8

The next morning, Travis was waiting for me when I arrived at the shop. Ambushing me when I climbed out of my car, he penned me between his body and the open driver's door.

I hugged my purse to my belly. "What do you want?"

"Answers."

"You have no evidence I've done anything. This is verging on harassment."

Travis, his eyes flinty, slapped a hand on the roof of my car. "Dammit, Lindsey, I've got reasons to be suspicious of you. Not only did I catch you fooling around with some weirdo, but I also couldn't verify your report of a dead body."

Strange that his first thought had been about Nevan, aka "some weirdo." Why did Travis give a hoot about my relationship with Nevan? Not that I had a relationship with him. Hell, I didn't know what Nevan and I were to each other.

"You don't get to clam up on me, Porter." Travis grabbed my arm. "I gotta explain this crap to the state police."

My scalp prickled with a cold realization. "Something happened."

"A downstater is missing."

"So?"

"The last time his friends saw him, he was walking into this shop. He wanted to see the vortex, but his pals thought it was hokum. They dropped him off here and went over to the museum to check out the big honking steam hoist. Their words, not mine. Anyhow, they haven't seen him since. They reported his disappearance to the state police." He let go of my arm, backing up a couple paces. "Guess they don't trust us yokels. Point is, the fella they're looking for matches your description of the alleged corpse."

"I told you there was a dead guy."

"Yeah, I know." His gaze snapped to the surveillance camera behind me, mounted on the shop's exterior wall. "Stan emailed me the footage from the security camera. I know you had an altercation with the alleged victim."

"The creep was shoplifting."

"Your altercation looked pretty hostile."

I slammed the car door. "What are you hinting at?"

He lodged his hands on his hips, adjusting his belt and the gun holstered on it. "I have to search your car."

"What? Why?""

"Got an anonymous tip." He glanced away, working his shoulders up and down. "You're a person of interest in the case. And I got a warrant."

He plucked a folded sheet of paper from his shirt pocket and thrust it at me. I snatched up the paper. A sick feeling in my stomach, I unfolded the sheet and skimmed the text. Yep, a search warrant.

"It's a routine search," he said, his tone conciliatory. "You've got nothing to worry about, unless you're hiding a body in your trunk."

A cloud scudded in front of the sun. The heat of the sun abandoned me, supplanted by a frigid foreboding. Wind blustered over us, lashing my hair into my face. Behind the rushing of air, I swore I heard a faint cackling, strangely reminiscent of the cry of a jungle creature. Probably a barred owl. They made weird, monkey-like noises.

"Let's check your car," Travis said, "and go from there."

The empathy in his voice disturbed me more than I would've expected. This man despised me, had for years, a fact he'd proved two days ago with his hostile interrogation.

His search began with the car's interior, which he pawed through without expression or comment. "Pop the trunk for me. Please."

I reached through the open window and punched a button. The trunk clicked and floated open a few inches. Travis shoved it up the rest of the way.

His expression blanked. His eyes widened for a second, until his cop demeanor regained its hold.

I took a halting step toward him. "What is it?"

He backed away from the trunk, his gaze glued to whatever lurked inside it.

I couldn't breathe. Every instinct warned me not to look, but I had to know. Trotting forward, I whirled toward the trunk. No, no, no.

There, swaddled in a blanket from my bedroom, lay a human body.

Red hair. Pale skin. Green eyes gaping. The dead man from the woods. In my trunk.

Travis pulled out his handcuffs and moved toward me.

I bolted for the woods, blasting through the rock garden, careening around concrete statuary. Gravel crunched under my feet. The thorns of wild rose bushes nicked my arms and hands, but I ignored the stinging, intent on one goal. Stay out of jail. But how?

Nevan.

Only he could help me. Despite the quivery sensation in my gut at the idea of trusting a man — any man — with my safety, I recognized I needed him right now. Travis would arrest me. He'd have no choice. Who would believe my story? Nobody. I was the ice princess, a liar, the ruthless and crazy girl who fabricated stories.

I crashed through a hydrangea. White petals sprayed up around me. A faint perfume teased my senses, but it was whisked away on the wind kicked up by my flight. I punched through more bushes, leaping onto the dirt trail that led to the falls.

"Lindsey, stop!"

Travis shouted from far behind me. The crack of his footfalls on the gravel of the rock garden told me he'd catch up soon. Too soon.

I pumped my legs faster. I'd told the truth, always, yet none of it mattered. After what happened with Calder, no one would trust a word I said. Except Nevan.

A raven squawked overhead, the sound registering dimly in my panicked brain.

The raven swooped low in front of me. Its wings thwap-thwap-thwapped. Feathers scraped my face an instant before the bird rocketed up, out of sight.

I veered toward the sound of the thundering falls. My thighs burned, my chest ached, grit stuck in my eyes, water splattered my face. I tried to stop, skidded, and toppled over backward. My butt hit the ground with a splat. I gasped as pain shot through my tailbone.

Behind me, twigs snapped. Boots clomped. Voices hollered.

They'd catch me. I had nowhere to run.

Scrambling to my feet, I whirled in a circle. "Nevan!"

What kind of witless damsel in distress had I turned into? Screaming his name again and again, praying for him to appear and rescue me.

Boots clomping. Branches snapping. Water rumbling.

No Nevan. No escape.

I fell to my knees on the grass, my head sagging forward. Scents tantalized me. Sweat, grass, damp earth — and the sweet, sharp aroma of an approaching thunderstorm.

My head sprang up. Earth. Thunderstorms.

Foliage rustled. Footfalls pounded. Travis and his cohorts were seconds away.

A familiar sensation rippled through me. He's coming.

Relief and joy tumbled through me like a landslide. I leaped up and spun toward the falls.

A raven slammed into my chest. The full weight of its body, propelled by the kinetic energy of its flight, combined to flip me off my feet. I smacked into the ground flat on my back, my feet in the air. Lights exploded in my vision as pain ricocheted through my body.

The bird squatted on my chest and thrashed its head, its razor-sharp beak slicing my cheek, igniting searing streaks of pain. The raven's talons sank into my shoulders.

A figure reared up behind the bird, casting a shadow over me and my avian attacker.

Nevan latched onto the raven with one hand and pitched it aside. A thump resounded somewhere to the left. The raven must've hit a tree.

My savior knelt beside me, his face pinched, body stiff, eyes scanning up and down my body as he assessed my condition. He slid his hands into my hair to probe my scalp with unexpected gentleness, then bent close to peer into my eyes. His body relaxed on a long sigh and he raked a hand through his hair, but his expression remained tense.

Nevan slipped an arm under my back to raise me into a sitting position. Pain pulsed in my skull and I groaned. Nevan braced me against his body, cradling my face in one palm. "Are ye hurt, love?"

"No." I slurred the syllable a bit, but after a brief pause, I managed a steadier tone. "I saw stars for a minute, but I'm okay."

A flapping noise pulled my attention to the area past my feet.

The raven squatted there, its beak ajar, wings elevated and spread. The creature's black eyes darted up and down, left and right, as if measuring me up.

I huddled closer to Nevan. He folded an arm around my shoulders.

The bird's body glimmered and blurred, liquefying into an oily mass that hovered in the air. Ribbons of prismatic blue unfurled and writhed within the mass, as it swelled and lengthened into an elongated blob taller than Nevan at his full height. With a snap of electricity and a burst of sparks, the roiling mass coalesced into a humanlike being with male attributes.

The thing rolled his shoulders back, tightening his pitch-dark flesh and flexing his gargantuan shoulders. Thick sinews corded his torso and arms. Nevan boasted an impressive physique, but this man — or bird-man, or whatever — dominated my view with his mountain of muscles, devoid of any cellulite. His skin, from his bald head down to his bare feet, glistened with an iridescent blue sheen. His biceps were thicker than my head.

Nevan rose, though he stuck close to me. His voice seethed when he said, "Brennus."

The raven-man smiled. His lips peeled away from white teeth, each tapered to a blunt point. No amusement emanated from him, but rather his smile conveyed a menace that chilled me down to the deepest atoms of my being.

"Guardian," Brennus said, his voice as deep and dark as his fathomless eyes. "You act against your duty, and Skeiron will know of this. Inciting his wrath is unwise."

Nevan stalked toward Brennus. Hands balled into hard fists, his jaw tight enough to pulverize steel, he incinerated the raven-man with a glare so hot I swore it singed my skin. "If I rip your head from your body, you filthy shapeshifter, you won't have the chance to tell Skeiron."

Brennus laughed. Without mirth. Without pity. He sniggered like a demigod certain of his supremacy over all foes.

It was the most terrifying sound I'd ever heard.

Nevan clamped a hand around Brennus's throat and hurled him across the clearing. The monstrous raven-man whacked into a birch tree. The trunk shivered. A wide fissure splintered the trunk from the ground straight up to the lowest branch.

Brennus surged to his feet and took a single step toward me.

I dug my fingers into the damp earth, as if I might anchor myself there against the shapeshifter's assault.

The raven-man extended his arms to the sides and tipped his head left and right. The shivering branches of the birch tree cast undulating speckles of sunlight on Brennus's skin, sparking on the blue streaks in his flesh. "My master also wants your mortal whore and I am forced to obey his will. As you must obey your king."

Nevan stood a dozen feet from the raven-man, his stance wide. "I perform my duty. That is all Skeiron need know."

I stomped past Nevan to halt between the two supernatural beings. "Jesus, even immortal men have pissing contests. Since this conversation clearly involves me, how about including me in it?"

Brennus speared me with his jet-black gaze, and for a frozen second I wished I could reel my words back into my mouth. Until he spoke again.

"Guardian," he snarled, "silence your female before I do."

I stamped my foot. "Talk to the female, asshole. I'm not deaf."

Nevan grasped my shoulders from behind and whispered, "Allow me to handle this."

Brennus stretched out his fingers. The sunlight glanced off his wickedly sharp nails.

I gulped. Nodded. Sidled around Nevan so his body shielded me. Even I understood when to retreat.

Brennus let his arms fall to his side. "Beware, guardian. Protecting the female may bring about your own destruction. She will be his in either case."

Every muscle in Nevan's body had gone taut, sculpting him into a bronzed statue more beautiful than Michelangelo's David and more imposing than any Greek god. He squared his shoulders and met Brennus's cold gaze head-on.

Despite eclipsing him by more than two feet, Brennus paled next to the sylph. Even the raven-man's Himalayan Mountains of muscle could not compete with the awe-inspiring presence and raw sensuality of Nevan in his full glory.

And God, was he magnificent. Anger molded him into a spectacle straight out of ancient legends.

"Leave," Nevan said. "If any harm comes to this female, I will unleash my wrath upon you. Do you recall the power of my wrath, Brennus?"

The raven-man shuffled backward.

Hell, I would've too if Nevan had aimed his threat in my direction. Everything about him, from his stance to the seething undertone of his voice, screamed danger. Somehow, though, his anger didn't frighten me half as much as Calder's had, when he'd morphed from nice guy to demon incarnate.

Brennus turned his hands palm up, raising them to shoulder height. "These are not my commands, guardian. Heed them or do not, it makes no difference to me."

Nevan peeled his lips away from his clenched teeth. "Leave."

The raven-man shimmered and dissolved, his mass shrinking into a blob the size of a raven. Within a heartbeat, the figure solidified into a bird. Brennus took off into the sky.

Nevan turned to me, and the second our eyes met, his fiery tension was doused. His expression, once forged from wrought-iron, softened. I softened too, overcome with a need to throw my arms around him and kiss him until we were both mindless. I'd dived headfirst into romance with a deadly man once before, though, and I couldn't do it again.

"Can you explain to me," I asked, "what that insane conversation was all about?"

"I believe Brennus was threatening you as a means to control me. He is Skeiron's assassin and spy. Why he would claim Skeiron wants you, or for what reason that might be true, I cannot say."

"I see." Didn't really, but with the confrontation over, the electrical surge of adrenaline that had bolstered me snuffed out. I let my head fall onto his chest.

He smoothed my hair away from my face. "It's all right."

"No." I tilted my head up to stare at him. "It's not all right. A scary bird-man called me a whore and threatened to hand me over to an even scarier guy. All right is a distant planet and I don't have a rocket to take me there."

"Since I am from another world, you may consider me your distant planet." He splayed his fingers over my shoulder, gliding them down to my elbow. "And you have already touched down."

Oh, the idea sounded so good I wanted to melt into him. As badly as I longed to seek solace in him, I couldn't. "This is really bad, isn't it?"

"Yes."

I moved away from him. "I'm glad you don't feel the need to sugarcoat things. It's awfully comforting."

He narrowed his eyes. "What would you have me do, lie?"

"Of course not." I kicked the dirt with my toe and watched a little clod fly up. "Don't know what I want. Supernatural threats make me irrational. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but no."

He took hold of my chin with a warm, strong hand, compelling me to look up at him. "Lindsey, has someone else threatened you? Someone besides Brennus or Skeiron?"

"Not lately."

His face went as taciturn and implacable as stone, though a muscle in his jaw ticked. "Tell me when. And who."

A command, not a request.

His hand still gripped my chin. I shied away from his touch, backing up another pace. "I don't want to talk about it."

Fingers twitching, he blew a breath out his nose.

The memory of Brennus's attack reeled through me. His beak piercing my cheek. His talons knifing into my shoulders. I yanked up my T-shirt to check for wounds, exposing the low-cut bra that shielded my breasts. The raven's talons hadn't broken the skin.

Nevan averted his eyes and winced.

"You're embarrassed? Seriously?" I rolled my eyes. "Nibbling my ear is okay, but one glimpse of my bra and you're humiliated."

He cleared his throat. "I am not humiliated. I'm simply trying to… respect your privacy."

"Whatever you say." I dropped my shirt and it fluttered down to cover me again. I glanced around the clearing, where the evidence of the Brennus tumult marked the ground and trees. The pounding of approaching men had silenced. "Wait a minute. The cops were coming for me and they were almost here."

"I made them believe you'd run the other way."

"You — How?"

"Magic, naturally." He strode toward me. "However, my illusions rarely last long. The fae from whom I acquired the spell refused to give it endurance."

"Oh. Sure. I get it." In a warped reality where magic made perfect sense, I would've gotten it. Confined to my world, I suffered from a pressure headache triggered by thinking about this insanity for too long.

"We must go." Nevan proffered a hand. "Well, darlin'? I haven't got all day. Even a sylph has work to do."

"Porter!"

Travis's voice bellowed through the woods. He burst out of the trees and stopped twenty feet away, breathing hard, his face red from exertion. "Why the hell'd you run?"

"You were going to arrest me. I can't go through that again. I won't."

Between huffing breaths, Travis said, "I wouldn't do that."

"You took out your handcuffs."

"Force of habit. I wouldn't arrest you."

"But you'll haul me in for questioning."

"Had to, and I kinda thought — " He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and back again, while his fingers plucked at the strap on his gun holster. "Never mind. I'm sorry."

I fumbled for a response but came up empty.

A shuffling noise jerked me out of my confusion. Nevan traipsed around me, planting himself between me and Travis, who leaned sideways to keep an eye on me. Every couple seconds, he'd shoot a dagger glare at Nevan, but the sylph ignored it.

Nevan, shoulders back and head held high, gazed down on us mere mortals with austere confidence. I was struck once again by the power he exuded, his aura of otherness, beautiful and yet so far beyond my reach.

Realizing with a start Travis had spoken again, I blinked rapidly and tried to focus on him. "Huh?"

The sheriff stared at me for a few seconds, then his gaze tracked to the loincloth-clad elemental being stationed between us. His hand on his holster, he tapped one finger on the Sig berthed inside it. "What's this freak doing to you? Drugs? Hypnosis?"

Travis stalked toward me, veering around my self-appointed protector.

Nevan thrust out an arm, blocking him.

"Outta my way," Travis snapped.

Nevan regarded Travis with remote interest, like a scientist observing a microbe — and preparing to squash it.

A minute ago, I'd reveled in his incredible power. What had I been high on? The last thing I needed was Nevan pummeling the county sheriff. I'd get blamed for it, for sure. "Nevan, cut it out."

He ignored me, though a single, dark brow ticked upward.

I shot for a reasonable tone, despite my hammering heart and the sweat dribbling down my temples. "Please let Travis go by. He won't hurt me. Will you, Travis?"

"Course not." Travis raised a fist at Nevan. "But if this freak don't get outta my way, I will pump six rounds of hollow-point ammo smack into his brain."

Great. That would defuse the situation for sure.

"Let's all calm down." I directed a serene smile first at Travis, then at the sylph. "Please, Nevan."

He stepped aside, but kept his steely gaze on the sheriff.

Travis rushed toward me, seizing my shoulders. "Wake up, Lindsey, shake it off. Let me help you."

Nevan's mouth angled into a cool smile. "Perhaps she doesn't trust you."

Travis slung a sidelong glare at Nevan. "Stay outta this."

"Afraid I can't, son."

Travis tore his hands away from me to stab a finger in Nevan's direction. "I am not your son. For one thing, you aren't old enough to be my dad, and believe me, I'm real grateful for that." His hands fisted so tightly the muscles in his arms bulged. "Back off. This is between me and Lindsey. I don't know who the hell you are, but I guarantee I will find out."

"Highly doubtful." A derisive smile tautened Nevan's mouth. "But go on and try, son. It'll be amusing."

Travis shook his fists in the air, his face flushing bright red. "You son of a bitch — "

"Gah!" I shouted. "Enough. You two are acting like cavemen."

Both men swung their gazes to me. Expectant. Questioning. Irritated.

I huffed. "Don't give me that look, either of you. I do what I want, remember? It's called free will."

Nevan looked suitably chagrined, but Travis stared at me like I'd grown three extra heads — tiny gargoyle heads that were making rude faces at him.

Travis scrubbed a hand over his face, straightened, and held out a hand to me. "Listen, I know we ain't exactly been friends, but I never lied to you. Come back with me."

Something flickered across Nevan's features, something reminiscent of disappointment, but it dissipated too fast for me to be sure. He slackened his shoulders, cocking one hip. "Do what you want."

Despite his aloof pose, he fixed his gaze directly on mine. The metallic hues in his irises blended and twirled, diverging and joining, hypnotizing me for a second too long. I neglected to notice he'd moved closer, edging up beside me, until I realized — thanks to a muscle spasm at the base of my skull — I'd craned my neck back to maintain eye contact.

"Lindsey," Travis said, in his most commanding cop voice.

I ripped my gaze from Nevan, returning my attention to Travis.

The sheriff held his arms stiff at his sides, fingers coiled into his palms. "I know you don't trust me. Why would you? I shoulda believed you about Calder, shoulda supported you, but I couldn't accept my brother had turned into some kinda… monster." He tugged at his shirt collar, rolling his shoulders in jerky movements. "I shouldn't have arrested you three years ago. I won't do it today. You gotta believe me."

"Am I supposed to be grateful?"

Travis shuffled up to my other side, scowling at Nevan, his anger easing up as he snaked his hand around mine. His skin was cool, his hold awkward. "We can fix this together. Just stay."

Though Nevan said nothing, his lips had flattened and his nostrils flared the tiniest bit. When he curved one corner of his mouth into a faint attempt at a grin, the expression stopped short of his eyes.

I glanced back and forth between the two cavemen before me. How could I turn away from Travis, a man I'd known for five years, in favor of someone I met yesterday? Travis had always despised me — or so I'd thought. As for Nevan, I had no clue what he felt.

Standing rigid beside me, Nevan spoke in a low voice. "You know I am the only one who can protect you."

Travis had turned his back on me three years ago, when I needed a friend the most. In the past two days alone, Nevan had aided me more than anyone else in my whole life. Anyone except my family.

I slipped my hand into Nevan's. He squeezed gently. A genuine, if muted, smile relaxed his lips.

"No," Travis said, shaking his head vigorously. "You can't be serious. Stay here."

I moved closer to Nevan, my shoulder bumping his chest. "I can't stay. Nevan's right. He can help me a lot more than you can."

"Are you kidding me? You can't run off with Kevin the jungle fairy."

Nevan shot ramrod straight, his gaze narrowing on Travis. "I am not a fairy."

Travis ground his teeth. "I ain't letting you take her."

What drug was he on? Travis had treated me like a criminal until abruptly deciding to help. "I'm going with Nevan."

Travis bolted his hand around my arm and I flinched at his steel grip. "I won't let you go, Porter. You're a suspect in a murder."

"You're giving me vertigo with your constant one-eighties. Make up your mind, Travis. Hate me, help me, you have to pick one."

Spittle spraying from his lips, he snarled, "I'll do whatever it takes to keep you away from — " He punched a finger in the air toward Nevan without looking at the other man. "Away from that thing."

Confronted with Travis's vehemence, I sidled closer to Nevan. Travis's behavior had grown so erratic I had no clue what he might resort to next.

He wrested the cuffs from his belt. "This is for your own good, Lindsey."

Nevan flicked his wrist.

Travis's feet flipped out from under him and he sailed backward through the air. His body thwacked down at the far side of the clearing. Prone on the ground, Travis jacked his head up, grimacing, his eyes dull and his hair mussed.

I wrested my hand free of Nevan's. "What are you doing? You could've killed him."

"The sheriff is unharmed." Nevan grazed his knuckles across my cheek. "He threatened you."

"Now who's jealous."

"I said I'd protect you and I keep my promises." He dragged one fingertip down my jaw, a faint smile on his lips. "I seem to recall a certain mortal screaming my name, begging for my help."

Crap. I had. Worse, I didn't regret it. But still…

I studied Travis. He'd pushed up into a sitting position and was fingering the back of his head.

Nevan hauled me into his arms, pressing me into his body, suffusing me with his primal heat. He had hidden layers to his personality and I didn't know if I could or should accept his darker side. In this moment, though, he represented my best hope.

He spanned the small of my back with his large hands, tethering me to him. "Ready?"

"For what?"

"To cross the veil."

Sheesh, his world had screwy terminology. "To what the what?"

"You'll see."

The world evaporated into a roiling mist, the ground fell away beneath us, and we plunged into blackness.