Page 47 of Wolf Queen Ruin
“Tell me exactly what happened to the last vampire who entered The Gap.”
Eduardo took an instinctive step back.“I guided a Russian blood drinker five years ago.Arrogant, like you.Powerful, like you.”His eyes darted nervously to the jungle beyond the dock.“The Gap took him piece by piece.First his strength failed.Then his mind.By the third day, he was begging me to end him.”
“And did you?”Damien asked, winging up a dark eyebrow.
“The jungle saved me the trouble.”Eduardo made a warding gesture.“We found only his clothes and boots.The rest, The Gap consumed.”
Damien’s jaw tightened, but his voice remained calm.“Then I’ll be certain not to repeat his mistakes.”
“Well, on that cheerful note, let’s scoot.”I threw my bag into the boat, desperate to get this show on the road.
While Eduardo arranged our equipment for proper balance inside the boat, I moved closer to Damien, keeping my voice low.
“Are you going to be okay?That story about the Russian—“
“Is meant to frighten us into paying him more,” Damien said, though his eyes remained fixed on the green wall of jungle ahead.“Or perhaps to discourage us entirely.”
“Just don’t die on me,” I warned.“I’d hate to drag your corpse out of the jungle.”
His mouth curved into a smile, the first I’d seen from him all day.“Your concern is touching.”
“Not concern.Self-interest.Dead partners are useless partners.”
“I’ll bear that in mind,” he replied dryly.
We stepped aboard the boat.It had a temperamental outboard motor that Eduardo coaxed to life with a lot of cursing and punching.As we pulled away from the dock, the last signs of civilization receded with alarming speed.Within thirty minutes, the skyline of Panama City had vanished behind us, replaced by the looming green wall of the rainforest.
“We follow the river as far as possible,” Eduardo explained, navigating around submerged logs in the muddy water.“Perhaps three hours.”
I settled on a bench near the bow, breathing in the heavy, vital scent of the approaching jungle.Despite everything—the danger, the uncertainty, the life-or-death pressure—a familiar excitement built.This was the part of my job I lived for, the moment before discovery, when possibility stretched before me.I might have lost my pack and my ability to shift, but I’d never lost my love for pushing boundaries.
“You’re smiling,” Damien said as he took a seat beside me, his thigh brushing against mine.
The contact sent a ridiculous tingle up my leg.
“Force of habit at the start of a hunt,” I admitted.“My friend Jade always said I had the self-preservation instincts of a lemming with a death wish.”
“Yet you’ve survived,” he said, his gaze assessing.“That suggests exceptional skill, not a death wish.”
“That’s because it’s not a death wish,” I said.“It’s anticipation.The best discoveries are always on the other side of fear.”
He smiled.“A philosophical tomb raider.How unexpected.”
“Yeah, well, that’s me.I play by my own rules.I always have.”
His gaze didn’t waver, didn’t do anything beyond ratcheting up my pulse.“I can see that.”
I turned back to watch the approaching shoreline.“Is that why you’re staring?”
“No,” he said simply.
I grinned.I couldn’t help it.
“Is there anything else on the other side of fear?”
I shrugged.“Luck, I suppose.”
“I don’t believe in luck,” Damien said.
