How could anyone she hated so much be so startlingly drop-dead sexy? Life was not fair.
Then she realized something. He’d heard Kyle. Quentin had turned when Kyle spoke, and she wondered if he’d finally gotten a pair of hearing aids. They’d never helped him that much before, so he never wore them, but technology had advanced a lot since then. Maybe they had more powerful aids now that could help him hear.
She snuck a glance but didn’t see any mechanical earpieces. Interesting.
When he turned back to her, she couldn’t get over how much he’d changed. His hair was shorter now and a little darker but still a rich, tawny blond. And he’d either started wearing it spiked, or he had bedhead. Either way, he was even more gorgeous than before. Full mouth. Straight nose. Deep blue eyes like the cobalt on a ceramic bowl.
Damn it.
He studied her as much as she studied him, and she cringed in self-consciousness. She scrambled to her feet on the stairs that allowed her to be a little taller than him and asked him, “What are you doing?”
“I asked first,” he signed.
“This is Dora Rodriguez. She died last night.” Amber signed and spoke at the same time to benefit her mixed audience. “She asked me to take a look.”
Quentin turned and gave the perplexed woman a thorough exam. “Did you see it?” he asked. With his voice. His voice! No signing. And he spoke almost perfectly. But his voice was soft, almost impossible to hear, like he didn’t want to speak too loudly. Regardless, she could hear the rich timbre in it, like warm honey over Amber’s pitter-pattering heart.
She pressed her fingernails into her palms again. Enough. He was the one who’d left. He’d made that decision. She would not give her heart to him again. Not that he was asking, but just in case. She promised herself.
Dora nodded and pointed up the stairs.
Without the slightest hesitation, he reached up, lifted Amber off the stairs, and planted her on the floor in front of him. “Go,” he said, his tone brusque as he headed up the steps she’d just been evicted from.
“What? No.” When he turned back to her, she said, “You go. Dora is my client.”
He pointed toward the second floor with his chin and signed, “Demon.”
“Yes. I know.”
He tapped his chest with his middle two fingers. “Demon hunter.”
She blinked in surprise. Demon hunter? Like professionally? Was that even a thing?
It didn’t matter. This was her case. She needed to see this thing through so Dora could cross over, and Amber knew exactly who to send her to when the time came. First things first, though.
She shoved past He Who Must Not Be Named—who would henceforth be known as He Who Shall Not Tell Her What to Do—and headed toward the attic.
He wrapped a large hand around her upper arm.
She shrugged it off. The demon probably wasn’t even up there anymore anyway.
But when she crested the stairs, she felt it instantly. Damn it. Not the demon, per se. But the cold. Her breath fogged the air. She looked around at the boxes and bags of merchandise and supplies that occupied the area. Just as she turned to a hissing sound behind her, she felt him. He Who Shall Not Tell Her What to Do. Close behind her. His warmth as he pressed into her back. Wrapped an arm around her neck. Bent until his mouth was at her ear and whispered, “Shhh,” just as the demon rushed her.
Chapter Four
Sometimes, I shock myself with the smart things I say and do.
Other times, I try to get out of the car with my seatbelt on.
—Bumper Sticker
Quentin tightened his hold to gain control of Amber completely and whirled around as the demon rushed them. The initial attack set fire to his back. He was thrust into the wall, barely able to brace himself with one hand, and knew he was out of his league. As the elfin queen struggled in his hold, he squeezed a fraction of an inch harder.
“Relax,” he said into her ear a microsecond before she went limp in his arms.
He lifted her and carried her downstairs toward the front door, police tape be damned.
“Hurry,” Rune said in his head, urging him faster.
“Friend of yours?”
“Not hardly. But he saw us.”
Us meaning Rune. Quentin guessed that was bad. He got to the front door just as Amber started to come around. He fumbled with the doorknob but couldn’t get it unlocked. He turned back to