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was an hour, boss,” he
said.
    I still felt disoriented. “Can I hold on to your arm
Mark? I still feel a bit wobbly.”
    Mark cursed and promptly swept me up in his arms and
began walking. I wanted to protest but didn’t have enough energy.
He sat me down in front of the tent and got me a bottle of water.
After a few minutes I felt more myself.
    “ Sorry about that. I think I had a
vision of the last time I was here. I probably was around six years
old. I was with my parents and woke up to the sound of laughter. I
followed the sound until I was beside the lake. My parents were
swimming in the moonlight. When they saw me, my father yelled,
“Olive Oil what are you doing up?” He and Mom got out of the water
and Mom said, “You need to get some rest. We are going to see
akso:d in the morning.”
    That’s all the vision told me, but I have a feeling
that in the morning I will know exactly where we need to go.”
    Mark was kneeling in front of me, and now he stood,
went over and got something out of the car.
    “ Here eat something before you go
to sleep. You’re getting too thin.”
    I took the bag of jerky that he handed me and said,
“Gee, thanks Mom.”
    He gave me a dirty look but sat down beside me.
    Probably to make sure I ate. The jerky tasted pretty
good, or maybe I was just really hungry, but I ate the whole bag
and finished the water. I felt tired. I was physically and
emotionally drained.
    “ I think I’m going to call it a
night. Are you sure you’ll be okay out here?” Mark nodded. After I
crawled into the tent, Bullet followed me in and stretched out
beside me.
    Mark zipped up the tent. I heard him rustling around
for a few minutes and then saw him lay down in front of the tent.
It was with a secure feeling that I lay down with my wolf beside me
and my…my what? Partner. That’s the word that popped into my
mind.
    I woke up with the sun shining outside the tent. I
was surprised I had a dreamless night. I was half expecting to have
a dream or vision of where we were supposed to go. I unzipped the
tent and slipped outside. I didn’t see Mark at first, but then
spotted him walking back from the direction of the lake. His dark
hair was wet and he had no shirt on. It was obvious that he was
swimming. As he got closer I could see his tanned muscular chest.
He was a good looking guy and for a minute I felt bad that I wasn’t
attracted to him. It would probably make my life a hell of a lot
simpler to love a regular man instead of god damn vampires.
    “ Good morning. Did you sleep
well?” I asked as he walked up. Mark nodded yes and handed me a cup
of coffee. I finally noticed a remnant of a fire in front of the
tent.
    “ How long have you been up?” I
asked him.
    “ Since seven” he
replied.
    “ Seven? What time is
it?”
    “ Almost eleven,” he
answered.
    “ I slept until eleven? Why didn’t
you wake me?”
    “ You were tired.” He stated matter
of factly.
    “ Yeah…but I also want to get on
the road.”
    “ So you know where we’re
going?”
    “ Ummm…no. Not yet. I thought maybe
I would dream something, but I don’t think I had any dreams last
night. At least none I can remember.”
    Mark shrugged as if to say, whatever, and began
taking the tent down. I drank my coffee and decided to walk over to
the lake to wash up.
    “ I’m going to wash up at the
lake.” Mark rose from his work like he was going to come with me,
and I halted him with, “No. Finish up here. I’ll take Bullet with
me.”
    He nodded as I called my wolf. Bullet came running
out of some thick brush looking happy and well fed. I bent down to
scratch him. “And what did you have for breakfast? Never mind,” I
said as I thought that it was probably not a big bowl of kibble. I
started for the lake. I found a spot where I could scoot myself
close without falling in and scooped up some water and splashed in
onto my face. The water was cold so I didn’t linger.
    I turned with the intention of finding a bush where
I