any Com police scanner. Mage power may be a pain in the ass most of the time, but I still loved their magic. I clapped my hands, and when everyone quieted I asked Ezra, “Where are we heading?”

His lips lifted as Bonnie and Clyde bounded out of the house, coming to sit between us. He opened the driver’s side door, sat inside, and readjusted the seat for his taller frame. “I’ll tell you on the way. While I drive. And you navigate.”

My lips pinched. “Not funny.”

He shrugged a shoulder and dangled my keys — which I had thought were in my damn pocket — from his fingers. “It wasn’t a joke.” His grin only increased as I started stomping toward him. He held up a finger when I tried to grab my keys, whispering, “What’s yours is mine, and vice versa, right?” He winked, chuckling evilly.

Well, hell.

Chapter Twenty-Four

My nerves were shot.

There was no other way to describe it. Between two hard days of Ezra’s speed demon driving, Cahal’s boozing it up in the back seat, Antonio’s private bitching to me about the stench of said booze, and Lynn’s complaints of where we ate and slept, I was a frazzled mess. Add in the fact we were about fifty miles east of Seattle, Washington — the middle of f**king nowhere — and that Ezra was out on his lone hunt/duty for his Prodigy, the die leading us here, then faltering…well, I was debating stealing one of Cahal’s bottles to drown my worries.

But instead I paced in my hotel room with cell phone in hand, waiting to hear from my husband, since he had promised to call every half-hour as I had done with him. He was keeping to his word, calling me diligently while he searched in the Hummer through the rugged terrain of the north-west area. I was at least relieved about that, afraid at first he would go all caveman on me and not respect my wishes…which I had expressed adamantly and specifically. A few times.

Whatever.

It was time for him to call again.

I stopped pacing to stare at my phone, willing it to ring. Surprise, surprise, the damn thing actually did, jolting me so badly I jumped, before I quickly got a hold of myself, answering, “Ezra?”

“I’m alright,” he stated instantly. Okay, I sounded a little breathless. “Sweetheart, why don’t you lie down and take a nap. You barely got any sleep last night worrying about this, and more than likely, you’ve been pacing back and forth all morning.”

Instant. “I haven’t.” I had stopped pacing a few moments ago. “Besides, I’m worried.”

“I know. Over nothing. All I’m doing is driving through a damn forest.” A pause. “And further to that point, what self-respecting Vamp lives in a damn forest? It’s giving me the freaking heebie-jeebies just being out here for the morning. Inside a SUV. These people are crazier than yours.”

I started pacing again. “That’s what is worrying me, unless there’s a whole other King Cave in this area we don’t know about.”

Ezra grunted. “I already called my dad to ask. His response was to laugh his ass off, so I’m taking that as a no, even though he already sounded lit and asked me to pick up some Chinese before I came back, and I don’t think he was talking about General Tso’s Chicken.”

My feet stopped. “Oh, God. He’s thirsty.” Vivian was no longer there to supply blood.

“Yep.” A pause. “It’s funny how when I was growing up he said Coms always tasted the same, from what he remembered before he was mated, but suddenly, he’s got a damn ethnic preference.” He grunted. “Are there even Chinese Coms in this area?”