Page 112 of Visions of Darkness

He started the car and was getting ready to back out, only he had to wait when the car slowly continued behind us and pulled into a parking spot three down from my side.

Pax quickly pulled out just as the driver’s door opened, illuminating the interior of the small SUV. But it wasn’t so fast that I didn’t catch sight of a little girl who had her face pressed to the back driver’s-side window.

An unfamiliar face.

One I’d never seen before.

Still, my heart stalled out.

Because pale, pale gray eyes were staring back at me.

Pax shifted into gear and gunned it back onto the freeway while I tried to breathe around the clatter in my chest.

“Did you see her?” I finally managed to wheeze.

Pax hesitated for a prolonged beat before he reluctantly answered, “Yes.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Pax

I drove southwest today. No real destination other than away. As far away as we could get. Like we could actually outrun any of this bullshit when it would only be waiting for us up ahead.

Every direction was fraught with peril.

Every road leading to our downfall.

I glanced to where she was curled up in the passenger seat.

Asleep.

For a moment, that beautiful face angled toward me was serene.

Lost to the smallest amount of thatpeacethat I wasn’t sure she could ever find when she rested within Tearsith’s sanctuary. Her eyes had finally drifted closed just as the sun had breached the horizon and splintered the darkness with glittering white rays that had glinted over the expanse of snow that covered the Earth as we traveled.

She’d fought it, wanting to stay with me, before she finally let go when I’d whispered, “Sleep.”

The rest of our Laven family would have long since disappeared. Most awakened by now to walk through the day or still fighting in Faydor. She’d be alone, where she could find true respite from the darkness that hunted us.

Where, for a few hours, she could be removed from it.

Elevated from it.

Which was where I wanted to keep her.

All except for the twisted part of me that wanted to drag her into the depths of my own depravity. The part that wanted to give in to the way she’d looked at me while she tended to my wounds.

Like I could be everything to her if I’d just give in.

The woman was my ultimate temptation.

And fuck, that temptation was getting harder and harder to ignore. The way her fingers had felt when she gently traced them over one of the scars that littered my body. The way she’d whispered her care for me, a direct buoy to my disfigured soul. The part that wanted to turn myself over to the need that thundered through my blood whenever she was near.

It was the sick part of me that wanted to tear apart her innocence. Write myself all over it. Claim what was forbidden. This inkling at the back of my brain enticing me into believing she’d always been meant for me.

A tiny moan filtered from between her lips, and I clenched my jaw to fight the rush of lust that slammed into me at the slight sound, but there was no way to stop the way my stomach tightened into a fist of want.

You can’t have her.

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