Page 26 of Watch Me Burn

I promised that I’d keep my identity—and my temper—underwraps in Dyea. Something tells me that’ll be harder than I thought, and I’m looking at that ‘something’ as he glares down at me.

“Follow the rules and we won’t have any trouble.”

What is it with supes and rules? I thought the one perk to being kicked out of the Fang City would be that I could hide out in this hidden supe town and do what I wanted becausethe population is so small and the witch hunters wouldn’t know where to find me.

I should’ve known better. A teeny tiny population means more eyes on me—includinghis.

“The sanctuary rules are put in place to keep us all protected,” the mayor says in an apologetic tone. “No fighting between villagers, and if you want to challenge someone, we ask that you leave Dyea first. Of course, neither of you are shifters, so I don’t expect that to happen.”

“You don’t expect it to happen anyway.” Conall snorts. “Prey shifters don’t challenge, Lou. You know that. And vampires don’t bother. They just kill each other and step over the drained corpse to head to the canteen.”

Mayor Lou frowns. “That was a vampire dispute. Joaquin knew better than to steal blood from Mercy’s donor because his decided to leave the village. He could’ve recruited a new one, but he didn’t. His final death was deserved.”

Conall doesn’t argue, though the expression that turns his broody expression skeptical does it for him.

The mayor ignores his head of security. “Anyway, since you brought your own donor, Ms. Van Duren, I’m sure you won’t have a problem following the rules set out for vampires here.”

Elise agrees. “Of course.”

“Perfect. Now, Madame Montvale told us that you wouldn’t mind sharing a house?—”

“No need for that,” cuts in Conall gruffly. “We have more than enough. I thought the vampire would take this one,” he adds, gesturing toward the narrow, two-floor cottage near where we are. “The other one can take the empty house down that way.”

Mayor Lou reaches up, scratching the back of his head. “I thought you didn’t want anyone taking that place? When Felicityarrived last summer, you made her take the cottage near the river.”

“Because she’s a selkie, Lou.”

“Oh. I thought it was because you didn’t want anyone taking the territory near your den.”

Conall’s glower becomes impressively more pissed off. “You thought wrong.”

A fresh plume of stink fills the air. “Right. Sorry. Well, if Conall thinks that those placements work for our new villagers, he’s never been wrong before. I think?—”

I think that Mayor Lou has the title, but this Conall wants to run the show.

No, thanks.

“I’ll stay with Elise.” I take a couple of steps closer to the cottage assigned to her. “It’s got two floors. We’ll fit.”

Before he can argue, Elise adds, “We have to stay together. She’s my donor.”

Unless it’s my imagination, the big, gruff lumberjack sniffs. And, you know, good on him because the skunk spray mingled with orange is making my stomach turn, but instead of gagging, he just narrows his gaze on Elise. “You bite her?”

What business is it of his if she does or not? Our cover story is that she does, and that’s all that counts. Besides, I promised Elise that she could. What’s a little blood between best friends, after all? Especially when she uprooted her entire life to be my supe guide up here in the wilds of Alaska.

I cross my arms over my chest. “We stay together.”

I expect him to argue. To put down one of his massive boots and tell me that I’ll stay where he put me, thank you very much.

To my surprise, he doesn’t. He swallows back what I’m sure would’ve been a lovely retort, scowls again, then turns to the mayor. “Are you done with me? I was just about to head out on arun when they arrived. I’d like to get back to that now unless you need me to help move them into here.”

Look at that. I guess I won that little stand-off.

Mayor Lou nods, and I get a fresh wave of spoiled citrus.

Conall shifts on his heel, already jogging away before it hits me that the grump didn’t even say goodbye. He just left without a backward glance.

He must really want to get back to that run.

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