The Black Masquerade (Koven Chronicles Book 2) by Andrea Pearson

Author:Andrea Pearson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Tags: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Andrea Pearson
Published: 2017-12-22T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Abel stepped closer, resting his hand behind my neck, rubbing circles on the sensitive skin below my ear with his thumb.

“I never would’ve thought camo could be hot,” he said, his eyes not leaving mine.

I cleared my throat. “Because it’s not.”

His gaze strayed to my lips, and I took a step back. “Let’s get going.” Regardless of how much I enjoyed the reaction my body had to him, I had no desire to encourage any physical involvement—not when he’d been so hostile to me.

Even knowing that any vampires up the canyon would be sleeping during the day, I was still nervous about being on their turf. Abel produced several wooden stakes from his duffel bag, and we strapped them to our upper arms and thighs before hiking up Margo’s backyard. I felt as ready as I ever would.

The tall pines kept us protected from the trail. We hadn’t gone far before I realized how silly we’d been. We could’ve acted like hikers, and the vampires wouldn’t have known any different. Other than them knowing what I looked like. Oh, and smelled like—the two vamps had caught a good whiff of me several weeks earlier.

Every few minutes, Abel motioned for us to pause, and we took turns looking at the landscape through his binoculars.

The going was slow. Abel wasn’t willing to let us actually walk, so we spent a lot of time on our hands and knees, hiding behind boulders and climbing over oaks that clung to the side of the mountain. It got pretty steep a couple of times. Finally, though, I found what we were looking for.

Bumping Abel’s shoulder, I whispered, “Look,” before handing him the binoculars, then pointing at a large boulder near the trail. “Just to the right of that,” I said. “Can you see it?”

He hesitated, then nodded. “Yes, they’re asleep.”

If he saw what I’d seen, he would know there were at least twenty of them. I could feel a pull on my magic, indicating that they were keeping themselves hidden from the average person.

“You sense their magic?” I asked.

He nodded. “It’s strong.”

I’d been wanting to ask him more about how things had been going since he’d Restarted, but wasn’t sure how to bring up the topic. He’d been so cranky, and I didn’t want to push his buttons.

Abel handed the binoculars back to me, and I stared at the place where the vampires were.

“Everything is red,” I said.

Abel nodded. “I’d guess these vampires use blood to mark their territory.”

“That’s disgusting.” I grimaced. “Besides, it defeats the purpose. They’re using magic to hide, right? So why put blood everywhere?”

“It’s probably invisible to the average eye.”

I scoffed. “Almost a fourth of the population is magical.” A slight exaggeration—for over a hundred years, most people could only have one or two kids, and with the fourth child of a family being the one who gained magic, Aretes were fairly rare.

Abel recognized my little slip, and gave me a smile. “But you know as well as I do that most Aretes don’t develop their powers enough to even sense magic.

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