Page 60 of Don't Bait Me (Nora Jacobs 3)

Oliver swallows thickly but shakes his head. “You saved us. Without your gift, we’d have been sitting in there with everyone else not protected at all.”

His words slice my heart with icy realization. “That place was packed.” My voice wobbles. “All those people. Skinny.” My eyes burn, and I turn to Rook. “You should call Alpha Toth. Darrin and Sam were in there.”

Rook looks toward the remains of the diner and pinches his eyes shut. I feel awful. Those two men were his friends. They’d been his wolves when he was alpha of their pack. When he meets my gaze again, my eyes finally tear up at the devastation I see in his. He needs comfort, so I wrap my arms around him and whisper, “I’m so sorry.”

Behind us, Parker murmurs, “I’ll call Gorgeous. The building may have been glamoured, but there’s no way the neighbors didn’t see and hear that blast. The human police and fire department will be here soon. We can’t have humans cleaning up the bodies.”

The bodies. I shudder violently. I’ve seen way too much death today. “All those people,” I whisper in a strangled voice. “I knew something was wrong, and I only saved myself.”

My eyes finally brim over. “That’s not true,” Rook insists, wiping away the tears trailing down my cheeks. “You saved all of us.”

Somehow, that truth doesn’t feel like enough. “But I could have saved everyone, if I’d known. I didn’t even think about it.”

Rook combs my hair away from my face and wipes more tears. “You can’t think like that. You had no way of knowing. Has your gift ever told you when anyone other than yourself was in danger?” I shake my head, and Rook gives me a soft smile. I lean into his hand and close my eyes, soaking in the comfort he’s giving me. “You can’t blame yourself for this. Nothing about it was your fault.”

I want to believe him, but my heart feels heavy. He pulls me in tight and holds me, rocking me gently. He feels like a little bit of heaven in the hell surrounding us.

Oliver places a hand on my shoulder and asks, “Do you still feel like you’re in danger? I need to drop my shield but only if you’re safe.” He’s speaking in hushed tones. We all are.

I pull away from Rook and nod to Oliver. “The premonition stopped as soon as the bomb went off. I don’t think whoever did it stuck around.”

“Do you think it was the fey hunters?” Terrance asks.

I turn my eyes back to the burning rubble and shake my head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like it.”

Illren moves to stand beside me, staring at the scene like he’s studying an enemy. “If it was them, then they broke their pattern. That’s unusual for hunters. Skinny had enemies. It’s just as likely one of them did this.”

I want so desperately to believe him, because if it was the fey killers, then all these deaths are on my shoulders. Mine and Illren’s. For leading the killers here. But why would they blow up the whole place? They’ve only gone after fey so far. Why kill others? Shifters, vampires, and sorcerers would seem like humans to them. There’s no way these people would kill their own kind. They’re killing fey tosavehumans. They wouldn’t deliberately hurt any. No. Illren has to be right. It had to be one of Skinny’s enemies. But the timing is uncanny.

The wailing of distant sirens is getting louder. The police and firemen will be here any minute. “How far away is Nick? Should we be here when the cops show up?” I ask no one in particular.

As if in answer to my question, Nick’s Porsche comes screeching to a halt in the parking lot, and he hurries over to us, gaping at the disaster zone around us. He looks at our little group, still clean and unharmed. When he notices the perfect ring around us, he eyes Oliver. “What the hell happened?”

He’s looking at Oliver, but Ollie’s squirming with discomfort, so I answer for him. “I got a premonition that I was in danger. Illren and I had come here from Henry’s casino, so we thought maybe the hunters had followed us. Oliver placed a magic shield around us as we left, to protect us from any arrows or bullets. We got exactly this far before the whole building exploded.”

Nick frowns. “Not the killers’ style.”

I shake my head. “We didn’t think so, either.”

“Skinny had a number of enemies,” Terrance says.

“Or it could have been a gas leak,” Rook offers.

Something about that idea doesn’t feel right. “I don’t think so. I’ve only ever gotten my premonitions when someone means me harm. I doubt a gas leak would trigger one. Come to think of it, I doubt Skinny was the target. I’m not sure I’d have felt it unless the bomber intended to kill me specifically.”

My stomach rolls with guilt again. Nick grips my shoulder like he knows exactly what I’m thinking of. “Don’t play the blame game, Nora,” he says sternly. “You weren’t responsible for this.”

Before I can even try to argue, several fire trucks roll up, bringing with them a flurry of activity. Ambulances and police cars are right behind them. Nick sighs and pulls out the FBI badge he has for dealing with human law enforcement. It’s a legit badge that the government gave him, since the FUA is such a classified agency. “Time to go to work,” he says.

“Should we go?”

Nick thinks about it for a moment, then says, “Would you mind hanging out for a bit? Once I smooth things over with the humans, I’ll see if I can sniff out the explosive device. You might be able to pull a memory from it.”

I wonder if he means he’ll literally sniff the bomb out. Do dragons have a good sense of smell? It’s still hard to comprehend that he’s an actual dragon. Somehow faeries, sorcerers, werewolves, and vampires are so much easier to accept as real than dragons.

“Of course I’ll stay. But if you don’t mind, we’ll just be in the car with the heater on. I lost my coat, and as warm as Illren’s is, he doesn’t have one if I’m wearing it.”

Nick nods. “Sure. Get yourselves warm. I’ll call you over if I need you. Shouldn’t take too long to find the device, if there is one.”

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