He’d then set about trying to forget her.

Which was easier said than done. For those few moments with the mortal had burned into his mind more than any other.

Thorn listened to Darius’s steps fade away. There was hunting to do and more Dark to kill. Thorn palmed his dagger and jumped over the side of the roof to land between buildings.

He walked only a block before he encountered a Dark. With ease, he killed the Fae before hiding his body until he could collect it later.

Thorn kept to the shadows, but even then the mortals sensed something angry and vengeful was near. They gave him a wide berth. The Dark, however, had no clue he was close.

He came upon a group of six and merely smiled as they turned to face him. The woman they had been having sex with lay upon the ground naked, moaning for more even as her life drained away.

She was a lost cause, but killing the Dark around her would save others. Thorn stood, eyeing the group as he waited for one to attack.

As soon as they did, he released his fury.

*   *   *

Darius stood on the roof above Thorn and watched him fight. There wasn’t a move wasted. Everywhere Thorn placed his feet or hands went against the Dark.

The battle was concluded quickly enough. Thorn stood over the fallen Dark, but Darius knew it wouldn’t be enough for Thorn. Because he was trying to be something he wasn’t. He wanted to ignore his gut and forget the female.

It was a valiant attempt on Thorn’s part, but it wouldn’t last. Thorn was strong, but the part of him that took his vows seriously was the same part that made Thorn noble and honest.

Darius wished he could be more like Thorn, but it would never be. Darius accepted who he was—or who he was trying to be.

He followed Thorn from one skirmish to the next. A few times, Darius fought Dark who tried to come up behind Thorn. Both left a trail of dead Fae across the city.

By the time the first rays of the sun broke through the night sky, Darius had carried over twenty dead Fae himself with Thorn bringing in another thirty.

Darius waited outside as lookout as Thorn shifted and burned the remains. Darius liked killing the Dark Fae scum, but he loved shifting. Neither he nor Thorn could take to the skies since the Dark were looking for a Dragon King, but those few minutes in dragon form restored balance within Darius.

Thorn came to stand beside him, buckling a new pair of jeans. For some reason, Thorn didn’t like to remove his clothes before he shifted, which meant he went through clothes quickly.

“You didna need to follow me last night,” Thorn said.

Darius lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I knew you would find the Dark, and I felt the need to kill more.”

“I doona want to go to her.”

Darius didn’t bother to pretend he didn’t know who Thorn referred to. “I know.”

“I can no’ stop thinking about her.”

He looked at Thorn and merely waited. Con might question Thorn’s loyalty after he worked with Ulrik to help Warrick, but Darius didn’t. Neither did Warrick.

“She willna welcome our help.”

Darius grinned. “Oh, I doona doubt you can change her mind.”

Thorn sighed deeply. “I know I’m going to regret this, but take me to her.”

Darius led the way without another word. He wondered if the female would realize how lucky she was to have Thorn looking out for her. If she didn’t, Darius would set her straight quick enough.

For better or worse, Darius was making Thorn face his past. But even Darius knew he could never do the same.

CHAPTER

FOUR

Lexi stared at the ceiling, her thoughts as rambling as a rabbit’s path. She felt drained, weary, and yet there was a fervent need within her she couldn’t deny.

She closed her tired eyes and squeezed them. Nothing stopped the burning. With a sigh, she threw off her covers and rose. A quick shower later, she changed into jeans, boots, and a sweater.

Only then did she pore over a map of the city dotted with the places she had encountered Red Eyes. She ate a piece of buttered toast and had a second cup of coffee before she readied herself to leave the flat.

It wasn’t until she picked up her knife to tuck it into the arm strap she wore that she thought of the stranger. Though she comprehended the fact he knew of the Red Eyes, it wasn’t until that moment that it fully hit her.

“Stupid, Lexi. Very stupid,” she chided herself.

If she hadn’t let her anger overcome her, she might have found out more about the Red Eyes. Now, she was no closer than she had been yesterday or the week before. Her money was running out. Even with Jessica and Crystal renting the flat for another week, it didn’t help with food or the exorbitant fee imposed on her by the airline to change her flight.

She had just a few days left to find Christina’s killer or she would be returning home without her revenge and ass-deep in debt.

For just a second, she contemplated taking the pills the hospital had given her to help her sleep after Christina’s death. For that brief moment, she actually considered not following the Red Eyes around looking for her culprit.

But the second passed. She took a deep breath and put on her coat before she walked out of the flat. The blast of cold hit her immediately. As did the spray of rain. Was she so out of it that she hadn’t seen it was raining when she glanced out the window?

She got enough sleep to function, but the situation confirmed that she needed to pull her head out of her ass and pay more attention to things. It wasn’t just her life on the line and Christina’s murder to avenge, there were others at stake.

Lexi pulled her black coat tighter and dug her hands into her pockets. She had figured out the route she would take while looking over the map. Everywhere she went there were Red Eyes, but more were concentrated near where she had been the past three days. There was no reason not to return there. It was, after all, the perfect place to find the murderer.

She had to put her head down against the rain, it was driving so fiercely into her. In moments, her head was soaked. Luckily, her jacket was water repellant, but her jeans weren’t.

A shiver took her. After another two blocks, Lexi gave in and hurried into a co-op. She shook off the rain and soaked in the warmth.

It was several minutes after walking the narrow aisles that she found herself in front of the newspaper section. She frowned and picked up a paper to read the headline.

FIVE MORE MURDERS

It was like being punched in the stomach. Lexi couldn’t catch her breath as she scanned the article looking for a description of how the people died. When she found it, the room began to swim. She tilted, bumping into a man.

“Horrible, is it no’?” he asked and nodded to the paper. “Every day it’s the same headline, just a different number. How many more of us have to die before the authorities do something?”

She set the paper down, her hands shaking from much more than the cold. There was no doubt in her mind who had done this—Red Eyes. Why didn’t anyone else see them? Why did no one else take notice of their look?

Lexi didn’t consider herself intuitive by any means, but even she couldn’t ignore that feeling of wrongness she had whenever one of the Red Eyes was near.

It was almost as if she were the only person in the world who knew how bad the Red Eyes were. The fact D.I. MacDonald or any of the other police didn’t believe her only made her feel more adrift.

Lexi wasn’t sure what she should do next. Her decision was made when she looked up and saw the clerk’s red eyes looking at her.

“Everyone has those contacts,” said a twentysomething woman with red hair. She batted her eyes at the clerk with her overdone makeup. “I want to get some. Where did you find them at?”

Red Eyes smiled at her. “It’s a secret, but I can show you when I get off work in a few hours.”