“Okay, maybe I thought about it after that one time. You know.”

He arched a black brow. “No, tell me. I don’t know.”

His fiendish grin was unbearable. He was having so much fun taunting me, and for some dumbass reason, I was enjoying it, too. A stark contrast with the rest of my evening with Terry.

“I think you can guess,” I added flippantly.

“Okay. I’ll play,” he said, his hand drifting under my hair to wrap loosely around the base of my throat. “You enjoyed it when you nicked your tongue on my fang. You enjoyed it so much you’ve wondered what it would feel like if you went all the way.”

I clenched my thighs tight at the phrase all the way because that conjured up our one-night stand. The most fantastic sexual experience of my life.

He brushed his thumb along my pulse, heat pouring off him. “You’ve thought about it more than once. You want to know if what those women said about vampire toxin is true.”

“Maybe,” I said, aggravated with his arrogance. And the fact that he was totally right. I pulled away till his arm dropped from me, refraining from groaning at the loss of his sensual touch. “Maybe I need to try a vampire next on Zapp and see for myself.” Then I turned and walked up Magazine Street toward home.

That was a bitchy thing to say, I know. It was really unlike me. But Devraj needed to understand he didn’t have rights over me. We weren’t in a relationship. We were friends. Who’d happened to have had mind-melting sex once. Twice, really. And that was that. I needed a man I could fall in love with. One who’d stay.

Chapter 22

~DEVRAJ~

Damn. That woman was going to kill me. After cooling my head and biting back a string of curses in ten languages, I caught up to walk with her back to her house. I changed the subject to something lighter so I didn’t lose my shit over the thought of her entertaining some other vampire. Her letting another vampire touch her, bite her. The burning jealousy that image stirred in my gut was crippling.

So I steered us onto something else. “You like dogs?”

She glanced at me as we passed by Maybelle’s and through a laughing group of friends going somewhere. I placed a light hand on her back, and she let me, thankfully. So maybe she wasn’t that angry with me. Perhaps she was just giving me a little payback for ruining her evening with Terry the Witless Wonder. Maybe it was a dick move to butt in, but I had zero regrets. That idiot had no business with a woman like Isadora, who was so far out of his league.

“How’d you know I like dogs?”

“Your profile on Zapp.”

“You read my profile?”

“Of course, I did,” I answered shamelessly.

My bold admission sent a flush of pink crawling up into her cheeks. I wanted her to know I was interested. I just couldn’t let her know how interested. How fascinated. That would terrify her.

She hiked her bag on her shoulder again nervously as we turned the corner onto our street. “Yeah, I love dogs.”

“Then why don’t you have one?”

“Well, I do sort of—” She glanced at me, biting back what she was going to tell me for some reason. “It’s just that we have Z and Fred, and they’re enough right now. I’m not sure how a new pet would fit into the mix, you know? I mean, being a pet owner is a big responsibility. I wouldn’t want to bring him into the house if he wasn’t going to fit in well with the others.”

“Him? You have a dog in mind already?”

Her focus remained straight ahead, but I caught the widening of her eyes as though she hadn’t wanted me to pick up on that. This woman had no idea how hard I listened to her. How much I obsessed over every word that came out of her mouth. Over every lithe movement of her body, every soft expression, every blink of her haunting green eyes.

We were turning up her walk through the wrought iron gate. “You’re coming in?” she asked, surprised.

“It’s almost time for Violet’s reading.”

She squeezed her eyes shut with a little shake of her head as we stepped up to the porch. “Right, right.”

She was a little more scrambled than normal. I wasn’t sure if it was me interrupting her date. Or if it was just me. What I did know was that her pulse always picked up pace when I got close to her. And that was definitely a good sign.

I followed Isadora into the house and down the foyer to the living room.

“Hello? Anybody home?” she called out.

“In my study!” yelled Jules.

Rather than head into the living room, Isadora glanced over her shoulder and pointed down the longer hallway. “This way.”

I gave her a reassuring smile and followed, happy to sense her anger had subsided. When we arrived in what must be Jules’s library, Violet was already there, the wooden coffee table set up for the reading. White pillar candles sat staggered on the table, a smudge stick burning upright in a bowl of black sand. Incense filled the room with spice and sage.

Violet sat cross-legged on one end, shuffling her Tarot cards. They were all face-down on the table as she roamed her fingers over them, moving them under and over each other. Already I sensed a pulse of magic sizzling in the air.

Jules sat on the other side of the coffee table on the floor, her demeanor calm and watchful as always. “Isn’t Ruben with you?”

“We came separately.”

Isadora scoffed. Jules eyed her with a raised eyebrow, but Isadora just shook her head. She would most likely wait till we left before she spilled about my interference.

“How was your date?” asked Violet, grinning down at the cards as she scooped them up.

“We’ll talk later,” Isadora promised with a hint of warning.

Violet smirked then glanced at me and winked. Somehow I felt like Violet was on my side. She was now my favorite sister.

“Would you like a reading while we wait for Ruben?” she asked me.

My pulse tripped. I wasn’t sure why. Then I glanced at Isadora who took a seat in a chair behind them near the bookshelf. “Why not?”

I settled into a wingback chair on the opposite end of the coffee table, suddenly very nervous. “What do I do?”

Violet grinned, her cat-like eyes shining by the candlelight. “We’re doing three cards. One for personal. One for professional. One for your heart’s goal.”

“Heart’s goal?” I asked with skepticism. My gaze darted to Isadora again, the magnetic pull she had on me in a room so overpowering I could hardly focus on anything else.

“To catch the kidnapper, of course,” Violet answered, her gaze on the cards, her voice amused. “That would be the goal that weighs most heavily on you. Right?”

“Right. Of course.”

She bit her bottom lip, holding the cards in one hand. She tucked some of her blue hair behind her ear, revealing a row of piercings up the cartilage.

“Whoa. That’s new. When did you get that?” Isadora asked, leaning forward and pointing at Violet’s arm.

Violet stretched out her left inner forearm. I recognized the image because I’d just seen something similar on one of the Tarot cards.

“The High Priestess?” asked Jules, leaning forward and holding her wrist so she could inspect the ink.

The priestess wore a horned crown and held a crystal ball in one hand, her gown embedded with stars, a crescent moon over one shoulder.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” asked Violet with a huge smile.

“Who’s the High Priestess?” I had to ask.

Violet went back to flipping her cards from hand to hand. “She’s the queen of intuition, sacred knowledge, and the divine feminine. I need her on my side.”

“It’s beautiful work,” said Isadora. “Did you use your regular guy?”

“Nah. Someone new,” she said evasively.

As she shuffled, I noticed some Celtic runes inked on her index and middle fingers. Though I’d spent some time in Ireland, I didn’t know much about runes. But I did recognize the upward arrow for the spiritual warrior.

“Okay, Devraj. So first you’ll pull a card for your personal self.”

She fanned out the cards in front of her on the table, her silver nail polish sparkling. The charge of magic in the room amplified, pulling my own to the surface. Moving my hand on instinct, I tapped a card and slid it out from the deck. Violet flipped it over to reveal a man hanging from a gold cord by a tree. The card was upside down.

“The Hanged Man. But reversed.” She angled her head at me. “This means resistance and indecision. There’s something in your personal life that you’re stalling about. If you really want it, you’re going to need to get over that hump. Make the decision and go for it.”

I made no response. I was totally confused. The only personal thing in my life was my hunt of Isadora. And I wasn’t stalling about it. Was I?

“That’s kind of vague,” I said. “What if I have no idea what you’re talking about?”

She nodded her head definitively. “You will.” She pointed to the deck. “Now for your professional self.”

On a heavy sigh, I leaned forward, tapped the card my fingers were drawn to, then slid it forward. Violet flipped it.

“Ahh. I like this one. Strength. Not a great mystery in meaning. You have strength, courage, and compassion in your work.” Violet tapped her index finger on the card three times. “You have an enormous amount of influence, too.”

“On who?” I asked.

“On everyone,” she answered flippantly.

My gaze moved to Isadora who had her eyes on the deck, her expression calm. But the wringing of her hands in her lap told me another story.

“Last one, Stygorn,” said Violet. “This is for your heart’s goal. So hold it in your mind as you seek your card.”

I thought of Blake Bellingrath and of Darren Webber and our plan, which immediately led to the thought of Isadora acting as bait. Which then led to the anxiety I felt putting her life in danger. The fear, even, that I wouldn’t be able to get to her before something happened to her. Then my thoughts flickered to Isadora in my care, under my protection, in my home, in my bed. In my arms. In my heart. I reached over and tapped a card, pulling it forward out of the deck.