Wicked Wind (Solsti Prophecy #1) (5 page)

“Okay. Tomorrow.” She gazed up at the clouds that obscured the stars, as mental and physical exhaustion rolled through her like a slow freight train. “I really should go now.”

“Come home with me.” He held her gaze.

“I can’t do that!”

“Like I said, there are some pretty nasty creatures out there. If any of them noticed your power, they wouldn’t hesitate to grab you. I can keep you safe. And I promise I’ll be a complete gentleman.” He raised both hands. “Even though it may kill me.”

She couldn’t hide another smile. Her gaze flicked down to his mouth, then back to his eyes.
It might kill me too
. ”I share a condo with my sister, and she’ll freak out if I don’t come home. We look out for each other.” Brooke would probably be furious with her for confiding in Gunnar. Nicole was not looking forward to that conversation, although Brooke’s curiosity might outweigh her anger.

“You could call her.”

“I could. But I also need some time to process all this. Alone. All the stuff you shared with me–it’s a lot to take in.”

He nodded. “You’re right. It’s a lot at once. And you may learn even more tomorrow. But I’ll see you home safely.”

She grinned. “You
are
being a gentleman.”

“And it’s killing me. Let’s go before my resolve weakens and I have to toss you over my shoulder, caveman style.”

“You wouldn’t!”

“I most definitely would. But not tonight.” He stood, straightening his long limbs.

She took his proffered hand and allowed him to tug her up and into his arms. For a minute, he simply held her, his jaw resting against her temple. She had the fleeting thought that this should be awkward. This huge man whose eyes glowed and who made fire appear in his hand, who claimed to not be human, embraced her in an empty park. But instead her mind was flooded with reassurance. And…heat. He slid a finger gently along her throat, tilting her head up. “I want to kiss you again.”

Her heart skipped.
My, but this gentleman act is sensual.
Almost as much as the blatant, hungry contact between them back at the club. She looked up into the azure luster of his eyes as tangled thoughts swirled through her mind. He had just told her he wasn’t human. He tackled her, then conjured fire. If those weren’t red flags, she didn’t know what was. Then again, he could’ve hurt her, but instead he’d only talked to her. Answered her questions. And hell, she wanted another kiss from his luscious lips. Done warring with herself, she whispered, “Then kiss me.”

His hand moved from her jaw to her nape, angling her head just the way he wanted it, then he brushed his lips across hers. Slowly, tantalizingly, he did it again. His free hand slid to the small of her back and held her close. Desire uncurled deep in her belly, sending long tendrils of fire through her veins. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured against her lips, before coaxing them apart with his tongue.

She sighed in delight, welcoming him. His masculine, woodsy scent wrapped around her as the heat from his body warmed every inch of her skin. A blast of pure need rocked her core, making her gasp. She clutched his broad shoulders as he explored her mouth gently, thoroughly. She tangled her tongue with his and pressed her breasts against the hard wall of his chest.

Too soon, he pulled away and touched his forehead to hers. “You still want to go home?” he rasped.

She nodded, knowing her voice would be ragged. “Then we should go.” He guided her back toward the street. They caught a cab, and Nicole found herself amused at the thought of a demon riding in a taxi.

“Do you usually take cabs?” she asked.

“No, I usually fly.”

She gaped at him.

“Just teasing.” His smile dazzled as he chucked her under her chin. She elbowed him in the ribs.

The short ride passed in comfortable silence. She couldn’t explain why she felt relaxed around him.
I should be totally weirded out
. Instead, the possibility of answers tantalized her mind. And being this close to Gunnar sent tingles across every inch of her skin.

Gunnar stood on the sidewalk with her after they exited the cab. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow.” He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Try to get some sleep.”

“I’ll try.” She walked to the door, turning to smile over her shoulder before pressing the security code into the keypad. “See you tomorrow.”

Making a beeline for the stairwell, she jogged up to the fourth floor and tip-toed into the condo, doing her best not to wake Brooke. She walked into her bathroom and saw that Brooke had put a sticky note on the mirror, reminding her that Brooke was running an eight kilometer race tomorrow and would be out the door early. Nicole felt a twinge of guilt at her relief that she could delay the inevitable conversation with her sister until later in the day.

She stripped off her club clothes and washed her face, then pulled on a soft babydoll tee and bikini panties and crawled into bed. Her little world had flipped upside down. Muscles tired and mind racing, she stared at the ceiling.
What the heck am I getting myself into?

Gunnar parked his Escalade a few blocks away from Nicole’s building the next morning.
Nice area, but no damn parking
. Good thing he was early, and good thing coffee shops beckoned from every block.

It was also fortunate that he didn’t require a lot of sleep. He only needed a few hours per night, and he could get by on no sleep for a few days if necessary. Last night his mind had been filled with thoughts of Nicole. Soft skin, gorgeous smile, long legs, mysterious power. Her courage impressed him, even as her losses sobered his thoughts. A large part of her life was a giant unknown, and yet she carved out time to help others.

And his hands had itched to explore her lean curves. He finally drifted off to sleep but woke just an hour later, hard as granite, dreaming of her lithe body beneath his in the park. Her sweet scent and full lips entranced him, as did the wicked smile that had played across her face more than once last night. He could guess the direction of her thoughts. Hoped like hell they were on the same track as his. And he intended to find out.

Striding down the smooth sidewalk, he passed a mix of brick buildings both old and new. Trendy stores displayed hip, tasteful merchandise, and restaurants set up outdoor tables to take advantage of the last warm weeks of fall. City ordinances prevented the condo buildings from being too tall, adding to the cozy neighborhood vibe.

In the midst of this urban idyll Gunnar paused, catching a familiar and thoroughly unpleasant scent.
Skells
. A frisson of unease crawled down his spine. They hadn’t been found in a densely-populated, trendy area before.
Are they expanding their dirty work?

Thanking the stars he had time to spare, he followed the Skell’s odor of burning leaves down a wide alley between two restaurants. Ignoring the white delivery truck splashed with bright pictures of vegetables, he stalked to the end of the building and rounded the corner. The scent stopped.

Alone with the bricks and concrete, he inhaled. His heightened sense of smell teased apart the myriad odors in the air. Exhaust from the delivery truck, garbage from a nearby dumpster, wood and metallic smells from one of the new condo buildings. The Skell’s scent was recent, but not recent enough to track. It had passed by within the last twelve hours, probably during the night. It could be anywhere by now.

Gunnar grimaced and made his way back to the busy street. A Skell demon this near to Nicole’s home was too close for comfort. He picked up coffee and a muffin for her at a shop on her block, then walked to her door. Another resident dashed out, allowing Gunnar to walk right inside. He scowled at how easy it would be for anyone to do that. He followed her scent–ripe peaches, he decided–to a unit on the fourth floor, and knocked.

She opened the door and he sucked in a breath, temporarily forgetting about the Skell’s scent. Nicole looked like sunshine and blue sky personified. She wore a bright turquoise sleeveless top that showed off her toned arms, and it managed to somehow fit loosely but still cling to her breasts. Her blond hair was pulled partially off her face. Bare feet with red painted toenails and another pair of tight jeans completed her look.

“Hi,” she said. “I didn’t hear the buzzer. Oh, wait, did you get in here with some special demon B & E skill?”

He scowled again. “No, I just walked in, and so could anyone else. This building isn’t secure enough. Pack a bag so you can stay at my place tonight.”

“Oh.” She raised her perfectly arched brows. “Um, yeah. Not sure about that. I’m totally safe here, but I get the feeling that nothing will convince you. Come on in.” Then she spotted the purchases he carried, and a huge grin lit her face. “Ooohh, you brought me coffee. Thanks!”

He handed her the cup and she took a slow sip, testing the temperature, before smiling again. She closed her eyes briefly, tilted her head back a little, and savored the bitter drink as if he had given her liquid gold. “Mmm, that’s good.” Emerald eyes met his. “The first sip is always the best.”

Good gods, how was he going to survive the day with her, when she made a tiny act like drinking coffee look so erotic? “Glad I picked something you like.” He dragged his eyes away. He needed to look anywhere but at her sweet body right now, so he glanced around her sunny condo.

“You know, this building has a nighttime security guy and cameras everywhere.”

“That’s not good enough.”

“We’ve lived here for two years and there haven’t been any problems.”

Why did she have to be so stubborn?
“I picked up the trail of a Skell demon not two blocks from here.”

“Is that bad?”

“Hell yes, it’s bad.”

A tiny frown knit her brows together. “How did you know what it was?”

“Most species have a unique scent, and Lash demons can detect them all. The one that was here smells like burning leaves.” He cursed softly. “It’s gone now, and it’s not the worst demon around. But the fact that it was in such a populated area isn’t a good sign.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Fine, I’ll throw some things together. But I’m doing it to humor you. My sister and I have been practicing mixed martial arts for years.”

He remembered that she didn’t live alone. “Is your sister here? She should come with us.”

“Oh, that idea will go over even better with her,” Nicole drawled, rolling her eyes. “She was out the door early today. I haven’t even gotten to talk to her yet.” She disappeared into her bedroom.

Gunnar resisted the urge to follow her. He really did
not
need to see her bedroom. He did not need a visual of where she slept, cozy with bedding and pillows, all loose and soft and warm...He wrenched his thoughts into a different direction. He was anxious for her to meet the Elder.

No one knew exactly how old Rilan was. Gunnar guessed him to be well over a thousand years old. The old demon knew several languages and although not a sorcerer, he could cast many intermediate-level spells. His title came not just with his age, but also with the depth of knowledge that he possessed when it came to supernatural creatures. There were very few he hadn’t encountered, and he was a walking encyclopedia of both fact and legend. If anyone could identify Nicole’s species, Rilan was one of their best bets.

Gunnar looked around Nicole’s living room as he waited. Vivid yellow paint decorated two of the walls, and the other two were a warm chocolate brown. Bright morning sun spilled through a window next to a bookshelf. All the shelves except one held dozens of books. He spotted fiction, biographies, and art books, crammed to the shelf’s capacity.

The last shelf held roughly a dozen framed photographs. A smiling couple who looked to be a generation older than Nicole looked out from a silver frame, and most of the rest were snapshots of Nicole and two other women. The other two had brown hair and stood a bit shorter than her, but the family resemblance shone through. A smaller frame held a faded photo of a blond toddler girl, smiling but thin and pale, sitting on a blanket outdoors.

Nicole came to stand beside him. “Those are my sisters.” She pointed to one of the frames of her with the two women. “Brooke and Gin.” Gunnar recognized the sister she called Brooke as the woman he had seen her with last night, fighting in the run-down neighborhoods. “And these are our adoptive parents.” She nodded at the older couple.

“Do they live nearby?”

“No.” A trace of sadness flared in her smile. “They passed away a few years ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“No need to apologize. They led full lives. I barely knew my birth parents, and my adoptive ones were awesome. Though I don’t know if they realized what they were getting into, taking all four of us in.”

“Four?” He turned to her, brows raised.

She pointed to the blond child in the smallest frame. “That’s our youngest sister, Alina. She died when she was small. She was born with a heart defect.”

Gunnar gazed at the shadows that flickered across her bright green eyes. “So much loss,” he said softly. She had buried two sets of parents and a sister. Admiration flooded his mind. Others in her situation might simply withdraw from life. Not Nicole.

“Yeah,” she murmured. “So Brooke, Gin, and I–we stick together. We have to.”

“It’s good that you have them.” Appreciation for her family welled in his gut. She hadn’t been alone in life, and she had others who cared deeply for her. The slender blonde before him had love in her life to balance the grief. Unlike the two hundred years of his own existence, many of which had seen him living on the streets. For so many years he fought just to survive in the blighted, grimy underbelly of his city. Any other creatures he encountered were never friendly, just competition for food or shelter.

She nodded and a tiny smile tugged at her lush lips, pulling him from his thoughts. “Ready?”

They walked the few blocks to his Escalade. From steel sidewalk grates grew full, leafy trees that had yet to change color. Some people walked dogs and others pushed strollers. A few brave souls attempted to do both at the same time. Grocery delivery trucks double parked in front of the brick buildings.