Blood Trinity (Belador #1)(74)

“I knew you’d eventually see the bright side of partnering with me,” he quipped.

“Yeah, right.” She wiped water off her slender neck and shoved loose hairs under the ball cap. Every move was intended to reinforce her tough attitude and the ability to take care of herself, just as the midnight black sunglasses were meant to keep the world at a distance.

He didn’t like the way she pushed him away.

What was it about a man that made him notice a woman who was prickly as a wet cat? Notice every little move she made, like the fact that she tried to hide her case of nerves around him. Call it raw instinct, but he had a strong inkling that it wasn’t his powers or his association with Sen so much as his just being a man that was making her fidget with her zipper pull and avoid his eyes right now.

That made her even more intriguing.

He had some kind of contrary nature to want her, but want her he did.

She caught him looking at her and glanced around as if seeing the park in the pitch of night was interesting. “What’ve you heard from the team?”

“Lucien and Adrianna were here when I arrived. The only word I got out of him was short and crude.” Storm paused while a couple walked out the gate huddled beneath an umbrella, hanging onto a taut leash being pulled by a bulldog. “Adrianna says there’s Noirre majik in the city.”

“I knew that.”

Instead of asking Evalle why she hadn’t shared her knowledge of the Noirre activity, he just raised an eyebrow at her defiant posture and tone before continuing. “She also said the Birrn demon was controlled by Noirre—” He held up his hand when Evalle looked ready to claim knowing that, too. “And that the Noirre is Celtic in origin.”

Evalle’s eyes widened.

Got you there. Storm added, “You didn’t get a chance to see last night, but the creek under the walking bridge at the south end of the park was dug up. The landscape crews finished clearing the creek today and most of the work is completed. We think the stone has already been found.”

“Crud. It might not even be in the city anymore.”

“Sen talked to Shiva, who only confirmed the Ngak Stone was still here and close to the park.”

“If we can believe Shiva,” she said softly.

“Even though the gods and goddesses are capable of lying with impunity, Sen indicated that Shiva seemed worried about something to do with this stone, though he offered little else.”

“What’d Shiva say that gave Sen the impression the god was concerned?”

“He said the stone might not have ended up in the intended hands.”

“Why can’t he just say who has it? Is there a penalty clause for gods giving a straight answer?” Evalle slapped the side of her hip, which was covered by a pair of jeans molded to her shapely lower half.

He wished she hadn’t pulled his attention down there. Forcing his eyes back to her face, he said, “I have no idea. Until we’re told differently, we’re still hunting a powerful female, so you ready to roll?”

“You going to be able to see in the dark areas without a monocular?” She turned to stride ahead, always wanting to take the lead.

He let her this time. “I can see.” Actually, he could see the sway of her hips exceptionally well and could navigate the dark areas of the park just fine, but his sight, like his sense of smell, would be sharper in jaguar form. Animal energy prickled beneath his skin, wanting to break out and change shape so he could slip through this park as a practically invisible predator. He didn’t feel pressure to change because of the upcoming full moon. He was part Ashaninka Spiritwalker and part Navajo Skinwalker, not a lycanthrope.

No, the urge came at dark, period. He fought the pressure to change the minute the sun set every day, but he had control over that urge even if his body wanted to argue just now.

He hadn’t encountered any real difficulty for the past seven months or he wouldn’t have left the backcountry of Chile to come around civilization.

The urge to shift was eating at him and he’d bet it was that vixen striding ahead of him. Not just any female, but that one. Something as simple as a woman’s scent would get under a man’s skin to make him want one particular female, and nothing Storm did would stop his body from reacting anytime this one was near.

The animal inside of him wanted her or wanted out.

He couldn’t allow his control to slip. Not even for a woman that fine. She’d only get in the way of his mission to find his father and get both their souls back.

“What’d you find out on the Birrn?” Evalle asked, tossing a look his way over her shoulder as she made her way around the north end of the park.

“You mean besides that you were there and a Cresyl was involved?”

She paused and stared into the darkness for one second, two, three. “Sen doesn’t know.”

Not a question, just a confirmation.

He could withhold the information, but he wouldn’t make her work for this. “No. I didn’t tell him.”

She continued on, weaving her way around the base of old oak trees that hovered over the park protectively. After another gap in the conversation, she asked, “You wouldn’t know anything about a female body missing from the morgue, would you?”

“The female victim who had been mauled was gone when I got there. Anything you want to tell me about that particular body?”