I feel my body flood with that pulse of desire again, making me instantly wetter. Fuck, yes. I want to be mated. The van is an enclosed space and my sense of smell has always been keen, given I am a wolf underneath it all. I can scent them, and myself. I am the most potent of them all. My wetness, my virginal need isdoing the sexual equivalent of hot boxing this van. I think we’re all going a little crazy right now…
Boom!
The vehicle skids sideways as some kind of incendiary device hits it in the rear.
“They’re on us,” Kirin says. His voice is so neutral that the adrenaline spike that hit me first up subsides almost immediately.
“They are,” Einar agrees.
“Are they trying to get me?” I whimper the question. It’s hard to be brave when you’re naked and the fingers of two men just promptly exited your body due to an explosion.
“No, don’t worry. This isn’t about you. This is just what it is like living in Nile City.”
“You mean Eclipse.”
Rafe laughs. “This city has been called Nile by everybody who lives here for years. Only people who call it Eclipse are academy brats who either don’t come from here, or don’t know any better.”
“So what’s happening?”
Einar lifts me up and pats my ass, wrapping the cloak around me. “Go sit up front with Kirin. You’ll be able to see more from the passenger seat.”
“Put your seatbelt on,” Kirin says as I do as I’m told, climbing up and through the space where the center console is. He speaks in clipped, somewhat curt tones.
I think out of all of these guys, he likes me the least. He seems pissed off about the mate bond more than excited by it. He doesn’t look at me, but I can’t take that personally. He’s weaving through night traffic. There’s just a sea of lights ahead of us that somehow manage to be bright without actually illuminating anything.
Another shudder comes from the rear of the van.
“What is that?”
“Look out the wing mirror,” he says.
I look in the reflection and I see someone clinging to the rear side of the van with a vest and a sort of gun belt and a bandolier absolutely full of what I’m going to say are things that go boom.
They’re wearing face armor, so I can’t see much more than that. Their clothes are shiny and black, and I bet they’d blend into the city really easily if it wasn’t for the neon highlights that keep zipping over them. They’re keeping pace with the van by putting way too much faith in a pair of what I hope are over-engineered roller skates.
“Who is that?”
“Just a road pirate. Vans are targets for thieves. That’s why they have to be reinforced to withstand explosive charges. That asshole’s probably wondering why there’s not a hole in the side of this thing after two goes. Hold on. I’m going to scrape him off.”
The maneuver Kirin performs next is brutal in its efficiency; he swings the vehicle onto a footpath and drives so close to a building that the person clinging to the side doesn’t have a chance to stay on. It’s jump or be mashed. They choose jump, Ithink. There’s a brief flash of light that I suspect might be several of those charges going off at once.
I grit my teeth and let a sympathetic sound escape me. I think I just saw someone else die. That’s two in one day.
“Sorry, I’m not used to seeing things like that.”
“Trained by the academy and not used to seeing violence or death,” Kirin snorts. “No wonder the King’s Guard is so soft and useless.”
He’s such an asshole. I don’t know if it’s the fear, the death, or just him pissing me off, but all that arousal that was coursing through my body, making me compliant and willing is gone. It’s amazing how fast even the hottest guy can turn you the fuck off just by opening his mouth.
“Take that back!”
He glances over at me briefly. “No.”
“You’ve assaulted my honor. Take it back, or we will have that duel, and you’ve seen what I can do with a sword.”
“Hit someone once, then cry and run away?”
I let out an offended gasp. I can’t believe his nerve. “Fuck you,” I say. “We’ll be dueling. You won’t be laying a single finger on me, let alone any other part of your arrogant anatomy.”
