Darkness Everlasting (Guardians of Eternity #3)(52)

"Oh yeah? Then how did you know I'm in a warehouse, Salvatore?" she demanded. "Admit it, you've tracked me."

Salvatore gave a low snarl. For the first time in his existence he struggled not to shift against his will.

If anything happened to Darcy ...

"Cazzo. Si, the phone is being monitored by my pack, but we are still blocks away," he confessed, silently attempting to judge how long it would take to reach the warehouse. "I do not know who is in the building with you, but you are in danger."

"Why should I believe you?" She sucked in a gasp as a distant howl echoed in the background. "Shit."

Salvatore's every instinct shivered in warning. He recognized that howl.

It could only belong to a werewolf.

"Listen to me, cara. You must get out of there. Get out of there now."

Her breath rasped over the phone. "This is starting to feel like a really bad slash-and-trash movie."

Salvatore motioned Hess to even greater speed. "What?"

"You know, when the police call to tell the babysitter that the threatening calls are coming from inside the house?"

He gave a shake of his head, wondering if her fear had driven her nuts.

"I do not know this movie, but—" He bit off his words as a sudden static punished his sensitive ear. "Darcy!"

The static was cut off as the line went dead. Throwing aside the phone, Salvatore glared toward the cur at his side.

"Have me at the warehouse in the next fifteen minutes or I'll eat your heart for breakfast."

Chapter Thirteen

Darcy shoved the phone in her pocket as she warily studied the woman standing near the railing above her. Yowser. She didn't look like the sort of woman who would prowl around filthy warehouses. Not with that tall, willowy frame and sleek black hair that framed a perfect oval face and slanted eyes.

She was more an exotic butterfly that should be drenched in silk and champagne.

Still, Darcy was smart enough not to be taken in by appearances. If the past few days had taught her nothing else, it was that the most beautiful, elegant creatures in the world were also the most lethal.

A fact that was only reinforced as the strange woman glided down the stairs. Yes, glided, Darcy acknowledged with a shiver. There was no other word for it.

The woman wasn't human. Or at least not entirely human.

Darcy hastily backed toward the closest window. Having an escape route nearby seemed a handy thing. Not as handy as a gun, of course, but since she didn't think she could pull the trigger even if she had one, the window was the best she was going to do.

"So, you are the mysterious, oh-so-fascinating Darcy Smith," the woman drawled, her tone raising the hair on the back of Darcy's neck. "I thought that your pictures must have been doing you a disservice, but I see you truly are as ... common as I thought."

Common?

Well, Darcy had certainly been called worse. But not with that precise hint of malice, or that very personal hatred that shimmered in the dark eyes.

Somehow she had managed to piss off this woman, and now she was determined to make Darcy pay.

"Sorry to disappoint," she muttered. "Have we met?"

"You'd already be dead if we had met," the woman growled, her dark eyes beginning to glow with a peculiar light.

Another chill inched down Darcy's spine as she instinctively reached to touch the broken window behind her. She was beginning to recognize that distinctive glow.

The woman was a Were.

Which meant that Salvatore was lying through his perfect white teeth (a seeming tradition for demons of all persuasions). And that Darcy was in very, very deep shit. She might be able to hold her own against most humans, but she didn't believe for a moment she could manage to fend off a ravaging wolf.

"I'm going to take a wild leap here and guess you don't like me much." Darcy attempted to distract the ... thing prowling ever closer. "Do you mind sharing what I've done to offend you?"

A shimmer of energy could be seen glowing around the slender body. "You're offensive."

"Just overall offensive, or could you narrow that down a little?"

"You're human." She turned her head to spit on the floor.

Darcy gave a lift of her brows. "That's it? I'm offensive because I'm human? Rather harsh."

"You're offensive because Salvatore would prefer you to me," she hissed.

Well . . . cripes.

That's all she needed. A psychopathic ex-girlfriend. One who also happened to be a werewolf.

Thanks a buttload, Salvatore.

Darcy covertly began to ease the broken window upward. She preferred not to have to plunge through the ragged remains of glass if she could avoid it.

She was funny like that.

"Then Salvatore doesn't know you're here?" she countered.

"Of course not." The glow in the almond eyes became downright spooky. "The fool is so besotted with you that he would kill me if he learned I had so much as crossed your precious path."

So, Salvatore hadn't been lying.

A wave of relief washed through Darcy. Foolish, of course, when there was a very good chance she was about to be eaten by his angry girlfriend.

She pressed the window up a few more inches.

"And yet, here you are," she said in a tight tone.