Page 10 of Bad Moon Rising
Roman craned around to give her a silenttold-you-soin regard to blowing up the man he’d called a warlock.Just when she’d thought her night couldn’t get more bizarre.
“I didn’t know he’d explode.” She held up her hands.
“Working with amateurs these days? Or is she just a hookup?” the man asked as he tried to peek around Roman.
Roman stiffened but didn’t react. “What’s your game, Antonio?”
From what she could see of Antonio, everything about the man was smooth, from his casual, sensual Latin charm to his skin, which didn’t have a single blemish or wrinkle. He had an allure to him that demanded she stare. Something about him didn’t seem human.
Not human? Impossible.But Roman said this is one of those impossible things that exist.Antonio’s skin radiated the perfection of a youth in his late twenties. His expression, not so much. The eyes—ancient and hard—wandered to her neck and lingered.
“My evening has certainly gotten a lot more interesting.” With a smile, Antonio reached around Roman as if to take her hand.
Gut instinct urged her to flee.
Roman mirrored Antonio’s sideways movement, his body preventing the tanned hand from getting close to her. “She’s not your concern.”
“She smells like one ofyourpeople.Yours,perhaps?” Antonio put his hands behind his back. He tilted his head to better see around Roman and spoke to her in precise, almost careful English, although heavily accented. “He has a complete lack of social graces. You are too good for him.” He examined her as if she was an interesting animal he’d never seen before. “You are exquisite. It’s been a long time since I’ve met one like you, but…” He sighed dramatically and looked into the chaos of people. “I, too, have business to attend to tonight and can’t delay.”
Something about his intonation of “one like you” sent her internal alarm to maximum danger alert.
Roman said, “You should’ve died in Sudan. What you do is unethical.”
“Have you proof of what you accuse me?” Antonio leered, flashing canines that were longer and somewhat sharper than a normal person’s. He addressed her, “See what I mean? Complete lack of graces.”
“If I had evidence of you using other species to do your bidding for something illegal or evil, you’d have been dead decades ago,” Roman said. This whole conversation was flying right over her head.
“You can’t kill unless the monarch commands it. You and I have more in common than you think.” He smirked and deliberately raised his dark eyebrows. “Until next time.”
“We have nothing in common, and we’re on opposite sides.”
Antonio stepped past them and headed down the sidewalk into the commotion.
“Are you okay to walk?” Roman asked her in that rumbly voice, once the Spaniard had melted into the crowd. “We’ve got a block and a half to my car. Then, we’re going to talk about the lighter.”
The guy who could be the alpha male poster child was giving her respect by not tossing her over a shoulder and running? Damn, if she didn’t appreciate him for it.
“I can make it.” Her side hurt like a motherfucker, and the bullet wound had started to throb, but she’d walk on her own or pass out trying.
Wrinkles creased his forehead as if he sensed her pain. “We have to move fast.”
He took her elbow, the one opposite the bullet wound, to propel her up the street. No sidewalk in this part of the city. Each step jarred her body. Less than a block later, she stumbled, dizzy.
He caught her and lowered his voice to a soothing tone. “I’m going to pick you up, and you’re going to be okay with it.”
“Did you just try your Jedi mind trick again? Because it failed.”
“My master will be disappointed. As a padawan, I can’t even do basics.” A small smile tweaked the corners of his lips.
Hello, sense of humor.
“I’m still picking you up. We have to move faster.” He glanced behind them before he approached to lift her.
She smashed her molars together and swallowed all noise when he touched her side.
To his credit, he didn’t go Tarzan, but gently scooped her up and held her against his chest again. It was more intimate, protective. Not the move of a man who planned to drag her into a dark corner and murder her.
Minutes later, inside a dilapidated parking garage, he deposited her into the passenger seat of a black sports car. “Are you going to pass out?”
