I already knew what he was going to say, so I said, “It was a portal that was causing the issues.”
“Yeah, brother.”
I shook my head, glancing into the distance as my blood continued to rush through my veins with the impatience of getting to Ada.
“I need to get to her. I don’t have time for this bullshit.” I’d already wasted precious minutes talking to Kane and Adryan about all of this.
“We sure as fuck weren’t going to leave you here,” Adryan growled low and hard. He snapped his finger toward the witch, and Sherbet stepped forward, pushing up the sleeves of his shirt and slowly exhaling as if gearing up for something.
“Oh fuck no,” I ground out. “As much as I’m glad to see both of you and really want to get out of this damn place… I won’t leave without her,” I said again for probably the fifth time since they found me.
Adryan kept his impassive expression as he stared at me, but then inclined. “Yeah, I know it. I wouldn’t leave Kayla here either. I’d rather fucking rip out my own heart.” He shrugged like the apathetic bastard he was. Kayla was the only one who could get this sociopath to show any emotion. “But I had to try, even if I knew you’d never go for it.”
Fucking asshole.
“You’re connected.” At my silence he went on. “You took her blood by the scent of her clinging to you.”
I made a sound of warning and he grinned.
“And I assume she took yours.” He cocked an eyebrow.
The last thing I wanted to do was talk to fucking anyone about what I did with my mate, but I gave a sharp nod, knowing this information was important.
“Yeah, we’ve exchanged blood,” I gritted out and looked at the other vamps, daring them to snicker or make a little face at that information.
They were smart enough to avert their eyes.
“Then you’re connected and when you’re pulled out, so will she,” Adryan said smoothly. “She’ll be transported too.”
“And if I hadn’t shared blood with her, what then?”
He gave a nonchalant shrug. “I guess we’d be searching for her, too, cousin.” He flashed a sadistic grin. “And truthfully when you told us a fucking Diablos had her, the same one from the facility, I was all for a little hunting.” He clapped his hands and rubbed them together but a second later exhaled as if disappointed. “But it’s a moot point because you did.”
I shook my head again and took a step toward Adryan. I knew my stance was predatory and dangerous. But this was my mate we were discussing, and I was in a volatile state because of it.
Although my cousin’s men moved cautiously from side to side, wanting to be there to protect their leader, they also didn’t want to get involved between the two of us. They knew they couldn’t take me down. The only ones strong enough to fight were Adryan and Kane.
“I’d rather stay here for the rest of my life if it meant being with her. I won’t risk the chance that I’ll get transported back and she won’t.” I glared at Adryan. “Let me ask you this, cousin. If you were in my position and Kayla was the one you were searching for, shared blood or not, would you leave her?”
When Adryan ground his teeth and took a menacing step toward me, as if the very thought of Kayla here was about to send him into a manic episode, I nodded, my point made.
He didn’t have to say the words for me to know his truth. “That’s what I fucking thought.”
“Um, excuse me,” the witch said, and we all slowly turned our attention to him.
He was half our size and looked like a stiff wind would break him in half, but at this moment he was stronger than all of us. Because he was the only one who could get us out of the shithole.
“Just a reminder… but we only have a very small window of time to do this.” He glanced warily at all of us, vampires who were a foot taller than him.
I looked between him and Adryan. “Now there’s a fucking time frame involved?” I snarled.
“Can we start this?”
I narrowed my eyes on the witch.
“The portal will close before we can do this.”
“The fuck?” I glanced at my cousin, then at Kane. “One of you assholes better finish the damn story on what the hell is going on.”
Adryan exhaled as if I were wasting his time.
“Leandreans are the portal openers. Without them keeping it open permanently, over time it slowly closes. The energy is still in the air, which is how we found you, like I said.” He looked over at Sherbet. “But a witch… a witch has the ability to tear a closed portal open as long as it still has energy.”