Page 152 of Golden Eagle

“He charmedyou.”

“No, he didn’t,” Fulk bristled.

“Uh-huh.” She patted his arm. “I’m just saying: Val’s got a soft spot for that kid. If Nikita won’t bind him, and he wants to be bound, it makes sense that Val would do it.”

Val and Mia had returned to the hotel from the bar last night in two very different states: Mia as composed and silent as any shell-shocked soldier Anna had ever seen, and Val glowing and nearly rapturous as he recounted every detail of the pub, and the company they’d kept for a few hours.

“Oh, you should have seen them,” he’d said, tossing his jacket on the bed, throwing his arms out theatrically, beaming. “I could smell them, and I could have touched them, if I’d wanted to – I did touch Sasha. Oh, sweet little Sasha. Nikita nearly took a swing at me.” He’d laughed, throaty and delighted. “Why he won’t bind that wolf I haven’t a clue. How can he have been alive and free in the world this long and know so little about what it means to be a vampire?”

“Willful ignorance,” Fulk had suggested. If he’d sounded more than a little sullen, Anna had bene gracious enough not to point that out to him.

“No,” Fulk said now, staring ahead, jaw getting tight.

“No, what?”

“No, he won’t bind him. We don’t need another wolf.”

She laughed. “I don’t think it’s up to you, baby.”

A low growl slipped through his clenched teeth, and she laughed again.

A sign ahead caught her eye. “Ooh, look, a coffeeshop.”

“Darling, it’s New York. There’s a coffeeshop on every corner.”

“Har har. I want a latte, you old grouch. Come on.”

Later – really just twenty minutes later, when she realized what had happened, and that the solution wasn’t as simple as jogging down a sidewalk and catching up to him – she would blame herself for the slip. She was the one who dragged them into a charming, tiny, crowded, red brick coffeeshop redolent with the scents of roasting beans and baking pastries. She’d jostled them into the line, and she’d been the one to duck out of the line to go snag a little notecard with the menu printed on it from the rack at the counter. That was what had diverted Fulk’s attention for the critical moment.

But somewhere between the start and the middle of the line, she realized Kolya was missing.

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