Page 5 of Expose Me

The slight woman got to her feet. I stood my ground.

“What are you doing?” I barked. “Stay where you are.”

“I can’t.” She shrugged, the torn-up sleeve of my trench coat slipping halfway down her arm. “If you will not bring me water, I must find it myself.”

“Yeah? Well, if you don’t sit your ass down and start answering questions, I must shoot you.” I pointed to the couch with my gun.

“You would be wasting your ammunition. I cannot be hurt by projectile weapons.” After a beat of silence, the first sign of any emotion other than pain, which was evident in her every movement, showed on her face—irritation. “Yes, I am from a realm you would be unfamiliar with. I can explain everything, but I really do need water first.”

I hesitated. She was clearly an intelligent life-form, probably more advanced than humans—or what was left of us. We’d evolved so much with all the magic coursing through the planet, it was hard to say whathumaneven meant anymore. And she was definitely not in a good way last night and hadn’t tried to kill me while I slept.

“Fine. There’s the kitchen sink. Have all the water you want. But I’m keeping my gun pointed.” I wasn’t just going to take her word for it that my weapon couldn’t hurt her.

“There is more water behind that wall.” She pointed to the bathroom and casually walked towards me. Stubborn little ... I sighed. Whatever. I could keep an eye on her just as easily in the shower as I could at the sink.

I backed out of her path, keeping my gun trained on her the entire time as I followed her into the bathroom.

She cranked the water to full blast, dropped my tattered coat to the floor, and stepped under the spray.

She didn’t adjust the temperature, letting the water sluice over her body cold. I guessed there’d been no need to worry about her freezing last night.

I resisted the urge to avert my gaze and give her privacy. I felt like a perv watching her shower, but the weight of the gun in my hand reminded me why I was being ridiculous.

Her skin rippled, reminding me further that I wasn’t creepily watching a woman shower. She tipped her head back and opened her mouth directly under the spray as another round of ripples washed over her. Every time it happened, her true skin shimmered in the wake of the ripples, the depthless black showing for a split second.

Barely a trickle of water was going down the drain; most of it was going into her mouth and ... being absorbed by her skin?

After a while, she shut the water off and turned to face me. Again, I resisted the urge to avert my gaze. Her tits were amazing and didn’t even look fake. I wasn’t sure whether to be jealous or aroused.

By the time she stepped out of the shower, she was practically dry. Even her hair was sapped of all its moisture, the droplets disappearing before my eyes.

“Lower your weapon,” she demanded in a soft voice, “we do not have time for this.”

“Fuck you,” I replied in just as soft a voice. “And there is nowe.”

Instead of replying, she moved faster than I’d ever seen anyone move and, for the first time in many years, my weapon was snatched out of my grip before I knew what was happening.

I dropped to the ground and twisted out of the bathroom. I’d dashed behind the kitchen counter and summoned another gun from my stash before I realized that I wasn’t being shot at.

Heart hammering, I peeked over the counter.

She was standing at the door, looking right at me, her arms loose at her sides. I frowned as I slowly got to my feet and pointed my gun at her. Why wasn’t she shooting?

Staring me in the eye, she slowly lifted the weapon. I tightened my grip on my own and prepared to fire but ... she wasn’t raising the gun to point at me. She had her arm bent, the gun pointing at an awkward angle. She lifted it to her head, barrel against the temple, and pulled the trigger.

My heart leapt into my throat.What the fuck?Dropping my gun on the counter, I darted to her side, but she wasn’t falling to the floor.

There wasn’t even any blood on the side of her head, let alone brains splattered all over the place. She stood in the same spot, looking at me as calmly as she had been a moment ago.

My phone went off, the special ringtone reserved for Reginald Reyes—my boss—cutting through the stunned silence. I ignored it, my full attention on trying to process what I’d just seen.

The petite blonde let the gun dangle from her finger by the trigger guard and held it out to me. Numbly, I took it and looked at it to make sure it was indeed my gun—the one I knew was loaded with live rounds and had been cleaned just last month.

The woman lifted her hand up to her mouth and spat out the bullet.

“What the fuck,” I breathed, still struggling to process what I was seeing.

“I cannot be hurt by projectile weapons,” she repeated, her tone more firm and her expression more irritated.

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