Blind Salvage: A Rylee Adamson Novel(33)

It took everything he had to turn his back on them and stand there, breathing in the sharp cold air, clearing his nose of the scent of the Daywalker. He glanced over his shoulder once and caught Doran smiling at him, his eyes glittering with mirth. He turned away again. Shit, he hated that his rational mind claimed one thing, and … their footsteps crunched on the dirt as they walked away from him. With a growl he couldn’t stop escaping his lips, he forced himself to walk normally to the truck, open the door without wrenching it off its hinges, and slide in the back seat.
“She’ll be okay,” Dox said. The ogre turned in his seat to look at him. Liam’s jaw twitched, but he managed to keep his response civil. Which was more difficult than it sounded.
“I know.” He slumped into his seat and passed a hand over his face. Never in his life had he felt so protective of someone. Sure, he’d always wanted to be the guy that people could depend on, but not like this.
“You’ve got to find a way to relax,” Dox said, his seat creaking as he shifted his weight. “Or you’re going to push her away. She’s too damn strong to be with someone who can’t let her be who, and what, she is. And she is one tough woman, used to taking care of herself.”
That was exactly what he was afraid of. Rylee helped ground him and his wolf. Losing her was the last thing he wanted. He needed a distraction though, or he’d be back out of the truck and beating the shit out of Doran for how he smelled. Which was beyond ridiculous.
“Dox, why did you really leave your home?”
The ogre tipped his head back in his seat. “A lot of reasons.”
“You know she’s going to ask you about it on the way there. She won’t let up until she gets what she wants.” If nothing else, Liam knew that to be as certain as the sun rising each day. Rylee would never give up once she headed down a course of action. She didn’t have it in her.
Dox turned so he could make eye contact with him. “She can try.”
Oh, he had a feeling this was going to be another one of those epic Rylee road trips.
Just brilliant.

“I knew you’d pick me over the wolf.” Doran reached for me and I pulled a sword from my back in a single fluid move. With a practiced ease, I swung it forward so that the tip rested in the hollow of his throat.
“Don’t try to set us up against one another, Doran. You will always come second.”
He smiled past me, and I knew, could feel him making eye contact with Liam. “Then why are you sending him to the truck like a naughty little boy?”
“Because I know you, and I know your games. Liam doesn’t. Not yet.”
Doran’s eyes sparkled with laughter. “Oh, Rylee. You make me smile.” His lips drooped. “But today, maybe neither of us will be smiling by the time this is all said and done.”
Spinning on his heel, he strode toward the empty lot, disappearing when he stepped past the realtor’s sign.
I glanced over my shoulder, but Liam had his back to me, hands on his hips, a visible tremor running across his upper body. Saying he was not happy would be a ridiculous understatement, but how did I get him to understand that there were times he needed to listen and times that I would need him to lead, and that today just wasn’t one of those days? Not easy, not with the wolf in him clamoring to be a true alpha.
I followed Doran, stepping across the shimmer of the veil’s reflection into the unseen.
His house was a two-story adobe structure, multiple fountains, herb garden and in general, quite nice. Swanky even, if I was recalling my first impression of the place right. The koi weren’t swimming in the fountains, too cold was my guess; another gust of wind whipped my hair out around my face, obscuring my vision for a split second. Through the auburn strands I saw Doran slip the wolf cloak from his shoulders, revealing a much more demure outfit of trousers tucked into knee high leather boots and a loose fitting white shirt that was open at the throat. Very pirate of him.
Doran snapped his fingers over the fire pit and flames curled up toward his hand. Orange and red, there was a flicker of blue, and then a shimmer of all the colors in the rainbow before the fire went back to a normal setting of orange and yellow.
“Have a seat.” He indicated to a bench carved out of what looked like the shoulder blade of some ginormous-ass animal.
“What is it?”
He glanced over, green eyes tracing the seat as if just seeing it for the first time, but his words had nothing to do with the seat. “Rylee, there has been a development with my ability to Read you. I can see flickers of what is coming your way.”
I sat on the bench and rested my hands on my knees. “How is this even possible?” To say that I doubted him would be an understatement. Though I was beginning to trust him, I knew he had his own agenda. Anything even remotely vampiric always did. As an Immune, magic couldn’t touch me, and those who could Read couldn’t see anything about me, not my future, not my past, nothing.