Page 51 of Dance for the Dragon
“We gotta get the hell out of here,” Hawke said, grabbing his coat off the chair by the bed. “More will be coming.”
Kohl pointed at the screen. “This isn’t Devon, man. She wouldn’t do this.”
“Are you sure about that?” Without waiting for an answer, Hawke disappeared to warn the others.
Alarms sounded, echoing within the caverns, and the computer screen went black.
“She wouldn’t do this,” Kohl whispered.
But no one was around to hear.
* * *
Three hours later, he knocked on her apartment door. She opened it so fast he wondered if she’d been waiting for him. But that didn’t make sense. Why would she still be up this late?
Unless…
Her eyes ran over him from head to toe. “What the hell happened? Why didn’t you text me?”
He had the funniest feeling she knew exactly what had gone down at the club, and why he was standing at her door in the middle of the night in clothes that were torn from running through the brush and covered in blood, yet the look of innocence on her face could have won her an academy award.
Not his blood. If he’d been hit by any of the bullets those Parasupe fuckers used, he wouldn’t be standing here. “May I come in?”
She stepped back out of the way. “Of course.”
Her friend—what was the guy’s name?—Frank. Yeah, that was it. Frank was spread out on her sofa in nothing but a pair of red lounge pants eating popcorn and watching some reality show on her television.
“Frank, this is Kohl. Kohl…Frank.”
Frank froze, a handful of popcorn halfway to his mouth. He dropped it back in the bowl and whispered loudly to Devon, “You have been holding out on me.”
If Kohl didn’t know for a fact that the guy was way more turned on by him than her, he would’ve been more concerned about his chosen attire. “Hey, man. Would you give us a minute, please?”
Frank gave him another once over, lingering on the blood staining his white shirt this time. To his credit, Frank took Kohl’s appearance in stride. “Hard night at the office?”
“Something like that.”
Swinging his legs off the couch, Frank stood and planted a kiss on Devon’s cheek. “Yell if you need anything, my love.” Giving her a look Kohl couldn’t decipher, he set the popcorn bowl on the kitchen counter and let himself out.
“What happened?” she asked as the door closed behind him. “Why didn’t you text me?”
Kohl walked over to the window and stared out at the city of Austin, lit up under the clear night sky. For once, he was having a difficult time looking at her. He wished he could pull the answer to his question out of her head. “Dev, what did you do?”
The silence stretched on, and he realized he didn’t need to be able to read her mind. The fact that she didn’t immediately answer told him everything he needed to know.
“Kohl, please tell me what happened. Are you all right?”
“Why did you do it, Dev? Why did you lie to me?”
“I didn’t lie to you about anything.”
Her emotions were strangely calm for a woman who was in danger of having her life ended any moment. He wanted to turn around. He wanted to turn around and take her in his arms and carry her into that tiny bedroom and fuck the truth out of her. “You don’t seem surprised that I showed up at your door in the middle of the night with blood all over my clothes.” Needing to see her face, if for no other reason than to torture himself in the long, lonely nights to come, he turned around.
Devon was standing a few feet behind him, hands twisted in front of her. Her hair was covered in some kind of colorful cloth, accentuating her oval face, not one drop of makeup covering her smooth, tawny skin. She was wearing a loose T-shirt and flannel pajama pants. Her feet were bare. She was beautiful. So beautiful it made his mouth go dry and his dick hard, even now. He inhaled to get his bearings, and her scent flooded his senses. The thirst hit him hard. His fangs descended in anticipation of tasting her sweet blood, but he clamped his jaw together, denying them both.
She dropped her chin, looking down at the floor. When she again looked up at him, there were tears in her eyes. “Are you all right? Please tell me.”
He didn’t want to believe it. Couldn’t believe it. Not until this very moment. “You sent Parasupe after me?” He had a hard time getting the words out.
