On the Prowl (Bad Things #2)(36)

He was going to kill her.

Rose grabbed him. “She could be under compulsion! Just like Francis! Don’t kill her, not yet, don’t—”

He hesitated. Then he blinked and his gaze seemed to turn hazy.

“It’s in you now,” the woman whispered.

Rayce staggered.

“Special. He said no one could resist it. Too strong…”

Rose grabbed for Rayce when his body slumped forward.

“Found you, found you,” the woman sang.

She had grabbed her gun again. She aimed it at Rose. “He said you wouldn’t want to hurt a human. He said that would make things so much easier. Rules are in place, and you’re not supposed to cross the line. You’re not supposed to hurt any human.” Her smile stretched. “You’re not supposed to—”

Wind blew against them. Fierce, hot, battering. Only that wind wasn’t coming from the ocean. It was coming from above them. In a flash, a man landed right behind the human woman. He was tall, dark, with eyes that seemed to blaze with power. And he had f*cking wings coming out of his back.

Giant, dark wings. Not soft, instead, they appeared razor sharp—scaled? Dragon wings. The wings just seemed to shoot right through the back of the t-shirt that he wore.

The human whirled toward him but he yanked the gun right from her and crushed it in his grip. “Don’t quote my own rules back to me,” he snarled. “That shit just makes me angry.”

Then he touched the woman. Just put his hand to her forehead. She gasped and then her body collapsed as she literally fell into an unconscious heap at his feet.

Rose still had her grip on Rayce. She lowered him slowly to the ground but never took her eyes off the man before her. A man that she recognized. After all, it was pretty hard to forget the Lord of the Dark. “Luke,” she whispered. She should have known that Luke Thorne would be showing up sooner or later. After all, this was his island.

And she was one of his creatures.

But the dark-haired man shook his head. “Wrong twin.” His wings vanished, gone in a blink as if they’d never been there. Then he gave her a hard smile. “I’m the other one. Leo.”

She scrambled back. Luke—she could deal with Luke. She might fear him, but he’d saved her life, or, given her a new one or something before. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her. He’d actually popped into her life to help her in his weird way a few times. But this guy…

He was an exact copy of Luke in looks. Every detail was the same. The same square jaw, the same thick, dark hair. The same gleaming, too-knowing eyes. But their physical appearance was where the similarities ended. This guy wasn’t tied to the dark paranormals. The stories said he had no love for shifters, vampires, or demons. The stories said he wanted them all gone.

He cared about the humans. He watched over them. He guarded the “good” paranormals—the angels, the Fates, the mermaids.

He wasn’t there to protect her.

He wasn’t there to help her.

So that meant…

She bared her fangs at him, ready to attack if he so much as took a step her way.

He raised one brow. “Easy vamp. I might be pissed as all hell that you even exist…”

Her whole body went tight. Bastard.

“But I’m not here to hurt you.” A muscle jerked along his jaw. “And isn’t there supposed to be a certain panther at your side? I specifically told that cat to keep you with him, all the damn time.”

Wait, wait…he’d told Julian to stay with her?

Leo crossed his arms over his chest. “If he isn’t going to keep up his end of things, then the deal is off.”

What deal?

But…

She looked down at Rayce. He was out cold, but when she touched his neck, she felt his pulse beating.

“A tranq gun,” Leo offered, as if she hadn’t already figured that out. “I’ve got to say, the Collector is certainly playing a smart game. He’s created a tranq more powerful than any I’ve seen before. It worked amazingly fast. I thought the werewolf would be able to take a couple of hits before he went down.” He made a humming sound. “Wonder if that’s the case with all shifters or if the werewolves just have a particular weakness to this new brew?”

Her head jerked back as she glared up at him. “Why? Are you thinking you might use it against them?”

He shrugged. Shrugged. And he was supposed to be the good one. “Get away from me,” she barked at him.

Leo’s eyes widened. “I’m the one who just saved the day.”

“You’re the one,” she gritted out, “who just admitted he watched while Rayce got shot. What were you doing, hovering out of sight with your dragon wings, just waiting to see how all of this was going to shake down?”

“I did want to see what the tranq would do to the wolf.” He made the confession as if it were perfectly acceptable to just hold back while someone else was hurt. But then, to him, a werewolf didn’t exactly have a great deal of value.

She rose to her feet. “Screw off.”

His lips parted in surprise. “That is not a thank you.” He straightened his broad shoulders. “And it’s not like I lingered in the air for hours or anything. I arrived just as she was pulling the gun. The bullet missed you, so I paused. Just a pause.”