“I think this is for you.” Kraft pulled a note tacked beside the mirror above the bar and handed it to her. He’d already downed a bottle of golem blood and looked better.
“Are you all healed up now? Not planning on taking a bite out of me, are you?”
“I was not so hurt I needed to feed right away.”
“Please. I saw that hole in your side.” She glanced at it but couldn’t tell if he was better due to the torn fabric covering what spots weren’t already covered with gore. “He put his entire hand through your belly.”
“Would you like to touch and find out?” He lifted his shirt to expose a ripped six pack.
Damn him, but shedidwant to touch and find out. “Ha. Not touching you with a ten foot pole.”
Kraft just smiled.
She read the note addressed to “Anger Issues” and crumpled it in her fist. “Come on, vamp. We have someone to meet.”
He sighed. “Fine. But first we head back to the house. I need to talk to Mormo about something.”
“I’ll meet you—”
“Nein.You’ll come with me. What we faced here was not something I was expecting. We need more information.”
“Sure, fine.” Truth to tell, Riley didn’t like what had happened to her. At all. More info wouldn’t be remiss. “I’ll follow you.”
“You’ll come with me.” He stepped closer, forcing her to look up to meet his gaze.
Annoyed at the power play, she opened her mouth to protest when he leaned closer, close enough to...kiss. She watched, fascinated and a little terrified, as his eyes turned red, the shifting colors of blood and fire flashing in his irises and pupils, all focused on her.
“You will come with me, Riley of the Crimson Claw,” he growled in a low voice that made her shiver.
She swallowed around a dry throat. “Fine. But someone will have to come back to grab my rental.” Then she shocked herself and him by stabbing her finger into his chest. “But hear this. You try anything funny and you’ll live to regret it.”
The red in his eyes blazed. His lips curled. “Promises, promises.”
CHAPTEREIGHT
Once in the car,Kraft drove them toward the house, every bit of him delighted to have Riley sitting so close. She practically vibrated with tension, a low growl humming from the lycan in warning to behave.
He had scented her fear earlier, but he accepted that as his due. Vampires were of course a top tier predator. But the wolfish part of him also enjoyed inspiring terror, just as much as it enjoyed the subtle interest he’d seen in Riley’s gaze. She hid it well enough, but her anger couldn’t block her direwolf’s attention.
“Are you going to tell me what the note said, Ms. Anger Issues?” He chuckled. Her friend, Talon, obviously knew her well. Then he wondered how well and grew annoyed for caring.
“Don’t have a hissy.” She pulled the note out of her pocket and unballed it. “It reads, ‘You want answers, look at Seb plus’—he used the plus sign—‘DM. Don’t forget deal. In wind. Later.’”
“Seb DM.?”
“I know three Sebastians. But the DM, that I’m not sure of. I’ll call Max and see if he can get through to Talon again.” She frowned. “That’s a pretty crappy deal on his part.”
“Deal?”
“Never mind.”
He would chase that down later. “What did he mean ‘In wind’? Is that a shapeshifter reference?”
“It could be. I took that to mean he’s going to ground,” she explained.
“Hiding.” Kraft sneered. “Weak. He didn’t stay around to battle as you did, either.”
“Hey, I was held down by corrupt magic or I would have bolted. I’m not stupid. Anyone who gets in the middle of vampires has a death wish.”
