“Nik, I got this. Thanks,” Týr said.
Kira glared at the door, tightening her grip on the straps of her bag. What was she, a tennis ball to be tossed about? “Look, I don’t care who I go with. But can we leave already? Better yet, let me just go get my own car, less bother that way.”
Nik walked out, the door shutting behind him.
She stomped off, but Týr grabbed her arm. Kira yanked free. He’d only come because of guilt. Probably thought he was shirking his duty to Gran by not going.
“So temperamental…” he murmured, his unreadable gaze roaming her face. “And that’s not a car, it’s a deathtrap.”
“Temperamental?” she snapped. “Oh, right, because Isooolike being tossed about like a damn toy with no feelings. And Echo gave me the Beetle. I love it!” So, there. “Look, you don’t have to tail me around. I have friends with muscles—”
“Sure, you do,” Týr cut her off, his expression hardening. “I did ask Nik to be with you,” he answered her unasked question. “Because being with me is not safe right now.”
“Why? Some demon after you?” she shot back.
His stare got dark and cold. “I don’t leave any alive. Ever.”
She’d heard about his aversion to the species, understood that most of the fiends who crawled out of the Dark Realm were vile monsters. They hunted humans like cattle, stealing their souls and drinking their blood. But she sensed something more with Týr…something deeper, darker—
“This, here?” He stabbed a finger at his jaw and the arc-shaped injury. “Is courtesy of a coward who hides in the darkness of night. I will find and end him.”
“Oh. So, you decided to use me as bait.”
A smile ghosted his mouth, softening his rigid features. “Tempting, but no. You’d be safe with any of us, but I made a promise to Lila. I won’t let any harm come to you.” The hardness was back as if he reinforced it with his life or something. He pulled on his biker jacket and checked his pockets. “Still want to take your chances with me?” he drawled, looking up. “I can call Nik back.”
Did he think he could scare her off with his disclosure of some evil threat dogging his heels? Too bad for him, she was as willful as he was stubborn. “I just want to find Tomas. Let’s go.”
“Tonight only, Kira. Like you promised. Whether we find him or not.” He fixed her with an uncompromising stare.
“Fine,” she huffed and opened the front door. The icy breeze stole her breath. She hastily buttoned her jacket. “Ugh, this place is colder than the city.”
“But a lot less smelly.”
A smile quivered on her lips, but she banished it. “Wait, I forgot to tell you, I’m covering for one of the waitresses at work for a few hours tonight. I’ll be done around nine.”
He shrugged. “Okay.”
Dreading this part because every time she touched him to dematerialize, she somehow ended up in his embrace. Kira bit the inside of her lip and gingerly grasped his arm.
Týr heaved a massive sigh. “You’re gonna give me an inferiority complex, Fluff.” He slid his arm around her waist and drew her to him.
Kira held her breath as if that would help, too aware of every inch of his hard, warm body aligned with hers. It was bound to happen after seeing how incredibly hot he looked in nothing but a towel. And that stare of his…as if only she existed for him. Or, it could be that her mind had gotten a little loopy from all the testosterone enfolding her.
Her brow pressed to his chest, she clutched his jacket, and something crinkled inside his pocket. Kira shut her eyes as the world around her dissolved. Ack, he was like a two-year-old with his hidden stash of candies. The protective shield she’d erected around herself wavered.
God, no!She wouldn’t—couldn’t—let it collapse. With someone like Týr, it wouldn’t end well, not for her.
