Her nose wrinkles, a flicker of revulsion crossing her face before she tucks it away behind that hard, slayer mask. “Lovely. So, you’re my self-appointed, soul-eating bodyguard.”
Smirking, I let my gaze rake over her body. It’s tight, lean and muscled with a perky arse and a fantastic rack, I can see, even under her hoodie and open coat. She shifts uncomfortably, but she doesn’t back down. “Bodyguard,” I murmur. “Would you like that, Nyssa? Would you like me to guard your body from disgusting predators?”
Her eyes narrow, the amber within them turning to hard, unforgiving chips of stone. “I’d rather take my chances with the face-licker. At least his intentions are obvious.”
“Are mine not?” I take a slow step closer, the air around me cooling, a subconscious display of power she can’t see but can definitely feel. The rainwater on her coat becomes a thin sheen of frost. “I want you alive, slayer. You’re far more useful that way.”
“Useful for what?” she spits, not backing down an inch despite the supernatural chill.
“You’re the only one of your kind who can kill what’s coming. But even the sharpest blade can be broken if it’s wielded recklessly.”
She stares at me for a long, silent moment, the conflict warring on her face. Frustration wins out. “You’re all the same,” she finally snarls. “Cryptic warnings and arrogant smirks. I’m done here.”
With that, she spins on her heel and stalks out of thehall, her shoes crunching on the debris from the door she destroyed. I don’t try to stop her. I let her go, watching as she disappears back into the grey, miserable day before I fix what she broke with a snap of my fingers.
“She is fun,” I say to Dastian, who has appeared next to me, looking slightly bewildered.
“Okay, that was fucking weird.”
“What was?”
“One minute I was in Nyssa’s house and the next I’m here.”
I turn to face him and frown. “Not of your own accord?”
“Obviously not, or it wouldn’t be a problem, would it?”
“Fair point,” I murmur. “You are drawn to her.”
“If that’s the case, I wouldn’t have left her in the first place.”
I tilt my head. “No, you were needed here…”
He doesn’t wait for me to finish. He launches himself after Nyssa, yanking the door open and heading out into the driving rain.
With a sigh and a shrug, I follow.
Why not? Why the fuck not?
Chapter 12
Nyssa
Istomp back down the hill, mud sucking at my trainers with every furious step. My hands are balled into fists inside my coat pockets, my knuckles aching from the pressure. Three gods. Three arrogant, cryptic, infuriatingly handsome arseholes, and not one of them can give me a straight answer.
“It has no name.” Fucking helpful, Voren. Thanks for that.
Voren. Infuriatingly hot, and his coat was actually kind of sexy. Plus, he ate a ghost for me. The thought is both repulsive and strangely… flattering? No. That’s not the right word. It was possessive. Territorial. As if I’m a shiny new trinket he doesn’t want other ghouls playing with. I’m not his. I’m not anyone’s.
The squelch of footsteps behind me makes me spin around, my blade half-drawn from its sheath. Dastian is behind me, his usual infuriating grin replaced with a look of genuine confusion. Voren follows at a more sedate pace, a dark, silent shadow against the grey sky.
“What now?” I snap, not bothering to hide my irritation. “Did you forget to tell me the world is ending in iambic pentameter?”
Dastian holds his hands up, eyeing the blade warily this time. “Something’s not right. One second, I was in your kitchen, the next, I was standing next to Voren in that creepy old house. I didn’t do it.”
I stare at him. “You’re telling me you were teleported?”
“He was drawn to you,” Voren supplies, his voice a low drawl as he joins us. “Or, more accurately, he was drawn to where you were going.”
