I met her blue eyes. “Are you a medical examiner, then?”
Her lips twitched. “Something like that.”
I groped through the fantasy for something that could be interpreted as reality. “The officer said he likely had a heart attack.”
She tilted his head as she regarded me. “His heart did stop working. But not in a conventional way.”
Ice traveled up my spine.She knew.She knew I’d done it.
Fantasywasthe reality.
“I didn’t mean to,” I whispered. “He hurt Trix.”
Kitani stiffened, but Cara didn’t bat an eye. “He was trying to kill you, Anna. Or worse.”
There was a worse? But I only gritted my teeth, and said, “His eyes glowed at me. And his fingernails were like claws. That’s what sliced my arms. But the cuts healed”—I swallowed—“on their own.”
The knock on my front door made me jump, and then a man popped in.
I was out of my chair with my back to the wall in an instant. Trix looked from him to me as she pressed up against my leg, eyeing the new arrival uncertainly.
He, in turn, stammered, “Uh, sorry. Hi, I’m Cody!”
As if that forgave six-foot-plus of tall, muscled male popping unannounced—well, virtually unannounced—through my front door. But I found myself staring at him. Because, holy crap, was hegorgeous. Like something out of an effing magazine.
Kitani rubbed a hand over her face. “Anna, meet my ma—er, husband, Cody.”
Oh, damn.See, the drool-worthy oneswerealways taken. Frankly, I couldn’t imagine the children those two would produce...
He sketched a wave at me. “Uh, hello, Anna.” Cody’s gaze hesitated on me, and his dark brows drew down before his eyes roamed back to his wife. “Found footprints in the garden. He definitely tracked her from here.”
He’d found footprints? But... what was he saying? That they were connected to my attacker? How could that be? My mind spun.
Kitani lifted a lip over a rather disturbingly sharp canine. “Why was he watching her? Do you think he knew she had Cryptid blood?”
“Does she, then?” His gaze drifted to Cara, who nodded, before he shrugged. “Don’t see how. But it doesn’t seem like a coincidence.”
Cara sighed. “He was pretty far gone, almost feral, really. Could he have scented she was different?”
Cody seemed to consider. “Maybe. But he must have a better nose than me.”
I sifted the dialog for anything that I might understand. Which, as it turned out, wasn’t any of it. I settled for, “Did you know the guy who attacked me?”
Cody shook his head. He kept shooting glances at me, like he was trying to figure me out. He’d shut the door but stayed pressed up against it, as if to block my exit. Or perhaps, he just realized his presence made me nervous. “Not personally, no. But Jason knew where he came from.”
“And we know what he was,” Cara added.
What. Not who. I stared at her in confusion.
“He wasn’t human,” she said softly.
Great. Next, she was going to tell me I’d been attacked by an alien. I edged toward the hall, and Trix, shooting me a confused look, came with me. “I think you guys should go.”
Cara glanced at Kitani. “Show her.”
Kitani eyed me. “She’ll bolt.”
“Maybe, but she has to know.”
