Call of the Siren(11)

Suddenly weak and unsteady, she braced her quivering hand on the doorframe and examined him more thoroughly.

Gods, how could she have missed it? True, he looked far different from the last time she’d seen him. He’d cut the dirty blond hair that had once fallen to his mid-back. It now hung in long strands around his face. His yellow eyes—typical of a hubrin demon—had been glamoured brown and now possessed a clarity she had never before seen. His beard was gone. He’d also filled out quite a bit over the past years. Whereas his six-and-a-half foot frame had once been wiry, now his brown leather jacket, ratty jeans, and plain white T-shirt covered layers of muscle. On top of that, his multicolored, moth-like wings were hidden.

But still, how could she not immediately recognize him?

“Thorne.”

His smile widened. “That’s right, baby. I knew you would never forget me.”

How could she? The man had ruined her life.

She forced herself to stand tall, when all she wanted to do was curl into a ball and weep at the agonizing memories the sight of him elicited. “You look better. Does that mean you’re off the drugs?”

Thorne looked her up and down. “I could ask you the same thing.”

Bastard. He would throw that back in her face.

“Two years now. No thanks to you.”

He made a tsk-ing sound. “Still blaming me for your troubles?”

“You are to blame.”

When he only smirked at her, Lina took a deep breath. Thorne had always known how to get under her skin, in one way or another. She wouldn’t let him rile her. But she would figure out what the hell he wanted, and then send him on his way.

“How’d you get into the building?” She didn’t live in a place highbrow enough to have a doorman, but there was a lock on the main door, and guests were supposed to be buzzed in.

Thorne had the nerve to look amused. “The lock on the front door is busted.”

Yeah, and why did she get the feeling that he’d been the one to do the busting?

Her fingers tightened on the doorframe, and she infused a layer of steel into her voice. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”

He ignored her questions, instead pushing past her into the apartment. His presumptiveness ignited a bitter burst of fury inside her chest. How dare he assume he was welcome here? Thorne no longer knew anything about her. She wasn’t even the same woman she’d been two years ago.

Forcing back the desire to smash him into the ground, Lina closed the door. “I said, how did you find me?”

Thorne paused in his perusal of her living space and turned to face her. “Been living in this dimension—in the city—for about a year now. I heard some rumors of a hot angel mercenary fitting your description. Couldn’t believe it’d be you. I mean, you, a mercenary? But I asked around anyway, and what a surprise…here you are.”

He’d searched for her? How had he gotten her address? It wasn’t as if she gave that out to any guy on the street. And more importantly, why had he tracked her down? He must know he was the last person she’d ever want to see. The mere sight of him made her stomach clench in agony. Made the memories shoved into the deep, dark recesses of her mind come seeping out in festering streams of anguish.

She’d failed Sara, the person who mattered most in the world. Because of him.

“What do you want from me?” she asked.

He tilted his head, and his eyes softened. “I heard about Tara. Tough break.”

Just like that, his words broke the carefully constructed dam in her self-control. She let loose a scream that couldn’t be contained and rushed him without an ounce of the finesse she’d busted her ass to learn these past few years.

He caught her arm at the last moment. And then—damn the bastard—he laughed.

Laughed.

“I’ve missed you, Lina. You never even told me you were leaving. I was left wondering. Worrying.”

Lina swallowed past the raw lump in her throat and blinked back the tears that threatened to escape. “You’ve never worried about anyone but yourself, asshole. Nothing could make that clearer than you not remembering that her name was Sara!”

His fingers tightened on her wrist, and a scowl lined his face, along with an honest expression of shame. He swallowed hard and leaned in close. “I still—”

The sharp rap on her door cut Thorne off in mid-sentence. Lina jerked her arm away.

“Don’t touch me,” she said in a low tone. “Never again.”

Thorne sighed. “Lina, I didn’t come here to fight.”

“Then why did you come here?”

Before he could answer, the knock sounded again.

Lina shot Thorne a furious glance and headed across the room to the door. She opened it to reveal yet another surprise on the other side. One more person she most certainly hadn’t expected to see.