“Shae Ion. I’m grilling steaks. It’s all you had here. Those and some sorry-lookingpotatoes.”
He grinned, revealing a single sexy dimple on his left cheek, yet the smile didn’t reach his pale green eyes, a startling contrast to his olive skin. While Dagan was a loner, appeared cold, and annoyed her like no one ever had, there was heat in him regardless. This guy, outside of his air of indifference, seemed to possess an innate coldness—a darkness—as if it seeped from his verysoul.
“Right.” Nik ran a hand over his buzz cut. “We have things here. Not so good in the cooking department. We usually throw meat on the burner. But there is food. I’ll showyou.”
He strolled past her, the air suddenly so frosty it hurt to breathe. Her teeth clattered, and she rubbed the goosebumps on herarms.
“Cut the shit, Nik,” Daganmuttered.
Instantly, the temperature rose, became bearable once more. More baffled than ever, Shae followed Nik. Obviously, he was another Guardian, because, amidst the myriad of inkwork, he too sported that familiar sword tattoo on hisbiceps.
Nik walked out through a side door into a back courtyard and over to a small building attached to the main one. A huge fridge and freezer took up space, along with shelves of unopenedspices.
“I needvegetables.”
Cold, green eyes looked up from the fridge he’d opened, his arm resting on the door top. “Yeah, we don’t eat those, but you can get them in the village. There’s more meat inhere.”
He snagged a soda, popped the tab, and took a swallow, revealing his tongue piercing. But that wasn’t what caught her attention. He sported a snakehead tattoo right on hisneck.
Uh, why would anyone want a creepy reptile inked onthem?
“Fine.” She stomped back to the kitchen. Dagan lifted his head, watching her with a strange glitter in his citrineeyes.
“I need to go to the village. Besides the veggies, I need myglucose.”
Slowly, he straightened, like a panther unwinding after a long winter’s sleep, his gaze never leaving hers. “Nik, save food for her. We’ll beback.”
“You could just take her out, you know, and leave all this for us,” Nik retorted, munching achip.
Dagan cut him a hard look. Nik lifted his hands in surrender. “Fine. Shae, maybe you can sweeten that mood of his? Three and a half thousand years is a mite too long tobrood.”
Dagan grasped her hand and tugged her through the living room and out onto the courtyard. “Wait.” She stopped him. “Maybe I should try and teleportagain?”
“You won’t. Not if you don’t want those scourges trackingyou.”
“But how would they know? Even I had no idea what I was capable of until the demonattack.”
His eyes narrowed. Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to remind him ofthat.
“They know your scent—your power will always carry a hint of it. If they get a trace of your psychic vibe, they’ll find you. You are not to use that ability until the threat to you is gone.” When she said nothing, his grip tightened on her hand. “I need yourpromise.”
“Fine, all right.”Unless we’re in danger, then all bets areoff.
With a terse nod, he dematerialized them and reformed in a copse of trees moments later. When her heart settled into its regular rhythm, they walked out into a picturesque world. The afternoon sun cast a soft glow over the littlevillage.
She squinted, examining the quaint stores with flower-filled windowsills lining the cobblestone streets that had actual streetlamps—dark, wrought-iron pillars with glass encasing the bulbs. “Oh, sopretty…”
She spun back to Dagan and found him slipping on dark sunshades. Her breath caught. Damn man was too irresistible for his own good. But she didn’t like his eyes concealed because then she couldn’t read him…well, when he let her see his emotions—which mostly appeared to be irritation ather.
Shutting away that thought, she asked, “Will you bring me back to lookaround?”
“We’re not here on a sightseeing trip,” he said, tone curt. “You forget, your life’s in danger. If those after you do happen to trace you to this place, anyone who lives here could relay that they’d seen a new face around. This is a smallvillage.”
All she wanted was to forget her shitty life for a short while. Was that too much to ask? Still, she glanced warily around her. “There are demoniis here,too?”
“Occasionally, but in the city, yes. The poor slum areas are rife with them. But there are demons who dwellhere.”
The village was really charming, and it possessed a peace about it that she sorely needed. Since she couldn’t explore, she stood there for a second, absorbing thetranquility.
“So, where exactly are we?” she asked. “I know you saidRomania.”
“At the foot of the ApuseniMountains.”
At his terse tone, she glanced back. Jesus, but the man appeared like a coiled spring about to snap. She couldn’t resist. “So you brought me to Dracula’s country—vampterritory?”
His mouth tightened. “Vampire’s don’t exist. Not on this realm anyway. Count Vlad Dracul was human and named The Impaler for his bloodthirsty habit of impaling his enemies on stakes in the ground and leaving them to die. Now, are you going to question me on the damn history of this place or go get yourglucose?”
