A Touch of Crimson

troublesome?”

Again, he just looked at her with those keen eyes. A hunter’s eyes, watchful and assessing.

Knowing she had to mitigate any speculation that she was a weakness, she said, “Come on. You know him better than that. He’s not the type of guy who does anything he doesn’t want to do.”

Elijah lifted a thickly muscled shoulder in reply.

She set her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand. “You don’t talk much, do you? I think I’m going to like you, if only because Adrian trusts you to watch his back, but I think for more than that. Hopefully, you’ll grow to like me, too.”

“I prefer to face danger only on the hunt.”

Lindsay had to absorb that a moment before she understood. “You think you’ll get in trouble for being friendly with me? If Adrian intended to be territorial, he wouldn’t have assigned you to babysitting duty.”

Elijah’s face gained more color as his attention shifted from his fear to their conversation. “There’s a big difference between ordering me to take a hit for you and allowing us to be… friends.”

Looking over her shoulder again, she found Adrian watching her. He was dressed in tailored khakis and a black dress shirt that she knew must be worth a month’s pay for her, at least. The sleeves were rolled up and the collar undone, exposing just enough of his olive skin to captivate her. So far she’d seen him casually dressed in the airport, half naked just that morning, and now urbanely elegant. Of course, he was stunning in all ways. She was so infatuated with him that she had difficulty looking away. It was Adrian who broke the contact first, smoothly returning his attention to his men.

Lindsay looked back at Elijah. “See? Not territorial at all.”

“We have the same bloodline,” he whispered. “Not all of the beast in us comes from demons.”

Momentarily taken aback by the notion, she eventually nodded her comprehension. Adrian definitely had some wildness in him; she felt it thrumming just beneath the surface.

“You’re not surprised.” His verdant gaze narrowed. “He told you what we are.”

His tone was pitched so low she had to lip-read as well as listen. She was amazed he was able to speak that quietly with a voice as deep as his.

“I got the Cliffs Notes version,” she replied, lacking the practice to speak as softly as he did, but trying her damnedest. “I’m still not sure I understand the whole hierarchy thing, though. I mean, clearly the Sentinels are bad-ass, or else they wouldn’t have been able to subdue the Watchers to begin with. Unless the Watchers didn’t put up a fight…?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps not as much as they would have, had they known what they would become.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? You can’t remember?”

His lips pursed. “I wasn’t there. Lycans aren’t immortal. I’m only seventy years old.”

Her mouth fell open. Her idea of a seventy-year-old man so did not fit with the serious hunk of beefcake sitting across from her. His thick sable hair hadn’t even one strand of gray in it and his strong, handsome features were unmarred by lines. “Wow,” she said.

Silence descended. Surprisingly, it was Elijah who finally broke it. “Why do you hunt?”

Lindsay thought about her answer for a moment. It was a topic she never discussed, because talking about her mother’s death meant reliving the memories of it. But Adrian knew now, and in this new world she was living in, her past was relevant to understanding her. That was something she didn’t take lightly. She had never been fully understood before and hadn’t realized how much she craved acceptance until she’d found it in Adrian. Taking a deep breath, she answered, “I was a victim of a vampire attack.”

“Not you directly, or you’d be dead.”

“A family member.”

Elijah nodded. “Me, too.”

“Is that why you’re fighting the good fight?”

His dark brow arched. “As if I had a choice. But yes, that motivates me.”

“Yeah.” Lindsay sighed. “I don’t have a choice, either. I thought I did, but I was deluding myself.”

“What are you?”

“Huh?”

“How did you know that was a demon last night?”

“Oh.” She winced. “I’m a human-mortal-with bad luck, I guess you could say.” She used to wonder what it would be like to be blissfully ignorant like other mortals were, but it’d been a long time since she had entertained such thoughts. It was pointless, like wondering what her life would be like if she were a cat.

“What is it you see?”

“I don’t see anything. I feel things. Like a ghost walking over my grave, if you’re familiar with that saying.”

“You went straight to Adrian the moment you saw him. Is that why?”

“No. I picked him up because he’s hot.” She embellished the half-truth with a smile, keeping her sense of the weather and its connection to Adrian close to the chest. “I’m a woman, too, you know. Heterosexual. Good-looking guys attract my attention.”

“You don’t find it coincidental that you happened to pick out the one angel in the terminal?”

“Absolutely. I said the same thing to Adrian last night, but he had some six-degrees-of-separation explanation.”

“Hmm…”

“Pretty much my reaction, too, but what do I know? I’m not religious.”

“So says the woman who now lives with angels.”

“No shit.” Lindsay grinned. “Did you see Adrian’s face when the dragon went down?”

Elijah’s eyes lit with amusement. “Yeah.”

The plane began to descend. She rubbed her hands together. “I hope we find whoever it is we’re looking for.”

“We will.” His face hardened, taking on the fierce cast of a predator.

“You like hunting, don’t you?”

“Yes. This time especially.” His irises took on a preternatural glow. “In addition to Adrian’s lieutenant, this vamp is responsible for the death of two lycans.”

“Friends?”

“Something like that.”

Lindsay wondered how many people Elijah called friends and suspected it was a small, elite group. She rolled her shoulders back and exhaled audibly.

“You all right?” he asked, blanching as the plane dropped swiftly.

“I will be.”

For the first time, she was actually looking forward to killing something. And she didn’t feel nearly as bad about that as she thought she should.

CHAPTER 10

Lindsay stepped out of the plane, slipped on her sunglasses, and looked around. “Holy shit.”

A warm hand settled in the small of her back, followed by Adrian’s murmur. “What?”

She turned all the way around, slowly, until she faced him directly. “Where is the ground?”

The runway ended… in midair.

“We’re on a mesa.”

“No way.”

“Yes way.”

“Who’s crazy enough to build a landing strip on a mesa? If the pilot overshoots, you’re toast.”

His mouth twitched, making her long to see him smile again. “Come on.”