“What?”

“You turned the engine noise down somehow. I’m grateful.”

“Huh. Cool.”

He tucked himself close against me, tightening his arm around my stomach and making sure I was well aware of every inch of him that pressed against me.

“I thought getting out of here was our priority.”

“We’re in very little danger at the moment.”

I shivered as his breath tickled my neck.

“And we are moving forward.”

His free hand slid down my thigh.

“And I can’t help myself. Unless you want me to stop?”

“Uh.” My mouth stopped translating my thoughts into words, and I could only shake my head. No, I didn’t want him to stop.

“Just don’t wreck the ATV,” he murmured as his lips touched my neck.

The strangled noise that came out of my mouth was a confused mix of pleasure and fear. His low chuckle didn’t help.

Nimbus barked sharply ahead of us, a sound he rarely made, and Katsuro laughed again.

“Quite right, little one. Quite right.”

Whatever Nimbus had said to the vampire, he eased off his distracting touches a bit. I was still extremely aware of him behind me, the tension building in my chest nearly painful. The ground grew uneven, and I had to concentrate on where we were going. Grateful for the distraction, I tried not to think about how much I wanted him to keep running his hands over my body.

“Did Bridger say how long this mineshaft was?”

“No, but I sense a difference in the air. I believe we are coming to the end.” His voice had lost the playful tone from earlier, and he had clearly focused on our problems and not on tormenting me.

Nimbus slowed and turned a bend in the shaft. I hadn’t realized we were rising up an incline, but apparently this was an old enough mine that they’d had rails going in and out instead of an elevator system and we’d come to the surface.

We left the confines of the mineshaft and entered the forest. My vision adjusted to the increased light, and Nimbus raced off down an overgrown two-track while I tried to keep up.

In the distance, wolves howled.

“Those are not Davin’s wolves,” Katsuro said, voice tense.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“Indeed. We’re not going to make it to Redmont before sunrise. Nimbus, perhaps you could find us some shelter where we might have a chance to fight off the wolves and shelter from the day.”

Nimbus rooed and raced down the trail.

I hoped he’d grown enough that he’d be able to keep up the pace ahead of fully grown werewolves. Hell, they could probably outrun the ATV.

“We are ahead of them.” Katsuro apparently sensed my fear. “We should have time to reach shelter if there is some close. There are a lot of natural caves in this region.”

Another set of wolves took up the howl.

The vampire tensed. “Those wolves are a lot closer.”

“Double fuck.”