He opened his eyes just in time to see her wrapping the top sheet around herself. He knew it wouldn’t take much to have her naked again, but he was going to find a way to resist the urge. Somehow.

Joseph cleared his throat and stared at the wall behind her head. Nothing sexy there. “I’m saying that you have access to a whole shit ton of power now—power you could use to amplify your natural tracking abilities.”

“You think that if I tap into your power, I might be able to find the trail leading to Eric and the young?”

“It’s possible. Andra has an uncanny ability to find lost children, and she follows a path of fear they leave behind.”

“Why the hell isn’t she out here helping us?”

“Because she’s pregnant. It’s too great a risk to her unborn child for her to put herself in danger.”

“We could have at least asked her to help.”

“I wouldn’t do that to her. It would tear her up inside to know that some kids were missing and she couldn’t help.”

“You didn’t even ask her?”

“No, I didn’t. Be as pissed at me as you like, but all it’s going to do is make it harder for you to get what you want. Anger doesn’t help our connection grow, and if you want to use my power to find that trail, you’re going to need all the help you can get.”

Lyka poked him hard in the chest—hard enough to leave a bruise. Even so, the branches of his lifemark swayed and whipped around in an effort to get closer to her touch. “Don’t think I’ll forget this.”

“Neither will Andra, once she finds out that I was hiding this from her. You’ll have to get in line behind all of the other people who are pissed at me on any given day. Comes with the territory of being a leader.”

“Yeah? Well, as your wife, I get first dibs on thrashing your ass.”

He grinned and covered her hand, pressing it flat against his chest. “So, now you claim the position as my wife?”

“If that’s what it takes to get to beat the shit out of you first, absolutely.”

Venting her anger was one thing. Letting it fester and grow was another.

He grabbed her wrists and pinned them at the small of her back. She struggled against his hold, but only for a second.

Joseph leaned down, putting his lips close to hers. “Feel free to try your hand at that whenever you like, kitten. You may be a Slayer, but I’m still more than strong enough to restrain you until you calm down.”

“What if I never calm down? What if I’m pissed at you for the rest of our lives?”

“Then I guess you’re going to spend a lot of time like this.” He tightened his grip and pulled her hard against his frame.

Her pupils lengthened, making her eyes dim to dark gold. Her lips parted, and her nipples beaded up beneath the sheet. The flush of her skin beneath the luceria had started to fade, but it was back now, proving just how much her body responded to his.

“You think you can control me?” she asked.

“Why would I do that when I like you out of control so very much?”

She closed her eyes. “I’m not going to let you do this again.”

“Do what?”

“Turn me on. Fuck me when there are lives at stake. We don’t have time for this.”

“Maybe not, but what we shared wasn’t a total waste of time. If you would let go of your anger for a minute, you’d feel what I did right before you shut me out.”

“What’s that?”

“You trusted me. It might only have been for a second, but you let go of your animosity long enough to let me in. That’s the kind of thing that strengthens the bond between us.”

She opened one eye to peer at him in skepticism. “So?”

“So the stronger our bond is, the wider the conduit connecting us becomes, the more power you can channel out of me, the more magic you can wield.”

She frowned. “I don’t trust you any more now than I did before.”

“You’re lying. I know what I felt.”

Her gaze went distant. He could feel the ice between them melting by slow degrees as she studied their link. Her body began relaxing in his arms, but he couldn’t bring himself to let her go. He loved having her against him, close and safe.

After a moment, her presence was hovering between them, right on the threshold of his mind. She hesitated there, but even so, he could tell how much easier it was for her to reach him now than it had been before.

“You’re always welcome, Lyka.”

“It’s too weird.”

“It won’t always be.”

“I lack your confidence.”

“I have enough for both of us,” he told her. “Come. See how I think we’ll find your brother.”

The lure of that knowledge must have been too much for her to resist, because he felt her the instant she entered his mind. So fierce, so bright. Her energy was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. He doubted she had any idea of just how precious she was.

“I’m just a mutant.”

He didn’t dare argue with her now—not when she was exactly where he wanted her to be. Instead, he opened himself wide and let her feel the way he did about her. He let her see how strong and fearless she was in his eyes, how beautiful.

Her body shivered in his arms, and a small sigh escaped her lips. “Show me.”

Joseph did. He guided her to the part of his mind that had been working on the problem since it had come up. The mechanics of it were a little fuzzy, but the theory was strong.

“You clearly have never followed a scent trail before, have you?” she asked.

“Not one that was any longer than it took me to reach a Dumpster.”

“It’s like another kind of sight—like a strand weaving through the air or along the ground. In order to be able to follow it, you have to understand the way the wind blows, how breezes flow past objects and swirl in corners and crevices. You have to understand how scents combine and alter one another, and how to separate them out again, the way a cook does when trying to re-create a recipe.”

She shared with him her experience with tracking by scent. It was unlike anything he could have imagined. There was so much more complexity to it than he’d ever thought. It was more an art than a science, and, from what he could tell, Lyka was one heck of an artist.