Barrett froze, turning to look at me. “Avampire?”
I winced. “Those marks on you could only have been made by teeth, and I just thought maybe?—”
His voice was a grumble, and when he spoke, it was in a different voice than I thought I’d heard him use before. Commanding.Alpha. “Don’t go anywhere near vampires, Eryne.”
Sucking in a breath, I couldn’t take my eyes off of the man in front of me. The man who took up so much space in my living room, he felt bigger than life. “Okay,” I whispered.
Barrett nodded to himself, like that satisfied him. “Anyway, I told you the truth before. I don’t know what it was. Nothing I’dever seen before. Everything from that night is still a bit blurry, but it was wrong. And the smell, therot?—”
“You think whatever attacked you has something to do with the barrier failing,” I guessed.
Finally, he sat down next to me on the couch. “Yes. I needed the run to clear my head.” He looked guilty as he looked over at me. “I’m sorry, by the way. For how I left earlier.”
I bit my lip. In the grand scheme of things, it seemed stupid for me to be upset about. But also, he didn’t owe me anything.
“What about the barrier?” I squeezed the pillow tighter to my abdomen, trying to ignore the way his commanding voice had left me achey all over. Crossing my legs, I hoped he didn’t notice my reaction.
His eyes dilated, and his nostrils flared as he looked at me. “I… What about it?”
“Youwerelooking at it, weren’t you? You found something wrong with it.”
He groaned. “Yes. It has the same traces as the creature that I was tracking. It feels unnatural.Wrong.I think it’s causing the barrier to break down.”
“But why would it come after our wards?” I asked.
“Do you want my best guess?” He scratched his head. I nodded, encouraging him to continue. “It wants to consume the magic. These things… they don’t stop until they’ve devoured everything in sight.”
My eyes widened. “So, not a vampire.”
He chuckled. “No.Definitely not a vampire. I don’t know the name for what they are. Not yet. But I suspect that they’re creatures from the very depths of the underworld. They only leave death in their wake.”
I waited a beat for him to laugh. To reveal this was all some sort of funny joke. But he didn’t. He just stared at me, like he was waiting for me tor process that piece of information.
“I need to lie down,” I said, rubbing my forehead. “Today feels like the longest day of my life,” I admitted. “Was it really only this morning that I found out who you are?” I couldn’t look away from his eyes. Those beautiful amber eyes, just the same as his wolf. They were captivating, swirling somehow, full of emotions I couldn’t even begin to describe.
He reached his hand over, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear before cupping my jaw. “It feels like I’ve known you forever,” he said, voice a low murmur.
It made my heart flutter, bats practically erupting in my chest.
His lips were so close to mine. My eyes fluttered shut. Iwantedthis.
Was that insane? I couldn’t describe what was pulling us together, but whatever unseen forces had drawn us to each other, I wanted to pursue it. Wanted to understand. Wanted toknow.
I leaned in towards him, knowing that all it would take was just another inch or two for our lips to meet.
My heart pounded in my chest, and I wondered if he could hear it. Wondered if he knew how badly I wanted this. Wantedhim.
Barrett cleared his throat. “We should go to sleep.” In the blink of an eye, he was off the couch, standing on the other side of the room.
“Oh.” The mortification stung, the implication burning at my cheeks. He didn’t want me. “Right.”
Of course, he didn’t want me. We’d just met.
Why would he want to kissme? I was just some witch in a town that was just a blip on his radar. Just another case as he went around hunting monsters.
I couldn’t compete with that. I couldn’t compete withhome,a place he spoke of with such open affection.
So I stood, heading back to my bedroom without another word.
