“Drayger.”She leaped to her feet and shoved them into theblack flats under the coffee table.“Where?”
“I don’t know, but we need to get out of here.”He took herhand and flashed to Sheoul-gra...
Except he didn’t.They were still standing in her livingroom.
She looked up at him.“Is this the part where you dosomething to get us out of here?”
“I was pausing for effect.”He tried again.Nothing.Fuck.
“I get it,” she said, releasing his hand to peek through acrack in the curtains.“You’re a drama queen.Can we go now?”
“I can’t flash.Your trap must have drained me.”He dug intohis pocket for his cell phone.Cipher or one of his siblings would come forthem.But the moment he saw the scorch marks streaking his phone’s plastic andmetal casing, his heart sank.“Your trap fried my powersandmy phone.Can I use yours?”
She moved toward a yellow table where a charger sat, but shestopped after two steps and cursed.“It was in my purse.Drayger got it.”
He didn’t miss the slight waver in her voice when she’dspoken Drayger’s name.“Where’s your landline?”
“I don’t have one.”She scowled.“Do people even have thoseanymore?”
Son of a bitch.“Computer?”
“My laptop was in my car.Which has probably been towed bynow.”She hugged herself as if cold, her gaze darting from window to window.All her curtains were drawn and her back door locked, but the open floor planleft them too exposed.“Look, Drayger is just a human.We can walk out.Hecan’t hurt you, right?”
“Most likely, no.”He guided her toward her bedroom, whichwas a green and orange ‘50s bonanza.“Pack a bag.We’ll get out of here andfinda Harrowgate.You can use it to get us toSheoul-gra.”
She frowned up at him.“What’s Sheoul-gra?”
He stared at her in disbelief.“How can you not know that?You’re a demon.”
“This isn’t the time for a lesson in all things Wytch,” shesnapped as she hurried toward the bedroom closet, “but I assure you, I’m not ademon.Most of us have so much human DNA in us that we have only a fraction ofthe powers our ancestors had.Our people are dying out because we tend to matewith humans and dilute the Wytchgenes.”As he easedup to the window to look out, she whipped a duffel bag from the closet andstarted filling it.“But there’s now a growing movement to save our people,like the Wytch dating websites.”
“Online Wytch dating?Have you tried it?”
“Ugh.”She disappeared into the tiny bathroom, where shebanged around in drawers and cupboards as she talked.“Sort of.My mom signedme up.I’ve never gone on a date, though.I don’t feel the need to date otherWytches just to preserve our race.Man, that pisses off the parents and everyold-school Wytch on the planet.”She emerged with a toiletry bag, which shetossed into the duffel before zipping it.Straightening, she squared hershoulders and faced him, her gaze fierce and unafraid, her jaw set in a stubbornline.“I’m ready.”
No, he feared she wasn’t ready.If she didn’t know whatSheoul-gra was, there was no way she was ready for what she was about to see.
There was a serial killer outside Aurora’s house, aserial killer determined to butcher her slowly, and yet she was perfectly calm.Well, “calm” was a bit of an exaggeration, given that she was shaking like aleaf and her heart wastapdancing on her rib cage.But the fact that she wasn’t alone, and that the person with her was an angel,gave her a much-needed boost of confidence that she wasn’t going to die.
Of course, the fact that said angel might let her die if“fate” required it was a little disconcerting.
“Front door or back?”she asked.
Hawkyn heaved her duffel over his shoulder, the ropeymuscles in his arm flexing with every fluid motion.
“Front.”He moved to the living room.“Stay next to me.Iwon’t let anything happen to you.”
He took her hand and opened the front door slowly, peeringout before giving the signal to go.But as they passed over the threshold, shestruck an invisible force.Pain radiated through her nose and cheekbones as shebounced back into the house.
Instantly, Hawkyn rushed back inside.“Aurora!”He droppedthe duffel and framed her face in his hands, his sharp gaze assessing her forinjuries.“What happened?Are you okay?”
She nodded, cupping her nose.“I felt a ward.The bastardtrapped me inside here.”
A blast of heat roared through the house, and thetemperature shot up at least twenty degrees.She always kept the house atsixty-five degrees this time of year, so the instant jump to summer temps waslike stepping into a dry sauna.
“How the fuck is he doing this?”Hawkyn’s raw curse bouncedoff the walls.“He’s going to force heat exhaustion and then take you whileyou’re too weak to fight back.We need to get you out of herenow.”Heslid one warm hand down, his fingers skimming lightly over her jaw and lower,to the sensitive skin on her neck.His gaze darkened, locking with hers.“Withyour permission.”
Blinking, momentarily confused, she watched him flick thepink tip of his tongue across a fang.Oh, right.He could feed from her torecharge.Take her blood with those huge, gleaming canines.
