Chapter 7
Meera
The highway rushed by in quick flashes of light and long stretches of shadow as I stared out the passenger-side window, forehead pressed against the cool glass.
It felt like I was watching someone else’s life rush past instead of sitting in the middle of my own, which was unraveling right before my eyes.
What did it say about me that the fact that Karim hadn’t even tried to deny that he’d been cheating on me was affecting me more than when I’d found out he was a murderer?
The whole murder thing had happened so fast, and I’d been in shock.
It was like ripping the Band-Aid off really quickly.
It hurt, but it was over fast. But the cheating thing?
I’d already known in my heart that it was happening, so maybe that made it hurt more because I’d had time to stew about it.
It was a personal betrayal. And also because I’d let it go on for so long before trying to do something about it.
I was just as angry with myself as I was with him.
My reflection in the window looked pale and tired, eyes hollowed out by too many shocking reveals packed into too few hours. My shaky breath fogged the glass.
I wish I had someone to call and bitch to, but I didn’t have many friends to begin with, and over the last three years with Karim, I’d lost the ones I’d thought I’d made. The only person I had to talk to about relationships was Maa, and that was never a good idea.
She was going to be devastated that Karim and I didn’t work out, especially since I couldn’t tell her about the murder part.
He was everything my father wasn’t: financially stable, successful, motivated, and had ties to a homeland she’d given up decades ago.
She’d probably ask me what I did wrong to make him cheat.
Maa had escaped an arranged marriage by running away with my father, whom she’d met while in the UK for school.
My father had been in college when Maa’s family told her they were bringing her back home to get married just weeks before her high school graduation.
It had been her magic, however slight, that they’d been after.
The family she was supposed to marry into also had magical blood, but again, very mild.
They’d been hoping the union would produce stronger children.
My parents both quit school to run off together. To avoid her family, they’d moved to the States, hid in a big city where they could blend in, and gotten married young. And nine months later, I was born.
That was where their fairytale ended, and the problems started. Apparently, they couldn’t live on love alone. Love didn’t pay bills or clean the apartment. My father left when I was twelve. Like, he literally went for cigarettes and never returned.
Maybe we were both cursed to have bad taste in men.
And that led me to the giant next to me.
Despite the SUV’s large size, Graham was folded into the driver’s seat like it was a tiny hatchback.
His shoulders and thighs barely fit, even though the seats were much wider and deeper than any other SUV I’d been in.
And the steering wheel looked tiny in his hands.
The man—or whatever he was, because I was certain he was more than just a normal human—was huge. Massive.
I couldn’t stop myself from looking at him. It was the hands at first, wrapped around the steering wheel. I’d always liked strong hands. Forearms too, and his were A+++.
He’d grumpily given me the jacket he’d been wearing earlier to use as a blanket and was now in a tight, long-sleeved shirt.
He’d rolled up his sleeves, and that vein on his forearm was doing that stupid thing veins on men who were built like that did.
And then there were his shoulders, which needed a zip code of their own.
Gah! See, I had horrible taste in men. I’d just broken up with a literal murderer, and here I was ogling Mr. Tall, Dark and Dangerous.
He cleared his throat, and I realized I’d been caught gawking at him.
“Like what you see?” He said it in a way that said he already knew he was God’s gift to women.
I scoffed, feigning disinterest. “I wasn’t checking you out.” Now that was a total lie. “I was just…” Come on, Meera, think! “I was just trying to figure out what type of monster you are.”
And by monster, I didn’t mean that he was a bad person. Monsters were what the paranormal creatures called themselves after the fall of The Wall. According to some sources, asking monsters what they were was considered rude. But other sources say that it wasn’t. I wondered how Graham would react.
“What do you think I am?” he asked.
I tilted my head to get a good look at him. He didn’t give off wolf shifter. I’d known a few of those, and they were much wirier. Graham was big and bulky.
“Bear shifter?”
“Nope. But I can see why you think that with my size.”
“Actually that was a stupid guess because you are clearly using glamor of some kind. And if you were a bear shifter, you wouldn’t need that.” Suddenly feeling mischievous, I said, “Oh, I know. Troll.”
He glared at me. “Haha, really funny.” He did not sound amused.
“What? Trolls are big. So are ogres.”
“I’m not a troll or an ogre, and you know it,” he grumbled.
I grinned, relaxing a little more around him. “You’re probably not anything water-based. So not a kraken. Or a lamia.”
He frowned. “Lamias are all female.”
“Really? I didn’t know that. You don’t give off faun. I lived next to a faun family when I was younger. Hmm… demon?” I didn’t really think so, but I had to try.
“Nope. Demons wouldn’t need glamour either.”
I thought long and hard and remembered him saying something about me needing to stay somewhere for my protection because I’d witnessed a murder. Wasn’t there a well-known protection agency that also worked security at Desmon’s wedding? I now wish I’d actually paid attention to the gossip column.
I brought out my phone and looked up the event. The media didn’t actually cover it because Desmon’s bride had wanted privacy, but several photos still got out.
Bingo! I found an image of Graham apprehending an acne-covered teenager. He was still in his human guise, but in uniform, which was totally hot. According to the caption, it stated that Redrock Protective Services, a gargoyle-owned agency, didn’t usually do events.
“You’re a gargoyle!”
“You cheated.”
“Bah! There were no rules.”
I looked him up and down, seeing it now.
There was a slightly grayish cast to his skin that the glamour couldn’t hide, and the chiseled, granite-like sharpness of his jawline.
Didn’t gargoyles have wings and a tail? I looked at the area where his back met the seat and suddenly had a strong urge, an unexplained compulsion, to look away.
“Don’t test the glamour,” he warned. “It takes magic, and we can’t use too much or else it will put a spotlight on us.”
“Is that how it works? I don’t really know anything about magic. And I don’t trust anything I read online.”
“Magic takes energy. Like light. There are plenty of dim lights everywhere in the city, and they all kind of blend in together. But stadium lights are super bright, and you could see them from miles away.”
“I see. Can you turn the glamour off for a moment and show me?” That could very well be rude too, but I was beyond caring. I wanted to know who I was traveling with. Graham quite literally had my life in his hands, and I hated feeling so out of control.
“I could,” he said playfully. “But if I did, I’d have to kill you.”
I rolled my eyes. “You don’t scare me.” He had at first, but not anymore. “Can I at least touch your wing? Or your tail?”
He swallowed hard enough for me to see the muscles on his neck working in the dim streetlights. “No.”
“Fine, be that way.” I yawned, the excitement of the day getting to me.
“Sleep,” he said. “You’re safe here with me.”
I searched his gaze for even a flicker of betrayal, but all I saw was honesty.
“If you murder me in my sleep, I’d never forgive you.”
His low chuckle filled the vehicle. “How about this, if you wake up tomorrow and still want to touch my tail, I’d let you.”
“Deal.”
I rested my head against the window and closed my eyes. After a moment, Graham spoke again. “Just so you know, tails are erogenous zones. But I’ll let you touch it, even if you’re not really my type.”
My jaw dropped.
“Goodnight, Trouble.”
I woke up to the car lurching to the side and throwing me against the window. I grabbed my head and swore. That was going to leave a bump.
A warm, solid hand clamped on my knee. “You okay?” Graham’s voice sounded tight.
“I… think so.” My pulse was racing, and I looked around in confusion. “What happened?”
“I just evaded a portal that opened up in the middle of the road.”
It took a moment for that particular combination of words to make sense to me. Had someone tried to capture us by opening a portal directly in front of the vehicle? That was terrifying.
It was dark. We were on a part of the highway bordered by woodland, and there were long stretches without streetlights.
We drove in silence for about a minute before Graham swore.
“Shit! Brace yourself.”
I’d barely processed the warning when the vehicle hit something on the road. It almost felt like we’d plowed over a bunch of potholes. Then there was a dragging sensation that made my stomach sink as if something had hooked into the SUV from behind and was trying to yank us backward.
Graham swore under his breath. “It’s an armored vehicle. Spike strips won’t stop it.”
Spike strips? My heart slammed against my ribs. They’d really found us. And this time, I didn’t even know who “they” were. They’d come prepared if they’d managed to get ahead of us and set down strips. Was Karim this organized and well-connected? Or was it whoever he was working for?
To my surprise, my anger was stronger than my fear. I was so damn tired of being thrown into danger I didn’t understand. This whole freaking day had been one fresh nightmare after another, and I’d never asked for any of it.
“Shit. Hold the wheel.” Graham grabbed my hand and placed it on the steering wheel.
Heart pounding and palms sweaty, I did as I was told, squinting at the road before us. Graham reached under his seat and brought out a black, compact handgun.
Okay. Don’t panic.
I tried to focus on the road as he opened the window and twisted his body, muttering under his breath about how cramped the space was. From my angle, I couldn’t see what he saw through the rear window, but I didn’t need to because the sharp crack of a shot echoed from somewhere behind the vehicle.
My heart jumped into my throat.
The vehicle swayed as he leaned farther out the window, trying to get a better angle without exposing himself.
Something hit the back of the SUV, and I grabbed the steering wheel so tightly in my hands that my knuckles turned white as I realized they were ramming us.
Against all odds, I was able to straighten us out and keep us on the road.
I heard several more gunshots, but I couldn’t tell which ones were his or theirs. Everything felt so surreal, and it was almost like I was watching myself on the big screen.
The pursuing engine roared louder, and another impact rattled the back of the vehicle, shoving us forward with the loud grating of metal against metal. I let out a scream as I was smashed back against my seat, and the wheel was torn from my hands.