really didn’t want to so much as acknowledge it. She hadn’t expected to feel such an immediate draw to the immortal meant to be her mate. And it worried her.
Right now Teresa would have given a lot to talk with her abuela. To get some advice. Maybe another peek at one of her visions. But her grandmother was home in a tiny village in Mexico. Another bright flash of fear shot through Teresa at the thought of her grandmother alone and unprotected. What if the feds went after her? Sure, her visions would probably alert her to incoming danger, but she would still be alone.
Alone.
“Oh, God,” she said suddenly as something else occurred to her. “Chico. He’s alone at my house.”
Elena stared at her, clearly stunned. “You’re being chased by armed nutcases who have already tried to kill you and you’re worried about your bird?”
Yes, she was. Okay, sure, he was given to her by Miguel, her abusive bastard of an ex-boyfriend. But that didn’t change the fact that she loved that little rainbow lorikeet. Chico was family, too. Besides her grandmother and Elena, Teresa was pretty much on her own. Her parents had died five years ago in a car accident and being an only child meant she had no close relatives. The multitude of relatives she had in Mexico and Spain didn’t count with her, since she didn’t know them well and never saw them. She couldn’t leave town and let her lorikeet starve to death inside her empty house.
“I could go and get him,” Elena began to offer.
“No. No, you stay away from my place,” Teresa told her quickly. “I mean it, Elena. In fact, I want you to act like you hate my guts. Spit on the street if someone says my name.”
“I will not,” her friend huffed angrily.
“You will, too,” Teresa told her, reaching out to grab her hand in a hard squeeze. “You’ll tell anyone who will listen that you found out what I am and tried to report me but you didn’t because I threatened you or something. Do whatever you have to do to stay safe. Do you understand me?”
“You expect me to—”
“To stay alive,” Teresa finished for her.
“Damn it, Terry …”
“Please, Elena,” she said softly. “If you love me, then do this for me. And don’t worry about Chico. I’ll get him before we leave.”
“You can’t go home—”
No, she thought, but Rune, her immortal Eternal, could go there for her. And she planned on making him do just that.
“Don’t worry.” Teresa headed for the front of the clinic, but before opening the door, she peered through the window and shivered at the thought of stepping out into that cold rain again. Added to that misery was the very real possibility that someone was watching Elena’s clinic right now, hoping to spot her.
“At least go out the back door,” Elena said as if reading her mind.
“Good idea.” She should have thought of that. Would have, she assured herself, if there weren’t so many wild and frantic thoughts racing through her mind. After all, why tempt the fates any more than she had already?
She followed her friend through the clinic, their footsteps echoing on the floor tiles. Rain drummed on the roof and at the windows, pounding a beat so quick and steady, it urged Teresa to move faster.
At the door, which led into a short alley, Elena reached out for another hug. “Be careful,” she warned unnecessarily.
“I will,” Teresa promised, still clutching the black medical bag to her chest. “You watch your back, okay?”
Nodding, Elena opened the door as quietly as possible; then Teresa slipped through without a sound and lost herself in the drenched shadows.
Chapter 5
“Fucking rain.” Landry Harper hunched deeper into his jacket and wished he were chasing a witch in Hawaii. Instead, he was cooling his heels outside a dump of a house in Sedona, Arizona, where it should, he told himself, at least be hot.
But no, he was freezing his ass off and getting soaked to boot. He was posted outside Teresa Santiago’s house, and trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible. Not easy when even a moron had the sense to get in out of the rain.
Still, he wore a black jacket over his MP uniform, disguising it enough that no casual passerby would notice him for what he was: a man on a mission.
A man determined to capture or kill as many witches as he could find.
Now there was a thought to warm a man’s soul