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Her cheeks darkened. “Well, I began dreaming about you.”
Well, that wasn’t fucking creepy at all.
“But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here,” she continued. “Do you know anything about unicorns?”
I shook my head. “After seeing them in the old children’s books, I thought they were make-believe.”
She leaned her cheek against my shoulder like we were long-lost friends. “That was what we hoped people would believe after we escaped from our portal to here, but my time for hiding has ended. At least, to a point.”
“What does that mean?” I asked as we kept walking.
At that point, we’d made it past the jeep and were a dozen or so yards away from Grayson. I was surprised he wasn’t raging about his prisoner being away from him, but I tried not to think too much about him. As much as the connection to him would allow me.
“It means that centuries ago, my kind lived in Arcadia until we were hunted to near extinction,” she said softly. “I came here with my grandparents about sixty years ago and never saw anyone else from my family again. We hid amongst the humans for a long time until Pappy fell ill. I never knew what happened to him, but when he died, Gammy didn’t last much longer.”
I reached a hand up and wrapped my fingers around her hand, which was holding on to my bicep. “I’m sorry, Lia. I can understand what it’s like to not have family, but I’ve never had to lose anyone I cared about.”
She sniffled lightly. “And I hope you never have to. Well, at least not for a long time.” Her steps slowed, and she turned to face me. “One of my abilities is to glimpse the future. I saw you were going to be here, and I knew I needed to be as well.”
My eyes cast back to where we’d found her. “But you were attacked. I’m so sorry.”
Lia’s dark lips tugged downward. “That was actually intentional. I didn’t know how else to get you to stop without resorting to standing in the middle of the road, which didn’t seem safe, given who I knew would be driving. Though, I hadn’t expected that I’d need to kill the shifter. He’d scented my blood after I gave myself the wound and didn’t take my warning pokes for what they were.”
I wanted to be irritated that she’d purposefully gotten herself hurt, and subsequently killed someone, but there wasn’t a single part of me that was. Mostly because if what she was saying was true, the guy deserved to die for hunting a fellow supernatural.
“But why me?” I asked.
She shrugged and glanced briefly behind us. “You need to know who you are, and I need to save you from something. Outside of that, the details are rather fuzzy. Well, besides knowing we need to go to Fire and Fluorite. That’s where we’ll find more answers.”
Grayson was suddenly standing next to me again. “I’m not stepping foot in that cesspool of idiots. Plus, the place is probably burned down by now.”
I tilted my head at him. “Why? I thought they were one of the stronger Houses?”
“Stupidity sometimes looks a lot like bravery, but that doesn’t make them strong,” Grayson answered gruffly. “The last two leaders were dumb enough to get themselves killed and now there are factions within the House creating a war that’s bound to affect more than just Fire and Fluorite. I’d rather stay out of it.”
Lia twirled a lock of midnight-colored hair around her finger. “Well, you’re welcome to stay out of it, but I’m taking Kinsley there.”
Grayson’s fingers wrapped around my wrist, and he pulled me tightly against his side. “You’re not taking her anywhere.”
Rage rose up inside me, a feeling unlike I’d ever known. My chest burned with fire, and my muscles coiled. I badly needed to exert whatever this was before I risked combustion. I didn’t like the aggressive way Grayson touched me or his attitude toward Lia, and for the first time in my life…I felt confident enough to do something about that without suffering severe consequences.
My other hand slammed down on where he was holding me, and then I raised my knee right into his crotch. “Don’t fucking touch me when you’re angry.”
He groaned and wobbled backward but didn’t drop to his knees like I’d been hoping he would.
When his head lifted, the dark flames in his irises were back and Lia stepped between us. “I didn’t think you were who I needed to save her from, but don’t think I can’t take you down, Demon Wolf.”
My audible gasp had both of them looking at me. “You’re a demon?” I whispered.
Could this night get any fucking weirderorworse?
Never mind. I hadn’t meant to ask that, Universe, because I knew things absolutely could and I’d really rather they didn’t.
Lia moved out of the way as Grayson finally stood straight again, looking me dead in the eyes. “I’m a wolf shifter and demon hybrid. A big difference from being full demon. I promise you that. And if you think to tell anyone that information, you’ll be wishing I’d have been able to kill you when I found you. I would have been more merciful, then.”
The darkly spoken threat didn’t bother me nearly as much as wondering what demon abilities he might have had. I’d heard whispers of demons gracing this Earth before, but thankfully, most of them kept to their world, which had two names I couldn’t ever remember…
Shit, I never thought I’d meet one, let alone be mated to one.
