Guilt and pain surged through her, but there was nothing to be done, so she stormed out of the trailer, back to the hotel parking lot where her rental car was sitting.
She’d rented it after Trent had left, just in case. But she hadn’t thought she would actually need to use it. She’d thought that Dallas would be beside her until the end.
She tossed her bag in the back seat and hopped in the front, then relaxed back against the headrest.
Where did she go from here? Part of her wanted to run right back to Dallas’s trailer, and another wanted to go home, but she couldn’t. Not yet.
As she was debating, her phone dinged in her pocket, and Mel pulled it out.
It was from Sally, the woman who had seen the basilisk in town. Mel had gotten her number after the interview.
S: I think the monster’s back! Something weird’s going on. Help!
Eyes wide, she dropped her phone into the cup holder and put the car in gear, ready to head to the last place the basilisk had been seen, desperate for a lead.
Anything to distract her from the sinking emptiness now that she and Dallas were broken up.
Would she get there in time?
20
Dallas stared as Mel drove away in her rental car, driving down the slowly waking Main Street of Parson’s Creek.
His tiger was broken. Broken at the sight of her leaving. Broken by the things he couldn’t control.
If he’d just been a normal shifter… If she hadn’t been here trying to discover the very thing he needed to keep hidden…
But life didn’t work that way. She was still his mate, even as the horrifying fact that he might never see her again rose to the forefront of his thoughts.
Fuck the rules. Fuck Jasper and the Blackhearts.
Fuck his past and the cruel fate that seemed intent on teasing him with the idea of happiness in his mate’s arms, only to have it yanked away from him.
His fists clenched in rage, and he stood just as an unfamiliar scent caught his nostrils.
Not cougar. Not any other kind of shifter. Unfamiliar but familiar. He whirled around and was surprised when he saw the huge, tattooed man from the other day standing in front of the trailer.
Furious and at the end of his rope, Dallas strode toward the man. He had haphazardly shorn dark hair and a rough appearance made rougher by the long, intricate tattoo patterns that swirled up the length of his muscular arms, disappearing beneath a dirty shirt.
“What the fuck do you want, and who the fuck are you, and why do you keep appearing around me?” Dallas growled, anger fueling his words as he came up to the man and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. Was he just another secret agent watching to make sure Dallas’s and Mel’s happiness got blasted to bits?
The man, who was built more like Beck, the mountain dragon, than any other person Dallas had seen before, was utterly calm as Dallas yanked him.
Then Dallas saw something he couldn’t fully comprehend.
As he looked into the man’s eyes, he noticed two starkly different-colored irises peering at him with an unearthly glow.
One glowed dark red, sinister and aware.
The other glowed bright medium blue, calm and watching Dallas intently.
And then sudden realization flooded Dallas just as the man’s scent finally flared with recognition.
Earth. Rock. Fresh soil and crushed stone.
A basilisk.
“What?” The word escaped Dallas’s lips, and the man’s eyebrows turned down in response.
“Human. Danger.” His words were harsh, rough like sandpaper, as if even speaking were unfamiliar to the creature.
Dallas let the man go and stepped back, not sure how to make sense of any of this.
He was looking at a basilisk. One of those titanic, prehistoric monsters that came out of the ground after rain. In human form. Walking around.
So basilisks were shifters too?
How had they never discovered this before?
But even as Dallas’s brain tried to keep up with all the sudden, new information, the basilisk stepped forward, undeterred.
“Help. Friend. Save,” he said with a rough growl that sounded like gravel. So basilisks could talk?
But Dallas didn’t have time for curiosity, as a familiar voice called from somewhere behind him in an evil, singsong tone.
“Oh, Killerrr, up and at ‘em!”
Dallas turned to look over his shoulder just as Jasper appeared from a black SUV parked on the other side of the street.
Dammit, why do things keep getting worse?
He looked back toward where the basilisk had been standing just a few feet away.
But he was gone.
No scent. No footprints.
Just… gone.
But he didn’t have time to wonder where because Jasper was already making his way toward Dallas, flanked by five men who also smelled of cougar. Probably fellow assassins, if Dallas’s luck was any indicator.
Dallas strode toward them, hoping they’d seen Mel leave a few minutes ago. Hopefully, she’d headed home, back to safety.
Jasper hopped up onto the sidewalk, sneering at the trailer and brushing some invisible specks of dust off his tailored black coat. “So we going to do this the easy way or the hard way, Killer?”
“She’s gone. What more do you want?” Dallas replied.
He waggled a finger imperiously. “Not according to my sources. In fact, if we’re lucky, she’s about to be shifter bait here in the next ten minutes. Which means I still have a promise to keep since you didn’t uphold your end of the bargain.” His grin widened. “I’ve fantasized about killing you.”
Shifter bait? What on earth did that mean?
He had to find Mel, fast.
“Where is she?” Dallas growled furiously. The tiger in him would burst out at any second, right here on Main Street.
Which, even at this time of day, was populated with a few pedestrians going about their day, fairly oblivious to the climactic events unfolding around them.
Jasper shrugged. “The other side of town, way out in the desert. You’ll never reach her. Just thought you’d like to know she’s going to
