And that fact made a hell of a lot of sense when Todd remembered his strange attack in the bar.
“You’re handling this, um, rather well.” Cara gazed at him solemnly.
When Todd lifted his hand to shove back his wet hair, he noticed a tremble still in his fingers. Not that well, baby. He tried for rational. “Demons aren’t real.” He knew the statement was a lie the minute the words slipped out. His partner was a werewolf. If werewolves could exist, then why not demons, too?
Shit, but the world was even more messed up than he’d originally thought, and about a hundred times more dangerous.
“Of course, we’re real. We’ve been living with humans from the very beginning.” She held up her hand. “And before you start asking, let me just tell you, demons are not the spawn of the devil, okay? Total myth, that part. We’re just a…different race.”
Different race. Seemed simple enough—but his thundering heart wasn’t quite buying the simple explanation. Christ. “What kind of demon are you?” His gaze raked down her body. “And just how much, uh—” What had she called it? “Glamour have you been using on me?” A cold wind seemed to blow over him. The woman was too pretty. Too perfect looking by far. Hell, the only flaw on her body was that birthmark on her hip, and it really wasn’t a flaw so much as—well, a mark he wanted to bite.
Too perfect. He’d thought it from the beginning. Just what, exactly, was she hiding beneath the glamour?
Did he really want to know?
“Don’t be an idiot!” Cara snapped, and turned on her heel. She stomped toward the chaise and picked up a thin, blue robe. She shouldered into it, letting the towel drop to the ground.
Todd swallowed and absolutely refused to try and catch a glimpse of her naked sex.
“I’m not using glamour to do anything but camouflage my eyes, okay? In case you didn’t notice, they’re a bit of a giveaway, don’t you think? And it’s not like I want to go around advertising my true self to the world!”
“Well, your ‘true self’ is what I’m interested in.” Last night, he would have done almost anything to claim her. The lust had been that wild. Now, he couldn’t help but wonder…how much of it had been real?
A demon. He didn’t know anything about demons or their power. It was so unbelievable. So insane, so—
True.
He knew in his gut Cara wasn’t lying, and too many facts and situations from over the years were rolling through his head.
So much made sense now. The angry stares in Paradise Found. The strange energy he’d felt there.
“I’m not using glamour to shield my body or my face,” she said, hands tightening into fists.
“So that crap about demons having horns and pointed tails is—what? Straight lies?”
“No. It’s true for certain very, very old and very, very powerful demons.”
Hell.
“I’m not a very strong demon,” Cara admitted and did her cheeks flush? Was the woman, ah, demon, embarrassed by her weakness?
“And just what kind of demon are you?” He asked her again, and wondered why she hadn’t answered him before.
Her mouth opened as if she were going to reply, then she stopped and pressed her lips together.
Uh, oh. Not a good sign. But, just how many demons were there, anyway?
“You’re not acting particularly shocked,” she said slowly, and, once more—not answering his question. There was suspicion on her face as she asked, “Have you met my kind before?”
Yeah, he just hadn’t realized it until now. No wonder he’d felt like half the world had been keeping secrets from him. They had. But not any longer. The rose-colored glasses lay shattered at his feet. “Cara…”
“Guys really do generally run at this point.” A faint line appeared between her brows. “Like I told you, fast.”
“You’ve told a lot of guys this spiel, huh?” Was that jealousy flaring in his gut? Sure felt like it.
“A few. Those who don’t run usually want me to prove that I’m a demon.”
“So you do your eye trick.”
Her lips tightened. “I can do more than that.”
Now he was curious. Kinda like those people who stopped and turned around when they saw car accidents. “Like what?”
“On any human male but you, I’d be able to hypnotize with just a word. Get you to do my complete bidding.”
Now Todd had to swallow to ease the dryness in his throat. And she didn’t think that made her fall into the “strong” category? “So why am I the lucky human?”
“Because you’re a latent psychic with more power than you realize.” A shrug. “You’ve got shields up in your mind that you don’t even know about.”
Now that was a load of shit. He wasn’t psychic. Never had been. “Nice try, baby, but if I were psychic, I would have won the lottery years ago and retired to Mexico.” How was he even having this conversation?
They’d been climaxing together minutes before. He’d wanted nothing more than to shove deep and hard into her tight sex and now—
Well, now he’d entered the twilight zone, and he’d very much like to leave, please.
“You’re not that kind of psychic.” He thought he heard her mutter, idiot, beneath her breath. His eyes narrowed. She continued, “You probably get feelings, don’t you? Little vibes of tension or fear just before you walk into a situation that’s dangerous as all hell. But you know before you walk in, don’t you?”
How did she know that?
“Some folks would call that instinct. A psychic edge. Whatever you want to name it, the fact is that your mind is stronger than others. You’ve got a gift, one most humans never get, and those that do have it, well, precious few understand just what in the world is going on when the edge kicks into play.”
“But you understand, right?”
“All of my kind have the edge. We were brought into this world with it, and we’ll leave with it.”
He didn’t want to talk about what fictional powers he may or not possess. Right then, he just wanted to focus on her. “So you usually do a hypnotic show, huh? No other tricks to prove that you’re a demon?” Though proof was really moot at this point, he still felt the driving need to keep pushing at her.
Because she’s just knocked my world right off its axis.
No, his jaw tightened. He couldn’t lie to himself right then. Colin had rocked his reality months ago. Cara had just broken the shaky peace he’d been living in since that night.
“I have a few other skills,” Cara admitted, somewhat grudgingly, he thought. She lifted her hand. A small plume of smoke appeared about two inches above her open palm. As he watched, the smoke thickened, and with a snap, a ball of flames burst in the air. Cara pulled back her hand, smiled at him, and tossed the fire straight toward him.
“Shit!”
He ducked. Felt the rush of fire. Looked up, saw the ball, spinning in the air, fire blazing gold and red.
Then it vanished.
“Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to hurt you.”
He wasn’t 100 percent certain he believed that. Especially since the top of his head felt singed.
“You pissed me off,” she said, lips twisting. “I shouldn’t have tossed that toward you.”
“Uh, yeah, you shouldn’t have tossed the ball of fire at my head.” Unbelievable.
His lover was a demon.
Damn. Damn. Damn.
A very sexy demon.
One who apparently had a very bad temper.
And gorgeous legs.
Ah, hell. “So what am I supposed to do now?” He really didn’t know.
No, actually, he did know one thing—with absolute certainly. He still wanted her.
“What do you want to do?” Was that hope flickering in her eyes?
He had to ask. “You feel, don’t you, Cara?”
She frowned.