“Yes, so we should be fucking amazing at it this time, don’t you think?”
Dox barked out a startled laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”
I shook my head. “Nope. But then, Doran could be wrong.”
Liam rubbed his hands together, and then leaned back in his seat again. “Anything else?”
Almost like he knew I was holding back. So I spilled about everything else, about how Doran could read me a little, about some of what he thought he saw for me.
About trying to kiss me. Liam’s jaw tensed up with that. “And?”
I frowned at him. “And what? I didn’t kiss him. He’s saving it so he can royally piss you off at some point.”
Dox snickered. “Yeah, that sounds like Doran.”
Liam didn’t ask anymore questions after that, thank the gods, and since I wasn’t much of a talker and Dox didn’t seem inclined to encourage a conversation, there was pretty much radio silence. And in the most literal sense too, since the radio wouldn’t work with the three of us in the truck.
At least there were no rampant wolf farts. A twinge settled around my heart at the thought of Alex. I missed him, missed his constant companionship; even Liam couldn’t really compete with that, though I’d never tell him. Alex, there had been something special about him from the beginning, even if I’d been loathe to admit it.
Hell, I missed Pamela, even though in some ways it would be easier to do this salvage without the whole freaking three-ring circus. I missed them. And I was worried as hell about Eve.
Fuck it, Doran was right, my life was a big ass mess of trials. I wanted to cross my fingers that he would be wrong about them never ending.
Every few hours Dox and I swapped out driving so that we didn’t have to stop. Though Calliope’s threads hummed along nicely, I was worried. A demon sacrifice, if Doran was right, might mean we had a little time. If it was just the Roc, we had zero time. And if there was something in between that had taken the Roc over and was trying to raise a demon, we were royally screwed. For some reason, I was betting on the last scenario. It was just a matter of who was controlling the Roc, and who was trying to make a sacrifice to a demon and why.
Easy. Right.
I dozed off and on, and when I was awake, I watched Liam in the reflection of the windows.
I could see he was bothered by what I’d told him about Doran. Or maybe he sensed that I’d held back from him. Hell, maybe I should tell him. Then again, if I did and he had a meltdown, I would be the one dealing with it. And for all I knew, Doran was just dicking around with me. Which wouldn’t totally surprise me. And the last thing I needed was Liam in meltdown mode in the middle of a salvage that likely involved a demon.
No, this was one secret I was keeping to myself.
A full twenty-four hours we drove—and with no major catastrophes. Of course, I was expecting something. After the car chases in Europe, I couldn’t help but keep checking behind, waiting for someone to throw a spell at us from a passing vehicle. The fact that nothing happened made me, at best, suspicious.
Dox pulled off the interstate at the border range of the Cascades. “This is where ogre territory starts. From here on in, there are a few rules you both need to follow.”
He turned the engine off and turned in his seat to face us. This was a lecture I hadn’t been expecting.
“Don’t challenge anyone. No matter how much you want to. Challenges can be taken up by a whole Gang. Meaning if you challenge one, you are challenging all of them.”
“Fabulous,” I muttered.
He glared at me. “Don’t lip off. Respect is earned here. Though I doubt you’d get it even if you wiped out an entire Gang. In an ogre’s eyes, you two are worse than humans. Supernaturals who can blend in with the rest of the world are not tolerated around here.”
Liam shifted in his seat. “I thought we were just going to go in, quiet-like, grab the foal, and leave without the ogres knowing we were even here?”
Yeah, that’s what the two men had discussed for the last hundred or so miles. Guerilla tactics that may or may not work. Likely wouldn’t, in my humblest of opinions.
Dox shrugged. “Ideally, yes. But they have sentries and the minute they know we’re here, they’re going to be on top of us.”
“Will they try to kill us outright?” I fiddled with the sleeve of my leather jacket, my mind racing ahead to all the possibilities.
His face was grim. “Yes.”
“Then what does it matter what the niceties of your society are if we are going to have to fight our way through?” I snapped, irritated that he would stop us to tell us meaningless shit. Although Calliope was still alive, I could feel the pressure of time running out weighing down on me. Like a sixth sense, I knew we had to get to her soon or it would be too late.