Page 19 of Untraced Magic
I was about to introduce myself to this beautiful stranger when a foreign sensation washed over me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched.
“Your name, darling?” he repeated, skimming his hand over my forearm.
His words didn’t register in my brain, my mind somewhere else. Someone was watching us; I was sure of it.
Without warning, a familiar heat landed on my skin, prickling the hairs on my arms.
I knew that feeling… I’d felt it before.
Tyler.
Tyler
Likeahuntertoprey, my eyes followed her from the moment she entered Jinxed, shadows hiding me from where I sat at the back of the bar as I watched them sing and dance among the wrath on the dance floor.
Morgan and Skye looked completely out of place dressed the way they were, but they didn’t seem to care. Oblivious to the creatures around her, Morgan’s movements seduced animalistic eyes from all corners of the room as she moved to the music. There were other humans in here undoubtedly, but that red lipstick screamed prey.
It would be the end of her.
And possibly me.
What did Skye think she was doing, befriending this innocent woman?
Let alone bringing her to a bar full ofus.
She had a throw-yourself-into-it-and-think-about-the-consequences-later type of attitude that came from our mother, and it got her into trouble more often than not.
I tensed, tighteningmy gaze.
A guy had his hands on Morgan, and I shifted in my seat, unable to look elsewhere.
A feeling I wasn’t used to crept over me. White-hot jealously. It had been a long while since I’d felt its presence, the green-eyed bite both unexpected and unwelcome.
Unbuttoning the top of my shirt, I adjusted the collar, swiping the nape of my neck. It was normal to run hot being a thermo mage, but this was different, and I mentally zoned into the thermostat of the bar, turning up the air con. Being able to create and control heat certainly had its perks.
I watched as the stranger ran a finger down the length of her neck, furious heat streaking through my veins, flooding my nervous system.
Vampire.
I emptied the rest of my drink.
“Wes, go get that leech off Morgan before she becomes his next Bloody Mary,” I ordered, unable to move from my place in the booth from between everyone else.
Wes followed my train of sight, his eyes morphing to a terrifying shade of black.
“Wes.” I kicked him under the table. “You good?”
He snapped out of it, jumping down from the booth and storming off towards the dance floor.
Colt stiffened beside me, setting his glass back on the table. “That’s not like him to lose control,” he said, glowering towards Wes’s disappearing form.
Colt was the eldest of the group and sourced his magic from the earth. He was the strong, silent type. A thinker. He seemed to struggle with women more than the rest of us, and I never quite understood why.
Where we all had a mop of brown hair, he was the polar opposite. Blond with blue eyes, you would think he’d have the women hanging off him, but not Colt. He was the responsible one, the one we went to when we were deep in shit, because being an earth mage, his intuition was usually spot on.
“Agreed,” I replied, brows furrowing. “What’s going on with him?”
Colt thrummed the side of his glass with a shrug. “Unsure.”
