“Not interested,” I replied and moved forward.
Walking right up to Seafoam, I pushed my small frame into his large one and watched as he was forced to step back. He didn’t move far as he was a strong match for my tiny body, but it was far enough for me to walk easily through the three of them without being directly touched.
Feeling a shift in the air behind me, I spun around and wrapped my hand around Blue’s wrist just before it landed on my shoulder.
“Don’t fucking touch me unless you want to lose a hand, got it?” I asked as I squeezed his huge wrist. His eyes widened just a fraction.
Another shift in the air to my other side had me dropping Blue’s wrist and spinning around just before reaching up to jam my palm into Quint’s jugular and backing him up against the brick wall behind him before he could snake his arm around my waist.
“Oh shit!” Quint cackled in a raspy voice as he tried to pull air into his blocked lungs. I felt his trachea move underneath my palm. Even with my hand at his throat, he looked down at me with a blinding smile on his face. “Dude! Do you see this? She’s like a fucking ninja!”
“Take your hand off him, you bitch!” Seafoam shouted and came up behind me. When he was close enough, I kicked my leg up and nailed him right between his legs, without breaking eye contact with Quint.
Hearing his grunting, I knew I’d landed the intended target—without even looking. I smiled up at Quint. “Not a ninja, handsome. I’m not that graceful.”
I let go of his throat and backed up. I’d proven my point.
“It was nice to meet you boys, but I’ve got a bottle of vodka at home that’s screaming my name.”
I gave them a saucy wave and watched as they all gaped at me. Laughing, I turned around and flicked them the bird over my shoulder.
After I got a few more feet of distance between us, I dropped my smile as the reality of what just happened sunk in. Thinking of the words they said…
“She’s got no fucking idea what she is.”
“Maybe we’d find out just how much she knows.”
I didn’t know what the fuck any of that meant.
Now that I was seemingly in the clear, I felt my panic rise up from where I’d hidden it away. As I walked, my body started to shake, my protective instincts still firing on all cylinders, ready to save me should it need to.
I felt tingly, like something in me was shifting.
I gritted my teeth as the beast I kept caged in my soul threatened to rip through my flesh. She has tried before, but all it did was give me a pounding headache. She was stuck in my mental space, and I had no clue if she was even real—if I could get her out.
Something told me this wouldn’t be the last time I saw those guys—they’d cornered me for a reason.
I just didn’t know why.
That little bitch kicked me.
She lifted her tiny ass leg and kicked me in the dick with enough force to rival a grown man. That shit hurt just as much as the swift kick to my pride. I was convinced she ruined any chances of me having kids in the future—not that I wanted any.
“What the fuck just happened?” Cabe asked no one in particular.
We all stood in the same spot she left us ten minutes ago, staring in the direction she went, too stunned to move.
“You said that was Annalise.” I looked to Cabe, who was pacing the alley hastily.
“It was,” he growled.
“Why didn’t you tell us she was so fucking hot?” Quint laughed. “No wonder you’re so obsessed with her.”
I rolled my eyes. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we now have a way in. Cabe, you can talk to her, get her to come back to the penthouse with us before her Transition.”
“How the hell am I supposed to convince her to hear me out? She isn’t even going to let me near her again,” Cabe grumbled, running a hand over his blond head and blowing out a deep breath.
He was pissed that this failed.
When he told us yesterday that he thought he found the girl we were looking for, he was expecting someone else. A random female Neph that hadn’t yet Transitioned—like we’d been sent to find.
But that’s not what happened.
Instead, we showed up at the fight tonight and watched Annalise, the girl from Cabe’s visions, pummel a bitch with at least seventy-five pounds on her, straight into the mat. There was no doubt that Annalise was fierce. She was a fighter through and through.
“You’ve been dreaming about that creature for eleven fucking years and you’re telling me you had no fucking idea that she was Nephilim?” I all but yelled at him.
“Do. Not.” He glared at me, his blue eyes darkening. I stepped back when I saw, for the first time, the gray in his eyes begin swirling like a thundercloud. “Start. With. Me.”
“Don’t start with you? This was our one fucking chance, Cabe!” I moved to stand in front of him, my anger driving me to slam my forehead against his. “How did we not know that it was the girl from your visions? How the fuck did you miss that? I wanted this done tonight!”
He may be pissed, but I was raging. We had one job, find the girl and bring her home to wait for further instructions. After weeks of searching, that was supposed to happen tonight.
Quick. Easy. Done.
But instead, she bested us, and our brother could have fucking warned us about her strength. We could have been better prepared.
“I didn’t know, okay?” Cabe shoved me back, the force behind it making me stumble before righting myself. “I had no idea that she was Nephilim, none. She never showed any signs in my visions. I would have told you if I knew. Hell, I would have tried to find her years ago if I knew.”
I took a breath, turning my back on him. Trying to sort my fucking feelings, I walked to the brick wall in front of me and put a hand against it. This rage was different, and that scared the fuck out of me.
Something wasn’t right about this girl.
Something about the whole situation felt off.
I wanted to run after her and lock her in my bedroom, preferably chained to my headboard while she let me take full advantage of her spread eagle on my California King. Just for me.
When I agreed to this, I didn’t expect to feel anything toward the girl. Quint’s father said she would be clueless, but he never said she would be that hot, that intuitive. Her violet eyes saw through me, and I was forced to lay myself bare.
She wasn’t supposed to look at me like she saw straight into my chest and found my nonexistent heart. She wasn’t supposed to have perfect pink cupid’s bow lips and eyes the color of lilacs. She most certainly wasn’t supposed to have a body built like sin.
“She really is hot as fuck, dude,” Quint threw in casually, like we all didn’t just fucking see her.
I bit back a groan as my beast came forward. “Mine!”
His multilayered voice tore through my mind as he pushed and pushed to get out.
Shocked, I held him back, not wanting to lose control and shift out in the open. Humans wouldn’t react kindly to a tatted-up Angel standing in an alleyway.
It was hard to keep him inside though. He wanted to throttle Quint for even thinking about her—another hint toward this situation being weird as fuck.
Why was he freaking out?