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  Yeah, well, so much for hindsight. He peeled away from the curb and into traffic.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “I’m taking you home.”

  “Are you going to stay the night with me?”

  Was she serious? “No.”

  “This isn’t my fault.”

  “Yes, it is. You and your notions about saving me.” But what did he expect? She rescued wildcats for a living. So why wouldn’t she become hell-bent on rescuing a shapeshifter, too?

  She set her chin. “I don’t care if you’re mad. I’m still going to pursue this. I’m going to find Lareina.”

  He entered the freeway on-ramp. “How? By Googling her? Maybe she has a Facebook profile. That would be handy, wouldn’t it? You could send her a friend request.”

  She ignored his sarcasm. “My blood tie could be to her. She could be the magic the sapiya were referring to.”

  His annoyance worsened. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Being connected to the bitch who tore me up.”

  “What an awful thing to say.”

  She was right. It was. Instead of apologizing, he punched the gas pedal, whipping through the night.

  She shot him a warning. “You’re going to get a ticket if you keep that up.”

  That triggered an urge to go faster, but the last thing he needed on this aggravating evening was a confrontation with the law.

  He reduced his speed and reined in his anger. “I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have said what I did. But what if you really are supposed to break a curse and make me mortal? How would I adapt?”

  She gentled her tone. “You could move in with me and help me run Big Cat Canyon.”

  Cripes. The happily-ever-after thing. “And how long would that last? How long before we got tired of each other?”

  “I’d never get tired of you.”

  “You’d think differently when I’m old and gray.”

  “No, I wouldn’t. I’d be old and gray, too.” Her voice remained soft. “The truth of the matter is, I love you, Noah. I tried to fight it. But I can’t help how I feel.”

  If his hands hadn’t been firmly planted on the wheel, he would’ve run into the side rail. “I’m already freaked-out, Jenny. I didn’t need to hear that.”

  “Then should I wait to tell you the second part of it?”

  “Is it worse than the first part?”

  “It will be to you.”

  “Then yeah, you should wait.” His gut was already coiling into a knot, and the taillights in front of him threatened to blur beneath his stony gaze.

  She stayed quiet and let him drive.

  Once they arrived at her house, he killed the engine, and they sat in the car. He unbuckled his seat belt, freeing himself from its tight hold. She undid hers, as well.

  “Go ahead. Tell me the rest of it.”

  “You’re going to say that I’m wrong. But I think that you’re falling in love with me, too. Sienna probably thinks so, too.”

  He didn’t like this, not for one heart-slamming minute. He narrowed his eyes at her. “So now you’re an authority on what a psychic vampire is thinking?”

  “She isn’t the issue, Noah.”

  “No. I am.” And he wasn’t the fall-in-love type. Was he? At this stage, he didn’t know what the hell was happening. But whatever it was, he should hightail his ass back home and try to decompress.

  But then she said, “Come inside,” beckoning him to stay. And damn if he wasn’t swayed.

  They exited the car, and although her porch was only a few feet away, he could’ve been walking along the edge of an enormous cliff. One misstep and he was screwed.

  “Maybe I should just kiss you good night at the door.”

  “No, you should come in. And when did you get so proper?” She grabbed his hand, tugging him forward. “You sound like you’re from another century.”

  He didn’t appreciate her wisecrack, cute as it was. “Would you prefer a good-bye fuck at the door? I could do that just as easily.”

  “Don’t be that way.” She unlocked the door in question and flipped on a light switch, bringing her simple ranch furnishings into view.

  Noah refused to imagine himself living here and running the rescue with her. She turned to face him, and he contemplated the blood tie.

  He said, “You don’t look anything like Lareina, but I suppose she could be an ancestor of yours.”

  “Maybe I should Google her. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea, after all.”

  “How is that going to help? All you have is her name.”

  “It’s a start. If she is or was a queen of some sort, maybe something will turn up.”

  She sat at the computer, and he stood behind her. The last time they were here together, he’d been Googling castles, and now she was searching for the possibility of royal bloodlines.

  How ironic was that?

  She looked and looked, but nothing surfaced. In spite of what the name meant, she couldn’t find a queen called Lareina. Not a real one. Not a mythical one. Nada.

  Leaving the computer behind, they moved over to the sofa. “There has to be a way to locate her,” Jenny said. “Or else why would the sapiya have said to talk to her?”

  “Who knows? But have you considered what type of dialogue that would be? Or how it would take place? Somehow I don’t see her chatting with you over afternoon tea. You should just leave this alone. Let it go.”

  “I can’t. You even said it yourself earlier: What if I’m meant to break a curse and make you mortal?”

  He dropped his head back against the sofa. He didn’t know what to think. Or what to feel. Other than flustered.

  She said, “Maybe I should start working on a family tree. It might be a way to uncover if I have any blood ties to Lareina. Or if any of my other ancestors were involved in magic.”

  “That sounds like a major undertaking. It could take months. Or years. This could go on and on.” He sat forward, tensing his muscles. “I’ll give you a week.”

  “For the family tree?”

  “For everything.”

  “You mean to find Lareina and break the curse, if there is one? You can’t put that type of pressure on me.”

  “What about the pressure you’re putting on me? Telling me that you love me, putting ideas in my head that I feel the same way about you. Get it done, Jenny. Either make me mortal by next week or stop this quest of yours.”

  Her gaze locked with his. “I’m not following an ultimatum like that.”

  “Then maybe I should end our affair right now.”

  “You’d do that?”

  Confused about what to do, he went silent.

  “Answer me, Noah. Please.”

  Her pleading tone made him think of how she’d begged him in bed, of how hot and beautiful and thrilling she was. He breathed in her sweet scent, pulling it through his nostrils and into his lungs.

  Cursing the need to be near her, he said, “I’m not going to end it.” Before he painted himself into corner, he added, “But I will when I’m good and ready.”

  “What if I could make you mortal by next week? Would you quit acting like a jerk and accept our life together?”

  One minute she was worried about losing him and the next she was calling him a jerk? “You just blew it, Jenny. The week deal is off. I’m not accepting it under any circumstances.”

  She got up and went back to the computer. “I don’t care what you say. I’m making you mortal with or without your permission.”

  “By spending all of your free time on genealogy sites? Who cares who your tenth cousin, fifteen times removed, is? Unless it’s someone magical, of course. Really, truly, good luck with that. I’m sure you’re going to need it.”

  “You’re just mad because you don’t want to admit that you have feelings for me. And stop hovering. I need to focus.”

  “Does it look like I’m hovering?” He headed for the kitchen to see what she had in the fridge.

  Pasting a sandwi
ch together, he slapped roast beef and cheese between two slices of rye bread. He grabbed an apple and poured a glass of ice water, too. Falling in love wasn’t an option and he wasn’t going to let her convince him otherwise.

  Upon his return, he set the snack on the coffee table and reached for the remote.

  She spun around in her chair. “Don’t you dare turn on the TV. The noise will distract me.”

  “Jesus, woman. Could you sound any more like a nagging wife?”

  “Is that your he-man way of proposing to me? Sorry, but you’re going to have to do better than that.”

  As if. “Get over yourself, Beauty.”

  “Be prepared to grow old, Beast.”

  Verbal fencing. He took the final jab. “You wish.” He glanced in the direction of the hallway. “I’m going to help myself to the TV in your room.”

  “Go ahead.”

  Food in tow, he kicked back on her bed and watched a reality show. But it wasn’t nearly as colorful as his and Jenny’s lives. If they had cameras following them around, the world would be shocked. Hell, he was shocked. This was a particularly strange night.

  And it was about to get stranger.

  Jenny came rushing in. “I heard a noise at the window. I think someone is out there.”

  He jumped up and followed her to the living room. They stood and listened. Indeed, something or someone was tapping on the glass.

  He reacted like the man of the house, even if he had no intention of being the man of the house. “I’ll go see what’s going on.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  Apparently she was afraid to stay inside alone. Noah opened the front door, descended the porch steps, and walked around the side of the building, with Jenny creeping behind him.

  He stopped in his tracks when he saw who the tappers were. Jenny peered out from around his shoulder.

  She gave a little gasp. “It’s the sapiya.”

  It most certainly was. They were launching themselves at the window, much in the way a boy would toss pebbles to get a girl’s attention.

  “Do you think they know we’re standing here?”

  “Of course they do. They just haven’t acknowledged us yet.”

  “What should we do?”

  “Stay here until they decide to talk to us.”

  “I wish they would hurry up. This is making me nervous.”

  Him, too, but he wasn’t about to admit it out loud.

  In the midst of their game, the little stones multiplied. When they hit the glass, one would become two; then two would become three and so forth.

  Soon there were hundreds of them.

  Swarming like bees and glowing like fireflies, they flew straight at Noah and Jenny. He expected to get pelted. Apparently she did, too. She latched onto him for support.

  But the sapiya didn’t stone them. They stopped just short of an attack and formed a giant heart in the air.

  A freaking heart, Noah thought. Wasn’t Jenny accusing him of loving her enough? Did the sapiya have to remind him of it, too? Naturally, she seemed mesmerized by the romantic symbol. He would’ve preferred being pelted.

  “Jenny?” the sapiya said.

  “Yes?” she responded.

  “We can bring Lareina to you. All you have to do is catch one of us.”

  Boom. Zoom.

  The heart exploded into separate pieces, and the sapiya sped off. Jenny ran after them.

  Noah was fast on her heels, but not for long.

  Thud.

  There it was: the same invisible force that had shoved him into his chair at Sienna’s house. Only now it surrounded him like a giant bubble, containing him within it.

  Fuck.

  The sapiya didn’t want him interfering with Jenny’s attempt to make a catch.

  Infuriated, he shifted into lion mode, snarling and snapping, even though he knew it wouldn’t help. He would remain powerless until the force let him go.

  He couldn’t see Jenny anymore. “What if she falls and gets hurt?” he said to the disembodied energy that held him. Her property was laden with low-hanging trees, stiff shrubbery, and dirt paths. A danger zone in the dark.

  His concern was ignored.

  He didn’t know how much time had passed. Ten minutes? Twenty? Finally he was released, and he dashed into the brush and picked up on Jenny’s scent.

  He found her on the ground. She had stumbled, and she was hurt. One of her pant legs was torn and her knee was bleeding. He swept her into his arms. “I would’ve come sooner, but the sapiya wouldn’t let me.”

  “I couldn’t catch any of them. I chased them until I fell. Then they were gone.”

  “If they show up again, you need to tell them that you changed your mind and you don’t want to pursue Lareina.”

  “But I haven’t changed my mind.”

  He carried her into the house. “Don’t you see how dangerous this is? It’s not worth it.” He set her on the edge of the bathroom counter, shifted back to human form, and opened her medicine cabinet, looking for antiseptic and bandages. He noticed them on the bottom shelf. “If the sapiya brings Lareina here, she could kill you.”

  “Why would she, especially if I have blood ties to her?”

  “And what if you don’t?” He removed her shoes and helped her out of her jeans so he could treat her wound. “What if she’s not the magic you’re connected to?”

  “I know it’s risky. But I’ll figure out a way to keep Lareina from hurting me.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Oh, gee, that’s reassuring.” He smoothed her hair and discovered a leaf that had gotten lodged there. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, Jenny.”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  He discarded the leaf, picking away the crinkled pieces. “The way you were careful when you ran off in the dark and cut yourself?”

  She leaned forward and kissed him. “Thank you for caring.”

  He held her close. “This doesn’t mean that I love you.”

  “I think you do, and I think the sapiya were trying to tell you the same thing.”

  That damned heart. “And what good did that do? You still ended up on your ass.”

  “Next time I won’t.”

  “You’re getting cocky.”

  “Maybe I’m just feeling strong because of the magic in my blood.”

  She didn’t look particularly strong, not in a T-shirt and cotton panties and a Band-Aid on her knee.

  He helped her off the counter and led her to bed, insisting that she get some sleep.

  Later, as they lay beside each other in the pitch of dark, he hoped her so-called strength didn’t backfire on both of them.

  Jenny sat across from Noah at her scarred kitchen table. She’d stayed awake for most of the night, wracking her brain about the Lareina dilemma and finally coming up with a solution.

  She said, “After breakfast, will you go to the rescue with me?”

  “What for?”

  “To talk.”

  “About what?” He frowned. “And why can’t we talk here?”

  “I have an idea on how to keep Lareina from hurting me and it involves the rescue. So I’d rather discuss it on-site.”

  He agreed to accompany her, and she took him to an area with an empty enclosure.

  She said, “We use this as temporary housing to separate an animal for social or health reasons. That’s why it’s smaller than our primary enclosures. I want to use it for Lareina. I think it’ll be a safe place to keep her.”

  He more or less gaped at her. “And just how do you intend to get her into a cage?”

  “I’m going to ask the sapiya to put her there, and after I’m done talking to her, they can send her back to wherever she came from.”

  He obviously wasn’t impressed. “That’s your idea?”

  “What’s wrong with it?” To her, it sounded as plausible in practice as it was in theory.

  He shot it full of holes. “You’d
have to catch one of the sapiya first, and even if you’re able to accomplish that and they’re able to put Lareina in a cage, you can’t control how she behaves or if she’ll talk to you. And what if someone on your staff sees her when she’s in human form and reports you for having a woman locked up?”

  Jenny patched the holes. “She won’t be in the enclosure long enough for anyone to see her. I’ll have the sapiya bring her here after hours. As for her refusing to talk to me, I’ll tell her that if she doesn’t cooperate, I’ll turn their magic against her.”

  “You’re putting a lot of stock into those stones and just how far they’ll be willing to go for you.”

  “If I catch one of them, I’ll be its owner. Then it will have to listen to me, won’t it?”

  “As long as it thinks your requests are reasonable. And there’s no guarantee that the sapiya will reappear and even give you a chance at ownership.”

  “Stop discouraging me. At least I came up with a plan.”

  Noah approached the enclosure. “If you are able to get Lareina here, I wonder if being locked up is going to set her off, if she’ll pace and snarl the whole time. If it was me, I’d go stir crazy. I’d lose my mind.”

  She moved closer, standing beside him. She recalled his aversion to cages. “It’s not going to be you.”

  The sun beat down from the sky, glinting off his jet-black hair. “Lareina’s motives never mattered to me before, but now I can’t help but wonder: Did she choose me randomly or was I part of a bigger picture from the start?”

  “I don’t know, but those are some of the questions I intend to ask her.”

  “It was easier not caring. It was easier before I met you, Jenny.”

  Because she was changing him, she thought, bringing his emotions to the surface. “It was easier for me before I met you, too.” She talked a good talk about making him mortal, but what if she couldn’t do it?

  After a stretch of silence, she said, “Don’t you think it’s strange that we haven’t heard from Coyote yet? Seems to me he would be chomping at the bit to find out what happened at Sienna’s house.”