Taken by Sin

The shock of his phone ringing was like a slap of reality. “I have to.” He bent down, fished the phone out of his pocket, frowned at the number. He stood and flipped the phone open.

“Yeah.”

He listened, mentally cursing as Derek filled him on what he’d found.

“We’ll be on the road in an hour. We’ll meet you there tomorrow.” He closed the phone, turned to Mandy

“We’ve got to go,” she said.

With a sigh, he touched his forehead to hers. “Derek’s found Dalton. He’s in Louisiana.”

She inhaled, let it out on a shaky sigh. “Well, this is damned inconvenient.”

Yes and no. He had been so caught up in her, he had almost forgotten his mission. Men should never lead with their dicks. He should have known better.

“Mandy. You have no idea how much I want to … linger here with you. But you and I both know this can never be.”

The soft, dreamy look in her eyes died. She pushed away from him. “Oh, of course. How convenient for you to figure that out now. I get it. Thanks. You can go now.”

He knew he was going to hurt her, that she was going to take this wrong. “Mandy.”

She skirted around him. “Get out of my bathroom, Michael. I need to shower and pack.”

“Are you feeling all right?”

“I’m fine now.”

He didn’t believe her. Nothing about this was fine.

And if he was a lot less honorable, he’d take a few extra minutes-or an hour or two-and finish what they’d barely started. Because he wasn’t finished with Mandy Not by a long shot.

But he was right. Where was this leading? He was a Keeper. Keepers that had … mates, put those mates in danger. The Sons of Darkness didn’t want Keepers to continue the line.

Being with Mandy would put her at risk and he refused to do that to her.

He couldn’t lead her if he allowed anything to happen between them. He couldn’t help her if he got too close to her. And helping her, making a good hunter out of her-that part was his job.

Wasn’t it?

Hell.

He grabbed his clothes and dressed, then went to his room, took a quick shower, and packed up. By the time he went back into her room, she’d already showered, her damp hair pulled up into a ponytail. She was dressed and jamming things in her bag, her back turned to him. He wanted to go to her, to kiss her, to taste her again, touch her skin, breathe her in, to spend hours-days-hanging out with her. He craved being with her, felt cheated because they’d only just started. But what he wanted and what he had to do were two different things.

Just like always.

“I’ll be downstairs in a few minutes,” she said.

“Fine.”

He left the room, hoping she’d understand, that they could talk on the road, but he had a feeling that what had just happened had driven a wedge between them.

And just when they’d started to make progress. Now he had to figure out what happened to her tonight, what was going on in her head. Yeah, she’d killed a demon, but it had cost her.

Too much to talk about. Nothing resolved. Mandy’s issues, these new demons they’d discovered, not to mention the biggest issue of all: the two of them.

Now everything would have to be put on hold, because they had to go find Dalton and deal with him.

Shit.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Dalton sipped the steaming cup of black coffee and stared out the window at the gathering storm clouds marring the normally blue and orange sunrise. Thunder rolled from a distance. There’d be no doing anything outside today. He gave it an hour, max, before the storm arrived. The clouds were an angry gray, tumbling over one another, seemingly in a hurry to get wherever they were headed. They gradually obliterated the morning light and cast a dismal pall over the cheerful morning.

How freakin’ appropriate.

He opened the front door and stepped out, barefoot, wearing only the jeans he hadn’t bothered to finish buttoning. He hadn’t put a shirt on; the morning humidity was overbearing, another curse of the coming storm.

The weather suited his mood. Ominous, angry, expectant.

A lot had happened last night. Everything had changed. He couldn’t go back. Isabelle knew so much now. Did it even matter?

Loving her would change nothing, in fact would likely make things worse. Every decision he made from here on out would be affected by his love for her, and knowing how she felt about him.

And doing this alone, without the help of the Realm, of his friends, sucked. Last night as he lay awake in bed, he had actually thought about picking up the phone and calling Derek.

But in the end, he hadn’t been able to make the call, because a part of him wasn’t sure Derek would take his side, and he wouldn’t take that chance and risk Isabelle’s life.

It didn’t matter anyway, because the Realm was coming. It was only a matter of time. He sensed them drawing closer-both a comfort and something else to ratchet up the sense of urgency. His time was running out. Which meant he could either wait and hopefully enlist their aid, using the demon hunters to help him with Isabelle, or hurry it along without them so it would be done before they got here.

Part of him wanted it to be over.

A larger part of him wanted to drag his feet. He’d just found Isabelle. He wasn’t ready to lose her yet. And if this worked, he would lose her. Forever.

But wouldn’t he have what he’d waited all this time for?

Redemption.

He’d be what he was meant to be.

Because he wasn’t a human. He wasn’t supposed to be here, living this life, loving the woman sleeping in the house. He was stealing love from her, love he wasn’t entitled to. They had no future together; there was no tomorrow for them. Individually, there was a promise for a better life for each of them. But not together.

He heard her behind him, her soft bare feet padding on the dock.

“What are you doing out here?” She came up next to him, cup of coffee in her hand. Her hair was sleep- tousled, her eyes had a dreamy quality about them … and something else.

He put his arm around her. “Watching the storm come in.” He kissed the top of her head. “You okay?”

She nodded and leaned into him. “Had a nightmare. Nothing new there.”

He frowned, not liking that she still wasn’t settled. He smelled the tinge of rain in the air and the wind had picked up, whipping her loose hair against his chest. He steered them back toward the house, not wanting to end up caught outside in a storm again.

Once inside the house, they refilled their coffee cups and sat at the kitchen table.

“Tell me about your nightmare.”

She shrugged. “It was nothing, really.”

“You’re starting to remember them now, aren’t you?”

She lifted her gaze to his. “Yes.”

So her mental progress was moving along, which was good. “Okay, so talk to me about it.”

She inhaled, lifting her shoulders, then rolled her head from side to side, but she sipped her coffee and didn’t say anything. That meant the dream disturbed her. Or else he was in it, it was bad, and she didn’t want to tell him about it.

“Isabelle, you can tell me anything. I can handle it. It’s just a dream.”

“The demon in me felt like it was in control while I was asleep. It went to the Sons of Darkness. I saw all of