Page 48 of Marked By Moonlight

I grimaced in the direction Szabo had disappeared. “Why would Celeste undermine Gordon if he’s her boss?”

“Not sure she sees it that way.”

I shouldn’t have been surprised after the machinations I’d glimpsed in her mind. But, yikes. Were some people reallythatdevious?

Then I slumped, because the answer was yes — and worse, I was that gullible. Celeste probably saw herself as the boss — if not now, then in the near future.

My mind spun. Should I warn Gordon? And, dammit, as devious as he was, did he not recognize the danger Celeste posed?

I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the seat in front of me.

“So, back to what you’re doing in London. Tell me everything,” Marius said.

Dragons. So darn persistent.

I rocked my head from side to side. One thing was for sure. The long, carefree walk I’d planned from Regent’s Park to Kensington Gardens was definitely off the agenda.

Chapter Eleven

MARIUS

That two-plus-hour train ride was the longest of my life, what with the woman I loved at my side and a vampire in the neighboring wagon. I counted every fucking second and doubly cursed each extra that came with our ten-minute delay into London.

Otherwise, I spent the time watching the door, with just the occasional glance at Mina. But I kept those to a minimum because I had to remain vigilant, and because I might kiss — or kill — her otherwise. Mina was smart as anything, so how the hell had she decided going to London was a good idea? Hadn’t she realized she couldn’t trust Gordon?

“Wait. How did you know I was on this train?” she asked out of the blue.

I shrugged. “I just sensed it.”

She stared at me. “Seriously?”

I kept my eyes on the door. “I also staked out Gordon’s guest apartment.”

She rolled her eyes. “You had me for a minute there.”

The train rushed along through another kilometer of tracks before I whispered, “Icansense where you are. Not the precise location, but whether you’re near or far.”

She clasped my hand. “Same with me. I can even tell how you feel sometimes.”

Now we were in truly scary territory — on par with bloodthirsty vampires or Gordon’s criminal schemes.

I tipped my head closer to hers, and my dragon made me whisper, “Destiny.”

She nodded slowly, then leaned in. “So why fight it?”

“Because destiny doesn’t always have your best interests at heart. Sometimes, it just toys with you.”

Like the previous night, when it had made my mind go blank long enough to mark her, or so I feared. It was still too hard to tell for certain, however.

“I think it’s more that destinytestsus,” Mina said. “To check if you’ve earned what it has in mind for you, I mean.”

“Feels like a hell of a lot of testing. Like school, only worse.”

She chuckled. “Not all of school. Like art class — not a lot of testing there.”

I kissed her hand. Somehow, she always found a way to put a positive spin on things.

Still, I gave sheer luck the credit for bringing me to Mina’s side, rather than destiny. I’d staked out Gordon’s guest apartment, figuring she would go for her usual morning run. She’d headed to the train station instead, and I’d barely had time to buy a ticket. It was also sheer luck that I had my travel documents with me, and that was only because I’d been couch-surfing from friend to friend over the last few days in Paris.