The Curse (Belador #3)(54)

The drone of the forklift motor running back and forth filled the pause before Isak said, “Trolls.”

She nodded, but that hadn’t been a question.

“When did you see a troll?”

Answering that honestly opened the door to more questions. “I’d rather not say.”

“But you’re not protecting the troll.”

“No. I want to protect myself from the troll.” There. She’d played the girl card in spite of how vulnerable that made her sound. She could kick a troll’s butt any day.

Isak shifted his body, muscles bunching when he propped an elbow on the driver’s door. “Tell me where to find this troll and I’ll handle it.”

She stopped herself a second before snarling that she didn’t need a man protecting her. What had made Quinn believe she could do this? Unclenching her jaw, she spoke with an even tone. “I don’t know where the troll is right now.”

“I can put a detail on you.”

Isak could be a persistent son of a gun, but he wasn’t going to get the answer he wanted. “I’m not interested in having bodyguards follow me around. If you don’t want to loan me a weapon, then just say so and I’ll figure out something else.”

Isak gave it a couple beats, then said, “Wait for me to open your door.”

That wasn’t a yes, not yet.

He allowed her to step down unaided.

Just as her boot touched the concrete floor, the door to the office area opened and a slim woman of average height walked out. She could be late forties or early fifties, too attractive to pin down. Beautiful brunette hair in a short, swooshy style fanned around her tanned face. She wore knee-length white pants and an aqua-blue shirt with a flared collar. Cinnamon lips smiled when she noticed Isak.

He put a hand to Evalle’s back, gently urging her toward the office and this woman.

The forklift’s tires squealed with a sharp turn.

Evalle glanced at the machine … then at the driver, who was heading straight for the three of them.

The driver’s head began stretching into a grotesque shape, his mouth widening with fangs. Brown eyes.

Seconds slowed down with each heartbeat that thudded in her chest at this living nightmare unfolding.

A Rías.

As the forklift careened toward them, Isak grabbed Evalle, then lunged for the other woman, shoving them both toward the office.

Evalle kept her balance and spun around in time to see the driver alter his direction toward her and the woman.

She didn’t doubt that every person in this building was armed, but not one of those technicians two hundred feet away would get here in time, and the handgun Isak had just drawn would only anger the beast further.

No one could stop that Rías in the next five seconds.

Except Evalle. If she didn’t use her kinetics, this woman would die, and possibly Isak as well.

No time to worry about consequences.

Evalle slapped a kinetic shot at Isak’s hand, knocking the weapon away. She ignored his furious shout and threw up a wall of kinetic energy to block the forklift from plowing into her and the brunette at full speed.

The forklift hit the invisible energy and bounced backward with the front end lifting into the air.

What had been a human driver only a moment ago had now fully shifted into a Rías, which dove off the forklift as the machine tilted over on its side.

The beast lunged to attack.

Evalle called her dagger up from her boot, spinning it in her hand as she surged forward to meet the threat. She pulled her arm back, aiming to drive the dagger into his chest, but the Rías moved like a spear of lightning, diving for her feet.

He knocked her legs out from under her.

She flipped, landing on her back, and jumped up.

The Rías came at her again.

She hit the beast with a kinetic blast, but he swatted it back at her, knocking her glasses off. The sudden light blinded her.

Out of instinct, she kinetically exploded all the overhead lights, confusing the Rías long enough for her to spin around and boot him hard in the chest. He flew backward twenty-five feet, slamming against the wall and falling to the floor … where he started shifting back into a human.

It all happened in a matter of seconds.

The sound of weapons being racked echoed behind her.

Evalle shouted, “Don’t shoot! He’s a human.” She turned, looking for her sunglasses.

Red dots lit up her chest.

Her sunglasses were hooked over the long barrel of a Nyght demon blaster Isak pointed at her heart. “So your eyes are green. Alterant green.”

“I can explain, Isak.”

“What makes you think I care?”





SEVENTEEN




Don’t shoot, Isak.”

Evalle hadn’t said that. She’d thought it, but the shouted order had come from the brunette dusting off her white pants.

No hysterics. No glazed look of deep shock.

The brunette ordered another man to throw on the backup security lighting in the warehouse. Her heels clicked all the way over to where the unconscious Rías had now shifted back into the human forklift driver.

“Don’t get near that thing,” Isak snapped at the brunette, who ignored him with a wave of her hand that caused silver bracelets to jangle.