10. Peter

As the bus finally pulled through the gates of Safe Haven, Peter felt a sense of relief wash over him. He hadn"t missed the compound or the rugged Oregon coast, yet it was a welcome sight after the fourteen-hour journey from the port.

Marina had slept on his shoulder throughout most of the night, but all Peter had managed was a few minutes of shuteye here and there. The Guardians had taken turns driving the vehicle, and when it had been his turn, Marina had used his vacated seat to lie down curled up like a pretzel. When he"d transferred command of the wheel to the next Guardian, he"d taken the empty seat next to Larissa instead of disturbing Marina.

Thankfully, Larissa had also been asleep, so he hadn"t been subjected to her sniffling and mumbling about Jay. Still, Peter had felt ridiculously relieved when Marina woke up and asked him to return to her.

He was either losing his fucking mind or she was a Dormant after all, because such a strong bond surely couldn"t form between a human and an immortal.

As Marina stirred, lifting her head off his shoulder and blinking her eyes open, she turned to the window. "Finally. I thought this ride would never end."

He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "Happy to be home?"

She yawned and stretched her arms over her head. "This is not home, but I"m happy to get off the bus."

As they disembarked, Peter took in the familiar scenery. On the face of things, Safe Haven hadn"t changed much since his time there, but appearances were misleading. A whole new section had been built in the back of the property, and it housed a secret underground lab and a bunch of bungalows to house two groups of very distinct residents. One group was the paranormal talents who had been moved to Safe Haven from West Virginia, and the other was dedicated to the scientists who had worked on a secret project in the lab.

As far as he knew, those bungalows were unoccupied at the moment because no one was using the lab. Still, Emmett and Eleanor might have been using them as additional guest units for their spiritual and paranormal retreats.

Peter wondered how that was going. Had they identified any new potential Dormants?

Probably not, or he would have heard about it.

It seemed that the only way to find Dormants was to trust the Fates to deliver them to their doorstep, so to speak, because all the efforts to identify them had failed except the first two that Amanda had discovered through her testing, and not for lack of trying.

Amanda"s research was still going strong but producing no results. William"s computer game was producing winners, but none of them had scored high enough on precognition to merit interest. Eva"s romance novel about people with paranormal ability was not particularly popular despite a large advertising budget, so the chance of possible Dormants contacting the author was dismal.

The Echelon spy system was showing some promise, though. It was spitting out lists of people who had triggered the algorithm by speaking or posting about paranormal phenomena, and a couple of them seemed promising, so maybe that would prove to be the best approach.

As he and Marina entered the main lodge, Larissa"s shuffling footsteps sounded behind them, along with the shambling gaits of the other humans. They were crossing the central hall to the rear exit and from there to the staff quarters, but Peter led Marina to the administrative wing of the lodge instead.

She looked up at him with a raised brow. "You seem to know your way around."

"It"s not my first time here."

"I"ve never seen you in Safe Haven before. I would have remembered you." She tilted her head. "Were Guardians posted here before we joined the community?"

As Peter thought of Marina eying the Guardians who had done rotations in Safe Haven, a flare of jealousy rushed through him.

"Oh, yeah?" He stopped walking and turned to her. "Did you check out all the Guardians who were stationed here?"

A faint blush colored her cheeks. "So what if I did? I"m a healthy female in my prime, and you are all incredibly hunky."

Peter saw red. "Did you speak to any of them?"

She shook her head. "I was too intimidated. Working on the ship and serving your kind in the dining room proved to me that you were decent people and that I have nothing to fear from you." She stretched on her toes and kissed the underside of his jaw. "But I like it that you get jealous over me."

He huffed out a breath and resumed walking. "I"m not usually like this. I don"t know what"s gotten into me."

"It"s called love." Marina leaned into him. "I"m jealous over you, too."

"I"ve noticed." He leaned to kiss the tip of her nose. "You are cute when you are jealous. To answer your previous question, Guardians have been posted in Safe Haven long before your arrival for reasons that have nothing to do with your people. Leon and Anastasia are here permanently, with Leon in charge of security and Ana developing content for the retreats. The others rotate every two weeks."

When they reached Emmett"s office, Peter knocked on the door. A moment later, it was flung open, and he found himself enveloped in Eleanor"s arms.

"I haven"t seen you in ages." She leaned away from him. "Thankfully, you don"t change. Why haven"t you come to visit?"

Eleanor had seen him in the village, and it hadn"t been that long ago, so he didn"t know what her deal was. As for him visiting Safe Haven, Peter didn"t have fond memories of the place, but he didn"t harbor any ill feelings toward it or Emmett either.

"Why didn"t you come on the cruise?" he asked, deflecting her question.

Eleanor let go of him and waved a dismissive hand. "Someone needed to stay behind and run this place. I don"t trust leaving it in Riley"s hands for more than a few days. Besides, Emmett and I don"t really belong with your clan."

Feeling Marina bristling behind him, Peter reached for her hand and pulled her to face Eleanor and Emmett. "I don"t need to make introductions, right? You all know each other."

"Of course." Eleanor looked at Marina. "The blue hair and piercings are hard to forget."

Marina grinned. "That"s the idea. Blending in is overrated." She let her gaze roam over Emmett, who was wearing all white as usual.

At least he didn"t have his prophet"s robe on today. Instead, he wore white slacks, a white button-down, and a white cardigan. His black hair was long and perfectly styled, fanning out over his shoulders in thick curls.

None of the Kra-ell, pureblooded or hybrid, had curly hair, so she knew it wasn"t natural.

"Bravo." Emmett clapped his hands. "That"s my philosophy as well. Why be like everyone else when you can be one of a kind?"