limited, and saving her had become his focus two weeks ago.
He hadn’t figured out why.
Yet.
Chapter 2
Tabitha paced in the kitchen of her rental bungalow—or what counted as a bungalow in this small town. Yeah, it was charming and she loved it, but there was no chance she’d be able to stay. If Richard had found her, the Popovs wouldn’t be far behind. She looked at the clock, knowing it was way too late to call. Yet she picked up her phone and pressed speed dial.
“Somebody better be dead,” a grumpy voice answered.
Then a soft female voice in the background. “Who would call this late in the night?”
Tabi winced. “I’m so sorry to bother you, Raine. I didn’t realize you had company.” The deadly vampire-demon hybrid could probably pick up a woman with a lift of his dark eyebrow. He was more vampire than demon by far. Hence the charm.
Blankets rustled, and Raine chuckled. “No worries. Did you manage to rob the bank?”
“No.” Tabitha leaned against the counter, wondering at her sanity in calling the vampire. Sure, they were stuck in this town together, and he was one of the only immortals around, but they weren’t exactly friends. Not that she had friends or family or pretty much anybody. “I didn’t know who else to call.”
A door shut and then the sound of water pouring into a kettle came over the line. “I can help you rob the bank tomorrow night, if you’d like.”
She was a demonness, for goodness’ sakes. One who shouldn’t need anybody’s help to rob a darn bank. “No. I, ah, have a couple of questions.” While she’d only been alive a quarter of a century, Raine had lived at least three hundred years, if not four.
“Okay.” His low voice rumbled through the line. “Fire away.”
She pushed aside warning, having to trust somebody. “Have you heard of humans who can block a demon mind attack?”
Quiet came over the line. “Why? Did somebody block your attack?”
She bit her lip, not wanting to put Evan in Raine’s cross-hairs any more than was necessary. “Can we just go on hypotheticals here?”
Raine sighed. “I’m not fond of playing games, demonness, but I’ll go along with you for now. The answer is that there are some enhanced human females—a very few—who were known as demon destroyers because they could block attacks. In fact, I believe that Kane Kayrs mated one. Yes. That’s right. He did.”
Kane Kayrs? He was one of the Kayrs brothers who ruled the Realm, which was a coalition of immortal species. “You’re not a member of the Realm, are you?” It’d be nice to talk to Kane’s mate, but Tabi didn’t know anybody in the Realm.
“Ha,” Raine snorted. “No. The Maxwell clan out of Montana has never aligned with anybody. My brothers would cut off my head if I even thought about it, and I’d probably let them do it.”
“What’s wrong with the Realm?” Tabi asked.
“It’s easier not being a part of any coalition,” Raine said easily. “Your family isn’t aligned with the Realm, if I remember right.”
She sighed. “I’m the only one left in my family. Didn’t you know that?”
He paused. “No. The Ruskos have a reputation of being secretive and, frankly, nuts. I hadn’t realized you were the only one left. No family at all?”
She sighed. “No. My parents died in the last dustup between immortals, and I was left with a nanny, who raised me. A human nanny.”
Raine sucked in air—loudly. “You were raised by a human?”
Tabi opened her fridge for a bottle of wine. “Yep. She was kind and I loved her. She also knew all about the immortal world, so I’m well versed in whatever she knew. But we stayed off the grid mainly.” Until last year, when everything had gone to crap. Tabi didn’t need to share that with Raine. She liked the guy, but even she knew not to trust the Maxwells from Montana.
“Interesting. Well, if you have found a demon destroyer, keep her identity to yourself, if you don’t choose to kill her.” A kettle whistled loudly. “Most demons are fine with killing anybody who poses a threat to them, which is probably why there are so few humans around these days who can block a demon mind attack. They’ve all died out.”
Tabi poured a generous glass of Pinot Grigio into a long-stemmed wine glass. “Enhanced human females are distantly related to the witches, right?”
“That’s the general consensus, but nobody really knows,” Raine said. “They could be their own species.”
In that case,