“This is the point where most guys get really afraid and leave, as fast as they can.” She hesitated. “Uh, Todd? Can you say something? Are—are you all right?”
“No, I’m not all right,” he gritted. “My lover just told me she’s a damn demon.” Not the best news he could have gotten, but at least she hadn’t confessed to being a murdering demon. “You…don’t look like a demon.”
Now her smile really did break his heart. “Sure I do,” she said, and closed her eyes. When they opened a second later, they were black. Completely black.
“Shit!”
Another blink, and her blue gaze was back. “It’s just a little glamour,” she told him, lifting a brow.
Those eyes. He’d seen them before. The darkness. Black cornea. Retina. He’d seen it with—
Niol. That ass**le at Paradise Found. He’d wondered why someone would wear contacts like that, but if Cara was telling him the truth, that meant Niol was a demon, too.
And that fact made a hell of a lot of sense when Todd remembered his strange attack in the bar.
“You’re handling this, um, rather well.” Cara gazed at him solemnly.
When Todd lifted his hand to shove back his wet hair, he noticed a tremble still in his fingers. Not that well, baby. He tried for rational. “Demons aren’t real.” He knew the statement was a lie the minute the words slipped out. His partner was a werewolf. If werewolves could exist, then why not demons, too?
Shit, but the world was even more messed up than he’d originally thought, and about a hundred times more dangerous.
“Of course, we’re real. We’ve been living with humans from the very beginning.” She held up her hand. “And before you start asking, let me just tell you, demons are not the spawn of the devil, okay? Total myth, that part. We’re just a…different race.”
Different race. Seemed simple enough—but his thundering heart wasn’t quite buying the simple explanation. Christ. “What kind of demon are you?” His gaze raked down her body. “And just how much, uh—” What had she called it? “Glamour have you been using on me?” A cold wind seemed to blow over him. The woman was too pretty. Too perfect looking by far. Hell, the only flaw on her body was that birthmark on her hip, and it really wasn’t a flaw so much as—well, a mark he wanted to bite.
Too perfect. He’d thought it from the beginning. Just what, exactly, was she hiding beneath the glamour?
Did he really want to know?
“Don’t be an idiot!” Cara snapped, and turned on her heel. She stomped toward the chaise and picked up a thin, blue robe. She shouldered into it, letting the towel drop to the ground.
Todd swallowed and absolutely refused to try and catch a glimpse of her naked sex.
“I’m not using glamour to do anything but camouflage my eyes, okay? In case you didn’t notice, they’re a bit of a giveaway, don’t you think? And it’s not like I want to go around advertising my true self to the world!”
“Well, your ‘true self’ is what I’m interested in.” Last night, he would have done almost anything to claim her. The lust had been that wild. Now, he couldn’t help but wonder…how much of it had been real?
A demon. He didn’t know anything about demons or their power. It was so unbelievable. So insane, so—
True.
He knew in his gut Cara wasn’t lying, and too many facts and situations from over the years were rolling through his head.
So much made sense now. The angry stares in Paradise Found. The strange energy he’d felt there.
“I’m not using glamour to shield my body or my face,” she said, hands tightening into fists.
“So that crap about demons having horns and pointed tails is—what? Straight lies?”
“No. It’s true for certain very, very old and very, very powerful demons.”
Hell.
“I’m not a very strong demon,” Cara admitted and did her cheeks flush? Was the woman, ah, demon, embarrassed by her weakness?
“And just what kind of demon are you?” He asked her again, and wondered why she hadn’t answered him before.
Her mouth opened as if she were going to reply, then she stopped and pressed her lips together.
Uh, oh. Not a good sign. But, just how many demons were there, anyway?
“You’re not acting particularly shocked,” she said slowly, and, once more—not answering his question. There was suspicion on her face as she asked, “Have you met my kind before?”
Yeah, he just hadn’t realized it until now. No wonder he’d felt like half the world had been keeping secrets from him. They had.
But not any longer. The rose-colored glasses lay shattered at his feet. “Cara…”
“Guys really do generally run at this point.” A faint line appeared between her brows. “Like I told you, fast.”
“You’ve told a lot of guys this spiel, huh?” Was that jealousy flaring in his gut? Sure felt like it.
“A few. Those who don’t run usually want me to prove that I’m a demon.”
“So you do your eye trick.”
Her lips tightened. “I can do more than that.”
Now he was curious. Kinda like those people who stopped and turned around when they saw car accidents. “Like what?”
“On any human male but you, I’d be able to hypnotize with just a word. Get you to do my complete bidding.”
Now Todd had to swallow to ease the dryness in his throat. And she didn’t think that made her fall into the “strong”
category? “So why am I the lucky human?”
“Because you’re a latent psychic with more power than you realize.” A shrug. “You’ve got shields up in your mind that you don’t even know about.”
Now that was a load of shit. He wasn’t psychic. Never had been. “Nice try, baby, but if I were psychic, I would have won the lottery years ago and retired to Mexico.” How was he even having this conversation?
They’d been climaxing together minutes before. He’d wanted nothing more than to shove deep and hard into her tight sex and now—
Well, now he’d entered the twilight zone, and he’d very much like to leave, please.
“You’re not that kind of psychic.” He thought he heard her mutter, idiot, beneath her breath. His eyes narrowed. She continued,
“You probably get feelings, don’t you? Little vibes of tension or fear just before you walk into a situation that’s dangerous as all hell. But you know before you walk in, don’t you?”