Page 13 of Dark Embers

Wait… Ididsmell her. Was that just my imagination tormenting me further?

I looked down, my keen raptor eyes scanning the streets between the cloud gaps with laser precision. As if my eyes knew exactly where to look, they fell on a familiar shroud of wavy brown locks. Her smell intensified, and for the first time, I resented the heightened senses of my shifted form.

I’d come up here to escape the witch inside my head, and instead, I’d found her in person.

Keep flying. Ignore her. Pretend you never saw her.

But I couldn’t help but wonder what she was doing on the streets of Chicago at this time of night. Was she planning another infiltration attempt on the school? Not likely, as she was heading in the opposite direction.

I couldn’t help but smirk as I remembered that little fiasco. I respected her for trying and especially for being able to find the Dome’s location at all. And how she managed to get through our security, I’d never guess. The witch was more talented than she gave herself credit for.

Fear seeped into my chest. Would she be skilled enough to defend herself against vampires? She’d been at Arya’s house that night; the vampires could have her scent. Regardless, the city was a hot den of leeches at night, and a pretty young thing like her, all alone, was the perfect bait to lure them out.

I suddenly wished Kai’s detection system was already up and running. At least then, I would have some certainty she wasn’t being hunted. I may not have wanted her at my school or in my head, but I couldn’t bear the thought of her falling into the clutches of our enemies.

I descended just enough to see her more clearly. I could follow her, ensuring she didn’t run into any danger, at least until shegot to wherever she was going. Then, once I knew she was safe, I’d fly on and keep trying to forget her.

Solid plan.

I flew overhead, following her path through the city for several minutes.What are you doing out here, little witch?

She cut across an intersection and then headed for an alley.Don’t go that way!

Just after she went into the darkened, narrow path between the buildings, a figure pushed away from the catty-corner wall of the left building and trailed after her.

Why is he following her?

I sniffed at the air, but I didn’t smell the sickly sweet odor that vampires gave off. But just because Shea’s pursuer wasn’t a vampire didn’t mean he wasn’t a threat.

I flew lower and lower, watching with glaring eyes as the figure got closer and closer behind her. When the figure reached out, I saw red, my blood flash-boiling and threatening to erupt from my chest like hot magma.

I dove straight down into the alley, landing at speed on the trash-littered ground just to the right of her attacker and knocking him violently backward with a slap on my wing. The figure went flying into the side of a dumpster, leaving a small dent in the thin metal as he fell onto his face.

Shea spun around with a scream, her eyes widening as she took in my giant form and then darted to her now unconscious attacker at the foot of the dumpster.

“What the—”

She flicked her gaze back to me, then narrowed her eyes in confusion. “C-Caesar?”

I nodded, staring intensely into her eyes as my blood continued to pulsate like lava through my veins.

She gestured wildly between me and the unconscious guy, her pitch growing more and more elevated as she stammered, “What just—why are you—what the actual fuck?”

I opened my beak to respond to her, only to realize she wouldn’t understand my squawking in this form. With a clucky grunt, I willed my body to shift back to my human form, rescinding my feathers inward as I shrank.

As soon as my lips were fleshy once more, my words burst out of them. “That guy was going to attack you. What the hell are you thinking wandering the Chicago streets at night? And in an alley? Are youtryingto get murdered?”

She didn’t say anything, only stared me up and down, her expression slowly morphing from frightened to amused to embarrassed. She raised her hand to brush against her bottom lip, which she sucked between her teeth in an infuriatingly adorable way.

“We have got to stop meeting like this,” she said with a snicker, sliding her gaze down my body again.

“What?” I followed her gaze down at myself, then reflexively hung in my head in mortification.

Not only was I naked—because, duh, I just shifted back right in front of her—but my dick was hard as a rock with all the heated blood pumping through me.

I’d never blushed in my entire life. I wasn’t the kind of man to blush. But at that moment, I was certain that every inch of mybody was blooming with humiliation. My skin actually burned with the awkwardness of this moment, and I was tempted to shift and just fly off into the night without ever speaking of this again.

But I wasn’t done with her yet.

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