Head down, she walked fast and straight. Find a phone and call Michael. He’d be able to get to her. Piece of cake, though it would be a little easier if her ears weren’t still buzzing from the earlier club noise.
A hand wrapped around her mouth and pulled her into an alleyway.
Chapter Twenty-Six
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Larissa’s nails dug into the arm holding her as she kicked backwards. Another hand closed around her middle and a low buzz of sound started near her ear, gradually turning into words. “Calm, little human. You are safe.”
She relaxed. That voice, that deep baritone meant safety. She withdrew her nails. The arms loosened enough that she could move, and she turned to face Terak.
“Thank gods.” She threw herself against him with such force his body rocked back. She wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him with all the strength in her body.
There was no hesitation as he returned the gesture. He brought her tight against him, his arms steel bands as they closed around her. His mouth rained small kisses against her temple. “You are safe. I have you. You are safe and they will never touch you again.”
His wings flapped, taking them up into the air.
“I was so scared.” Gods, his smell was so clean, warm and heady and such an amazing contrast from inside the club. This was what she wanted to be surrounded with. How could any drug be more potent than Terak close and warm and all hers?
His breath puffed across her ear and his lips never quite left her skin. “I would never stop searching for you, never. If I had to make war with the Guild for your safety, they would all be laid before me. I will never be separated from you.”
They traveled in silence then, though Terak kept her close. As they approached her apartment, Terak’s mood began to change. His relief was being replaced by silence and stillness. Once they entered the apartment the transformation was complete, as anger charged through every inch of his body. He was so tight she was almost surprised he wasn’t vibrating.
He let her down, folding his wings around himself with a snap. He circled her, taking her in. “You left without me and my protection.”
The words and tone were flat, but they held such anger he may as well been screaming for the knot they caused in her stomach.
“Terak.” She took a cautious step toward him, holding out her hand the way she would to a growling junkyard dog. He stopped circling, and that was a good-enough sign to touch him, to rub his arm, plea and apology mixed together in the gesture. “I tried contacting you several times over two hours. I swear I did. I jumped on the balcony and I used that little silver ball you gave me, but neither worked. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“I never received any message. The ball is foolproof, it should have reached me.” He shook his head. “It does not matter. You should not have gone! It was foolishness to leave.” The flatness was now gone, and the walls vibrated with his anger.
“I had to!” He could be mad, but she wasn’t going to be talked to like she was eight. “They lied and said the meeting was going to be an exchange of information. I never expected to be kidnapped, and I had my brother with me, so I wasn’t alone. I had to take a chance to find out if they knew anything to help.”
He made a sound of dismissal, wiping away her words with the swipe of his arm as he stomped away from her. “I told you not to trust the Guild, and I told you to never leave without me. You disobeyed my instructions. It is pure luck I was able to find you as quickly as I did.”
“Excuse me?” Now he was pushing it. “If you were so worried, then you shouldn’t have disappeared on me. I wasn’t the one who ran away after kissing someone senseless!”
“I…” He straightened, wrapping himself in his usual dignity. “I did not run away.”
“Sure seemed like that to me. For weeks every time I turned around I tripped over you, and then suddenly we share a kiss and you are nowhere to be found? What would you call that if not running away?”
“It was not running away. I needed to think upon the events of the last few days.”
“Yeah, including how you kissed me.”
“It was…it was…” He looked defeated. “Do you regret it?”
Talk about turning it around. Now she was on the defensive, looking into eyes filled with pain and hope. She pushed her hair back, ducking her head. “I wouldn’t say I regretted it,” and she really shouldn’t mumble like that, because she didn’t want him to ask her to repeat what she said.
“Then what would you say?” he asked, his eyes sharpening.
“I’m…not unhappy it happened.”