Taran ignored her and held out her hands. “Are you ready to try, my young grasshoppers?”
I nodded slowly, surprised by how much work went into seducing a werewolf. My tigress reminded me Aric was worth it, so I stepped forward and began my crash course in posing. I don’t know if we were seductively inept or what, but we had to work on our poses all afternoon.
“Shayna, what the hell are you doing? I told you to stick out your breasts!”
“They are out!”
“Oh yes, they are. Sorry, girl.”
“Damn it, Emme, flip the hair! More, more, more—oh, shit. Not that much!”
“Ow! Oh no, now I have to heal.”
“Dude, is this posing stuff supposed to hurt?”
“Quit whining, Shayna. You won’t be doing it for long, trust me. One of two things will happen. Either he’ll jump you right away or he’ll watch you completely entranced. If it’s the latter, try to bend over a lot. It drives men wild.” Taran turned to me and ran her fingers through my hair, making it fuller. “And for shit’s sake, don’t forget to work the mane as much as possible. Celia, you have that whole porn-star-hair thing going for you. Milk it for all it’s worth. Also, incorporate the furniture somehow. Guys like that.”
• • •
“Gimme your money and a little affection, bitch, and maybe I won’t hurt you.”
The universe hated me. I was honest-to-God convinced of that fact. Any other gal could have had a nice romantic dinner and gone home to have sex with her werewolf lover. Anyone but me.
Aric pulled me against him protectively. If the gang of delinquents facing us in the parking garage knew what was good for them, they would leave—now. Damn, I was pissed. Aric had been telling me how beautiful I was all night and barely kept his hands off me during dinner. My confidence soared, my sexuality bolstered. I was set to seduce Aric via Taran-esque posing. But if these little maggots forced me to change and rip my skimpy and expensive lingerie, I was going to beat the unholy crap out of them.
The leader meandered away from the Escalade and glared at Aric. Wrong move against an Alpha werewolf. Aric growled louder and deeper than a hound from hell. The stupid teenager had inadvertently challenged my wolf.
A kid flashed a gun. “Hey, mama. Come over here, I’ll give it to you real good.”
One by one, the rest pulled out knives. Aric stepped in front of me. His growl deepening as he headed toward the teen brandishing the gun. The others panicked as he advanced. I’d be scared, too, if some crazy guy pretending to be a dog was coming at me.
Before I could say, We need to get home so I can seduce you, all but one kid had either run off or lay unconscious. The last idiot waved a knife in my face, clearly terrified. “I’ll cut her, man,” he told Aric. “I’ll cut her if you get near me!”
I snatched the wrist holding the knife and crushed it as I yanked him to me, changing my face to that of my beast. The knife hit the concrete. I roared and snapped my fangs an inch from his nose. He didn’t take it well. The kid’s eyes rolled into the back of his head just before he crashed to the ground. I released him, trying hard not to kick his sorry ass into the wall. He and his friends could have hurt someone. I’d let him off easy with a broken wrist and a mild concussion.
Aric ushered me to the Escalade. “Come on, sweetness. I’ll call the weres on the force on the way.” He opened the car door for me, but something near the dark corner of the garage alerted my senses. I couldn’t smell it or hear it; I only felt it. And it felt cold, unearthly, wrong.
I inched away from the car. “What is that?”
He peered in the same direction. “Stay here.”
I ignored his order and followed behind him. Aric kept his arm out near me, but his focus remained ahead. We found nothing in the corner when we reached it, but the sense of wrongness continued to linger. Aric bent to take a whiff. His nose wrinkled in disgust. I inhaled as well, hoping to understand what had stalked and watched us.
An awful, sharp and sour stench burned my nose and made me want to flee from it. My inner beast cringed. Our saving grace was that whatever had lurked was gone, and that its scent faded quickly.
“Demon,” Aric said.
I hoped he was joking. “You mean demon child?”
“No. This was one of those damned to hell that can’t remain on earth.”
I straightened, my blood turning into clotting chunks of ice. “But who summoned it?”
Aric focused on the corner as he stood. “Sometimes demons appear on earth when there’s a strong collection of evil. Those damn kids probably attracted it through their shared thoughts and actions.” He shrugged. “And with all the attacks and the presence of evil lately, it was probably easier for one to present itself.”