last.”
“Is there an intruder?” Char demanded. “Shall I summon the guards?”
“No.” Baine shuddered, feeling as if he was in molting season. And in a way he was. After years of frustration, he was shedding the dreary numbness that’d plagued him and replacing it with a sensation that was vibrantly sensitive to the world.
Yes. He shuddered in ecstasy. This was what it meant to be alive. If he’d been in dragon-form he would have stretched out his wings and roared in exaltation.
“There’s no intruder.”
Char sent him a confused frown. “Then what is it?”
“A long-lost treasure,” Baine assured his companion, leaping off the dais and heading toward the nearest door.
“Where are you going?”
“Collect the debts and rid the lair of the riffraff,” Baine commanded, his long strides never faltering. He was on the hunt, and nothing was going to interfere. Not this time. A sudden smile of anticipation curled his lips. “Oh, and have my harem opened.”
CHAPTER TWO
It was close to midnight and Tayla was pulling her nightgown over her head when she felt the first wave of heat prickling over her skin.
What the heck?
Autumn in the Midwest meant chilled nights with a brisk breeze. There was no reason she should feel as if someone had just opened an oven.
Not bothering with a robe to cover her thin eyelet gown, she headed barefoot down the stairs and out the back door to her private garden.
The strange sensation couldn’t be what she feared, she silently reassured herself. Baine was in another dimension. And even if he was in this world, she’d hidden herself behind layers of magic.
He couldn’t track her down.
It was impossible.
Right? Right?
Fiercely battling back the urge to panic, she glanced around the thick shadows. They were far enough from any town to ensure there were no stray lights, and Tayla was an imp, not a vampire, which meant she didn’t have their ability to see in the dark.
“Levet?” she called softly, her toes curling as she hesitantly crossed the terrace that was coated in frost. “Who’s there?”
For a second there was nothing but the distant howl of a coyote. Then a soft, male chuckle drifted through the air.
“As lovely as ever, imp,” a dark voice mocked.
Tayla froze. Shit. Why hadn’t she brought a flashlight with her? Or a flamethrower.
Maybe a small nuclear bomb.
She cleared the lump from her throat, a horrid sense of premonition inching down her spine as a dark shadow detached itself from near the gazebo.
“You’re trespassing on private property,” she said, proud when the words didn’t come out as a terrified squeak. “Show yourself.”
Someone, or something, gave a loud click of their tongue. “You dare to try and command me? Surely you haven’t forgotten the terms of our relationship, have you, imp? I am the master, and you are my slave.”
Her hand lifted to press against her heart that couldn’t find a proper rhythm. It was too fast, too slow, then it forgot to beat at all. Sweat dripped down her brow and she struggled to breathe as another wave of heat threatened to smother her.
“No…this has to be a nightmare.”
“Most females would consider me a fantasy come true, not a nightmare.”
“Then why don’t you go lurk in their gardens?”
“Because it’s you that I want.”
No. No, no, no.
She licked her dry lips. “How did you find me?”
There was another low chuckle. “Did you truly believe you could hide from me forever? You belong to me. This moment was inevitable.”
Oh hell. With a surge of blind panic, Tayla was whirling on her heel and darting back into the house, pausing to close and lock the door behind her.
As if that was going to somehow keep out a full-blooded dragon.
Yeah, and she was going to sprout wings and fly to Mars.
Not. Gonna. Happen.
On the plus side, she did manage to zoom back up the stairs at a speed she would never have thought possible. Heading toward her room, she was forced to skid to halt as Levet suddenly appeared in the middle of the hallway.
“Tayla?” His eyes widened as he took in her wild hair and too-pale face. “Ma belle, what has happened?”
She pressed a hand to the wall as her knees threatened to give way.
Baine.
Was here.
In her garden.
After twenty-five years of hiding, he’d managed to find her.
But how?
“Did you do something?” she blurted out.
The gargoyle frowned in confusion. “Qu'est-ce que?”
“Your magic,” she said.
Levet shook his head, giving a wave of his hand to fill the hallway with a floating ball of light.
“Ma belle, you’re not making any sense.”
She forced