Blood Before Sunrise

my face. Suppressing a shudder, I inclined my head toward the Lyhtan’s slobbering, sharp-toothed mouth. I sensed Tyler stiffen behind me, his anxiety pulsing in soft invisible waves at my back. “Speak your piece, Lyhtan,” I murmured. “And then get the hell out of my space.”

Chian’s face passed close to my cheek-so close I felt a whisper of slimy contact from his glistening mouth. He took a breath of me deep into his lungs before looking me in the eye, and his tongue flicked out, licking his lips as if in anticipation of a lover’s kiss. I held perfectly still and forbade my body to react. I forced my lungs to expand and contract at a normal rhythm. Tyler’s pulse quickened behind me, thrumming double time to the seconds that ticked in my soul.

I waited.

“You will be the instrument of destruction. Creature of nothing and everything-he is coming for you. You must seek out-”

A swooshing sound interrupted his ominous speech. The Lyhtan jerked, then stood erect. His amber eyes rolled back in his head, which lolled on his sharp, hunching shoulders. A shimmering wave, like sunlight on water, shivered across his skin. He jerked again, and turned to the side. The long shaft of an arrow poked out from the back of his head, which seemed to glow hot and somehow cold all at once.

I stumbled and fell back into Ty’s waiting arms, which pulled me farther away toward cover. Chianshank pitched forward, and the arrow’s shaft glowed blindingly bright, encompassing his body in a brilliant luster that forced me to avert my gaze. His long, lanky body crumpled to the pavement, sizzling and curling in on itself until there was nothing left but a greenish pool of steaming goo.

Before I could reach for my dagger, Tyler spun me around and slammed me against a brick wall. He pressed me hard against the unyielding surface, my face smashed against his chest. His arms spread wide as his palms pressed against the wall behind me. Another arrow cleaved the air, singing in the night, and stuck in the brick inches from my head. The tip burned crimson, eating away at the hard brick and turning it to sand. Its grip lost, the arrow dropped to the pavement with a hollow echo beside my boot and disintegrated into nothing but ash.

I did not have time for this shit.

Chapter 5

I don’t know how he did it, but Tyler kept me pinned to that damned wall. The cool chill of his personal brand of magic snaked over my skin, holding me in a grip that refused to let me leave my corporeal form. “Ty, let me go!” My muffled command lost some of its impact in his shirt. “Goddamn it! Let. Me. Go!”

A third arrow zinged toward my head, and Tyler moved, damned fast I might add, flinging me to the ground. Like the second arrow, this one stuck in the brick, burning the masonry to grains of spilling sand. Tyler spread his arms wide, his palms tracing the air above me, and a dome of tangible energy pinned me to the pavement. I guess I should’ve been glad I wasn’t lying facedown in a puddle, but close enough.

“Stay.” The one word came harshly through Tyler’s lips, making me wonder just where the hell he thought I’d be going, trapped as I was.

The air became saturated with magic, tugging at my senses and settling against my skin like the caress of a thousand downy feathers. Without a backward glance, Ty evaporated from where he stood. Just-poof!-and he was gone. His magic seemed to dissipate as well, crackling in the air like tiny sparks in his wake. Too bad his leaving hadn’t released me from my invisible prison. I tried to push myself to at least a sitting position, but that attempt proved futile. The tight dome of energy held me down nice and cozy against the cold, wet, trash-strewn pavement. How completely charming.

The cold soaked through my black nylon pants, right into my bones. I hate the cold- hate hate it. But could you imagine me walking the beaches of Florida, head to toe in black-combat boots, long-sleeved Under Armour and all? Me neither. Tyler hadn’t even left me enough room in my little prison to maneuver the long tails of my duster beneath me. Sharp pieces of asphalt-covered rock jabbed into the palms of my hands and knees. I looked like a replica of a tarantula-the kind with a bubble of clear resin poured over it. If Tyler showed back up in one piece, I was going to take great pleasure in showing him how much I appreciated his gentle care of the woman he loved.

I’d been lying on the ground for twenty minutes before he returned. Again, I felt a strange weight in the bottom of my gut, and the atmosphere sparked as if in warning. In the blink of an eye, Ty stood beside me, his expression that of barely controlled rage. My own mood had become less than hospitable, and during Ty’s absence, I’d graduated from wanting to give him a few scrapes to wanting to give him a black eye. With another sweeping motion of his hands, he traced the air above me, and the invisible dome lifted like the weight of too many blankets. I filled my lungs with air, preparing to give it to him with both barrels.

“There’s no sign of the shooter,” Tyler said through gnashed teeth. “Anywhere! How did the fucker get away?”

I drew my dagger and pointed it dead center at Ty’s sternum. Ain’t love grand? “Don’t you ever do that to me again.” My voice dripped with poison. “You understand?”

He took a step toward me, his arms outstretched and palms facing upward as if he were pleading for understanding. Sorry, buddy. That well’s all dried up. Tyler’s love was absolute, uncompromising-just as strong as the bond he’d secured when he pledged himself as my genie. And his protection extended to the point of near obsession. Any other girl would have been swooning over his gallant display.

I am not any other girl.

I put my free hand out to stay his progress while I kept the dagger’s tip held high in front of his face. He walked right into my palm, and I felt the beat of his heart even through the thick fabric of his coat. Strong, steadily slowing from the previous exertion of the chase. “Darian, I-”

“Never again, Ty,” I said. “I’m not fucking around.”

I could have listened while he apologized and spilled his guts about how he’d only been trying to protect me, how much he loved me. I could have forgiven him on the spot, and we could’ve gone back to my place, arm in arm, a perfect loving couple.

Instead, I joined the night air and left him right where he stood.

Under the cover of shadow, I came around to the front entrance of the bar. The thrumming pulse of supernatural energy danced across my skin, something familiar and powerful. A woman darted across the street and paused on the sidewalk, glancing anxiously toward the alley I’d just come from. I recognized her from the PNT Summit a few months ago: She was a Sidhe, one of the oldest and most powerful species in the Fae lineage.

Moira.

What the hell was she doing here?

Her gaze settled across the street, on the exact spot where I stood. Eyes narrowed shrewdly, she smiled as if she could see me through the cover of shadow before taking off at a run. She moved so fast, in fact, that I lost sight of her before I could even think of chasing after her.

Sunlight tingles like tiny pinpricks of sensation when it joins with my skin. The gray indifference of dusk and dawn leave me feeling too warm and suffocated, like I’m wearing a scratchy wool sweater in the middle of August. Nothing appeals to me in the way that welcoming darkness does. Like cool satin flowing over my flesh. Despite what I am now, I have always loved the moonlit hours. Even in my human life, I preferred the night. So I suppose I’d always been a Shaede in my heart of hearts.

Was I still?

I stepped from the cowl of darkness into my solid form. I had no desire to travel unseen, though my near brush with death-or something worse-suggested that traveling under the cover of shadow might have been the wiser choice. Ignoring my better judgment, I walked with a swagger that would have set a gangbanger back on his heels. Throwing myself out there like a fresh piece of meat was a fuck-you to whoever had slung a magic arrow at my head. A big fuck-you. I was pissed and didn’t care who knew it.

It wasn’t quite midnight, and Seattle was barely gearing up. I cut across First Avenue, hit Stewart Street, and headed toward the Market. Along with the Space Needle, Pike Place Market is one of Seattle’s most notable icons. Probably why I always felt compelled to go there, no matter the time of day. Humans had always drawn my