Joshua had experience of dealing with out of control vampires. It hadn’t been that long ago he’d had to help one of the most dangerous vampires in existence save Pietro de la Rios’ life – Demetri Bozic. He was fairly certain if he could survive the Ancient vampire then he could survive a meeting with Kothari, but it was prudent to have the meeting go as smoothly as possible. He crouched down beside Ava and the little she-wolf, talking in a hushed voice as he began to assist them with their packing. They were initially reticent with him but then they relaxed, Pippa asking questions about the aeroplane they would soon be travelling on.
They were almost packed up by the time the volatile Vârcolac returned to the campground alone. It was Joshua’s first sight of the boy, and he couldn’t hide the shiver that went down his spine as Kothari strode towards them. He literally oozed menace, though when he paused to glance at Dara some of the menace evaporated.
“You didn’t find them?” There was no denying the surprise in Dara’s voice.
“The she-wolf is impressive,” her packmate replied, respect lacing his tone. “By the time I found their trail, she had backtracked so many times with many false starts it would have taken me a few hours to work out where she actually went. I decided we did not have that amount of time to waste, and as the vampires on this continent are inferior, the pack was safe from detection. Let their Alpha take care of her own pack. The she-wolf is more than capable of protecting them until the Alpha returns.”
It was clear that Dara wasn’t too happy with his assessment, but she didn’t argue with him, merely inclined her head in agreement. “This is Joshua. He will take Ava and Pippa to Rafe. Don’t you go giving him a hard time, Agony. He is trusted by both Caleb and Demetri, as well as by me.”
Joshua would have preferred not to be the direct centre of attention for Kothari/Agony, but he knew he had to accept the scrutiny he was now under.
“It is not like you to trust so quickly,” the younger male remarked, his gaze never leaving the vampire as he spoke, though it was clear he was still having a conversation with Dara.
The blonde sighed, and frowned slightly, before shrugging her shoulders and turning away. “I can’t talk about it here,” she called over her shoulder. “Let’s just say, Liam and I share a similar taste in hobbies.”
No one else would have known what she meant by that, though Joshua did, and he could guess from the understanding that crossed Agony’s face, that the Liam mentioned must have had enhanced mental skills that resembled Dara’s in some way. What they were he didn’t know, but her words appeared to settle the brooding Vârcolac as he too, turned away, surveying the area around them for progress.
“We’re wasting time,” Agony growled, a dark frown marring his features. “I still don’t understand why we need the human girl to come with us either. She will slow us down.” He studiously ignored the protest from his other half. Having an unnecessary distraction was still gnawing at him.
“Believe me, coming with you is the last thing in the world that I want to do,” Natalia shot back, her chin tilting upwards though it was clear to see that she wasn’t feeling half as brave as she was trying to appear.
Then why are you?” the Vârcolac retorted, his shaded eyes trying to bore into the girl’s head.
“I have to.”
It was such a strange thing to say from such a frail girl, that everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at her. It was Mila who finally moved closer, her head tilting to the side in curiosity.
“Why do you have to come, Tali?”
The girl appeared to shrink inward at the scrutiny for a moment and then she visibly swallowed. “Because just the thought of leaving is enough to send me into a panic attack and want to throw up,” she admitted.
Their curiosity heightened though Mila smiled encouragingly at the girl. “This feeling has some important significance?”
Another long pause fell over the group before Natalia finally nodded and took a deep breath. “Sometimes I get a feeling when something bad is about to happen. If it’s really dangerous, then I can even throw up and become too ill to move. It happened when Pippa came and told us about him.” She pointed in Kothari’s direction.
“At first I thought it meant he was a personal danger to not only my pack but also to me, but as time has passed, the closer I remain to him, the calmer I feel. It’s only when I think about getting as far away from him as possible that the panic begins to set in again and I feel ill. My alpha has come to trust my feelings and it has saved our pack a few times. I have come to trust them too so there really is no option for me but to come with you.”
Joshua shared a glance with Dara weighing up Natalia’s words. “One of my coven mated with a human male a century ago,” he announced. “Henry told us something similar happened to him, and that he sometimes just knew when he shouldn’t walk in a certain direction. He is now our top security agent and his skills have increased exponentially since he made the change to vampire.” He knew it was a lot of information to relate about his coven, but he trusted the people around him, and giving them his trust went a long way encourage them to return theirs.
“I would hazard a guess that this skill falls within the Seer spectrum,” Mila mused. “It’s not quite full foresight but something very similar. I also had strange feelings when I was human. The one time that I didn’t listen to them, the end result was my human blindness that never repaired when I became vampire.”
“Then these feelings will become stronger when I make the change to Were?” Natalia asked, genuine curiosity crossing her pretty features.
Agony growled and then appeared surprised that the sound had left his lips. He ignored Dara’s raised eyebrow, working to keep his expression neutral. “That is a strong possibility… if you make the change to Were. At least you will be some use to the team.”