Page 54

She shoved the covers back and stood up, her complexion dusky, and she lowered back down. “What makes you think this was your fault?”

Flaccid heat oozed into his muscles, and he felt himself going vagal, ready to collapse. Fuck. His instincts were rarely wrong.

If he hadn’t arrived in time…

If he had doomed her to die…

“Just let me get to the bottom of this, okay?” Desperate, his breath shallow and useless, he swallowed hard and forced his eyes to stay open.

What in the hell had gotten to her? When banshees screamed, death was always close at hand. The last time he’d heard a scream that intense was a goddamn immortal demon and sister to the fucking king of the demon realm.

“From now on, I’ll keep my window closed. And locked.” She lowered her feet to the floor, inhaling carefully before trying to move. “I appreciate your concern, but I don’t need—”

Chest tight as his body tensed, his voice strained, he gritted his teeth. “I’m so fucking serious, Eryn. Your fault or mine, it doesn’t fucking matter. Right now, I… I need to keep you safe. Please. Give me a chance to fix this.”

Until he could destroy this thing. Or get her out of harm’s way. Indefinitely.

Before his grandmother’s nightmare of a bedtime story—

He ground his teeth together, tensing his entire body before he went vagal.

Had he pissed something off on such a personal level, it went after Eryn as a warning? Some demon was really, really protective of their wyverns.

“We’ll go pack up your things. Everything. You and Lexi can be on the next flight out of here. I’ll get you new IDs; you can go anywhere. I’m paying, whatever it costs, for as long as—”

“What?” Her cheeks were fiery red now, her shaky manner gone as she roared at him. “I’m not giving up everything because of… of… one break-in. This is my prob—” Eryn growled as she seemed to find her strength in fury. “—my life.”

Fuck. This wouldn’t make a damn bit of sense. He was probably scaring her more than whatever had gotten to her.

He ground his feet firm to the floor and scrunched his hands in his hair. “I told you I work security. Why I don’t get serious with anyone.”

Time to go all in.

“Ever wonder why I have such a high-tech security system, in this adorable town?”

Hook. Line. Sinker. He hoped.

“I’ve made a lot of enemies. The sort that are clever enough to not target me. They’ll target the people I care about just to fuck with me. This break-in wasn’t an angry patient. It was someone looking to hurt me—by hurting you.”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” she whispered darkly.

“Yeah, well.” He threw his hands in the air and sucked in a desperate breath of air. “Too fucking late. You need to get out of here. Away from me.”

Watching him, standing so alone in the bleak bedroom, his voice echoing off blank walls, Eryn bit her lips together and breathed in and out through her nose. Ice coursed through her veins, an IV of frozen plasma directly into her body.

But it wasn’t plasma.

It was the dose Eryn risked her humanity for.

Her voice trembled as she spoke, her strength still sapped as her muscles recovered. Monstrous delayed onset muscle soreness that would take days to grow stronger. “Please. Vann. I am grateful for your generous offer, but I’m not going anywhere.”

After giving her soul to save her sister, she had nothing left to offer for Vann’s life.

He scraped his teeth over his vibrating bottom lip, biting hard as he shook his head. “These people will do unspeakable things to you. I can’t sit by and watch it happen. Disappear, so I know you’re safe. I’ll take care of it.”

Two peas in a damn pod. What did he think this was? What shit was he into, that he thought he’d made her a target?

Right now, it didn’t matter. While his security issue kept him out of her way, she could deal with this.