Page 57 of Fangs for the Memories
Viktor shifts from foot to foot, his wings rustling.
“Mating…it happens rarely to gargoyles. I suppose I must be jealous.”
I shake my head. Of all the emotions I’ve ever seen with Viktor, which I can count on the fingers of one hand, jealousy is not one of them.
“Your time will come.”
“Time is the one thing I have. Mates are all too rare. Make the most of it,” he says.
“I met the rogue vampire again last night,” I say with a brief glance at him. “He collapsed a ruin on me.”
“Fuck!” Viktor slams a stone hand on his forehead. “That wasyou?”
“It was a trap, I knew it was, but I wanted to meet the creature, find out what he wanted.”
“Which was?”
“My help to open the vault and a threat to harm Grace if I did not. Oh, and to drop a building on my head.”
I roll my shoulder. A residual ache from the damage to my arm is all which remains of last night, something I can’t help but think the rogue vamp calculated.
“You should have called me. I was at the warehouse,” Viktor rasps.
“Best place for you. I can’t have you wasting your time and talents trailing my mate and me around the boutiques of Budapest. You’re far too good at your job.”
“So, what do you want to do?”
“I want you to find where he lies low during the day. I get the impression he’s not the same as the Király, and both times we’ve dealt with him, it was in the dark.”
Viktor rumbles under his breath.
“I can fend for myself,” I respond. “I’ll survive without you. I just need you to have my back.”
“And what will you be doing?”
“I’m taking Grace to the baths.”
I think I see a flicker of a smile on his stone face, but it’s gone in an instant.
“I need you to find this vamp and deal with Max. Another shipment has been diverted.”
“It’s about time you cut that little squirt loose,” Viktor says.
“Family is family, as my mother has reminded me. But when you find him, get the location of my missing items out of him and bring him here for me to deal with. I think the pup needs a reminder of who is alpha in this pack,” I growl.
“A trip to the baths,” Viktor says, and this time I do see the twinkle of mirth in his eyes. “The mating pools,” he adds. “Or what was the other way of describing them? Fertility pools?”
I bare my fangs at him. “If I want my mate in pup, she will be in pup.”
Viktor releases a pointed huff of breath. “Providing she knows what she’s getting into.”
I glare at him.
It’s into this particular stand-off that there is a knock at the door. I don’t take my eyes from Viktor as I shout, “Come.”
My driver sidles into the room.
“The human says she is ready, alpha,” he says.
