The sound of a door slamming made all three of them glance toward the back of the house.
Eyebrows rising, Scotty headed down the hall, with Beth following closely on his heels. There were several doors on the right, each seeming to lead into a bedroom. But there was only one doorway on the left and it was at the far end of the hall. She and Scotty turned in to a family room that took up the near side of the large open space, while a kitchen filled the other half. She spotted the door that had slammed at once. It was in the back corner on the kitchen side, but she didn’t move toward it. Instead, she stared out the large windows that seemed to make up the back wall of the house. Through them, she could see the huge backyard, the two outbuildings, and Donny running toward a kennel where two beautiful Doberman pinschers were jumping at the fence, barking excitedly as the ginger-haired man approached.
“Will they bite him?” Beth asked with concern.
“I do not know,” Matias admitted with a frown. “He is terribly excited and if he excites them too much . . .”
“Crap,” Beth breathed and hurried to the door to go after the young immortal.
“I’m thinking we should take him dancing sooner rather than later,” Matias called after them as Scotty followed her.
Beth was too busy running to comment, but she thought that was a damned good idea.
“Have you known Matias long?”
Scotty winced at that loud shout in his ear and tore his gaze away from Beth’s gyrating body on the dance floor to peer down at the girl who had cozied up to him on the couch. She was one of the half-dozen women who had been draping themselves all over Matias since they’d arrived here more than an hour ago. He seemed to be popular. But Scotty supposed the little girl with blue hair leaning up against him had tired of trying to vie for the young man’s attention and shifted her focus to him.
“Have you?” she asked again. She was shouting to be heard over the music. He wished she wouldn’t. Her shouting was giving him a headache. Fortunately, she seemed to realize how unattractive having to shout might appear and made a little moue with her lips. She also blinked her eyelashes at him in a way that made him wonder if she had something in her eye . . . or eyes.
“Nay,” he answered her question and then shifted his attention back to the dance floor, finding Beth again as Donny twirled her around to the manic beat.
“Do you like to dance?” the girl tried again.
“Nay,” he answered, not even looking at her this time.
“Do you—”
“Matias,” Scotty growled. He didn’t shout. Immortals had superior hearing and the young Spaniard caught his warning. A moment later the warm weight against his side eased away and then was gone. Scotty supposed the Spaniard had slipped into her thoughts and either urged her back to his side or sent her away. He didn’t care which.
“If you keep staring at her like that she will surely burst into flames.”
Scotty gave a start at that comment and turned to look around. Matias hadn’t sent just the little blue-haired girl away. He’d sent all the women away. He’d also moved next to him on the couch and was eyeing him with curiosity.
“You like my cousin,” he said finally.
Scotty merely turned his gaze back to the dance floor.
“Beth says you are over eight hundred years old. Is that true?” he asked.
“Aye,” he muttered.
“Interesting,” Matias murmured so softly that despite his hearing, Scotty nearly didn’t catch it.
Eyes narrowing, he turned to peer at him in question. “Why?”
Matias hesitated and then, instead of answering, asked, “Why didn’t you want Beth to be a Rogue Hunter?”
Scotty stiffened. “Who says I did no’ want her to be a hunter?”
Matias grinned and raised his eyebrows. “You tried to convince my uncle and Drina not to let her train, and then, once she’d finished training, you traveled to Spain to try to convince the Council to refuse her a position as a hunter. Everyone knows that.”
“Beth too?” he asked with alarm.
Matias nodded. “My uncle sat her down and said you didn’t think she should be a hunter, and he’d argued on her behalf to the Council. He told her not to screw up and prove him wrong.”
Cursing, Scotty glanced back to the dancers. He should have realized that she would find out. Not that it would have stopped him. He’d been desperate to keep her safe. He would have appreciated it had everyone kept their mouths shut, though. It just complicated the situation further, he thought and began to frown, partially because of that, and partially because he couldn’t find Beth on the dance floor.
Where the hell had she got to? he wondered, getting to his feet to improve his view of the dancers.
“What is it?” Matias asked, standing up as well.
“I can no’ find Beth,” he muttered, looking for her little black dress among the dancers. The problem was, there were a ton of women in black. Why the hell would she wear such a common color? She was not a common woman.
“I see Donny,” Matias said after a moment. “Beth’s not with him. Perhaps she went to the ladies’ room.”
“Aye,” Scotty murmured and settled back on the couch.
Beth flushed the toilet and stepped out of the stall to find the bathroom apparently empty. There had been half a dozen women primping in the mirror or washing their hands when she’d entered, but it seemed they’d finished their business and left.
Shrugging, she quickly walked to the sink and washed her hands. By the time she finished and turned off the tap, the rushing of water from the toilet had stopped too, leaving the room silent except for the somewhat muffled throb of the music coming from the dance floor . . . and heartbreaking sobs coming from one of the stalls.
Frowning, Beth ripped off a section of paper towel and dried her hands, her gaze traveling along the floor under the row of stalls. Two of them were occupied. The one nearest the door, and one two doors over from that. Beth wasn’t sure from which one the crying was coming, but suspected it was from the one closest to the door.
“Hello? Are you all right?” she asked, tossing the paper into the wastebasket. When she didn’t get an immediate response, Beth walked to the last stall, only to stumble to a stop as it flew open and a young woman hurried out, nearly crashing into her.
“Sorry, sorry,” the woman cried and rushed for the exit.