If I wasn’t fine now, I would be in the future.
The SUV glided to a stop in front of a genuine log cabin.
“Stay in the car until I open your door,” he murmured.
For the first time since I met him, I didn’t let my snappy comeback fly. I was thinking about the fact that he was a vampire who could squish me like a bug and he hadn’t. In fact, he was now trying to protect me from other creatures who could do the same thing and might if they didn’t like the way I behaved.
Wait, what was I thinking?
I couldn’t trust him. I couldn’t trust anyone until I saw Bernie’s face again.
I unbuckled my seatbelt as he walked around the front of the SUV and a man came out of the log cabin. Although, wall with arms and legs might be a better description. He was the biggest man I’d ever seen. Which was saying something considering that the police chief I met last night had that honor just a few hours earlier.
He was also the palest. His skin was nearly pure white, but with a slight greyish undertone. I wondered if he was another vampire who just liked to stay out of the sun or if he was some other kind of creature.
Daniel spoke to him for a few seconds and then they both turned around to look at…me.
I tried not to fidget beneath their perusal, but it was difficult. Their stares were heavy, as though the weight of their gaze on me was tangible.
My fingers twisted together in my lap when neither of them looked away for a long moment. Finally, the man nodded, and Daniel started toward the SUV.
When he opened my door, he stuck his head inside, his mouth next to my ear, and whispered, “I’m going to treat you like someone I know well. Someone I consider important to me. Just go along with it.”
His lips grazed the shell of my ear, and a tremor ran through my body.
His hand landed on mine where they were tightly clasped into my lap. “It’ll be okay.”
I wasn’t about to tell him that the tremor was because his lips touched my skin rather than because I was terrified. He didn’t need to know that much.
Hell,Ididn’t need to know. I didn’t need to start having shivers and butterflies every time he touched me. He was a vampire, and he was holding me hostage. He was a jerk. Jerks didn’t deserve shivers.
Maybe if I kept repeating it to myself over and over like that, these tingles and flutters would go away.
And maybe I was in denial, but it seemed like the safest place at the moment.
Daniel stepped back and guided me out of the passenger seat. He kept my right hand in his, lacing his fingers through mine.
I followed him up to the porch, to the mammoth-sized man. Up close, he was even bigger than I thought. He towered over Daniel, who was a good eight inches or more taller than me. And his shoulders were almost as wide as Daniel and I would be if we stood side-by-side with our shoulders touching.
I wondered how much he weighed because anyone that big and muscular had to be heavy.
It was on the tip of my tongue, but I managed to swallow the question.
Best behavior. Best behavior.
Maybe if I repeated it like a mantra, I’d be able to control myself.
Had Devil Springs destroyed my ability to filter my thoughts before they came out of my mouth?
That had to be the explanation.
Maybe we were on a fault line. Or a ley line. Or some weird vortex of energy.
“Dax, this is Cari Shelton. She’s Bethany’s great-niece and Bethany left the grocery to her. Cari, this is Dax Chastaine. He works at Devil’s Playground.”
The man nodded but didn’t speak.
I was dying to ask what exactly this place was, but I wasn’t about to ask. Dax looked like he could crush me with a single squeeze of his fist. Or a flick of his finger.
