Blood Before Sunrise

For months.

Time and again.

A discarded can nudged at my toe and I kicked it, sending it sailing down the sidewalk toward the street where it narrowly missed a parking sign. Beyond frustrated, I felt my agitation settle as a knot between my shoulder blades, and I stretched my neck from side to side in a futile effort to ease my mounting tension. Raif, my mentor and the best friend I’ve ever had, laid a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll get her.”

Tyler took a step closer, his body touching mine in more places than appropriate for work hours. He snaked an arm around my waist as he brought me against his body, his eyes narrowing in Raif’s direction. Jeez, touchy much?

Raif shook his head. He looked to me, his expression saying, Is he for real? I raised my brows, the action as good as a shrug. I had no idea what had gotten into Tyler, but I could almost hear the predatory growl, the low rumble of a wary bear. “Relax, Jinn,” Raif said, tucking a dagger into a sheath at his side. “You look a little wound.”

“Not hardly,” Tyler said, his tone just on the edge of becoming hard. “In fact”-he lowered his face to the top of my head and nuzzled my hair-“I’m pretty damned relaxed right now.”

Again, Raif gave me a look. And again, I gave him the equivalent of a facial shrug. Hell if I knew why Tyler was acting like a high school jock facing off with the opposing quarterback. Maybe we all needed to take it down a notch and hang it up for the night.

As if he’d read my mind, Raif gave me a playful knock against the shoulder, eliciting another grumble and glare from Tyler. “I’m calling it a night. See you tomorrow?”

“You know it.” There was no way I was letting up anytime soon. I’d search day and night until I found that mousy, pain-in-the-ass Oracle. “Meet me at my place.”

Raif’s brilliant blue eyes glowed against the backdrop of night as he gave Tyler a last questioning glance. He flashed one of his deadly smiles. “Tyler,” he said with a nod, his tone dry. He scattered into a dusting of shadow and left us alone in the alley.

I turned a caustic eye to Tyler. I hated it when he got all territorial on me. It made me feel like a bone-and tonight, Ty was definitely the dog. He put his lips to my forehead, ignoring my accusing glare. Apparently he didn’t think his behavior as juvenile as I did. That was saying a lot, considering Tyler had centuries on me in the age department.

Hunting a mark had never been enjoyable-exciting, sure, but also a necessity. Going out with Tyler put a whole new spin on “job perks.” As my Jinn, personal genie, and sworn protector, he made it his business to have my back. But since he was my boyfriend, it was a pleasure to have him along. Although the word “boyfriend” didn’t do justice to Tyler’s role in my life, I thought he’d appreciate the more modern reference. He might have had centuries on me, but he was a modern guy, through and through. I doubted a word existed to describe what Tyler was to me. More than simply my lover, and definitely more than a friend, he had captured more than just my heart over the five years I’d known him. Tyler had claimed my soul.

He’d been out combing the city with me every night this week staying out even after Raif abandoned the hunt. I guess Ty was the only person with the stamina to keep up with me. And believe me, his stamina wasn’t something I was about to grumble over anytime soon.

“We might as well call it a night too,” he said, giving me a squeeze. “I think we should try Idaho again. Maybe next week. I know a lesser Seer in Coeur d’Alene who might be tempted to shelter Delilah-for the right price.”

Idaho again. We’d already searched most of the panhandle, and I doubted another go-around would produce better results. “No,” I said, leaning into him so I could feel his muscled chest against my shoulder. “I don’t think she’s that far away. Don’t ask me why, but I can’t shake the feeling that she’s staying close to home. Delilah has unfinished business, and she never struck me as a quitter.”

“Darian,” he said, his fingers stroking up my arm, “let’s go home.”

I melted against him, loving the way my name rolled off his tongue like a sacred word-or a prayer. It never took much for Ty to break down my defenses, and the thought of spending the rest of the night naked and twined around his magnificent body beat the hell out of standing on the cold, rain-drenched street for another second. He placed his lips against my neck, his tongue darting out to trace my flesh. Chills rippled across my skin from the contact. Oh yeah. It was time to go home.

Side by side, we walked through the Queen Anne District just like any human couple would. Though nothing would have stopped me from becoming one with the shadows and traveling under the cover of darkness, I liked walking with Ty. As we headed down the street, the black tails of my duster floating out behind me, I was just a woman, one of thousands inhabiting the city of Seattle. It made me feel just a little less like a freak of nature, and more like the person I used to be. Night, day, dawn, or twilight-I could now pass through the world without the hindrance of being corporeal no matter the hour. I had to admit it was a nice perk, one that no other Shaede could claim, though the means to that end had been anything but pleasant. I never used to believe in ancient prophecy or rituals until I’d been the focal point of both. One attempted sacrifice and an eclipse later, and I had a whole new perspective on life.

Though months had passed since my transformation to something more than Shaede, it seemed only a matter of days. My former lover, Azriel-the one who had supposedly made me what I was in the first place-had made an alliance with the Oracle Delilah and a small army of nasty Lyhtans-violent, praying mantis-looking bastards who hold a serious grudge against any Shaede-to bring down Xander Peck, the King of the Shaede Nation. The fact that Azriel had been Xander’s son made the situation that much worse. Hungry for power, he’d had designs on Xander’s crown for centuries. And he’d been willing to do anything to get it. I’d been the pawn in their little power struggle. But I wasn’t randomly selected for the honor. As it turned out, I was a creature created of my own will, and my superspecial blood had been used to awaken the Enphigmale, hideous gargoyles with a serious binge-eating problem.

When I’d first been introduced to the gargoyles by the raven-haired children who’d made me their prisoner and served as the Enphigmale caretakers, they’d been solid stone. But one eclipse and a sip of my blood later, they’d sprung to life, hell-bent on devouring anything that crossed their path. Of the gargoyles that had made the transformation from stone to flesh, I’d killed all but a single beast. And just like the Oracle who’d orchestrated its resurrection, the Enphigmale escaped. Azriel had been Delilah’s right-hand man, and he’d looked on as a spectator while I was almost killed. But since I was alive and well, and Azriel had gone into the shadow forever-meaning I had run my dagger across his lying, traitorous throat-it wasn’t hard to tell who’d come out on top of his little attempted coup.

Delilah had been the one loose end I’d failed to tie up-so far. According to Azriel, she’d had more reason to hate Shaedes than anyone, though for the life of me, I couldn’t guess why. She’d proved to be more slippery than I’d given her credit for, however, and that was a sharp thorn in my side.

Night wrapped me in its warm embrace, tickling my senses. I grabbed onto Tyler’s hand as we continued at a steady pace, not as my shadow-self, but in my corporeal form. I liked the feeling of being real, substantial, and not just a whisper of something too foreign for even preternatural creatures to comprehend. The lonely anonymity of my life prior to my transformation was gone. Up until several months ago, I’d thought I was the only Shaede in existence-part of Azriel’s lie to keep the secret of my self-made transformation good and hidden. It’s hard to hide under the cover of darkness when shadows are watching, though. Alexander Peck-Shaede High King, or to me, just plain Xander-had been watching me for a while. Once he plucked me from obscurity, there was no going back.

Splinters of muted silver moonlight shone between the taller buildings, casting shadows on the rugged, handsome lines of Tyler’s model-worthy face. My pace slowed, and I released his hand as a strange urging pulled at my center. Turn here, intuition called, and as if I had no control over my limbs, I obeyed.

“Darian?” Tyler said. “What’s up?”

I ignored his question, my mind too focused to answer. My legs followed a path down an abandoned side street, the stench of ripe garbage wafting from a nearby Dumpster. Clearing my mind of conscious thought, I moved on instinct alone, allowing the strange feeling to guide me past a fire escape and toward a gaping door where the street dead-ended.

“Darian!” Tyler’s tone sharpened as something close to a growl rumbled in the lone word. A warning. He was