Safe.
She stared at the cat’s yellow eyes. Had she really just read the mind of an animal? Smokey turned in her hands and bit down on her thumb, as if telling her to hurry, hurry!
Ella sucked in a breath. Upstairs, the footsteps continued into the kitchen where they stopped.
“
Promised
.”
She didn’t know if she had heard that awful word out loud, or in her head, but when she realized she had heard the horrid voice before, she had her confirmation. It was him.
Ella ran to the east window on legs that felt unable to hold her. She slid the glass open, wincing at the slight noise the window made in its frame, then pushed the screen out. She put Smokey in the well outside. “Go,” she hissed at him, but he grabbed her thumb again with his teeth and pulled. “Ouch,” she moaned, fear eating at her insides. She couldn’t explain the terror, but she couldn’t stop it either.
She boosted herself onto the windowsill and stepped out into the well, never so glad for the egress window. The sides had indentations, like a ladder for her feet and she hauled herself up and out onto the grass, her fingers sliding in the frost there.
Smokey picked his way up the side of the well and joined her on the grass, then yowled once, softly, and took off running toward the street. Ella followed, pulling her phone from her pocket, wishing harder than she’d ever wished for anything in her life, for battery.
Twelve percent. Enough to do what she had to do. She dialed 911, still running to the street, throwing terrified looks over her shoulder. She knew whoever was in her house already could tell she had left. She could practically see him through the walls, swinging around, tracking her easily. She didn’t know what he was, but she didn’t think he was human. The thought terrified her, and she wondered if the police could even stop him.
“911, what is your emergency?”
Ella stopped running so she could talk. She was on the sidewalk several houses away from her house. It looked quiet, normal, like nothing dangerous ever could or would happen there.
“Sorry, yes. There’s someone in my house. Someone… dangerous.”
“Your address please, ma’am?”
Ella rattled off her address without thinking about it, when a change in the light of the front window caught her attention. He was there. The man with the voice, standing at the window, staring at her. Fear hit her so strongly, she stuttered, then stumbled, and almost dropped her phone.
“Ma’am, are you there?”
Ella couldn’t answer.
Trevor’s phone buzzed in his pocket, waking him. The feel of the day told him it was morning before he ever saw the time. He’d slept all night. He pushed himself into a sitting position, knees up, and pulled out his phone. The number had no name associated with it, but when he saw the text he knew immediately who it was. Kalista.
He’s here. 1200 block Chestnut Ave.
Trevor was on his feet and running in a breath. He made it to the parking lot in record time, unable to worry about backup, his brothers, or anything else. Khain would be his.
He popped the blue bubble onto the top of his truck and flipped on the siren, then floored it, maneuvering around stopped traffic and running red lights. In only a few minutes, he turned the corner onto Chestnut Avenue, his tires screaming in protest.
Up ahead, he saw two parked police vehicles, and a calm officer on the sidewalk questioning a civilian woman while another officer walked sedately through a yard a few houses down. Trevor skidded to a stop, unsure if he was at the right place. He rolled down his window and sniffed the air.
Khain had been there, but he was gone.
“Damn it!” Trevor yelled, punching the dashboard in front of him. Would he never meet Khain face to face?
He swerved to the curb and parked his truck, jumping out and heading across the street. A delicious smell hit him and his steps faltered for a second as he identified it. Cinnamon and sugar, it reminded him of when he was young, very young, while his mother was alive. Trevor pushed the thought away angrily. No time.
“Report!” he barked at the officer on the sidewalk who talking to a tall human female whom Trevor could only see the back of. He turned away and strode to the other officer while the first left the woman and ran to catch up with him. The three met under a maple tree that had lost most of its leaves. Only twenty or so held on resolutely in the cool, crisp wind.
Trevor didn’t wait for anyone to start. “Was it him?” he asked the two officers, his voice low. He knew damn well it had been, but he needed to know what the first two on the scene thought.
“Definitely, Lieutenant,” one of them said while the other nodded. “He was gone when we got here, but we smelled him as soon as we turned on the street. A
felen
was here too, but he left already.”
“Where?”
The officer pointed to the house they were standing in front of. “We think he may have crossed over inside that house and disappeared from there too.”
“Who’s been in the house?”
The second officer held up his hands. “We only went inside for a second, to make sure he was gone.”
“Good, don’t let anyone else in. My team will be here shortly.” Trevor pulled out his phone and sent an alert to Mac, Harlan, Becket, and Crew, noticing when he was almost done that the cinnamon and sugar smell had gotten stronger.
He looked up. The woman with the black hair took two more steps towards them and stopped, just outside of their circle, her arms crossed over her chest. She was dressed only in a sweater and jeans and Trevor knew she must be cold, but that wasn’t what stopped his breath. She was gorgeous. Her skin, as cool and pale as cream, contrasted with her long black hair in a way that made his eye want to hug every curve of her cheek and brow. The delicious sweet scent came with her and hovered around her, like she’d spent all morning baking cinnamon rolls in a small, hot kitchen. She raised a dark eyebrow at the officer who’d been questioning her.
“Ah, is it safe? Can I go inside?”
At the sound of her voice, Trevor felt some great surge of emotion, some unnamed desire inside him. One word popped into his head like a neon sign he couldn’t ignore.
Mine
.
Trevor tightened down his inner will, surprised to feel his fangs lengthening in his mouth slightly, like something was spurring him to shift.
Shiften
couldn’t shift in front of humans unless Khain was nearby. He lifted his head and turned slightly, scenting the air. Khain was not around. He shook his head and looked at the clipboard in the officer’s hands. At the top was the woman’s name.
Gabriela Carmi
. “Miss Carmi, or is it Mrs. Carmi?” he asked, his voice and his chest tight.
She waved her hands elegantly, like doves set loose at a wedding. “Ella. It’s just Ella.”
Trevor nodded, his stomach twisting into coils as he smelled her rich scent and ate up the sight of her. “Ella, this man who was in your house. Did you see him?”
Ella shook her head, watching him carefully, her head tilted back slightly so she could look him in the eye, exposing the creamy length of her neck. “No. Just heard him.”
Trevor licked his lips, trying not to imagine what her skin would feel like if he ran his fingers over it. Or what it would taste like to his tongue. “Did he say anything?”
Ella frowned and Trevor thought he’d never seen anything quite so beautiful. “No,” she said after a moment’s hesitation, her breath frosting as she spoke.
Trevor sniffed the air, but he could smell no deception, although she looked like she wasn’t being entirely truthful. But why would she lie? He wished for Troy. Troy could sniff out any lie, any liar, not that he would ever call her that.
He noticed her pulse beating in her neck and he watched it, fascinated by the bluish tinge he saw at the delicate cut of her collarbone. She was cold. He should offer her a coat. His truck to warm up in. Or to drive. Maybe to have as her own. Or he could get her a new furnace for her house. Or give her his house to live in as long as she wanted. Or how about a ring, a big one, just in case she liked that kind of thing. A woman like her really shouldn’t go without─.
“Ah, Lieutenant?” One of the officers said and Trevor pulled himself back to reality. Both of the officers were staring at him warily and Ella Carmi looked almost scared of him.
How long had he been staring at her?
***
Ella held her breath as the big cop with the gorgeous face, the slight New York accent, and the cleft in his chin stared at her. She was a sucker for a cleft chin, always had been, not that she’d ever had much experience with men other than looking at them. Playing constant nursemaid didn’t leave much time for that kind of thing. Not that she was a virgin, oh no. She had let one man perform the hymen maneuver on her during her failed attempt at college. It hadn’t been anything to write home about. Her other boyfriend hadn’t even tried. But when Lieutenant Luscious looked at her, she felt a loosening in her hips and a tingle at her core that made her unable to think about anything but beds, soft lighting, and tongues in naughty places.
Then she remembered the guy who seemed to be hunting her down.
Ella bit her lower lip, hard, trying to draw herself back to reality. The big cop was looking at her again and their eyes met, making reality skitter away again. She put out a hand, feeling light-headed, but there was nothing to hold on to. She stepped back with one foot and tried to ground herself, keep her balance. He was just so big. So handsome. He made her feel so─
He was speaking again, slowly at first, then with more speed and confidence. She tried to focus on his words and not the crazy way she was feeling. “Ella, you can’t go back in your house until the crime scene tema does a thorough sweep of it. I have somewhere you can go until then. In fact, I think it’s best if you stay away from your home for a while, just until we get this straightened out. We may know who this man was, and he’s dangerous.”
Ella nodded. That sounded good. She didn’t want to be alone anyway. But more than that, she didn’t want this handsome cop to see her zone out, and that’s what she felt like she was about to do. Just stop speaking, stare off into space, like some sort of a coma patient who walked and talked every once in a while. It had happened eight times in the last two years, five of those times just in the last three months, and it scared the crap out of her more each time. If she did it in front of the big cop, she thought she might die.
“I’ll have Officer Adin take you there in just a few moments, but I have to ask you a couple more questions before you go.”
Ella nodded, hoping she looked ok, feeling like a balloon with a delicate spider web for a string, one puff of air and she’d be gone.
The big cop motioned her to walk on the sidewalk with him, then gave the other two officers some sort of instructions. Ella put one foot in front of the other, until she was pretty sure she was walking ok.
“I have a few strange questions for you, but please answer them honestly. They might shed some light on who this guy was.”
“Ok.”
“Were you downtown at all yesterday? Anywhere near 15
th
Street?”
Ella stiffened, unable to help herself, and a sudden fear shot through her. “No,” dropped out of her mouth, completely unbidden and before she could correct the lie, the cop asked another question.
“Are you married?”
“No.”
“How old are you?”
She could answer that one. “Twenty-five.”
He turned glittering blue eyes on her and she almost shrank at their intensity. “And your parents?”
“Ah, what? I mean, what do you want to know?”
“Are they here, in Serenity?”
“No. My mother and father are both dead.”
The cop pressed his lips together, and she expected words of condolences. Instead, he said, “Tell me about your father.”
Ella knew the question was strange, knew it made no sense at all, but she wanted to please the man. Wanted to keep talking to him, because it seemed to make her feel better, seemed to ground her in reality. So far, she hadn’t zoned out. Hadn’t lost it. She was still there, talking coherently. “His name was Howard. He sold insurance for Country Home. He was a sweet man, always laughing, but he never had a ton of money. That didn’t matter, though. He was still the best dad that ever existed. He came to every play I was ever in and always had time to talk to me. Everyone told us how much we looked alike.” She put a finger to her nose. “I’ve got his nose, his eyes, and his smile.”
She smiled as if to prove it, feeling suddenly sick to her stomach. Howard had been her imaginary father, the one she’d retreated to her room and made up every time Shay hit her or their mother had told her to
quit being strange, why can’t you just be normal every once in a while
. Why was she lying? Why was she spilling out this story, this absolute
fabrication
? Her mother would never, ever discuss her father, and when Ella tried, her mom would go still and silent and not speak to her for weeks. Shay loved that, and used to whisper about it when she really wanted to hurt Ella.
You’re so fucked up your own father didn’t even want you!
The cop turned slightly towards her, his eyebrows furrowed and his nostrils flaring slightly. She could tell he was disappointed, but she couldn’t understand why. Could he tell she was lying? Oh God. She opened her mouth and tried to tell him it had all been a mistake, but the words wouldn’t come. Her mind drifted instead, as it tried to cope with everything that had happened that day, with what was still happening.
The cop stopped walking and she realized they were next to one of the patrol cars. He opened the back door. “Just sit in here, Miss Carmi. Officer Adin will take you somewhere safe in just a moment.”
Ella climbed inside, unable to meet the big cop’s eyes, her mind unable to reason any of it out. She just needed a moment to think. A moment to breathe. A moment to recover.
He slammed the patrol car door behind her and walked quickly away, giving her the moment she no longer wanted.