“The clothes.” His boots crunched over sticks and dried leaves as he stalked toward her. His interest flared hot all over in his eyes.
Relaxing, because this was a role she knew how to play well, she rested her hand on her hip, shifted her weight in a way she knew accentuated her breasts. Males were all the same—human, hybrid, or immortal. If all went as planned, she’d have the information she needed from him before the night was over. “Worried they belong to an ex-lover?”
He chuckled. “No.”
“No?”
He leaned in close, and even though he was covered in blood and moments ago had shifted into a monster, heat ignited in her abdomen. A heat that sent her back a step, right into the hood of a parked car. “Especially not since you haven’t been able to stop staring at my ass since we left the river.”
“That’s not what I…”
He braced his hands on the hood of the car. Leaned in close. Until the warmth of his breath tickled her ear, sending tingles all along her skin. “Curiosity killed the cat. Or so humans like to say. Be sure this is a curiosity you’re willing to gamble with, female.”
He pushed away and threaded through the parking lot before she could think of a comeback. Before she could tell herself she’d just lost the upper hand. She was trained for seduction, but he seemed to be the one doing the seducing. If she let this go on without taking the reins, she’d be putting not only herself but her order in jeopardy.
And that…well, to put it in his words, that wasn’t something she was willing to gamble with. She may not have a lot, but she had the order. It had saved her life. It had given her a life. No sexy, charming, or intriguing daemon would ever make her forget that.
Chapter 3
Maelea closed the front door of her Laurelhurst home on the banks of Lake Washington and stood in the dark entryway, listening to the silence. So much silence. Years of silence. It was a wonder she hadn’t gone insane from all that silence eons ago.
Like you aren’t nuts already?
She ignored that thought because it would get her nowhere, breathed deep to slow her adrenaline. Not bothering to turn on the light, she crossed the marble floor and moved up the richly carpeted stairs until she reached her bedroom suite on the second floor. Lights shimmered across the water through her bedroom window, but tonight she didn’t bother with the view.
She flipped on the bathroom light, stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes looked haunted, her face sunken. In all her years, she hadn’t felt like a ghost, but tonight she did. Tonight, after running into those daemons, she wondered what the hell she’d been thinking, going to that concert, searching for the dark one.
She’d known the big man chasing her. She could feel the darkness of the Underworld radiating from him.
Images of those daemons re-formed in her mind all over again, and to keep from freaking out, she crossed to the shower, flipped on the water. Careful not to look at her arms or legs as she peeled off her baggy black clothes, she stepped under the spray and scrubbed away any remnant of the night.
She towel-dried her hair, combed out the long black strands, then wrapped her body in a peach silk robe and headed downstairs to the kitchen. But as she started a pot of green tea to settle her nerves, then relaxed into her favorite plush chair in the parlor and stared out at the water of Lake Washington, the light inside her that was drawn to all that darkness leaped with excitement.
What if he was the one? What if she’d finally found her way to Olympus?
Fear and excitement, light and dark, they were each so much a part of her life, she didn’t know where to start. Common sense told her she should have stayed at the concert, should have waited to see if he emerged from the trees after that daemon fight. If he’d tracked her there, he could find her home. But fear had sent her running. Fear and a need to formulate a plan. Though she might not age, she wasn’t immortal like her parents. She had no godlike powers. She was simply female and fragile and alone. So very alone.
Just as they wanted.
Bastards.
What her parents didn’t know was that she was determined. Now more than ever. And if the man who’d chased her tonight really was the one, she knew he’d come looking for her again. Next time, she’d be prepared. Next time, she’d do whatever it took to make her dream come true.
The kettle whistled and she bounced out of the chair with a renewed sense of purpose, then moved into the kitchen where she poured herself a steaming mug and tried not to get ahead of herself.
Only one thing was certain: She wouldn’t wander this earth alone and silent like a wraith until the end of time. She wouldn’t let the silence drag her to insanity. And no matter what, she wasn’t about to become the dark thought Hades had cursed her to be.
***