Humans also bore an identifying genetic scent.
Fragrant sun-baked clay—hot, earthy, fresh. Mortal. Along with her individual perfume, Tamar bore the smell of sun and brick in her skin. Yet underneath that lingered something else. Something old, primitive…erotic. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but one thing for sure. It wasn’t human. It was…other.
Hell. He pinched the bridge of his nose, hard. Nothing about Tamar was simple. From the dreams to Evander’s attack to her damn fragrance. Maybe her name translated into “fucking complicated”.
Again he tunneled his fingers through his hair. At this rate he wouldn’t be surprised if permanent furrows dented his scalp. Turning his ear to the bathroom door, he listened for several long moments. No sound came from the other side.
Taking advantage of the lull before the inevitable storm, Nicolai summoned his second-in-command along their link. “Luke.”
“Yes?” The reply came immediately.
“Meet me at…” Nicolai supplied Tamar’s address. “The backyard.”
“On my way. I should be there in five.”
Nicolai threw one last glance at the closed door then strode from the room. Moments later he emerged from the house, moving onto Tamar’s back porch. By the time he jogged down the steps and halted in the middle of the yard, Lukas’ large shadow appeared above him. The hippogryph landed on the lawn as silent as the night surrounding him. The instant its talons and hooves touched ground, the beast shifted, assuming the form of a tall, powerfully built man clothed in unrelieved black. Midnight hair framed his swarthy, sharp features.
Hippogryph and man shared the same piercing arctic gaze, and the three white stripes that crossed the beast’s back marred the man’s skin from shoulder to waist. Whether in human or hippogryph form, Lukas was intimidating as hell.
“We have a situation,” Nicolai said in lieu of a formal greeting. Quickly, he summed up what had occurred with Tamar, beginning with her witnessing Evander’s transformation and the attack on her friend, to the evening’s confrontation. He omitted his insane hunger for the woman and the dream-sharing, not yet ready to cop to what those not-so-small details might imply.
“What a clusterfuck,” Lukas growled. “Fucking Evander.” His blue eyes flared with the promise of agonizing retribution when the krinos finally caught up with the rogue and their former friend. “What now? She’s as much a danger to us as Evander. But we can’t just leave her either. If what you say about her is true, he won’t let her go.”
Nicolai nodded. “I know. I’m moving her to a safe house until we catch the son of a bitch. Hopefully if we get her out of here fast enough, Evander won’t realize she’s gone and we can set a trap for him.”
“And then what?” Lukas asked, tone grim. “She knows about us, Nico. How do you intend to handle that? By law, her knowledge threatens us and falls under your jurisdiction. What are you going to do?”
Nicolai gritted his teeth hard until an ache mushroomed along his jaw. Everything Lukas had pointed out was right. Nicolai and his krinos handled all dangers to their people—rogue or human.
Yet killing Tamar after protecting her…
The Dimios saw the cold logic behind the decision. But man and hippogryph rebelled at the thought of such an abomination as her death. It was deygma to him.
“I’ll deal with that when the time comes,” he said and couldn’t keep the deep, aggressive rumble from his voice. “Where’re Adon and Dorian?”
Lukas snorted. “Probably face deep in pussy by now.”
“Well go dig ’em out,” Nicolai ordered. “We’re going to have to take shifts guarding Tamar and hunting Evander.”
“And the woman? Tamar?” Nicolai’s second crossed his arms, the dark slash of his brows lowered over his ice-blue gaze. “Will you be okay dealing with her considering the resemblance to Pria?”
“I’ll. Deal. With. It,” Nicolai bit out.
“Really,” Lukas drawled and cocked an eyebrow. He tilted his head to the side and studied Nicolai. “Okay, I’ll butt out. But a word of advice? You might want to start dealing with the woman now.” His lips twisted in a sardonic facsimile of a smile. “Especially since she just took off in a car.”
As soon as Lukas uttered the words, the muffled cough of a car engine reached Nicolai’s ears…and grew fainter as the seconds passed.
“Shit.”
The last image he saw before shifting and rocketing into the sky was the grin splitting his second-in-command’s face.
* * * * *