Darkness Unleashed (Guardians of Eternity #5)(58)

It also tumbled both of them backward.

Straight into the waiting portal.

“Jagr.”

Crawling on her hands and knees, Regan watched in horror as Gaynor disappeared into the shimmering mist, still entangled with the furious vampire. Oh, God, no. She reached out, her fingertips brushing the tip of Jagr’s heavy boot just as the portal pulsed, flared, and then disappeared with an audible snap.

Suddenly alone in the darkness, Regan stared at the spot where Jagr had disappeared, as if stupidly waiting for him to jump out of thin air.

Christ. He was gone. He was really, really gone.

And she didn’t have a chance in hell of following him.

“Shit, shit, shit.”

Regan jumped to her feet, running through the night at full speed. Culligan had never shared the secrets of imp magic, but there had to be someone who knew how to trail a person through a portal.

Indifferent to the dangers that might lurk in the shadows, Regan returned to the truck still parked in front of the tea shop. Hopping into the driver’s seat, she switched on the key that Jagr had left in the ignition, and struggled to force it into gear.

She’d never actually driven before, but how hard could it be?

The thought had barely passed through her mind when she stomped on the long pedal that made the car go forward (at least it did on TV), and with a squeal of tires she slammed straight into one of the lovely dogwoods that lined the quiet street.

Well, crap…maybe it wasn’t as easy as she’d thought.

Turning off the engine, she tumbled out of the truck and sprinted between the nearest houses, heading directly north. Her head throbbed from where it had banged into the windshield and the neighborhood dogs were already howling at her presence, but at least she wasn’t in danger of massacring any more innocent trees.

Leaping a wooden fence, she briefly considered Jagr’s annoyance when he’d discovered she was running like a maniac through the streets without a care to any curs that might be lurking nearby. No doubt she’d have to listen to his furious lecture on her lack of brains if he…

A sharp pain ripped through her heart.

No, there were no ifs.

She would find him.

And he would be okay.

Nothing else was acceptable.

Refusing to contemplate the panic that churned through her stomach, Regan weaved her way through town. She caught the distant scent of a dew fairy and the even more distant scent of a hellhound prowling through a Dumpster, but nothing leaped out to eat her, so putting down her head, she called upon her considerable powers and plunged through the fields and meadows with a speed only a vampire could match.

The scenery was no more than a blur as she concentrated on retracing the path back to Tane’s isolated lair.

At last she could see the crumbling red brick chimney in the distance, and ignoring the growing stitch in her side, she dodged past an abandoned barn and leaped over a small creek.

It never occurred to Regan that she might not be welcomed at the vampire stronghold without Jagr at her side. At least not until Tane’s massive form abruptly vaulted from the second-storied balcony to block her path to the door.

Skidding to a halt, Regan barely avoided colliding into the very broad, very bare chest.

“Tane.” She pressed a hand to her thundering heart. “God, you scared me.”

Pinpricks of pain stabbed into her flesh as Tane allowed his power to be released into the night.

“Where’s Jagr?”

She was smart enough to feel a jolt of fear at the fierce expression on Tane’s beautiful face, but she was too concerned for Jagr to truly appreciate just how dangerous her position might be.

“He was taken through a portal by an imp,” she said in a rush, too rattled to spell out more than the most pertinent information. “I can’t find him.”

Thankfully, Tane didn’t press for details. It was enough to know a brother was in trouble.

His long, lethal fangs emerged, along with a dagger he pulled from the waistband of his khakis.

“Stay here. I’ll try to pick up his trail.”

“Wait, I want to go…”

Ignoring her urgent demand to be taken with him, Tane slid past her and silently disappeared into the dark.

Regan clenched her teeth, knowing she’d never catch him.

“Damned vampires.”

Briefly considering her limited options, Regan at last heaved a sigh and climbed the steps to the wide verandah.

She could return to the golf course and hope to stumble across a means to follow Jagr, but she wasn’t so full of herself to believe that she would have better luck than a trained vampire assassin, who no doubt had had several hundred years to perfect his skills. The painful truth was she would likely be more a burden than help.

There was also the option of simply walking away and washing her hands of Jagr and everyone else determined to force her into a family she didn’t want or need.

It wasn’t as if she owed them anything.

Okay, Jagr had come in handy a time or two. Hell, he’d just saved her from being pulled into the damned portal.

And no woman, no matter how innocent, could deny that he was a world-class lover who’d made her first experience one she would remember for all eternity.

Still, he was possessive and bossy and ruthlessly worming his way into her heart. That alone should be enough to send her screaming into flight.