Page 60 of Inflamed By an Incubus

“Find anything?” He sounded curious. Hopeful even.

She glanced at him, meeting his gaze. “The name comes up in a few places, relating to a Project Aryanna and a Project Abaddon. I can’t access the files on Project Abaddon, so I’ve been chasing the information trail on Aryanna. A team in the States were sent to investigate a location with ties to her, or warlocks or something. Her name popped up.”

“Anything there?”

She shook her head. “It had been emptied. Only other place mentioning Aryanna is one in Norway.”

She showed Archer the photographs and his face darkened by degrees as he stared at them, his lips compressing as the corners of them turned downwards. That feeling ran through her again and had her gaze falling to his covered arms. Were there bands of glyphs inked on his skin beneath the black material?

Archer folded his arms across his chest and huffed. “Still on that?”

She was quick to shake her head and smile. “Sorry. It just felt so real.”

He looked as if he wanted to say something and then his expression softened and he tilted his head towards the screen. “Want me to see if I can access the Abaddon files?”

Being elevated to a commander would have increased his clearance, meaning there was a chance he could access them. She scooted aside, trying to keep her hopes down as Archer pulled up a chair and rolled into the spot where she had been. He pushed his glasses up his nose and leaned over the keyboard, his fingers moving swiftly over it, and she waited as tense seconds rolled into long minutes.

And his expression darkened more and more with each one that ticked past.

On a deep huff and with a black scowl aimed at the monitor, he shoved his palms against the edge of the desk and rolled backwards. He pushed to his feet and glared at the access denied message on the screen, and when his fingers curled into tight fists, Evelyn eased backwards. For a heartbeat, he had that crazed look in his eyes again, and she felt sure he was going to unleash hell on the computer.

But then he pivoted away from it.

“I need some air,” he growled.

“I’ll go with you.” She rose to her feet.

He stopped her with a dark look over his shoulder and she tensed. She waited for his eyes to go all-black as a feeling struck her, a sensation that the air was growing thicker around her, harder to breathe, and the hairs on her nape and forearms rose.

“Or not,” she muttered.

And remained where she was as he stormed away from her.

The moment the twin doors swung closed behind him, the air in the room seemed to lighten again, the oppressive feeling that had been building in it fading away. Evelyn glanced at the other occupants in the room, sure they would be looking at her as if she were crazy, or maybe she just felt that way for thinking she had sensed some kind of malevolent power coming off Archer.

Only the man and woman working at the other end of the line of desks both looked as pale as ghosts and were staring wide-eyed at the spot where Archer had been.

Fenix’s words rang in her mind, clanging like an alarm bell.

She tried to ignore them, told herself that Archer was human, just like her, but this time that feeling that Fenix was telling the truth refused to leave.

So she followed Archer.

Evelyn shoved the doors open and spotted him at the far end of the corridor. She kept pace with him, moving swiftly down through the building and out into the night. He picked up the pace, his long legs carrying him away from her, and she had to jog to keep up. Rather than cutting through the park, he took one of the side streets, heading between the old white townhouses to the main road.

When he turned the corner, she moved faster, not wanting to lose sight of him.

She rounded the corner.

And ran straight into him.

Archer seized her by her arms and glared down at her, his eyes darker than she had ever seen them. “Tailing me now?”

“I was worried about you.” She swallowed to wet her suddenly parched throat as her heart hammered a staccato rhythm against her ribs. “I just wanted to check you were okay.”

His grip on her loosened and he pushed her away. “Go back.”

She shook her head. “We can get some air together.”

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