“What the hell are you four doing here? This is supposed to be a vamp place, not a shifter den.”

The big man chuckles, looking around at the room. “If you think this . . . room is merely a vampire assemblage, then you are far less prepared for the forces you claim to be fighting than you think you are. I thought you’d be more trained for a Halfling.”

“Halfling?” I gasp, gulping in air as I rub my throat, which feels like it’s on fire. I’m still trying to get over what just happened, and my brain feels like I’m half-drunk or something. The world’s moving so disjointedly. It was the most surreal, intensely terrifying experience of my life. The darkness spoke to me, lifting me in the air and choking me . . . and those awful things it said to me. How could it have known about what happened to my parents?

I thought I knew fear before . . . but I didn’t. Comparing the fear I felt before now to the experience in the darkness is like licking a nine-volt battery and saying you know what it’s like to be hit by lightning.

The rational part of my mind, the part of me that says that hey, vampires are one thing but being yanked in the air by black smoke is just fucking impossible, wants to say that I hallucinated it all, that all this is just a symptom of too much stress and overwork.

“Did I imagine the whole thing?” I stammer, lowering my weapon. “Was it real? It felt real.”

Even though the four hunks are nearby, I look around, thinking that smothering presence might still be lurking about. The darkness is still here, but it seems different now, my flashlight stabbing a clear beam through what seems like normal shadows. But I thought that before, and the darkness could be hiding anywhere.

“Don’t worry,” Cole says reassuringly. “The demon spirit has fled.”

“Demon?” I ask. If there’s such a thing, I haven’t heard of it . . . except the ones in our own minds. Then again, when I was born, everyone thought there was no such thing as vampires either.

“The house was possessed,” Cole explains, going to the stone circle in the middle of the floor. Grimacing, he lifts a foot and stomps down, shattering the stone tile. “It seems this place has been prepared for a long time.”

I shake my head, waiting as the men finish covering their bodies in clothes that . . . well, at least they’re dressed. At least temporarily, I’m not being distracted by the sight of four thick, perfect cocks hanging in front of me. I’ve got enough issues to think about. “How can a house be possessed?”

And what kind of lead is this place? I think to myself. This case was supposed to be about human trafficking and vamps . . . but I feel like I’m stepping deeper and deeper through more layers than ever.

Cole nods, his eyes looking amused, his voice serious and composed as he looks my neck over, checking for injuries. “Noah is correct, Detective Eve Carter. For one who is supposed to be well-versed in the supernatural, you know little.”

“I said was a Para Justice cop,” I snort, noting to myself that at least I know three of their names. Cole, Noah, and Jacob. The other one, I gotta draw out somehow. “I never said I was Sam or Dean Winchester with tits. Mind explaining to me what you mean?”

Cole looks at Jacob, who snickers. “Must I always play translator for you? It’s an old TV show.” Sighing as Cole still looks clueless, he continues. “Demons have the ability to possess inanimate objects. This one was so powerful that its consciousness was able to permeate the entire house. Although it looks like it was helped by someone on this side of the divide. Cole broke the seal though.”

My skin pricks as I remember the presence. “It knew things about me,” I say. “Things I’ve never told anyone.”

The one with the bow speaks up for the first time, and his voice is warm, like someone I could share hot chocolate with and feel safe and comfortable. “That’s what demons do. They scour your memories for weaknesses. Without knowing the proper defenses, anyone is vulnerable. The demons’ greatest weapon is feeding on your fear and anguish. It’s both nourishment and a weapon for them.”

I step forward, looking into his eyes. “You speak from experience.”

He turns away, and Cole speaks up. “We all do, although Tyler’s was . . . more traumatic than most.” He shakes his head, tucking in his overly tight T-shirt. “We showed up just in time. Who knows what would have happened had it had its way with you.”

“Which begs the question, why are you following me?” I ask. “Not that I don’t appreciate the backup. You four aren’t cops. You aren’t Feds. You’re all Paras of some type, but you seem more than your average shifter. What are you doing here?”

“To bring light to your situation,” Cole says. “Let’s start with some light first though. Tyler, Noah?”

Cole gestures and they go around, flipping open shutters, removing curtains from windows, and generally opening the place up. Tyler elbows one window and it breaks, letting in cold but fresh air as well as helping rays of golden light flood the room we’re in. It banishes the last of the darkness, improving the atmosphere while alleviating my fear.

Now that the room isn’t cloaked in shadows, I can see it was a magnificent house at one point. The lofty ceilings, exquisite workmanship, and overall decayed luxury are almost a little sad, because I know what built this place. Slave money. The Broadmoors were slavers at first before they settled in Haven. Perhaps it’s appropriate for such splendor, obtained at such misery, to decay. Maybe the right thing to let happen is for this to crumble and become dust in the wind.

Once the windows are all open, Noah disappears before coming back with two chairs from another room. He sets them down, then offers one to me before taking what looks like expandable batons from Jacob, sighing.

“Please sit. Talk with Cole. My friends and I will watch the windows to make sure you are uninterrupted.”

I don’t know what other choice I have, and since they’re not worried about my gun, I take a seat, keeping the automatic in my lap. Cole settles across from me, his golden eyes burning with intensity and interest, my body tingling at what I see there. I clear my throat, wondering how it is I can go from almost dying to being aroused so quickly, and try to focus. “You called me a Halfling?”

Cole nods. “You are a half-breed, yes. Half human, half faerie. Although the term half-breed is frowned upon.”

I let out a laugh. “That’s funny. Really, I can’t believe you came here to tell . . .” My voice trails off as I see his serious expression. “You’re not bullshitting me, are you?”

“No . . . bullshit,” Cole confirms. “It’s why we showed up last night—”

“Good thing we did, too,” says Jacob, coming around. He hands Cole a rather long knife or short sword before turning to look me over, unabashed lust in his eyes. “It would have been sad day to see such a beauty perish.”

“Thanks . . . I guess? But let’s stop while we’re ahead, okay? Don’t make me pop a silver bullet in your ass.”

“Please do,” says Noah as he picks up a curtain to wrap around his fist before busting out another dirty window pane. “I’ve suffered his bad jokes for far too long.”

Cole rolls his eyes. “Regardless, the fact that you are a Halfling is not the primary reason we came to the Earth realm, even though you are an unregistered Halfling, which is unusual. We are here because of what you possess.”

“And what do I possess?” I ask, looking around.

Cole leans forward and looks into my eyes. “A gift. Powerful Fae magic, the likes of which is born once a generation. And in your case, maybe not in over a thousand years.”

“Oh, come on,” I respond with a huge laugh. “This is too much. Don’t you think I’d know if I was some kind of sorceress?”

Cole snorts, shaking his head. “You do have magic. You just haven’t harnessed it yet. It is an energy, as measurable as gravity and as mysterious as dark matter. While your myths and fairy tales might not help you understand it, accept it. And you, Eve Carter, have been born with something that most Fae only dream about. All of us, to some limited degree, can feel this energy and use it, to an extent.”

“You can do magic?” I ask, and Cole shrugs.

“All Fae can. Men . . . most of our magic is tied to the physical realm, enhancing strength, speed, agility . . . things like that. Women are more projectors, although there are some exceptions and certain basic magics that all Fae can use. But you are a nexus, a focus of so much Light Magic that you are remarkable. I’ve never known of such power existing in a Halfling.”

I shake my head. These men, or faeries, might be sexy as hell, but I’m still not buying it. It’s madness. I can’t be a Paranormal. I just can’t. I police them.

“The voices in your head, the headaches, the outbursts of manipulating objects,” Cole says, cutting through my thoughts, “all of those things are your gift trying to manifest itself. You can’t keep it repressed forever.”

“That’s just me having a headache. I work too damn much. It’s from all the stress,” I reply, trying to convince myself. “In fact, I must be imagining all of this.”

Cole, Noah, Jacob, Tyler . . . face it, Eve, they must be hallucinations. Guardian angels who look like them don’t just drop out of the sky looking like the world’s sexiest badasses. I watch them and they stare back, seemingly undressing me with their eyes and just making it all seem even more surreal, and another thought hits me. What if I’ve been imagining the past several days?

What if all of this, from the first time I started feeling headaches, is nothing more than my going off the deep end, all the stress and working and things I see on a daily basis catching up to me? I need a doctor. Maybe a psychiatrist.

I reach forward and slap Cole across the face. His head barely snaps to the side, while the other three stiffen. “What was that for?” Cole asks.

My face turns red as he turns those almost disquieting golden-flecked eyes back to me, not angry but just . . . absorbing me. He feels real, warm, not even pissed that I just slapped the shit out of him. “I–I was making sure I wasn’t hallucinating,” I admit, sitting back. “That you guys are real and not some . . . fantasy.”

“Couldn’t you slap or pinch yourself to find that out?” quips Jacob. “I mean, that’s what they do in the movies.”

“Okay, so maybe you’re real. But it doesn’t mean what you’ve been telling me is. How would I not know? I’m human, through and through.”

Cole shakes his head, resting his temples in his steepled fingers, looking at me like I’m being rather stubborn. “The more you deny who you are, the more outbursts you will have. Like this morning’s, which the four of us all felt. You nearly ripped the fabric of reality there, whether you knew it or not.”

My brows furrow. I can sense that he’s leading me somewhere with this conversation, but at least he’s being more open than the dark smoke. And he hasn’t tried to choke me, so that’s another point in his favor. “Okay, I’ll admit I had a weird event with the captain. Let’s just pretend, for half a minute, that what you’re saying is true. What do you want me to do about it?”

“Learn to control it,” Cole says. “Right now, you’re dangerous.”

I laugh, shaking my head. “You mean like this?”

Cole stiffens, but instead of raising my gun, I thrust my hands out at him, mimicking like I’m casting a spell. “Be gone!” I roar, willing a beam of light to come forth.

Of course, nothing happens. “See? Nada. I have no powers. You have the wrong girl.”

Cole sucks in a deep breath like he’s trying to be patient with me while Jacob laughs. “I like this chick. She’s feisty.”

“You can’t just activate your powers like that. Right now, you are extremely dangerous because you have no training, and so you have no control, conscious or otherwise,” Cole says.

“And what, are you supposed to be my trainers?”

Cole shakes his head. “We cannot train you beyond a few basics. Our ability to use magic is very minimal compared to your potential. But you must learn control because that potential is like a bomb inside you. Used correctly, it can burn or be used helpfully . . . if not, you could damage far more than you even suspect. So, we’ve been tasked to bring you back to the faerie realm, to help you gain control of your powers.”

“Tasked by whom?” I ask, realizing that we’re at the crux of his argument.

Cole’s eyes go reverent, and he almost unconsciously touches his chest with his clenched fist. “By Queen Cassina XI, the ruler of Lunare and Queen of the Fae. She is the one we serve.”

For some reason, the thought of these four serving some far-off faerie queen annoys me. All four of them are clearly sexy, the sort of guys women dream about. Considering I’ve seen them all naked, from slim and lean Tyler to chiseled man-mountain Noah, I know they’ve got everything that a woman could want. To serve some Queen . . . it makes me more than a little jealous.

But I’ll die before I’d admit it. Besides, they’re strangers, and Paras at that. I’m silly for being jealous. More importantly, Cole’s angle is the same as the demon’s . . . he’s just being nice about it. He wants to manipulate me into going with him. “Well, tell Queen Cassina that I’m not going any damn where,” I growl. “This is my home!”

“To insult the queen is blasphemy,” Cole says, but he doesn’t sound as shocked or insulted as last night. “It is a punishable offense around Lunaria, our capital city.”

I cross my arms across my chest. “What can I say? I’m a sinner with a lot of darkness in my soul. You four stick around long enough, I might even tell you why. But you can spout all the psychobabble you want. I’m not going anywhere with any of you!”

I’m not sure what happens next. One instant, Cole is seated across from me, his elbows on his knees and his head hanging, and the next, I’m pressed down into my chair, his hard body on top of me and his gleaming white teeth inches away from my face.

“You’re going to listen to what I, we, have to say for the next hour, or I’m going to forcefully take you in front of the queen and flay your naked backside myself . . . got it?” he growls. I reach for my gun but realize that my hands are trapped, not that he cares. “Try it, Halfling. You’ll find the weak natural magic of silver does nothing to the likes of me. It’ll just . . . annoy me.”

I stare into his face, oddly turned on more than scared. Slowly, the foursome surrounds me, and I realize I have no choice but to do as Cole commands. Also, there’s passion behind Cole’s words. It’s fire versus the demon’s icy sneer. That heat’s directed at me for more than just talking shit about Cassina, I think, and deep inside me, I feel myself relax. He wants me. That means I have at least an ounce of power in this situation if I have to use it.

“Fine,” I whisper. “But don’t make me test that little theory of yours about my gun.”