Page 36 of A Touch of Crimson
“Huh?”
“How did you know that was a demon last night?”
“Oh.” She winced. “I’m a human—mortal—with bad luck, I guess you could say.” She used to wonder what it would be like to be blissfully ignorant like other mortals were, but it’d been a long time since she had entertained such thoughts. It was pointless, like wondering what her life would be like if she were a cat.
“What is it you see?”
“I don’t see anything. I feel things. Like a ghost walking over my grave, if you’re familiar with that saying.”
“You went straight to Adrian the moment you saw him. Is that why?”
“No. I picked him up because he’s hot.” She embellished the half-truth with a smile, keeping her sense of the weather and its connection to Adrian close to the chest.“I’m a woman, too, you know. One who happens to be attracted to good-looking guys.”
“You don’t find it coincidental that you happened to pick out the one angel in the terminal?”
“Absolutely. I said the same thing to Adrian last night, but he had some six-degrees-of-separation explanation.”
“Hmm…”
“Pretty much my reaction, too, but what do I know? I’m not religious.”
“So says the woman who now lives with angels.”
“No shit.” Lindsay grinned. “Did you see Adrian’s face when the dragon went down?”
Elijah’s eyes lit with amusement. “Yeah.”
The plane began to descend. She rubbed her hands together. “I hope we find whoever it is we’re looking for.”
“We will.” His face hardened, taking on the fierce cast of a predator.
“You like hunting, don’t you?”
“Yes. This time especially.” His irises took on a preternatural glow. “In addition to Adrian’s lieutenant, this vamp is responsible for the death of two lycans.”
“Friends?”
“Something like that.”
Lindsay wondered how many people Elijah called friends, and suspected it was a small, elite group. She rolled her shoulders back and exhaled audibly.
“You all right?” he asked, blanching as the plane dropped swiftly.
“I will be.”
For the first time, she was actually looking forward to killing something. And she didn’t feel nearly as bad about that as she thought she should.
10
Lindsay stepped out of the plane, slipped on her sunglasses, and looked around. “Holy shit.”
A warm hand settled on the small of her back, followed by Adrian’s murmur. “What?”
She turned all the way around, slowly, until she faced him directly. “Where is the ground?”
The runway ended…in midair. “We’re on a mesa.”
“No way.”
