“Who?” I blinked up at him with my best vacant-eyed expression.
“Don’t f**k with me. Somebody told me that you would know where to find him. Raoul Roberts. Where is he?” His fists clenched and unclenched, and I fought the urge to head butt him right in his insipid face.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. Now if you’ll excuse me-,”
“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me where he lives. He killed my wife, and I’m not going to rest until I take him apart with my own hands. You don’t want to be the only thing preventing that. I don’t have a problem starting with you.”
I said nothing and shouldered my way past him. What I should have done was drop him, right then and there. The slap came out of nowhere, and I tasted blood inside my mouth. I hadn’t anticipated the hit.
Kylarai was in his face before he could blink. I don’t think he even knew it was her that hit him before he was wiping blood from his broken nose.
He stumbled back, but his friends never budged. If things got ugly, I was more than sure we could handle it, but I always preferred to walk away when it came to foolish humans.
The other two guys looked at Kylarai uncertainly. They were second-guessing their choice in confronting us. As I braced myself for a fight, I cursed Raoul inside my head.
Julie Price’s husband stared at Ky dumbfounded before he launched into action. He came at her fast, and I watched his eyes go from enraged to stunned as she easily caught his fist. With an audible crack, she twisted his wrist until he cried out.
“Is there a problem here?” A low, velvety voice came from behind me. The vampire had found me after all.
Price’s two buddies wasted no time in fleeing. I guess they didn’t want to have their faces rearranged by a girl, much less Arys. Price howled his pain but backed away at Arys’s approach.
They fled under the watchful gaze of the vampire. I was amused and annoyed at the same time. I wanted them to be running from me, not Arys.
“Well, I guess we’ll just be getting a cab then,” I said, turning towards the street. Arys grabbed my arm and spun me back to face him. His eyes were serious and seemed to dare me to argue as he touched a hand gently to my stinging cheek.
“Correction. We will walk Kylarai to a cab. You and I have some unfinished business to attend to.”
“You know this perfect timing stuff - riding in to save the helpless damsel in distress - is really getting old.”
“You know I don’t think you’re helpless.”
“Then why the sudden appearance every time some ass**le with his dick in a knot makes trouble for me?”
Silence. He just stared at me with those deep blue orbs.
“Ok, Alexa, I’m out of here,” Kylarai called from twenty feet away where a cab was pulling to a stop near the curb. “You coming with?”
I wanted to say yes and leave with Ky whether Arys liked it or not, but that was only to spite him, not because I didn’t want to stay.
“No. I’m not.” I didn’t take my eyes off of the vampire. A devilish grin slowly spread along his handsome features. “Leave a message on my cell when you get home so I know you made it ok.”
“I’ll see you at home, Alexa. Be careful.” The teasing look in her eyes said she meant the vampire.
When she closed the cab door, I was alone with my whiskey-encouraged, moon-inspired decision and a power-hungry vampire.
Chapter Seven
With Arys, I didn’t have a sole intention in mind. I wasn’t on the prowl for someone to relieve me of moon-related desires, and I wasn’t lonely. What kept me walking beside him went deeper than either of those things: Power.
I declined his offer to get a cab. Instead, I insisted we walk the few blocks to his bachelor bungalow under the wide-open sky. I needed to feel the moon on my skin and the night in my veins.
We walked along a bike path and forced some aimless small talk. Energy shifted keenly between us as we ambled through the warm summer night. I could smell the common town jack rabbits in the empty playground across the street. The town was quiet.
I expected to feel awkward or uncertain as we drew closer to Arys’s house. Instead, anticipation thrilled me, and my inner beast waited eagerly. As a heady glow enveloped me, my senses heightened to a painfully delicious extent. The faint evening breeze encouraged my wolf and called me to run.
I longed to touch Arys, to open that strange door between us. I ached to know what we were playing with. I yearned for a taste of his superhuman power, but the driving force wasn’t really me. This was something bigger than the sum of our power, greater than the two of us combined.