Helly put her hand down and grinned. “What he’s not telling you is that his mom’s the Alpha of all the Hell packs, including the Dires who live in Hell. Makes her exceptionally dangerous and powerful.”
Sorcha scowled as she realized what Helly had meant when she’d called Luke’s mother a bitch…and why the imp had laughed so hard about it.
Oh.
But that left her with another question. “So a dog gave birth to a baby boy? How does that happen?”
He laughed. “Hellhounds are shifters the same as a Dire. The primary difference is that the Hounds are enslaved to my father…and they tend to be black in their canine forms, even though they could be any color they want. It’s like a uniform to them.”
Who knew?
He turned left and then pulled into a parking lot behind a Bank of America.
Frowning, she didn’t see anything that resembled a cemetery. Just a pizza place, bowling alley and such. “Why are we stopping in a strip mall?”
Luke turned off the car and got out. He jerked his chin toward the woods across the street. “Cemetery’s over there. We’ll have to walk.”
Helly jumped out over the back while Sorcha left the car by more conventional means.
They followed Luke across the street to a small asphalt trail that headed off toward more stores. It was a curious path that made no sense to her. “What is this?”
“Golf cart path. Peachtree City is famous for them.” He lifted the sunglasses to perch on top of his head so he could glance about with those gorgeous amber eyes.
“I thought that was The Villages in Florida.”
He shook his head. “Peachtree City predates them by decades, and you don’t have to be over fifty-five to live here. They have over a hundred miles of golf cart paths. Makes it one of my favorite places.”
“Really?”
Tucking his hands in his pockets, he shrugged. “I like quaint things.”
That seemed very out of character for him. Then again, she didn’t really know him that well.
Still…
Sorcha followed Luke to the cemetery that had a tall chain-link fence around it. It looked innocuous enough, except for the three wandering spirits she saw. One a few feet from her and two who appeared to be speaking off to the side. “So, Lassie. You picking up anything?”
Luke gave her a shit-eating grin. “I see dead people.”
His words caught her off guard. She wasn’t used to being around others who could see what she did. “Do you?”
“And so do you.”
Her body went cold. “Pardon?”
“I’m not the humans at IA. I know you see Willie standing almost on top of you. John and Cecilia are the two who are arguing over their graves.”
That wasn’t comforting at all. How did he know their names and more importantly… “You can read my mind?”
“No. I heard the change in your heartbeat when you looked toward them.” Then he screwed his face up. “And yes, I can read minds, but I wasn’t reading yours.” He made a cross over his heart.
As she began to panic, Luke moved to stand in front of her. He put one hand on each of her shoulders. “Breathe, Sorcha. Deep and even. The rate you’re going, you’ll have a heart attack before Laura arrives.”
Because she was trying to decide what was most disturbing. Him touching her and the way she really wanted to take a bite out of that luscious body. Him reading her mind. His ability to hear her heartrate.
Or the fact that he could see what she did.
No one had ever been able to see the entities who haunted her. It was comforting and…
