looked around, reliving a moment of uncanny connection to her surroundings, wanting to duck, but standing tall to await whatever was to come.
Nothing did.
No bullet arrived, though her weakening knees defied the notion of an all clear.
Holding on to the post, McKenna again scanned the sidewalk, fighting the impulse to cover her ears and block any further sound.
“Who are you?”
The question came again from out of nowhere, so real that she almost replied. Determined to ignore this, McKenna headed for the garage with a retort on her lips. “Not talking to you today, my invisible friend. I won’t be admitting to the crazies anytime soon.”
Under her breath, she added, “Definitely not today.”
Before she finished the remark, her finely honed cop intuition set her teeth on edge. Someone was watching. Someone was there. She knew this.
Swaying slightly, shaking off the chills slipping under the collar of her thick wool coat, McKenna turned to stare at the guy on the motorcycle.
Kellan got off the bike. His heart rate spiked as he eyed the woman on the corner. He waited out several more beats of time before breathing, each of those beats measured by the tick of the clock in the tower above him.
She was looking at him. Staring openly. Was she answering his call? If not, why the sudden interest?
The strange stirring sensations inside his chest didn’t have to be meaningful since the odds of finding her just ten minutes after entering town were a million to one, or more like twice that.
Shaking off his disappointment, Kellan turned away.
Then he turned back.
The wind carried a trace of perfume—faintly floral, fresh, rich. He detected no hint of death in it, such as a Reaper might possess.
Tamping down the rise of anticipation, Kellan observed the woman closely. He had the advantage, of course. She would have no idea how effortlessly he could see every detail at this distance. She wouldn’t know about the hunger behind his scan.
Her hair was fair, long, and hung past her shoulders. Although there was no rain tonight, the golden strands appeared to be wet. She had big eyes in a small face, high cheekbones and delicate features. She was tall and lean, her overall shape narrow. Faded blue jeans peeked out from beneath the knee-length tweed coat that didn’t seem to warm her. Both of her arms were crossed over her stomach, as if that would help.
She was attractive, but not perfect. The eyes were a bit too large and her skin too pale. While she looked young, she possessed a worldly gaze. To anyone else, her bold stare might have been unnerving.
As their gazes connected across the distance, Kellan’s nerves bristled. His muscles twitched. Strange as it was, after just seconds of scrutiny, he had an uncanny and urgent physical need for this woman.
Still, though she smelled delicious and stared back, she could be the wrong soul. Because he was immortal and a loner by necessity didn’t mean he was immune to every temptation that came his way.
Under the scrutiny of his unwavering gaze, the woman turned from him with a small object clasped tightly in her hand. Cell phone for emergencies? Her steps stuttered on the sidewalk before she whirled again. Unbelievably, she wasn’t running away. She didn’t make any calls. After pausing to consider her next move, she walked straight toward him.
He hadn’t used his power to influence her decision, so the move was all hers. Why, though? He was a stranger. Danger lurked on every street corner these days. Case in point, he caught a whiff of one lone werewolf to the south, potentially only half as deadly without a full moon overhead. And something dark-hearted with fangs perched on a rooftop halfway down the block.
Those things should have made him move. They should have been the center of this focus. He’d been blessed—or cursed, as he often thought—to feel the presence of these kinds of anomalies. He not only smelled them but saw into the shadows where they hid. He did his best to keep the monsters in check.
This time they weren’t drawing his attention from the woman coming his way. They had nothing to do with his sudden sense of elation.
She was his focus.
His attention was riveted.
As she approached, Kellan’s heart began to pound. Streaks of adrenaline created tension in muscles designed for fighting, as if she might pose a threat to those old vows. But the only fight here was for him to remain calm, because waiting for her wasn’t easy. Meeting this woman could turn out to be a distraction he didn’t need if she wasn’t the woman he sought.
She stopped several feet away with a question.
“Do I know you?”
The huskiness of her voice made Kellan’s nerves dance. Her tone was low and sexy. Her lips were full and slightly parted.
“I don’t think so,” he replied, economizing his comeback so that he could take in more details, like the dark crescents of sleeplessness under her eyes and the lovely lines of her long, graceful neck.
For the first time in a while, Kellan praised his special abilities for reasons other than ferreting out bad guys. He also amended his earlier conclusion. She actually was quite beautiful.
And if...
Well, if she was the one he sought...
All the better.
“Are you waiting for something?” she asked without backing away from the intensity of his keen observation.
Beyond Kellan’s sigils, other parts of his body were catching the fire of interest. Was this due to her, though, or did he just want it to be?
He had anticipated a more direct acknowledgment of being on the right track than an instantaneous craving for a woman. Then again, what did he really know about what his Makers had so carefully hidden?
Certainly he hadn’t expected to meet a female who was the equivalent of a Grim Reaper, but also perfectly fit his personal preferences physically, when it could just as easily have been otherwise.
“I’m meeting someone,” Kellan said.
“Oh. Sorry. I thought...”
“Yes? You thought?” he encouraged when she didn’t finish the remark.
“I thought I might have known you from someplace. Guess I was mistaken.”
She didn’t leave. She stood her ground boldly, as if she wanted to add something, or else wanted him to.
Kellan purposefully kept his voice steady. “Do you work in the hospital?”
He stayed close to the bike so he wouldn’t frighten her. Restraining himself from taking the few steps needed to reach her was hard. He wanted to press his mouth to hers in a kiss that might open Pandora’s box.
