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“Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s a way to your destination and what’s just a distraction.” What he was clear on was that he wanted to be different for Nalla—and that was generalizing into other areas of his life in a good way. “And I guess, sometimes doing shit for the sake of doing it is an excuse to avoid the truth. But what do I know. I’m hardly qualified to comment on anything that has to do with self-improvement.”
“I don’t know, it sounds like you’re turning over a new leaf. And I’m glad I’m here with you as you do.”
Staring into her eyes, he felt like he was falling—and he didn’t mind the rush at all. “Me too.”
Abruptly, she took a deep breath. “Mmmm, I love the way you smell. Dark spices…”
As her voice drifted off, he felt his eyes widen—and hers did the same. Like they both came to the same conclusion at the same time.
“Sorry,” he said softly. “I can’t help it.”
“Is that… what I think it is? I mean, I’ve kind of wondered.”
Nate nodded. “I’m pretty sure I’ve bonded with you. I’ve heard it can happen fast, but I never believed it.”
There was a long pause, and her eyes seemed to darken with a sadness he didn’t understand. But then she was smiling widely, so widely that he could see her fangs—and imagined, with a kind of greed he’d never felt before, that they were buried deep in his vein, and she was drinking from him.
Taking the nourishment she needed… from him, and him alone.
“Bonded males are a pain in the ass,” he said roughly. “We’re a little nuts when it comes to protecting our females. So can I just do a blanket apology if I run across those assholes from Bathe again? I didn’t go far enough the first time.”
As she laughed and threw her arms around him, she shook her head. “Just let it go. I don’t care about the stupid parlor games. Besides, I’m off the market.”
Nate felt this weird glow inside his chest, like he’d been breathing in sunrays. “Well… if that isn’t the best news I’ve ever heard. And it’s been twenty minutes, female. Give me your mouth again.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Run, run, quick like a bunny. Fast, faster, fastest, you can do it, honey.
As Evan’s brain tagged along with his body’s explosive sprint, the refrain from his childhood stuck with him, the syllables landing in his head like his boots on the ground. Meanwhile, the wind was whistling in his ears, and he was vaguely aware of the streets that he crossed—two, or was it three?—and the alleys he ducked down—two, for sure.
Just as he started to wonder if he was just going to work out for the rest of the night, he heard the shooting.
A last right-hand turn, and he arrived on scene.
It was the short woman with the braids, whose apartment the tunnel bottomed out at. She was down in a crouch, both hands holding a pair of autoloaders in front of her—and like she sensed him, she looked over her shoulder.
As a bullet ricocheted off a brick wall and shot right by his temple,she glared at him. “You fucking sonofabitch—you took my shit, didn’t you. My—oh, fuck you,” she spat as she refocused ahead of herself and went back to shooting. “Will you fucking help me you fucking asshole!”
Evan’s first instinct was to run away and protect himself. He had a body disposal job to do, and this was not his fight—
His own body took over, his palms finding the guns that, yup, he had stolen from her, as his legs took him right beside her. While she knelt, he stayed standing, and he started shooting before trying to see what the hell was firing back at—
There was a sudden pause in the exchange of bullets, and he peeked around the corner. Across a narrow break in the abandoned buildings’ lineup, an inset doorway appeared to be where the shooter was taking cover. He couldn’t see anything more than that—and as everything stayed silent, he squinted his eyes.
They must have taken off,he thought.Into the building—
“You fucking asshole!”
The punch to the balls was a left hook from outta nowhere, and as he grunted and doubled over, the woman went for the guns in his grips—
It happened so fast. One minute, he was gasping from the pain and she was pulling at the weapons. The next, he had her in a choke hold with the barrel of what was in his right hand pushed into her temple.
In a voice he had never heard before, he said, “Don’t ever come at me again. I will stab you back to the maker. Are we clear?”
“Fuck you—”
He pulled the trigger.
