Call of the Siren(30)
“Let me guess—Lina,” Taeg said drily.
“You know it. Ronin found out Dagan went to Lina’s apartment and flipped out on him.”
Just what they didn’t need right now. More family drama.
“Seems to me like there’s some major-ass chemistry between the two of them, but I can’t blame Ronin for being pissed,” he said to Keegan. “I love our little bro, but if I had a sister, adopted or otherwise, I wouldn’t want a player sniffing after her either.”
“I don’t know,” Keegan grumbled. “I just hope they can pull their shit together. I’m about to go down and talk to them.”
“Good luck. I’ll see you soon.”
“Later.”
“Oh, hey, Keeg.” Taeg hesitated for a moment. “We are doing the right thing here, right?”
“We’re doing the only thing we can,” was Keegan’s authoritative response.
“Yeah. Okay.”
Taeg hung up, the tightness in his chest assuring him that his brother spoke the truth. When he heard a rustle from the other side of the room, he looked up to see Maya standing in the doorway of the bedroom. She was gloriously nude, and he allowed it to distract him for a minute. But then he remembered what they were up against.
“What’s wrong?” she asked softly.
He took a deep, calming breath. “The Council is going to deport us back to Infernum.”
She let out a gasp, going stock still.
He stalked over to her and placed a gentle kiss to the top of her head. Then, remembering they didn’t have a moment to waste, he brushed past her into the bedroom.
She followed him, her voice trembling when she asked, “So what do we do now?”
He grabbed his suitcase and pulled out a fresh pair of jeans. “Now we do the only thing we can. We run.”
…
After parting ways with Ronin on the roof of Sam’s apartment building, Lina unfolded her wings and flew home. Yeah, it was a risky move in a city this size, but she always found a way to keep to the shadows. And if anyone got a flash of her flying through the air…well, it was amazing what the human eye could pass off as a trick of the light.
Sam was dead.
The sickening reality of that melded with the thought that they had no idea what they were up against. If the dark fae’s mission was to confound them, then he’d done a damn good job.
What the hell was his game?
If Ronin didn’t find something on the dark fae soon, it might spell trouble for him and his whole family. While she desperately wanted to not give a shit about that, she found she couldn’t.
She liked Ronin’s family. His fiancé and his cute little nephew. His brothers. Even Dagan.
Especially Dagan.
She was so caught up in thought that she didn’t notice the figure sitting on her sole lounge chair until she’d almost landed on the roof deck of her apartment.
Speak of the devil.
Dagan sat on one end of the chair, slumped over with his elbows on his knees. Even though he was clad in the same outfit as earlier, he was rumpled and worse for the wear.
His obvious distress struck her immediately. That didn’t stop her from noticing the muscular curve of his shoulder in his bent-over position, or the sexy stubble on his chin, though. Not to mention how his jeans caressed his strong thighs, showcasing every angle and curve.
She sighed, despite herself, feeling the automatic clench of her loins. Something about her responded to him on a primal level, and she was beginning to see it always would. No matter how much she fought it.
Lina landed with a soft thump on the side of the roof, about ten feet away. Dagan looked up, and his red, bleary eyes widened at the sight of her outstretched wings. She realized with a sudden burst of embarrassment that he’d never seen them before. There was something so intimate about the way his eyes ran over them now, about the way they narrowed and darkened several shades. When her skin shivered and her nipples hardened into tight buds, she absorbed her wings and then tossed her leather jacket on to hide her body’s obvious response.
“You shouldn’t have,” he whispered in his arousing siren voice. “They’re beautiful, like moonlight.”
Much to her humiliation, her cheeks grew warm. “How’d you get up here?”
“Took the fire escape.”
“Why? You’ve never visited me before, and now you’re here twice in one day?”
Dagan reached into the pocket of his leather jacket and withdrew his phone. He glanced at the screen and held it up to her, his full lips wobbling into a smile. “Technically it’s tomorrow.”
His strange behavior, coupled with the slight shake of his hand, aroused her suspicion. She edged close enough to get a whiff and confirm what she’d suspected.