Dusk Avenger (Flirting with Monsters #3) - Eva Chase Page 0,48

she’d already proven she cared about me so much more than that? It wasn’t ridiculous that I couldn’t convince Snap to believe me. It was ridiculous that I’d convinced myself to suppress all the tenderness that had been growing in me with every passing hour I spent in her presence.

Was I really such a coward that I’d push away the one woman who’d enjoyed my company at least as much outside the bedroom as in it—all because of some harlot more than a century ago who couldn’t have held a candle to Sorsha anyway? Why was I so intent on throwing away the exact thing I’d wanted so badly all those years ago now that I had it for real?

What a relief it would be to stop reining those unexpected feelings in and… and simply love her.

A sense of release was already spreading through me, loosening more tension than I’d realized had tangled up inside me. Yes. Screw anyone who thought they could decide what an incubus was capable of or deserved. If she wasn’t going to be governed by the rules of what made mortals mortal and shadowkind of the shadows, then I could sure as hell take a slight deviation from the typical cubi path. It’d simply be in the name of a different sort of satisfaction.

“You know,” I said, with a broader smile, “you might actually have a point.”

Now if only we could get the devourer to remember how deeply he’d fallen for this woman too.

14

Sorsha

“Remind me again what possible use these pathetic attempts at heroes could be?” Omen said as I checked myself over in the RV’s narrow hallway mirror.

As far as I could tell, I looked reasonably civilized in the clean blouse and jeans Ruse had obtained for me, but I couldn’t say I totally trusted my ability to judge these days. Not that I could ask Omen—I’d have even less faith in his assessment.

I swiped at my hair one last time, smoothing an unruly wave, and turned to face our leader. “I get that you don’t like mortals, and we had some issues with my usual branch of the Fund—but my friends there did help us. Heck, even my asshole ex turned up information that helped us decimate the Company’s operations. All I’m going to be asking these people is whether they know anything about my parents.”

“And you’re so sure they’ll have something to tell rather than just screwing us over?”

“They’ve got no reason to screw us over,” I said. “Since thankfully I haven’t screwed anyone in this bunch. Even if they’re not superheroes, I think we can assume they generally want to avoid outright hurting shadowkind, or they wouldn’t be in the Fund. And yeah, this is the best shot we have at finding out anything about my parents. They wouldn’t have been murdered by hunters if they hadn’t been working against the douches, and that sounds like Fund work. They probably met there.”

Assuming the two people who’d raised me for the first few years of my life really had been my parents. But even if they hadn’t been, I still needed to know who the Mom and Dad from my vague memories and the note in my trinket box were. That should lead us on the path to discovering where I’d actually come from—and how I’d ended up with magic powers and blood that turned to smoke when my adrenaline blared.

Ruse came up behind me. He gave my ponytail a flirtatious tug. “Woe betide anyone who fails to give you answers. I’ve seen how quickly you can dig up the truth, Miss Blaze. And I’ll be right there in the shadows to hear if any secrets come out behind your back.”

“Just restrain yourself from tripping anyone,” I said, not that I’d really minded seeing him knock my treacherous ex on his ass at the first Fund meeting my shadowkind companions had followed me to.

“I’ll do my best to behave… while we’re there, at least.” Smirking, he set his hands on my waist and leaned in to press a kiss to the crook of my jaw. Sweet silky champagne, the incubus did know how to light up every inch of my body with one small touch.

The tenderness of the gesture sent a flutter of warmth through my chest that wasn’t just lust. Our interlude with Thorn at the hotel hadn’t seemed to change anything at the time, but today Ruse had been back to his affectionate and demonstrative self—the man I remembered from