Page 120 of Blood Stone

“And now you think it’s real because Nial does?” Winter asked.

“They’ve always thought it’s real,” Nial said, his tone distant, as if his thoughts were running a million miles an hour and racing far ahead. “But now they think someone is close to it.”

Garrett leaned forward. “Who?”

“No one we’ve seen so far,” Nial said, in the same remote voice. “Someone they know.” His focus zeroed in on Khurshid. “An unspoken one. One who has been searching for it for a long time. They’ve suddenly begun to move again. Move toward us.”

She smiled. “Very good.”

“Yes, he is rather good, isn’t he?” Cyneric murmured, sounding reluctantly impressed.

“That’s what brought you here,” Garrett said.

“That, plus Nial and Sebastian having their features sprayed across national newspapers, which was alarming enough.”

“So who is this dude zeroing in on us, then?” Sebastian demanded.

Cyneric glanced at Khurshid. It was telling that he hesitated over his answer this one time when he had not paused once since Garrett had walked in the room.

Khurshid pursed her lips. “He goes by many names. As do we all. You will come to know him best as The Deadly Moon.”

* * * * *

Winter was fast asleep, her head on Sebastian’s shoulder, as the taxi drove them through mostly deserted streets, heading back for the studio.

“What do you know about the Blood Stone, Garrett?” Nial asked, breaking the quiet.

Garrett turned his gaze from the window to look at Nial. “Less than you, I imagine. You deliberately kept me out of that side of it. I was caught flat-footed in there tonight. Thanks, by the way.”

Nial raised his brow. “Getting self-righteous about it won’t distract me. You know exactly what I’m talking about. The first time Cyneric mentioned the Blood Stone, your heart jumped.”

Garrett squashed his instinctive response:You heard it?There was no way Nial could possibly have heard his heart beat from across the room. No vampire had hearing that phenomenal, not in a crowded room with people talking, moving and a dozen other different distractions and noises crowding out something as delicate as a heart beating. Nial was fishing, looking for a confirmation that Garret would give if he asked that natural question.

Instead, Garrett took a calming breath. “No, it didn’t.”

Nial smiled. “I don’t know if it did or it didn’t, but it jumped just then, Garrett. And I heard you breathe in to calm it. You’re lying.”

Garrett shrugged. “So?”

“So what are you hiding? You know something about the Blood Stone. You were very quiet when we were discussing it. You were holding back -- and that’s fine. I’m not so happy about handing everything we know over to Cyneric on a golden platter just yet. But you get to come clean with me.”

“I really don’t know anything about the Blood Stone except for all the bullshit everyone has heard. How it’s supposed to cure everything from warts to vampirism. How if it’s ever found and destroyed the proper way, all our Christmases come at once. If you really want to know the seriously sexy stuff about the stone, you need to talk to Roman.”

“Roman?” Sebastian said, sounding dumbfounded.

Garrett shrugged. “Some humans spend their lives looking for the real holy Grail. The actual cup. Well, Roman’s grail is the Blood Stone.”

“And it never occurred to you that is the reason he searched out Kate?” Nial asked.

“If I’d known you were telling the world she’d found the damn thing, I’d have put it together in a nano second, but you didn’t include me in the rumours. Everything had to beauthentic.” The grab rail he was clenching gave a metallic groan of protest, and he let it go. There was a decided bend in the rail and he grimaced. He’d been gripping too tight.

Nial let the silence stretch. He pulled out his cellphone and checked the time.

Garrett gave him some kudos. Nial had already picked up the new habit. Garrett was still used to checking his watch for the time, which was the older generation way. He needed to train himself out of the habit.

“There’s time yet,” Nial decided. He looked at Garrett. “Do you have his phone number?”

Garrett shook his head.

“Winter does,” Sebastian volunteered. “As Garrett’s assistant, she got acquainted with Kate’s boyfriend and got his number, so she could head off potential issues if she needed to.”

Nial paged through his phone. “There it is.” He swyped out a message and put his phone away. “Let’s see how much the Blood Stone will screw up our plans.”