“Fine,” I grumbled like a petulant child, tossing the bag by my feet. “But I’m hiking to the cabin na**d.” I crossed my arms in front of me.
“Jessica!” The car bumped wildly off the road.
He straightened it with effort as I craned my neck behind us, recognizing the area. “Isn’t this near the place you stored your motorcycle last time?” It was dark as night outside, but the area looked familiar. My arms prickled in anticipation—not only at the thought of being with Rourke, but I was excited because I’d fallen in love with this place once before and I thought I’d never see it again.
“Yes,” Rourke said grimly. “And it couldn’t have come at a better moment.” He ran a slightly shaky hand over his face as he took his foot off the accelerator.
“Where are you going to park?” He’d stowed his bike behind the brush in a shallow indent of rock. “The car won’t fit with your bike.”
“There’s a place up ahead, closer to the sulfur stream, which means less walking in the water.”
“Do we have to douse ourselves again? It didn’t really work out for us last time.”
“The pool is mandatory.”
I turned, resting my head against the seat, my eyes blazing. “You don’t say?”
He gave a strangled cough. “We need to do it because it will give us an advantage if we have any unwanted visitors. They won’t scent us as easily, and I want to know who’s on my mountain before we hit the cabin.”
“Hmm, yes, that sounds like a perfectly good explanation to get all wet.”
“Jessica”—he turned to me, his face set—“if we do anything in that pool, we’re never getting out.”
“And I don’t see anything wrong with that scenario.” He shouldn’t be surprised at my reaction. I’d told him five seconds ago there was nothing rational left rolling around in my brain. He shook his head and I sighed. “Okay. Fine,” I conceded. “I get it. We swim, we splash, we hike, we investigate, and then we—”
He slammed on the brakes so hard the car skidded to a stop, gravel from the shoulder fanning in an arc around us, alarm all over his face. “I just saw a flash of something in the trees.” His arm went up, pointing directly into the forest next to the passenger side of the car.
“Where?” I asked, immediately at attention, scanning the trees. The moon was out, but it was cloudy, which made it harder to see.
“It looked like two people, but then they were gone before I could see what they were doing.”
I squinted. “I don’t see anything.”
“The only reason I haven’t sped off in the other direction is because they weren’t focused on us, and it could’ve been two humans.”
“If they were humans, we’d still see them bumbling around.” I leaned forward in my seat, still searching.
“Maybe they were apparitions.”
I raised my eyebrows, turning to him. “Are you talking about ghosts? I’ve never seen one, but that seems highly unlikely. You know, all we need to do is open a window and scent the area.” I was sick of this hermetically sealed car. It was time to make a break. “We’re getting out anyway. Let’s see who’s here and then we can decide what to do.”
“Let me straighten the wheels out first,” Rourke answered, resigned.
The hairs on my arms started to rise to attention. “Hurry,” I said. “I’m starting to feel something.” Otherness was seeping through the witch’s spell on the car. Every supernatural had the ability to detect the other. I had no idea how it worked, I was just happy it did.
“I can feel it, too, but it’s muddled in here.”
“I’m cracking the window,” I said as Rourke put the car into park. “You ready?”
He’d angled us into a semisheltered place on the side of the road. “Fine, but I’m keeping my foot on the gas pedal, so don’t get any ideas about leaving until we find out what’s going—”
My window went down less than a centimeter and I knew who was out there and so did Rourke.
I flung my door open before anything else could register.
“Naomi! We’re here!” I yelled as I ran headlong into the forest.
6