she’d remembered, stroking down her spine like a physical caress. “I missed you.”
Oh, crap. Five seconds in his presence, and her body was already shrieking take me now! She had an intense desire to grab the front of his t-shirt and haul him into her cabin, and to hell with the consequences.
But that wouldn’t be fair on him. He’d told her that he needed forever, or nothing. And there was no knowing how long he’d be able to maintain human form.
“How are you feeling?” she asked. The text messages that the crew had sent her had been light on details, but it must have been a few hours since he’d been hit by Lupa’s dart. “Still, uh, stable?”
“Serum not wearing off yet.” He hesitated, eying her. “Might…might be able to stay like this for longer, this time. Not sure yet.”
Her heart leaped, but she did her best to hide it. He was clearly trying not to get his own hopes up. She didn’t want to add her own to that burden.
Be professional. She was here to do a job, after all.
“Come on inside. There’s coffee waiting.” She led him into the dining hall, the rest of the crew following along behind. “So you didn’t find anything in Vance’s cabin?”
An odd ripple went through the squad. They had all just got back from a long drive, but Darcy thought that they all seemed a little too interested in the coffee pots that she’d set out.
“What?” she said, staring around at them all. “I assumed it was a bust, since you guys didn’t call me.”
“Sorry about that.” Rory’s gaze flicked briefly to Fenrir. “We had a lot to discuss.”
“That sounds promising,” Darcy said, wondering why no one was meeting her eye. “Did you find more of Vance’s notes? Enough to work out how he made the serum?”
“I’m afraid not.” Wystan cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. “We went through everything carefully, but any journals were either removed or destroyed. Lupa managed to clear out the place fairly thoroughly in a short space of time.”
“Apart from the basement,” Edith said, her hands shivering with remembered distress. “There were chains down there.”
“Hey, nothing wrong with chains,” Joe said. “Lots of good reasons why someone might have chains lying around a basement. Or other rooms, for that matter.”
Seren, who’d just taken a sip of coffee, made a slightly strangled sound.
“Yes, but I don’t think those were happy fun time chains though,” Edith said. “Everything we found suggested that Vance was living there alone. Why would he be chaining himself up?”
“Maybe he wasn’t,” Callum said. “Lupa could have been keeping him prisoner.”
“No,” Fenrir rumbled. “Followed his scent there. He was free to move around outside.” Then he frowned, brow creasing. “Though…he may not have gone with Lupa willingly. Overheard the wendigo telling her that he’d knocked Vance out.”
“Well, there goes my theory that they were working together.” Darcy rubbed her forehead, turning the pieces of the puzzle around in her head. “Maybe she was forcing him to make the serum for her.”
“Why would she let him live on his own, then?” Edith asked. “Wouldn’t he be able to run away from her? We know now that he’s not a hellhound, so she can’t control him with alpha dominance.”
“Who knows. Maybe she was blackmailing him. Or maybe Lupa was just buying the stuff from him, but when we got too close, she realized she had to snatch him away before we could nab him.” Darcy shrugged. “In any event, I think it’s pretty clear that Lupa’s got Vance now. I expect she’s taken him back to wherever she’s been hiding. And if he’s her prisoner, I doubt she’s going to be giving him her Wi-Fi password. I’m not going to be able to track him down the same way again.”
“So now what?” Blaise asked.
“So now I have to switch tactics. Since I can’t use Vance to find Lupa, I’ll have to look for her directly.” Darcy looked across at Fenrir. “And fortunately, we have someone who knows her.”
Chapter 21
“Fenrir?” Darcy’s voice called from the other side of the bathroom door. “Are you okay in there?”
“Yes,” he lied. “Am fine.”
From the momentary silence, he hadn’t fooled her. “I don’t mean to rush you, but we don’t know when the serum might wear off. I really need to talk to you about Lupa while we still can. Are you going to be much longer?”
“No. Just a minute.”
Fists clenched on the edges of the washbasin, he stared into the mirror.
“Is self,”