The man takes North’s money, nodding. “I have her signature so I can create the charm. It’ll be about fifteen minutes.”
“Do you want to look around?” Cain asks as the man goes to make the charm in the back of his stall.
North grunts. “We should stay here.”
“You guys really didn’t have to do that for me. I lost my concealment charm, it’s my own fault, and I brought trouble to you guys. It’s not like you broke it or anything.”
Cain sighs, then reaches up to tuck some of my dark hair behind my ear, his fingertips brushing along the curve of it. It makes me shiver with heat, even at such a small, delicate touch. “You darling creature, when are you going to figure out that we’re going to take care of you? You’re our mate, that’s how it works.”
I’m not sure what to make of Cain’s charm—is he serious in calling me something like ‘darling creature’? Or is it just a part of all… the demonic veneer that’s in his blood?
“Once we get the charm,” North adds, probably thinking I’m upset that I can’t go shopping, “we can look around and you can get whatever you want.”
You can get whatever you wantimplies that they’ll be paying for whatever it is I’m going to get. What the hell. This whole thing is weird and kind of terrifying. I’m realizing that I have power over these men. I could ask for anything, and I’m pretty sure they’d get it for me. I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do with this power. I don’t want to abuse it.
But at the same time, it’s not exactly—uncomfortable? It feels comforting, reassuring, even though I’ve only known them for barely a day. I can hardly believe that it’s been so short of a time.
I open my mouth to protest that they will not be buying me anything else—I’m still an independent girl, and I have my own money, thanks—when North’s head shoots up again and his eyes go dark, like a wolf who sees a rabbit.
“Shit,” Raven mutters, shoving me behind him.
An instant later, a man lands right where I’d just been standing. From the stalls around us, four more people leap out—various supernaturals, one a transformed shifter in full wolf mode.
Shit indeed. More assassins have found me.
CHAPTER9
The transformed shifter lets out a howl, and all around us everyone dives for cover. They probably don’t know what’s going on, but they sure as hell know a fight when they see one.
North growls and leaps at the guy, tackling him to the ground as Raven transforms, his claws, fangs, and horns emerging, his skin going gray. He’s even bigger now, and he looks like something you wouldn’t want to meet down a dark alley. It’s reassuring to know that he’s on my side.
Three of the assassins come for me, and Raven grabs all of them with his massive clawed hands, roaring, sending them crashing in a tangle into one of the stalls.
One of the assassins hits me from the side, sending the two of us flying. I’m airborne for just a second as my feet leave the ground, and I grab onto the pole from one of the stalls that’s used to hold up the canopy, using my momentum to spin around the pole and kick my attacker in the face.
The guy’s face is distorted—all of the assassins’ faces are—it’s clearly a magical charm of some kind to make sure that nobody can recognize them later. It’s like a real-time version of when television shows blur out a person’s face for interviews.
He’s disoriented from the kick, so I punch him right in the face—I can feel his nose crunching, and I feel a surge of triumph. Ha!
The guy goes down, but then someone grabs my arm. I whip around, and I see it’s the magic user—wizard, magician, whatever—and he’s waving his other fingers in the air in a spell that is definitelynotfor a concealment charm.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure we know how the assassins found me. Fuck’s sake.
There’s a slithering, hissing growl, not like a wolf growl, almost like if a snake learned to make proper noise, and Cain’s there, grabbing the magician’s wrist, snarling like—well, like a demon.
“Traitor,” he spits. His eyes are glowing and blood starts to seep out from where he’s holding onto the other man, red staining the tattoos on his arms.
The magician’s face contorts with fear as he realizes what Cain is. “P-please, I’m sorry, the bounty on her is—it’s huge, I didn’t know—I didn’t know she had friends like you—”
The shadows around Cain seem to distort, and he almost seems taller now. Like he’s drawing the darkness into him and making it a part of his body. “You filthy, squirming little—”
“Cain!” North growls, a reprimand. “We have to go.”
Cain glares at the man like he wants to finish what he started, but he releases him. The magician cowers, his arms up in front of his face, shaking.
I’ve gotta admit, it gives me some real satisfaction to see him like this. Ha. I’ve never been able to scare anyone who’s wronged me like that before. I should probably feel scared of Cain, of his demonic side, but I just feel safe. He was using it to protect me—and I just know, innately, that he’d never hurt me.
Cain takes my hand, looking perfectly normal again, and leads me to rejoin the other two. The other assassins are lying on the ground, or seem to have vanished. Raven looks normal again, and North has some blood on him.