get in my way or annoy me,” he said through their bond, obviously having heard her thoughts.
“See if you can say the same thing in a decade or two,” she teased. “See if you can say the same thing in a decade or two,” she teased. “And your shirt says otherwise.” She pointed at the t-shirt he’d been wearing for two days. It said, ‘if you can read this, you’re too damn close. If you’re too damn close, I’m annoyed. When I’m annoyed, I start eating those who got too damn close.’ She’d snort laughed when she’d read it the first time and it still made her snort laugh two days later.
Wadim took his eyes off the computer screen he’d been staring at for the better part of fifteen hours and looked at her. She could see the exhaustion in his unusual gold eyes. They were bright in the center, and they darkened toward the outer edge. Zara could get lost in them if she let herself.
“I apologize if I’ve been neglecting you,” he said, his voice filled with concern.
Zara immediately shook her head. “Nah-uh. I’m not that girl. You don’t need to cater to me in order for me to feel secure in our relationship. I’m just curious, but I also don’t want to keep you from doing something important. So if you can’t take time to explain it, not that you won’t, but you seriously can’t, I get it and I’m okay.”
To her surprise, he reached out, took her face in his hands, and pressed his lips to hers. It was a firm but brief kiss, one she was becoming accustomed to because he did it so often. Apparently, Wadim liked kissing her.
“You’re amazing,” he said when he pulled back. He ran a thumb across her cheek and simply stared at her for a few heartbeats before finally dropping his hands. He grabbed the arm of the chair she sat in, pulled her closer to him, and then pointed to the screen. “Right now, I am simply going through any and all records I can. The problem is I only have the history of the wolves. I don’t have the records of all the supernaturals like the djinn do.”
“The djinn have all the history?” Zara’s eyes widened. “As in all, all?”
He nodded. “They are the history keepers of the supernatural races. I know it’s mind blowing because it seems impossible. But how is it possible that I am a man who can turn into a wolf? How is it possible vampires exist?”
“Do they have an archive system the way you do?”
He shook his head. “As far as I know, they have history keepers who have an ability, supernatural obviously, to keep all the information in their minds. I don’t even know if they fully understand how they can possess so much in their minds. Maybe their brain structure is different, and therefore they process and store information in a way the rest of us can’t understand.”
Zara considered his words and thought it was as good an explanation as they were going to get without asking a djinn. “So what are you looking for in the Canis lupus archives?”
He scrolled through the pages of information, which was written in a language she didn’t know. When Zara looked at his face, she saw his eyes moving inhumanly fast across the screen. He was reading at an unbelievable speed.
“I need to figure out why they want Sally so badly, or a healer in general. And do they need other supernaturals just as badly,” he answered. “Is there something that makes it important for them to have the power of certain supernaturals, or all of them, or what?” She heard the frustration in his voice growing as he scanned the pages. “I can’t believe I’m unable to find anything in all the information we have recorded. If we knew why they wanted her, then maybe it would give us an advantage. We could predict how they are going to try and use her. Maybe we can do something to prevent it.”
“Are there historians in other packs?” Zara had no clue how the packs were organized. She was still learning how the Romanian pack worked, so she hoped it wasn’t a stupid question, but she really wanted to help him. She didn’t like seeing him so stressed, feeling as though the fate of everything depended on him finding the right information.
“I’m an idiot,” Wadim said as he dropped his head down.