Justice eyed the perky blonde and nodded. “Airsick.”

She needed to turn around, get back on the flight and go back to the fucking Midwest. That was what the fates wanted of her, and those bitches always got their way.

Justice stepped out of the path of unloading passengers and planted her feet. She breathed through her nose, hoping the urge to go east would fizzle out and leave her alone. That was where Ronan was. And if he found her, she was sure the bloodsucker would be the death of her.

She wasn’t ready to die. She hated her life and the way she was tossed about like a corked bottle on the ocean. Still, she was too scared to face what might lie on the other side of this place to do anything about it.

She’d already woken up once naked, alone and with no memories of a former life. She really didn’t think she could take doing so again.

The urge to obey bore down on her, making her head throb and her gut churn. Her skin had constricted to the point that she wasn’t sure how she was going to find the space to pull in her next breath. As it was, she was panting and sweating, taking a lot of stink eye from the people passing her.

She couldn’t stay here, whatever she did. She had to move. Do something. The itch inside her was too extreme to just stand around and be tortured. At least if she were moving, she’d be distracted from the way she was slowly dying inside.

Justice found herself in baggage claim, retrieving her hard-sided, cherry red suitcase. Her next stop was a rental-car agency, where she got the fastest set of wheels they had to offer.

Ten minutes later, she was behind the wheel, flying down the highway.

An interstate junction loomed up ahead. She could go left and head for California, or right, back to Ronan Land. Left was freedom and excruciating pain. Right was elation, followed by a bloodsucking vampire.

In the end, there really was no choice. There never had been—at least not for her. Justice had no free will. She was a tool. A pawn. She went where she was told and did what was expected of her, no matter how cruel or disgusting it might be.

Her only hope was that wherever the fates sent her this time, Ronan would be far, far away.

Chapter 28

Joseph realized the instant he could breathe again that he’d made a fatal mistake.

Lyka hadn’t been ready for sex. It was too soon, and now she was shutting down, closing up shop and boarding all the doors on her thoughts so he couldn’t see a single one.

He should have waited. Given her time. Let her accept the fact that she was irrevocably bound to him—that she wasn’t going back to her old life once Eric and the kids were found.

But, no, his dick had to get some, and now he’d potentially ruined his relationship with his mate for the rest of their long, long lives.

How the hell could he have been so stupid?

She slipped from the bed and wobbled to the bathroom. The door shut behind her, blocking off the sight of her lovely ass, as well as any chance he had of reading her thoughts.

He poked at the connection between them, hoping for even a slight glimpse of her feelings, but all he got was a cold, blank wall.

He fell back against the pillows and covered his eyes with his forearm. The longer he waited to bridge the gap that was forming between them, the wider it would become.

The only thing he could think to do to draw her back to him was to help her find her brother, but they’d been working on that with little success so far. So had a lot of other people. Whoever, whatever, had the Slayers, they were covering their tracks well. Not even the best Slayer noses had been able to follow the trail.

Then again, not one of those Slayers had the power of a Theronai at their disposal, either.

Joseph thought about waiting for her to come out of the bathroom, but every second that passed was another chunk of ice clogging their connection. It was time to melt that all off.

His legs were a bit unsteady as he slid on his jeans, but he forced his shaky limbs to carry him to the bathroom door. “Lyka, are you okay?”

“Fine. Just cleaning up.” Her tone was sharp with irritation.

He’d left a hell of a mess inside that sweet body of hers when he’d come, but she’d seemed to like it at the time. Maybe she was one of those OCD chicks who just couldn’t stand a man’s semen touching her.

If that was the case, then she was just going to have to get over it, because he planned on messing her up again. Frequently.

Whoa. Down, boy. Getting pissed over something he didn’t even know was true was not the way to get Lyka to open up to him.

He put a muzzle on his irrational burst of anger and forced his voice to come out nice and calm. “Can I come in?”

“Isn’t there another bathroom?”

“Not one with you in it.”

She let out a long, agitated sigh. The door opened to her gloriously naked body posed with one hand on her curvy hip. He was sure her expression would have shown him just how pissed she was if he could have found the strength to lift his eyes past her flushed breasts.

He loved the way her nipples felt against his tongue, the way she squirmed and panted when he applied just the right amount of suction.

How in the world was he going to concentrate on work now that he knew just how she tasted, how she sounded when she came?

“You wanted something?” she asked.

He had wanted something—something that had nothing to do with spinning her around and fucking her against the bathroom sink.

Joseph closed his eyes so his brain would start to work again. This was important. Whatever it was.

As the sight of her beauty moved from reality to memory, he remembered why he’d knocked on the door in the first place. “I thought of something we could try.”

“I’m not having sex with you again, Theronai.”

“Not that.” Though heaven knew he had about a million fantasies stored up—things he would so love to try with her. “I mean that there’s something we can try that none of the others searching for Eric and the kids can.”

“What?” Her tone was skeptical, but laced with enough curiosity that he knew he’d at least piqued her interest.

“How good is your sense of smell?”

“Very.”

“Compared to other Slayers?”

“I was one of the best trackers in the settlement. The fact that I couldn’t find a trail leading away from the attack meant there wasn’t one.”

“What if there was?”

“Are you saying I missed something?” She pushed past him.