Page 8 of Primal Bonds

Then he’d turned and caught her looking—and smiled, a cold show of teeth. Darkness washed over her, powerful and seductive. When she’d shuddered, his smile had widened.

Evie had sprinted out of the alley, his mocking laugh echoing in her ears.

The earth fada gave a terse nod. “Afraid so.”

Evie shut her eyes. What had she done?

For the most part, the fae kept to themselves, considering humans as somehow less—which was fine with her. You did not want to attract the attention of a fae. You especially didn’t want to attract the attention of a night fae.

She looked at her white-faced brother, the brother she’d promised her mom to protect, and stifled a moan.

The rain eased. Gravel crunched.

The night fae was right outside.

Evie grabbed the fada’s hand with both of hers and prayed. Hard.

Chapter 4

Jace swam out of the darkness. A female appeared.

Dreamlike, he wondered if an angel had descended to save him from the night fae—an edgy blond angel in jeans and a black muscle tee.

Then she threatened him with a rock, and he jolted awake.

Fucking wonderful. She was going to bash his head in. A female, and human at that.

His mouth twisted wryly—and he passed out. The next thing he knew, he was on a vinyl floor blinking up at a fluorescent light.

He tensed. There were two humans now, the edgy blond angel and a lanky teenager with short brown hair and suspicious eyes.

He had to get out of here. He tried to roll over, but the female was messing with his stomach. He readied himself to fight her off until he realized she was cleaning his wounds. That wouldn’t be enough, not against iron. He tried to use his quartz, but he was too weak, the crystals barely vibrating.

He let his head drop back to the floor.

An earth fada’s quartz was almost a living thing. With rare exceptions, his crystals’ unique song had been with him ever since he’d bonded with his own personal quartz as a cub. To have the song fail now was hard, like watching a family member do a slow fade into death.

And there was nothing to stop the iron burning a path through his veins, poisoning him slowly and inexorably.

His gaze fixed on the female. She was striking, with a face he could’ve stared at for hours—warm brown eyes topped by dark, definite eyebrows and high cheekbones in a narrow, intelligent face.

Her mouth moved. She was scolding Jace, telling him he’d better not die in her kitchen.

Inside he chuckled—if he were himself, he could take her out with a single swipe of his claws. But she had spirit. He liked that. Reminded him of Takira.

He inhaled, testing the humans’ scents. They were tense and afraid, but they seemed to want to help.

And his cat liked the blonde’s smell. It relaxed, easing them both. When the female touched Jace’s stomach, the cat damn near purred.

Okay, that was strange.

Then every hair on his body stood on end. All the sass went out of the female. Even her hard-eyed brother drooped.

Night fae. Jace had brought trouble straight to these people’s door.

“Think,” he managed to say. The female leaned closer to listen. “Happy thoughts.”

He used the quartz’s last trace of energy to protect them, then slid back into the darkness.

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