“I don’t give a shit if it’s dangerous or not,” Ronan said before Naya could respond to her cousin. “We’ll just have to deal with it, because we’re not separating again.”
Naya turned to him, her eyes narrowed and lips pursed petulantly. “Habla Español, Ronan?”
He gave Naya a peck on the cheek before depositing her in the backseat and climbing in after her. When they were settled, he gripped her chin gently between his thumb and finger and guided her face to his for a slow kiss. “One of several languages, actually.”
“Impressive,” Naya replied with a wry smile. “Obviously I have a lot to learn about my mate.”
My mate. Gods, Ronan felt like the fucking Grinch at Christmas, hearing those words from her. His heart swelled near to bursting in his chest and he was overcome with emotion. He kissed her again, her face cupped between his hands as he slanted his mouth hungrily over hers.
“All right, knock it the hell off back there.” He peeked from the corner of one eye to see Luz staring at them from the rearview mirror. “You’re grossing me out.”
Naya pulled away and smiled. The open, joyful expression stole his breath. “We need a game plan,” she said as she settled back into the seat. “There isn’t a lot of ground to cover, and I’d be willing to bet there’s another mapinguari raising hell somewhere.”
“We’re not splitting up,” Luz said. “So we need to decide what to track first. Paul, or the demon.”
It was a no-brainer for Ronan. “Paul. The demon can wait.” Ronan wanted to meet this male who thought he could control Naya and give her away as though she were nothing more than a commodity to be traded.
“No,” Naya replied. “If we want answers we need to find the mapinguari, and I know how to lure one in. Luz, did you get ahold of Manny?”
“I did,” she said from the front seat. “He’s waiting for us.”
“All right, then. It’s settled.”
* * *
“Why is this the first I’m hearing of this plan? And who in the hell is Manny?”
Naya grinned at Ronan’s overprotective tone. Maybe it was a vampire thing to need to control every situation down to every finite detail. “You were down for the count when Luz and I discussed it,” she said. “And Manny is our friend. He’s human, but a magic sensitive. The mapinguari will be looking for a body to transfer its magic to. Manny would make the perfect host. The magic could just slip right in with little to no resistance.”
“And what if your plan backfires?”
From the front seat Luz snorted. “Why don’t you leave the magic to the experts, tall, dark, and vampsome?”
Naya nudged the back of Luz’s seat with a knee. “Magic—and that includes dark magic—is just like any other living thing, Ronan. It needs to be sustained. Nourished. Magic becomes corrupt when it’s stolen and manipulated by someone or something that it’s not born to. Corrupt magic is like a parasite, and it needs a host to feed from to continue to thrive. Manny will be like a big, fat cheeseburger to this particular etheric force. It won’t be able to resist him.”
“Exactly,” Luz chimed in. “Manny acts as bait, and we annihilate the pain-in-the-ass bad juju once and for all.” She reached behind her for a high five and Naya obliged. “Be in awe of our badassedness, Nosferatu.”
“And what if your badassedness isn’t badass enough?” Ronan countered. He turned to Naya, his expression severe. “What if that magic targets you instead?”
“Silly vampire,” Luz said. “Why don’t you relax and let the big girls handle this.”
His gaze flashed silver as he ignored Luz and kept his attention focused on Naya.
“It won’t,” Naya explained. She reached out and squeezed Ronan’s hand, hoping to reassure him. “Our own magic makes us sort of immune.”
“You said you felt it in your body.”
“I’m not saying it doesn’t affect us,” Naya explained. “I’m almost certain that dark magic is what’s caused my memory loss. But it can’t overtake us. It just dissipates in our bodies, dilutes like a drop of food coloring in a glass of water. It can’t grow or thrive inside of us.”
“Because we’re awesome.”
Naya rolled her eyes. Luz was too cocky for her own good.
Aside from the tension that Ronan threw off, Naya was confident. If she could pinpoint the source of the dark magic, that might make expelling it from Ronan’s body easier. At this point, it was her last resort. She couldn’t let it take him. Wouldn’t let it. She’d fight to her dying breath to save him.