Blood Trinity (Belador #1)(30)

With a snap of Sen’s fingers, a low wooden table appeared in the middle of the room, along with a stack of file folders. “This is what we have from Fulton County law enforcement on the slaying.”

Holding her breath in fear, Evalle lifted a file and tried to look normal. She went immediately to the pictures of the scene, hoping there was nothing from the county investigation that would betray her.

Grace be to Macha, nothing in these pages looked damning.

For the moment, she was safe.

But the question was, did Sen have a sniffer in this region who could use the chips to catch a trail and follow it the way a bloodhound tracked scent? That was one of the few powers she envied.

And while she was at it, she needed to locate the twins and tell them not to mention the incident with the Birrn to anyone, especially a Nightstalker.

Her thoughts turned to Isak, and her stomach sank. How was she going to find a man who no doubt was unfindable and convince him not to tell anyone about seeing her with the demon?

I should have been late for this meeting.

Apparently she’d flunked basic survival, too.

Sen wouldn’t need any help getting rid of her if she kept putting her own head in the noose. Her heartbeat jumped into high gear.

Her time for locating the Birrn’s master was running out. Sen would suspend her, strip all of her powers, then lock her away in hell.

She’d absolutely lose her mind if that happened. There was no way she could take that again. Not to mention the small matter that she was their target. Without her powers, there was no telling what the demon master would do to her.

But she couldn’t do a thing until dark without risking her life. Her breath came in shorter and shorter gasps as she fought down her panic through clenched teeth.

Trained agents would be looking into the Birrn slaying.

I’m so dead. I’m so dead. I’m so dead. She couldn’t breathe or focus. Her panic continued to swell. She had to keep it hidden from the rest of the agents. Get a grip!

Suddenly, a gentle wave of energy floated over her, soothing her distress and wrapping her in a cocoon of comfort. Her breathing steadied.

Someone in this room had done that.

Evalle slowly looked around, but no one seemed to be paying her attention. Who had reached out to her?

Who knew she’d been closing in on panic?

Was it Lucien or Casper? She didn’t think Trey had that kind of power, and Sen definitely wouldn’t have done squat to help her.

Her gaze skipped around the room until she looked into the dark eyes of the man sitting next to her.

Storm.

Her breath got tangled in her throat.

His expression had been void of emotion when he’d entered the room, but interest burned through his gaze now. A purely male gleam. He stretched back, looking even more relaxed and utterly confident in a room full of alpha males.

Confidence like that was incredibly sexy.

And he knew it. The corner of his mouth lifted a tiny bit, letting her know he’d seen her purely female reaction.

Her pulse thumped wildly in response. The room was hot and crowded all of a sudden. She wanted everyone to leave.

Maybe not Storm.

The smile peeking from his eyes picked up heat.

Crap, what was wrong with her? Had her hormones blown a gasket?

Or was Storm using majik to heighten her attraction?

It took all of Evalle’s control to break away from that gimlet stare and calmly shift her attention to Sen, whose briefing she was missing.

“… the Ngak Stone chooses its master in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. It will use its powers to call her out and to seduce her into accepting her destiny while she carries the rock. The morning after the next full moon, when the sun touches the spot where she found the rock, the stone will bond permanently to her. At that point she’ll be a force to be reckoned with. We have to separate her from the stone without killing her before that happens. Once bound, the woman will have full use of the stone’s power, but it will also have control over her.”

Casper sat forward. “The next full moon is Tuesday night. So you’re telling us that we have three days to find this rock and the woman. Three days to save the world?”

The room groaned.

Sen nodded. “Get moving, people. In the hands of a preternatural predator, that rock is invincible.”

“We’ll all be dining in hell,” Trey said under his breath.

Casper turned a thoughtful look toward Evalle. “You think the stone’s looking for Evalle? She has power and an unknown history. Seems like a good fit to me.”

Every set of eyes turned to her. Thanks, cowboy. Just toss my hide out for the skinning.

Sen curled his lip derisively. “I seriously doubt it would pick an Alterant when it has the entire universe to choose from.”

Evalle went from terrified to humiliated with one sentence. Anger scorched the back of her throat, but she knew better than to let it show. So what if he felt that way? She didn’t care about him either.

Still, it stung, and the fact that it did just made her all the angrier at herself for giving him that kind of power over her emotions.

By the time she stood up, everyone else had left the room except Storm and Sen.

The sun would be out in all its glory by now, and she’d have to ride back home with the heat climbing to a hundred. Gotta love baking in Georgia’s summer heat. Not.