His eyes shot up to the sky, as though it had only just occurred to him how late—or early, depending on how you looked at it—it was.
“Please, Alex, just stay here.” His golden eyes found mine again. I could see the turbulence within them as his desire to see me all the way home dueled with his instinct to keep himself alive. “Don’t come any closer. I appreciate everything you’ve done tonight; I really do. And I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
After a long pause, he finally nodded. “I’ll stay here. But as soon as you get inside, keep everyone away from the windows.”
I frowned and shook my head. “Alex, you need to go home before you’re discovered here.”
I felt a brush of skin against my left hand and looked down to find his fingers playing with mine. I gripped his hand and held on tight, suddenly afraid for him.
“I’m not leaving until I put a ward around your house. It’ll only taking me a few minutes and I should do it now while there aren’t that many people on the streets.”
He cupped my cheek with his free hand, his eyes searching my face. I had the feeling he wanted to say something more, but in the end, he dropped his hand and released my fingers. “Go. Before you’re caught in the sun. I’ll watch from here until you’re safely inside. I’ll give you one minute to get everyone’s attention, and then I’m coming to ward the house.”
I nodded. “Fine.” With one last look at my unlikely savior, I turned to walk away, and paused. “Thank you,” I told him earnestly. Pressing a quick kiss to his cheek, I hurried down the sidewalk.
My cheeks burned with embarrassment. I’d wanted to convey my honest gratefulness. But the look on his face right before I’d run away told me I may have overstepped my bounds.
Gods, I was such an idiot.
I rushed through the back door just as I felt the heat of the sun on my back. Quickly, I shut it and turned the lock before I stepped away from the window. My reaction was kind of silly. Every window in this house was treated, the sun couldn’t hurt me once I was inside. And it would take a bomb to break them. I knew this, but my instincts still forced me to stay out of the direct rays.
“Kenya! Where the fuck have you been?”
Pasting a smile on my face, I turned to face Killian. “Hey, Killian!”
My creator and friend strode toward me. He wasn’t a big guy. Not like Alex. But anyone with half a wit about them would know Killian was just as dangerous. His power, fueled by his anger, coiled around him like a serpent, tightly leashed but ready to strike at a moment’s notice. He’d always been protective, but ever since my brush with the true death, he really had been like an overbearing father. “Don’t give me that smile, acting like you didn’t just almost kill yourself in the sunlight.”
I heaved a sigh. If the heaviness of his Irish accent was any indication, he was past angry and on to worried sick. “I’m sorry.” Walking past him, I led him to the kitchen in the center of the house. He would still be able to see out the front windows if he was looking, but what I was about to tell him should hold his attention long enough to allow Alex to do his thing. “Where’s Lizzy?” I liked Killian’s new mate, and she was the only one who could calm him down these days when he got himself all in a tizzy.
He didn’t respond to my question, though he did look down the hall toward their bedroom, unable to resist. “You told me you were finishing up two hours ago.”
“Yeah, I know. I had a visitor.”
His head snapped around.
Thathad gotten his attention.
“Who?” he demanded. “A customer?” Sometimes, the ladies who’d had an especially memorable night at our club with one of the guys—usually Brogan—tried to come back after closing to see if the fun time they’d had could develop into something more.
Spoiler alert: It never did.
I shook my head as I went over to the cabinet to grab a glass. I’d just downed half a bottle of vodka, but alcohol didn’t hang around long in a vampire’s system, and I needed something to calm my nerves. And the way Killian was staring daggers at me, it would keep his attention on me and not on the warlock I’d just spotted outside the windows behind him.
Alex stared at me for a brief second, then his mouth began moving silently as he warded the house.
“Whiskey?” I offered Killian.
He gave me a nod, and I grabbed him a glass, too.
“Who came to the club then?” Killian asked again.
I set the glass in front of him and talked while I poured us each a shot of his favorite whiskey. “I don’t know. I didn’t see them.”
He held up his hand to stop my pour and I moved on to my own glass. Then he waited until I’d set down the bottle and picked up my glass before he gave me what I called his “expectant face.”
I leaned back against the cabinets and looked at him across the island. “When I went to leave, I’d just gotten outside and locked up when I felt someone watching me. But I didn’t see anyone. Just the usual humans stumbling back to their hotels.”
“Are you sure someone was there?”
