Page 12 of Roman

Who even mugged with a knife anymore?

His assailant was wearing a cap pulled low, but even so, Danny could see the guy’s pupils were completely blown. He was on something, that was for sure. But the fact that he was letting Danny see up close enough to notice was a little concerning. He could have kept Danny facing the other way.

Why isn’t he worried about having a witness?

The man was pressing in with the knife—not enough to draw blood but enough for Danny’s fear to go up a notch. He wanted this whole interaction over with. “Um, my phone is here. In my hand. If you want it.” Maybe that would move things along.

But his attacker didn’t move. He seemed to be waiting for something, which was the opposite of what one should be doing when mugging someone.Grab, mug, and run, yes? Isn’t that the magic formula to not get caught?

Before Danny could offer up anything else—the keys to his car, perhaps?—a loud roar echoed through the garage, and his attacker was thrown off him with violent force.

Danny winced as the act of getting thrown caused his attacker’s knife to slice through Danny’s shoulder, but his attention was focused less on the pain and more on the blur of limbs that was suddenly pummeling his mugger. A blur through which he recognized a familiar, immaculate suit.

“Roman?”

The pummeling paused, and an honest-to-God growl sounded. His mugger was crying, letting out a gurgled, “I’m sorry, man! I don’t know what I was even doing!” during the break in blows.

Roman’s back was still to Danny. He bent further over the mugger, and Danny could just make out his whispered, “Run,” as he let go of the now-weeping man.

Roman stood slowly, and the other man quickly scrambled up, limping to the garage stairs as fast as he could. It seemed for a moment that Roman was going to follow for a chase, as if the order to run had just been him toying with the man, but then his shoulders tensed up again, and he turned to face Danny.

Danny barely had time to register the cold fury on the man’s face before Roman was there, directly in front of Danny, faster than he had any right to be. His attack on the mugger had taken Roman and the assailant both to the other side of the garage roof—and how he had even thrown the man all the way across the roof was a question in itself—and yet there he was, inches away from Danny’s face.

Something was definitely not right.

His sleek black hair was now mussed and wild, and he was panting. But much more alarming, those bright blue eyes—the ones that had been so eerie under the fluorescent lights—were now completely black.

Not darkened by overblown pupils. But actually, fully black, no irises or surrounding whites or anything.

Danny swallowed hard as he registered the last strange detail of Roman’s appearance. The most not right thing of all—Roman’s teeth were bared, and the man definitely had fangs.

Either Danny was hallucinating for real, or Roman was something other than human.

And Danny was alone with him on the roof of a dark parking garage.

Fuck.

four

Roman

Romanshouldreallyleave.Right now.

He’d been so close to killing that man. Not even biting him, feeding off him, but just beating the life out of him. But Danny’s voice had somehow cut through the murderous fog, his demon tuned in to the trembling boy more than the prey directly in front of them.

That in itself was a revelation.

The rational human side of him was aware he was in trouble—that he had his fangs fully out, his demon showing in his eyes—and that at any moment, Danny would start screaming bloody murder and run for the hills.

But his rational human side was definitely not in charge right now.

Sweet. Honey sweet. Ours, ours, ours.

The boy was bleeding, and…thatscent. It was the rich, coppery, tantalizing smell of fresh blood but also the smell of Danny, that milk-and-honey intoxicating scent. And apparently his demon was just as captivated by Danny’s scent as the rest of him. It had barely registered the attacker scuttling away into the darkness, too focused on the boy himself, on having him in its sight.

The boy who was currently staring at Roman, eyes wide, looking a little fearful but mostly in shock.

“What…just happened?” Danny’s voice was barely more than a whisper.

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