can’t lose them for long, we can at least do a quick car change, and I can drive.”
“Do you know who it might be?”
The sun was nearly down, so I had a fairly good guess. There were only three people in the city who had a rough idea of where to find Raphael, other than me. It was most likely the fae or witch, scoping it out before Sinclair woke up. How long they had been watching him, I didn’t know, but they were obviously not okay with me driving off with him.
“Maybe.” Reaching into the weapon section of my bag, I pulled out my Beretta and turned off the safety.
“You have weapons?” Raphael was looking at me and not the road. I hissed, showing my fangs—it was now pointless for me to try to keep them under control.
“Of course, I have weapons. I haven’t left the house unarmed in nearly a century. Watch the fucking road.”
His eyes went wide and he turned away. I went back to watching the SUV behind us. There was a chance whoever it was would just follow us, reporting on our location. I knew for a fact, Sinclair would know I was involved the moment he woke up, and that worried a large part of me. I was a little excited, too. A day when I could give him the proverbial middle finger was always a good one.
“We’re here!” he declared, turning hard into a parking lot.
“Black BMW,” I snapped. “It’s my car. Get us to it.”
He gave me a jerky nod and tore through the parking lot, slamming on the brakes as the SUV barreled after us.
Fuck. They aren’t following us just to report. They’re trying to stop me from hiding him out of Sinclair’s reach.
I jumped out of his car, pulling my keys from my pocket as the SUV caught up.
“Get out of their way!” I yelled back at Raphael. I got my car unlocked and looked up, wondering where the damn human was.
He stood in the middle of the parking lot. I licked my lips as I tossed my bag into the car, catching his scent on the wind. It was even less human than it had been before. It was like he was constantly…changing. Every time I tasted his scent, it was a different amount of human, fluctuating back and forth.
“RAPHAEL!” I roared as the SUV drove for him instead of me.
As it slowed down next to him, he turned to me, and yes, his eyes were very red now. There was no missing the red eyes or the black, inky lines radiating out from them. He ran for the slowing SUV and slammed his shoulder into it.
I just stood there, feeling stupid.
The SUV’s side crumbled with a Raphael-sized dent. He reached down as it completely stopped, grabbed the bottom, then lifted.
Now, I had seen people lift cars before, even big SUVs. Even for strong supernatural species, it was something they had to work to do. I definitely couldn’t. I was fast, but I was only as strong as any human, deceptively fragile.
Raphael lifted the side of the SUV with ease and rolled it over with a simple toss. It slid away, upside down nearly twenty feet. The black, inky lines were spreading slowly over his face.
He’s not human. He’s not fucking human. What the fuck is he? What the hell is even going on anymore?
I didn’t move as he jogged in my direction and jumped into the passenger seat. I kept staring at the SUV, my mouth gaping.
“Look, I’m deciding to trust you! Get in before they get out!” he growled across the front seats.
I hurriedly got into my car, turned it on, and raced out of the parking lot, my heart pounding. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. Nothing was making any sense. When he’d been talking inside his apartment, he’d sounded like he was trying to convince himself he was human. Maybe he used to be, but he certainly wasn’t anymore. And that made even less sense to me because of the reaction my body was having to him, the need to bite him was generally reserved for two species—humans and other nagas. He was obviously neither. I licked the air and ended up more baffled.
His scent keeps changing. He’s more human now than he just was. What’s the other thing in his scent? What is he?
Driving in silence, hands tight on the wheel, I tried to consider everything I knew. No supernatural species could