Page 151 of Elven Shadow

Maybe the shifter was packing some extra magical abilities normal shifters didn’t usually possess, because this was ridiculous.

A low growl emanated from Maxwell’s throat as he dipped his head toward her. “I can’t let you leave.”

“Can’t or won’t?” Rebecca asked, glaring up into those silver eyes.

The corner of his mouth twitched. “It’s all the same to me.”

She could just shove him in the chest with both hands and send him flying down the staircase. That would help.

Then the image of throwing herself at him in an entirely different way flashed through her mind.

Her hands at his shirt, clawing at the buttons to tear the fabric off him. Her lips on his, fingers in his hair. She could make him back down, or he might force her into submission before she finally got out of here and he followed her for her secret solo operation.

Dammit, why was she thinking ofthatright now?

She’d have to tell Zida to add irrational and disturbing sexual fantasies about rivals to the list of side effects as well.

Clearing her throat, she tore her gaze away from his and nodded down the stairwell. “I don’t want your protection. And I certainly don’t need it.”

“Too bad. That’s my job.”

“Yeah, yeah, and you take it very seriously,” she quipped. “I remember the conversation.”

Fuck.

Before Hector attacked the compound, she could have taken Maxwell with one hand behind her back and blindfolded. But she’d seen what Maxwell coulddo. Even with Zida’s temporary remedy, Rebecca would have been an idiot to think she could still take him now.

She could order him to stand down and let her leave. She had that power now, but it would only come back to bite her in the ass, making him even more suspicious of her. Knowing Maxwell, he’d find a loophole in the rules to come after her anyway. Then her anonymity was screwed just as much as she was.

A bitter laugh escaped her, and she took a step back just to grab a little more breathing room between them. To clear her head of the scent of earth and moonlight and sandalwood surrounding them both in their shared bubble of personal space.

Not to mention that tingling weight of his presence, which she hoped would back the hell off too.

“Are you always this obnoxious?” she asked.

“I’m always dedicated to my duty. Loyal to Shade and its members and to keeping this place in line.”

“Christ, you sound like a broken record, Max. I get it. Never mind.” Rolling her eyes, Rebecca tore away from him to storm down the same corridor from which he’d appeared to stop her, waiting for the feeling of his gaze on her body to disappear.

Hopefully, she could get out of his sight quickly enough that he wouldn’t see her falter or trip over herself or buckle against the wall when her fake health and magical energy dipped as a side effect.

Something was very wrong with her.

She’d just given in to the biggest pain in her ass, just like that. If his presence and the way it pulled at her—called her closer, filled her head with dangerously alluring bullshit—was becoming the norm now, Rebecca was really in trouble.

There were plenty of things wrong with her, and Maxwell Hannigan was creeping his way up the list toward becoming her number one.

On her way to her room—because that was the only place she could go where she wouldn’t use all her current energy onpretending—Rebecca passed the open door to the infirmary.

At the same second, Zida poked her scraggly-haired head into the hall, as if she’d been waiting for Rebecca this whole time. “Thereyou are. And don’tyoulook like someone on a mission.”

Rebecca scowled at her, then leaned toward the door on her way past and hissed, “You said Hannigan had already left to go take care of the bodies.”

The healer’s beady black eyes followed Rebecca down the hall, then Zida snorted. “No, you told me to alert you whensecurityleft the building to go handle it. Nothing specifically about the shifter on duty.”

That made Rebecca pause.

“Don’t tell me your memory’s starting to go too,” Zida added folding her arms. “’Cause that brings a whole new world of problems we should probably start taking a look at.”

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