Soul Taken (Mercy Thompson 13)

Conventional wisdom maintained that goblins’ lives were as short as humans’, or shorter. I’d questioned that before, and Larry’s distant gaze—as if he was remembering something that he greatly desired—was confirmation of my suspicions if I needed it. Larry had seen the Dragon’s treasures.

He shook himself from his brief reverie. “He found unusually beautiful women like Marsilia. Unusually dangerous men like Bonarata and Stefan. He did not usually change them into vampires, but there were exceptions.”

“Marsilia turned Stefan,” I told him. I was not arguing with him; I simply wanted more information.

“And could not control him because he should have belonged to Wulfe,” said Larry. “We will help look for Wulfe. We are already doing that. I’ll contact you if any of my people see any of Marsilia’s. Or Stefan. They are somewhere in the Tri-Cities, if Marsilia came to you at Uncle Mike’s. There is a limit to how far they can travel.”

I didn’t tell him that Stefan had taken a person with him and teleported from Spokane to the Tri-Cities. That felt like Stefan’s secret. I’d need to get some sleep before I decided to share Stefan’s secrets with Larry.

“We’ll check out the seethe and Wulfe’s house tomorrow,” said Adam. “I’ll make a few phone calls just to be sure Bonarata is still where he’s supposed to be.”

Larry nodded. “My people are always on the lookout for Bonarata. His aircraft have not landed in any of the local airfields. But he has a helicopter, and those may land where they will.”

Larry stood up, setting Medea down in his spot with an absent pat. “My advice is that you don’t go to the seethe without more people at your back. Someone created a nasty little trap at Stefan’s—and it was probably aimed at you.”

My mate grinned, showing his teeth. “Interesting times.”

7

After Larry left on his shaggy pony with dawn a whisper over the river, we headed up to bed. Daytime slumber in pack central was not going to be easy to accomplish.

While Adam fiddled with the drapes in an attempt to keep as much light out as possible, I scrubbed my tired face and brushed my teeth. By the time Adam had finished doing the same, I was buried under blankets and most of the way to sleep.

He climbed in, bringing a wave of cold air with him, and I growled a faint protest. But when he pulled me into his arms, his warmth more than made up for any disruption to my comfort that his entry into my nest of blankets had made. Of the many benefits of marriage to Adam, sleeping together was pretty high up on my list. He liked to cuddle and he radiated heat.

“Stefan is alive, right?” murmured Adam.

I nodded.

“I didn’t want to ask with Larry around,” he said. “But I was pretty sure that you wouldn’t be sitting around chatting if he was gone.”

“I don’t know anything else,” I told him. Unlike the mating bond I shared with Adam, the vampire’s hold on me wasn’t a bond between equals—if Stefan didn’t want to contact me, there wasn’t much I could do about it.

“Is that on purpose?” Adam asked softly.

“One of my least favorite things about marriage is this penchant you have for keeping me up when I want to sleep,” I grumbled.

He gave me a comforting squeeze. “I know you don’t like to think about your connection, let alone talk about it. But it might be important. Is Stefan keeping you in the dark on purpose?”

“Do you mean, why isn’t Stefan jerking my lead and dragging my butt to wherever he is?” I wiggled to put some distance between us. Thinking about being tied to Stefan left me claustrophobic. “I have to assume it’s for the same reason he hasn’t shown up here.”

Stefan had appeared in my living room before. He’d made me do things, too. Mostly things that had saved my life or his, but the idea that Stefan could force his will on me made my skin crawl. I finished with, “I have no idea.”

Adam followed my wiggle but didn’t touch me other than to kiss my temple. Even with the pumpkin-bruise, the brush of his lips was so tender it didn’t hurt. I knew if I pulled away again, he’d let me be.

I sighed and snuggled back into his warmth. “Assuming we don’t find him, I’d planned on trying to contact him through the blood bond after I’d gotten some sleep. I thought I’d wait until dusk.”

Adam grunted his approval. Eventually I felt him relax, but now I couldn’t follow him into sleep because thinking about Stefan’s bond left me edgy. My thoughts kept chasing each other around until, finally, I saw a new angle on Marsilia and decided Adam needed to take a look at it, too. A kind person would have left it until morning, but since he’d made sure I wasn’t going to fall asleep, I felt justified in waking him up.

“I am pretty sure she likes you,” I said thoughtfully, and felt him wake up.

He waited, but he’s not the only patient hunter in our family. Finally, he said, sounding a little wary, “Who likes me?”

“Marsilia,” I told him. “She likes you, and so sending you after Wulfe probably means that he’s not behind the weirdness at the seethe.”

He huffed a laugh at my logic.

“She’d send me no matter what, of course,” I continued. “You remember that she sent me after a vampire possessed by a demon.”