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“Not right now.”
“Yes, right now.”
A harsh laugh scraped up my throat. “Maverick—”
“You’re already so goddamn distracted by trying to keep yourself from her that it’s putting all of us at risk,” he snapped. “And if you think you’re protecting her by keeping yourself from her? Diggs...you’ve been sleeping with her. This threat we’re up against knows us—clearly. They’re here. Why are you so sure they don’t already know about her?”
I went so damn still as shards of ice pushed through my veins and stopped my heart.
“If the rest of us can see what she’s doing to you, threats can too. If she’s stealing your focus and fueling the air in your lungs, she’s on their radar.” Maverick’s voice dropped low as he stepped even closer to me. “Don’t you get it? She’s already in our world because she shifted yours.”
I didn’t try to continue denying it—there was no point. He’d known I was lying from the beginning. I didn’t even bother responding. I just turned and continued following the fresh scent of blood, trying like hell to clear my head of the thoughts Maverick had just put there.
That Tree was already in danger, even though I’d been trying so damn hard to ignore the constant pull to her.
But the harder I tried pushing away those fears and thoughts of her, the more she was there. Her wide eyes and innocently seductive expressions. Her intoxicating scent. Her shaky yet brave words before I’d left her earlier.
“I know there’s something dangerous about you. I felt it that first night—every night. And, whatever it is, it isn’t enough to make me want to be farther from you than I am right now.”
My head slanted and my steps slowed, then stopped altogether before I took a quick step back. Eyebrows drawn close as I forced myself to focus on the darkened street beneath us. On the glimpse of what I’d just barely registered as I walked right past it.
The light of the moon reflecting off liquid on the otherwise dry asphalt.
Grabbing my phone, I turned on the flashlight as I dropped to a crouch. My jaw clenched as I looked at the trail laid out before me. Shining the light behind me, I followed the trail as far back as I could see before focusing on what was directly in front of me.
“That’s a lot of blood,” Maverick murmured.
“And it’s leading us to her,” I said unnecessarily, pointing to where the thick liquid left irregular patterns of lines and droplets. “That didn’t slowly drip out of somewhere.”
“They were carrying her,” he agreed. “Wound side down.”
I released a slow, steadying breath as I stood and pocketed my phone. Reaching for the bandana in my back pocket, I twisted and found Maverick already covering the lower half of his face, wrath flaring in his eyes as he looked around.
“Kieran’s been following us,” I told Maverick as I finished knotting the fabric, then glanced toward the tree line, where I was sure he was waiting. “Do we need to warn him?”
Maverick covered his surprise before he glanced over his shoulder to confirm what I was saying, head shaking as he drew his gun. “Second he saw us getting ready, he knew we were possibly walking into something. Let’s go.”
I grabbed Maverick’s arm to keep him in place when he quickly started in the same direction we’d been going, head slanting in warning as I muttered, “She’s close. It’s overpowering.”
A sound of affirmation left him before he asked, “You alive?”
“Yeah, man, I’m alive,” I muttered as I slowly started toward the scent.
“Fucking keep it that way.”
My gaze snapped to my brother at his harsh tone—the near plea. As if he wasn’t just talking about tonight and whatever we were about to walk into.
But after.
As if Maverick was genuinely worried this distraction would be the thing that finally succeeded in killing me because I was refusing to acknowledge and accept it. Because I was allowing it to put walls between my brother and me.
Dragging my gaze forward, I drew my gun and readied it as I listened for anyone who might be waiting for us, but the trees were silent.
No footfalls on the hardened ground. No more breeze rustling through the leaves. I couldn’t even hear Kieran—not that I’d expect to. The guy was creepy that way.
But there was blood on top of blood. So much that it was dizzying. Then again, I was still instinctively dragging in deep breaths of it as if I might somehow lose the path to the girl.
As if I could lose it now.
