Out of the darkness, the other Duprés emerged and descended upon the boys; it took all of three seconds for the boys to realize they were outweighed. Todd leapt off me, and he and the others took off down the street, laughing, leaping off ledges, and doing crazy, mindless jumps that landed them into handstands; they kept on running, kept moving. I could hardly believe one of them was Seth. Seth wouldn’t believe he was Seth. Phin, Luc, and Josie took off after them in the same manner, until darkness swallowed them all. Only their echoes bounced off the buildings of the historic district.

By the time Eli emerged by my side, he’d transformed into the beautiful guy I’d grown painfully used to; all traces of his previous horror vanished. Now he looked more pissed than he had before. His gaze lit on my bleeding lip, and his frown deepened, nostrils flared.

“What in the hell are you doing, Riley?” Eli asked, and yanked me up hard, nearly flinging me across the street. “Can’t you listen to anyone? Something wrong with your goddamn ears?” he asked. He looked down, shook his head, and then clasped his hands behind his neck and stared up and off into the shadows. “Wipe the blood off your mouth. Now,” he said with almost a growl.

Pulling my minipack off my back, I opened it and searched for something to get the blood off my lip. An old Krispy Kreme napkin wrapped around a wad of gum sat in the bottom; I quickly used it.

“Throw it down,” Eli commanded.

Without question, I did as he asked. I knew that having fresh blood on my face was stupid. I wasn’t about to push Eli. Not now.

“One of them could have easily killed you,” he said without looking at me. Then he turned on me. “All of them would have left nothing for the coroner to piece together.”

“I—,” I started.

“If you say you can take care of yourself one more damn time, I’m gonna explode,” he ground out between clinched teeth. In a blink he was at me, grasping my shoulders and all but shaking me. “You can’t, Riley. Not with this. This is way out of your capabilities, no matter how much of a badass you think you are.” He did shake me then. “Do you hear me?” He drew so close, our noses nearly touched, and his eyes bored hard into mine. “When I tell you stay put, stay the fuck put.”

I could do nothing more than scowl at Eli. I didn’t like being chastised, even if he was right.

He shook me harder, his expression lethal. “I don’t care that you don’t like being chastised. Next time”—his face hardened—“listen.”

“Let. Go. Of. Me,” I said, emphasizing each word with as much venom as I could muster. He did, and I turned on my heels and began walking, back toward Whitaker, Eli a few steps behind. I played with my cut lip with my tongue and didn’t say a word until we stopped at the cross light on Bay. “If your brothers and sister follow Seth and Riggs, why is it that we still don’t know where the Arcoses are . . . restoring, rejuvenating, or whatever it is they’re doing?” I asked, frustrated. “Won’t the boys lead them?”

“No,” he said flatly, the light from the streetlamp behind him throwing his whole face into darkness. “They will play all night until dawn, jumping the rooftops and gathering forces, reveling in their freedom and new-found powers; they’ll eventually disperse and run in different directions, and the Arcoses will continue to move. Even if we did follow the boys, they’d never be able to lead us to the brothers. The Arcoses are too smart for that. Weak as they are, they’ll move, too.” He ducked his head and caught my gaze. “Patience.”

I glanced back down the street, where the junkie was just stumbling up the sidewalk. “They were going to kill that guy,” I said, sickened by the thought.

“No,” Eli said. “They were going to either lure him to the Arcoses or force him. Either way, yes—he would have died. They prey on people like him—homeless, junkies, prostitutes—because they’re easily overlooked in the public eye.”

“What if your parents helped? And Ned? If we all gathered and followed Seth and the others, couldn’t we just take them?” I said angrily. “I just don’t get it.”

Eli grasped me by the chin and held my head in place as he looked at me. “You’re forgetting about the Gullah magic, Riley,” he said harshly. “They’re untouchable until fully regenerated. It might get your brother and his friends killed if we overstepped the boundaries of the magic. Understand?”

I had a hard time breathing; Eli’s face in shadows, the glassy reflection in his eyes—even his angry voice all but lulled me into another zone. “Not really,” I said, equally angered. “But I guess I have no choice but to go along with it, huh?”

Eli dropped his hand and stepped away. “Yeah. It’d make things a hell of a lot easier if you did.”

Thunder rumbled directly overhead, and just that fast, heavy drops of rain began to fall. “Let’s go,” he said, and we started home. The cars on Bay rolled by on the wet pavement with a hiss, and the warmth of coastal Savannah mixed with that unique smell only rain has. I inhaled deeply. It seemed the last of normalcy for me, and I greedily sucked it in. The rain fell faster and harder, and before we’d even made it to merchant’s drive, we were both soaked. I stomped up the cobbles in my spiked boots, my hair like a pile of wet moss hanging in thick, sopping hanks, my skin slick from the rain and the lotion I’d used earlier.

Everything hit me at once: Seth, the Duprés, Eli, the Arcoses, strigoi, the Kindred, Kelter and his dirty hands—it all overwhelmed me, and I began to shake. Goddamn, I hated being weak! I yanked my pack off my back and frantically dug for my house key.

Eli’s body pushed close to mine. “What are you doing?” he said.

My gaze flew to his, emotions taking over me. I remembered his words in Molly’s, and it pissed me off all over again. “Why do you care?” I said vehemently. “You’re just a fucking babysitter, right?” I found the key and tried to jam it into the lock, but my unsteady, frustrated hands prevented it, and I cursed under my breath. “What happens to me, to Seth—it doesn’t matter to you.” I looked at him again through a sheet of rain highlighted by the glow of lamplight. “We’re nothing to you. Just part of a contract, right, Eli?”

In a move so fast I didn’t know it’d happened until it had, Eli grabbed my bag and threw it on the cobbles, then shoved me hard against Inksomnia’s back door. He pushed in and crowded me, and I had nowhere to go. I felt his presence all around me, and as the rain fell against my face, it dripped from his hair, too, and onto my face, my chest; I could do little more than stare at him incredulously. “Get off of me,” I said angrily, my voice cracking, deep as I struggled not to lose it.

Eli shook his head and studied my face. “No,” he said, his voice softer, not as angered as before. His hands moved to my hips and yanked me against him. He drew his face even closer. “You have no idea how much restraint I’ve used to keep my hands off of you,” he said, his hands slipping under my leather vest and along my bare rib cage. I shivered beneath his touch. “I’ve wanted you from the second I saw you through your storefront, and every dirty desire and thought you’ve had became mine.” He leaned heavier against me, his gaze dangerous, fierce. “I nearly lost my mind the night you thought of me and touched yourself,” he whispered against my ear. “I almost took you then,” he said, his gaze fixed on mine. “I’ve wanted you every second since. I can’t control myself anymore.” His hands skimmed my rain-slicked lower back, grasped my ass, and pulled me against his hardness; his gaze grew dark, and he lowered his mouth to my ear and whispered erotically, “It’s been a pleasure being your fucking babysitter, Riley Poe. But now I want more.”

Never had any form of the word fuck sounded so sensual, but falling in a whisper from Eli’s sexy mouth, in the context he’d used, his voice heavy with need and with his breath brushing my wet neck? A total turn-on, and my skin flushed with heat despite the rain. I wanted his hands all over me; I wanted out of the leather. I wanted him inside me, and whatever consequence came along with it. As long as it was Eli, I didn’t care. Danger and fear of what could happen was easily forgotten as sensations took control. My mind was of myriad sexual pleasures I couldn’t help but think of, and Eli cued in on every one of them by invading my thoughts. I invited him, welcomed him, and let him take control.

Perfect, sexy, curved lips hovered close to mine, and his eyes watched my reaction as he grasped the zipper of my leather vest and slowly lowered it, exposing my abdomen and the hot pink swimsuit top that pushed my breasts up; I know he heard my breath catch at his touch—I could see it in his eyes. My leather pants were low-riders and sat a good two inches below my navel, and with one hand Eli explored the rain-slicked skin and muscles of my stomach; then the other pulled me free of the vest. I leaned into him, reached up and threaded my fingers through his wet hair and grasped the back of his neck, and for a split second, we stood motionless, staring. He could kill me in under two seconds, my blood a fiery temptation, and I didn’t even care. As long as he kept his hands on me, fear escaped me. He ran his palm up my side and over my breast, and stilled it over my heart. It pounded wildly against his hand. I had no idea what ran through his mind, and I wasn’t too sure I wanted to know. But desperation and awe filled mine; I couldn’t remember ever needing someone so badly—my insides actually ached with want, desire, and I wasn’t even sure why. But it had to be now. And it had to be Eli.

With the rain falling against my face, Eli lowered his head and pressed his mouth to mine; it felt like a match had been struck, and I gasped at the contact. A current soared between us, palpable and hot, and Eli shoved me hard against the wall as he kissed me, both hands leaving my body to push into my hair and hold my head in place. His tongue against mine made me struggle for breath, struggle for more, and I slid my hands up his shirt to feel the hard ridges of his abdomen. He groaned against my mouth, then tore his lips away to press against my ear. “Inside,” he said, his voice dark, dangerous, on edge. “Now.”