Page 38 of Brushed By Moonlight

I jerked a thumb over my shoulder. “Round up Henrik. We need to check the woods.”

“Trouble?” Roux’s eyes lit in a mixture of hope and wrath.

I shrugged. “We’ll see.”

* * *

Hours later, I leaned back in an armchair and sighed at the ceiling. We’d spent the entire day searching the woods with only a quick break for lunch. Now, it was just shy of dinnertime.

“Nothing, huh?” Henrik asked.

I shook my head. No. Nothing concrete, but I still couldn’t shake that feeling of trouble on the horizon.

Of course, trouble was pretty much a permanent fixture on my horizon. The question was, what kind of trouble and how far — or near — it lay.

Trouble for me was more or less normal. But trouble for Mina…

My fingernails dug into the upholstery.

Henrik twisted his lips into a scowl. “Those cats wouldn’t find a litter box if it were right in front of them.”

I scowled up at the vampire. “Who’s less useful — the guy who gets off his ass to search or the vampire who doesn’t bother leaving his clubhouse in the first place?”

Henrik yawned, revealing his fangs. “Why bother if it’s no use?”

I took a sip of whisky and went back to ignoring him. Nothing worse than a guy who didn’t pull his own weight. But Roux and Bene had impressed me out there. As felines, they might not have the amazing noses of a bear or — next best thing — a wolf. But man, could they leap, climb, or slink their way into the most inaccessible places. And neither had complained the way the average dragon or vampire would.

If it weren’t so muddy, this would almost be fun,Roux had even chuckled at one point. It came out in rumbly tiger-talk, but his words sounded in my mind.

Lions were fussier than tigers, and Bene had started out by daintily picking up his paws. At one point, I’d found him perched on a log, wetting a paw and patting his mane into place. But even he had been a good sport about it.

Definitely too muddy, but yes — kind of fun,he’d agreed in the end.

It had been fun — or, at least, invigorating. That sense of a hunt, of having a mission…

I gazed out the window. A mission was definitely a good thing. With any luck, Gordon would come up with something for us soon. Something not too suicidal, I hoped. That would also get me away from Mina and the sensations she stirred in me.

I downed another sip of whisky. Maybe that would help.

Bene entered the drawing room, freshly showered like me, but far more chipper.

“Heya.” He dropped onto the couch and started lifting his feet to the coffee table. Before I could snarl in warning, he caught himself, grimaced, and put his feet back on the carpet.

“So, all that searching for nothing?” Henrik crowed.

Bene snorted and folded his arms behind his head. “Nah. It was good to be out. And now, we can rest easy that there’s nothing there.”

I pursed my lips. Maybe he could rest easy. I wasn’t about to.

Roux joined us next, looking at his watch.

“Two minutes to go,” Bene said, reading his expression.

An army marched on its stomach, and judging by the rumbling, the others were as famished as me.

Roux took the chair beside mine and looked out the window. “What do you think?”

I did my best to keep my voice casual. “Hard to say. I’ll do a few more flybys tonight. Just in case.”