The vampire beside me froze, eyes widening, fear swallowing his smugness whole. He dug into his pocket, pulled out a folded scrap, and shoved it into my hand. “Here,” he rasped urgently, darting eyes flicking toward the crowd. “Call me after. I’ll help you. Like I said, us turned need to watch each other’s backs.”
The last word had barely left his lips when the air shifted. The scent of honeysuckle hit me, sweet and intoxicating. My gut twisted. It washer.
Nova Rossey.
The beast inside surged, vibrating against my skin, tail-wagging in my head. Pitiful. Fucking pitiful.
I turned to ask the vampire what he thought of her, but he was gone. Air. Nothing but the ghost of his scent.
“All right, fighters!”
Her voice boomed from the ring, commanding, bright, as she gave us a salacious grin. She spun slowly, arms stretched wide. “I’m in a good mood, boys. Who wants to take me on, huh?”
My jaw tightened until it ached. Images of her tangled with that vampire in the forest flared behind my eyes. Rage seared my veins, bitter and sharp.
I wanted to take her on. No… I wanted to work out every ounce of this aggression and make her see me.
12
NOVA
“I told you, he’s clean.” Setting my toothbrush down, I spit into the sink and bit back the urge to snap at him. If I were in his position, I’d probably be questioning me, too, but not this damn much. And I’d sure as hell not do it the second I rolled out of bed.
“Fine. Okay,” Zeth huffed, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed. “You’ve told me that a couple of times.” His eyes slid over me, sharp, accusatory. “But I still don’t understand why we’re meeting up with him in a couple days at the fight.”
“He knows someone going to the fight who might have answers about where Donnie is.” I pushed past him into the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water, cracked the top, and took a long swig. Anything to cool the heat crawling up my neck.
Keep it clean, Nova. Keep it business.He didn’t need to know we’d fucked each other senseless. Or that a part of me wanted to see him again.
Zeth’s gaze cut through me, searching. I turned away before he could read my face. With how he was acting, I knew one thingfor sure. When he met Conrad again, there were going to be fireworks, and not the fun kind.
“Why can’t he just tell us who it is, and we make him talk?”
Fuck. That was actually a good question.
I scanned the room for an escape route. Keys. On the table. Perfect. Snatching them up, I shrugged into my jacket while he called after me.
“We can talk about this later,” I said, flashing the keys over my shoulder. “I need to check on the new fighters, see if any are ready for the prelims next week. I’d like to have back-ups lined up.”
As soon as the last word passed my lips, I turned and made quick steps to get away from the conversation.
“Wait for me!” Zeth shouted, his footsteps closing in. “I’ll go with you.”
Great. A long car ride with his questions buzzing in my ear. Exactly what I didn’t need.
I slammedthe gearshift into park. “For the last time, he’s going to introduce us to someone who might know where Donnie is, which could help us find Jeremy, the kid, and Reece. We don’t have any other leads.” My voice sharpened. “And he’s plugged into a fighter base we’ve never tapped into.” Shoving the door open, I slid out, done with the conversation.
Why the hell couldn’t he drop it?
Zeth slammed his door hard enough to rattle the frame, then laughed without any humor.
“Really, Nova? Now you want to tap into turned supes?” He scoffed as if that would never be a possibility. Wasn't that short sighted of him?
Pointing toward the gym doors, I shot back, “We have a turned supe in here. Case in point.”
He stomped up close, getting in my face. “That was a fluke!”
That familiar smoky, tobacco-laced cherries and almond scent rolled off him. It usually calmed me, made me anxious, or gave me heartache. Sometimes, all three at once, but now, it was just pissing me off.
