Skyler had to smile. Most Carpathian hunters were tough as nails and then some, but Paul's sister Colby had married into one of the roughest families of all. She was a lifemate to Rafael De La Cruz. There were five brothers and all of them were considered extremely lethal, some of the most feared predators on the planet. Clearly, Paul had already learned a lot from them. She had no doubt that he'd learned to defend himself as well. He fought vampires and did a man's work on the ranch, running things while the Carpathians slept during the day.
"Josef, load your coffin into the truck, please," Skyler told him. "We've got to keep moving. We need to be on the road just in case someone comes looking for one of us."
Paul looked over the ornate coffin and then burst out laughing. "Look at that thing. Josef, you've been having fun, haven't you?"
Skyler rolled her eyes. "Don't encourage him. You have no idea. He actually put the cause of death as a broken heart in the official documents. Can you believe that?"
Paul laughed harder. "I would expect nothing less." He ruffled Skyler's hair. "You grew up beautiful. Who knew?"
Josef scowled at him. "You see her nearly every day on FaceTime or Skype. She looks the same way she always looks. You, on the other hand, have grown your hair out. You're even beginning to look like the De La Cruz brothers. Are you crazy?"
Paul shrugged and pushed his cowboy hat back on his head with one thumb. "Everyone is a little afraid of the De La Cruz brothers. I don't mind in the least being associated with them. It automatically makes me a badass."
Skyler found herself laughing-and relaxing-for the first time in days. She'd forgotten the easy camaraderie she shared with Paul and Josef when they were together like this. She loved them both and knew they felt the same way about her. Both might tease her about Dimitri, but they held him in great respect. They wanted to find him every bit as much as she did.
Josef was worried that she might not know the consequences of their actions, but she knew all too well. How could she not? She was lying to the people she loved. And she knew, without a shadow of a doubt that the De La Cruz family would protect Paul just as Gabriel and Lucian would her. The De La Cruz brothers had been a long time away from the Carpathian Mountains, and they were a law unto themselves. They were loyal to the prince, but at the same time, it was the eldest, Zacarias, who governed their actions. He would never, under any circumstances, allow one of his family members to be in jeopardy without coming to his aid.
She had thought a lot about what she was doing. Paul was important to her and he knew it. They had discussed openly what the De La Cruz brothers would do should the plan fail and they all get in trouble. The De La Cruz family had more to lose than any other. MaryAnn and Manolito De La Cruz would be hunted and killed, just as Dimitri would be, if the Lycans had their way at the summit taking place soon in the Carpathian Mountains. They were considered the dreaded Sange rau-literally bad blood-a mix of Lycan and Carpathian.
She watched Josef float his coffin into the back of the truck. He was astonishingly adept at moving objects. She could do it, but not as easily as he did. Josef had gone through an awkward phase, but he had certainly come out of it and was smooth and adept at using his Carpathian gifts. He was considered a child in the eyes of the centuries-old Carpathian males. Carpathian children weren't considered adults until they hit their fiftieth year.
The Carpathians were just beginning to understand his genius with technology, especially computers. There was little he couldn't do, nothing he couldn't hack, and no program he couldn't write. She was fairly certain they still didn't recognize the enormity of his abilities and what it meant for their people. Carpathians were very intellectual, but she knew Josef was a true genius, miles ahead of most people in any species.
Paul and Josef were outsiders in their own world, just as she was, to a much lesser extent. She lived with Carpathian parents who treated her lovingly, but she wasn't Carpathian. Paul also was surrounded by Carpathians, but he had to live in a human world, even if he didn't fit there anymore. He'd seen vampires, had even been possessed by one. And then there was Josef. Her gaze fell on him. Flamboyant. A rebel. Yes, he was both of these things, but he was also loyal, brilliant and someone who could always be counted on.
Her heart had always gone out to him. She couldn't deny that she loved him, so of course Dimitri knew. He knew everything about her. Long ago she'd opened her mind to her lifemate. At first she'd allowed Dimitri entrance into her mind with the vague idea he'd see, after her terrible childhood, that she could never be what he wanted her to be. He had been then what he was now. Absolute. Calm. Implacable. Certain. Loving.
He was a man nearly impossible to resist. Well. Okay. Her resistance to the idea of being his lifemate had faded completely. She just needed a little time to build confidence in herself that when the time came she would be able to be a full partner to him.
Skyler bit down hard on her lip, wincing a little when it hurt. She wasn't there yet, not the physical part, but that didn't matter, nor would it ever if he didn't survive.
Josef's teasing nudge nearly sent her flying. He groaned. "There she goes again, off to la-la land. She's taken to doing that lately, Paul. You'll be talking to her and she seems like a normal person and then she gets that hokey, moon face, all gooey-eyed and goofy and she drifts off somewhere. I think before we do anything else we need to get her to a doctor and fast."
"Oh, you're going to need a doctor." Skyler retaliated with a swift kick to his shins, and as he turned to flee, she leapt up on his back, pretending to punch his ribs.
"Help, help, she's gone mad." Josef spun in circles as if trying to get her off his back, all the while holding her safely to him.
"Come on, you goofballs. We can't be certain someone hasn't figured out yet that Sky is not where she said she'd be," Paul cautioned. "All either Francesca or Gabriel has to do is try to touch base with her."
Josef stopped his wild spinning and bent his knees to ease Skyler to the ground. He glanced around him, suddenly wary.
"I don't think they'll find us this fast, bro," Paul said.
"No. Not Francesca and Gabriel," Josef said, stepping in front of Skyler and sweeping her behind him with one arm. "But something has."
"I can help," Skyler hissed. "I'm very adept at all kinds of defense." She peeked around Josef. She had met and faced all kinds of monsters and they scared the hell out of her, but she wasn't about to show fear to either of her friends-not when they were risking their lives in her rather desperate plan to take Dimitri back from his captors.
Paul closed in on the other side. "Pipe down, lunatic, at least let us see what's coming at us."
"The coffin's in the truck, do you want to try to just drive away?" Skyler suggested hopefully.
"I'd rather meet them out in the open," Paul said. "Josef?"
Josef held up his hand, fingers spread wide. "Five of them. Punks. They saw the customs guy close up shop and they like to come see what might have been left behind. Two of them are pretty high. All of them have been drinking. No vampires."
Skyler caught Josef's arm. "Let's just go then. Five humans with knives and chains and maybe guns can still slow us down. Let's get out of here."
"I don't think they have any intention of letting us take the truck, Sky," Josef said. "They've got their eyes on our ride."
Skyler sighed. Josef and Paul were spoiling for a fight. They both had pent-up energy as well as suppressed anger toward their prince and the other hunters. If she was being entirely truthful, she did as well. She was angry. Furious. Dimitri deserved so much more loyalty than his people were showing him. All three of them had been kept out of the loop, too young to count, when the very person who was her other half was in danger. It wasn't right. She was Dimitri's lifemate and at the very least, she should be kept informed at all times, not dismissed as if she were a child and wouldn't understand.
She took a deep breath, knowing that the only one of the three of them who looked as if they could handle themselves was Paul. Josef, they would dismiss. He was tall and lanky, but hadn't developed the outward muscle that might impress a group of toughs like the ones posturing. Josef, of course, was the one that everyone should be afraid of, but he looked like the techie he was.
She listened to the trash talk and gave a little sigh. The world sometimes seemed the same everywhere she went. London, South America, the United States, even her beloved Romania had the same types that would much rather rob than earn.