Alex Wales: Promise

his face. He looked angry and anxious. “You need to show me where it happened.”

Levi nodded. “Damon, I need to tell you something else, first…”

“What? There’s more?”

The teenager looked at Alex for just a moment, before holding up his closed hand in front of him. “We found something near the dead bodies.”

Damon leaned over. “What is it?”

“It’s a key,” Levi answered, opening his hand.

The first thing Alex noticed was the glint of bronze. Then, she made out the familiar curves and swirls on the bow of the antique key, before noticing the leather cord it dangled from.

The familiar choker was now bloodied.

Alex instinctively reached for her neck, even though she knew her lucky charm wasn’t there. It’s in Levi’s hand. What the hell is he doing with it?

Damon grabbed a hold of the leather cord and lifted it, until the key dangled between his fingers. “Where exactly did you find this?” His brow furrowed with concentration, as if he were trying to read it like he’d done with Laurie.

“It was lying on top of the discarded clothes.”

She knew what he’d say next-what Levi had obviously already noticed. It explained why he was acting a little stranger than usual around her. Damon would see the inscription on the back of the bow. The words her father had carved into the back: For you, Alex.

Sure enough, only a few seconds later, Damon turned to look at her. His gaze wasn’t accusatory. He just seemed to want an explanation, anything to clarify why a key bearing her name was found beside mutilated bodies.

She released a heavy breath, but it made her lungs feel tight. It felt as if an invisible pressure was pressing against her chest. Every inhale felt like a struggle as she tried frantically to think about how to explain her way out of this, and how she could voice it.

How could she tell Damon that none of this was possible, because the last time she’d worn the choker was on Anteris, seconds before stripping her clothes off and heading for the shower? That the only time she ever took the necklace off was when she showered with her lover, Ulric, and that she’d forgotten the choker he now held on Ulric’s bedside table.

Such an answer would only reveal personal details about her life she wasn’t ready to share. It would only confuse herfurther, because how could her lucky charm wind up at the scene of a crime on this planet if she hadn’t been wearing it when she’d left the space station? Unless…

“Do you recognize this, Alex?” Damon finally asked. His voice sounded a little tinny, too far away.

She nodded, hoping this was the only question he wanted to ask her right now. Alex felt a sense of claustrophobia engulf her-something that only struck her when she felt emotionally smothered.

Someone who spent so much time inside a ship, space stations, and spaceports, didn’t physically feel constricted by enclosed areas. Yet, emotion could affect her this way.

“Yeah, it’s mine…I lost it…” Her lips were dry, so she licked them. It wasn’t enough. She needed a drink, maybe some of that water making Damon delusional enough to think he could use magic.

She pressed the back of her head against the wall, realizing she was losing her grip. Her legs weakened, and she slid to the floor, landing on her butt. Everything about her felt heavy, lethargic.

Alex squeezed her eyes shut for a second, hoping she’d imagined all of this.

When she reopened them, Damon was still holding the familiar leather cord with the original key to Promiseswinging from it.

Damon crouched in front of her. “Alex, are you okay? What’s wrong with you?”

She felt as if she were suffocating but managed a nod. “I need some air.”

“Okay. Come on.” He helped her to her feet.

For once, she appreciated having someone else to lean on, someone to support her when nothing in her world made any sense.

Although, she wasn’t sure how Damon would react when he found out the truth. As well as how he’d feel about the possibility of her being responsible for indirectly bringing a beast capable of killing without mercy into his peaceful home.

The coincidence is too big to ignore.

What have I done?More importantly, how did Ulric fit into any of this?

Chapter Fourteen

Damon paused in the open doorway. He half-turned to look at Alex one last time before leaving her alone. She’d fallen asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. He’d stood by the side of the bed and watched her for a while.

Now, she lay on her stomach in the middle of the large bed, the white sheet pulled up to mid- back. Her bare shoulders glowed from the light of dawn, already spilling through the open window adjacent to her. The defined muscles of her shoulders, back, and arms flexed every now and then, as if she were exerting herself even during slumber.

He couldn’t help but wonder about her life before she reached Eden. Why had she crashed her ship here when no one else ever had? Why did she have liquid from Lake Eros onboard her ship? These questions made him realize that although he felt an instant rapport and a good dose of attraction toward Alex, he really didn’t know a thing about her.

That’s not going to stop me from protecting her or from getting to know her.

The connection he felt went deeper than whatever separate lives they’d been living before meeting. He knew she’d literally fallen on him for only one reason. Fate.

So much had happened tonight, and now morning would be upon them very soon. Maybe, he should think about getting some sleep as well.

She’s so beautiful. He couldn’t take his eyes off her curly hair and the way the sheet curved around her ass. It reminded him of how she’d reacted when he’d put a little bit of magic into his palm and pleasured her without really touching her. He hadn’t lied when he’d admitted she was the only person who reacted to his touch. A lot of magnetism flowed between them. No matter how annoyed and frustrated she got every time he mentioned their mutual magic.

He had to let her rest, now. So, he closed the door behind him and squeezed his hand around the bronze key and leather string, trying not to visualize the way her name was scrawled into the metal.

Alex hadn’t said too much about it. She’d looked so freaked out that he hadn’t bothered to push her. Instead, he led her out into the gardens, so she could breathe again. When she insisted she was too tired to face anymore, he accompanied her back to her room.

He’d felt a lot more on the object than a simple inscription. There was some deep, protective magic woven into this strange, bronze key. Not only could he read residue from Alex on it, but also another source. Someone with a much stronger ability had affected the object. He couldn’t help but wonder who’d given her the key in the first place. He might not have pushed her before, because of the obvious shock she’d suffered after seeing it, but he’d need to get some answers from her soon enough.

If she kept too many secrets from him, how was he going to protect her properly when others started to ask probing questions? He might know that a token of hers being left at the scene of the crime didn’t necessarily mean she’d done it, but others might use it to their advantage. The fact that Alex had been with him almost every moment since she’d crash landed, and when he was absent, she’d been accompanied by Aleena and