Page 82 of Minding the Minotaur

“So when is she coming back?” I demand.

Jax’s lips stretch in a grimace. “Ah, well, there is another small issue. Clem informs me they’re doing more tests.”

“What kind of tests?”

“They’re checking some enzyme or other they found in her blood.”

I stare at Otis, and Otis stares at me. I know what he’s thinking. It’s the same thing I’m thinking.

The same enzyme that’s in my fucking sperm, right?

In her sweet human body.

If they find out she’s been messing with a minotaur…

I shudder. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

I jump up. “You’ve gotta get her out of there.” I start prodding a finger at Jax. “You. Get. Her. Out. Of that fucking hospital. NOW!”

“I can’t go inside the hospital,” Jax says calmly, but a muscle in his jaw ticks.

“It was years ago, Jax, they won’t remember you being there,” Otis points out, and for once he almost sounds like he’s on my side.

Jax gives him a withering look. “Believe me, they’ll remember. I can’t risk it, with things the way they are right now.”

I look from one to the other, perplexed. “What are you two talking about?”

“Nothing,” Otis mutters.

“It’s not nothing if it stops you getting my girl back,” I hurl at them, fists clenched.

“You’ll get her back. Just not yet,” Jax says curtly.

“Yeah?” My lip curls. “Like when?”

Jax leans back in the chair, but his shoulders are stiff. “Soon.”

My gaze yo-yos between the two of them. “I call bullshit on that. You’re not going to do anything, are you? You’re both useless as tits on a bull.” I stomp around angrily. “Well, since you two pathetic fuckers either can’t or won’t get her out of there, it seems I’ll have to.”

“Don’t be a fucking idiot,” Otis growls. “You don’t understand the complexity of the situation.”

“I understand what fucking matters. Getting Sammy back.” I head for the door.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Otis roars.

“You told me I’m not on house arrest anymore, so you can get fucked,” I grit out.

“Don’t you go anywhere near the Vault, you hear me, Arlo? Don’t even think about it.”

I generously flip him the bird before disappearing.

Brody’s face lights up when he sees me stride in.

“I thought you weren’t allowed to come here anymore.” He jumps up from the desk where he’s been lounging.

I glance around the austere setting. Pillars line the main foyer, where the guard sits and a locked steel door with hugebolts and rivets leads into the Vault tunnels, which go back deep into the rock wall. Temperature controlled, this place holds everything we monsters found buried underground after the apocalypse, the remains of human life on Earth. Strange pieces, most of them. And mostly useless crap. But a few have clearly been touched by magic along the way. Like the portal cape. And right now, that scrap of material is going to be my salvation.

When Brody sees the scowl on my face, his grin falters.