His smile was slow, like a wolf about to pounce on a kitten. “Do you like them?”
“I … shouldn’t, but I do.”
Her flirting skills were impressive. But it was all a game the Dark were playing with her. Thorn had seen it before. She was looking death in the face.
The leader took a step closer to her. Thorn waited to hear her moan as all humans did at the nearness of a Fae, but this female was different.
Thorn watched her carefully, as did the leader. She was affected. She tried not to show it, but her breathing had quickened and her lips were parted.
“You feel that, don’t you?” the leader asked as he leaned in and inhaled her scent. “Unimaginable pleasure awaits you.”
Thorn refused to wait a moment longer. It was enough that the female was feeling the effects of the Dark. He didn’t want her so drugged by their sexuality that she couldn’t remember she was fighting against them.
He was about to vault from the roof when Darius turned the corner. With a smile of anticipation, Darius waited for the Dark to notice him.
The leader saw him first and hissed as he pointed. The three Dark turned as one to Darius.
“I’m thinking more like death awaits you,” Darius told the Dark.
While Darius fought the three, Thorn landed behind the leader. The Dark had his hands on the human, who valiantly tried to shake them off. She was also fighting the effects the Dark had on the mortals.
Good, Thorn thought. The more she fought, the better.
The leader turned and tried to drag her away. The woman planted her feet and tugged against him. The Dark then saw Thorn and instantly released her. With the woman falling to the ground, Thorn prepared for the Dark to attack.
He stared in wonder for a moment when the coward ran away. But he couldn’t allow that. None of the Dark could know how many or which Kings were in the city.
Thorn pulled out his dagger and threw it. It flew end over end, embedding with a thud in the spine of the Dark who collapsed without moving again.
Just as Thorn was about to retrieve his dagger, he heard the woman groan. Thorn went to her and began to reach out for her.
In the next heartbeat, she was on her feet, her blade once again breaking through his flesh as she pushed him against the building before pulling the weapon out quickly. “Stay away,” she said. Then she blinked, as if just recognizing. “You again.”
“I warned you the city wasna a safe place.” He tried to move around her, but she held up her weapon to stop him.
“Are you following me?”
Thorn certainly didn’t want to admit to that. If he did, it would lead to all sorts of questions he didn’t want to answer. “I just happened to be near and saw them.”
“The Red Eyes.”
He raised a brow, glancing over as Darius was still fighting one of the Dark. She followed his gaze and watched the scene with interest for a second.
Then she turned her eyes back to him. “Who are you?”
“Nobody. I was near and thought I’d help.”
“You’re lying.”
Lexi wasn’t sure how she knew, she just did. It was a dead end street, and no one had been on it when she followed the Red Eyes. Where had the stranger come from? And was the other man with him?
She was still shaking off the effects of whatever Red Eyes had done to her. It infuriated her that she had been unable to control the need pulsing within her. That had to be the reason she had missed—again—when trying to stab the stranger.
Granted, she hadn’t recognized him when she defended herself, but it didn’t help her self-confidence any.
She looked at the stranger with his dark hair that hung to his shoulders and his brown eyes that were so dark they were nearly black.
He wasn’t as pretty as the Red Eyes, but his ruggedness, the sheer masculinity he exuded was hard to dismiss. In fact, it was difficult for her to look away.
How could a man appear sensitive and ferocious at the same time? And yet, he did. Lexi had the insane urge to rest her head on his chest. A chest on which a black shirt was stretched tight over hard muscles.
She had to look up at him, he was so tall. Lexi frowned as she noticed his incredibly long, dark eyelashes. Then she made the mistake of looking lower.
He had a mouth that made her dream of spending hours kissing him. His lips were wide and captivating. Perhaps it was the effects the Red Eyes had on her that made her examine him with such longing.
But she had a suspicion that the stranger was always charming and fascinating. She had noticed it the first time. Only she had refused to acknowledge it. This instance, she couldn’t help herself.
His gaze watched her as if he were waiting for her to come to a conclusion. Her stint in Edinburgh had proven that she couldn’t trust anyone. Handsome or not, strangers were enemies.
“I’m trying to help,” he said and took a step toward her.
Lexi had turned her head to the second man right before them. She was so wound up that she reacted before she thought twice about it and stabbed him.
“Dammit,” he said between clenched teeth. His fingers tightened around her wrist. “Stop doing that.”
Lexi blinked in confusion. He acted as if she had actually hit her target. That couldn’t be right. He would’ve reacted with pain, not stood there as if nothing had happened.
She glanced down at her knife and felt as if she had been knocked flat on her back. There was blood on the blade. Her gaze jerked to his left side where she saw a dark, wet stain on his sweater.
Lexi took a step back, suddenly more afraid than she had been before. “Leave me alone,” she said and held up the knife.
“I would, lass, if you would but come to your senses and stop following the Dark around.”
Following the dark? What the hell was he talking about? He was insane and probably high on drugs. That was the explanation for him not reacting to being stabbed—twice.
She backed across the narrow street, keeping both men in sight. The second one had killed the Red Eye he had been fighting. For just a moment, Lexi thought about thanking him, then thought better of it.
When she reached the corner, she turned and ran, tucking her knife back up her sleeve. She was halfway home when the rain began to come down in a torrent.
Everywhere Lexi looked, she saw the Red Eyes. Her brain felt as if it were in a fog. She was so disoriented that she almost didn’t notice the two Red Eyes stationed outside of her flat.
Lexi immediately turned the other way, mumbling a string of curses as she did. What rotten luck. It took everything she had to keep going when all she wanted to do was get out of the wet clothes and into a hot shower to warm up.
She had to get out of the rain and find shelter so she could stop the chills that seemed to have settled deep in her bones.
* * *
“Well, that didna go well,” Darius said when Thorn came to stand beside him.
Thorn glanced down at his side. “You could say that.”
“You let her stab you? Twice in one day?”
“I didna let her do anything.” It was a lie, and both of them knew it.
Darius watched her run down the street. “She held her own with the Dark. The lass has gumption in spades.”
“And no’ much sense.”
“You can no’ blame her for wanting retribution.”
Thorn shrugged. “We’re assuming someone died.”
“I think you’re right. That’s the only explanation for her risking her life so.”
“She knows how close to death she came,” Thorn said. “I saw it in her eyes just now. She was scared.”
“Yet still stood against them. Brave girl.”
She certainly was. Thorn looked up at the gray skies as the rain fell faster. It was the perfect time for them to fly, but neither he nor Darius would risk it with so many Dark looking for them.
“She appears dead on her feet,” Darius said.
Thorn had noticed that as well. The dark circles under her bloodshot eyes were more pronounced than the day before. “Let’s clean this up.”
“I’ll clean it up. You follow her.”