Shadow Thief - Eva Chase Page 0,102

my skin. Wouldn’t it have been nice to sink into that bittersweet cacao-and-caramel scent of him and leave death-defying capers for another night?

We didn’t have any other nights before our enemies discovered how close to them we’d already gotten, though. Reluctantly, I eased back.

Snap’s posture had tensed while I’d kissed the other guys. Glimmers of brighter green shimmered through his eyes with the intensity of the reaction he appeared to be reining in. “My peach,” he said, shooting a look at the other two that dared them to deny him that claim. The defiance turned his heavenly face even more dazzling.

I touched his soft cheek. I’d saved him for last for exactly this reason. “My devourer?” I said. I wasn’t entirely sure what that label meant yet, but the tension in his expression melted at the suggestion.

“Yes,” he said with a brilliant smile, and tipped his head to nuzzle my cheek before he brought our mouths together.

I’d expected all sweet tenderness, but Snap was clearly determined to both make a statement and stake a claim. He parted my lips with eager determination, his tongue flicking in to twine around mine as he deepened the kiss. The stroke of the delicately forked tip sent a rush of giddiness through me. As he traced my jaw to tilt it at an even better angle, he all but plundered my mouth.

It was sweet, hell yes, and dizzyingly intense too.

When he released me, every inch of him was lit with satisfaction, deliciously fucking gorgeous. A laugh both delighted and terrified bubbled at the base of my throat until I swallowed it down.

I’d gotten myself an angel, a sort-of sun god, and a guy most mortals would consider a demon. What sort of being was waiting for us inside that prison if we succeeded in freeing him?

It was time to find out. I stepped back and motioned toward the construction site. “Let’s do this thing.”

As I strode toward the site, my companions wisped away into the shadows to draw less attention if anyone happened to look our way. The site itself was bordered by a solid fence some six feet high, but I made short work of the chain securing one of the entrances with my scorch-knife. Trusting that the trio was following close by, I squeezed inside.

I crept along a meandering path between metal beams and stacks of wood until I skirted a raw cinder-block wall and the glow of the flood lights came into view up ahead. With a few more steps, I made out the concrete walls of the squat two-story building Snap had first seen in the impressions clinging to Meriden’s body.

It rose up out of a clear stretch of dirt in the middle of the larger half-finished building. The door on this side was indeed shiny—stainless steel, from the look of it—and the flat gray walls around it held only a couple of small windows, those on the first floor. The holding cells above must have offered no glimpse at all into the outside world.

Figures stalked along the edges of the harsh light that surrounded the place. I counted three patrolling in my view and two others stationed by the door. From what Ruse and Snap had reported, there’d be at least twice that many monitoring the entire area. They all wore helmets and vests that gleamed with plates of silver and iron.

I caught myself just shy of rubbing the bandage on my shoulder. Two guards had been trouble enough. But I wasn’t alone here—and if we didn’t get going, we’d lose all the advantage of the darkness and surprise.

I lifted my hand with an OK signal. That was Thorn’s cue. Tucking myself as close to one of the nearby beams as I could, the metallic odor filling my nose, I braced myself for the chaos.

It started with a thumping like several boards toppling off a pile. All of the guards jerked their heads around to stare in that direction. As one man trotted over to investigate, a sharper clatter split the air. Drawing his gun, he motioned for two of his companions to follow.

They’d just loped out of view when something fell with a clang in the opposite direction. A shout carried from around the side of the building as more guards must have sprung into action. As long as they weren’t heading anywhere near me, I was happy.

At an even more distant spot, there came a crash like shattering glass. One of the guards by the door spoke