Magic Undying (Dragon's Gift: The Seeker #1)(15)

I hurried from the shop, giving the Warden a wide berth as I passed him. But I could tell when he followed me. The heat of his gaze on my back burned.

It was dark when I got outside, the yellow streetlamps shedding a golden glow on the damp pavement. Sprinkling rain fell from the sky, cold on my face. It’d been too damned long since I’d had a shower. Or clothes not covered in my own blood. Or demon blood.

Honestly, I just needed to get away from blood for a while. It was a hazard of the job, but everyone had a limit.

I glanced back to see him close on my heels, towering behind me. I swallowed hard, then stopped at the green door punctuating the brick wall beside Ancient Magic and dug deep into my pocket, grateful to find the single key. I unlocked the door, then pushed it open and started to climb.

“I’m the next floor,” I said, too aware of his gaze on me and the fact that it was level with my butt. The leather was practical fight wear. It was also tight. And revealing.

Normally I wouldn’t mind that, but with this guy…

I reached the small landing that held the door to my place and gripped the handle. Before I could push it open, a big hand appeared on the door above my head, pressed flat to the wood. My gaze darted to it, then up and behind to where the Warden stood at my back.

He lowered his hand and nudged my shoulder to turn me around to face him. Anger flared inside me. No one pushed me around, certainly not literally. I growled as I swung back my fist and pelted it toward his face.

He caught it, faster than I’d expected, stopping me about six inches from his perfect jaw. So I struck with my other fist, nailing him in the ribs.

The bastard grinned.

I’d expected a grunt or a grimace. And my fist hurt, like he was harder than your average supernatural.

My heart fluttered, stupid traitorous thing. Apparently it liked strength.

“What the hell are you?” I whispered. His sandalwood scent wrapped around me, fogging my brain.

“More than you expected.” His voice was low and rough enough to send a shiver through me. “Just as you’re more than I expected.”

“That’s kinda my thing.” I shook myself. There was chemistry here, no doubt. I was attracted to him with a capital A. Hell, all the rest of the letters were capitalized too.

But he was half demon, and they were evil and untrustworthy. How could I be attracted to someone like that?

I didn’t know what to do about it. Use it to my advantage? Normally not my style. However, he might try to drag me back to the Underworld. So maybe I should give it a try.

I rejected the thought almost as soon as it occurred, annoyed with myself, and demanded, “What the hell are you, really?”

“Were-demon, like I said.”

“I don’t even know what that means. I’ve never even heard of it.” But if it was real, it meant a demon was hunting me, the demon-hunter.

“I’m one of a kind. Half shifter, half demon.”

“What kind of shifter? What kind of demon?”

“Don’t know. Never knew my mum or dad.”

Same, I wanted to say. And I’d only learned my true last name today. From him. “You’ve got weird powers.”

Like super strength and the ability to compel the dead. I didn’t even want to know what he looked like when he shifted. Because in this form, he looked about a thousand times different from any demon I’d ever met. They were all ugly and scary.

“I’m not the only one.” His dark gaze turned intense. He loomed over me, too tall, and looked like a fallen angel who’d seen too much. Just the sight made my heart flutter.

“What are you?” His voice was gravelly and deep, intrigued.

Wish I knew. “Nothing special. Just a seeker like I told you.”

“That’s hardly all. You’re different.”

He’d tried using that as a threat earlier, but it was clear that deep down, he liked that I was different. But if he learned what I really was, that I was a FireSoul and had some strange power related to death that even I didn’t understand—he wouldn’t like that. I’d be budging into his territory, and no supernatural appreciated that. Not to mention that my power was one hundred percent against the law, and this guy seemed to like the law.

My mind scrambled for something to distract him. “Uh, what’s your real name?”

“Roarke.”

Sexy. “That’s a weird one.”

He grinned.

“What’s your last name?” I asked.

“Fallon.”

Roarke Fallon. I liked that. My gaze skated over his handsome face. I couldn’t help but like it.

Oh, I needed to get my head in the game. There was too much at stake here, and this guy was too much of a distraction. I was about to push him away when a thin leather cord around his neck caught my eye. Whatever was attached to it hung down beneath his shirt.

“What’s that?” I reached up and snagged it, pulling the familiar cord out from beneath the fabric.

He let me. I had a feeling that if he hadn’t wanted me in his space, he’d have stopped me. It was rare that I met a supernatural as strong as me. Stronger, even, which was unsettling.

“My comms charm!” I cried.

“I thought it might be yours. I found it in the garden.” He reached up and fiddled with the cord at the back of his neck, then pulled the whole thing away and handed it to me. “Here. A gesture of goodwill.”