“Ryder.” I marched toward him as he stood with his back to me in Roseline’s front yard. He clasped the gate, standing there as if undecided whether he should leave or not.

Each step felt like a dead weight. After Roseline’s revelation, I struggled to breathe, let alone move, and I craved to crawl under a rock. I’d barely dealt with Dana’s passing, but now to face a possession was a knife in my soul, twisting. Facing death was one thing, but to discover that other lives were in harm’s way gutted me. Not just any lives either, but two who meant the world to me: Ryder and Knox. There was also Dean, so how the hell did I explain this to a detective, and then the girl’s brother? All of us had been bitten.

Could Ryder’s strange gambling behavior be influenced by his mark? What about Dean’s sniffing things back in the woods? Ryder had insisted he was a shifter, but I’d had my doubts. The police force ran stringent testing for staff. And what about Knox? Had he experienced any strangeness? Hell, I had to see him. Fuck!

My stomach hurt, and I remained unsure where to turn to next for help.

Since when did I become the sucker targeted by a powerful Loa spirit at the top of the food chain? The scum belonged in the underworld, not stalking me.

Ryder was at my side, taking my hand into his, our fingers interlaced. “This is fucking bullshit.” His voice darkened and I couldn’t blame him. None of us had ever asked to be in this situation.

“It’s my fault.” The words fell from my mouth like acid rain, marring whatever it touched. “The Loa is targeting me and you got caught in the crossfire. Shit, I’m so sorry, Ryder.”

He drew me into his arms, holding me tight, and he kissed the top of my head as my tears refused to stop falling. The last time I’d cried this hard had been when I’d found Dana’s body, and now the same rawness swallowed me whole.

“Screw that. This isn’t your fault.” He lifted my chin with a bent finger. “I’ll tear the spine out of the fucking ass muncher. If he has no spine, I’ll be ripping apart whatever the fuck has. No one’s touching you.”

I gave a small nod, unable to find my words because having Ryder by my side offered me hope.

“It’s gotta go through me first,” he continued. “Just please don’t cry anymore. It breaks my heart.”

My next inhale skipped into my lungs, and Ryder’s eyes softened. He leaned down and before I made sense of my tangled emotions, his lips grazed mine. Not innocently, but fiery and demanding.

Sparks lit me from the inside out, and a tingle spread through my entire body. He drew me closer by my arms, his tongue pressing against the seam of my mouth. I parted my lips and moaned as he tasted me. Ryder always kissed with the hunger of a lion, fast and sensual, and I lost myself beneath him as if I were a leaf floating on a breeze. Lost and completely aroused. I slid my hands around the back of his neck, tracing the corded muscles and loving the fire across his skin. His musky scent had me sliding my tongue to meet his. He sucked my offering and growled in his chest. The primal sound drove me insane. I burned for more, and when he broke our kiss, I gasped, not ready to come up for air.

“Fuck, you’re so hot,” he whispered.

“I want you to promise me something.” I laid my head against his chest as he curled his arms around me.

“Sephy, I swear on my life. I’ll never betray you again.”

“It’s not that. If we don’t get rid of the spirit inside me and shit goes south, don’t be stupid and confront danger head on. Please. I couldn’t bear to see you hurt.” I looked up at his serious face.

“You have my heart. We’re in this together ’til the end.”

Silence fell over us, and his words chilled me. I believed he would throw himself into a fire if he thought it would save me. Stubborn ass.

“We need to get everyone in one place so I can tell them they might be marked by a Loa spirit and to keep an eye out for any strange behavior they have or anything weird happening around them.”

“Someone dodged a bullet,” Ryder said. “Lucky bastard.”

“Yep. Okay, well then,” I began. “Let’s all meet at my place. Deal? Maybe we’ll get an update from Dean on the possessed girl too.”

“I’m ready to do this. But Roseline told me after you left that you need to work out which witch you pissed off so we can remove the curse. And before they up their ante. Because we don’t need an angry sorcerer on your tail while we sort out how to survive the Loa spirit possessions.”

I knocked on the door of the studio apartment in downtown Evangel. Not the richest part of the city, but a notch better than the one I lived in. “Knox, you home?”

After contacting Asher and discovering he was working the afternoon shift at the Howling Wolf, we changed our meeting to his bar at eight tonight. Too early for the usual patronage to attend, so that meant Asher could join us. And just thinking how I’d explain everything had me banging on Knox’s door again. We couldn’t get a hold of Dean or Knox when we’d called their phones, so Ryder and I had split up to track them down.

“Damn, Knox.” I’d checked the community center and one of the guys had said he hadn’t turned up today. Even strode past the church but found no sign of his black Mustang. I figured he was home, but as I walked away, the door behind me creaked open.

Wearing only jeans, he slouched on one leg on the doorway. His Mohawk sat ruffled and sleep pulled at his eyes.

“Had a late night?” I asked as I marched closer, worried he’d hurt someone if he was indeed one of the marked.

“Something like that.” He stepped aside and let me into his studio apartment. A bed lay under an enormous window with no curtains. From my angle, only afternoon blue skies appeared outside. To my right, beanbags squatted in front of a TV, then there was the bathroom door and metal railing racks lined with clothes on hangers. I swung left to the kitchen behind Knox, who leaned inside his fridge and came out with two bottles of water in hand.

He tossed me one, and I caught it midair.

“So what’s going on?” He drank half his bottle in no time. “You rarely come to visit during the day.”

“Why are you sleeping instead of working? You okay?” I scanned him head to toe, remembering if he was marked, he might show signs just as it had with Ryder. Perhaps being marked means they take on elements of the spirit taking me over?

The hems of Knox’s jeans grazed the floor at his heels, and his pants sat low on his hips. My gaze lingered on his fluid muscles and the V-shape tapering in at his waist, wondering what lay beneath the jeans. Ink coated his torso and arms with a multitude of artwork. Like the Egyptian scarab across his chest with wings wide, revealing a skull peering out from underneath. He insisted the insect symbolized creation. The wolf head on his forearm was for protection and courage. And the serpent eating its own tail signified self-sufficiency. My favorite was the enso tattoo on his inner wrist. A painted circle, small and imperfect, it meant everything in life had flaws and drawbacks. But it was all worth the effort.

You’d think after knowing Knox for most of my life, we would have hooked up by now. Nope. The sexual tension thumped through me whenever we were in close vicinity, but there was always a reason that pushed us apart. Never the right time. He got involved with a drug gang and almost died, then found God. I had focused on finding out what I was, making everything else secondary. Now he trained to be a priest, so despite the fact that my libido strangled to death around Knox, he’d made it super clear a romantic relationship wasn’t in his future. And that killed me, but I’d rather have him as a friend than nothing at all.

A craving swept behind his eyes as if any minute he’d carry me over his shoulder and to his bed. Yep, that was me fantasizing about what I couldn’t have. And why the hell were we programmed to always desire the undesirable?

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Yeah, been re-contemplating a few things in life.”

“Oh, like what?” I gulped down several mouthfuls of water, then placed the bottle on the counter.

“Boring stuff. Think I had my priorities wrong but need to sort out my thoughts first.” He ran his fingers through his hair, driving the mess from his face, and he tied the strands into a ponytail with the band around his wrist.

“Hence the sleeping?”

He inched forward, arms folded on the counter. “A rested mind does wonders.”

I chuckled. “Is that one of your philosophical mantras?”

“Well, you know me. Full of sayings, like when waking someone, it’s always good to tell them why you interrupted their sleep.” He winked, and I swallowed the rock forming in my throat.

I wasn’t sure how to broach the topic without freaking him out. Besides, I enjoyed the way he studied me when he wasn’t being Mr. Serious Bum. Meant he was still half-asleep.

“I know you’re dying to tell me something.” Knox’s mouth curled upward. “You do that cute thing with your lower lip where it twitches at the corners.”

“No, I don’t.” I touched my lips. What was he talking about? But if he called it cute, sure, I’d accept the compliment.

I climbed onto the stool across from him and crossed my arms in front of me. The inked snake curling up his bicep distracted me, along with his broad chest, and shoulders roped with muscle.

He brushed my hand with his. “Must be serious if it’s taking you this long to speak. Usually, I can’t get you to shut up.” He laughed, and as much as I wanted to join him because he might have a point, my throat dried.

“Ryder and I visited Roseline today. I’ve been feeling strange, and then earlier this morning a detached voice was speaking in my head.”

Knox’s brow pinched, and he straightened his posture way too fast. “Fuck, don’t tell me you’re possessed.” His tone grew dark and heavy.

I shrugged with my worst attempt at a smile, which most likely came across as a crooked line.

“Shit, Sephy.” He rounded the counter and drew a seat next to mine and plonked down, his legs spread. “I thought you said you can’t be claimed?”

I swiveled toward him in my chair, my knees between his thighs. “Guess I was wrong.”

His face paled, and he reached over, taking my hands in his. The bridge of his nose wrinkled like it did every time he worried. “What happened? I’m thinking the demonic girl from yesterday, but she ran away, most likely controlled by a demon. Plus, she bit all of us and I’ve heard no voices. Are you sure about this?”

“Well…” I licked my lips, trying to keep my words steady. “Roseline did a ritual and spoke to the spirits. I’m possessed, and hell, Knox, some weird shit’s been happening in the last two days.” In abbreviated form, I spilled the beans on everything. The more he knew, the more likely he’d be able to come up with a solution.

When he didn’t respond but lowered his gaze, I continued. “I’m fucked, and I’ve dragged down others with me. Ryder is definitely marked. He’s been freakin’ gambling and drinking my whisky, and he loathes that horseracing shit and its abuse of animals.”

Knox’s palms sweated. “Fuck.”

“I’m sorry I got you into this.”

He shook his head. “Nothing to be sorry about. I think you and I were both targeted. In hindsight, I suspect the spirits had been in the girl for a while. Asher and his sister attended the local community hall where I helped homeless kids. They were dropping off a box of blankets a few weeks ago. Trisha, the young girl, befriended me first, adamant she wanted to help, asking me questions about my life, about you because she said she saw you at the hall with me once. I thought she was curious and didn’t question her. But fuck, we were set up, and I was the bait who collected you. The son of a bitch had to know I’d call you, so it played up in front of her brother so he’d call me.”

This cemented the reality of the demonic mud pit I’d fallen into and now my pulse was on overdrive, and I couldn’t stop trembling. How long had it been watching me, planning my downfall? Why not just swoop in for the kill?

Knox drew me toward him and scooped me into his embrace. I wrapped myself around him, tucking my face into the side of his neck, inhaling his manliness mingled with a woody scent.

His arms strung over my back like ropes, and his breath skipped across my shoulder. “I’ll protect you, Sephy. Whatever it takes. I’ll keep you safe and if that means facing off with Satan himself, I’m ready to go into warrior mode.”

I loved to see Knox as a warrior. I’d watched him fight when we’d been young and he didn’t back down, even when the odds were stacked against him.

“Thanks. But what if you’re marked too?”

Knox held me, and sue me, but I adored our closeness. The heat of his chest. Everything in my life was a spinning top, out of control and going at a hundred miles an hour. But Knox always brought me back to Earth.

He broke our embrace. Still, he held me near and his breath fluttered across my cheeks. We were eye level, and his hands fell to my hips.

“I made you a promise at the foster home, remember? I swore to protect you like a knight in shining armor.”

I smiled, and warmth flooded every inch of me. “Yeah, I recall. Means the world, and you know I’m always there for you too.”

He nodded and stared with the intensity he always expressed when we got too close. Our attraction was the white elephant in the room, but no one could bring it up. Besides, I was fucking terrified I’d ruin our current relationship if I pushed the topic. If he wanted more, he wouldn’t be a priest-in-training, but would have picked a different career like landscaping or some other shit.

His path of celibacy fucking stung. It reminded me every time we were together we’d never be more than friends. That reality was a chisel chipping at my heart. Knox broke me unknowingly while Ryder shattered me consciously. Yep, I was fucked up inside.

His fingers dug into my hips, as if he struggled to push me away. I buzzed all over and kept picturing myself leaning in, tasting his lips, finally telling him how much I craved him. How wet I got each time we touched. How I hungered to have him fuck me until my throat was raw from screaming out his name. But they were my fantasies, and nothing more would come of teasing myself.

“Anyway.” I untangled myself from his embrace and shyly looked away. “I’m here for some holy water as I’m meet the guys from yesterday’s exorcism at Howling Wolf tonight at eight. Figured I’d do a bit of cleansing and confirm who is marked. You’re good to attend?” My cheeks burned, and I turned my back to him because he was way too observant. And I didn’t need him seeing me torn apart. “Figured it’s a good place to tell everyone what’s going on.”

It occurred to me that the spirit must have lain dormant in me most of the time. Maybe that would change with time. Actually, I hoped it wouldn’t.

I dropped my gaze to my boots, noting how dusty they’d gotten. Yep, long overdue for a polish.

“I’ll be there and bring holy water as I don’t have any here.”

“I better leave. I want to make sure Ryder got a hold of the detective. I have no idea how he’ll receive the news.”

“He’ll take it in stride. Dean’s a good guy and open-minded. Couple of weeks ago, I caught up with him at Hick’s Eat Place over a few tamales. So no problem. I’ll help him understand.”

“Didn’t realize you were two were close.” I recalled my chat with Dean, and how he’d attended another possession job with Knox. Seemed all the guys I drooled over knew each other. Did that mean I had a type of guy I was attracted to?

“Okay, I’ll let you get back to sleep then.” I strolled toward the door, figuring the only way I’d keep my sanity was to walk away and focus on the catch-up tonight. Guess once everyone had the facts, we’d come up with an action plan. That was as far as I could think right now.

As I reached for the door, Knox clasped my forearm and wrenched me around to face him so fast, my head spun. I stumbled and my back hit the wall. Knox was there, his body covering mine, the heat of his body warming me, arousing me. Strong hands claimed my wrists and pinned them to the wall over my shoulders.

I gasped and trembled beneath his touch, aware of where this was going, yet I couldn’t move. I’d dreamed of this day for years, and now I’d lost all ability to react. Without a word, he leaned down and brushed his lips against mine. He kissed hard, like all his pent-up passion exploded at once and poured out of him.

Our mouths clashed, tongues swirling, and he lowered a hand to the back of my head. He clenched my hair in his fists and tilted my head back. I moaned and snaked my fingers across his chest, adoring how his muscles shifted beneath my palm.

His groans were fucking sexy, reminding me of a starved wolf. A fiery embrace tingled between my legs, stroking me to a heightened pleasure.

The hardness in his jeans cradled against my stomach, and I yearned for him to take me every which way. Yet surprise still rattled me to the core because it still hadn’t sunk in that Knox had actually kissed me.

I snaked an arm around his neck, drawing him closer, and kissed him with hunger.

“Fuck, Knox,” I breathed in his mouth, and his devilish grin had me squeezing my thighs tight. One touch there, and I’d burst with the lingering orgasm.

A knock at his door had me flinching.

Knox didn’t budge but continued licking my lips, and I shivered, forgetting about every single problem.

“Have always wanted to kiss you,” was all he said. To him it was a kiss, but to me, I’d devoured the most sought-after chocolate in the world. And now, I might die if I never ate it again.

When the knock came again, his brow marred. “Yes?” he bellowed, never taking his ravenous eyes off me.

“Knox, it’s Father Christian. Have you got a moment?”

He sighed, and my stomach turned to stone. Fuck. What was I doing?

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” I whispered.

“Give me a sec to get rid of him.” He stalked to the rack of clothes and plucked out a long hoodie. He dragged it over his head, needing to conceal his erection.

Gah, stop staring. He wasn’t available.

Guilt chewed on my conscience. Knox had promised to be faithful to the church, and I’d come between him and his passion. I was going to Hell for sure now. What was wrong with me? I never should have kissed him back. He was having a moment of weakness, and I’d encouraged him.

Regardless, I couldn’t stomach hurting Knox, so I turned and opened the door. A priest stood in my way, hand in the air, mid-knock.

“Afternoon, Father.”

He bowed his head and stepped side.

“Sephy, wait a second,” Knox called out.

But I tucked my chin against my chest and marched down the dimly-lit hallway to the stairwell. I couldn’t stand there waiting for the elevator when my eyes burned with tears.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I’d let my desire blindside me into driving Knox to temptation, and I hated myself for putting him in that position.