“Humans are of small consequence to us.” She shrugged her petite shoulders, her long chestnut hair swaying in the night air. The gesture and the breeze made her appear a teensy bit more normal and less supernatural horror. “We have little need to kill them. If we don’t wish it, they would never know we were there. But if an occasional human life gets lost, so be it.”
Under different circumstances, I might have been tempted to remind Naomi that she’d been human once. But now wasn’t the time, and I knew too many years had passed since she’d been one for it to register with any kind of meaning. Add in the fact I had no idea how I would feel about humans when I was that old and it was almost a moot point. Maybe I’d forget what being human was like so much, they’d barely be a blip on my radar too.
Ray moaned.
“Well,” I finally replied. “This one’s life is not up for grabs yet.” I pushed a toe into his thigh. “Hey, Ray, it’s time to wake up.” I wiggled my foot back and forth, shaking him. “Come on. We need to get a move on.”
His eyes blinked open with a start, his body and fists instantly tensing for a fight.
I crouched down beside him. “Are you ready to come quietly now? Or do the vamps need to take you on another ride?”
“Hannon.” His voice came out creaky and raspy, like his throat had been damaged from screaming. “I have no idea how they achieved that, but that was some of the craziest shit I’ve ever seen.”
“You didn’t answer my question, Ray. Does that mean you’re ready to come without a fuss?” I peered at him closely. I could almost see the cogs rotating in his brain, his logical detective side warring with his whimsical side, likely a side of his brain he hadn’t utilized since he was a child, if that. Children were much more inclined to believe in the unreal, their brains tailored to accept all things. I knew Ray desperately didn’t want to believe in the unexplained, but we were beyond that now. “Your time is up. We can’t keep going like this and you know it. Make up your mind.” I stood. “Are you ready to accept or not?”
He sat up slowly, glancing around, his gaze landing on Naomi and then back to me. “Fine. I’m coming,” he said, rubbing the road out of his hair. “It feels like my brain is skewered open, but a human being able to fly is no magic trick I’ve ever seen.” He looked at me for a quick second and then dropped his eyes. “But if anyone comes after me, I will not hesitate to fight. Just because you crazies exist, doesn’t mean I’m signing on the dotted line.”
“Ray,” I hissed on the end of a frustrated breath. “You exhaust me. You can fight all you want, but you’re not going to win. That’s been your biggest obstacle all along—thinking you actually have a chance against us.” I motioned for him to stand. “Once you get that through your impenetrable skull, your brain will thank you for it. And you will indeed sign on the dotted line, either that or you’ll be dead.”
“A well-fought battle isn’t a loss, Hannon. Only a loser doesn’t try.”
“Ray, my name is Jessica. No need to refer to me as Hannon anymore.” It seemed another lifetime ago that I’d gone by that name.
He stood, but Eamon swooshed down in front of the group before he could answer. It was kind of incredible to see him land from full speed. It should have been a train wreck, but instead he looked like an Olympic gymnast sticking a perfect landing. The pavement didn’t even wiggle. It seemed as if the velocity stopped right as his feet came in contact with the ground.
It was pretty cool. I could grudge him that much.
“The Goddess is close,” Eamon proclaimed with stuffy arrogance. “I can feel her strength. When she detects us, as she will, she will not stand idly by and let us attack. We must move now.”
I focused on Naomi, choosing to deal with the more rational of the two. “It will be daybreak soon. Can you travel during daylight hours?” My guess was no, but I had to ask. Maybe she and her brother had gifts I didn’t know about.
“Non,” Naomi said. Her accent was more pronounced than Eamon’s, plus she used French words, which might be one of the reasons she seemed somewhat more agreeable. “We will sleep during the daylight hours. The oldest of us can tolerate sunlight, because as our bodies age we become stronger, but we are still too young for that.” They had to be well over five hundred years old, judging by the level of power they emitted. The stronger the supe, the more power flowed, manifesting itself like tiny pressure points on the skin. The closer you were to the source, the more it needled you. Rourke’s energy was the strongest I’d ever felt, but his power felt delicious against my skin, like a surge of tingles flooding my body continuously. The vamps’ energy felt tight and concentrated, built to intimidate. If five hundred was considered young, how old did one need to be to withstand light?
Instead of asking, I replied, “To keep up the pace, we will continue on during the day. You can catch up to us when you wake.”
“The mountains you are looking for are a great distance northwest of here.” Naomi moved forward, stopping in front of me. “They border a large body of water, a lake five times the size of all the others surrounding it. The area she resides in is remote; its rocky passes are impregnable to humans without flight. You must drive until the dirt road dead-ends into the west side of lake and wait until nightfall. It will not take us long to find you once we wake. Do not venture any farther than the road if you value your life. The pathway to her lair is littered with lethal obstacles.” She was obviously the tracker, Eamon the sensor. “Selene has protected herself well from harm.”
“You’ve scouted the entrance already?” I asked, somewhat surprised. I knew the two of them had spent the previous day locating Selene’s trail, or we wouldn’t have had any direction to follow, but pinpointing her fortress so quickly was more than I’d hoped for. “I guess when you can fly, you can cover a lot more ground.”
Flying was definitely a skill lacked, but having the vamps fly us there would’ve been impossible. We outnumbered them four to two, plus we had all our gear. Even if it had been an option, there was no way on earth any wolf would willingly let a vampire carry them. It wasn’t something I was willing to risk either, even though Naomi appeared to be somewhat trustworthy. There was too much dissention between the Sects, and even though they likely couldn’t kill us outright this time because of the oath their Queen swore to me, there were sneaky ways around that. They could easily have an “accident” and still be within the parameters of the oath. Dropping us or slamming us into the nearest mountain would be the quickest way to try and kill us for good, something I was certain Eamon would love to do. They could also take us anywhere without our consent. It was too risky. Traveling close to the ground was the only way to ensure our survival.