Page 63 of A Touch of Crimson
He resumed eating. After he swallowed, he said, “I think I’m gonna bring another lycan on board.”
“Okay, ignore the big question. I’ll worm it out of you eventually. As for another lycan, do whatever you think is best. I trust you. I don’t suppose it’s a woman…? I’d feel a lot better about you having to babysit me if you had some fun doing it.”
His green eyes sparkled with laughter.
Realizing how that sounded, she groaned. “That came out wrong.”
“No, it’s not a woman. Just someone who could use a little time away, too.”
“Is he an Alpha?”
Elijah shook his head. “He’s not. Thank god.”
More than anything he’d said, it was the relief in his voice that gave Lindsay chills.
Adrian exited Yellowstone into Gardiner, Montana, just after dusk. He’d located Helena and Mark early in the morning, then held Damien and Jason back until nightfall, giving the two lovers one last day together.
It was a concession the Sentinels obeyed without question, but couldn’t understand. Love in the mortal sense was unknown to them. They didn’t grasp the desperate desire, the aching longing, or the purity of joy a mortal felt in finding the other half of his or her soul.
Adrian knew those extremes far too well, but this time with Lindsay was novel in many ways. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, couldn’t stop comparing her incarnation to the ones that had come before. He was used to starting from scratch, but there were always certain constants he’d come to expect. Lindsay deviated from the pattern to such a degree that he could find few markers with which to map their interactions. It was all new and uncharted. And he was captivated by the mercurial emotions she roused in him.
“What are you going to do, Captain?” Damien asked as they entered the small town on foot.
“Arrangements have been made for the lycan to join the Hokkaido pack.”
“I still think you should put him down,” Jason said. “If ever there was a time to make an example out of a lycan, this is it. When this gets out?—”
Adrian cut him off with a look. “It’s not going to get out.”
He’d tracked Helena’s other lycan guard first, catching up to her halfway to Cedar City en route to the Navajo Lake pack. Her destination showed the strength of her self-preservation instincts. Given the opportunity to flee while the Sentinels were distracted by Helena’s desertion, she chose to head to the nearest pack instead. Without hesitation, she had agreed to never speak of Mark and Helena again for the rest of her life. For her loyalty and common sense, Adrian had offered her reassignment to his pack, a promotion she’d readily accepted. He had learned long ago that positive reinforcement was a far better motivator than fear and intimidation.
“Once Mark is in Japan and Helena in Anaheim,” he continued quietly, “we’re all going to forget the last four days. None of us wants to deal with what will happen otherwise.”
A Sentinel and lycan affair. The two running away together. The consequences of that choice. All of it would be a ticking time bomb, giving ammunition to the malcontents. With the recent spate of vampire attacks and the infection he’d witnessed in Arizona and Utah, he couldn’t risk unrest among the Sentinel ranks now. The balance he’d preserved for so long was crumbling around him. If he lost control of the Sentinels, nothing would save the world from the chaos that would ensue.
Because of the pressing need for secrecy, he’d conducted the entire hunt thus far without any technological help, unable to risk leaving a trail by using Mitchell Aeronautics resources. Being able to track Helena’s rental car via GPS would have shortened the hunt, but he hadn’t been in a hurry. Affording her a few days of whatever happiness she could find while on the run was such a small concession, and it was the only one he could make. The longer she was AWOL, the more volatile the situation became.
“You and Helena can’t be the only ones to form attachments,” Jason said.
“No.” Everything seemed to be coming to a head at once. Or maybe it felt that way because he was still reeling from Lindsay’s decision to leave him. She was being selfless for him. He had to try to be the same for her, which might mean letting her go.
“You can’t be surprised,” Jason went on. “We’ve been on this mission forever.”
“I’m only surprised it took this long.” Adrian looked at Damien, who lifted both shoulders in an offhand shrug that neither confirmed nor denied whether his opinion aligned. “But what are the alternatives? Dereliction of duty? The forfeiture of our wings? Preying on the mortals we were created to protect? Who the fuck wants to live that life?”
Damien exhaled harshly. “You’d have to ask the Fallen about that.”
They walked through Gardiner, then beyond to the rental cabins where Helena was holed up. Adrian had shadowed her and her lycan by air during the night, following them along the winding back roads and small towns they’d traveled through until they’d stopped near dawn.
Reaching into his pocket, he wrapped his hand around his phone. He wished he could talk with Lindsay now. Her mortal heart might not understand why he would part two lovers, but that heart would know it killed him to do so. She wouldn’t see his sympathy and compassion as weaknesses. Even if she argued against the actions he was forced to take, it would soothe him just to hear her voice and unvarnished reasoning, strengthening him for the pain he was about to inflict on a friend he loved.
When his phone vibrated with an incoming call, his grip tightened on it in surprise. He slowed his stride, wondering if Lindsay had actually felt compelled to call him by the force of his desire for her to do so.
The caller ID told him it was the Point. He answered.
“We might have a problem,” Oliver said without preamble.
Adrian stopped. Oliver never labeled anything a problem unless it was very much a problem.“What is it?”
