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She’d thought that he’d stand his ground and fight, being a powerful Aeon and all. Maybe it was sheer surprise that made him flee. Her monster had that effect on people.
Her coven members hadn’t run from it, but they all had a mile-wide streak of crazy, so she figured they didn’t count. They were careful never to get close to it, though. One, because the monster had no loyalties. Two, because the shift back to Wynter’s usual form was so explosive that every bit of gore from the monster’s body exploded outward . . . drenching the people closest, and then rebounded back onto Wynter. Hence the current state she was in.
Blowing out a breath, Wynter began traipsing through the woods. As she’d made a point of learning every inch of the land, she knew her way around well enough, so the hazy shadows weren’t an impediment.
She stayed on high alert as she walked, conscious that Saul could return to her and that there might be more Aeons lingering about the town. The latter seemed unlikely, since he’d attacked her alone, but still.
Hearing a squawk, she looked up to see a familiar crow flying among the treetops. Hattie was a member of Wynter’s coven who possessed the ability to take on the form of a crow.
Hovering high above Wynter, the bird squawked loudly, as if straining to get somebody’s attention. And then Cain was there in a blur of movement. Jesus, Wynter hadn’t known he could move that fast.
He towered over her, tall and lean and so very, very male. Like a supreme athlete at the top of his prime. Her hormones tended to get dizzy around him. He was just so cool and dauntless and incredibly self-possessed. Then there was that sexy apex-predator-rawness he boasted.
Also, Cain was an absolute joy to ogle. Seriously, his appearance was faultless. Yet not off-putting in its perfection. Enviable bone structure. Symmetrical features. A full, ridiculously sexy mouth. She’d never seen hair quite so black. She herself had black hair, but his . . . the pigmentation seemed to be richer, deeper, darker.
As he stood before her, his hooded, lustrous black eyes drank in her appearance and flared dangerously. There was something very serpent-like about his gaze. It was just so focused. So piercing. So intense. There were times it also seemed so very empty that she could almost believe it was true that he had no soul as some claimed. But other times, when a smile lit his eyes or when anger rippled across his features much as it was doing right now, she would have to disagree with that theory.
“It’s not my blood,” she quickly assured him, but he didn’t seem mollified.
Cain planted his hands on her upper arms. “Who took you?” he demanded in that deep, rumbly, authoritative voice that could wield dirty talk like a sexual weapon.
“Saul.”
The crow landed on the ground and then morphed into Hattie. Unlike shifters, she didn’t need to lose her clothes when changing shape, because it was magick that caused the shift. Padding toward them, the sweet old woman tucked a loose strand of her faded red hair behind her ear. “Saul as in the Aeon?”
“Yeah, that Saul,” replied Wynter.
“Well, fuck me up the a—”
“Hattie, you promised you’d stop using that phrase.”
“But it has such a nice ring to it, and my favorite book character uses it all the time.”
Cain’s jaw hardened as he examined a wound on Wynter’s arm. “He burned you.” The words were soft. Low. Eerily calm.
The hairs on her nape rose. “He meant to kill me, but my monster interfered. I don’t know exactly what happened after that. There must have been some kind of scuffle. I don’t think he’s dead. It seems like he got away.”
A growl scraped at the back of Cain’s throat.
“Dumb bastard should never have come here,” said Hattie. “He signed his death warrant the moment he considered it.”
She had that right.
A huge-ass black feline came rushing through the trees, her iron claws raking at the ground, and quickly shifted into Delilah. Like Hattie, she was fully dressed since it was magick that caused the change. An angry flush staining her olive skin, the Latina stalked toward Wynter. “What in the seven circles of hell just happened?”
Wynter relayed the details to her, adding, “I saw Saul before he attacked me. Or, at least, I saw his reflection in the glass refrigerator door at the convenience store. It seemed like he was behind me. And yet he wasn’t. He laughed, and then his image faded.” She looked to Cain for an answer.
“He has an ability that works similar to scrying,” Cain explained, his voice clipped. “Using water as a medium, he can search for people or objects, but he can only locate them if he’s reasonably close to them, and he’ll only see them if they’re near a reflective surface. Think of it as someone peering through the windows of a house from the outside. Unless the people within the house are in view of a window, they won’t be seen.”
Even with the limitations, the ability was impressive. “He said he’s been hanging around the town.”
Delilah frowned. “Surely he’d have been noticed.”
“Saul is capable of slinking around unseen like a ghost,” Cain reluctantly conceded.
Just then, Xavier and Anabel came running into view.
“Didn’t I tell you that death was lurking around?” Anabel blurted out, glaring at Wynter. “’Cause I’m pretty sure that’s what I said. You never listen. Then you always seem so surprised when you almost die.” She all but plonked a vial into Wynter’s hand, sniffing at the thanks she received.
