A Darker Past (The Darker Agency #2)(38)
The elevator came to a jerky stop, and the doors slid open. I knew for a fact there weren’t any cameras down here, and how hard could it be to find a shadow in a parking garage? Shadowing out from here seemed like the best bet.
“I’m changing, Jessie,” he said. He stepped out into the garage and stuffed both hands into his pockets with a shrug. “While it’s not exactly the life I would have chosen for myself, it has its perks, one of which is the tools to do my job effectively.”
I tugged my jacket tighter. The lot was mostly empty, and each squeak of my sneakers against the concrete echoed like a bullhorn. “I don’t get it. What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I can move like a Shadow demon.” One second he was standing beside me, the next he was by the pickup a few spots away. “I’m limited at the moment, since the change isn’t complete. It seems I can only do it once every few hours. Damien says the limitations will fade in time, and I’ll be able to move just like you and him.”
A jolt of excitement lashed through me. This meant we’d be the same. Granted, not exactly, but we’d both be able to shadow. A host of possibilities came to mind, most of them Mom wouldn’t approve of. “Wow. So how does it—I mean, are you okay with it?”
He shrugged and stepped away from the car. He’d learned his lesson the hard way a few weeks ago. We’d been at the movies and he leaned on a Mustang, only to have the alarm go crazy. “It was a bit disconcerting at first, but after today, I’m thankful for it.” He cupped the side of my face. “I won’t allow myself to think of what would have happened if I hadn’t come to the clearing.”
The way I saw it, it wouldn’t have mattered one way or another. None of us were a match for Gressil. I was alive because he thought he’d killed Mom. Mom was alive because, well, she was lucky. Still, I didn’t punch a hole in his theory. I might have, had he not been looking at me in that way again. I swallowed, suddenly very warm, and said, “How did you know to come in the first place, though?”
He came forward and ran the tip of his index finger down the side of my face. A completely innocuous gesture under different circumstances, but in that moment? It lit my insides up like the Fourth of July. “I sensed your panic.”
“Sensed, huh?” My heart was 2.2 seconds from bursting out my chest.
“I can pick up on your fear.”
I took a deep breath. “Oh?” It was all I could manage. Yeah, I was worried about Mom, but the chemistry bubbling between us in that garage was undeniable. There was something happening here that couldn’t—wouldn’t—be ignored.
He let his finger linger at the tip of my chin for a moment before sliding beneath it and tilting my head back and slightly to the left. “I can sense other feelings you have as well,” he whispered against my skin. A second later, his lips brushed my neck, butterfly caresses up and down the sides.
Hell in a hailstorm…
The fact that we were in the parking lot of the hospital made no difference to me. I leaned into him, a soft sigh drifting from my lips as warmth rippled through my entire body. “But you were”—he came to my ear and nipped the edge, and I gasped—“so far. How did you feel me from across town?”
He wound his hand around to the back of my neck, touch like lava, then dipped it beneath the collar of my shirt. “Damien’s guess is that it’s stronger coming from you because of how close we are.” He backed away a few inches so that he could look me in the eye. “My desire to keep you safe is more than just a job to me, Jessie. It’s integral to my being.”
If I wasn’t already hotter than hell for him, that would have done it. The sparks were there between us, but in that instant, a deeper connection rose above it all. It blotted out the raging hormones and combustible lust. I pushed forward and kissed him with a devouring, passionate need for a higher closeness.
Lukas responded, even more enthusiastic, crushing me close. His fingers wound themselves through my hair, around the long strands. He growled. A dark, enthralling sound that sent prickles across my skin, making the hairs on the back of my neck spring to attention. “Jessie…” he murmured against my lips.
“We need to”—I let my head fall back as he moved to kiss the hollow of my throat. My brain was jumbled. Alternating between the desire to continue this and get him back to his place so I could sneak back here to be with Mom—“go.”
He whispered a word that sounded vaguely like no and continued to plant increasingly fierce kisses at the base of my neck, drifting lower and lower with each pass.
A warm tingle gathered in my belly, drifting south. It was exciting, and a little bit scary; I didn’t try to pull away. I should have—we were so exposed here—but I’d never felt anything like this before. It was addicting. Sinful…
Lukas’s gripped my hips, kneading the denim with his fingers. “Come back to my apartment. Let me—”
My scalp began to tingle. There was a sudden static feeling to the air. I tilted my head, just slightly to the left, and what I saw effectively doused my teenaged libido in metaphorical ice water.
“Down!” I yanked Lukas to the ground as a writhing ball of blue and white soared overhead.
“Here piggy, piggy,” Gressil said in a singsong voice. His laughter echoed off the walls, remnants of wispy purple smoke clinging to the edges of his form.