Page 17 of Viper

Waking to the beeping of her alarm, Ella blindly reached out and switched off the offensive noise. Fuzzy snippets in her mind’s eye plucked at her attention.Eroticsnippets. She tried grabbing on to the threads of her dream, but they slipped away too fast.

Damn, if she was dreaming about getting laid, she definitely needed to give her libido some action soon.

She wasn’t someone who typically had those kinds of dreams. Though … there had been one several months ago. She couldn’t remember it well. There’d been a mouth trailing kisses up her back until it reached her ear. Then a voice had rumbled, “Found you.” She’d woken with a start.

Weird, to say the least.

Rubbing at her tired eyes, Ella edged out of bed and then began her morning routine—paid a visit to her small but bright en suite bathroom, got dressed in her cozy bedroom that was all cool blues and greens, and then headed down to her dark-wooded, plant-dominated kitchen. Once she’d tossed back a cup of tea and chowed down a bowl of oatmeal, she left the apartment.

As usual, she found Mia waiting for her in the lobby. They often rode to work together, and they’d alternate on who would drive. This morning, it was Ella’s turn.

Mia pushed off the cream leather sofa, her brow pinching. “You look tired again.”

“I had another restless night’s sleep.” Lately, she’d been plagued by dreams she couldn’t remember on waking. “Ready to go?”

“Yup.”

As they drove, Mia nattered about a TV series she was binge-watching. Ella nodded and smiled, but her mind drifted back to the previous night. It should be the poor deceased human who snatched her thoughts, but no. It was Viper.

His hyper-intense gaze had pinned hers with a hormone-melting focus. Always did. The very first time they’d locked gazes many months ago, for a single moment, she’d had the thought that sheknewthose eyes. They’d somehow seemed familiar.

Last night, her pulse had jumped when his hand engulfed hers. Ella wasn’t the type to get all flustered and nervous aroundguys, but Viper did things to her head. And ovaries. Oh, her poor ovaries.

Her demon was intrigued by him but also wary. He was one of the Fallen, after all. And her entity didn’t quite trust how veryawareElla’s body was of this perfect stranger.

He’d been a little too slow in releasing her hand, but she’d chosen not to call him on it. Mostly because she hadn’t been in any rush to walk away.

One thing had been kind of weird … When she’d shaken hands with Viper, the VP had worn a weird ‘fucking finally’ expression. Like he’d been eager for them to meet.

“You’ve zoned out, haven’t you?” accused Mia.

Her mind flicking back to the present, Ella cast her sister a quick look. “Sorry. It’s just that something odd happened last night.”

Mia tilted her head. “What?”

“I saw a vampire.”

“A vampire?”

“And he wasn’t a very nice one. Looked kind of, I don’t know, feral.” Ella hadn’t come across many vamps in her time, but the ones she’d met had behaved like regular people to a large extent. They’d blended well while walking among humans, hiding fangs with closed-mouthed smiles and concealing oddly-colored irises with sunglasses. The guy she’d come upon last night had been very different.

“Feral?” Mia echoed, twisting to better face Ella. “In what way?”

“He hissed at me. He had weirdly long nails. And get this: he shifted into a bat. An actual bat.”

Mia’s lips parted. “When did this happen?”

“In the alley outside the pool hall. I caught him dumping a dead human there. He wasn’t pleased that I’d spotted him. Hemight have pounced on me if I hadn’t given him a little magickal demonstration.”

“He might have killed you, and you didn’t think to lead with that?” Mia asked, the bite of disbelief in her voice.

Ella shrugged. “I said he might have, not that he tried. Anyway, the Black Saints appeared. Viper assured me he’d deal with it.”

A slow smile curved Mia’s lips. “Oh, you talked a little with Viper, huh?”

“Briefly.” Ella shifted gears as she sped up, contemplating whether to add his little implication that she’d piqued his interest …

“It’s such a shame that he’s one of the Fallen. I mean, I don’t hold their nature against them—or what others of their kind have done. But there’d be no wisdom in a demon getting involved with one.”

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