Page 267 of Hunters and Prey

He told me to try to come and go first.

Then he said to try and go to a few places on my own.

I frowned.

They’d sent me here.

They sent me here and didn’t tell me how the hell to get back.

Frowning, I looked down at my naked body.

The vampire bite marks were fading. I almost couldn’t make out what they were anymore. They just looked like fading cuts, like they could be from anything. Looking at them, I didn’t wince like I had, even a few weeks ago. I didn’t feel anything at all. I thought about Nick, and a whisper of grief lived there still, but I could even look at that.

I could look right at it, remember his face, and it didn’t cripple me.

Something was different.

Had those seers done something else to me?

Something besides trigging me for this jump? Connecting me more to Black?

Revik made it sound like they hadn’t done much, really.

Remembering Black, I saw a different set of eyes behind mine––gold eyes, a broader smile, a booming laugh. I remembered him on the grassy hill overlooking alien fireworks on another world. I felt his grief, that helplessness on him as he looked at me.

Swallowing, I felt a pain in my chest.

I missed him. Not just his physical absence.

Not just right now, on this world.

I missed him.

I missed him from before Nick. I missed him from before the roof, before the earthquake, before everything else happened.

I wanted my damned husband back.

I didn’t care if he was mad at me.

I didn’t care if remembered me with Nick.

He’d just have to get over it.

He’d just have to fucking get over it.

I wanted him back.

Wiping my eyes angrily, I felt a harder steel fill my chest. I needed to go back to where he was. I needed to figure this out, to finish learning this, and go back to him.

So why was I here at all?

Why this place?

I remembered what Zarat said.

Dragon. I was here because of Dragon.

I reached out with my light, frowning faintly as I scanned.

---