“Oh yeah?” He wraps me in his arms, and I feel a warmth deep inside me—sexy and comforting and exciting all at the same time. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“You smell good,” I tell him, burying my nose in the bend between his neck and his shoulder for several long seconds. And he does, fresh and bright and so, so amazing.
“Yeah, well, I can say that feeling is mutual, too.” He scrapes a fang across the sensitive skin beneath my ear. “Very, very mutual.”
“Tell me you’re not serious,” Hudson says with a yawn. “Tell me this isn’t the pinnacle of your scintillating conversations.”
Why don’t you take a nap or something, I hiss at him even as I pull away from Jaxon.
“You ready to go?” Jaxon asks.
“Yeah, just give me a minute to get the rest of the supplies put up.” I take off my apron and store it in my cubicle, then finish putting the bottles of paint back in the cabinet.
Five minutes later, we’re walking through the tunnels—tunnels that seem nowhere near as frightening when Jaxon is by my side, talking about what he’s found in his hour-and-a-half search through the library’s magical databases.
“I’ve spent most of tonight trying to identify what the Unkillable Beast is,” he tells me as we make it to the rotunda with the huge bone chandelier hanging from the ceiling. “There are so many different versions throughout the last several hundred years, almost like it’s more fairy tale than real monster, that it’s hard to get a read on what we’ll be facing if we go up there. Except for the fact that almost no one makes it back alive—and those who do can’t agree on what they’ve seen.”
“Is there anything similar in the different accounts?” I ask, focusing on the conversation and not on the fact that I’m about to pass the tunnel where Hudson’s ex-girlfriend tried to murder Jaxon and me. “I mean, besides the ‘everyone gets dead’ thing?”
I think about asking Hudson what he remembers about that night—if anything—but decide it doesn’t matter. Besides, what if he wants to take a field trip to the scene of his reincarnation? Show-and-tell isn’t really my thing, especially not down here.
“I don’t remember anything,” Hudson tells me quietly as he strides alongside us, one hand casually sliding along the stoned and jeweled walls. He’s a few inches ahead, so I can’t really see his face. “I didn’t put her up to it, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
I’m not thinking anything, I answer, though that’s not quite the truth. It’s hard not to be afraid of Hudson when I’m down here, harder still not to be angry with him. Maybe what happened wasn’t his fault, but it’s hard to imagine that he and his persuasive power didn’t have some small role to play in the fact that Lia was obsessed with bringing him back.
“The stories do have a few things in common,” Jaxon answers, his arm tightening around me as if he senses my disquiet.
Which only makes me feel worse about being such a baby, so I swallow the lingering fear. I shove it down deep inside me and concentrate instead on something I do have the power to change. “Like what? Have you figured out exactly how to find it yet?”
I remember him saying in the caves that the Beast is somewhere near the North Pole. Though I don’t see why he couldn’t have a nice summer home somewhere in Greece or Egypt, L.A. or Miami? Anywhere that has warm weather and a beach would be good with me right now, because after that trip to the Bloodletter’s, I am ready to get away from the snow for a while.
“That’s actually the one thing every account agrees on,” Jaxon tells me. “The Unkillable Beast lives somewhere near the Arctic Circle. Seems everyone is happy to share approximately where to find it—just so you can plan a trip avoiding it at all costs.”
“I’m with them,” I tell him, making a face. “Taking on the North Pole sounds hellish enough without also taking on a monster that can’t be killed. Are we sure it doesn’t spend March in Tahiti?”
Jaxon looks confused at first, but then he gets it. “I’m sorry. When this is all done and we’ve graduated from Katmere, I’ll take you someplace warm and sunny, I promise.”
“I’m going to hold you to that promise,” I tell him. “I cannot spend every day for the rest of my life in freaking Alaska.”
“Nothing says we have to live in Alaska after graduation. I know you were planning on doing the college thing before your parents died and you ended up here. We can still do that if you want.”
“I don’t know what I want, to be honest.” It sounds bad when I say it like that, especially considering I’m only three months from graduation. But the plan I had before my parents died seems like it belonged to a whole different person.
“What do you want to do?” I ask Jaxon, because I figure any plan I have for the future is going to include my mate.
“I don’t know that I really had a plan for after graduation, to be honest. When you’re immortal, you’ve got a lot more time to think things through.”
“Especially if you’re a prince and have already been alive a couple of centuries.” I make a mental note to ask him later about the whole “vampire aging” thing. I mean, I know he’s centuries old, but I also know he’s only about eighteen in human years. I sincerely hope I’m not dating someone who was in diapers and sucked his thumb for a hundred years.
Hudson snort-laughs, so I know he heard that last thought, but he doesn’t turn around. I can’t help a smile spreading across my face at the image of a twenty-year-old Hudson in said diapers.
This finally gets his attention, and he shoots me a raised eyebrow over one shoulder. “Very kinky, Miss Foster.”
My face turns beet red, but Jaxon doesn’t seem to notice.
“I’m not sure what my plans are, but we have the rest of our lives to sort it out,” Jaxon finally replies and squeezes my shoulder.
We make it out of the tunnels and through the creepy dungeon area, and I feel myself relax the second the cell door clangs closed behind us.
“What else did you learn about this monster?” I ask as we make our way toward the staircase that leads to the library. We pass through the lounge on the main floor, and while a few people turn to stare, it’s a lot less than it was a couple of days ago.
Maybe they really are getting used to having a human/gargoyle around. Now, if I could just get used to the gargoyle portion of that equation myself, I’m pretty sure everything would get a lot easier.
“It’s big. Like, beyond-measure huge. Twenty, thirty stories, some say. And it’s very, very old.”
“Well, that sounds encouraging,” I say, tongue firmly in cheek. “I mean, who doesn’t want to fight a monster who’s been around forever and is the size of a mountain?”