She froze. “Where are they?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. They felt much closer. In this realm, I be sure of it. They be not with you?”
Her alarm tightened every muscle I possessed. “Dammit. I will skin Jacques alive for this,” she hissed. She grabbed my arm and pulled me up the alley toward the street.
“What be going on, Cara?” I demanded.
Her lips pulled into a grim line. “I know where Talakai is. And now I’m afraid Matt and Anna might have gone after him...”
36
Matt
The water was icy cold as we waded in. Jacques uttered a whimper as it rose past his thighs.
I had a pretty good idea as to why. Because I could relate, and gritted my teeth. Turns out my beast had decided one romantic encounter was never enough, not on a full moon.
I wished the Satyr bludger would just stay at his apartment. I admired his determination to stick with us, but not only was he bloody annoying, but it was obvious he wasn’t suited to this kind of thing.
My beast had accomplished what it had set out to do, but it still wanted to—
Best not to finish that thought.
Especially since rooting came with issues. I didn’t want to admit it. The implications scared the hell out of me. Because I was hers, in every way that counted.
What if we couldn’t solve this?
I’d zonked amid the silky cushions, out cold until Jacques had returned. And it had helped, a little. I wasn’t nearly as stonkered as the last time we’d had sex, but I wasn’t operating on all cylinders.
I dare not tell Anna. She was paranoid enough.
The water only came up to my waist, but it swirled much higher on the Satyr. I barely noticed because a few minutes in, Anna’s tee shirt went transparent. She’d put her bra back on, but it was soaked through, too. The sword harness crossed between her breasts and defined every contour. It seemed like that was all she was bloody wearing.
Jacques was riveted, with clear evidence of his intense interest bulging below his waist. Until I growled at him.
Even after that, he still stared. Mind you, so did I. She was so beautiful. I wanted to haul her up on the bank and...
But another bout of skin-on-skin contact, and I might not survive it. The truly terrifying thing was that I wasn’t sure I cared.
Jacques hissed as the water lapped over his groin. I’d hoped it would cool things down, but it wasn’t having the desired effect on me.
At least his brain still functioned. Perhaps he was accustomed to it being clouded by lust. “The guards will be watching the water,” he reminded us.
“We need to hide as much as possible.” Anna moved deeper, and hunkered down so that only her head and neck were above the surface.
Having her assets hidden reengaged my bigger brain. The current swirled around us as I walked to the bank and wrenched off a longish tree limb. It satisfied something primal in me to wrestle the branch into submission. Even when in this form, I was much stronger than a normal human.
It was quite leafy, and in the darkness, would help to hide the outline of our heads above the water.
“Good plan,” Anna said, taking hold of one end. Jacques took the other, keeping me between him and Anna. Seems the dodgy bludger did have a will to live.
Always good to know.
In places, the water was so deep I was the only one whose boots touched the silty mud beneath us, other times, I was almost crawling to keep hidden. The branch floated, and we hid our heads in among the leaves, taking advantage of the shadows along the banks as often as possible.
With Haki’s description in mind, I kept us toward the left bank, and when the river forked, directed us along the smaller tributary that had been carved to run beneath the estate.
Ahead, I saw a small building on the bank and the stone fence winding through the trees. We ducked down amid the leaves.
