Chapter Fifteen

NASH

When I’d spotted Angelina in the food court a few minutes earlier, I froze. Luckily, a waitress had walked by with a platter of juicy hamburgers, making Angelina turn. I’d ducked behind a drink machine, then cursed myself. Was I hiding?

Yes, I was. Because any second now, my blood would start calling to her, no matter how much my soul resisted. Me, the mighty dragon, who’d spent his whole life impervious to lesser beings.

So I hid like a goddamn coward, hoping that Angelina would magically disappear. She didn’t, but the waitress had given me a reprieve, and this was my chance to run.

Then I spotted Angelina stalking toward the back deck. A tornado of emotions tore through me, and it was all I could do not to sway on my feet.

Stay away from Erin, my inner dragon roared. Stay away, or I will kill you.

I’d never, ever hated with such a passion. And I’d never, ever been so crystal-clear about what I vowed to defend.

Erin. I would give my life for her.

Er — justice. I would give my life for justice.

I stormed toward the door, ready to tear apart the vampire in plain view of humans, if that’s what it took. The idea appealed more and more with every step I took.

Kill Angelina. Free myself from the power she held over my soul. Power I’d given her, unsuspecting fool that I’d been.

Of course, killing Angelina meant my own death, because vampires benefited from a safety clause, so to speak. If they were killed by someone they’d bitten, that person died too. But, hell. At least I would be free.

Kill Angelina! my dragon took up the battle cry as I raced for the door.

Outside, the cold air hit me, but that was nothing compared to the force of Angelina’s stare. All the blood rushed to the front of my body in a sick race to offer itself to her.

Why, there you are, Nash. Her words locked my limbs. It didn’t matter what my mind vowed. My body was at her beck and call and always would be.

Then I found Erin’s eyes, and they were twin beams of a lighthouse, guiding me away from dangerous shoals.

I’ve got this under control, her eyes declared. Now, you get yourself under control too.

I took a deep breath, then another. With each breath, Angelina’s grip on my soul loosened, a boa constrictor pried away from my core. Faintly at first, then more noticeably.

I strode over to Erin’s side of the table, practically baring my teeth.

“Angelina here was just leaving,” Erin grunted, crossing her arms.

Angelina raised one penciled-in eyebrow. “Was I?”

I put a hand on Erin’s shoulder and growled. “Yes, you were.”

Angelina laughed, and that boa squeezed. But when Erin reached up and covered my hand with hers, a warmer, kinder force sparked to life, chasing away that invader.

Hope filled my heart — enough to make me wonder. Maybe there was another way of freeing myself of this vampire’s spell. One they didn’t teach at the agency.

Angelina flashed her teeth, letting her canines extend in case we didn’t get the hint.

“Oh, I don’t think so.” Her eyes slid up my chest, then lingered on my neck.

Cold seeped into my skin.

Angelina grinned and addressed Erin without bothering to look at her. “Give us a minute, won’t you?”

Her words were a deliberate echo of those she’d uttered months earlier, in her office at the agency on a Friday afternoon when everything had been winding down. I’d had the stupid ambition to become the first agent to master warlock and vampire training, and Angelina was an instructor in the latter. She’d called me in on a pretense I no longer recalled and cooed to the agent who’d come with me.

Give us a minute, won’t you?

Ingo had warned me with his eyes, but it was too late.

The next thing I remembered was coming to hours later on a red velvet couch in a totally different place, dizzy and weak. Blood crusted the left side of my body, and when I stumbled over to a sink to wash, I found two puncture marks on my wrist. The ones that still scarred my skin.

I’d rushed to the door, bumping into furniture all the way. Blurry visions plagued my mind. Visions of Angelina, getting closer and more seductive. Visions of myself, knowing I had to resist, but falling for it anyway. Visions of her fangs sinking into my flesh and—

I tightened my grip on Erin’s shoulder and grunted back. “She stays. You’re the one who’s leaving.”

It was laughable, really — a powerful dragon shifter desperately clinging to a woman for help. But, hell. Touching Erin muted Angelina’s power, like hearing a noisy disco from outside a thick door instead of standing next to a speaker.

Angelina smirked. “Oh, this will be fun.”

Maybe in your sick mind, my dragon grumbled.

“What exactly is your plan here, Angelina?” Erin demanded. “Are you going to try to get Nash to sell you my property? It’s not his to sell.”

“No, she’ll just try to get me to sell my soul to the devil,” I growled.

Angelina’s smug smile said, You already did.

I shook my head, refusing to take the bait. Whatever hold Angelina had over me stemmed from her trickery, not my consent. And for the first time ever, I was ready to fight back.

Too bad we were in downtown Sedona in the middle of the day. Here and now was not the place.

Someday, somehow… my dragon vowed.

Erin munched down the last nacho, then declared, “Well, I have nothing more to say to you. Nash has nothing more to say. Also, we’re out of nachos. So, it’s time for you to tootle along, don’t you think?”

Angelina shook her head. “Not before I get what I came for.”

Erin snorted. “What Harlon sent you for, you mean?”

Angelina’s nostrils flared, and her voice was pure ice. “Harlon has his business interests. I have mine.”

I stiffened, because the only thing worse than a scheming supernatural was a second schemer behind them.

“So, the twenty million you offered for my land is your money? Or is it Harlon’s?” Erin waited a split second, then went on. “Oh, wait. Twenty-five million.”

“Harlon’s money,” I grunted.

That was one of the few secrets I’d dug up on Angelina. She came from old money, but her family had squandered most of it. That was why she’d had to stoop so low as to work for the agency.

Angelina’s canines extended another quarter-inch, but Erin spoke first, cutting her off.

“In any case, it’s a moot point. My property is not for sale.”

Vampires weren’t witches, with the ability to play with people’s minds. But a vampire glare could still make even the strongest human tremble in fear. But, wow. Erin stubbornly held Angelina’s gaze.

She’s not just a relic, my dragon whispered.

No, Erin was more than that. Much more, though I doubted she knew it.

A zephyr of wind wafted over the deck just then, blowing a loose napkin into the air. Erin and Angelina grabbed for it at the same time. Erin immediately snatched her hand away.

“Watch it!” She rubbed the scratch on the back of her hand, inflicted by one of Angelina’s two-inch nails.

An innocent-enough accident, though with Angelina, you never knew.

At first, Angelina looked annoyed. But the moment she spotted a drop of Erin’s blood on those talons of hers, her eyes sparkled.

No! I wanted to yell as Angelina brought her hand to her mouth.

A taste of human blood — even a tiny drop — allowed a vampire to track the source anywhere, anytime. For all eternity.

Angelina’s smile grew as she brought her hand toward her lips. I lunged to stop her, but the table stood in the way.

Erin muttered, making a shooing motion, and all hell broke loose.

Plastic chairs scraped across the deck. The canvas of a sun umbrella rattled, and more napkins flipped by as an out-of-nowhere microburst ripped across the deck. Angelina’s long, loose hair whipped around her head, and she ducked against an onslaught of napkins the wind yanked from a dispenser on the next table.

“What the…?” she yelped, throwing up her hands.

For the next few seconds, it was all I could do to brace myself against the stinging slaps of airborne objects. Napkins…plastic cups…coasters…

“Dammit…” Angelina clawed a paper place mat from her face.

An empty can rolled across the deck and fell into the parking space below with a loud clank. The wind followed it, and a moment later, the deck calmed. My pounding heart didn’t. Not with Angelina licking the blood off her finger with a look of triumph.

An instant later, she frowned and licked again. Then she looked at her hand, perplexed.

Whew. The blood had been wiped away by the windborne debris.

“Now, where were we?” Erin patted her hair back into place, totally unperturbed. “Oh, yes. I was making it clear to you my property is not — and will never be — for sale. You got that? Good,” she concluded before Angelina could so much as peep. “Then we’ll stop wasting your time — and mine.” She stood, grabbed my hand, and marched me toward the door. There, she turned and flashed Angelina a fake smile. “Oh, and one more thing. You might want to check your hair on the way out.”

She didn’t finish with bitch , but her intonation left exactly enough space to fill that part in.