The Immortal Hunter(30)

Decker turned and gestured to where Dani was pacing under a lamppost and casting glares their way. She was impatient to be off, he knew.

"What is she doing over there?" Lucian asked with dismay. "And why isn't someone controlling her?"

"She's Decker's life mate," Justin said quickly, no doubt trying to head off Lucian's mounting temper, but all it did was make Lucian turn on Decker and start to shuffle through his thoughts. Decker could feel it happening, but didn't try to block him, if he even could.

"CSIS?" Lucian asked with disbelief, bringing curious glances from everyone but Justin. Decker squirmed inwardly as his uncle continued to sift through his thoughts, and then Lucian shook his head with disgust. "And you haven't explained to her about us? First Mortimer, and now you... Am I the only one who made it through this life mate business with my brains still intact?"

From what Decker had heard, Lucian had been a bit befuddled too, but he kept that thought to himself and merely said, "I was waiting for the right moment."

"Right. Well, that's now," Lucian announced, and glanced in Dani's direction to bark, "Girl!"

Dani was in the process of pacing away and didn't turn at the shout. She probably had no idea it was she he was shouting at, Decker thought.

"What's her name?" Lucian asked impatiently, and then shook his head. "Never mind."

His eyes narrowed with concentration on Dani. She came to an abrupt halt, and then turned and walked over to stand in front of Lucian.

Decker waited, aware that his uncle was no doubt now controlling and reading Dani. He knew exactly when his uncle released her by the confusion that immediately clouded her face as she peered around at them.

"What-?" Dani said uncertainly and then paused, concern crossing her face.

"Your mind isn't faulty and you're not losing time,"

Lucian said, apparently reading that concern in her mind. "The reason you don't remember walking over here is because I took control of your mind to bring you here... And I can do that because I'm an immortal... or as you people seem to insist on calling us, a vampire," he said with disdain. "Everyone standing here is one... including Decker, who is the only one here who can't read or control your thoughts. That makes you a possible life mate for him, but you'll be the one to decide."

Now that he had Dani standing there with her mouth open, Lucian held out his hand in front of Eshe. When she placed the keys to the SUV in his palm, he turned to hand them to Decker saying, "Right! Now that I've got the hard part out of the way, get her in the SUV and get your asses moving. You can explain the rest on the way."

"Just a minute," Dani protested when Decker took her arm to lead her to the vehicle. "I-"

"There is no just a minute," Lucian said coldly. "We still have a pair of rogues and a young girl in peril out there. Your sister, I believe. Either get moving now, or you will be going with Eshe."

Decker suspected threatening her with Eshe hadn't been necessary; Dani had stopped trying to make him drop her arm the minute her sister was mentioned. He led a much subdued Dani to the new vehicle, opened the side door and ushered her in, then turned and handed the keys to Justin. "You drive."

Justin accepted the keys without question and turned away to walk back around to the driver's side. Decker was about to climb into the back with Dani when Lucian called out his name. Pausing, he walked back around the vehicle to find his uncle walking to meet him halfway.

"Is there something else?" he asked stiffly, annoyed with him for his treatment of Dani.

Lucian nodded. "I gather you and Justin had some plan to trap Nicholas using the bug and tracker from the van?"

Decker's eyebrows flew up. They'd planned to talk to the others and tell them about their idea when they got here, but had forgotten. "How did you know?"

"I read it from her mind."

Decker glanced back toward the SUV when Lucian gestured toward it. "From Dani? But she doesn't know-"

"She eavesdropped on your conversation with Justin, and then proceeded to speak into the bug and give Nicholas her number to call. He did, and she told him all about your plan."

"Why would she-?"

"Because she doesn't trust you," Lucian interrupted. "She knows Nicholas was tracking these men and is the reason she and her sister were saved. She also knows he is even now chasing after her sister, trying to save her. Everything she knows about you, though, is confused by lies. You've made such a shambles of trying to keep what you are a secret, she doesn't trust you as much as she trusted Nicholas who she hadn't even talked to." He let that sink in, and then added, "You need to explain things and gain her trust if you want her as your life mate."

Decker nodded solemnly.

"Now, get going. We have work to do."

Decker turned away and jogged back to the SUV.

Justin had the computer up and running and was talking on his cell phone when Decker stepped up into the back of the vehicle and pulled the door closed.

"Thanks, Bastien. I think I've got it now." Justin ended the call and slid his cell phone into his pocket. He then smiled at Decker and said, "Look at this stuff. Talk about cool. I guess Bastien hired some techno geeks after all the rigmarole they had to go through to get Marguerite's cell phone tracked in Europe. They came up with this. Look." He pointed to the screen. "That blue dot there is us, the green one beside it is Lucian's vehicle, and the black one is the stolen SUV." Justin frowned. "It's on Highway 427 nearly to Etobicoke rather than heading into downtown Toronto like we expected."