Night Unbound [Claiming series, #1]

- 12 -

"We can't stay in a bunker!"

The sounds of the quarrel reached Asher as soon as he emerged from his vault. Julie had slipped out a few minutes earlier, after showering, and he had waited to take his own shower.

Dark things rode his shoulders now, and he couldn't afford the inevitable distraction if he had showered with Julie. He had gone to places with her that he had not gone to with a woman in a long, long time, and even an immortal could get impatient to repeat such joys.

He walked through his office and stepped out into the outer office where the quarreling was going on between Mackenzie, Jay and evidently even Julie.

"Jay," Mackenzie said, "you don't know what we're up against here. Don't be an idiot."

Jay, who was pacing rather feverishly, threw up a hand. "So we stay locked in here surrounded by holy water and holy oil? What is that going to solve? We can't let this thing keep doing this!"

"I agree," Julie said. Her blue eyes seemed to snap. "We're virtual prisoners here. This can't go on. I've got to get back to work, for one thing."

Asher stood in the doorway wondering what had brought this on. Last night Julie had been frightened, and today she wanted to follow a harebrained Jay's suggestions?

"Am I allowed to join the discussion?" he drawled, allowing just a hint of sarcasm to creep into his voice.

At once, Julie looked at him, and he saw the faint pink stain on her cheeks. Damn, that called to him.

"Jay's being an idiot again," Mackenzie said. "He doesn't even know what we're dealing with here and he wants to charge off and go hunting for it. And Julie must have lost her mind to even suggest it. What did you do to her?"

"I didn't do a damn thing." At least nothing that she hadn't wanted as much as he had. "Julie? I know what's Jay's thinking. He always wants to take the bull by the horns. But what are you thinking?"

"That this thing could outwait us forever. That there's no way we can hunker down indefinitely. We have lives to lead. So we have to go after it, somehow."

He folded his arms and leaned against the doorjamb looking at three people who had become so important in his existence. To his very core he knew he would protect them with his life, if he could call it that. Yet, protecting them did not include keeping them locked up forever.

The question was how to handle this. "If we separate we might become weaker," he said. "But if we don't, we may never get rid of the threat."

Mackenzie put her hands on her hips. "Not alone you don't."

"Absolutely not." Julie sprang to her feet. "No way you're going out there alone. If you go, I go. And don't try to stop me."

"You have absolutely no idea how easily I could stop you."

She glared at him, and it pained him, but it was also the truth. Some things needed to be clear, including how implacable he could be when necessary. But apparently, he underestimated Julie.

"You may be able to stop me, but what's the point, Asher? This thing needs a wedge to get at you or Soren. It's come after me, it's gone after Soren's granddaughter. You can go out there and hunt all night every night and it won't approach you. No, it'll wait until it has a chance to get at someone you care about. So we might as well just go out there and face it. And since it's been nosing around me for a while now, I'd make the best bait."

He closed his eyes. The pain he felt at her words was both unanticipated and sharper than a dagger. "I can't risk you," he said.

"You won't get it any other way. And I'm going to have to go out there, anyway. I have a job, remember? You're not seriously proposing we live the rest of our lives, all of us, inside these walls?"