The words popped out of my mouth before I could stop them.
He ignored me as he wedged that wide, powerful body between me and Evangeline.
Her eyes widened.
She might not fear me—and that was really, really short-sighted of her, but Damon apparently worried her a little.
“If he wants her, he’s going to have to get in line. She’s busy,” Damon murmured. He leaned in, crowding into her space.
A human would have backed away.
But a vampire’s servant was a different matter and Evangeline just stood there, even though something that might have been fear glittered in her eyes. “Is that a fact?”
“Yeah. Why don’t you pass the message along?”
“I’m afraid I’m not your errand girl, cat.” Turning on her heel, she walked away. “He’ll be in contact soon, Colbana. You don’t want to keep ignoring him. It won’t go well for you.”
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’d been getting variations of that for the past two or three years, ever since I’d decided that life was better without Jude in it. The first few years after I’d met him, I’d gone when he called, feeling like I owed him, but then I’d realized he was trying to put me on a chain. A pretty, polite one, but a chain nonetheless. I’d spent too much of my life caged and I wasn’t doing it anymore.
There were times when circumstances jerked me back into his orbit, but usually I was able to stay away from him. I’d managed to avoid His Arrogance’s presence—in person—for going on seven months now. That wasn’t going to last much longer, but I also wasn’t terribly concerned he was going to go apeshit, either.
He was having too much fun playing with me.
Damon remained in front of me, blocking my view of the car until it rolled out of sight. Then he turned around, studying me with that odd look in his eyes. The one that made me think he was trying to decide if I’d be fun to eat or more fun to just slice to ribbons and play with.
“I think I’ve seen five year olds with more sense than you,” he said flatly. “How in the world are you even still alive?”
“Dumb luck?” I stepped back and nodded to the sword in his hand. “Are you going to lock that up or what?”
He tossed it in. Shut the trunk and then he turned to me. “Put your hands on the damned trunk.”
I cocked a brow at him. “Excuse me?”
“You carry more firepower than a Banner extermination unit.”
A Banner extermination unit—the slang term for the assassination units out of Bureau of American Non-Human Affairs—was a human group of killers. They went after the non-humans who were deemed too dangerous to exist.
And no matter what, any kill made by the Banner unit was pretty much considered a ‘righteous’ kill. Thankfully, they weren’t used too often—we preferred to handle our problem children on our own. When they did go on a hunt, they went loaded for bear.
I snorted and crossed my arms over my chest. “I hardly carry that many weapons.”
“Sure. Now turn around and put your hands on the fucking car,” he snapped.
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to pat you down and make sure you don’t have anything else.” He leaned in and all but snarled the words into my face.
He reached for me. I lifted a hand to block but damn he was fast. A split second later, I was face down against the trunk of my car, the metal smashing against my cheek while one big arm crushed against my neck. His other hand jacked my wrist up high between my shoulder blades. My bones screamed and thanks to the pressure he had on my neck, the oxygen in my lungs dwindled down to nothing and panic tried to crowd in on me. Pain and dread gripped me and my free hand itched, so desperately bad. The blade…my sword, she sang to me, called to me…Ask, just ask…
No. Not yet—
I lay there, limp, fighting back the rush of fear. If I panicked, it would be worse. It would use up my oxygen and make it that much harder to fight when I had to. And, if I did fight, it would be worse—
No. You’re not back there. He’s not Fanis—
I battled back the terror, focused on the pain and called up anger. Anger grounded me. Focused me.
No fear, damn it. I could still breathe…barely…and he wasn’t trying to kill me. He just wanted me afraid while he yelled at me.