Shadow Thief (Flirting with Monsters Book 1)

by Eva Chase

Thorn didn’t wait to be asked. His voice came out taut with frustration. “We lost him. No trail to pick up. Snap couldn’t tell where he passed by.”

  “If he didn’t touch anything closely enough with his body, it wouldn’t have left an impression I could connect to him,” Snap said in a mournful tone. “Many shoes walked over that ground; I couldn’t taste any that were definitely his.”

  “Quite the system this group has worked out,” Ruse said. “I’d be impressed if it wasn’t so irritating of them.”

  Thorn’s shoulders tensed. “It’s more than irritating. It’s unacceptable. At every turn, they get the better of us, foil every measure we’ve taken. We fumble along while Omen faces who knows what torment—” He stiffened even more at the sound of footsteps outside.

  An older man came into view, heading into our street from down by the river behind us. Not Meriden—his hair a mix of mouse-brown and silver, his shorter frame slightly slumped. But without a word, Thorn whipped open the door, sprang out of the car, and charged past my window.

  A sound of protest burst from my throat. I jerked around to see the massive shadowkind barreling toward the man as if he meant to knock him right off his feet. For the love of little baby elephants, what was he thinking?

  I hesitated for just a second, and then I leapt out after him.

  The man had halted in mid-step at the sight of the colossus closing in on him, but Thorn didn’t so much as slow down. He slammed his hand into the man’s chest and yanked the front of his polo shirt up to his chin. The man swayed backward, scrambling on tippy-toe to keep his feet on the ground.

  “What do you know about the man who got out here?” Thorn demanded.

  “What?” his victim said in a reedy voice. “What man? When? I—I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You must know something.”

  “I swear, I was only walking by—there’s a shop down the street where they sell the only coffee my wife will drink.” He jerked his hand, and the plastic bag dangling from it rustled. “Please. I’d help you if I could.”

  “Thorn!” I stopped on the sidewalk next to him, my throat constricting. “He’s just some random guy walking by. He wasn’t even near the drop-off spot.”

  “That’s what they’d want us to think.” Thorn shook the man. “Whatever you’ve seen, whatever you know, you’ll tell me, now.” His voice had gone hard and cold as a winter freeze.

  The guy was trembling, his toes barely scraping the ground. He couldn’t make anything more than a choked squeak now. I didn’t think Thorn was trying to kill him—but he might with that incredible strength, if he was too distracted by his need for answers to notice the full effect he was having on that mortal body.

  I wasn’t completely sure the warrior wouldn’t turn that strength on me if I crossed him in this moment, despite debts owed. The breath left my lungs, but I forced myself to grasp his arm.

  “Thorn,” I said, vaguely aware of the other two shadowkind reaching us. “He doesn’t have any answers. I know you’ve been beating yourself up for not protecting Omen, for not finding him sooner, but this isn’t going to make it right. It wasn’t your fault anyway.”

  Finally, Thorn’s gaze shifted to me. In that moment, the anguish in his eyes was so stark that my throat clenched up again for a different reason. It resonated through me, stirring up echoes of the guilt that had wrenched me so often in the first years after Luna’s death—the unpredictable flashes back to the attack, the incessant attempts to piece together some way I could have saved her, as if it could have made a difference by then.

  “How can you know that?” Thorn asked in a raw voice.

  I made myself hold his gaze, even though the tension radiating off him set all my nerves jittering with alarm. I knew where that agonizing frustration came from. It wasn’t aimed at me or even the man he was holding, not really. And I could tell him this with more certainty than I’d ever been able to absolve myself.

  “Because I’ve seen just how far you’ll go to keep the people under your watch safe, and it’s really fucking far. I’d probably be dead at least twice over if it wasn’t for you. We’re going to figure this out. I know that much. Just… not this way. Please.”

  Gradually, the warrior’s arm relaxed. The man’s feet touched down. He sagged with a rasp for breath that brought Thorn’s gaze jerking back to his victim. He took in the man’s quivering form before glancing back at me, and a flicker of an expression that might have been distraught crossed the warrior’s face.

  Oh, there were feelings buried under that hardened exterior—plenty of them. The thought of the overwhelming loyalty that drove his guilt sent a shiver through me, one not entirely unpleasant.

  “I only wanted to find out what he knew,” he said.

  I squeezed his arm where my hand still rested on it. “And now that’s done.”

  Ruse sauntered over to the man and helped him gather himself with a grip of his elbow and a friendly pat to the back. “He’s confused and terrified, and the confusion is real,” the incubus said to us. “He really doesn’t have any idea what this is about. And I think I’d better make sure he doesn’t give it any more thought, hmm?”

  He eased the man off to the side to talk to him in soothing, persuasive tones. I let my hand fall from Thorn’s forearm. He watched it drop to my side as if he wasn’t sure how it’d ended up on him in the first place.

  “What do we do now?” Snap asked.

  “Well…” I looked around. “We know where Meriden gets dropped off. They probably stick to a similar schedule every day—it’d get complicated constantly switching locations with no reason to.”

  Thorn picked up the thread of my thoughts. “We’ll come straight here tomorrow morning. Be ready to follow him as soon as he gets out. Pick up the next part of the trail.” He raised his head, his usual cool determination returning.

  I found myself smiling at him—this brutally devoted monster. “Exactly. I’d call that a plan.”

  26

  Sorsha

  I could tell Pickle wasn’t feeling so comfortable with our current situation from the massive nest-build he’d undertaken. The motel bathroom tub now held two bath towels, one hand towel, and at least four rolls worth of shredded toilet paper. He looked a little ridiculous curled up in one corner, his small green body taking up barely a tenth of the space, but I wasn’t going to pick a fight with him over it. At least, not until I needed to take another shower.

  “Sleep tight,” I told him with a pat on the head. By the time I’d finished brushing my teeth, he was snoring with raspy little hiccups. I held back a laugh and shut the door to muffle the sound.

  Like that, the intermittent rumble of passing traffic drowned him out. The yellow light of the parking lot security lamps streaked through the thin fabric of the curtains. I padded through the glow to the bed, sprayed the air with another puff of the lavender-scented freshener I’d bought, and settled down under the covers, hoping I was tired enough to tune out the lumps in the mattress. The padded surface did a pretty good imitation of the Sahara dunes.

  I’d closed my eyes but not yet drifted off when a faint shift in the air made me suddenly certain I was no longer alone. One of my shadowkind friends had slipped into the room in their supernatural way. Ruse, I assumed, but as I started to roll over, it wasn’t his languid voice that reached my ears.

  “Sorsha?”

  Snap was standing in front of the door between our rooms, as if trying to do the best approximation of having entered the normal way without actually having opened the door. In the dim light, his curls darkened from gold to bronze, but the smooth planes of his face still managed to catch a little glow.

  As I sat up, he kept totally still. I couldn’t tell whether that was because he wanted the distance or he thought I might.

  My pulse stuttered. Had our enemies tracked us down yet again despite all our precautions? “What’s going on? Is something wrong?”

  “No. I mean, I don’t think so.” His tongue fli
tted over his lips. “You said, yesterday, that if I decided I wanted more, I should tell you.”

  His gaze dipped—just for a moment, but obviously enough that the warmth of his attention grazed my breasts through my undershirt. I’d only worn that and panties to bed, where the sheet was now pooled around my waist.

  As his meaning sank in, the warmth drifted lower to settle between my legs. All at once, my whole body felt flushed.

  “I did say that,” I agreed. “So… you do?”

  He hesitated, and then the smile that transformed him from handsome to heavenly spread across his face. “Yes. Very much.”

  I found I wasn’t totally sure what to do next. With Ruse, it’d been easy. He’d known exactly what he wanted and what he could offer. Snap was clearly discovering all this for the first time. It was thrilling to think I’d been the one to stir up that sort of desire in him… but also a little intimidating.

  I didn’t have the best track record with men. Somehow I always seemed to end up disappointing them in the end. It’d be an awful shame if I inadvertently traumatized the guy so badly he fled back to the monk way of life.

  We didn’t have to rush into anything. I needed to figure out how far I wanted this to go. Obviously given who and what we were, it couldn’t be anything more than a fling—like with Ruse, enjoying what we had in the moment—but it was hard to see taking any shadowkind as a lover as a totally casual act.

  For now, we could simply explore the possibilities. I scooted over on the bed to make room. “Why don’t you come here, then, and we’ll see where the moment takes us?”

  Snap crossed the floor as swiftly as he’d been still before and sank down next to me. As he gazed into my eyes, his lit with an eager shine. His hand came up to trace across my cheek and into the fall of my hair. His smile faded.

  “I want you to know I’d never hurt you. My abilities—I have to focus to use them; it doesn’t happen automatically. I wouldn’t put you in any danger.”

  His voice held so much resolve that my heart wrenched. He really thought I might be afraid of him, of what he could do. Hell, I didn’t even know what that was, and I still didn’t have the slightest concern that he’d ever inflict it on me, not after the way he’d reacted the other day when we’d talked about using his powers on living things.

  I reached up to wrap my hand around his with a gentle squeeze. “I know. I’m not worried.”

  “Good.” His smile returned like the sun emerging from behind a passing cloud.

  He leaned closer, his nose nearly brushing my temple. His breath painted heat down the side of my face. The scent that rose from his skin was fresh and bright as spring clover, with a darker mossy undertone like a reminder that there was more lurking beneath the surface.

  “There’s so much I want to do,” he murmured. “I don’t know where to start. I don’t know what you’d like.”

  The desire that had settled low in my belly tightened into something sharper. At this point I suspected I’d be all for whatever he went with. “Why don’t you start with what you’d like, and I’ll let you know if we need a change in direction?”

  He responded with a pleased hum that sent a tingle over my skin and dipped his head as he inhaled deeply. Drinking in my scent, I realized. Holy mother of pearl, he’d barely touched me and I was already soaking through my panties.

  His hand drifted down to my neck, his fingers stroking across my collarbone. His lips pressed lightly against my cheek, charting a path across it to the crook of my jaw. At every point of contact, my body lit up with quivers of bliss. A shaky breath spilled out of me.

  Snap paused. “Is this all right?”

  “Oh, yes,” I said. “That was a good sigh. You know, there is one thing most people find they like a lot…”

  I’d meant to let him lead this exploration, but I couldn’t help myself—so shoot me. I tipped the angle of his jaw and guided his mouth to mine.

  His breath caught as our lips met, and then he was kissing me as if the understanding of how to perform that act were written into his soul. My fingers twined in the silky curls at the back of his head. The heat of his mouth was so hungry yet tender it drew a whimper from my throat.

  With the parting of my lips, he deepened the kiss. His forked tongue teased over the seam of my mouth, sparking pleasure. Oh, yes, I’d like some more of that, please.

  His hand had slipped farther down, following the curve of my breasts—and stopping with a flinch I could tell he’d tried to suppress, just shy of the protective badge I’d left pinned to my undershirt. Shit, I’d forgotten about that.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled against his mouth, and drew back just far enough to tug the undershirt off. I did trust him—enough to go without that small ward tonight.

  Snap took in the sway of my breasts as I bared them, neon brilliance gleaming in his eyes. He cupped one, carefully but with more confidence than when he’d started, and seemed to study the shape of it, the point of my nipple, the way that nub pebbled with a tingle of pleasure at a swipe of his thumb over it.

  His smile widened. He kept his hand there, caressing the curve of my breast and the peak at equal measures, and brought his mouth back to mine. I could have drowned in the sweetness of that kiss.

  He lingered on my mouth before taking his kisses lower: past my jaw, down my neck, over my collarbone, setting me alight everywhere his lips touched. When he reached my chest, he raised my breast as if it were one of the mortal delicacies he so enjoyed savoring. As he sucked the peak into his mouth, I couldn’t help gasping. The flick of his tongue over my nipple, the forked tips encircling it with a slight tug, brought an even headier rush of pleasure.

  “I know what Ruse meant now,” Snap murmured. “About how you’d taste. He was right. You’re better than any peach.”

  “Considering how much you enjoyed the peach, that’s a pretty high compliment.”

  He chuckled and pressed a peck to the curve of my breast. “He has tasted you—everywhere. Hasn’t he?”

  The heated flush that had taken me over deepened. “Why, has he been talking about it?”

  “No. I only—” Snap pulled back so he could look me in the eyes, his expression turning slightly apologetic. “The first night, you told us to leave you alone, but Ruse didn’t come away with us. After a little while, I went looking for him. I slipped into your bedroom in the shadows, and I saw— He was down here.” His fingers glided down to my lap, and a flush colored his own cheeks. “I didn’t mean to spy. I left right away.”

  At least he had some small sense of privacy. But the thought of him watching the incubus with me in the act, even for a moment, spurred on my desire.

  “Ruse can be… very appealing,” I said.

  “It’s in his nature to be.” Snap eased down the sheet to uncover my thighs. “I saw how much you enjoyed what he was doing to you.” He kissed my cheek and then my mouth again, long and harder than before. I’d almost lost the thread of our conversation, caught up in the press of his supple lips, when he slid them away to speak again.

  “I want to make you feel as good as he did. I want to bring you that kind of pleasure. And even more.”

  Well, I certainly wouldn’t complain about that. But I did feel the need to say— “You know, Ruse has centuries of experience perfecting his technique, plus powers and a form specifically designed for seduction. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be ambitious, but maybe we should focus on one step at a—oh.”

  His hand had skimmed over my panties, grazing my clit at the perfect angle to provoke another gasp. Snap gave me a grin that might have had a hint of the incubus’s smirk to it and repeated the motion. Then his long, lithe fingers dipped lower, and curiosity came back into his expression. “You’re wet.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “That means you’re already doing an excellent job of making good on your ambitions.”

  He pressed between my legs more firmly, setting off a pulse of pleasure, and I bit my lip. I ran my hand down his chest to make my own expl
oration of his lean frame. This shirt definitely needed to go. As I pulled at it, he released me just long enough to help remove it.

  With all that divinely toned muscle bared, Snap leaned toward me. He hummed happily at the sweep of my fingers over that terrain and returned his attention to my sex.

  The unmistakable evidence of his own arousal showed in the bulge below the waist of his pants. There was the involuntary response that had started us down this unexpected path. It shouldn’t go untended to.

  I teased my fingers over the bulge, and this time it was Snap who sighed. His hips shifted nearer to me, seeking out that contact. I stroked him again, harder, and he burrowed his face into the crook of my neck. His teeth nicked the sensitive skin there with a shudder of breath.

  “That sensation… makes it very hard to think,” he said.

  I laughed lightly. “The point of doing this isn’t to think. It’s to feel. And you can feel a hell of a lot more than this, if you’ll let me show you.”

  He nodded into my hair and then raised his head to claim my mouth. The roughness of his kiss and the friction of his hand still fondling me through my panties left my head spinning. I managed to focus enough to curl my fingers around his erection through the fabric for a better grip.

  He swayed into my hand with each pump up and down, chasing the pleasure I was paying him back with. At my nudge, he tipped with me so we lay on the bed next to each other. I squirmed even closer into his kiss and his touch.

  Maybe it was best if we stuck to hands for this first spin around the block. Much simpler than navigating the mechanics of full-on sex, especially when Snap could hardly be prepared for the intensity of those sensations. I could already tell he’d get me off just fine like this. Hell, I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d last as it was.

  I found the wherewithal to jerk the zipper of his pants down and discovered Thorn wasn’t the only one for whom dressing didn’t come automatically. Snap hadn’t bothered with any kind of underwear. He probably hadn’t realized they were a standard part of a mortal outfit. How would a shadowkind know, after all, if no one had happened to mention it? It wasn’t as if he’d had to consider clothes at all where he’d come from.