“Xariana has told me much about you, Missy,” Kieran lied, and it was smooth. There was no hesitancy in his voice or hint that he was lying through his teeth. “It is a pleasure to meet a woman as beautiful as you.”
“Oh, stop it,” she said playfully. “Where did you find this one, child? He’s a keeper.”
“Personally, I reserve the right to argue that theory,” I muttered, watching her eating out of his palm.
“There you are, wife,” the sheriff stated, his color pale and flushed, alerting me that something wasn’t right. “We need to head into the office for a moment,” he continued, staring at me.
I didn’t ask him what was wrong. Missy didn’t know that we existed, and since she’d seen me growing up as a small child, she assumed I was human. I turned, looking out over the crowd as Missy grabbed her stomach, drawing my attention back toward her with worry.
All three of us watched her, and I was the first to realize the problem. The thick scent of copper filled the air, and a soft cry of pain slid from her lips. She shuddered, shaking her head.
“I think the alcohol has gone straight to my head,” she announced.
“Are you okay?” I asked, watching the sclera’s of her eyes turning crimson. Then, I focused on Jeffery and saw him holding his hand over his mouth before he coughed, splattering blood everywhere. “Something is wrong.” I lifted my gaze to Kieran, who watched them with a look of boredom.
“It would seem they have been poisoned,” he returned in an irritated tone. His keen eyes surveyed the crowd as more and more people dropped to the ground throughout the gathering. “It would appear someone miscalculated their target.”
Blinking, I peered at the party-goers once more, noticing a group of men that stood off to the side, glaring openly at Kieran. His guards slid in around us, and one helped the sheriff and his wife to their feet, taking them toward the balcony. I shivered, noting several more beings were sending waves of hostile energy directly at Kieran.
“You were the target?” I asked, incredulous that someone would be stupid enough to openly attack Kieran Knight.
“Indeed, I am,” he chuckled, as if these men hadn’t just poisoned an entire party to get to him. “Be a good girl and close your eyes for me.”
I was pissed off on his behalf! These assholes had come into my town and tried to murder my date. Anger shivered through me, and he smirked, sensing my emotions. Ender, the man he had babysitting me before, stepped up beside me, taking Kieran’s place as he walked away.
Power filled the room; ancient, raw energy that caused everything within me to snap to attention as it shot through me. Kieran glanced over at me, grinning, and I really looked at him. He’d changed into a taller, more terrifying being. His features sharpened and pointed ears poked through his hair. He removed the suit jacket, revealing the bronzed skin of his forearms, and smiled, exposing long canines that made my blood leave my face to pool in my expensive heels.
“You’re fae,” I whispered through trembling lips.
“Of course I am.” He said it like I should have understood that before now. “I own the shadows, the same ones that played with you in the forest, and my office, Xariana. Now, close those pretty eyes.” I did as he’d asked, right until I realized I didn’t have to, and I needed to see him.
Kieran strode through the throngs of people on the floor, spewing blood from their lips. He slowly dissolved into shadows that branched off to slither past the crowd. He divided into dark wispy particles that rushed forward toward his victims, responsible for his attempted assassination. The moment he reached them, he entered through their mouths, noses, and eyes. Seconds later, they imploded. Blood and gore splattered through the room, covering those closest in the carnage of his strength.
My breathing became labored, unable to get my heart to stop battering my ribcage with what my eyes told my brain was happening. The ballroom was held in a pregnant silence as the humans tried to figure out what they’d just witnessed, unable to compute it in their minds. My chest rose and fell with the realization of what this meant and with whom I’d had indecent touches.
Kieran appeared before me, cupping my face between his hands while I struggled to calm my reaction to him. Finally, he smiled and lowered his head, brushing his mouth against mine.
“You were peeking,” he growled, nipping my bottom lip with his teeth. “Naughty girl,” he uttered huskily.
“So punish me, Kieran.” I chased his lips as he backed up.
“I’d love to take you up on that offer, beautiful. Unfortunately, I have enemies to murder for trying to kill me.”
“You’re going to hurt them. Aren’t you?” I asked, uncertain why that fact made my thighs clench with need.
“Worse,” he chuckled, slowly dropping his gaze to my legs as if he sensed I was getting hot and bothered knowing he was planning to murder the people who had ruined my night out. “I’m going to end every last fucking one of them.”
I smirked, chewing my lip to stop from smiling. Kieran’s eyes grew heavy with lust, and he stepped closer, forcing my chin to tip as his mouth found mine. He kissed me with a fire that created a burning need inside of me. His hand slid up my spine, twisting through my hair as he devoured me. A soft moan escaped my lungs, only to be swallowed by his hungry mouth. When he broke the kiss, he stared down into my hooded eyes, smiling.
He cradled my jaw, applying enough pressure until pain warred with pleasure. “Bloodthirsty little bitch, you’re making me want to take you home and feel you from the inside. My shadows want that, too, Xariana. But, unfortunately, this party looks—dead, and I need to get you to the guild safely.” He didn’t release me right away, and that was fine by me.
I had never faced another being like me, not in this capacity. It explained the magnetic impulse to have him. Kieran was fae, which meant he could probably sense that I was, too, even if he didn’t comprehend the truth of it yet.
Kieran’s bitch had shot me with iron. He was testing me to see if I was like him. Now, it seemed perfectly logical knowing he’d been sensing me in the same capacity that fae beings met and danced. I was an unmated female, and he was something I could claim and mate. But my needs were suppressed, tethered by magic and spells that prevented another being from knowing what I was.
I’d never seen Kieran with my father, and he wasn’t there when he was taken. That meant he’d come here to find or discover what it was my dad had stolen. Did I trust him? Absolutely not. Did there need to be trust for me to fuck him? Nope. I had needs, and I knew he would soothe my ache unlike anyone else before him. I’d felt more alive in that few moments inside that elevator with his head buried between my thighs than I ever had before.
“Come, little savage hunter, I’ll escort you home,” he whispered huskily.
His words were like a glass of ice water poured over my head. My desire for blood was in the red zone. I needed to make these assholes pay for what they’d intended to do to him. The need to hurt them was driving through me, awakening the monster that slumbered inside of me. My fae half wanted revenge for the slight done here, proving it wasn’t as dormant as my father had assumed it was.
“You better kill every last mother fucker responsible for what happened tonight, Kieran,” I hissed, watching his lips jerk up into a blinding smile.