My smile at his humanlike antics turned brittle. My heart was fluttering. Actual, honest-to-goodness fluttering. This wasn’t good. A heart didn’t belong anywhere near this situation.
I about-faced and made for the door between our suites. It was time to get myself back under control. Thankfully, logic had returned, and I knew without a doubt that I could never go down this road again. Darius would be good on blood until we got out of here, and then he could go back to using very pretty humans who fawned all over him, and maybe I could date a human who wouldn’t try to manipulate me. Or at least wouldn’t succeed at manipulating me if he did try.
A pang of regret hit my heart.Damn it!
Back in my room, I snatched up my phone, shiveringnow that I was separated from the warmth of his body. I didn’t recognize the number of the two missed calls. After slipping on a white, fluffy robe provided by this fine establishment, I listened to the new message.
Tiredness fled.
I shrugged out of the robe and hurried to don my leather.
Ouch.I gingerly buttoned up my pants, not comfortable in such thick, unforgiving material. Sure, the material was worn in, and therefore softer, but loose sweats would probably be more my speed after my night with Darius.
He really should’ve stopped after the second time. Or even the third. I would’ve been fine after the third.
I tied my hair up, strapped on my weapons, and ran to the door. While jogging down the hall, I tapped the missed call and put the phone to my ear.
“Detective Allen,” came the gruff answer.
“It’s Reagan. I got your message. You found another body?”
“Yeah. We’re at the site now. The MLE office can’t get here for another few hours.”
“They aren’t going to be of much help to you. Hold on.” I stopped at the front desk and caught the eye of one of the women. “I’m with Darius. I need a car.”
“Darius…? Do you have a last name—”
“I’ll take care of that,” the other woman said,stepping closer to the first. She nodded at me. “I’ll have one brought right up. Do you also need a driver?”
I hesitated for a moment. I’d sold my mom’s car so I could afford to move to the city, and I hadn’t driven since. And this was a new town. “That would be great,” I said. “I’ll be out front.”
The woman nodded and moved away, leaving the other employee blinking at me in confusion. I didn’t stay to explain, but headed out the sliding glass door at the front of the lobby.
“Sorry about that,” I said to Oscar as I took a seat on the bench to the right of the door. “I’m just arranging for a car. Like I said, the MLE office isn’t going to be much help. They’ve been warned away from the case.”
“Warned away? By whom?”
“It’s political magical stuff. Just know that they won’t be doing much. You still got me, though. I can handle it.”
“Speaking of handling it, we’ve got an unsolved case from last night. A man got hit by a car. Another man tried to save him, but it was too late. That man, and a woman, fled from the scene of the crime. You know anything about that?”
They thought the car had killed him? “Nope. Not a thing.”
“The descriptions of the two who fled sound remarkably like you and Mr. Durant.”
“That right? Huh. Well, there are an awful lot of blond girls dressed in leather who hang out with tall drinks of water. It’s trendy.”
“The bitch of it is, the guy had a broken neck and bruising from what appears to be physical violence, but no bruising from getting hit by the car.”
The Mercedes Darius had been driving pulled up in front of me. A building of a man with a stern face stepped out and came around to the rear passenger door. I waited for him to open it before sliding into the back seat.
“This is fascinating, but I don’t know what you want from me,” I said as the door closed.
“It was turned over to me because the witnesses swore the woman was levitating in the air,” Oscar said. “Being that all you magical people assume I have a problem with demon worshipers, I put two and two together. I don’t believe half of this shit, but at some point, you just have to roll with it.”
“You are long past that point. Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about. If I did,however, I would tell you thatifsomeone was at the scene of that crime, andifthey had a hand in that whack-a-doo affair, they did you a huge favor. I would also tell you that more crap is coming your way. Whatever was going on might’ve amped up a notch. I don’t have all the info yet, but from what I saw, which had nothing to do with a crackedneck, we’re looking at a big-time demon. Much more powerful than I’d anticipated. More powerful than I am, probably.”
“What does that mean?”
