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I dig my nails into his ass and lift my hips to take him deeper yet. “Guess we’ll have to entertain ourselves.”
“Guess so.”
We don’t stop for a very, very long time.
I’m in the kitchen the next day when I feel it. A sense of…not exactly wrongness, but an intrusion. I nearly drop the bowl I’m holding. “What is that?”
Instantly, Malachi is on alert. “What is what?”
“There’s this…” I frown. “I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like an itch I can’t scratch.”
He narrows his eyes. “Where?”
Without looking, I point nearly behind me. “There. I can’t tell how far.”
He doesn’t hesitate. “Rylan.” Before the sound of the other vampire’s name is finishing echoing through the house, Malachi has me in his arms and he’s moving in that nearly-too-fast speed, flying through the rooms and out the front door—on the opposite side of the house from where I felt the intrusion.
Rylan lands beside us, and I get the impression that he jumped from the second or third story. His dark hair is a little ruffled, but he’s back to wearing a suit and looks freshly pressed. “What’s going on?”
“She felt something. Coming from the opposite direction.”
I expect Rylan to laugh it off. Why should he take this seriously when he barely bothers to listen to a single word that comes out of my mouth? But his gaze narrows the same way Malachi’s did. “Get to the safe house we agreed on. I’ll take a look and call Wolf to update him.” He pulls off his jacket, quickly followed by his shirt.
I tense. “Wait. I like this house. There’s no reason to run if—”
“Rylan will take a look. If he gives the signal, we’ll come back.” Malachi is already moving, rushing through the trees that surround the house at a pace I could never dream of matching. I have no choice but to cling to him. At this point, I’m just grateful that, for once, I was actually wearing clothing. My shorts and oversized T-shirt are hardly appropriate for the briskness of the weather, but it’s better than being naked.
The cry of a giant bird reaches us, and I only need to see Malachi’s face to know that it’s not good news. “They found us again?”
“Looks like it.” He picks up his pace, nearly flying across the uneven ground. “We’ll know more after we meet up with Rylan and Wolf.”
It took them less than a week to track us down this time. They’re closing the gap, and no one can figure out how. Hell, if seraphim and demons exist, maybe witches do, too. Maybe they have some sort of scrying spell. I’ll ask Malachi about it after we get out of danger. I don’t think any of my father’s people can match him in size, speed, and strength, but I wouldn’t have wagered on my father trapping Malachi behind a blood ward for decades on end.
I could keep peppering him with questions, but the truth is that until we regroup with the others, the only priority is to put as much distance between us and the other vampires as possible. We can’t fight, not without risking one of us getting hurt. There’s no reasoning with them. They’re following orders, and only a direct order from my father will change their course.
This is a race, but I still don’t know the parameters. I know our goals, but we have no idea what my father knows.
I lift my head and tug on Malachi’s shirt. “We need one of them alive.”
He glances at me without breaking stride. “That’s risky.”
“I’m aware. But we need to know if he’s pursuing us because he wants you back or if he knows what happened when we broke the blood ward.” If he knows I have seraph blood, that I awoke that power, that I’m bonded with not one, but three Bloodline vampires…
That changes everything.
If he can get his hands on me, he’ll hold the leash for three of the seven Bloodlines. I know all too well the lengths he’ll go to get what he wants once we’re under his control. The men might be able to hold out indefinitely, but if I have to choose between keeping them alive or doing something really unforgivable, I already know what I’ll choose.
My father knows that, too.
“We need to know,” I repeat.
Malachi nods. He doesn’t turn back, but that’s fine. Getting to a secondary location is the primary goal. We know where they’re headed, and they’ll stay at the house for at least a short period of time to plumb it for any information they can. We just have to pick one of them off when they leave. It sounds easy, but I know better.
I lay my head against Malachi’s chest and let him carry me away.
Judging by the position of the sun in the sky, several hours have passed by the time he slows and sets me on my feet. I study the little farmhouse in the distance. It’s surrounded by rolling fields and looks like something out of a painting. “Is that where we’re headed?”
“Yes.” He rolls his shoulders. He doesn’t look like he’s been sprinting at full speed while carrying another person, but he does look tired. “Rylan will have gotten word to Wolf by now. They’ll meet us here.”
“We have to—”
“I know, little dhampir. But no one is going back there until you’re secured.”
As much as I want to argue, he’s right. We fall into an easy jog that eats up the distance at a pace slightly faster than an athletic human could maintain. My knee barely twinges. A month ago, I wouldn’t be able to do this. Not after my father shattered my knee in punishment for an escape attempt. He wanted to make sure I’d never be able to run again, and it was a reality I’d made a tumultuous peace with. Until Malachi gave me his blood.
Bloodline vampires really are something special.
My father always set himself above the rest at the compound, and up until I met Malachi, I thought that was just narcissistic bullshit because my father has some magic. Now I realize how deeply the difference between normal vampires and Bloodline vampires go.
Malachi is the last of his line, those who carry the power to control fire. If he doesn’t have children, his Bloodline will die with him. I glance in his direction. “Do Wolf and Rylan have family?”
He doesn’t take his gaze from the farmhouse. “You mean others that are part of their Bloodline? Yes. Not many, but yes.”