“What’s the plan?” he asked, his voice steeled.
Siobhan wasn’t looking at him anymore, and he let her keep a half-step lead. She felt bad, he could tell, but he didn’t have the skill to lessen her guilt.
“I know where the ritual site is. Since they’re not bound by the timeline of my birthday, I think they’ll move fast. If they think there’s a possibility something might interrupt the rite, they’ll want to do it as soon as possible. I was hoping to catch them before they got someone, but the city is too big and…”
“And you guys have that fun, fancy travel by light circle thing.”
“Exactly.” They were off the bridge, and he followed her to a parking garage where they took an elevator to the lowest level, an empty and shockingly dark space.
“This place is a rapist’s wet dream,” he said, shaking his head.
“It’s also a handy place to travel by light circle,” she countered, repeating his words with no small amount of sarcasm.
She pulled him between two large concrete pillars and stood close. Close enough the heat from her body radiated against him, and he was hard-pressed—so to speak—to not recall the way she had writhed under him the night before. He sucked in a breath.
Siobhan removed the long knife from her boot sheath and didn’t so much as flinch as she cut open her finger. Bright blue light illuminated the parking lot like a second sun. When Siobhan dropped to her knees, her head was precariously close to Shane’s crotch, but she didn’t seem interested in giving him a blowjob right then. Instead she traced a small circle around them, bracing herself against his legs to complete it.
When she stood and sheathed the blade, Shane’s heart was hammering.
“Hold on tight,” she instructed.
He looped both arms around her waist and tugged her against him, making her gasp, but she didn’t try to wriggle free of his hold. “Just doing what the lady tells me.”
“Do you always follow directions so…literally?”
“Tell me to do something else and find out.”
“Shut up.”
“You asked for it.” He dipped his head and kissed her.
Chapter Eleven
The next thing Shane knew he was throwing up on the sidewalk.
“Idiot,” Siobhan said, but she was laughing as she said it. “You’re lucky we didn’t end up trading tongues in the transport.”
“Hurrruffff,” Shane replied, seeing his SpaghettiOs dinner for the second time that night.
She gave him a gentle kick in the ribs. As gentle as a kick in the ribs could be, anyway.
“Get up, you great big pussy.”
Shane clambered to his feet, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and leveling her a hard glare. “A warning would have been nice.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. You were too busy sexually assaulting me for me to get around to an in-flight safety demonstration.”
“I’m starting to think your family had the right idea wanting to sacrifice you.”
They stared at each other. She broke first, showing a half smile in spite of her best efforts to remain stony. “Yeah, well. You fucked that up. In a manner of speaking.”
Shane snorted. “Where have you taken us, you crazy woman?” He tried for nasty, but his tone made it sound endearing. He was failing on every level, and this chick was turning him into a big old softhearted mess. This was terrible.
“We’re near the gateway. It’s over there.” She pointed.
To a Bath & Body Works.
“Are you shitting me?” He stared at her, doubting her sanity. Certainly she was playing a trick on him. Some sort of druid hazing ritual. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”