Alterant (Belador #2)(8)

His gaze swept over her head and around her shoulders. “The majik affected your aura.”

She didn’t see auras because her DNA had failed to offer that option, but she’d recently been told that hers was silver. She hadn’t realized Storm could see hers. “What? Is it brighter or something?”

“Bright would be a fair description.” He gritted his teeth as if he suffered a moment of pain.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He drew a sharp breath that made her think he’d hurt himself somehow. He gritted out, “You need to get moving.”

But now she’d have to walk into the Tribunal meeting shining like a chromed-out Harley. “How long will this shiny stuff last?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll try to have an answer when I see you again.”

That could be never. “Don’t you mean if you see me again?” No matter how exceptional Storm was at tracking, she couldn’t bank on anyone saving her.

Storm’s thumb stopped stroking her knuckles and his fingers tightened on her hand. “I will come for you.”

“I got it. You need help tracking this important woman.”

A woman he’d risk his life to find again.

What woman could have been close enough to Storm to have held that kind of power over him in the past and drive him to this point now? A past lover?

And why did knowing that he only wanted to find Evalle for that one reason feel like a paper cut doused with lemon juice?

Because her brain had wandered off into Stupid Land. That had to be the only explanation for this ridiculous feeling of aggravation about what this woman meant to him.

Evalle would thump herself if her hands were free.

She wasn’t dating Storm.

She didn’t date anyone.

He smiled at her. “There is one more reason I have to find you.”

She gave him an incredulous look. “Do I look like one-stop shopping for solving your problems? I’m running out of patience faster than time, so this better be good. What else do you need me to do?”

He let go of her hands, then cupped her face and lowered his head. “This.”

Then he kissed her. He didn’t touch her anywhere else except her face and with those amazing lips.

She’d thought yesterday’s kiss had been pretty spectacular. This one topped that one hands down. And she had a strange feeling he could move into another level that would melt her where she stood. Her thoughts scattered under a deluge of emotion from surprise to hunger to happy. She’d keep happy.

Kissing Storm made her feel like a weed that had never known anything but drought and his lips were a summer rain, flooding her with a life energy that pushed her to grow.

He made her want more, made her want to feel more.

His mouth took her places she’d never visited with a man. She had little to compare kissing him to, but this man could probably win a trophy with his lips.

Hunger for something she didn’t want to name crept through her. He held her mouth captive, her lips unwilling to escape.

Then he lifted his head.

For a fleeting moment, she wanted to ask him to do that again . . . until she met his eyes. Dark embers burned hot with desire to do far more than kiss her.

His cell phone buzzed again and he released her face. “You better leave now, while I’ll still let you.”

His gaze dropped to where she twisted his shirt in her grip.

She let go and jumped back. The blasted meeting! Had the majik he’d used on her wiped out brain cells?

To be fair, even she couldn’t blame her lapse of attention on the majik. “If I’m late—”

“Don’t be,” he warned. “You can make that mile in plenty of time.”

Fast as her heart slammed the wall of her chest she should have been able to take a giant leap and land in the park, but she didn’t have that ability either.

Storm walked with her to the stairs that led to the upstairs parking deck facing the CNN building. He told her, “See you soon,” and took off up the steps, disappearing into the dark.

Evalle continued on in the opposite direction. She had nineteen minutes left to cover the length of the parking deck, cross the tracks and reach Marietta Street, then zip down to Woodruff Park . . . in the opposite direction.

Piece of cake. She could make it easily without breaking a sweat because of her Belador speed, but she’d have to be careful not to allow a human to see her.

She’d still arrive in enough time to see Tzader and Quinn.

Frigid air rushed past her face and arms. Out of survival instinct, she paused to determine what energy had approached her.

Unintelligible words murmured and hissed through the chilly whip of air.

Ah. A Nightstalker trying to make contact with her.

One she didn’t know. These ghoul informants traded intel on supernatural activity for ten minutes of human form. All it took was a quick handshake with someone who wielded power, like her, for the ghoul’s form to solidify.

But this one hadn’t yet mastered basic communication skills without being in a corporeal form. Evalle could burn twenty minutes she didn’t have just trying to figure out how to communicate with the ghoul.

A sense of duty thumped at her conscience, but she said, “I can’t help you right now, but I’ll send someone else soon who can.”