She gently took the knife and set it on the counter. “Okay. This must seem really weird to you.” For once, the woman looked unsure of herself. She sighed. “Fine.” Faster than a human should be able to move, she recaptured the knife and plunged the blade through her wrist. Blood burst out of the punctured vein.
Adrenaline flooded his system so fast he leaped for the dishtowel and wrapped it around her wrist. “Tabitha,” he gasped. “What the hell?”
She winced. “That really does hurt.”
Blood welled through the thin material.
“Okay. Now watch.” She pushed his hand away and wiped blood with the towel. The deep puncture slowly mended shut, a white scar formed, and then it disappeared into smooth skin. She twisted the faucet and washed the remaining blood off her now healed wrist.
Evan swallowed, his stomach lurching. It was all true. She was a demonness, and that didn’t even mean what he’d thought it would. She was just a different species. There were different species? Fucking crazy. “I need to sit down.” Before he could reach the barstool, his phone dinged from the counter, and he reached for it like a lifeline. “O’Connell.”
“Detective? It’s Noah Siosal, and I just returned from the store. Abby was arrested when I was gone—do you know anything about it?” The man sounded like he’d just eaten glass.
Evan straightened. “I was fired, so no doubt the sheriff is taking matters into his own hands, and he was very good friends with Abby’s ex.” Abby’s very dead ex-husband, that was. “Do you really have lawyers outside of town?” He went into cop mode and strode through the living room for his bedroom, reaching to yank on a T-shirt and searching for his socks.
“I just called in a couple from Indianapolis, and they’ll be here in about an hour,” Noah said tersely. “Why were you fired?”
“Doesn’t matter. Does Abby know to ask for a lawyer? I made sure the two interrogation rooms have video surveillance, so she should be okay until one arrives.” Evan sat and tugged on his socks, reaching for his boots by the dresser. “I still have a couple of friends in the department and will head down there right now to make sure she’s okay.” He didn’t put it past the sheriff to intimidate her and try for a confession.
“I’m right outside of the station. That turd threatened to arrest me if I didn’t leave the premises. Get here now.” Noah ended the call.
“Tabi, let the dogs inside.” Evan tossed the phone on the bed and dashed into the bathroom to brush his teeth and take care of business. When he returned, Tabi was already dressed with her hair in a ponytail. He paused. Wait a minute. “Is Noah—”
She nodded. “Yep. Part vampire, part demon. He mated Abby.” Tabi’s black eyes lit. “Hey. You can talk to her about all the changes. Maybe you are going through the same things.” She rubbed her nose. “We didn’t get a chance to talk, but you have to know, if you can’t get Abby out, Noah will just storm the building and damn the consequences.”
Evan shoved his hair into some sort of shape. “Wait a minute. Noah and Raine are hybrids, and you’re a demon? What the hell are you doing in my town and in a stupid anger-management course? You’re all immortal.”
Tabi blew out air. “Well, let’s see. Noah was forced into it to help that Ivar dude who’s gone, and then I think he stayed because of an interest in Abby. Raine was there to maybe kill that Ivar guy, and I’m not sure why he’s still around. He must have a reason. And I was there because you got me on video and wouldn’t give it to me until I’d successfully completed the course.”
Evan shook his head. “Immortals are crazy. Batshit nuts.”
“That’s just not nice,” she countered.
He looked at her—really looked at her. Sexy, beautiful, and something else. Yeah. He could see it. A heat spiraled through him, landing hard in his chest and expanding out.His.“Before I was sick, when I was me, I was a possessive and way over-protective jackass,” he rumbled.
Her eyebrows rose. “Why tell me that?”
“Fair warning,” he said, a newfound power filling his body. He didn’t have time to figure this new reality out right now, but whatever was going on, it started and ended with the miniature blonde looking warily at him right now.
“Hmm. Well, bottom line is that I saved your life.” She tugged her wrinkled shirt into place. “We can be friends, we can be sometimes lovers, but I’m a free spirit. Don’t ever forget that.”
She was cute, too. He let his teeth show. “Don’t think for a second that I’ve forgotten about Richard. Is he a demon, too?”
“Yes. You can tell by the light hair and really dark eyes. And mangled vocal cords.” Her eyes flared. “I can take care of myself, Evan.” A stubbornness tightened her jaw, and an impressive power flowed from her, easy to discern now that he knew more about her.
“Well now, I wasn’t going to let you deal with him by yourself before I knew he was a demon.” Evan strode through the living room, reclaiming his gun to tuck at the back of his waist. “You should’ve gotten to know me a little bit better before mating us together for eternity.” The whole idea was blowing his mind, but the more he settled into it, the more he felt like himself again.
He would’ve never let the woman take on a powerful adversary on her own. Immortality or not.
Chapter 10
Tabi didn’t mind hiding from enemies, and she enjoyed having a good fight once in a while. However, what she hated was feeling off balance. Evan had made her feel that way from the beginning, and now that she’d mated him, that sensation increased tenfold. “I really think we should talk about us and what we expect from each other,” she said as he drove through town. The man had insisted on driving, and damn if she hadn’t let him.
“That’s fine, but right now I want to know who Richard Goncharov and the Popovs are.” He turned a corner, his gaze scouting both sides of the car.
She’d forgotten he’d heard the threat from Richard. “You don’t need to worry about them.”
“Tabitha.” One word, steel in the sound.
