Images of the two of them together swirled through his mind, teasing her as they danced around. Shadows hid their bodies, but the action was clear. He wanted her, and the idea was so shocking, she found it hard to breathe.

She was prettier through his eyes, with a sultry kind of sex appeal she’d never seen in herself before. She was a dork, not some kind of exotic goddess the way he seemed to think. Her eyes weren’t nearly that big, her skin not even close to that luminous. As much as she liked the way he saw her, it wasn’t real. It wasn’t true.

As she watched Cain’s fantasies, her body began to heat, and a flush spread out over her skin. Her clothes felt too small. An empty, needy ache coalesced in her belly as every feminine part of her perked up in interest.

His vision-self bent to kiss her neck, and she swore she could feel the soft brush of his mouth on her real throat—the one that was not nearly so long and elegant as this fake Rory. But fake or not, watching his dark head work its way down as he layered kisses on her too-luminous skin was intoxicating. Tempting.

A moment later, the lovely images vanished, and she found herself being pushed away from his mind. She fought it, but was too weak from flinging magic around to fight him.

“You weren’t supposed to see that,” he said.

“Oh, I see how it is. You get to barge into my head, but yours is off-limits?”

“No, but there’s no point in subjecting you to my lack of control. Is there?”

Lack of control? That’s what he thought that was?

Her voice was a bit breathless, her mouth dry from what she’d seen. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Once you find your savior, we’ll part ways—in a few days, maybe a few weeks.” His arm shifted. Muscles hardened at her back, and she was lifted closer to him. Almost close enough to reach his mouth. “The things I want to do to you will take far longer than that. Why taste something rare if you know you’re only going to want more?”

Oh. Well. She hadn’t thought of it quite like that. She opened her mouth to respond, but not a single coherent thought came to mind. He’d robbed her of every one of them with the way his eyes lingered on her mouth as if dying for a taste.

The low, quivering heat in her belly was all in favor of giving it a shot. For however long she could have him. “You might not like me as much as you think.”

“Or perhaps I’d like you more. I haven’t been with anyone in a long, long time. It may take me a while to work my extended celibacy out of my system.”

That sounded like the most delightful of challenges to her. “Okay.”

“Is that an offer, Rory?”

She wanted it to be—she wanted to feel just a fraction of what those naughty thoughts of his made her feel—but the huge lag between her brain and her mouth was causing problems. All that came out was a noncommittal squeak.

His head bent over hers, his lips only an inch away from her mouth. And then he stopped. “I couldn’t slow you down like that,” he said. “You have your savior to find. We should probably get going.”

A second later, his mouth was gone and his hot expression froze over, as if they hadn’t just been talking about ending his extended celibacy. With her.

Cain’s pants buzzed, and she realized that his phone was vibrating. For a second, she thought it was some new kind of magic meant to rob her of her last few remaining brain cells. Everything was so messed up, she hadn’t expected something as mundane as a cell phone.

Cain answered the call. Rory wanted to step away from him and give him some privacy, but her legs weren’t cooperating. The sexy images, as well as playing with magic left her shaken and her knees way too weak to go for a stroll.

She heard the muted voice of another man on the line. Cain’s body straightened, and he shifted from relaxed to red alert in seconds. “I can be there by sundown . . . No, it’s my debt to repay. I made a vow.”

The other man spoke again, briefly, and then Cain hung up. “I have to go. It’s an emergency.”

She didn’t want him to leave, which was ludicrous. A few hours ago, she hadn’t even wanted him to know where she lived, and now she was having a freak-out festival over this?

Apparently, all this magical crap caused brain damage.

Rory put on a nonchalant air of indifference. She refused to let him know that anything he did affected her—leaving or otherwise. “No problem. I’ll call a cab to take me into the city to get my car. You can call me if you want to meet up later.”

He didn’t move a muscle, and yet he seemed to grow bigger, scarier. His arm at her back tightened, and she could feel his fingers curl at her hip. “If? You clearly still don’t understand the situation between us.”

“Kinda hard to understand something when no one’s bothering to explain it to me.”

Cain drew in a long breath and let it out slowly. His chest expanded to monumental proportions, and Rory couldn’t help but want to dig her fingers in just to feel all those muscles flex beneath his skin.

So yummy. But she was not nearly woman enough to eat him up. No way. A man like him was too much for her to handle. She’d been with only a couple of guys, and both of them were like children by comparison—all small and stringy. She was not a strong enough woman to withstand the kind of lover Cain would be—especially not after a long time of abstinence.

Though how he’d managed to go more than a week without some woman attacking him was a mystery.

“You’re right,” he said. “I should be more patient with you.”

If he was any more patient, her panties were going to combust. “Just tell me what’s going on.”

“I need to leave now—someone is in danger. I’d like it very much if you’d come with me.”

He would? A small girly part of her did a giddy little dance. “Why?”

“Because you’ll be safe at my side.”

Some of that giddiness lost its shine, deflating her. “I can take care of myself.”

“I’m not suggesting you’re weak, but you have to admit that not being able to stand on your own has its disadvantages. Especially if the demons find you. And if I leave, you have no car, no way to escape if you need to.”

That sounded like a perfect formula for a bad day.

Rory pushed herself to her feet and stepped back well out of his reach. Maybe if she put more distance between them, her brain would start working right again.

Her legs trembled, but held her up, which was all she was asking of them right now.

She’d thought that if she was no longer touching him that her normally adequate brain would start working right again. Instead, she was able to see him better from this distance, which gave him a completely unfair advantage.

She closed her eyes to block out the sight, and Mrs. Wittle’s gnarled hands appeared out of nowhere as she dunked a tea bag in hot water.

Maybe getting out of here was a good idea. She could get her car back and things could go back to normal. Seeing visions at home was just too weird for her to handle. At least when she left her house, she expected to be invaded by the sights. Having it happen here was too . . . intrusive.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s go. But on the way, you’re going to tell me everything you know about how all this magic stuff works.”

“Whatever you want to know. All you have to do is ask.”

“Let’s start with where we’re going.”

Cain stood up in one smooth, beautiful movement and brushed the dead grass from his jeans. “To save a vampire’s life.”

Chapter 12

Cain drove as fast as he dared. He was racing against the sun, and if he didn’t make it to Ronan before dark, the Sanguinar wasn’t likely to survive.

Cain’s promise to Logan to give Ronan his blood pushed Cain to hurry, filling the back of his mind with a searing sense of urgency. Beside him, Rory reloaded her gun.

“How far away is your vampire buddy?” she asked.

He glanced in the rearview mirror at the setting sun now touching the horizon. “Too far, I fear.”

“Stop it with the vague answers. Be specific.”

If specific was what she wanted, he would give it to her—anything to keep her at his side where he could ensure her safety. His plans for seduction, his playing hard to get, was working on his feisty Rory, just as he’d hoped. Perhaps it was devious of him to use her own stubbornness against her, but his life was at stake. He found he couldn’t help himself. And even if it hadn’t been, the prize of feeling her body glide naked against his was more than enough to compel him.

Cain cleared his throat and tried not to sound like his cock was so hard it ached. “Ronan is lying in the basement of a Gerai house about twenty miles from here. He’s too weak to move, and he’s bled, which means that once the sun goes down—”

“The demons will come to chow down. Got it.” She tucked her gun in her purse. “What’s a Gerai house?”

“Blooded humans—those who are descendants of an ancient, magical race—sometimes agree to help us Sentinels. One of the things they do is keep homes stocked with food and supplies and ensure that we have places to go when we need to rest or heal.”

“Like safe houses.”

“Exactly.”

She was quiet for a moment, and it took Cain a healthy dose of willpower to keep from reaching through the link the luceria created in order to see what it was she was thinking. Eventually, she might welcome him into her head, but Rory wasn’t the most trusting woman he’d ever met. And she was armed.

“You know, if you would have told me last night that I’d be going on a rescue mission with a sword-wielding warrior to save a vampire, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

“And now?”

“Completely plausible. How crazy is that?”

“Another day on the job for me.” For us, he wanted to say, but held his tongue. She’d made it clear where her boundaries were, and Hope’s warning was not lost on him. Push her and she’ll push back. Hard.

He didn’t want that. In fact, what he wanted was to be right back where they’d been a little while ago, with her hands on his chest and her lips close enough to touch. If she’d so much as glance down at the time, she would have seen just how much she affected him—how the mere idea of her lips on his skin made him rock hard.

But she hadn’t looked down, and she was taking their rescue mission, as she called it, in stride.

Rory was certainly an adaptable creature. She rolled with the punches, which was something he was sure would serve her well in the days ahead. Maybe sooner.

Her body tightened up, and he could feel a spurt of frustration trickling through the luceria. That feeling had come from her, but Cain absorbed it and let it become part of him, marveling at how their connection was growing so fast so soon. “What’s wrong?”

She shifted in her seat and smoothed her pink hair behind her ears. “Just a bit of mental channel surfing. Nothing to worry about.”

“We’re not near any populated areas.” In fact, they were even farther out than her house was, even more isolated. There was no traffic around—no one in sight.