She was trembling when he let her go. She hoped she didn’t sound as terrified as she felt. “Thanks, Sir Pup. That’s good to know.”
The hellhound shifted back to his former size and snagged the fast-food bag from the console. He retreated into the back, giving her a clear view of Blake again.
His face was gray, his hands shaking as he pushed them through his hair.
“Christ, Maggie,” he said. “I didn’t know that he would-I shouldn’t have asked him that. I’m sorry.”
She nodded. She hadn’t expected it, either. But she was glad Sir Pup’s demon form hadn’t just scared the shit out of her. Blake had obviously been just as-
Wait.
How the hell had Blake known what happened?
“You saw that. You saw him change.” Her heart knocked against her ribs. She stared at his solid-blue eyes, stunned-but couldn’t deny the evidence. “You can see.”
“I-” His eyes widened. His mouth closed. His jaw tightened. “You don’t know that,” he said flatly.
“I don’t? Because I sure as hell-”
“No, Maggie. You don’t. If anyone asks, you don’t know. Not until we find Katherine. Not until the problem with James is settled.”
“All right.” She understood that. Her knowing was something that didn’t go farther than this vehicle. Not even to Ames-Beaumont. Because if Ames-Beaumont learned of it while he was uncertain about her role in Katherine’s kidnapping…
Maggie smiled grimly. It wouldn’t be the first time someone had been killed for knowing too much. She stole a glance at Blake. His eyes were closed, and he was pressing his clenched fist to his forehead. If she had to guess, he was giving himself a heated telling-off.
But maybe, she thought, maybe he’d meant it when he’d offered to stand between her and Ames-Beaumont. If it came to that.
Not, of course, that she would let him. But it was still a good feeling.
Chapter Four
“She’s awake,” Blake said quietly.
Maggie blinked away her highway stare and glanced over at him. A few minutes ago, he’d been asleep. His eyes were still closed, but he’d raised his seat from its reclined position.
“She’s moving slowly,” he continued. “In the bedroom at the back of the caravan. She’s not tied, but the door won’t open. They’ve left her a basket of food, bottles of water. There are windows, and they’ve been darkened with some kind of film. She’s waving. No one in the other cars is noticing. The setting sun is on the left.”
“Heading south,” Maggie said hoarsely. A shiver kept running up and down her spine.
He was seeing, she realized. He was looking through his sister’s eyes.
Blake nodded. “On a divided highway. Two lanes each direction. The car behind them has South Carolina license plates. So does the one passing it.”
And she and Blake were only halfway through New Jersey. The RV had at least twelve or thirteen hours on them.
But not as many hours as it could have had. Whoever had taken Katherine would have been farther if they’d driven straight through. They’d pulled over either to rest or to wait for someone.
“There’s a water closet. The window doesn’t open. She looks all right in the mirror. No bruises.” The monotone recitation broke for an instant, and he laughed. “That’s right, Kate, flip me the bird. She’s got an injection site in her neck, the same as mine. They took blood, too. And she’s looking at the toilet, so that’s my cue to head out for a bit.”
Maggie’s heart pounded. She couldn’t think of a thing to say.
Blake was silent for a few seconds. Then he told her, “She can’t see through mine.”
“Whose are you seeing through now?”
“Yours.”
Maggie stared out the windshield. Sickness clawed at her stomach-she wasn’t sure why. Revelations like these were one of the reasons why she’d taken a job with a vampire. She couldn’t have gone back to normal life after finding out about dragons, or Guardians. She’d have always been looking, and wondering.
She drove and waited for the sick feeling to resolve. It finally did.
Her reaction wasn’t in response to his ability, but the implications of it. Blake possessed a form of remote viewing. What nation wouldn’t want to use that for intelligence gathering-or take steps to prevent it from being used against them?
Jesus. No wonder Ames-Beaumont was so obsessed with protecting his family. If he hadn’t been, every government in the world would have been trying to exploit them-or destroy them.
“And this is the reason Miss Blake was taken,” Maggie realized. “And it’s why they haven’t asked for a ransom. What can she do?”
She hadn’t really expected an answer. And she didn’t anticipate the ease with which Blake delivered it.
“She locates things,” he said. “Items, not people.”
That took a second to sink in. Once it did, Maggie frowned. “Then it could be anyone, looking for anything.”
“No. It has to be someone with resources, access to information, and organized. To begin, they knew she was on holiday in America.”
Maggie nodded. Yes, she’d have used the same opportunity-the target was alone and on foreign soil. “But not military. They wouldn’t be heading down the interstate in an RV. Probably not a vampire, because he wouldn’t need James to take Miss Blake, and he can’t drive during the day.”
“And there are at least two of them. Katherine was on the road when James was in New York last night.” His long fingers tapped against his knees, and a thoughtful expression creased his brow. “It could be a demon driving, if James was the one who drugged her.”
“You think it was a demon? We’ve got to call in the Guardians, then.”
Blake turned his head, met her eyes. Using her vision, she realized, to know where to focus his.
“No,” he said.
“We can’t go up against-”
“A demon has to follow the Rules-no hurting humans, no denying their free will-so he can’t do anything to us. If he’s got vampires with him, we only move in to find Katherine during the day. James is our biggest concern, and Guardians wouldn’t be able to do anything to him, because they’ve got to follow the Rules, too.” Blake paused. “And we’ve got Sir Pup.”
Which meant, Maggie guessed, that even though Ames-Beaumont worked closely with the Guardians, he hadn’t told them about his family… and he didn’t want to risk them finding out.
“Does anyone else know what you can do? What others in your family can do?”
“No one except Savi. A few others who’ve married into the family. Uncle Colin has kept it that way for two hundred years.”
Successfully? Maggie doubted that. Human nature was human nature; even someone like Ames-Beaumont couldn’t squash it. “No one has put it to use? Either for money, or for the government?”
“Some of us have put it to use. We just don’t tell anyone we’re doing it. As for the money, no one in the family needs it.” Blake leaned his head back, closed his eyes. “They’ve stopped. It’s dark. She can’t see much. Trees. A few small fires.”
“A campground?” When he nodded, Maggie said, “We can catch up while they’re stopped. Or at least get closer.”
“That’s-” Blake cut himself off, sat up straight. “They opened the door. There’s James. And another man, standing behind him. Tall, dark hair. The wanker looks right out of GQ.”
Blake flinched, once.
“The bloody bastard James drugged her. She’s out again.”
Around midnight, Maggie began alternating between a fixed stare at the highway and skipping her gaze around the interior of the car and searching the sides of the dark highway, all the while blinking rapidly. Her vision hadn’t been in such a hyperactive mode since they’d left the Brooklyn street.