“I did.”
“Then we can find him.” Um, okay, I’d actually just said that in spite of my realization earlier that staying side by side with the hunter wasn’t a good idea.
Kaillen’s entire body stilled. “You . . . want to stay with me?”
“Well, I dunno. I mean, it’s been a bit, you know, and I mean, I—” I swallowed. Awkward much? I forced a deep breath. “I want to find Jakub and stop him. I know that much.”
The muscle ticked in his jaw again. “But he’s after you, Tala. I heard enough while battling that sorcerer to know that much. I don’t know if you going after him is a wise move.” That slightly crazed look entered his eyes again.
It struck me that he said you going after him, not us. I shrank back and remembered that agonizing moment we’d shared after waking in his cabin in Ontario. It was possible that things were over now for me and the hunter. Perhaps he truly had eradicated the mate bond, and from hereon I would be on my own.
“I see,” I finally said, licking my lips. A rolling sensation dipped my stomach, and something a lot like pain flowed through me. But wasn’t this exactly what I’d known was coming? That once he’d realized his feelings for me were merely animal driven, he’d snap himself out of it?
A growl came from the hunter. “It’s not what you think,” he said softly.
My head whipped up.
That golden glow rimmed his eyes again. The mate bond stared back at me bright and shining.
My heart thumped more. So he still felt it?
I straightened the sheet over me, anything to give my hands something to do. “If Jakub wants me, then I should be the one hunting him. He won’t expect that. I’ve been hiding for days now and running every time he’s showed up. But if I turn the tables, and begin seeking him out, I could catch him unexpectedly.”
“The SF won’t like that.”
“The SF doesn’t have to know about it.”
A reluctant, albeit proud, smile kicked his lips up. “A colantha to the bone.”
I snorted, then realized there were still so many things I didn’t know. Like how the hell he’d found me for one. Now that I had a second to think about it, it seemed like a miracle that he’d been able to track me so fast.
I cocked my head. “How did you know I was in Philadelphia?” I sat more upright on the bed, intent on pulling our conversation away from all things mate-driven. The fact that the hunter still felt the bond after our explosive interaction before my abduction was something I was still processing. “I couldn’t have been gone from Oak Trembler for more than fifteen minutes before you appeared. Did you do something other than scry? I didn’t think you could do it so quickly.”
His expression cleared, that proud smile that had been present a second before disappearing. He looked away, breaking eye contact. “No, I . . . scryed.”
But I detected the deception in him. I sniffed, a new odor hitting my senses. It smelled bitter and off. And deep down, in some new part of me, perhaps where my awakening power lay, an instinct told me that he was lying. I didn’t know how I was so sure of that, but I could smell it.
My lips parted, cold hurt biting me. Any warmth I’d been feeling for him vanished. “You’re lying. You’re lying to me right now. That’s not how you found me.”
He abruptly stood and went to the window before planting his hands on his hips.
I pushed the covers back, and despite the weakness I still felt from whatever the hell that ax and those cuffs had done to me, I forced myself to pad up behind him. His citrus and cedar scent hit me, nearly drowning me in its intensity—and that subtler earth and pine aroma was there too—but I shoved those details down.
I needed answers. Twice in the past two weeks abduction attempts had been made on me. And twice, this hunter had either saved me from death or saved me from falling into their hands.
And I wanted to know how.
“Kaillen,” I said sharply. “Answer me. How did you find me?”
He stood rigidly, and I wondered if he was even breathing. I was about to open my mouth, to demand again that he tell me, when he spun around suddenly, his eyes blazing with black fiery embers. The depths of the underworld shone behind them again. His demon side looked at me front and center, and I instantly recoiled at the immense power roiling in those irises.
“Why does it matter?” he bit out.
I righted myself, anger swirling inside me that he was evading my questions. It was bad enough that we still hadn’t figured out exactly where we stood, but if he was going to start lying to me on a regular basis, then the choice would be easy. It would be sayonara to the hunter, once and for all. Because I could put up with many things but outright lying wasn’t one of them.
I took a step forward until we stood toe to toe. “It matters, because it shouldn’t be possible. Nobody, not even you, can find somebody that quickly. How did you find me? Did you put a tracking hex on me?”
His head dipped, a guilty look streaking across his face.
“You did?” My insides stilled. That was such a grotesque breach of privacy. “How? When I was sleeping?” Fresh hurt cut through me.
“No,” he snarled. “It’s not a hex. That’s not how I found you.” His gaze shifted again as he continually refused to make eye contact.
“Then how?” I demanded. “How?”
A tense moment of silence passed between us. It was so thick I could have stabbed it with a knife. My fingers itched, wishing more than anything that I had a blade at my side. ’Cause even though I couldn’t actually stab the air, I could sure as hell stab this lying fucking demon who was apparently keeping more secrets from me than his hoard of fairy charms.
“Tell me,” I seethed. “Right now.”
He shook his head, silent again, and I was convinced he wasn’t going to answer me, but then he bit out, “It was my blood.” His words were so quiet I barely heard them. “That’s how I found you. My blood bound you to me.”
His blood? I shook my head. “What the hell are you talking about?”
He finally looked up, his jaw locked tight as black fire flashed in his eyes. “The blood I gave you on the night you nearly died following that first abduction attempt. It tied you to me. I can sense you now. Feel you. I know your whereabouts at all times. The second they took you from Oak Trembler, I knew.”
My breath sucked in. “The blood I drank from you that healed me makes you able to track me?”
He didn’t reply.
A second passed, and then another. “And you knew this? Or did you not know? When you gave me your blood and saved me, did you know this could happen?”
“I knew it would happen, if—” Guilt flashed in his eyes.
“If what?”
“If I spelled my blood as you drank from me. I knew you would have to take enough that it would fill you, and by spelling it as you consumed it, I could tie you to me.”
I stumbled back, shock rippling through me. He’d tied me to him. Willingly bound me to him. All without my consent.
“What the hell does that mean?” I demanded. “Am I tied to you forever? Will you forever be able to hunt me? Feel me? What other ramifications does this blood bond have?” I nearly yelled.
A feral expression twisted his features, then he snarled and tore a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, Tala. Okay? But the mate bond . . . I didn’t fully understand what I was feeling when I first detected your scent. I know now that it was the mating instinct. It was pushing me, driving me. I was doing things I shouldn’t have because of my fucking wolf. I know now that I shouldn’t have bound you to me, but at the time, all I knew was that I needed you—craved you—and that pull was driving me crazy. It made me . . .” He shook his head, growling. “I’m sorry, okay? I fucked up.”