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Taking a deep breath, Erin noticed a pronounced energy flowing from her gut, down her toes, and out to her fingers. If her body had a vibration, it’s as if the wine turned it up a few notches. She took another sip, and the wine vibrated through her entire body, increasing the effect.
If she’d felt bold before, now Erin felt fearless. She stared at the bottle with newfound respect.
“Easy, champ,” Mick said. “Looks like you’ve got company.” He motioned toward the front door.
A freshly arrived Daniel stood talking with Charlie, who looked needlessly smug. A man and a woman stood behind Daniel, scanning the room. All four sets of eyes landed on Erin at the same moment, and she toasted them with the bottle before taking one more sip. As if on cue, they frowned as one. Daniel had a determined, angry expression.
No doubt he had something to prove after their prior encounter.
Daniel led the group over, practically stomping as he walked.
“Erin Bevin, I need you to come with us. The mayor demands an audience with you.” His words were clipped, his temper barely in check below the surface.
So he knew her name? Not that she needed to keep it secret any longer, but clearly he’d done his homework. “Smart move, bringing your bodyguards along.”
“Come along, please.” He stepped to the side and motioned her toward the front door.
She’d expected, with the bodyguards, an accompanying show of force. Perhaps Daniel was under orders not to? “I mean, what if I don’t want to go?” she smiled and shrugged.
Charlie spit and backed off, reading the escalating tensions.
“You may be new to this city, but a summons from the mayor is not optional,” Daniel ground out between clenched teeth.
Erin wanted to meet with the mayor; certainly, they would be the one to grant her the license to open a new club. A refuge from the likes of these tools. However, Daniel’s attitude goaded her into picking a fight instead.
“Maybe it is for you,” Erin replied, emboldened to take another swig before setting the bottle down on the bar. “I’m under no such compulsion at the moment.”
She watched with rapt attention as the last shred of Daniel’s self-control burned to ash under the fire of his well-stoked temper.
He reached out to grab her elbow, which Erin dodged. Seizing his outstretched forearm with her right hand, Erin swung her left fist up against his temple. The impact snapped his head to the side with a sharp crack. Stunned, Daniel crumpled to the floor, groaning. His bodyguards gaped, unsure of what had just happened.
Erin flexed her fist, shocked at the lack of discomfort. “On second thought, I’d love to meet the mayor. Is your car out front?” she asked the bodyguards.
The woman nodded.
Erin grabbed her handbag and the bottle of wine, saluting a shocked Mick. “I’ll be waiting in the car,” she addressed the bodyguards, who backed out of her path. “Why don’t you drag your boss along? I’m guessing the mayor expects him to.”
CHAPTER23
NADIR
Against her better judgment and her cabal’s policy to stay out of things human, Nadir paid her tab for the coffee and then strode off in the direction Erin had run off toward. Thanks to Nadir’s ability to scent prey from Calloine, she could track Erin’s erratic path through the city. Her daemon-enhanced endurance made the tracking manageable, but she worked up a sweat.
How had Erin run so far, so fast? From what Nadir understood, the god-touched were not usually gifted with superhuman powers. Sure, some had boons of strength from their patron deities, or wit, or money, or power.
Mostly, they craved power.
From their brief encounter, Erin didn’t seem to have all the typical god-touched benefits nor attitude. Nadir had witnessed her heal miraculously, move faster than humanly possible, and display physical power beyond her own expectations. Most curiously, Erin had claimed to be unemployed and disconnected from the corporate world. As a newly created god-touched, how was she so powerful?
Was it concern or curiosity that drove Nadir right now up this hillside, deep into the foothills? A little of column A, a little of column B, she supposed.
Besides, if Erin was a god-touched person, she was also a total outsider to their ranks. The sensation echoed all too familiarly within Nadir.
By the time she’d located the clearing in the woods, darkness had filled the evening sky. The moon hadn’t yet risen, yet she could see well enough with her daemonically enhanced vision. The expanse of the glen was unnaturally hushed, as if rebounding from some sort of cosmic impact. She scented Erin’s recent presence, paired with a spicy, exotic other that was completely missing from her internal catalog of known creatures. If Nadir had had to put a name to the smell, she would have called it reverent. Wild. Powerful.
What had happened here? Who had Erin met in this remote location?
Nadir could have followed Erin’s scent trail back toward town, but something about the charge of this space moved her to remain. Breathing deeply, she felt intimately connected to the forest, as if every cell of her body resonated in harmony with the heartbeat of the earth. She hadn’t felt this alive in weeks. Nadir’s temperature spiked as her lust daemon’s energy flared into the forefront of her consciousness.
