Chapter 4
Satisfiedhe’d left her speechless for once, Nik glanced around the place. It must have been a storage basement at some point.
The candle she lit flickered, casting a dim light over the old mattress set on several crates pushed together. The thing created a dais for the bed, probably to keep the rats from scurrying over her.
He had no idea why she lived like this. She appeared intelligent, could fight like a badass, and spoke well enough when she wasn’t cussing at him. Yeah, he picked up on her light psychic vibe, it was probably how she detected demons, otherworldly beings…andhim. He frowned at that.
“Seen enough, or do you need more time?” she drawled, seeming to have recovered. “There’s no bed for you.”
He cast her an amused glance, fascinated by those unusual eyes lined and shaded with black make-up again. “Didn’t ask for one.”
Scowling, she shoved her fingers into her jacket pockets. Nik half expected a dagger to come flying his way, but she marched to the wall and dropped some white bits on the floor.
“Shadow?” A knock rumbled on the metal sheet dividing the basement. “Can I enter?”
At the gruff male voice, Nik stilled. The gang leader? A female who looked like her would be arm candy for the dumb mofo. And he couldn’t give her a better hole to live in?
“Do your magic trick and hide or something,” she hissed at him.
Nik raised an eyebrow at her demand. But he regressed into his glamor of the downtrodden persona he’d assumed earlier. Pointless in stirring up shit when he still had to find out what happened to the missing kids and women.
“We’re together now,” he took pleasure in reminding her, and in the predictable scowl contorting her striking face.
“Shadow?” the human called out, agitation clear in his voice.
“Come on in, Eddi.”
Nik stepped back as the metal sheet dragged away, forming an entrance and revealing a middle-aged, wiry man. Sparse iron-gray hair had receded to the back of his head, and deep lines etched his dark forehead, with finer ones at the corners of worried brown eyes.
Godsdamn female.Thiswas her shield of protection?
A metal sheet and an old man?
After a fleeting glance at the human, Nik lowered his gaze to his old combat boots. The sounds of scuttling drew his attention. A rat inched its way along the wall and attacked the crumbs she’d tossed there.
“Hey, Eddi? What’s up?” she asked in a cheerful tone.
Nik watched them from beneath lowered eyelids.
The old man handed her a plastic container. “Saved you some food. Eat,” he said, cutting Nik a flinty stare. “So, Russ was quite eager to inform me that I had lost out to someslimeball loser. You know you can’t bring anyone here, Shady.”
“Russ is an ass.” She shot him another scowl before setting the food on the cabinet. “And he’s okay. Just an, er, lost soul who needs direction.”
Dickheadwas more likely what she wanted to say. Orwetdick. But he doubted she’d ever usethattag again after his taunting comeback.
“He cannot stay, lass. If I allow this, it will draw notice to us.”
“It’s only for a little while,” Nik said, adding a compulsion to his tone for the man’s agreement. “I’ll find another place in a day or two.”
The old man stared at him blankly, then nodded. “I’m Eddi. I look after this little one.”
About to say he will, too, Nik remembered his frail persona just in time and shut it.
Eddi pivoted to leave, and Nik let the compulsion fall. Eddi stopped, blinked, and shook his head. “I have a mattress. Maybe you’d like to use it?”
Shadow finally dropped her backpack on the bed, folded her arms, and glared.
For him to say no? So, Nik nodded.
