Elissa tiptoed and shivered as their bodies came into contact. She brought her mouth to his ear, making sure their cheeks brushed. His heart thundered like a war drum against her hands and she realised something shocking. He was trembling too. She closed her eyes as he moved, his cheek against hers and his breath cool on her throat. Mother earth, it felt so good that she forgot what she had intended to say.
Her cheek heated against his.
Elissa swallowed and remembered what she had meant to ask him. “Why did you call yourself Payne?”
He grabbed her waist and pushed her away. “It is none of your business. Tell me how to find the incubi den. I desire to leave.”
Like hell he did. The remaining trace of her spell said that he wanted to stay. She would have given anything to be powerful enough to cast a telepathy spell on him. Verity had been a witch of that level. Gods, she missed her sister. Unbidden tears sprang into her eyes. Payne released her as though she was about to explode.
“I did not mean to hurt you.” He jammed his hands into his pockets.
Elissa scrubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms. “Just something in my eye.”
Payne looked away. She had never seen a man look so uncomfortable. She stared at him, trying to figure him out. There had to be a way to make him go along with her plan. She reached out without thinking and absently ran her fingers over the pronounced bumps of the markings running along his right forearm.
He was on her in a flash, his hands grasping her upper arms, claws digging into her flesh. He growled in her face, his fangs enormous and filling her vision. She flinched away, shrinking back and uttering several prayers for protection.
“I only wanted to touch them,” she whispered, unable to find the courage to speak any louder.
Payne shoved her hard onto the wooden desk chair. “Don’t touch me again. I’m not interested in your fucked up games. I don’t like being touched.”
Elissa frowned up at him, seeing the truth behind his words in his vivid blue and gold eyes. Red was bleeding into them, mixing with the other colours, subduing them.
“An incubus who doesn’t like to be touched?” She found that hard to swallow. She ran her hands over her arms, focusing her magic on them and healing the puncture wounds from his claws.
“I’m a vampire.” His low snarling tone warned her to drop it but witches had never been a species who backed off in any situation, even one that could end in blood and death.
She laughed and pointed to his markings. “The writing is there for all to see! A dazzling lineage too... all powerful incubi.”
Payne turned on her again, his eyes red now and pupils elliptical. He bore his fangs at her. “I’m a vampire!”
Elissa sighed and curled up on the chair. She really had to stop provoking him. She tried hard to resist but in the end, it slipped out. “Deny it all you want. You are an incubus in part, but you really don’t like that part, do you?”
He snarled at her. “Shut the fuck up.”
Elissa did hold her tongue this time. His fae markings were black and red. She knew a little about an incubus’s markings and those were the colours to watch out for. Anger. Rage. A burning need for violence. Death to anyone who said the wrong thing. She toyed with the nearest spell book, giving him time to cool off so he didn’t kill her.
Payne unleashed a low curling growl and shoved away from the desk. He paced across the room behind her and she could sense his eyes on her the whole time, boring into the back of her head. His agitation flowed from him in tangible waves, darkening the atmosphere.
“Just do whatever you need to do to help me.” He stalked back across the room.
Elissa’s gaze followed him. Was helping him a possibility? He had said that her toying with him and her requests were messed up, but there was something about him that warned he was seriously screwed up in the head.
He shot a glare her way and her eyes darted to the books on the desk. She thumbed through one of them, pretending to look at it while she monitored him, waiting for his temper to fade. The longer she knew Payne, the more she longed to peel away the layers and reveal the man beneath. Could she help him?
She wanted to.
His pacing slowed and he stopped near the large rectangular window. He leaned his forearm against the wall above the window and rested his forehead on it, staring out at the world with his back to her. A sigh raised his shoulders. He didn’t feel angry anymore. It was hard to get hold of his emotions but he seemed calm enough for her to approach him now.
Elissa rose to her feet, closed her book, and crossed the room to him. She stopped beside him. His grey gaze slid to her, full of feelings she found impossible to discern.