For the sake of her sanity, and this demon would likely drive her mad, she moved a few steps away. “That crap doesn’t work on me. I know which way you roll. I saw you with the human moments ago.”
“Ah.” His smile lingered, but he didn’t correct her. The jerk. “C’mon, my cold-heartedlaika, let’s get out of this place. Don’t want blood spilled here, with witnesses around, if you plan to finish me, that is.”
Cold-hearted?Ely choked back a stinging retort, hating the label as she followed him. Worse, being this close to him, with the patrons crowding them, his palm settled on her lower spine, and his intoxicating scent enfolded her, overpowering all the other smells—causing every nerve ending within her to tighten. And the short passage to the club exit became a mile long.
Finally, they were outside. Ely gratefully inhaled a deep breath of icy cold air.
Tagg glanced her way, and an eyebrow rose. It could be because her hair was undone and not because of who was attached to her back. But she knew better… Ugh. Ely moved away from her nemesis’ touch and overwhelming presence.
“Hey, Tagg,” she greeted, forcing an airy smile. Then she stopped. Heck, might as well move on from this dangerous attraction. But this flirting thing was so beyond her. So she settled for, “About that coffee? Tomorrow evening at five, yes?” she asked.
His brown eyes lit up. “Yup, that would work. Where—”
A low growl erupted behind her. “She’s busy.” A hand snagged hers and hauled her down the alley, the queued patrons watching them as if waiting for a squabble to start. But she wasn’t one to air her life in front of a crowd.
The moment they cleared the onlookers, she yanked free. “What the hell is wrong with you? That was impossibly rude.”
“If you want a demon, I’m one, too,” he retorted. “Probably not as nice as the bouncer.”
“He’s my friend!”
“Don’t care.” A tic started on his jaw, belying his calm facade. “Don’t dally with males in front of me,laika, not if you want them to keep breathing.”
Wait,what?
The air rushed out of her lungs at his possessive retort. “Oh, no, no, don’t even go there. We aren’t anything,” she snapped. “We’re strangers.”
“Oh, so you didn’t think of me once?” His gaze slowly caressed her face like he’d done in the club, and his voice dropped to a husky purr. “I know I thought of you.”
Scowling at the way her traitorous heart pounded, she flipped back her yards of long hair. How dare he give that seductive spiel when he was locking lips with a human not so long ago? As if she would ever admit she thought of him.
“Yeah, right.” She skewered him with an icy stare. “What I do in my life is my business, not yours. Besides, I don’t possess the several inches you require for gratification!” Dammit, she instantly regretted her crude rejoinder.
His jaw dropped, then a wicked smile started. “If you want those inches, just say so.”
Heat blistered her face. She deserved that with her stupid runaway mouth.
“A little warning,laika.” His amusement faded, his expression morphing to dead serious. “You need to watch your back. A demon’s after you.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” she muttered, braiding her long hair, trying to regain her composure.
“I mean it,” he growled. “Those you killed the night we met—”
She flashed up one hand, stopping him. “Let me lay this out for you, okay? As Guardians, we will always have those who want to kill us. They will find out that’s an impossible feat.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like I’m going to reveal secrets to you.” She looked around in her pocket for a hair tie and sighed when she came up empty.
“Fair enough.” He slipped his hand into his coat pocket, then took the end of her braid she fisted and snapped on a black rubber band, startling her.
“Always keep them.” He raked back his unbound mane, revealing those tiny black hoop earrings he wore before his hair slid back again, settling over his broad shoulders. “Now, about why you sought me?”
Trying to get her racing heart to calm the heck down, she stuck her restless hands in her coat pockets. Why did he tie her hair? Probably to mess with her mind. As if he wasn’t already doing so. “There’s been a recent trail of drained bodies left behind, and since I found the human male a few days ago, whom your horde-buddies fed from, I want to know who’s behind it?”
“Would you believe me if I said I don’t know anything about drained bodies? And those fuckers aren’t friends. I don’t have friends,” he said, tone flat. “Tried to stop the bastards. Just wrong place, wrong time, and all that shit, when you came across me.”
Vae. Much as she wanted to dispute what he said, her gut instinct never steered her wrong. But then demons committed heinous acts and still appeared as innocent as a babe and lied through their teeth—fangs—whatever. They were all conniving tricksters.
