Page 14 of Vampire's Hearth

“That’s a story for another day,” he replied, his eyes gazing into the fire.

I could feel my eyebrow rise as I pressed. “You won’t tell me?” If he shook his head, it was so fast it only registered in my subconscious.

He pointed at the guide in my hands. “Why don’t we look at this map? Is it something like X marks the spot?”

I flattened it out before me, the paper brown and fragile from age. The lines denoting the cave system didn’t contain any detail, and the miles upon miles of documented tunnels took most of the page. Keeping it away from the flames, I located the room we sat in and noticed, for the first time, a small symbol near the room that had faded with time, making it illegible. Did it have something to do with the O’Cillians?

The ancient map didn’t have enough detail to guide me closer to what I needed. “I need to find a pen,” I said.

“For what?” asked Mac.

I dug through my bag, knowing I had a pen and paper, but they must have fallen to the bottom. “I need to draw a diagram of the room I can work with.”

“Why not use that one?”

“There isn’t nearly enough detail. It won’t allow me to dowse.” Pulling my head out of my bag with a smile, I held a pen and paper up for him to see.

“How is that going to help?”

I bit the inside of my cheek and gazed at him. “I’m looking for something that I think is hidden in this room. This will give me a way to find it. But I’m only looking for it if I can trust you?” I pulled my good knee toward my chest to create a table while I kept the injured leg in front of me. I looked around the room, sketching the details—and avoiding Mac’s eyes.

“If you can trust me?” His voice rose like my potential distrust was the most ludicrous idea he had ever heard.

I gestured over my shoulder to the upper ledge. “It’s not like we’re able to get out of here, which means you’re stuck with me, whoever I am. David said the O’Cillians used this room. You said they were vampires. So I need to know if I can trust you.”

“You can.” Mac picked up a stone and twirled it in his hands. “What are you looking for?”

I smiled at him. “Would you believe me if I told you I didn’t know?”

He chuckled, fidgeting with the stone.“You came into a cave, intent on breaking multiple laws to search a cavern you didn’t know for an object that you don’t know what you’re looking for? How will you know when you find it?”

“I just will,” I said, glancing up from my work to catch the top of his dark hair as he stared at the stone he twirled. “What do you think?” I turned my map toward him, as much of the chamber as I could see detailed on the drawing.

His lips parted in a grin. “Pretty good likeness, but I don’t see how that will help.”

“Magic,” I said with a smile as I slipped my obsidian necklace from around my neck and removed the ruby ring, needing totap into the power of my coven. I slid the chain of the necklace through the ring.

Mac’s eyes narrowed, and his face darkened, his eyes no longer conveying a serene ocean but a dark storm. What had I just said that was making him so upset?

The flames of the fire reflected in the facets of the blacker-than-night volcanic glass. I took a deep breath and concentrated on finding the lost object that my coven sought to recover, the one that would end my quest. The pendulum swung over the map.

I could feel Mac’s eyes on me as I waited to sense the familiar pull that occurred when the magic succeeded. He seemed to take everything in stride. Almost too much so, like he had seen it before, like he knew. The seconds felt like hours before the pendulum slid through my fingers to the paper. I looked under the tip of the stone. “Well,” I said with a laugh, “this isn’t good because right now, it’s telling me that what I’m trying to find is you.”

Mac smiled. “Are you sure you aren’t?” He creased his brow, his question filled with suggestion.

I glanced over at him, taking in the visage of his body, his broad chest and shoulders, stoic and calm. “Somehow, I don’t think that’s the case.”

I smiled at him, trying to forget the feel of his hands as he tried to wake me, his touch unlike any I had experienced. I broke my gaze away from him, took another breath, and tried again. It didn’t take long before I felt the tug on the obsidian, and the pendulum landed with a clunk.

“I think what I need is over there,” I said, pointing at the columns. “It looks like it is between the far column and the one to the right, closer to the center table than the columns. Want to help me?”

Mac tilted his head. “And what exactly am I helping you with?”

I pulled a small gardening trowel from my bag. “You need to dig.” I held the tool out in front of me.

His laughter floated to my ears. “First, you plan on spending the night in a cave where you’re not supposed to be, and now, I’m going to deface it by digging.”

I nodded. “Either you’re going to help me or I’m crawling over there and doing it myself.”

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