The Warrior Vampire (33 page)

But really, had she chosen Ronan?

Yes. Her
soul
had chosen his.

In the far corner of the room, a citrine glow drew Naya's attention. She made her way to a small desk and the drawer that had been left open just a crack. She yanked it open to find her dagger, gun, and knife tucked away inside.
Paul
.
That son of a bitch.
It had to have been him. Who else would have kidnapped her and taken her weapons without exacting any bodily harm. He had to keep her in good breeding condition for his son, after all.

Anger churned in her gut as she snatched up her dagger and sheathed it at the small of her back. She holstered her gun and tucked the knife back into her boot where it belonged. First things first, she was going to find Ronan. And after that, she was going to get some damned answers. Even if she had to threaten the entire elder council to get them.

 

CHAPTER

28

“What is this place?” Ronan asked as he stared up at the façade of the large, weathered house that loomed over the darkened street.

“The center of the village circle,” Luz replied with a shrug. “This is where the elders conduct business. Sort of home base, if you get my drift.”

And Naya was inside.

It hadn't been as difficult as he'd thought to track her. With even a minuscule amount of his blood in her system, he'd been able to sense her. It had taken a fair amount of concentration, but then, a few blocks from the house, their tether flared and he was acutely aware of her presence. Luz had noticed it in an instant, too, and Ronan marveled at these witches and their innate attunement to magical energy. Naya was finally conscious. And if she was anything less than 100 percent, whoever had harmed her was going to pay.

Ronan leapt from the car before Luz could bring it to a complete stop. His steps didn't even falter when she called out to him, “Hey! Slow your roll, bloodsucker!” Whatever danger he might face inside, Ronan would meet it head-on. Nothing mattered to him but Naya, and he had to assure himself that she was safe.

The front door splintered on the hinges as Ronan barged through. He rushed past the foyer and smashed straight into Naya. Before she could fall, he wrapped her in his arms and spun to settle both of their footing. She let out a desperate cry, holding him to her with a fierceness that struck him like a punch to the gut. “I felt you,” she said through panting breaths. “Everything was still and quiet and then I knew you were here before I even heard the music of the tether. Oh my gods, Ronan, I was so worried! I thought that Paul or Joaquin had gotten to you!”

“Naya.” Her name was a prayer of thanks whispered into her hair. Ronan cradled her against him as he tried to slow his racing heart and control the shaking in his limbs. A rumble of anger vibrated in his chest. “What happened? What did they do to you?”

“I can't remember.” The fear that permeated her words caused his gut to tighten with worry. “I was lying in bed with you and then I woke up here. Everything in between is a blank.”

“You left the house to meet with Paul,” Ronan said. “You told me you'd be back by sundown, but you never showed up.”

“I did?” Her brow furrowed and a ripple of anxiety reached out to him through their tether. “I don't remember any of that. I don't remember talking to Paul. When I woke up, the house was empty.”

A fresh wave of rage clouded Ronan's vision. “We're going to find Chelle, and then we're out of here.” He kept Naya tucked under his arm as he steered them back toward the door where Luz stood, one hand placed on her cocked hip.

“Girl, you scared the shit outta me!” she all but shouted at Naya. “There is some seriously shady shit going on here.”

Understatement of the century. It wasn't a coincidence that Naya was experiencing the same type of memory loss that he was. Her own people—the family that was supposed to love and care for her—had done something to her. The betrayal wouldn't go unpunished, either.

“I'm not leaving until I get answers, Ronan.” Her determination was admirable, but for safety's sake he wanted to put this town behind them as quickly as possible. “I felt the presence of foreign magic in my body when I came to. Someone put it there just like they put it in you. I need to know who. And why. If I don't, I might not ever be able to banish it from your body.”

He had to admit, not dying would be good. And unless they got rid of whatever was currently squatting in his body, he was as good as fucked. Protecting Naya was his number-one priority, however. Tonight's events proved to him that her supposed haven was no longer safe.

“This is too dangerous. Too many variables.”

From the doorway Luz snorted, and Ronan cut her a look. “The knight in shining armor routine is cute. Do you use it on all the females?”

“Don't start.” She had a smart mouth, that was for sure. It was a wonder the feisty younger witch hadn't taken control of the pod long ago. She didn't strike him as the sort that took orders from anyone. She and Naya were certainly cut from the same cloth. “We need to get the hell out of here before someone notices she's missing.”

What Ronan really wanted to do was to wait for the fuckers to come back so that he could show those cat-shifting bastards what it felt like to tangle with a truly formidable male.

Naya paused and regarded the door that hung on its hinges before turning to Ronan and quirking an amused brow. “Overzealous?”

He hugged her tight and flashed a confident smile. “When it comes to you, love? Never.”

Luz hustled down the stairs ahead of them and down the driveway to her car. She stood with the door open, her brow furrowed as she chewed on her bottom lip. “Naya,
magia alimenta de magia. Es peligroso
. If you've both been infected—”

“I don't give a shit if it's dangerous or not,” Ronan said before Naya could respond to her cousin. “We'll just have to deal with it, because we're not separating again.”

Naya turned to him, her eyes narrowed and lips pursed petulantly. “
Habla Español
, Ronan?”

He gave Naya a peck on the cheek before depositing her in the backseat and climbing in after her. When they were settled, he gripped her chin gently between his thumb and finger and guided her face to his for a slow kiss. “One of several languages, actually.”

“Impressive,” Naya replied with a wry smile. “Obviously I have a lot to learn about my mate.”

My mate.
Gods, Ronan felt like the fucking Grinch at Christmas, hearing those words from her. His heart swelled near to bursting in his chest and he was overcome with emotion. He kissed her again, her face cupped between his hands as he slanted his mouth hungrily over hers.

“All right, knock it the hell off back there.” He peeked from the corner of one eye to see Luz staring at them from the rearview mirror. “You're grossing me out.”

Naya pulled away and smiled. The open, joyful expression stole his breath. “We need a game plan,” she said as she settled back into the seat. “There isn't a lot of ground to cover, and I'd be willing to bet there's another mapinguari raising hell somewhere.”

“We're not splitting up,” Luz said. “So we need to decide what to track first. Paul, or the demon.”

It was a no-brainer for Ronan. “Paul. The demon can wait.” Ronan wanted to meet this male who thought he could control Naya and give her away as though she were nothing more than a commodity to be traded.

“No,” Naya replied. “If we want answers we need to find the mapinguari, and I know how to lure one in. Luz, did you get ahold of Manny?”

“I did,” she said from the front seat. “He's waiting for us.”

“All right, then. It's settled.”

*   *   *

“Why is this the first I'm hearing of this plan? And who in the hell is Manny?”

Naya grinned at Ronan's overprotective tone. Maybe it was a vampire thing to need to control every situation down to every finite detail. “You were down for the count when Luz and I discussed it,” she said. “And Manny is our friend. He's human, but a magic sensitive. The mapinguari will be looking for a body to transfer its magic to. Manny would make the perfect host. The magic could just slip right in with little to no resistance.”

“And what if your plan backfires?”

From the front seat Luz snorted. “Why don't you leave the magic to the experts, tall, dark, and vampsome?”

Naya nudged the back of Luz's seat with a knee. “Magic—and that includes dark magic—is just like any other living thing, Ronan. It needs to be sustained. Nourished. Magic becomes corrupt when it's stolen and manipulated by someone or something that it's not born to. Corrupt magic is like a parasite, and it needs a host to feed from to continue to thrive. Manny will be like a big, fat cheeseburger to this particular etheric force. It won't be able to resist him.”

“Exactly,” Luz chimed in. “Manny acts as bait, and we annihilate the pain-in-the-ass bad juju once and for all.” She reached behind her for a high five and Naya obliged. “Be in awe of our badassedness, Nosferatu.”

“And what if your badassedness isn't badass enough?” Ronan countered. He turned to Naya, his expression severe. “What if that magic targets you instead?”

“Silly vampire,” Luz said. “Why don't you relax and let the big girls handle this.”

His gaze flashed silver as he ignored Luz and kept his attention focused on Naya.

“It won't,” Naya explained. She reached out and squeezed Ronan's hand, hoping to reassure him. “Our own magic makes us sort of immune.”

“You said you felt it in your body.”

“I'm not saying it doesn't affect us,” Naya explained. “I'm almost certain that dark magic is what's caused my memory loss. But it can't overtake us. It just dissipates in our bodies, dilutes like a drop of food coloring in a glass of water. It can't grow or thrive inside of us.”

“Because we're awesome.”

Naya rolled her eyes. Luz was too cocky for her own good.

Aside from the tension that Ronan threw off, Naya was confident. If she could pinpoint the source of the dark magic, that might make expelling it from Ronan's body easier. At this point, it was her last resort. She couldn't let it take him. Wouldn't let it. She'd fight to her dying breath to save him.

“Tell me about the relic Chelle was searching for.” It was all connected. Had to be. And the sooner everything was out in the open, the better their chances.

Ronan raked his fingers through his hair and let out a gust of breath. “It's a vampire relic,” he said after a moment. “The origin of our race is rumored to have begun with it.”

“The suspense is killing me, dude.” Naya nudged Luz's seat again, but she either didn't notice or didn't care. “Spit it out already!”

“What Chelle was looking for—has been searching for over centuries—is Set's chest. And the last intact memory I have before waking up in Naya's house was getting a phone call from her, telling me that she'd found it. Here.”

“Set as in the Egyptian god?”

“The one and only,” Ronan replied.

“How does an Egyptian deity tie into vampire lore?” Luz asked. “You're a little too blue-eyed and white to be from that part of the world. KnowwhatImean?”

Ronan ignored Luz's snarky observation, but he did give his head a rueful shake as his gaze met Naya's. Apparently she wasn't the only one who noticed that Luz acted like a sixteen-year-old most of the time. “Set constructed the chest as a coffin for Osiris. He tricked him into laying in it and sealed him inside. Isis found the chest and rescued Osiris. Set consequently hunted Osiris down and ripped his body into pieces, scattering them throughout Egypt.”

“Yikes. Can you say overkill?”

Naya laughed at Luz's rib and Ronan gave a lopsided grin. “After that, the myths fork into separate legends. As vampires are told, Isis tasked the god Thoth with placing a resurrection spell on the chest that Set had constructed to be Osiris's tomb. And after Isis collected the pieces of Osiris's body, she placed them inside the chest. When he emerged, he was whole but there were noticeable changes.”

Naya leaned forward, rapt. “Such as?”

“Fangs,” Ronan said with a grin that showcased his own sharp dual points. “An insatiable thirst for blood and an aversion to sunlight. For starters.”

“Cool!” Luz exclaimed with all of the enthusiasm of a kid at a magic show. “If that's true, then you're, like, descended from a
god.
Pretty impressive, bloodsucker. Also, can I just point out that without the help of magic you probably wouldn't be here right now?”

Naya laughed her agreement. “She's got a point. Why was Chelle looking for it? And how did she track it here?”

“I have no idea how she tracked it here. Our phone conversation was brief. She said she needed me to come and that someone was following her. After that, the line went dead. Chelle's a bit of a tomb raider, but only where it pertains to vampire relics. She takes private contracts, but the chest has been her own personal obsession. For centuries, Mikhail was the only vampire and our kind teetered on the brink of extinction. Without a mate, he wasn't strong enough to turn a dhampir.”

“And she thought if she found the chest she could make vampires without Mikhail's help?”

Ronan cocked a brow. “It was a hopeful notion when we had no hope.”

“But you don't believe it?” Naya asked.

“As much as I do any myth. Who can say? There isn't any evidence of it in the Collective, and neither I nor Mikhail is old enough to have witnessed it.”

“The Collective?” Luz asked.

“Vampire memory,” Ronan explained. The memories of every vampire living or dead are shared among all of us.”