Page 57 of Wind Whisperer
I put a hand on Erin’s shoulder and growled. “Yes, you were.”
Angelina laughed, and that boa squeezed. But when Erin reached up and covered my hand with hers, a warmer, kinder force sparked to life, chasing away that invader.
Hope filled my heart — enough to make me wonder. Maybe there was another way of freeing myself of this vampire’s spell. One they didn’t teach at the agency.
Angelina flashed her teeth, letting her canines extend in case we didn’t get the hint.
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Her eyes slid up my chest, then lingered on my neck.
Cold seeped into my skin.
Angelina grinned and addressed Erin without bothering to look at her. “Give us a minute, won’t you?”
Her words were a deliberate echo of those she’d uttered months earlier, in her office at the agency on a Friday afternoon when everything had been winding down. I’d had the stupid ambition to become the first agent to master warlockandvampire training, and Angelina was an instructor in the latter. She’d called me in on a pretense I no longer recalled and cooed to the agent who’d come with me.
Give us a minute, won’t you?
Ingo had warned me with his eyes, but it was too late.
The next thing I remembered was coming to hours later on a red velvet couch in a totally different place, dizzy and weak. Blood crusted the left side of my body, and when I stumbled over to a sink to wash, I found two puncture marks on my wrist. The ones that still scarred my skin.
I’d rushed to the door, bumping into furniture all the way. Blurry visions plagued my mind. Visions of Angelina, getting closer and more seductive. Visions of myself, knowing I had to resist, but falling for it anyway. Visions of her fangs sinking into my flesh and—
I tightened my grip on Erin’s shoulder and grunted back. “She stays. You’re the one who’s leaving.”
It was laughable, really — a powerful dragon shifter desperately clinging to a woman for help. But, hell. Touching Erin muted Angelina’s power, like hearing a noisy disco from outside a thick door instead of standing next to a speaker.
Angelina smirked. “Oh, this will be fun.”
Maybe in your sick mind,my dragon grumbled.
“What exactly is your plan here, Angelina?” Erin demanded. “Are you going to try to get Nash to sell you my property? It’s not his to sell.”
“No, she’ll just try to get me to sell my soul to the devil,” I growled.
Angelina’s smug smile said,You already did.
I shook my head, refusing to take the bait. Whatever hold Angelina had over me stemmed from her trickery, not my consent. And for the first time ever, I was ready to fight back.
Too bad we were in downtown Sedona in the middle of the day. Here and now was not the place.
Someday, somehow…my dragon vowed.
Erin munched down the last nacho, then declared, “Well, I have nothing more to say to you. Nash has nothing more to say. Also, we’re out of nachos. So, it’s time for you to tootle along, don’t you think?”
Angelina shook her head. “Not before I get what I came for.”
Erin snorted. “What Harlon sent you for, you mean?”
Angelina’s nostrils flared, and her voice was pure ice. “Harlon has his business interests. I have mine.”
I stiffened, because the only thing worse than a scheming supernatural was a second schemer behind them.
“So, the twenty million you offered for my land is your money? Or is it Harlon’s?” Erin waited a split second, then went on. “Oh, wait. Twenty-five million.”
“Harlon’s money,” I grunted.
That was one of the few secrets I’d dug up on Angelina. She came from old money, but her family had squandered most of it. That was why she’d had to stoop so low as to work for the agency.