he? He's moving in on Piscary's turf, and you brought me as backup knowing I would fight for your ass if things got out of control.'
Incensed, I ignored his teeth and his strength and put my face inches from his. 'Don't you ever trick me into backing you up again. You could have gotten me killed with your little games. I don't get a second chance, Kisten. Dead is dead for me!'
My voice echoed off the nearby buildings. I thought of the ears listening from the boat, and my face burned. But I was angry, damn it, and this was going to be settled before I got back in Kisten's car. 'You dress me up to make me feel special,' I said, my throat tight and my anger high. 'Treat me as if taking me out was something you wanted to do for me even if it was only in the hope of sinking your teeth in, and then I find out it's not even that but business? I wasn't even your first choice. You wanted Ivy to come with you, not me! I was your alternate plan. How cheap do you think that makes me feel?'
He opened his mouth, then shut it.
'I can understand you using me as a second-choice date because you're a man and therefore a jerk!' I exclaimed. 'But you knowingly brought me out here into a potentially dangerous situation without my spells, without my charms. You said it was a date, so I left everything at home. Hell, Kisten, if you wanted backup, I would have!
'Besides,' I added, my anger starting to slow since he seemed to actually be listening instead of spending the time formulating excuses. 'It would have been fun knowing what was going on. I could have pumped people for information, stuff like that.'
He stared at me, surprise mirrored in his eyes. 'Really?'
'Yeah, really. You think I became a runner for their dental plan? It would've made for more fun than having some guy teach me craps. That was your job, by the way.'
Kisten stood next to me, a dusting of snow starting to accumulate on his leather coat draped over his arm. His face was long and unhappy in the dim light from a streetlamp. He took a breath, and my eyes narrowed. It escaped him in a quick sound of defeat. I could feel my blood racing, and my body was both hot and cold from my anger and the cutting wind off the river. I liked even less that Kisten could probably read my feelings better than I could.
His eyes with their growing rim of blue flicked past me to the boat. As I watched, they flashed to black, chilling me. 'You're right,' he said shortly, his voice tight. 'Get in the car.'
My anger flamed back. Son of a bitch… 'Don't patronize me,' I said tightly.
He reached out, and I jerked away before he could touch me. Black eyes looking soulless in the dim light, he turned his reach for me into opening my door. 'I'm not,' he said, his motions edging into that eerie vamp quickness. 'There are three men coming off the boat. I can smell gunpowder. You were right, I was wrong. Get in the damn car.'
Fourteen
Fear flashed through me, and sensing it, Kisten took a breath as if I had slapped him. I froze, reading in his rising hunger that I had more to worry about than the feet booming down the gangplank. Heart pounding, I got in the car. Kisten handed me my coat and his keys. My door thumped shut, and while he crossed in front of his car, I jammed the key into the ignition. Kisten got in, and the sudden rumble came simultaneously with him shutting his door.
The three men had shifted direction, their pace quickening as they headed for an early model BMW. 'They'll never catch us in that,' Kisten scoffed. Wipers going to push off the snow, he put the car in gear, and I braced against the dash when he punched it. We skidded, fishtailing into the street and running a late yellow light. I didn't look behind us.
Kisten slowed as the traffic increased, and pulse hammering, I wiggled into his coat and put on my seat belt. He flicked the heater on high, but it only blew cold air. I felt naked without my charms. Damn it, I should have brought something, but it was supposed to have been a date!
'I'm sorry,' Kisten said as he cut a sudden left. 'You were right.'
'You idiot!' I shouted, my voice harsh in the close confines of the car. 'Don't you ever make my decisions for me, Kisten. Those men had guns, and I had nothing!' Fading adrenaline made my words louder than I had intended, and I glanced at him, suddenly sobered as I remembered the black of his eyes when my fear had hit him. He might look safe, dressed in his Italian suit and his hair slicked back—but he wasn't. He could shift between one heartbeat and the next. God, what was I doing here?
'I said I was sorry,' Kisten said again, not looking from the road as the lit buildings, hazy with snow, passed. There was more than a hint of bother in his tone, and I decided to stop shouting at him even if I was still pissed and shaking. Besides, he wasn't cowering, begging for forgiveness, and his confident admission of having made a mistake was nice for a change.
'Don't worry about it,' I said sourly, not yet ready to forgive him, but not wanting to talk about it anymore, either.
'Shit,' he said, his jaw clenching as he watched the rearview mirror instead of the road in front of him. 'They're still following us.'
I twitched, managing to not turn and look, satisfying myself with what I could see in the side mirror. Kisten took a sudden right and my lips parted in disbelief. The road ahead of us was empty, a dark tunnel of nothing compared to the lights and the security of commerce behind us. 'What are you doing?' I asked, hearing a tinge of fear in my voice.
His eyes were still on the road behind us when the dark Cadillac jerked out in front of us, blocking the road as it spun sideways.
'Kisten!' I shouted, bracing my arms against the dash. A tiny shriek escaped me as he swore and jerked the wheel. My head smacked the window and I bit back a cry of pain. Breath held, I felt the wheels lose contact with the pavement and we slipped on the ice. Still swearing, Kisten reacted with his vamp reflexes, the car fighting him. The little Corvette gave a final little hiccup of motion as it found the curb and we swayed to a shaken halt.
'Stay in the car.' He reached for the door. Four men in dark suits were getting out of the Cadillac ahead of us. Three were in the BMW behind us. All witches, probably, and here I was, with only a couple of vanity charms. This was going to look really good in the obituaries.
'Kisten, wait!' I said.
Hand on the door, he turned. My chest clenched at the blackness in his eyes. Oh God, he had vamped out.
'It will be okay,' he said, his voice a black-earth, rich rumble that went to my core and gripped my heart.
'How do you know?' I whispered.
A blond-dyed eyebrow shifted up so slightly, I wasn't sure it even moved. 'Because if they kill me, then I'd be dead and I'll hunt them down. They want to—talk. Stay in the car.'
He got out and shut the door. The car was still running, the thrum of the engine tightening my muscles one by one. Falling snow hit the windshield to melt, and I turned off the wipers. 'Stay in the car,' I muttered, fidgeting. I glanced behind me, seeing the three guys from the BMW moving closer. Kisten was lit to a stark severity as he crossed in front of his lights, approaching the four men with his palms forward with a casualness that I knew was false. 'Like hell I'm going to stay in the car,' I said, reaching for the handle and lurching into the cold.
Kisten turned. 'I told you to stay in the car,' he said, and I pushed down my fear at the starkness in his expression. He had already divorced himself from what was going to happen.
'Yeah, you did,' I shot back, forcing my arms down. It was cold and I shivered.
He hesitated, clearly torn. The approaching men spread out. We were surrounded. Their faces were shadowed but confident. All they needed was a bat or crowbar to thump against their hand to make it complete. But they were witches. Their strength was in their magic.
My breath came slow, and I rocked forward on my flat boots. Feeling the stir of adrenaline, I moved into the car's headlights and put my back to Kisten's.
