First was waiting for him in his living room because he’d told her to wait there. After her shower.
He stalked into his room, not surprised to see both dogs on his bed. He gave them a look and drew up clean jeans, not bothering to button them. Then he padded barefoot into the living room and finger combed his hair as he went.
Tabi sat on the sofa, dressed in his faded Metallica T-shirt with a blanket over her knees. “Feel better?”
“No.” He paused, looking at her. God, she was beautiful. Strong and smart and fragile and spunky. An entire package, and she’d only lived a sliver of her long life. What would she be like in a hundred years? A thousand? Everything inside him wanted to know. Wanted to be there. But there had tobea there. “You will never walk into danger like that again.” The words were out, and he let them hang in the air.
She paused in her perusal of his healed chest. “They had you in a cell.”
“I got out of the cell,” he countered.
She plucked a string on the blanket. “How did I know you could get out of a cell?”
“Again, that doesn’t matter. What you know or don’t know—don’t ever walk into a trap like that. You’re smart, Tabitha. You knew it was a trap.” More importantly, she had to learn to trust him. He could take care of himself, even in this new world. “Yet you came—with a fucking light blue box from a jewelry store.”
“It was an extra box,” she said, all sass.
“Watch it, baby,” he warned, wanting to go gentle since it had been a shitty night. “I like your sass usually. Not so much right now.”
Her eyes flared and warmed. Yeah, she liked it when he called herbaby. She equally didn’t like being told what to do. He knew both facts about her, because her feelings all but danced across her pretty face. “Please. I knew one of them wanted to follow me to and from my factory to find it. Yet I figured I could get you free. Didn’t know you could break bars,” she muttered.
“You blew up your factory for me.” The idea warmed him, while the sight of her bloody on the ground chilled him at the same time.
She shrugged. “Yeah. You’re more important than a factory.”
Now she was trying to charm him? It was working. “How far behind does this put you?”
Her body visibly relaxed as they turned to business talk. “Only a month or two. I know the recipe, and the techs are mine, so we just need to get another production facility up and running. And buy the ingredients, of course.”
“Good. Have you ever seen shifters do that before?”
She nodded. “Sure.”
He licked his bottom lip. “So you knew about the percussion wave created when one of them shifted near you?”
She moved uneasily on the sofa, sliding to stand. “Well, kind of.”
“Tabi?” His voice softened, and she was smart enough to catch it. “What happens to a demon mind attack when a shifter turns into a wolf?”
She swallowed. “I don’t think that’s really—”
“Tabi.” He waited. Not so patiently.
“Fine. When a shifter turns to the animal form, most often, a demon mind attack no longer, er, works.” Then she rolled her eyes.
Mistake. Big one.
* * * *
Nerves jumped inside Tabi’s belly. So she rolled her eyes.
He came at her then. Full on, right for her. She was a second late in identifying the vibe in the room as scary, pissed-off immortal. She swallowed and sidled around the coffee table.
He stopped. One eyebrow rose.
She moved a little more, edging toward the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” he asked, his voice gravelly and low.
