Chapter Nine
Asher
She did a good job of hiding her attraction to me. If it wasn’t for my extra sense to see and feel the energies around me, I would have believed her. Everything about her, from the badass outfit of leather and boots, and the face that said she’d bite if touched, that said she wasn’t interested. But I’d felt that shock between us when we kissed. That shock was no coincidence.
“Sounds like you’re seeing things. Maybe the coffee was poisoned,” she bit back, with that cool mask of indifference. I could honestly say I hadn’t had this much fun around a woman in a long time. She was tough and didn’t need a man. Or so she thought.
“Could be. I am having thoughts of playing a naughty game of cops and robbers with a purring detective.” I watched that mask of hers fall straight off with the realization that she’d been purring like a kitten. I hadn’t wanted to point it out until now, enjoying that she was unaware to her own body’s response to me. She might not feel that her powers had chosen me. Those animals of hers liked me very much.
“The sandwich was very good.” She tried to recover, but we both knew the truth. Somewhere in there, she was feeling something toward me. Maybe lust? Maybe something more?
There’s this story with my people about mates. We are born with a combination of all the energies of earth inside us, unlike the normal energies of man. It’s what gives us the power to control the wild magic. Like everyone else, we try to find that special person who we want to spend the rest of our lives with, but because our energies are vastly different, a bond is never created.
It’s not common to find someone with as much energy inside them as us, and many of my people settle for someone without ever finding it, marrying simply for lust or to keep the bloodlines going.
That shock that happened between us was a clash of energies, hers battling mine for dominance. Her powers were strong, and she wielded the energy of all creatures inside her. Enough to rival mine. Now a subtle current flowed between us, the more we are around each other the more apparent it will become. She was my equal, and I had no issues with it at all. Her attitude was entertaining for me, and only made me want to push her buttons more, to get emotions out of her that she probably never let anyone see.
“Maybe they should use that in their marketing for the food. ‘It’s purr-worthy.’”
“Maybe they should, since that’s what happened.” She was staring me right in the face, her poker face on point. I would have continued our conversation, but Esme caught my attention and waved us over.
“Time to go, pussycat.” We stood at the same time and she walked off toward Esme without another word to me.
Lisa was doing better, and while she would need to stay another day after having lost so much blood, she was awake and wanted to talk to us. Esme got paged and had to go, but she promised that Lisa would continue to be taken care of and she’d be back in an hour to check on her.
“Thank you for saving me.” Lisa’s voice was hoarse and didn’t sound good. But who was I to say how she was supposed to sound after everything that happened?
“You’re welcome.”
“Lisa. My name is Echo Cross. I’m a detective with the Seahill P.D. When you feel up to it, I need to get some information from you. I’ll make sure Esme has my card, so you can get in touch with me when you’re ready.” Echo sounded like the good cop right now. She was quick to contain any emotions she felt at the moment.
“I felt a stinging pain in my neck and then nothing. I could see around me but couldn’t move. I felt the cuts being made but couldn’t scream. It was like I was paralyzed. I didn’t see anything except black loafer shoes.” Lisa blurted out what happened to Echo with a scared look. All of this happened in the brief time I had been in the back. Whoever did this was quick and had no hesitation at all. They knew exactly where to cut for maximum blood loss.
“We can wait until you’re better, Lisa. I don’t want to cause your body more stress.” Echo tried to be the good guy and let the girl rest, but I could tell she wanted the information she was being given.
“No, it’s okay. I just want to forget the whole thing and move out of this city.” She took a deep breath and looked at the medical posters on the wall. Maybe she wanted to learn more about how you get clogged arteries.
“I had a fight with my fiancé today. He has strong opinions about what’s happening in our city, with the heroes and all—saying they’re freaks and they should be put down like the animals they are.” Tears that were flooding down her cheeks earlier at the bar were missing now. She almost looked angry saying the words.
“We never talked about people with powers because he’d been blissfully unaware of them.” She looked at us and then back at the posters.
“He’s also unaware that I have powers. So, I decided to open up to him for the first time, to show him that people with powers weren’t all bad and he...well, let’s just say didn’t take it well. I left and went to the bar for a drink. Maybe he did this to me. I didn’t think he could ever do something like that, but if one feels strongly enough about something, they might do something they wouldn’t normally do.”
Damn.
“How old is your ex-fiancé?” Echo asked.
“He’s forty-three.”
I saw where Echo was going with this; he was old enough to have been killing twelve years ago for sure. This lead was definitely worth looking into.
Echo asked her a few more questions before thanking her and telling her to get some rest. She had Echo’s number to call if she thought of anything else or needed her assistance for anything. I bid her farewell, then we left the hospital to head back to the bar.
“I wanna help you catch the killer,” I announced once we were in her sexy-ass car.
“Excuse me?” she sputtered, her hands gripping the wheel a bit tighter than they were before.
“This person almost killed a woman in my bar. They declared war.” I also wanted to spend more time with her, but I wasn’t going to say that out loud. She could understand a revenge plot more than a romantic one. As romantic as killer hunting could be.
“I’ll be in touch.” She pulled over in front of my bar and stopped, the car still running and in drive. Obviously, she wasn’t getting out. I smiled while giving her a look that said she was full of crap. Her eyes narrowed slightly in response to what I’m guessing was that kissing look on my face again.
“Sounds good.” I stepped back, but before I closed the door, I had to say one more thing.
“Might want to tell that kitty of yours to lay off the sandwiches if the purring can last this long.” I winked and shut the door.
My look had made her purr, and the look on her shocked face as she peeled out only made me want to find new ways to make her purr.