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“This isn’t your fault,” I told Benedict as he stared at the house, his face stricken.
“It is if they saw me with him.”
Talon turned to me. “You’d better check on your human.”
Grace.My chest tightened. I’d been at the hospital in plain sight, at the amusement park, the bungee jumping place—everywhere.
“What human?” Benedict asked, his brow puckering.
“He’s been spending time with a human woman,” Talon answered.
Benedict’s gaze snapped to mine. “You have?”
I nodded. And if they’d seen me…
“You’d better go,” Benedict urged. “We’ll cover the patrol tonight.”
I didn’t need to be told twice.
* * *
I wendedinto the shadowed side yard between Grace’s house and her neighbor’s, then paused time, so I could recon unseen and unheard.
Had I inadvertently put her in danger? Simply by being seen with her in the human world?
I examined the area around the house, checked her back door, her garage, everywhere considered an entrance point to the house before I started toward the front porch, my thoughts tangled in a knot of self-loathing. In my time, humans weren’t a considerable threat to vampires. Sure, there was the occasional pitchfork-carrying mob when a bloodmad eliminated a village, but there had never been an organized movement to exterminate us. In fact, in my time, the only threat to Grace besides her own body would have been a bloodmad using her to get to me.
Samuel.
How fucking stupid had I been?
I didn’t breathe until I stood on her front porch, seeing her paused mid-swing, reading her novel.
She was alive. Samuel hadn’t followed me here. The Sons hadn’t hunted her down. She was still breathing, still existing.
For now.
I backed away and sat on her steps just out of her view before I released time so it could carry on. I’d sit here all night if that’s what it took to make sure she was okay.
Illogical laughter bubbled up in my chest, but I kept it in check. I was one of the deadliest predators on the planet, and here I was, sitting guard for a human woman I couldn’t get out of my head, determined to save her from a premature death, when death was already stalking her.
The creaks of the swing slowed my heart rate, calming me as I unfucked my head.
She deserves so much more.
“Shit,” I whispered to myself.
“I can hear you, you know,” Grace said, and the swing kept its steady rhythm. “Stop being weird and come sit with me.”
Damn, that woman had some incredible hearing. I slammed my mental shields down like it would help me contain my reeling emotions and stood.
She cocked her head at me as I climbed the rest of her steps. “How long have you been sitting there?”
“Just a second or two,” I answered. I never counted the time I kept paused. The breeze carried her scent to me as I reached the top step and moved onto her porch.
Taste.
Fucking instincts.
