The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious #2)(21)

Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of a man in running gear coming up fast on her left. The runner had been directly behind her until now, which explained why he had not registered on her senses.

Immediate threat.

As the runner drew up alongside her, she could see that he looked to be in his early thirties, tall and in excellent physical condition. He was loping along at an easy, steady pace, not even breathing hard.

It wasn’t only his proximity and the swift way he had closed the distance between them that set off all of Catalina’s psychic klaxons. It was the almost invisible bands of pale energy that whispered in the runner’s aura.

Blank.

It wasn’t true that blanks had some bandwidth missing from their energy fields. That was a myth that had developed because most of those who could perceive auras couldn’t detect the deceptively pale radiance that was the calling card of the average sociopath.

Catalina had never had any trouble detecting the freakish vibe of a true human monster. She had encountered blanks often enough to recognize one immediately if he or she got within range. But she never got past the chill of dread that a brush with a blank sent across her senses. Crossing paths with one was a lot like chancing upon a snake while out on a stroll. The snake, at least, had a valid excuse for being a ruthless predator.

“Oh, shit,” Catalina muttered.

Maybe she should just abandon the effort to control her language today.

Propelled by instinct and intuition, Catalina pivoted away at a right angle from the man in running gear, swiftly putting as much distance as possible between the two of them. She knew the sudden move would make her appear even more alarming to those around her. She tried to cover the action by glancing quickly at her phone as though she had just received new directions for a destination.

“Damn it,” Slater said. “What’s going on?”

Wow. He was cursing now. Catalina decided that indicated some degree of emotion. But she was too occupied with keeping track of the blank to respond.

The runner flew past without seeming to notice her. He never broke stride. One of the interesting things about blanks was that they were so utterly convinced of their own strength and cleverness that it rarely occurred to them anyone could see them for the frightening beings they were. But, as Catalina’s parents had frequently pointed out, everyone had blind spots. For blanks, the weakness was invariably overconfidence in their own supposed superiority.

The runner’s aura faded rapidly and vanished altogether as he moved out of range. By the time he reached the corner he looked like any other fitness-minded man trying to get in a morning workout.

No longer a threat.

Catalina discovered she could breathe again. She pulled her frazzled senses back in line and prepared to resume the grueling hike through the human jungle. But she was still focused on the close brush with a blank. She did not notice the powerful aura of the man directly in front of her until it was too late.

She walked straight into the arms of the stranger and came up hard against his very solid chest—and an aura unlike any she had ever encountered. For a couple of beats she was once again tumbling around inside the kaleidoscope.

“Oh, shit,” she yelped.

Even when she was in her normal senses she disliked touching or being touched by anyone except the people she knew and trusted. The sensation of colliding with a complete stranger was a thousand times more disturbing when all her senses were engaged and on high alert.

It wasn’t the heat of the unknown aura that shocked her. It was the jarring sense of intense intimacy. Aura incompatibility was one of the many reasons why her romantic relationships always ended in disaster. Even a simple kiss was a balancing act. When it came to actually engaging in sex she had learned the hard way that she had to keep a tight rein on her senses. Letting go in bed had one of two dramatic effects on her partners. Men either concluded that she was an exciting dominatrix or else they ran for the hills. Regardless of which outcome prevailed, the end result had led her into a series of spectacularly boring relationships that sputtered along for a while and then collapsed.

But the darkly radiant energy field that had just slammed into her own was profoundly not boring. For a few seconds she was literally dazzled. She was unaware of anything or anyone else around her. All her senses were flaring and all of them were focused on the man in whose arms she stood.

“Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

She knew that voice. A moment ago she had been listening to it on her phone. Her already disoriented senses did another unstable spin, trying to find a new balance.

“Slater Arganbright?” she said.

“Yes. Apologies for the clumsy introduction.”

He still had his hands on her, and her senses were still spiking and flashing.

“Oh, shit,” she muttered.

Frantically she lowered her senses and tried to untangle herself. He released her very quickly, as if he had been the one who had been burned by the collision of their auras.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

Annoyed, she straightened her shoulders and regained her composure.

“You don’t have to act like I’m going to fall apart,” she said. “I’m not fragile or delicate. You took me by surprise, that’s all. I was … focused on someone else.”

“What’s going on? You sound breathless.”