21 Shades of Night, page 284
Sluggish from the pain and exhaustion, Tyler managed a single nod. “We can go at it, you and I, but it won’t change what I’m saying. And I need to know if it’s ever happened here before.”
“Sure, yeah.” Deacon barked out a laugh and started a slow prowl along the cramped corridor. “I killed one just last week, actually. Right before I went for a ride on my unicorn.”
“It gets worse. In about thirty seconds, that demon is going to go up in—“
His words were cut off by a shouted curse from the uniform they’d left guarding the body. Deacon closed his eyes for the briefest moment, before he snapped them open again with a snarl and pointed at Tyler.
“Don’t go far. Once I wrap my brain around this, I’m going to have questions.” He shook his head and started back toward the body. “A lot of fucking questions.”
“You know where to find me.”
Tyler had only taken one step toward Shay when Deacon grabbed him by the arm, his eyes dark and intense. “Get Hayden the hell out of here for me, will you? Make sure she gets home safe.”
“Yeah. You got it.”
* * *
SHIT.
Shay really, really hated when her visions came true. By the time Tyler turned to make his way over to her, Shay was about to crawl out of her skin. Or throw up. Maybe both.
Her mind was mush and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get past the terror eating at her gut. Tyler had killed a demon.
Tyler.
Demon.
She was going to be sick.
Unable to stand it any longer and knowing Tyler would be right behind her, she grabbed Hayden’s hand and hopped off the bar, tugging her friend toward the bar entrance.
“Shay, damn it, wait the hell up.”
She shook her head and kept walking. She was not the delicate flower type, but this was so far outside of her realm of comprehension it was laughable. He was… Tyler. Asshole.
Hot asshole.
She’d only made it to the bench on the sidewalk outside before he wrapped his hand around her upper arm and pulled her to a gentle stop. “Shay.”
Crap. Crap. Crap.
Clenching her jaw to keep the nightmare out of her eyes, she finally turned to look up at him. His already hulking figure was made even more intense by the blood splatter and claw marks that shredded his bicep. The savage blue of his eyes glinted with a dark energy she wasn’t sure she wanted to understand.
It was only years of dealing with her grandmother that kept her face from showing her fear. Not of him, not exactly, but what he was capable of. What he’d just done, how he’d known how to do it…and what it meant for her.
Unsteady, she focused on the one thing she could control at the moment. “You’re hurt.”
His gaze was busy tracking over every inch of her face. Without warning, his hand flashed out and gripped her chin, tilting her face toward his. “Are you okay?”
She would have nodded if he’d relaxed his grip a little. Instead she let out a shaky snort.
“No. No, Tyler, I am so not okay.” She wrapped her fingers around his wrist, her gut tightening even more at the tension in his arm. “You need a hospital.”
Hayden spoke up, her green eyes wide and afraid. “I agree with Shay. You need a hospital.” She wrapped her arms around herself and gripped her elbows. Every few seconds, her eyes flicked back to the bar door. “Where’s Deacon?”
Tyler glanced at her before turning his attention back to Shay.
“He’s dealing with having his entire belief system uprooted.” He lowered his head toward Shay, his intense gaze scorching her from the inside out until the cool breeze on her skin felt like sandpaper. “Where do you live? I need to get you both home.”
A small sound escaped Hayden’s throat. “Ah, it’s not a good idea for me to leave without Deacon.”
Tyler finally released Shay and stepped back, though he grabbed her hand before she could process the fact her skin felt like it had been branded by his touch. “He asked me to get you home. He’ll be here awhile.”
Her frightened eyes narrowed on his face, as if debating whether or not this stranger could be trusted, before she turned to look at Shay. She nodded once. Deacon and Hayden had a complicated, messy relationship and he was overprotective of her at the best of times.
“I trust him,” Shay murmured.
Haden blew out a breath before she nodded. “I actually live in Shay’s garage.”
“Good.” He said. “Then let’s go.”
While Shay wasn’t sure she wanted him in her personal space—she was still pissed at him for interrupting her date, and he was just too big not to suck up all the space in her tiny house—he needed to get that arm looked at. If he wasn’t going to a hospital, the least she could do was stitch it up for him.
Tyler nudged them forward, his massive size warming her back and pissing her off as they started toward her shop.
Next to her, Hayden swallowed hard and glanced at Tyler over her shoulder, coming to a stop on the opposite sidewalk. “What was that in there?”
He laid his hand on the small of her back and nudged her forward again. The fire in his eyes had banked into a low simmer, but his gorgeous face was still unreadable. “A demon. Move.”
“Hayden.” Shay wrapped her hand around Hayden’s before Tyler’s words could sink in and her friend could panic. “Deacon will be fine. Right, Tyler?”
He snorted as he followed them to the back of her building and across the yard. Her house was tucked back amongst the trees, a small gingerbread Cape Cod just big enough for her and Ivy. After giving Hayden permission to remodel the garage last year, she’d been living there ever since.
“Tyler?” Shay stopped walking to look up at him. Hayden was about to go into a nuclear meltdown if she didn’t get answers soon. She gritted her teeth and glared up at him.“ Deacon will be fine? Right?”
“Yes. The demon has already disintegrated.”
Shay and Hayden gaped at him until he grabbed their arms and started walking again. He didn’t say anything else until they were inside Hayden’s garage apartment and Tyler had assured her it was empty of any threats. Amazed and a little awed at the confident, deadly way he double checked everything, Shay realized she was going to have hours of reevaluating everything she thought she knew about him.
When she hugged Hayden and prepared to leave, Tyler let out a frustrated sigh. “I didn’t mean to scare you both, but demons are scary shit and Deacon and I both wanted you two as far away from there as we could safely get you. But Deacon will be fine. I scoped the place out before I left and there was no other sign of demonic presence so the only thing he needs to worry about tonight is explaining what happened to whoever he reports to.”
Hayden blinked wide eyes at him. She darted forward, latching her arms around Tyler’s waist. She hugged him tight, and the fear and relief warring on her face set Shay’s heart hammering.
It had all happened so fast. The demon from her nightmares appearing, Tyler going after it, and Deacon shooting it while aiming right for Tyler…
She’d been more scared than she’d ever been in her life. Afraid for him. Afraid of the emotion that had welled up out of nowhere, choking her, all focused on the pain in her ass who thought she was bat-shit crazy.
She watched him out of narrowed eyes as he tried to extract himself from Hayden. She would patch him up, make sure infection couldn’t set in with her healing salves, and then she’d take a frying pan to his cranium.
He’d had the nerve to treat her like she was crazy when he could freaking kill demons? Oh, yeah. Tyler Wade was a dead man.
Chapter 7
LETTING A CLEARLY pissed off woman with murder in her eyes and a needle big enough to stitch up Godzilla near him wasn’t the smartest thing Tyler had ever done. Even worse, there was a firestorm of adrenaline in his blood, and Shay looked tempting as fuck.
Shay stared at him. “Sit.”
Eyeing the needle she was pointing at him, Tyler weighed his chances of convincing her he was fine and didn’t need to be stitched up. His arm hurt like a damn son of a bitch and his vision wasn’t exactly cooperating, but judging by the glint in her whiskey eyes she wasn’t going to take pity on him and be gentle.
The teenage brat from the shop earlier grinned cheerfully at him as she hopped onto Shay’s kitchen counter and took a bite of an apple. With her hair in braids and dressed in a Chicago Bears jersey that hung to her knees and bright yellow fuzzy slippers, she looked even younger than she had the first time he’d seen her.
“You may as well listen to her. There’s no talking Shay down when she’s patching someone up.”
He bared his teeth. “I’m debating whether or not it’s in my best interest to run before she decides to stab me to death with that needle.”
“I’m not going to stab you.” Slapping her free hand on his chest, she gave him a solid push that wouldn’t have even rocked him had he been steadier on his feet, proving that the demon saliva was starting to kick his ass. “I’m just not going to be gentle.”
Gritting his teeth against the pain and nausea, he decided to go with cooperating. At least for the moment, until he was steadier and could argue with her without falling flat on his damn face.
The girl on the counter laughed.
“This isn’t funny,” he. “Isn’t it past your bedtime or something?”
She grinned and shrugged, and then took another bite of her apple. “And give up watching Shay make you pay for whatever you did to piss her off this badly? I don’t think so.”
“Ivy.” Shay’s voice was soft as she glanced at the girl before walking over to the pantry door and opening it. “Can you go check on Hayden for me? Stay with her until Deacon gets there?”
Tyler frowned. Sliding lower in the chair, he rested his head against the back of it and let his eyes close for a second. “Are they together?”
Shay and Ivy snorted in unison.
“No,” Shay murmured. “That would be too easy for them. They’re…complicated.”
He cranked one eye open. “So how do you know he’ll come see her tonight?”
“Because there was danger within three miles of her. Deacon will blow a gasket tonight and threaten to lock her up or marry her to be sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Ivy’s voice chimed in as she hopped off the counter. “Which will annoy the shit out of Hayden, because he only talks of marriage when he’s pissed off about something.”
Whatever Shay said next, all he heard was the word ‘sex’ at the same time she crouched in between his spread thighs and leaned up, putting those magnificent breasts right under his line of sight. Almost at mouth level.
He groaned and snapped his eyes closed, accepting that this was going to be how he died. Shay Evernight was going to be the death of him. If she didn’t give in and kill him with a needle, she’d torture him with that body and thoughts of what he could do to it until he was a babbling, incoherent mess who needed to be put down before he did something really fucking ridiculous.
Like beg.
And no matter what the monster who’d raised him had done to him, Tyler Wade had never begged for a single thing in his life. He sure as fuck wasn’t going to start now. No matter how badly his mouth wanted a taste of those luscious breasts.
“Kill me now,” he muttered.
She hesitated with one hand on his thigh. “What?”
“Nothing.” He gritted his teeth again and decided he’d rather have her think him afraid of needles than to see the after-battle lust boiling in his blood stream. And if she’d just move her hand three inches, she’d be able to see for herself. “Let’s just do this.”
“You’re the boss.”
He snorted at the sarcasm that dripped from her words. Cold steel touched his skin, and he winced. . She slid the scissors up the length of his long sleeved shirt, her touch gentler than he’d prepared himself for, considering the temper he could still feel vibrating through her small body. When he cracked an eye open, his dick jumped at the intensity on her face as she bent toward his arm, her teeth worrying at her plump bottom lip in concentration.
“So?” she asked, flicking her gaze to his for a brief moment, before she sat back.
“What?”
Her hands trembled slightly as she set the scissors aside and concentrated on spreading his shirt open so she could peel it off. She hissed in a breath when her gaze landed on the scars and tattoos covering his torso. “I take it demon hunting isn’t new to you.”
“No. Been doing it most of my life.” He dragged a hand down his face before he sat up straight to help her pull off his shirt off. He ground his teeth together as they unpeeled the material from the jagged, sticky wounds on his shoulder.
Ivy crouched next to Shay and laid a handful of cloths and a bowl of water on the table. She kissed Shay’s cheek. “I’ll be at Hay’s if you need me.”
Shay leaned into the sweet gesture, and then winked at her. “Make sure you’re out of there before Deacon starts growling, or you’re going to get really uncomfortable really quickly.”
Ivy grinned. Standing, she patted Tyler awkwardly on his good arm before heading for the doorway.
Shay turned back to studying his chest. Sitting on her heels, she tilted her head back and studied his face. “I’m waiting.”
He lifted his brow. He wasn’t stupid—he knew why she was pissed off at him. It didn’t mean he was ready to apologize and lose that glint of temper in her eyes, though.
“I can take off my pants, but that seems a little excessive to clean my shoulder.”
The look she gave him would have been terrifying on anyone not four-foot-eleven. She all but seethed with temper as she grabbed a cloth, dunked it in the soapy water, and slapped it against his wound. When he hissed in pain, she bared her teeth in a smile.
“Sorry.” But her touch was slightly gentler as she went back on her knees to clean the ragged edges. “See how easy an apology is?”
He dropped his head onto the chair and closed his eyes. “I wasn’t sure I could trust you.”
Her breasts brushed against his chest as she got up closer to his shoulder and gently prodded the cloth into the edges of the wound. “To not summon demons?”
He straightened in his seat and shoved a hand through her hair, gripping it and tugging hard enough she had no choice but to look at him. There was an emotion in her eyes beyond the anger and residual fear. Something that twisted his gut and had his dick standing at attention.
“To not be setting me up for something,” he said. “Your mother was rumored to have been experimenting with demon raising, and I didn’t know if you followed in her footsteps.”
* * *
SHAY SHOULD BE insulted, but the rumors he’d heard about her mother were true. Even if they weren’t, her family were a bunch of con artists and thieves who used weaknesses against anyone with a penny left to their name.
Tyler had no way of knowing she’d been trying to outrun the Evernight name her entire life. But the harder she fought to get away, the tighter the chains around her became. Her family owned her soul, figuratively of course, but she was bound to them in a way she had no idea how to escape.
The worst of her temper wanted to fade back under the intensity of his devastating blue eyes, so she forced herself to glare at him instead.
Testing them both, she grabbed her hair and pulled, not sure if she was relieved or disappointed when he let her go easily. “You acted like I was crazy and deserved to be locked up, and you fight freaking demons.”
Slapping the rag on his wound again, she went back to concentrating on cleaning it as thoroughly as possible. Once she was done, she grabbed her first aid kit and her needle and stood up, moving to his side so she could stitch him back together.
Halfway through the worst of the damage, after she’d used her numbing cream on his whole shoulder, she noticed that every time she brushed against him or touched him anywhere but his arm, he’d suck in a breath and clench his teeth.
And his hands had been knotted into tight fists in his lap since she’d first knelt between his legs to cut off his shirt.
When she finished stitching him up, she carefully set everything to the side and found herself drawn to the massively muscled chest in front of her. Every inch of it fascinated her and without thinking of what she was doing, she stepped between his legs again and traced the tip of one finger over the tattoo that covered nearly the entire right side of his chest. It was the most intricate, complicated design she’d ever seen, and it tugged at that part inside of her she’d always been careful to lock down tight.
It was as if the artist had peeled away the skin over his heart, ripping it in some parts, baring the vital organ and leaving it exposed. Vulnerable. As her finger skimmed over it, Shay almost expected to feel muscle, but the rough, violent pounding of his heart shocked her. Her gaze flew to his, and the heat behind the savage blue scorched her from the inside out, setting on fire every nerve ending in her body.
She never saw him move. One moment she was trying to breathe with the way he was looking at her, and the next moment she was straddled over his lap, her dress pushed up to her waist, his mouth savaging hers as his fingers dug into her ass.
Holy…Gods, the man could kiss. Determined to take advantage of this before he spun her mind into sensory overload, she shoved her hands into his hair, fisted it, and dove into his mouth, her tongue tangling with his.
She felt his groan all the way to her toes, and the firestorm inside of her pounded dangerously, licking at the very edges of her self-control. When he rocked his hips up into hers at the same time he dragged her down onto him, stars burst behind her eyes.
Then, just as abruptly as he’d started the kiss, he pulled back. Surprised at the sudden fatigue darkening his eyes, she lowered her head against his and shivered when his fingers stroked slow, lazy circles under the lacy edge of her cheeky panties. Shay was sure he was a lethal weapon. He’d barely touched her, had only kissed her for a few moments, and she was so close to blowing apart at the seams it was almost embarrassing.
