Page 24 of Wonder
A car door slammed in front of the house. I jumped to my feet. “Stay here.” I put on extra speed running through the living room, and I was at the front door in a couple of seconds. Another car door shut. They weren’t trying to be stealthy at least.
I yanked the front door open, and Cal and Greg were coming up the walkway.
“Hey, Simon!” Cal lifted the cooler in his right hand. “Good to see you. We’re here to help find these assholes.”
TWENTY MILES EAST OF LIVORNO, ITALY – SEPTEMBER, 1954
I stood over Lyall’s decapitated corpse, exhausted and heartsick. I’d hoped to follow him back to the others, but the opportunity was gone. Eight years of tracking vanished Wonders, and I’d have to start all over again.
“Go on home now. Tell everyone not to walk anywhere alone for a while. There are more of them, but I can’t be sure where they are.”
The teenage shifter—some sort of deer—nodded fervently and rushed away down the walking path to the nearest village.
I wiped my short sword off on Lyall’s shirt, then put it back in its scabbard. I searched his body for anything to tell me where he’d been or was going, but I only gained some money and a decent knife.
His connections would tell the others he was dead. There was a small possibility they’d come to find out what happened, but it was more likely whoever was here would evacuate and move. I’d learned enough to understand they worked in small teams, taking Wonders and the occasional magic carrier captive from different areas to avoid creating a detectable pattern.
I drained the body of as much blood as I could, then I left it where it was and climbed the nearest tree to wait. If dawn came and I hadn’t seen any sign of theluchd-òl fola, I’d bury the corpse. I’d start my search all over again, visiting the nearest decent-sized town to see if anyone was talking about strangers who’d left suddenly in the night.
One dead, twenty-eight left alive. No sign of Prince Nicol.
No sign of my mate.
I didn’t let myself cry.
CHAPTER 7
RENO
I was exhausted,but I couldn’t sleep. Probably because I was trying to force myself to. Force myself to sleep and force myself to have a vision. Which of course I wouldn’t be able to do until I was bonded.
And Simon thought I was his mate. We were compatible for sure, I couldn’t deny it. Both because our magic resonated, and because he was sexy as hell. But compatibility didn’t mean we had to bond with each other. I didn’t even know him. Not to mention I didn't want a mate at all. No way was I bonding with him.
But that thought spiral made me even more tense, which prevented me from sleeping, etc. When I heard car doors slamming out front, I took it as a sign I should get up and go back downstairs.
Seeing Cal was a relief. He was mated, with all the skill enhancements that came with that.Hecould call a vision.
He was handing a cooler to Simon. “Levi had someone from the blood network bring us this for you.”
I didn’t need our connection to feel Simon’s relief. It was in every line of his body. He’d been running low on blood bags, and he’d have had to feed from one of us pretty soon. I shoved away the complicated feelings generated bythatthought.
“Hey, guys! Thanks for coming.” I held out my hand to Cal and then Greg. I’d met Greg in person before, but not Cal. It was strange to realize he’d only been with the campaign for a few months. He’d had such a big impact on all of us.
Greg and Cal entered the house as Shane came downstairs with his duffel bag.
“Hey, good to see you both.” He hugged them. “Sorry to bail, but Pia’s super upset about me being around the vampires, and since backup is here now....” He spread his arms out.
“Do what you need to do.” Greg clapped him on the back. “Where’s Ms. Jackson?”
Shane sucked in a breath, and his eyes sparkled. “You have got to see their new form.”
Simon pointed toward the back door. “They’re out in the yard. Come on. Plus you need to meet Nicky.”
“He was one of the captives?” Cal’s concern was palpable.
“Yeah. Try not to react too much to his scars, please.”
Shane dropped his duffel bag by the front door and followed us. Simon set the cooler on the kitchen island as we passed it, and we all trooped outside.
