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I narrowed my eyes, so he let out a soft laugh and released me.
The sudden change made me lose my balance, and I fell forward—against him. The bastard had probably planned that, because he caught me with ease.
It made me look up into his face and realize how young he seemed. Where Kase looked like something ancient, Grant seemed like a kid barely out of high school. Hewasn’tof course. In fact, given that mages, once they came into their full power, stopped aging like every other type of supernatural being, he could have been far older than Kase.
I hated not being able to tell.
It tookfartoo long for me to realize I was staring, that I was studying his face with an embarrassingly thorough level of attention.
When I pulled back, he let me. “What are you doing here?”
“Kase seemed to think you sneaking into a vampire’s lair alone wasn’t such a good idea. Do you have any idea how you unsettle him? It’s a bit pathetic, though fun to watch.”
“So you’re going to just keep following me?”
“Are you going to keep doing stupid things that make meneedto follow you?”
“We both know the answer to that is yes.”
“Then you have yourself a very handsome, hilarious shadow.”
Just what I needed.
Grant put his hand out, then gestured. It took me a moment to realize he wanted the stake.
I set it in his palm, and he lifted it to study the strange piece. “Impressive. Where did you get it?”
“A friend.”
“Some friend.” He twisted his wrist to examine it from every angle. “I haven’t seen one of these in a very long time.”
“It’s a piece of metal.”
“No. Well, I mean, sure, in the same way a car or a computer is. It might be made of metal, but it’s more than that. It’s enchanted. These marks?” Grant turned to stand just beside me, his arm brushing mine, as he pointed at the scribbled marks on the side that I had assumed were either decoration or from me shoving it into my purse for years. “It’s pulsing with magic. You really can’t feel that?”
“I’m not all that magically sensitive,” I admitted. “I can walk through most wards without noticing them.”
He lifted his dark eyebrow but didn’t address the statement with more than a soft hum before returning to the topic at hand. “Well, there are protection runes here and here that help to keep the bearer safe. In addition, the tip is reinforced for strength. A normal stick wouldn’t pierce a vampire’s heart, but this? It wouldn’t take much force to work its way in. Who gave you this? No normal witch or mage could have made this.” Even as he spoke, he handed it back to me.
I tucked the weapon into my purse, more careful with it than I had been. Suddenly I felt bad about having tossed it in the junk drawer for so long. “Just a friend who runs an occult shop. Actually, I was headed there next, if you wanted to come with me.”
“I figured you’d complain about having a shadow like you did yesterday.”
“Yesterday I hadn’t broken into a vampire’s lair. Besides, I have a feeling you’ll follow me anyways.”
His smile was devastating, and for what was not close to the first time, I worried.
Sure, him coming along, especially after I’d seen how well he managed to pin me, was a smart move. After the poltergeist, after stalking a killer vampire, after a missing spirit, a little muscle couldn’t be a bad thing.
But when he smiled likethat,I thought back to Hunter, back to what an easy hussy I apparently was, and I was only thankful where we were going.
I doubt Gran would let me fuck him in her store, so my virtue was safe.
Or at least as safe as it had ever been.
