Hour of the Dragon - Heather Killough-Walden Page 0,180

piercing eyes flashed, sparking to a blue fire glow for several seconds before he managed to tamp them down again.

She dropped her hands and carded her fingers through her hair.

Cain caught the scent of her shampoo, even from outdoors and across the street. He caught every tiny movement, every breath, every slight shift in the expressions on her face.

Not once did he attempt to brush her mind or read her thoughts. Instead he remained where he was and watched for close to an hour. Then he cocked his head to the side, his gaze slipping from his target for the first time since the sun had gone down. His inner radar went off. He was needed elsewhere.

Cain started up his bike. It would have alerted the neighborhood to his presence if not for the magic that cloaked him. He kicked up the stand, revved the bike’s engine, and rode it out into the street until he was hitting the highway.

Ten minutes later, he was pulling the bike up alongside a similar cruiser and shutting it down across the street from a different kind of building. The wards that protected him from detection by most people were still active, but the other Monsters clan member in the street still noticed him.

Nathan Connor was leaning with his shoulder against a brick wall in the shadows beneath a street light. His arms were crossed over his chest, his face was dark, and his eyes were hard. Cain could sense the plethora of extra blanketed shields he’d placed over himself, no doubt to hide his presence from the person he was watching, just as Cain had been doing a few minutes earlier.

Connor met his gaze but said nothing before returning his attention to the object of his scrutiny three stories up. Cain shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and casually joined him in the shadows.

“So… how’s tricks, Nate?” he asked with just as much casual ease before he, too, looked up at the feminine shadow that passed before the living room window’s curtains on the third floor.

Nathan tensed; Cain could feel something odd in the man’s aura, a kind of strain in the magic coming off him. He recognized it, but it made little sense. It was old-school basic hunger, in Nate’s case a hunger for goldblood. Except it was far too soon for him to be feeling that hunger. Nate had just recently fed. He should have been good to go for a few months, usually a year minimum under Cain’s flag.

Right now the hunger wasn’t too strong yet, and certainly not desperate. But it shouldn’t have been there at all. This was what Cain had sensed earlier, when he’d changed course on the highway.

He had a feeling the increased hunger cycle could be chalked up to the same cause of just about every other strange or unexpected turn of events right now: Victor-fucking-Maze. He’d had a similar effect on the Taal, after all. Werewolves were feeling an increased need to hunt. Hell, even humans were rioting.

Cain watched carefully as Nate slowly drew in a deep breath and let it out with practiced patience. His gold gaze still trained on the window up above, he said, “I know why you’re here.” His tone was lower, colder than usual. “You could tell what she was in the garage, couldn’t you? Were you planning on telling me?”

Cain chose his words very carefully. “Nope.”

But then he always chose his words carefully. Which was why he was a man of few words.

Nate let out a short laugh under his breath. “No, I don’t suppose that would have been my move either if I’d been in your shoes.”

But now Cain drew in a quick breath and said, “Nate, I wasn’t going to tell you because I knew you were already aware of what she was. So there was no point.”

Which was all true. Nathan Connor was a powerful Apex and a member of the Monsters clan. Of course he’d noticed. And this right here, Cain had also known was going to happen. Because Victoria Grace was not only a rare and beautiful Golddust. Cain had caught the way she’d looked at Connor before she was taken away by Katrielle so that her spells could be reinforced.

No… this here was bound to happen. This and a hell of a lot more.

Nathan seemed to consider Cain’s words, and at long last he turned away from the building to face his clan leader. “So then… why are