"Don't worry." Gregori pressed a kiss against her temple. "My sperm is dead. I can't have children until Roman does one of his magic tricks."
She narrowed her eyes. "How does that work?"
"He would take live human sperm, erase the DNA, and put in mine."
"Oh." She nodded. "Interesting." So she could actually have children with Gregori. If they decided to get married.
She glanced again at Robby and Olivia. They seemed very happy. In fact, the room was filled with couples. Roman and Shanna. Caitlyn and her husband, and others whose names she couldn't recall, but they all seemed happy.
"Time to go," Angus announced. He and Robby grabbed their bags and her and Gregori's backpacks, then teleported away.
Gregori pulled her into his arms. "Ready?"
She nodded as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "San Francisco, right?"
"Yes. The West Coast Coven house. I've been there before, so I know the way. Hang on."
Everything went black, then her feet landed softly on a thick Persian rug. She looked around. Angus and Robby were standing close to the fireplace, talking to a dark-haired man in a kilt. The room appeared to be a parlor, richly furnished with wingback chairs and medallion-back sofas, all upholstered in dark red velvet, the color of blood. Fitting, she supposed, for a house full of vampires.
"Miss Tucker?" The kilted man approached her with a smile. "I'm Rafferty McCall, West Coast Coven Master."
"How do you do?" She shook hands with him. "Thank you for helping me."
Since they had to wait for the sun to set in Hawaii, Abigail spent the next few hours sightseeing with Gregori. Rafferty provided them with a chauffeured Town Car, and they roamed about the city, laughing and stealing kisses in the moonlight. No Secret Service agents watching their every move. She hadn't felt this free in years.
Then they teleported to a small beach house in Hawaii that belonged to a were-dolphin named Finn Grayson. He was a marine biologist who worked at a nearby sea park.
"If the MacKay dudes want something done on the islands, they rely on me," he told Abigail. "Vamps don't hang out here, you know. Too much sun." He grinned at the vampire men. "Take a load off, bros. I've got some Bleer in the fridge." He shuffled to the kitchen in his flip-flops.
Abigail couldn't help but smile at the differences. The MacKays were huge, pale, redheaded men who wore kilts and carried claymores on their backs. Finn looked like a blond surfer dude with his tanned skin and his baggy shorts and Hawaiian shirt.
She took a long walk along the beach with Gregori. Just the two of them, hand in hand. Back at the beach house, he encouraged her to take a nap. Once they moved on to Japan and China, there wouldn't be much time for rest.
She woke several hours later and ventured into the kitchen to look for food. "Hello?"
Where was everybody? After fifteen years of bodyguards, it felt strange to have no one hovering around her. She spotted Finn and Angus on the back porch. Angus waved for her to join them.
The minute she opened the sliding glass door, she heard a grating noise, the sound of metal clashing over and over.
"Sparring session," Angus explained as he pointed to the beach.
Her mouth dropped open. There on the beach, Robby and Gregori were engaged in a swordfight. With real swords. Huge swords.
Her heart leaped up her throat. "Are they trying to kill each other?"
"Nay, they're just practicing," Angus said. "I wanted to see how well the lad can fight."
She cringed when Robby's sword slashed down toward Gregori's head. He blocked it in time, the swords colliding with a loud crash. "This is crazy!"
"Ye want a man who can protect you, aye?" Angus asked as he calmly watched.
"I want a man who's alive."
Angus chuckled. "They'll no' kill each other."
Gregori shoved Robby back, then advanced toward him, lunging and parrying. The two men moved back and forth across the beach, swords flashing in the moonlight. After a while, she realized she could relax. They were carefully cutting short any thrusts that would seriously injure or kill.
As the gruesome dance continued, she became intrigued. The men were beautiful to watch. Neither was wearing a shirt, and sweat glistened off muscles that rippled across their chests and backs. Even as the men circled each other, she could always tell which one was Gregori. They were the same height, but Robby moved like a tank and stood his ground like a brick wall. Gregori was long, lean, and fluid. If he took a hard knock to the ground, he merely rolled with it and sprang back up. And he did it with style and grace.
She smiled. That was Gregori. He rolled with the punches life threw at him, and nothing ever kept him down.
"That's enough," Angus yelled. "We doona want to wear out the fledgling."
She heard Gregori's muttered curse and Robby's laugh. "You call him a fledgling?"
Angus chuckled. "Aye, just to irritate him, but the lad holds his own. Ye've found a good man there, lass."
Yes, she had. She watched him as he approached. Beneath his charm and expensive suits, he was a fighter, a warrior just like the kilted Scotsmen. His biceps bulged from the weight of the claymore, his dark, damp hair clung along his brow and neck, curling slightly at the ends. He smiled slowly at her, his dimples denting his cheeks.
Good Lord, she wanted him.
"Did you have a nice nap?" he asked.
She nodded, her gaze wandering over his bare, slick chest.
He handed his sword to Angus, never taking his eyes off her. "I'll see you in a few minutes. I need to shower."
She stood there a moment, then followed him inside the house. "Shouldn't you be inspected for injuries? What if Robby cut something off?"
"God forbid." With a grin, he pulled her into the bathroom that adjoined the guest bedroom.
After a leisurely inspection in the shower, she declared him whole and healthy. He wrapped her in a towel, dumped her on the bed, then jumped on top.
She laughed. "Aren't you tired?"
"Sweetheart." He peeled the towel open. "A good Vamp can go all night long."
And he did.
A few hours later, they teleported to Kyo's estate outside Tokyo. She called home to let her family know she'd arrived in Japan. Then she showered, changed clothes, and ate a big meal of miso soup, rice, and shrimp and vegetable tempura.
The phone rang, and it was J.L. Wang. Night had fallen in the Yunnan.
It was time for her adventure in China to begin.
Chapter Twenty-two
They arrived in the dark, but Gregori's vision quickly adjusted. Abigail skidded a little in the gravel, and he steadied her.
"They're here," J.L. told Angus on his cell phone. "We'll report in two hours." He hung up.
"Hey, J.L." Gregori gave him a knuckle pound.
"Hey, dude. Welcome, Miss Tucker. I'm J.L. Wang."
"Please call me Abby." She shook his hand. "It's so dark out here. I can hardly see."
"Yeah, we're in the boonies," J.L. said. "We have some lamps inside the cave, so you'll be able to see in there. Lousy phone reception though, so we usually come outside to make our reports."
Gregori pivoted as he looked around. Behind him, an odd cone-shaped hill rose abruptly from the flat ground. In front of him, moonlight glittered on an expanse of dark water. "We're next to a lake?"
"Actually, we're in the middle of a lake," J.L. explained. "This is an island. It's a good defensive position."
Gregori nodded. The Vamps could easily teleport across the lake, but any humans trying to reach them would have to cross by boat. "Where's the cave?"
J.L. motioned to the cone-shaped hill. "Inside. Weird-looking thing, isn't it?"
Abigail touched the brown rock that rose steeply from the ground. "This area is known for its strange rock formations."
"You want to see something really strange, it's over there." J.L. pointed to the south edge of the lake.
Gregori narrowed his eyes. It was indeed strange. The moon gleamed off gray rocks that jutted out of the ground, a whole army of rocks, standing at attention.
Abigail sighed. "I can't see that far."
"It's a whole field of rocky spikes," Gregori told her.
"A stone forest, they call it." J.L. pointed east. "There's a bamboo forest that borders the lake over there. Beyond it and to the north, the land is mostly flat farmland, but dotted with more of the cone-shaped hills. The nearest village is about a mile that way. Rajiv and I have visited a few times, bought stuff at the market, and befriended the local healer."