Page 32 of Shifting Desire
Chapter Fourteen
Malichai
Lines in Blood
There are moments,fractures in time, where instinct takes over.Not logic.Not control.
Just pure, brutal instinct.I haven’t felt that pull in over a century.Until now.
Because the second I smell him, Ravik Morgrave, on the wind outside The Gin Room, my dragon snaps.He’s close.Too close.And my mate is inside.
The building looks normal from the outside.Patrons coming and going.Music humming from within.But I feel it.A disturbance in the power lines.A shift in the air that tastes like rot beneath sugar.
Ravik’s calling card.
I storm through the front entrance, flanked by Tavian and Dax, both already keyed into my aggression.The moment I pass the threshold half the room stiffens.Paranormals can feel me coming—like the pressure before a thunderclap.
Celeste spots me first, her smile faltering as her eyes lock onto mine.
She knows.Even as a human, she can feel it too.Danger.
“Where is she?”I demand, voice low and lethal.
“Back bar,” Celeste says, instantly serious.“Ten minutes ago, she went to restock mixers.”
I move.Not running.Not rushing.I hunt her down.
The hallway behind the main bar is empty.My boots strike the tile with the sharp, clean rhythm of someone already counting heartbeats.The bond pulses in my chest, dragging me toward her like a tether.
She’s not in danger yet.But he is near.And the second I round the corner into the stockroom, I smell it.
Blood.
Not hers.Not much.Just enough to mark intent.
I shove the door open and find her there, crouched behind a case of top-shelf whiskey, hand glowing with barely contained magic, eyes wide and ready to kill.The fae blood in her shines when she’s furious.Her mismatched eyes are radiant, wild, and untamed.She’s the most dangerous thing in the room.
Until I enter.
“Ari,” I breathe.
Her eyes lock on mine and the tension releases like a sigh.“I’m fine,” she says, but her voice shakes.
“Where is he?”I growl.
“I didn’t see him.I just ...I heard something.Then this smell, like sulfur and ash.And blood.I think he wanted me to know he was here.”
Ravik.
The bastard likes to play.Likes to taunt his prey before he strikes.I should’ve killed him when I had the chance.
I pull out my phone and bark orders to Tavian.“Lock down the block.Seal the exits.No one in.No one out.”
