“Yeah, I’ve been told that a time or two on my way here. I’ll leave if you leave with me.”
“I’m working. This is my job.”
Alarm was racing up and down my back, intertwining with those shivers like little snakes.
“You can get off work, and you know it.”
All I needed was to call Benji. He’d let her off in a second if I asked.
“Benji’s not here.” She must’ve been reading my thoughts.
“Why? What do you mean?”
“He was fired last week.”
“What?”
This was a whole new level of apocalypse. Benji fired? He was my go-to with all things Bass. After him, I had no connections here. Nikki and Terath didn’t have any managerial power. Not that I normally cared about that stuff, but all the alarms going off in me were for something.
“I don’t know. There’s a lot of staff changes around here, and I don’t get involved. It's a hazard to me.”
My eyeballs almost popped out of my head at that. “Right there. That’s a good enough reason. Come with me.”
She laughed, easing away even more. As she did, the black energy doubled in size.
I was losing her.
She said, “I’m good. You’re seeing something that’s not there.”
That was my daily life. Hello.
But that energy was swirling more and more around her. The same metallic sparkly undertones were there too. It was almost mesmerizing to watch. Under normal circumstances, I’d think it was beautiful to see. Not under these circumstances. And definitely not on Halloween.
“Nik, please.”
“No.” She was sharper this time. “Go home, Cale. You hate Halloween anyway.”
I’d left my boyfriend of four years tonight, and I was pleading with her to leave with me. She wasn’t acknowledging any of this. This was so not my Nik. No way, but I couldn’t make her leave.
Well.
I could.
She just wouldn’t be happy about it, and it wouldn’t be permanent.
I could poof her somewhere. Then I’d have to try to knock her out.
But she was a demon, and Nik was strong.
I’d have to tie her up somewhere, I guess.
How could I tie her up where she couldn’t just teleport out? I got it.
There were ropes I could use. They were used for angels, so…it’d do the job, but it would hella hurt.
Oh man. I didn’t know what to do.
I feel like Ralph would know what to do.
“Who’s the Big Bad?”
“What?”
“The Big Bad. Who is it?”
Her eyes flashed black again. The horns came out, and the whole room shook.
A weird sensation took root in my gut, and it began to build.
I wondered…
Fuck it.
I had to try. I had to know.
I grabbed her neck, my hand wrapping around it, and I shoved her up against the wall behind her. My movement was fast and violent, and I had a second before she’d rally back. I closed my eyes, head down, and I sensed into her energy.
I sensed everywhere.
In all circles of her energy. The Big Bad’s energy.
Even the energy inside of her, and that’s when I felt her. The real Nik.
She was there.
She was sleeping.
She wasn’t in control of her body.
Suddenly, a whoosh happened and I was flung backwards.
I opened my eyes in time to see we were in mid-air. Nik’s body was being thrown back against the wall. I was moving away from her, in the air, and I’d be crashing against the door any second. The energy had swirled up, becoming a solid force around her.
I heard its snarling.
I felt its anger.
But I also felt its power, and more importantly, I felt branded by it.
I knew in that moment I’d never feel anything more powerful.
Then, everything went dark.
6
The Big Bad
I woke up in a blue velvet room.
I was on a blue velvet couch. The walls were blue velvet. The ceiling. I couldn’t find a door, so I’m sure that was blue velvet too. There were other chairs around the room, blue velvet on the arm rests. The floor was dark paneling, with blue and gold accents.
I lifted my head, and the whole room started spinning around.
I laid back down and took a second.
There’d be no escape action happening if I couldn’t even stand.
Okay.
I waited, eyes open, and slowly the room stopped around me.
Scooting my legs over the edge, I sat up and waited. Holding my breath.
The room stayed put. Thankfully.
A low chuckle came from the dark corner of the room. “For an energist, you bounce back remarkably fast.”
My eyes almost popped out. Again.
All the shivers and warnings from earlier slammed back into my body as if they’d been there and had been trapped, the lid just now being lifted up. They filled every inch of my body, and I had a hard time staying upright.
I couldn’t see him—holy shitballs, I couldn’t see him!
His energy wasn’t in the room.
Who could do that?
I mean, other than a Big Bad?
Okay. Could I get an energy concussion? Maybe that was it, I was now wondering. This was new territory for me. I ran when guys like him showed up, not that I’d come across anyone as powerful as him before, but still, I ran.
I was rambling.
I had to stop.
“Who are you?”
He stood from a chair. He was still in the shadows, but he was tall. Over six feet. And he was coming toward me.
My internal alarm was rising, rising. I felt it starting to choke me.
“You’re unschooled for your power. That’s a very stupid thing to do.”
Oh. Fuck him. Lecturing me?
He stepped out of the shadows and all my words and snarky replies dried up.
Thought left me.
I—I was stunned speechless at the same time as an inferno was lit instead. It engulfed everything else. A full bonfire was raging in me. Flames and smoke must’ve been coming out of my head because this guy was like no one I’d ever seen. In movies or real life.
He was beautiful.
Almost too beautiful.
A five o’clock shadow peppered his face, and that jaw was the definition of a square jaw. His eyes were dark and smoldering. He had a dimpled chin. His mouth—I licked my lips, my gaze going there and lingering and I was already daydreaming about nipping at his lips. They were perfect. He had a rectangular-shaped face, where there was a faint line from his cheeks dipping all the way to his jawline.
His hair was black, and it was short on the sides and there was enough on the top to have a good wave through it. A small lock fell down over his forehead, and I couldn’t decide if it was either the hottest thing I’d seen or the most adorable.
With how he looked, though, I was leaning more toward dead sexy.
That phrase took on a whole different meaning for me, and I wasn’t human. That said a lot.
He had broad shoulders, and a tapered waist. He was lean except for his chest and shoulders. There was something animal-like about how he moved toward me.
He was a shifter.
Not all shifters had the innate vibe he was giving out. It was exuding off him.
All authority and danger.