Page 120 of Marked By Moonlight

“Corner of Manchester Road and Stewart Street, moving south.”

Mina tapped her phone, pulling up the location, with ours showing nearby as a blue dot. Making a split-second decision, I motioned for Roux to continue, then pull over two blocks later.Popping the door open, I slid out, ready to tear the vampire to pieces.

“What are you doing?” Mina protested.

“Going after Szabo. This ends now,” I grunted.

“But—” Mina started.

I flicked my eyes to Roux, who nodded to say,Of course we’ll take care of Mina.

I gritted my teeth and backed away from the van. “I’ll catch up.”

With that, I forced myself to slam the door shut. Mina’s shocked expression haunted me, but what could I do?

I turned and sprinted down an adjoining alley, every sense on alert, ready to hunt down a vampire.

Chapter Twenty-Four

MINA

I craned my neck, but Marius had already disappeared into a dim alley. Roux revved down the street, racing from one pool of light to another.

I cursed both of them, but it was halfhearted.

“Will he be all right against Szabo?” I asked.

Roux tightened his hands over the steering wheel. “He should be.”

Should be?I wanted to scream.

I had a lot of faith in my dragon shifter, but he had a tendency to act impulsively. And given the state he was in, not to mention the darkness…

I peered down the next alley, catching a view of lights glittering over the Thames. The river was that close.

A sea gull’s haunting cry pierced the night, and I caught a glimpse of white overhead.

“Don’t worry,” Roux tried.

I grimaced. “I’m worrying.”

His mouth settled into a tense line. “This is how teams work — by trusting each person to do their job.”

True, but teams usually operated according to game plans, and taking off after Szabo had not factored into ours.

My hands formed fists. Damn that Szabo! He had come after me at home. He had stalked me on my first trip to London. Now he was back again. Why?

Roux pointed into the darkness ahead, past the headlights. “Focus. We have to complete this mission.”

Easier said than done, with my heart roaming the Docklands with Marius. Was he all right? Where was all this leading?

Roux pulled up in front of a tired old warehouse on the banks of the Thames — one that hadn’t yet been converted into upmarket condos or torn down to make way for modern construction, like the buildings around it. Four men in dark suits separated from the shadows to open the doors, and Roux coasted in.

The hair on my arms stood as we slid out of the vehicle. Bene and Henrik flanked the rear doors of the van, while I followed Roux toward a bright circle of light in the center of the dark, empty warehouse. The place smelled of salt, slime, and the ocean, much like the nearby river.

Jensen closed the laptop he’d been hunched over and stood. “Good of you to be punctual.”

“Of course,” Roux said smoothly.