I stayed in the tub until the water grew cold. When I was drunk enough and wrinkled like a prune, I grabbed a towel, wrapped it around me, and slowly opened the door. I glanced around the bedroom, but thankfully, there was no sign of Darcy.
It was just after midday by the time I came out of the bath according to my phone. Damn. I never got drunk before lunch, but having one’s immortal ex turn up out of the blue would drive anyone to drink. The truth was I knew why he was here. He was here to talk me out of killing the creatures. That was what I did. That was my job. My boss gave me the cases and expected me to write a story about it. But I took it one step further, and then covered it up by writing some mundane story about the mysterious sightings only turning out to be someone’s pet dog or cat, or someone’s overgrown pet lizard. So far, I had killed hundreds of supernatural creatures who had made the mistake of wandering into the human realm. And Darcy had tried to prevent every single one of those deaths. He had only succeeded in stopping about half of my actual attempts. My tally would be a lot higher if it weren’t for him. Damn him. He was the bane of my existence.
And that was all because he bit me over three hundred years ago and ignited my power.
I hadn’t wanted to be what I was born to be. My father was a dragon shifter and my mother a witch. It was because they fell in love, two beings forbidden to love outside their species; therefore, I was cursed. I was born out of taboo. I was an abomination, and I was the one who wrote the rules for banning procreation outside of species of one’s own kind—before my ancestor came along and rewrote history. Eva destroyed everything I worked so hard to achieve. She crumbled my empire, and I was determined now more than ever to make it right again. I was going to take back my throne and reinstate the rules which I had created. And no one was going to stop me. Not even Darcy.
I dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved shirt and a snow jacket that could easily be cleaned in case I had to do any killing. The sun was still up, and I wasn’t that drunk despite finishing the wine. My supernatural blood had quickly burned off the lingering effects of the alcohol. It was good to be a supernatural being sometimes. I pulled on a pair of hiking boots I had purchased for the trip and then I fished through my bag until I found what I was looking for—my athame. I had glamorized it to look like a toothbrush so that I could take it through airport security. I waved my hand over the toothbrush, and it immediately turned back into my silver and pink diamond encrusted sword. This athame was my originally my mother’s, which she had gifted me on my eighteenth birthday. It was spelled to kill other supernatural beings who broke the law. And the best thing was Darcy didn’t know I had it. I had it on me the night my life changed, the night I met him, but after he had bitten me in the throes of passion, I had been too startled to use it on him. That or the other reason, which I hated to admit, was I still loved him. I shook the thought out of my head. Damn him. He was always haunting me, asleep or awake. I had to focus on the task at hand. I had to find these wolves.
I headed out the front door into the thick pine forest.
***
The pine forest was filled with an array of bird life and ground dwelling creatures. They probably weren’t supernatural, but I kept my ears pricked for any signs that the mysterious lupine creatures were nearby. As I walked down the steady decline through the thick undergrowth of the forest, my mind wandered to Darcy. I wonder where he had disappeared to and if he would show up anytime soon. I shook my head and cursed myself. No, I couldn’t let him distract me. But that was what he did best—distract me and make me feel flustered and, dare I say, um… horny—that I wouldn’t kill. That was just what vampires did. I couldn’t let him beat me.
I was quite a distance from the cabin when I heard it.
The howl.
I called on my supernatural agility and predatory stalking ability as I quickly but quietly ran toward the howl.
I broke through a bush and into a sunny meadow when I saw it. On a rocky outcrop, a large silver wolf was perched. It raised its head to howl once more, probably to warn its fellow pack members nearby a threat was close. It must have heard me, though, because it turned its gaze toward me and pinned me with its shining golden eyes. I crouched behind a Kouri tree, its wide trunk partially concealing me, and reached for my athame. But by the time I pulled it from my back pocket, the silver wolf was gone.
I wanted to scream, but the feeling of eerie coldness settled on me again. I knew what it was. Or rather, who it was. I gritted my teeth.
“Damn you, Darcy. I had him,” I hissed. I turned on him and pinned him with my icy glare. He stood behind me, looking as sexy as always, with his movie star looks and his tousled post-sex hair.
“It’s not too late to come to that agreement.”
“I told you there is no agreement. You do your job, and I do mine. And we stay separate. On opposite sides of the world.” I glanced around the glade, but the wolf was nowhere to be seen. Darcy had scared it off.
“Ah, but that is hard when my job involves stopping you from doing yours.” He paced a small circle, taunting me and teasing me. I drew in a breath and turned to stomp back toward the cabin. But he was in front of me in a flash, blocking my path.
“Why do you resist, Emma?” he whispered before leaning in and kissing my neck softly and disappearing out of sight. I turned around in a circle, but he was gone.
Once more, I cursed him. I stalked back to the cabin in a worse mood than before.