When all the remains were disposed of, Orpheus wiped the sweat from his brow then stepped past her, heading back toward the clearing. She followed and slowed as he stopped to look down at her bow, lying on the forest floor.
Nonviolent. Athena’s word echoed in Skyla’s mind, but her fingers twitched at her side and the dagger felt heavy where it pressed against her lower back.
He reached down for her bow, turned, and handed it to her. Cautiously, she accepted it, still unsure of his intentions, then depressed the button on the end without a word, shrinking the weapon to a metal bar only six inches long.
“Definitely not human,” he said. “Though that body…not bad. Since I know you’re not Argolean either, that leaves only a couple of options.”
She didn’t answer. Wasn’t about to tell him anything. But she recognized the heat in his eyes. Not a daemon heat or a battle heat, but a male heat. The kind that said he was interested. Her stomach tightened as she slipped the bar into her boot and waited.
“Not that I care.” He shrugged. “Something tells me you’re the sort of female who doesn’t play well—or like to share—with others.”
Maybe. But Skyla wasn’t thrilled with the fact he could read her so easily either.
“I guess I’ll be on my way.” He turned toward the lights of the parking lot.
Panic closed in as she watched him stalk away. “Wait.”
One eyebrow angled upward as he looked back over his shoulder, a sexy expression that warmed her blood. “For what?”
Yeah, for what? She searched her mind. It’s not because he intrigues you. It’s because you have a job to do. Zeroing in on his shredded pants and shirt, she said, “You can’t walk around like that. You’ll draw attention.”
He glanced down at his nearly bare chest—his very impressive, very muscular bare chest. Then his so what? gaze jumped back to her face.
Skyla’s cheeks heated. Even to her, the excuse sounded lame. But she still needed answers. And though she knew she could follow him again and see where he went next, she’d always been better at enticing information out of her mark rather than tailing him. After all, it was what she’d been designed to do.
So do what you’ve been assigned to do and get on with it.
“I have a room not far from here,” she said. “There are clothes there. You’re welcome to them. Plus, you need that wound covered before infection sets in.”
He lifted his blade from the ground, found the scabbard a few feet away. “A room? You just conveniently have a room in this podunk town?”
Not exactly, but when she’d found out the female he’d been chasing had bought tickets to the metalhead concert, she’d had a feeling it might draw all kinds. And she’d hoped he’d show up looking for her.
Luckily, her intuition had been right.
Since she couldn’t tell him that, she said instead, “I…like to be prepared.”
He didn’t immediately answer as he slung the weapon over his back so the strap cut across his bare chest and crossed back to her. He stopped inches away. And though she fought it, the heat from his muscular body made her the slightest bit light-headed.
“Why would you care?” he asked. “You saw what I am. And you’re the one who cut me.”
She had. But that was before, when she thought he was going to eat her. Now…now things had changed and she wasn’t sure why. She glanced down at his forearms again, covered with the Argonaut markings. Markings that should not be on his skin. “It’s the least I can do.”
“That must grate.”
“What?”
“Thanking a daemon.”
Her warrior shield came up even as she worked to keep her expression neutral. “If you hadn’t been chasing that girl, she wouldn’t have run into that pack of hybrids and I wouldn’t need to thank you, now, would I?”
“No one asked you to intervene.”
No, no one but Zeus. Though she wasn’t about to say so.
She debated the best tactic. Knew—regardless of how attractive he was—that her feminine charms were her surest bet.
So get on with it.
Before she could change her mind, she eased a half step closer, then reached out to run her finger down the center of his sweaty chest. “It’s up to you, daemon. I was just trying to be nice. If you’re not interested—”
A jolt of déjà vu rippled through her when she touched him. As if she’d touched him like this before. Her words cut off midsentence. He sucked in a breath as if he felt it too.
Skyla moved back. Searched his face and tried to remember if she’d met him somewhere else. But she was sure she hadn’t. He was a stranger…a daemon hybrid…her mission. Only, as she stared at him, her stomach clenched as if he had touched her and she’d enjoyed it. Immensely.
She stepped past him, more rattled than she wanted to admit. Weird. Residual energy from the fight? Memories of the last time she’d run into a hybrid and nearly died? It had to be. It couldn’t be anything else.
“Where’d you get them?”
His voice stopped her feet, slowed her mind. She turned. “Get what?”
“The clothes.” His boots crunched over sticks and dried leaves as he stalked toward her. His interest flared hot all over in his eyes.
Relaxing, because this was a role she knew how to play well, she rested her hand on her hip, shifted her weight in a way she knew accentuated her breasts. Males were all the same—human, hybrid, or immortal. If all went as planned, she’d have the information she needed from him before the night was over. “Worried they belong to an ex-lover?”
He chuckled. “No.”
“No?”
He leaned in close, and even though he was covered in blood and moments ago had shifted into a monster, heat ignited in her abdomen. A heat that sent her back a step, right into the hood of a parked car. “Especially not since you haven’t been able to stop staring at my ass since we left the river.”
“That’s not what I…”
He braced his hands on the hood of the car. Leaned in close. Until the warmth of his breath tickled her ear, sending tingles all along her skin. “Curiosity killed the cat. Or so humans like to say. Be sure this is a curiosity you’re willing to gamble with, female.”
He pushed away and threaded through the parking lot before she could think of a comeback. Before she could tell herself she’d just lost the upper hand. She was trained for seduction, but he seemed to be the one doing the seducing. If she let this go on without taking the reins, she’d be putting not only herself but her order in jeopardy.
And that…well, to put it in his words, that wasn’t something she was willing to gamble with. She may not have a lot, but she had the order. It had saved her life. It had given her a life. No sexy, charming, or intriguing daemon would ever make her forget that.
Chapter 3
Maelea closed the front door of her Laurelhurst home on the banks of Lake Washington and stood in the dark entryway, listening to the silence. So much silence. Years of silence. It was a wonder she hadn’t gone insane from all that silence eons ago.
Like you aren’t nuts already?
She ignored that thought because it would get her nowhere, breathed deep to slow her adrenaline. Not bothering to turn on the light, she crossed the marble floor and moved up the richly carpeted stairs until she reached her bedroom suite on the second floor. Lights shimmered across the water through her bedroom window, but tonight she didn’t bother with the view.