“How did we get here?” She was holding one hand up to ward him off.
Lucian ignored her hand to step close so that he could lean down and once more find her mouth, his tongue lingering along her lips, caressing, healing, savoring the taste of her. Jaxon pushed at the wall of his chest, not wanting to get caught up in his black magic.
“Answer me. How did we get here?”
He looked amused. “It is not that hard to move through—”
“Stop!” Jaxon put both hands over her ears. “Don’t say anything until I think about this. Every time you say anything, you make me more nuts.”
His black eyes were shamelessly laughing at her. He reached out a lazy hand to remove the rifle from her shoulder. She was wildly beautiful and incredibly appealing to him, standing there with her huge chocolate eyes and untamed hair. But her mind was struggling to find answers, and she had a penchant for violence, so the rifle had to go.
A wolf cry sounded, the note joyful in the night. “There.” She waved toward the forest. “Your little friends are calling you. Go run and play with them for a while. You overwhelm me at the moment. I could use a break.”
He put an arm out toward her. “Running with the wolves is truly a great joy, angel.” His arm rippled with fur. Black glossy fur. His hand contorted, shifted shape.
Jaxon heard herself scream. She couldn’t believe the strangled sound came from her own throat. She whirled around, jerked open the door to the kitchen, slipped inside, and slammed it shut. She locked every single dead bolt on the door before sliding to the floor. She drew her knees up and rocked herself for comfort.
This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be happening. What are you? She cried it in her mind. What was he? What should she do? If she called the police, no one would believe her. And the alternative would be that they did believe her, and the government would put Lucian in a laboratory and dissect him. Jaxon buried her face in her hands. What was she going to do? Maybe it was another trick. Another illusion. Just because he had named that hideous creature vampire didn’t mean it was true. It was an illusion. It had to be. He was a master magician. That was how he made all his money, right? Weren’t all magicians billionaires? Please let them all be billionaires.
Something made her lift her head. She was very careful to keep her hands over her face and only peek out between her fingers. Through the open door leading into the hall, she saw what looked like a low bank of fog. It just seemed to hang there for a moment silently. She bit at her knuckles with her teeth. Fog. In the house. Of course there was fog in Lucian’s house. Wasn’t fog in everyone’s house?
Then Lucian’s tall elegance filled the doorway, blocking her view of the hall. His black gaze moved slowly over her face. She saw stark possessiveness in his eyes. She recognized it, when all she wanted to do was run. But she could no more have gotten to her feet than fly. “Go away, Lucian.”
“I have frightened you, honey. I am sorry. I was only teasing you.”
Her long eyelashes fluttered for a moment before she actually found the courage to look up at him again. Why did he have to have such presence? He exuded power. “Everyone I know can turn into a wolf. That’s what you were doing, wasn’t it? Turning into a wolf?” Her teeth bit down hard on her knuckles.
He crossed the room with his silent, easy stride. Her heart slammed painfully. She tried to make herself smaller. Lucian simply sank to the floor beside her, his back to the door, his body close to hers. He drew his knees up, every movement slow and deliberate so as not to frighten her any further. “I was showing off.” His hand touched her hair. “Nothing else, nothing sinister, just showing off.”
Jaxon winced. “Well, don’t do it again. People just can’t do those things, Lucian. They can’t, okay? You really aren’t able to do them, so stop thinking you can. It isn’t possible.”