Page 60 of Fire of the Fox

Clearing my throat, I stepped away and dropped my hand to my side. I clutched his painting to my chest as if it were a shield that could protect me from my attraction to him. Daring to glance up at him, I gave a sheepish grin. “Thanks for the hair tie back. I should probably get going now.”

He stared at me a moment, as if he were trying to process what happened. Finally, he nodded. “Right. Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow for some more training.”

I nodded and started to turn away when he called, “Oh yeah. Before I forget, don’t worry about coming here on Friday night. I’ll pick you up at five.”

I looked at him sideways. “Really? What for?”

He shrugged as amusement lit his golden gaze. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”

I rolled my eyes and fought my smile. “Fine. Be all mysterious.”

I felt his eyes on me as I walked away, and it made my stomach twist in desperate need. I wondered what he saw or what he thought about when he looked at me. Was I just a girl who was easy to use, or was I someone he was beginning to enjoy having around?

Chapter Twenty-Four

MY EYES KEPT traveling to Rune’s painting while driving back to my dorm. When I thought about how focused and determined he’d been at the class, I couldn’t help but dance on the inside. This was a painting he’d given his all on, and the experience was a memory I got to share with him. No other girl had ever gotten to say that about him based on what he and the guys had told me about him. It had only been sex for them, and even though we weren’t doing that, I still felt grateful for the amazing thing he had given me: the honor of being each other’s first date.

I was on cloud nine when I reached the dorm. It was dark, and very few students were out when I managed to skip my way across the parking lot. My eyes were still glued to Rune’s painting, and my head and heart were in a blissful blur when an ominous shiver traveled down my spine.

I stopped dead in my tracks, knowing by now that this feeling was someone’s eyes on me. Scanning the cars, my eyes lingered on a black SUV. The shadows near it were inky and dripping with rancor. I took a step away from the car when the shadows started to move. The darkness shifted and swirled together until it was no longer a shadow but a man in front of me.

His dark hair fell in waves to his shoulders, and he had a neatly trimmed goatee around his broad, eerie smile. “Finally. You’re alone! It’s been quite irritating trailing you with so many people around.”

Swallowing hard, I stood my ground. Two weeks of self-defense training wasn’t much, but it made me feel a bit braver than I would’ve before. If this guy tried anything, I could defend myself. As I stared at him, I realized he looked vaguely familiar. My mind raced to pinpoint where I’d seen him before, and that’s when it hit me.

He was the man I’d run into on my first day here outside the tattoo parlor as well as at the club.

“Who are you?” I demanded, wondering if he had been stalking me since that moment outside of the tattoo shop. Maybe that phone call I’d overheard really had been about me.

He quirked a bushy, black brow. “You don’t seem surprised about the way I appeared from the shadows. I thought you were oblivious to this world.”

It dawned on me that he was right. I hadn’t even batted an eye at him turning from shadows to a man. Once you saw one Fae, you’d seen them all. His little magic trick wasn’t anything special at this point.

Raising my head in defiance, I said, “You’re Fae.”

He laughed, clapping his hands. “Bravo. Interesting. I was told you had no idea about us. Well, whatever. It makes no difference to me if you know the details or not. I only care about getting the job done and being rid of you.”

My brain was starting to hurt. I had no idea what this guy was saying. Who had told him about me? Why had he been tailing me? And by “rid of me,” did he mean he wanted to kill me?

All of this was going through my head when his bulky body suddenly stiffened. He whipped his head toward our dorm room and let out a low growl. Turning his glare back to me, he hissed, “Always around someone. Well, I guess that means we’ll be meeting again soon. Look forward to it.”

Without another word, he burst into a cloud of shadows, and from the shadows emerged a bat. The small creature hovered in the air, then turned and flew off. Not even a second later, the dorm building’s doors opened, and Dallas came running out.

“There you are! Finally! Please tell me you got some tonight.”

Heart still pounding furiously, I watched Dallas run across the parking lot. I definitely hadn’t gotten any, but I had received a strange visit from a Fae. And I was pretty sure he didn’t spell good news.

“So, what happened?” Rune asked.

We were sitting on the blue mats of the private studio we’d been using for self-defense training. We’d just finished sparring, and I was gulping down my bottled water.

After running into that weirdo last night, I had sent Rune a text telling him about it. His response was immediate. He wanted to talk more in person, thus resulting in this little session.

Swallowing the liquid goodness, I caught my breath and met his eyes. “A Fae showed up. A bat. He said someone sent him to get rid of me.”

His amber eyes narrowed. “A bat? Did he have long black hair and a goatee?”

“You know him?”

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