Page 330 of Flirting with Darkness

“I don’t know.”

Her head whipped to the side and the purple eye glowed in the darkness. “Why not?”

“No one else saw your face but me.” Dex didn’t know why he was telling her this, but he didn’t know what else to do. “I want to know the truth. Then I’ll decide what to do with you.”

Tears filled her eyes then and he gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to comfort her.

Dex couldn’t afford to let her see his conflict. That would be dangerous for the both of them until he knew which path to take.

“Well, my mother is really a witch, and my sister was a hunter,” she whispered, staring down at her bloody hands. “And as you’ve probably guessed, my father is also a hunter who comes from a very long line of them.”

Without her charms, he could hear her heart clear as day. He could scent every emotion. Nova was telling him the truth.

“I’m what they call a convergence,” she said, still refusing to look at him. “It’s what happens when two or more bloodlines manifest in the same person. I’m not a very powerful witch. I have enough magic to do what I need, but I am physically stronger than even my father. I was the only one. My sister wasn’t born with magic.”

Dex didn’t hear or scent a single lie, and something in his chest eased ever so slightly. Everything she’d told him as a friend so far had been true.

“We found out after it happened that there was a prophecy about a convergence who was both hunter and witch. It wasn’t me, but the demons hunting her came after all of us who showed powers from more than one bloodline. I don’t know what happened to her, but it cost my sister her life.”

A fucking prophecy?

Had they lived the same goddamn life?

“What are you doing here?” Dex asked, steering her back to the actual problem.

“I signed a ninety-day trial contract with the Council of Paranormals.” Nova shrugged and Dex could smell her fear again, but there was also grief.

Why did that make her sad?

“My orders were to recon the area thanks to reports of magic in front of humans. I had no plans to engage. I just needed to find out who was breaking the law and then report it and wait for further orders.” Nova finally looked at him. “When I met you, it was my first night here. I didn’t plan…”

Dex closed his eyes when she trailed off. He knew exactly what she meant. He hadn’t planned for any of this either.

Nova took a deep breath and continued. “I kept pushing you away because I didn’t know if the person I had to arrest, or kill, would be you. I didn’t want to get too attached if that was the case, but you were persistent and I…it was impossible to resist you.”

More truth.

“I told my father,” she whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek. “I didn’t know who else to turn to. When I told him, he only asked me one thing. He asked if I could kill you if they ordered me to.” More tears fell as she stared at him. “I hesitated.”

Dex curled his hands into fists, needing to hear all of it no matter what she was making him feel. He couldn’t afford to make another mistake. If he was going to risk everything for her – he had to know the whole truth.

“My father told me that staying was reckless and dangerous, and I should cancel my contract. Leaving was the smart choice, but I didn’t want them to send another hunter in my place.” Nova shrugged again as if it was no big deal, but Dex knew it wasn’t that simple.

If he was fucking up, she would have turned him in just to make sure she had control over the situation. The pain of not knowing would be worse than dealing with it herself.

“It’s why I was so upset that night.” Nova took a deep, quivering breath. “After…after you asked if we could try being more than friends, I—”

Her voice broke and Dex almost broke with it.

“I had to know if it was you. So, I was planning to follow you until I had confirmation or not. After that, I would have tried to kill you myself. I would have deserved it for being dumb enough to fall for someone who was endangering us all. If it wasn’t you…I was going to tell you who I really was.”

“And what did you find out?” he asked, keeping his voice as cold and emotionless as he could.

“You manage the businesses well,” she admitted. “It’s better than I’ve seen with most packs. The coven isn’t allied with you, but they don’t actively avoid you either. The only issues I’ve seen are the fights that break out along the borders. I haven’t been able to figure out which side they’re provoked by, but those shifters who came after me the first night weren’t yours.”

Dex leaned back, impressed. She’d figured all that out on her own? Nova must have been out all night every night to be so sure.

“I haven’t been able to really determine the cause of the fights though since I’ve only been following you the last four nights.”

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