“Are you ready to get going?” he asked.
The idea of placing her hand in his caused a powerful sense of dread to settle over her. She kept her gaze on his and pushed her hand through her hair as she took a step back. “No. I’m not leaving with you.”
“Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m fine.” She blinked, and he was closer to her. Too damn close. His larger body was crowding hers, invading her personal space.
“You look pale.”
“Thank you for offering to take me to the hotel, but I would rather go alone.” She stared at him, watching him, fighting against a shockingly powerful magnetic force drawing her to him. “I’m not…” she trailed off shaking her head.
“It’s the middle of the night. There’s no need for you to hunt for another ride.” His voice deepened to a scintillating drug of seduction. Strange and unwanted desire blossomed in her. She was in serious trouble. He was a demon. She knew better than to allow a demon to seduce her. She knew better than to fall for a demon’s tricks. “I’ll take you to the hotel.”
“No.” She glanced down at his hand again and then looked up at him as she took another step back. “I prefer to find another ride.” She wasn’t quite sure what to make of her body’s reaction to his voice, to his dark and domineering presence. Clearly, she’d lost control of her damn mind and body to him.
“Come on.” He kept his hand extended to her. A hint of annoyance hovered in his unblinking black eyes, betraying his otherwise calm demeanor. “You won’t be able to find a ride this late, and I am not leaving you out here alone. Let’s go. I promise you’ll be safe with me, Hanna.”
Like hell, she would be safe with him. She knew he wouldn’t take her hand. He was waiting for her to surrender to him, to choose to take his hand. While it seemed to be an innocent display of a gentleman offering his assistance, it was far from it. It was a trap. Physical touch permitted a demon to read a human’s most profound, most guarded thoughts easily; especially, human-initiated contact. At that moment, she realized what had happened. She allowed him to touch her to remove the tattoo and tracking spell. She’d already opened herself up to him. She’d given him access to her mind.
“I am not leaving you here, Hanna.” His voice, a low, enticing, velvety smooth tool of manipulation, irritated the hell out of her.
She glared up at him. He was attempting to charm her, to compel her to trust him. She wouldn’t fall for it. She wouldn’t allow him to wreak havoc in her brain. She felt his mind reach out to hers. He was searching for information. She quickly focused on building a solid wall in her mind to keep him out.
Wincing, “damn it,” he shook his head as if her attempt to shut him out had hurt him.
“Don’t you dare try to do that to me again.”
He stared at her for what seemed like an eternity. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I’m not trying to do anything to you.” His lips parted and slowly curved upward in a sexy smile, a sexy smile that caused her heart to beat faster. “If you’re ready, we should get going.” She hated him. She hated him for being a demon. She hated him for invading her mind and causing her to feel desire for him. “There’s no need for you to be afraid of me.”
“I’m not scared of you,” she blurted, wishing she’d kept her mouth shut. It was an obvious lie since they both knew he could kill her with both hands tied behind his back. “I’m not going anywhere with you. And you might as well stop trying to use your voice to screw around with my head. It won’t work.”
Appearing amused by her response, his dark gaze moved over her face. He was more than sexy. He was downright hot. He was trouble. And, thanks to his ability to manipulate her thoughts, trouble looked pretty damn fantastic on him. “That’s why you got upset. You believe I’m attempting to use a compulsion on you.” He had the nerve to look shocked by the accusation.
“Don’t even try to deny it. I can hear it in your voice. I can feel it. I know you are.” She’d spent enough time dealing with demons to know the depths they would stoop to get what they wanted.
“I’m not trying to do anything to you.” He looked and sounded too innocent to be anything other than guilty. “If I wanted to use a compulsion to control you, I would just do it.”
“I know.”
He moved his gaze from her head to her toes and then back again. He closed the distance between them. He was close. Too close again. He certainly had no respect for a woman’s personal space. “You wouldn’t know I was doing it.” He narrowed his gaze slightly. “You’re afraid because you don’t trust me. Since you don’t know me, it’s perfectly understandable. But I swear I’m harmless. Give me a chance to prove it to you.”
“A harmless demon?” She burst out laughing.
He lifted an eyebrow and remained silent, watching her for several seconds, looking for something. No. She realized he wasn’t looking for anything. He was trying to decide how to gain control of her. “You’ll be safe with me.” He kept his gaze on hers, annoyance once again hovering in his dark eyes. “I am not leaving you here.” His voice sounded deeper, lower, more of a guttural growl.
After several long moments of silence, she realized that she wasn’t going to convince him to leave her. Her best option was to go with him and wait for an opportunity to get away from him. “Fine.” She glanced down at his hand. “I don’t need you to hold my hand.” She started to walk down the sidewalk.
After a few minutes, he stopped and took a slow, seemingly thorough look around as if searching for something. “I guess my car is a little further away than I thought. It’s about three miles from here if we stay on the sidewalk.” He pointed at the entrance of an overgrown wooded park with several unmaintained recreational trails. “It’s only about a mile that way,” He explained. “We’ll cut through the park.”
“Only a demon would forget going for a three-mile walk around here.”
“Do you feel up to walking? If not,” he pulled his phone from his jacket pocket, “I can call for another ride to pick us up here and take us to the hotel.”
“I don’t mind walking.” In fact, to be entirely honest, she preferred being out in the open rather than confined in a vehicle with him. “I wouldn’t want to do it alone around here.”
“Why?”
“It has a reputation for being a rough neighborhood.”
“I haven’t been around long enough to get a feel for the area.”
“I recently discovered that the owner of the shelter has illegal activities going on with a local gang.” Frowning, she pressed her lips together and shook her head. Why the hell had she bothered to tell him about her findings?
“Like what?” he asked.
“Mostly drugs and prostitution.”
“What else?”
“I’m not entirely sure.” She started to walk toward the park entrance. “I know they recruit women to work at a club called Wicked Sensations. Last week, after going to the club for an interview, a woman returned to the shelter claiming the place was packed with vampires. A few hours later, she loaded up her suitcase and left. The next day, I went to the club. She was right. I’ve never seen so many vampires in one place. She never returned. I hope she’s okay.”
Adam grabbed her arm to stop her and turned her to face him. “You went to the club alone?”
“Yes,” she said, yanking her arm from his grip.
“You don’t like to walk around this area alone because it’s rumored to be rough, but you didn’t have any fear of going to a club alleged to be occupied by vampires?”
“That’s not true. I was scared to death.” She took a deep breath and released it with a sigh. “The woman was very young. I suspect she was barely out of her teens. I hoped to find her.”
Clenching his jaw, he stared at her and shook his head. “Are you serious?”
“Sure.” She shrugged. “I’m not ashamed to admit being scared. I know you don’t have any reason to fear vampires.” He was close. Too damn close again. She actually fe
lt the warmth of his body seeping into hers. His habit of entering her space was starting to drive her nuts. She wanted to shove him, but she settled for taking a step back to put a little distance between them. “But trust me, a vampire is not something a human wants to mess around with.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Frowning, he pushed his hand through his hair. “I can’t believe you did it. It was…”
“I know it was stupid,” she interrupted, “but I was really worried about her.”
“I wasn’t going to say it was stupid. It was brave. It was too damn brave. The idea of you walking into a place like that scares the hell out of me.” He shook his head. “The thought of what could’ve happened to you truly terrifies me. I don’t like it.”
She started to laugh but managed to stop to avoid pissing him off. His performance deserved a standing ovation. She’d spent enough time being tortured by demons to believe they had the ability to feel concern for a human’s wellbeing. For a second, she opened her mouth to tell him what she thought, but she managed to close her mouth before blurting it out. It was for the best to keep her opinions to herself. Provoking him would only lead to more trouble. She had more than enough problems to deal with at the moment. Besides, in all honesty, she didn’t have a right to keep comparing him to other demons and judging him by her experiences with them.
“Let me know the next time you decide to do something that dangerous. I will go with you.”
“What?”
“I don’t want you to go to the club alone again. Next time, let me go with you.”
“I’m never going back. And I don’t intend to stick around here for more than another day or two.”
“Where do you plan to go?” he asked.
“I’m not sure yet.”
“Why leave? If you don’t know where you’re going, you might as well stick around.”
She shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Why?”
“I just can’t.”
“What about your family?”
“What about them?”
“Where do they live? Do you plan to return to them?”
“I don’t have a family to return to.” They didn’t live anywhere. She’d killed her mother and father. She’d slaughtered them in their home in the middle of the night while they slept. She pushed the horrific memory from her mind, hoping like hell she hadn’t already revealed it to him. “You asked too many questions.”
“I wasn’t trying to be intrusive. I’m just concerned about you.”
“Drop it. I don’t have any desire to talk about my past or my family with you. You don’t know me. You don’t need to be concerned about me.”
His unblinking gaze remained locked on hers. She felt his mind touch hers. It was the gentlest of caresses rather than a deep merging. It seemed strange. His presence was all dominating, all male. She wouldn’t have guessed he had any gentleness in him. “I know it’s natural to you, but I need you to stop trying to read my thoughts. I don’t like it.”
“I am sorry. I’ll do my best to refrain from doing it. Don’t leave, Hanna. Let me help you.”
“I know how to take care of myself.”
****
Adam knew she was struggling to accept him. He’d given her every reason to feel threatened by him. He knew a lesser supernatural being was stalking them. It was close, but he couldn’t pinpoint its location. He decided to go through the park to encourage it to approach them. He couldn’t identify the damn thing. And that bothered him. It had similar characteristics to a tainted vampire, but it wasn’t one. It wasn’t anything he’d ever encountered. To avoid scaring the damn thing off before he was able to figure out what it was and kill it, he masked his true nature. He stayed close to her, ready to use his body to shield hers if the creature decided to attack.
“Wait.” She caught his hand and tugged it to get him to stop and face her. “Do you feel it?” she asked, her dark gray eyes shadowed with apprehension.
He stared at her, studying her face. She was perfect in every way. She was a treasure. His treasure. A beautiful miracle he didn’t deserve. “What do you feel?” Rather than rush to offer information, he wanted to test her ability to identify and locate a threat.
“You feel it.” She released his hand and took a step back as if she might turn and run from him. “It’s true, you feel it, too, don’t you?” She frowned at him, taking another step back. “Why pretend you don’t?”
“I am not pretending. I feel it. How could I not?” He closed the distance between them, refusing to allow her to retreat from him. “It’s a lesser being. I want to know how its presence affects you. I want to understand your ability to detect something most humans wouldn’t.”
Indicating her acceptance of his response, she nodded. “I don’t know how to explain it. It feels threatening.” Wincing, she pressed her hand to her forehead.
“You’re in pain?” he asked.
“It happens sometimes. It’s a warning.”
“For what?”
“To figure out the direction the pain decreases and get moving.” She took a step.
“Hold on.” He took a step to the side to stop her. “Share it with me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Show me.”
She shook her head, shifting her gaze to the side to avoid his. “We don’t have time to play games.”
“I told you it’s a lesser being. It’s nothing for you to fear.” He caught her chin and forced her to look into his eyes. “You don’t want to merge your mind with mine to share information.”
“I don’t want to provoke him. I just want to get away from here.”
“You don’t have any reason to fear Evolved anymore, Hanna.”
“I am not worried about myself. He’s close.”
“Who’s close?”
“A demon. He demands his followers and prisoners to refer to him as God. I don’t know his real name. He might be a god. All the other demons are terrified of him. He’s scary as hell.”
“How so?”
“He’s wholly evil. He possesses an insane amount of power. He loves to torture and kill others.”
“What’s following us is not a demon.”
“You’re wrong.”
“We are being watched by something other than a demon.” He didn’t doubt a demon who called himself God existed. He believed the demon had sent their stalker. But he knew the demon wasn’t nearby. He would sense it.
“I am telling you he’s a demon.”
He hated her fear. She shouldn’t fear anything. It was his job to protect her. And he wanted her to know it. He wanted her to know that he would never allow anything, including a demon with a god complex, to walk through him to get to her. “You are safe.” He needed to hold her, to comfort her more than he needed to take his next breath. Unfortunately, if he tried, she would run from him. He realized she truly believed it was a demon and she didn’t want him to challenge it.
She opened her mouth as if to respond but, before uttering a word, she bit down on her bottom lip and shook her head.
“I will protect you.”
She smirked at him. “Wouldn’t it be more natural for you to figure out who’s going to protect you?”
Her sarcasm got under his skin. “I don’t need anyone to protect me.”
“He will kill you the second he realizes you plan to go after Evolved.”
He needed to get closer to her. He ached to touch her, to run his fingers over her soft skin, to feel every inch of her body against his. “I am not easily killed.” And now, with her to protect, he would be even harder to kill. For the first time in his existence, he had a reason to live. He had never had anything that truly mattered to him.
“And you think he is?”
“It doesn’t matter. I will protect you with my life.”
“You want me to believe that you would give your life for mine.” She rolled her eyes. “I am not an idiot, Adam. You’re a demon. I’ve spent years held captive
and tortured by demons.”
“I don’t plan to die.” He was beyond shocked. He was incredibly irritated. No one rolled their eyes at him. It never happened. And, unless he missed a time or two, she’d already rolled her eyes twice at him. “I would give my life for yours.”
“Getting yourself killed for me goes against your nature.” She tossed her head back and laughed. “Besides, you know nothing about them. About him. Nothing. I do. Going up against Evolved, going up against the demon who believes he’s a god is suicide.” She paused. “I don’t want anyone, including you, to die for me.”
“He is not a god.” He realized that having his mate laugh at him was far more irritating than having her roll her eyes at him. He wanted her to believe in him. Motioning for her to follow, he decided it would be best to end the conversation to suppress the anger growing in him.
The wind increased and, heralding the approach of a storm, the atmosphere charged with electricity. He reached up and rubbed his throbbing temples. He needed to understand and contain his growing frustration to keep the storm from gaining strength. The steady escalation of his anger confused him. Why should he give a damn about Hanna laughing at him?
A hiss of irritation escaping from between clenched teeth, he glanced up at the darkening sky. Gathering pillars of dark clouds, illuminated by the setting sun, mirrored the swirling cauldron of fiery fury in his soul. He was a demon, a powerful ancient immortal. To the cruelest, the most dangerous supernatural beings walking the earth he was a ruthless, invincible adversary. He’d dedicated thousands of years to going after and destroying the worst of the worst. Why would he allow her doubt in his ability to protect her and wipe out Evolved bother him? He could ruin her, crush every bone in her body with nothing more than a thought.
INSATIABLE BREATH OF DARKNESS Page 2
