58

Sebastian smothered a chuckle in the back.

I whirled as far as the seatbelt would let me and jabbed my finger in his direction. “And you can shut up. From my count, I’m two for two on crazy princes so far—one kidnapped me, and one likes to smell me whenever he gets too close.” I faced the front again, folding my arms and breathing hard, shame already taking the place of my sudden anger.

“Leia.” Nic didn’t say anything else. Just my name.

But it was enough.

I pressed my hand over my mouth to stifle a sob. It was all too much. At least with red bills, I’d known where I stood. Now my world was vampires and more vampires, and everyone wanted to fuck me or kill me, and they’d taken Dad… And… And… I closed my eyes as tears spilled from them, and Nic pulled the car over before unfastening our seatbelts so he could pull me over the center console and hold me to his chest.

“Conri isn’t a vampire,” he said gently as he smoothed my hair from my damp cheek. He pressed a kiss to my temple. “He’s a wolf shifter.”

I laughed then, high and hysterical, clutching my stomach as a mixture of sobs and actual shouts of laughter poured from me.

“Of course he is,” I gasped. “Because why the fuck wouldn’t men who can shift into wolves exist?” I laughed again.

“I need some air. Be right back.” Sebastian opened his door and it closed quietly behind him, but he didn’t move far, leaning against the car while he gave Nic and me our moment of token privacy.

“I swear to you this is the best option, Leia.” Nic ran his fingers through my hair again, teasing tangles apart with his gentle fingers. “I wouldn’t ask you to do this if there was any other way to keep you safe.” His voice tightened and he hesitated in his movements before he spoke again. “Humans are fragile. I need to keep you safe.”

He pressed his forefinger softly under my chin and tilted my face up, meeting my gaze before his mouth claimed mine. I responded to him immediately, my body seemingly always ready for him, and I moaned as I slid my tongue to touch his. I pushed my hands through his hair and arched toward him, offering him my body.

“Why do I always want you?” I half-whispered, half-moaned the question, and he chuckled softly as he drew away.

“You don’t suffer alone, Leia. I hope you know that.” Then he didn’t even raise his voice as he spoke again. “Sebastian, you can come back in now.”

The back door opened, and Sebastian sat heavily on the seat. “I think I should inform you we all goddamn suffer.”

And I laughed as he pretty much hung his head out of the window like a dog as Nic started the car again.

We drove in silence for a while longer before Nic turned off the road and took increasingly narrow dirt paths, each more rutted than the last.

I swayed in my seat. “Where are we going?”

“The house isn’t accessible by road. We travel by skiff from here.” He shut the engine off and got out of the car before leaning down to look back in at me. “Come on.”

I climbed out and joined him on a small wooden jetty. Cypress trees hung low and the Spanish moss over the branches formed a curtained tunnel leading to a gaping blackness. Even the water was black, shielded by the trees and colored by the night.

“What’s in there?” I stepped back from the edge, ignoring the boat—the very tiny boat—rocking gently on the water.

“Nothing with teeth bigger than mine.” Sebastian pushed forward and grinned, flashing full fang.

Nic pushed him away again. “That’s right. Nothing in the water will have teeth bigger than yours because I’ll be in the fucking boat.”

“Maybe Nic can even make you a new purse that matches your shoes if we spot any gators?” Sebastian climbed into the boat and it barely wobbled, despite his size and frame.

“I don’t think I can get in there. One, how can we possibly all fit, and two, how can it keep us all afloat?”

“Well, we’re not swimming to the safe house. Having the biggest teeth doesn’t mean I want any of my other body parts removed.” Nic grabbed me and swung me into his arms before hesitating as he looked at Sebastian. “I need to pass her to you,” he ground out, his teeth clenched.

Sebastian paled, his skin bleaching in the moonlight. He held his arms out. “Quickly then, and I’ll pass her right back.”

He took a deep breath and didn’t release it, puffing his cheeks out like a bullfrog.

Once we were all in the boat and Nic was happy with the seating arrangement, he pushed off with the oar. There was only one, and he seemed to be using it to push against the bottom of the swamp as we moved forward, rather than actually rowing.

I sat small, and still, and quiet, and I ignored the gleam of eyes from the trees and land, and especially the gleam of eyes from the swamp. Occasionally, Sebastian hissed, the sound both a warning to anything in the water and a reminder that there was something about both of these men that wasn’t as polished as their exterior suggested. Something a little bit feral and primal.

I folded in on myself a little, the ripple of water the only sound in the thick blanket of quiet. It was the perfect breeding ground for my hurt feelings and doubts over everything that had taken place. Even now, while people were actively risking their lives for me, I was being kept away from the action in a place Nic deemed safe.

It was somewhere I wouldn’t know what was happening, somewhere I wasn’t able to help.

It was somewhere I didn’t want to be.