His golden-honey eyes sparked with possibility.
Or hunger.
Dangerous? You bet. But good God, he was sexy. The liquid caress of his voice, the intensity in his eyes, the sheer power locked away in those lean muscles…
In a blur of motion, he yanked the stake from my hand and threw it against the bricks so hard it splintered.
“Now that we’ve taken care of that nasty business. Care to explain the rest?” he asked.
I lowered my eyes in a sign of respect, but I didn't back away or bow or submit to him in any way. Technically, vampires weren’t allowed to feed on us without consent, but the Council tended to look the other way for all but the most heinous infractions. My policy with vamps was simple: don’t give them a reason to infract.
“Explain?” I asked.
“Your involvement in this.” He stepped toward me, looming so close that if he were human, I would've felt his breath on my cheeks. His imposing shadow fell across my face, making me blink as I met his gaze.
Despite the fact that he could end my life with a single touch, everything about him made my mouth water.
One of the many reasons I usually avoided him.
“What makes you think I was involved?" I asked.
“Just after closing this morning, I emerged to find my delivery abandoned here and an alley full of human blood. Your scent was…” Darius picked up a lock of my hair and pressed it to his lips, closing his eyes. “Everywhere.”
He knows my scent?
A shiver crept down my back, but I couldn’t tell whether the idea was terrifying… or a complete turn-on. “Yeah, I… Sorry about your order. I got… distracted.”
“I see.” Darius released my hair. With a light, cool touch, he traced my bruised cheek bone, his eyes dimming. “And this…distraction. Was he responsible for this?”
“I…”God, I love the way he’s touching me…
The erotic caress of a vampire was a dangerous lure. Witches could defend against the mind control vamps used on humans, but it took a lot of energy—something I was running severely low on. And the longer I stared at his mouth, at the way his lips curved at the edges, hinting at a soft smile behind his cool exterior, the more I wanted to give in.
But that was aterribleidea.
“To be fair,” I said, dragging my gaze away from his lips, “you should see the other guy.”
“I suppose that’s his blood all over my alley?”
I nodded, toeing the pavement with my boot. “His teeth are around here somewhere, too. Unless he came back for them.”
A cool smirk slid across his face. “Quite the little brawler, aren’t you?”
I shrugged and forced a confident smile. “Well, nice seeing you again, Mr. Beaumont. I should probably let you get back to your guests.”
“Probably.” Darius’s fingers trailed down from my face to my neck, his touch turning icy as it slid over my pulse points. “So that’s all you have to say on the matter?”
I nodded, hoping he couldn’t sense the tremble inside me.
“Lying to me is unwise, necromancer.”
Necromancer…
More than his touch, the word made me stiffen. Every hair on my neck stood on end.
“Excluding you,” he said calmly, his smile vanishing, “two humans bled in my alley this morning. One of them died. Moments later, I sensed her rise. Explain.”
My heart sunk.
