He covered her hand with his own. “I know more than you realize, Eden Swain. Your soul bleeds all around you.”
Tears sprang to her eyes with the description of the emotional torment she’d been going through. How could this stranger see right through her, to the very essence of her being?
He was no ordinary man—it was evident in everything about him.
“I do not tell you these things to hurt you. I say them to keep you from more harm.” He squeezed her hand, then let his own drop. “Searching for Lilith Grae will only bring you more pain.” Giving her his back, he walked toward the edge of the building.
As he walked away, she noticed his long bone-white hair fluttering in the breeze. He had a graceful way of walking, majestic like an animal. Which of course was crazy. When he reached the edge, he turned and looked at her once more.
“Heed my words. Save your soul.”
“Wait!” She rushed after him. “Is she safe? Can you at least tell me that?”
He paused as if pondering whether to give her the information or not, as if it wasn’t a good idea. “Yes, she’s safe.”
He stepped up onto the ledge and jumped off the roof.
Eden ran to the edge. When she looked over, he was nowhere in sight. Not falling to his death, not gliding down with a parachute or hanging from a helicopter. He was just gone. Evaporated into mist.
But there was movement in the street below. It looked like a giant dog striding down the road. A dog or a large, pale wolf. Exactly like the one she’d seen trailing behind her the other night. Which was impossible, wasn’t it?
Vertigo made her head swim and she stumbled back. But it was more than the fear of heights that made her mind muddled. Her whole life she’d been able to figure things out. Algebra equations and word anagrams were as easy to do as playing tic-tac-toe. She’d always been skilled in solving problems. But now, she had no clue how to figure this one out.
Everything she’d experienced since the woman’s disappearance was beyond her scope of logic and reason.
Eden rushed across the rooftop to the door that led to the levels below. When she wrapped her hand around the metal handle and tugged, she realized that her injured hand didn’t hurt anymore. Her throat constricted as she stared down at her hand. Unraveling the cloth, Eden took in slow, measured breaths. She wasn’t prepared for what she saw. Or didn’t see.
The black burn had completely vanished. Her palm appeared pink like new skin.
Flexing her fingers, Eden recalled Lilith’s words on the phone. She had talked about demons and evil, but what she had failed to mention was the other side.
Chapter Six
Eden didn’t sleep much that night. Her dreams were filled with smoke-blowing demons and wolves with startling, pale eyes. And a man so perfect and pale she thought she’d go mad with wanting him.
Eden Swain.
Her name echoed between the buildings, joined by thousands of soft voices murmuring, as if every leaf on every tree was calling to her.
Eden Swain, Eden Swain. Over here, Eden Swain.
Eden looked around. She was no longer in the city but in a forest filled with towering trees and a heavy mist.
A shadow crossed her path.
“What do you want?” she called, spinning toward it, only to feel as if the shadow was behind her and not in front of her. “Where are you?”
I’m here. Come to me, Eden.
“Why should I listen to you?”
There is only one way to save your soul.
A white wolf appeared, the biggest wolf she’d ever seen. Its eyes glowed in the moonlight. Its teeth were bared but it wasn’t growling. No, an animal growled out of fear. This animal wasn’t fearful; it looked hungry, and if Eden wasn’t mistaken, she was going to be supper.
Eden’s hands flew to her waist where her gun should have been holstered. It wasn’t there. Looking down at herself, she saw that she wasn’t dressed in her usual street clothes—she was wearing some billowing white gown, the kind of thing a Victorian virgin would wear on her wedding night.
The kind of thing that was impossible to run in.
But Eden had no choice. Without a weapon her only chance for survival was to run. She turned and fled, racing through the forest, dodging trees and jumping over fallen logs. The stupid nightgown she wore got caught on bushes and branches that tugged on her like tiny malevolent hands, tearing the fabric, making her stumble.
At first she could hear the animal’s loping strides behind her, but panic and exertion deafened her senses so that the only sounds she heard were her own panting breath and the pounding of her heart. She dared to glance behind her—a mistake because she didn’t see the root until after her toe got caught. She fell so hard the air got knocked out of her and she writhed on the ground, gasping to get it back.
When she was able to breathe again, she jumped to her feet, crouching in a defensive position, prepared for the inevitable attack, but the animal was gone. There was nothing there. The forest was silent.
Eden turned three hundred and sixty degrees, searching and listening for any telltale sign. Thank God. She leaned against the nearest tree, closed her eyes, and focused on slowing her breathing and her heart rate.
When she opened her eyes, he was there. Not the wolf, no. The pale man. Naked and glorious. He approached her with silent footfalls, his pale eyes glowing in the dim light.
“Go away,” Eden shouted, feeling every bit the trapped prey and hating herself for it.
Do you fear me?
She laughed. “Not likely. I’m just not in the mood to be eaten.”
That’s a shame.
He came nearer still, close enough to touch, and the closer he came, the harder it was for Eden to breathe.
His pale-eyed gaze swept across her body and Eden shivered. She looked down. Her tattered gown lay in a puddle at her feet and she stood completely na**d with nothing but her fists to protect her.
You nearly gave yourself to him, yet you stand in fear of me. Why?
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” She inched a teeny step to the right, hoping to distract him so she could make a break for it. “Do me a favor and open your mouth when you talk to me.”
Can’t you hear me?
“Of course I can hear you. I’m speaking to you, aren’t I?”
The man smiled and Eden expected to see fangs behind those sensuous lips, but she saw only the gleam of straight white teeth.
He leaned toward her and whispered, “Is this better?”
He was within striking distance. “Yes,” she said through gritted teeth before driving her knee up, hard, and feeling a sense of satisfaction when it connected with something both soft and solid.
But it wasn’t the part of him she’d hoped to nail. He’d moved so quickly she’d missed her intended target and now her knee was firmly grasped in his huge hand while he regarded her with an unreadable expression.
“Let go of me.”
He shook his head and hoisted her leg up higher, driving it to the side and stepping up to the opening he’d created. With the weight of his body leaning into her, he no longer needed to hold on to her leg, and he grabbed her wrists and forced them high against the tree above her.
“What do you want from me?” she bit out.
“What do you think?”
“If I knew the answer, I wouldn’t have asked.”
He smiled slowly. “You, Eden. I want you.” To illustrate his point, he moved his hips, adjusting the point where his arousal pressed against her na**d body.
She sucked in a breath, appalled by her unconscious response to this stranger. Her sex dripped for him, her heart pounded for him, yet her mind recoiled.
“You want me, too. Don’t fight it.”
Don’t fight it? If there was ever a phrase that made Eden want to fight, that was it. She writhed inside his embrace, trying to kick herself free, trying to wrench her hands out from his steely clasp. But it was no good. The bastard was too big, too strong.
His head ducked down until he was right beside her ear. “I won’t force you, Eden.” He lingered there, as if smelling her hair. “Tell me to let you go and I will.”
It was so distracting, his sweet breath against her cheek, his heart pounding against her breast, his c*ck wedged so close one little adjustment and he’d slide right inside her. She bit down on her lip intending to tell him to back off, but no words would come. The heat between them was too intense, too fierce. She didn’t want it to end. So, she moved ever so slightly, adjusting her leg up higher on his waist, and felt the head of his c*ck at her opening.
He needed no more encouragement. Grabbing onto her ass with one hand to hold her against the tree, he thrust inside her. She moaned as he filled her fully. It was more than just a physical sensation but a mental one as well. He filled her in places she’d forgotten were so empty.
Her hands streaked over his shoulders, digging her nails into the hard flesh of his back. She held on as he drove her hard, pushing her closer and closer to the edge of pleasure.
As he stroked hard between her legs, he nuzzled his face along her neck, licking and nipping his way up to her ear, then back down along her jawline. With each raze of his teeth on her skin, a twin sensation blossomed inside her. Heat, brutal and fierce, built like a wild fire deep within her sex. Her whole body flushed with the intensity of it.
He moved faster and harder, bucking against her. Every stroke of his c*ck sent a ripple of pleasure over her. She couldn’t stop the mewls escaping her lips. The intensity of what he was doing to her body was almost too much to bear.
The tree bark scratched at her flesh as he plunged into her again and again, cresting her body up and down. But the pain was nothing compared to the pure sweet agony deep inside her slick warmth. Eventually they became one thing and she couldn’t even form a rational thought.
“Oh God,” she panted, her heart racing so hard she could barely breath. “Harder.”
Wrapping his hand around her ass cheek, his fingers brushed against her sex and he pulled her to him just as he buried himself inside her. All her muscles twitched and seized as an orgasm nearly shattered her into pieces.