I glanced at the clock. I'd been messing around with Summer and Jimmy and my vision for close to two hours. Where in hell was Sawyer?
I'd taken a room at the back of the hotel so he could slip in without notice if he were still on four feet instead of two. Carla had seemed pretty certain whatever she planned to do would work, but I'd learned long ago never to count my chickens. Especially around a wolf.
I heard voices outside. Considering the time, I figured I'd better investigate. Considering the anger I heard in them, I'd better investigate fast.
I opened the door. Sawyer and his mother stood in the parking lot.
He wore athletic shorts and nothing else. I doubted Carla had had much on hand to lend him. His skin glistened beneath the harsh overhead lights.
If the situation had been less dire, I might have paused to admire the view. No matter how I felt about Sawyer, he was a beautiful man. It seemed a crime to have marked that body with so many tattoos. But beneath the ink, the skin was supple, and the muscles rippled and danced.
Beyond the spray of electric lights clouds roiled; the wind kicked up and tossed trash across the parking lot. Sawyer's long, black hair twisted in the breeze, as did his mother's.
"Who did this?" Her voice deceptively quiet, her face was far too still. Behind her, lightning crashed into the ground; the earth shook and the dry grass began to burn.
"Stop that,'* Sawyer ordered, his voice equally calm. A flick of his wrist and rain tumbled down, putting out the fire. As soon as the flames died, the rain did, too.
"You don't command me, boy. I command you."
"Not for a very long time."
I stood frozen in the doorway. Fascination and fear held me captive. I wanted to hear what they said to each other, but I didn't want them to know that I was listening. I especially didn't want her to look over Sawyer's shoulder and see me. I wore the turquoise, I should be safe, but there were hundreds of people in this hotel, and she'd love to kill every one of them.
The woman of smoke stepped closer to her son. Sawyer tensed, but he didn't move back. When dealing with vicious animals, any show of weakness was an open invitation to get your throat torn out.
"You think you're so powerful?"
She drew a fingernail down his face. I half expected a gash to open and blood to pour out. Sawyer didn't flinch. God, he was good.
"You think you can take me?" she whispered.
He didn't answer. She continued to slide her fingernail down his neck, across his chest. I frowned. The way she was staring at him made my skin crawl, as if she wanted to—
The Naye'i leaned forward and licked Sawyer's collarbone, then pressed her face to his neck and breathed in as she ran her palms down his back, her fingers drifting beneath the hem of his shorts to caress the tight curve of his ass. Yuck!
"Join with me." She raised her head, took his lip in her teeth and tugged, then kissed him full on the mouth. It seemed like there was a lot of tongue. I fought not to gag.
When she removed her lips from his, she stayed so close their noses were only a wisp away. "I'll give you her," she whispered.
I stiffened as a dizzying sense of deja vu washed over me. The Strega had promised me to Jimmy, although in the end he'd planned to have me for himself. Actually they'd planned to have me together.
"Who said I want her?" Sawyer asked.
Yeah, I thought. Who said?
The woman of smoke laughed, and the wind answered. I eyed the burgeoning storm warily. The way she was whipping up the elements, we were due for a tornado any second.
"You know the darkness calls to you." The Naye'i trailed her mouth along his jaw as she whispered temptation. "You want to go there. With me."
His shoulders tensed; his hands clenched. Should I go to him now? Or would that only make things worse?
"The light is swallowed by the dark," she whispered. "Only pain and death wait for you there."
"That's not what the prophecies say."
"Their prophecies. Not ours."
Theirs? Ours? What was she talking about?
"We're good together." Her hand slid around to the front of his shorts.
I took a step forward. Sawyer made a staying motion, palm out, in my direction. Hell, he'd known I was here the whole time. Did she?
"You know that you want it," she murmured.
What did she mean by "it"? The world? The power? Me?
Or her?
The way she was touching him, murmuring, rubbing, made me sick. The way Sawyer just stood there and let her wasn't helping.
No wonder he was so screwed up. No wonder sex for him was a job, a weapon, a blip on the radar of his life.
Oh, he was good at it, but when it was over he stood up and walked away as if nothing had ever happened. For Sawyer, sex was a means to an end. He used it to unblock someone's powers, to get what he wanted or what the federation paid him to get. And now I understood why.
"I know what I don't want," he said in that too calm voice.
The sky swirled with wind and rain. The Naye'i's face was as white as the lights shining above, her eyes black pools, her mouth a slash of blood-red lips.