“I can.” He peered into the trunk to see the unconscious . . . thing she’d captured.

“How did you manage this?” he asked.

“I hit it with my car, fought it into submission, tied it up with rope and shoved it in the trunk.”

“By yourself?”

She widened her eyes and looked around. “Do you see anyone else?”

His gorgeous face paled even more than it had before. She could tell by the compulsion the fates had given her that the dude wasn’t a fan of the sun, but she’d never seen anyone go this white. “You touched this creature? Is that where you got those scratches?”

He started coming after her again, and she stepped around the car to put some nice, sturdy metal between herself and him. “Don’t come any closer.”

“This demon is poisonous. My intent was only to help. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t,” she lied. “And I’m fine.” Or she would be once she got back behind the wheel and down the road again, away from him.

“How were you injured?”

“The thing’s fingernails. I knocked the sword out of its hands with the car, but it still put up a hell of a fight.”

“And you won,” he said, stating the obvious. “How did you win?”

She patted her ribs and the semiautomatic pistol she kept strapped there, hidden under her jacket. “I shot it.”

Ronan eased closer to the creature, gliding over the dirt floor with the grace of an Olympic ice skater. “It’s still alive.”

“I wasn’t supposed to kill it.”

“Why not?”

“Hell if I know. Are you going to take it to Joseph, or do I have to do the job myself?”

“What does Joseph want with the demon?”

“I’ve never met the man. For all I know, he’s going to cut it open and study its parts. I really don’t care. The only thing that matters is getting it to him. Will you help?”

She was starting to get frantic now. The fates were nipping at her heels, urging her to hurry. If she didn’t, she might well become incapacitated with pain right here, completely helpless to stop Ronan from sucking out all her blood.

He stared at her for a few uncomfortable seconds. That familiar pressure was closing in on her, bringing with it a mountain of fear.

“If it’s that important to you, I’ll call him.”

“Now,” she urged, hoping she didn’t sound like too much of a bitch. She really needed the vampire to play nice.

“If it pleases you, yes.” He pulled out his phone and dialed. An angry male voice answered.

“I know I didn’t answer earlier,” said Ronan. “I was otherwise occupied.”

The man on the line, presumably Joseph, went off for a full minute while Ronan winced and held the phone away from his ear. “I understand. It won’t happen again. The reason I called was because I have something I think might interest you. Do you have need of a live Synestryn demon, by chance?”

*   *   *

“As a matter of fact, we do,” said Joseph into his phone. How the hell had Ronan known? Freaky Sanguinar trick, no doubt.

“Where are you?” asked Ronan.

“Standing outside of what used to be my truck.”

“Used to be?”

“Yes. I’m afraid you’re going to have to come to us with your present.”

There was a slight pause before Ronan answered. “We can do that.”

“We?”

“Long story. It’s getting dark out. Where will you shelter?”

“I’m in Slayer territory. There are no Gerai houses near enough to make it on foot. We’ll have to find a defensible position and sit tight until someone can pick us up.”

“I know a place,” said Lyka.

“Where is it?” Joseph asked her.

“Less than a mile on foot.”

“Come to Andreas’s settlement. Call when you get here, and we’ll meet you at the road.”

“I’m hours away from there. Are you sure you’ll be safe that long?” asked Ronan.

“We’ll have to be. I doubt anyone is closer than a few hours out. We’re stretched thin with so many pregnant women stuck at Dabyr.”

“Stay safe. We’ll hurry.” Ronan hung up.

Joseph looked at Lyka, who was biting her plump bottom lip in anxiety. Before he could think better of his actions, he pulled her into his arms and kissed away the dent she’d left behind.

As always, she went straight to his head, making his blood sing in his veins. He didn’t understand how she had the power to rock his world so hard, but he was starting to like that she could.

“Where to?” he asked, eager to get her out of the open, where they could be attacked from all sides.

She was a little breathless from their kiss, her cheeks flushed, but that worry he’d felt coming out of her had abated.

She gave him a devilish grin. “How do you feel about heights?”

A demon’s howl, answered by one of its kin, echoed through the woods.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Joseph. “We need shelter. Fast.”

“Follow me.” She took off at a jog, making a beeline through the trees.

Joseph stayed close, sword in hand. He tried to push power through their link to help fuel her body, but it wasn’t working. Something was blocking him, so he sought out what it was.

She was exhausted, worried, a little afraid. She was concentrating on leading him through the woods in the quickest, safest manner while simultaneously extending her senses so she would be able to detect a demon before it pounced.

There was no room in her thoughts for some new way to use his power. She was already handling as much as she could.

Joseph sent her as much reassurance as he could muster, but it wasn’t much.

Her long legs ate up the distance, moving effortlessly over rocks, logs and fallen branches, despite her bare feet. She was naked except for his borrowed shirt, and her curvy bottom kept peeking out to tease him.

His balls tingled and grew heavy. His cock started to swell and throb.

He knew he shouldn’t be thinking about such things at a time like this, but he couldn’t help it. He remembered all too well how perfectly her ass fit his hands, how smooth and soft her skin was there. And the shadowy perfection hidden between her thighs . . .