“Thanks.” I force the word past my lips, remembering how well he responds to things like praise, appreciation, and overall ego-stroking.
He swings the door open, ushers me inside the club where I’m so overcome with the scent of Raven I freeze on the spot.
My nose twitching. Vision sharpening. Hunger stirring. Knowing without a doubt that she’s here.
Daire.
Lurking in places she knows better than to visit.
“You okay?” Leandro shoots me a strange look and I can’t believe he can’t sense her. Has no idea his lair has been breached by Coyote’s last remaining enemy—not counting me.
I nod, leaving him at the bar where he mixes himself a stiff drink as I hurry down the hall to my office, drawn by the lure of her scent.
When she hears me, she presses hard to the wall in a futile bid to go unseen. Having no idea that ever since the change, my eyes see everything.
I lean against the doorway, indulging a long sweet moment to linger on the drape of her dark hair trailing over her shoulder, the flush at her cheeks, the hollow of her neck, the curve of her thighs gleaming under the glow of security lights.
The sight of her soft, creamy flesh causing my spine to stiffen, my muscles to cord and flex, as my pulse begins to race, and a hunger stirs deep within.
I throw my head back and drag a deep breath, filling my head with her sweet, hypnotic scent.
Aware of the beat of her heart slamming hard in her chest.
The soft whistle of breath passing her lips.
The salty trickle of sweat that’s slipped between her breasts.
Her essence so enticing, so alluring, the small remnant of the old me yearns to run to her, confide how much I love her, how much I’ve missed her. Tell her she’s right—we can do this together.
Unfortunately, the beast wholeheartedly concurs. Thinking how much fun it will be to soften her up, before he destroys her.
Slowly, very slowly, she slips a hand down her leg, reaches for the knife she’s stashed in her boot.
Come. Come to me, the beast coos.
His voice overpowering my own urge to warn her to run while she can.
She grasps the hilt. Removes the sheath until the blade glints silver. Then waits for me to make the first move.
Leaves it to me to determine how this unfolds.
A smart move that buys her another night.
Better not tempt a beast that’s not mine to control.
Determined to get away before I lose it completely, I slip into my office, shut the door between us, and bolt it securely.
TWENTY-THREE
XOTICHL
“Tell me again why we’re meeting him all the way out here—in what can literally be described as the middle of nowhere?” I peer through the windshield, unable to free myself of this deep sense of unease, much less pinpoint its cause, other than to say nothing looks as it should.
When we first set out, the sky was perfectly clear and littered with stars—a typical Enchantment hot summer night (albeit a lot hotter than usual). But here, the sky is choked with clouds as thick, ominous, and wide as the sea. And other than countless tribes of tumbleweeds, and the narrow dirt road unspooling beneath us, there’s virtually nothing else to speak of.
It’s the kind of eerie, desolate landscape often seen in nightmares and horror movies.
A haunting place of dark secrets, bad deeds.