Fear the Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #9)(24)

“Any what?”

“Vibes.”

She blinked in confusion before at last realizing he was referring to her visions. “Oh.” She paused, searching for any hint of a foretelling. “No,” she at last said. “There’s nothing.”

He heaved a sigh. “So you get the command to watch the video, but nothing to tell us what to do about it?”

“That’s how it works.” She shrugged, pointing toward his phone. “You have to call.”

His gaze followed her finger, his muscles abruptly tensing as he studied the image of Ingrid still filling the screen. “Not yet.”

“Caine . . .” She halted her pleading words, sensing his distraction. “You have a plan?”

“Not so much a plan as a desperate hope that we can spring the trap before it’s set and escape with your sister unscathed,” he corrected.

“Is that possible?”

He tapped the screen. “I recognize where Ingrid took this video.”

“Really?”

“It’s Salvatore’s wine cellar.”

“You were in the wine cellar of the King of Weres?”

“Of course.” He turned to meet her expression of disbelief. “Salvatore used to be my enemy. Hell, he still wants to nail my furry ass to the wall.”

“So why were you in the wine cellar?”

“When he turned up in America I needed a secret way to enter his lair if I had to take drastic measures to protect myself. There’s a tunnel that leads into his wine cellar.”

She rolled her eyes. “I suppose I should expect such madness from you. You are far too reckless. But this female . . .” She frowned at the cur’s smug confidence that was captured by the video. “Is she insane?”

“I always suspected she came from the shallow end of the gene pool,” Caine said. “Why?”

“Who would be stupid enough to hold the mate of the King of Weres hostage in his own wine cellar?”

“Salvatore must be out of state or Ingrid wouldn’t have managed to get within a mile of the lair, let alone get her hands on Harley,” he explained.

Cassie still thought the female must be a nut bar.

“So you think they’re still in the wine cellar?”

“Doubtful, but we should be able to pick up Ingrid’s scent and track her from there.”

Her nails unconsciously dug into his arm, her wolf eager to be on the hunt even as her heart clenched with fear. “What if she hurts Harley or the babies before we can reach them?”

“We have twenty-four hours. If we don’t pick up Ingrid’s trail, then I’ll make the call.” He cupped her cheek in his hand, brushing her lips with a soft kiss. “I promise nothing’s going to hurt your sister.”

She leaned her forehead against his, taking strength in his familiar scent.

“Let’s go,” she whispered.

Salvatore’s lair in St. Louis

Gaius was fuming as he paced from one end of the wine cellar to the other.

Who could blame him? He was standing in the lair of the King of Weres with two curs who looked like matching G.I. Joe dolls and a goth witch who was wearing a tight leather skirt and spike-heeled boots that were as impractical as they were ridiculous. He’d been forced to shape-shift to look like the Queen of Weres in an attempt to lure the prophet into his clutches. And now he was stuck waiting with his trio of idiots on the off chance the plot would work.

Plus, adding insult to injury, the entire place reeked of dogs.

Che macello.

Clearly possessing more brawn than brains, the male cur sauntered within striking distance of Gaius, seemingly indifferent to the frigid fury that prickled through the air. “It really is remarkable,” Dolf murmured, compounding his stupidity by lifting a hand toward Gaius’s long mane of blond hair.

“Touch me and your sister will be dragging you out of here as a corpse.”

The cur jerked his hand back, his face flushed at the icy warning. “No need for threats,” he protested. “We’re all on the same side here.”

Gaius curled his lips. “Do not remind me.”

The cur grimaced. “What crawled up your ass and died?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Why are you in such a pissy mood?”

Gaius narrowed his gaze. “Are you trying to be amusing?”

“No, I just—”

“Do you think I want to humiliate myself with this”—Gaius waved a hand to indicate his slender, delicately curved body—“female form?”

The flush drained from Dolf ’s face to leave him a frightened shade of gray. “Of course not.”

“Or to spend hours trespassing in the lair of the King of Weres?” Gaius continued, his voice edged with a bitterness that was capable of flaying the skin off a lesser creature. “Who, by the way, has his full powers returned and would happily kill me on sight.”

Dolf lifted his hands in a desperate attempt at damage control. “I told you, Ingrid’s source says that the king and queen are in Chicago for at least two more days.”

Gaius wasn’t any more impressed now than he’d been when he first heard the reassurance. Not that he was given any choice, he grimly reminded himself. When Ingrid had approached him with the suggestion of using his ability to alter shapes to bait a trap for the prophet, he’d emphatically refused.