Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
T his was not going at all according to plan.
Haven blamed Roan. If she’d come here alone, they would’ve been more willing to talk. Having a hulking demon at her back didn’t exactly invite anyone to cop a squat and chit chat with her. Roan and his dark, broody aura was a serious impediment to her investigation.
And her peace of mind.
She knew logically that Roan wasn’t any more attractive than he’d been before tonight. It hadn’t been that long, after all, that he’d last shown up to teleport her out of danger. But still, there was a tiny part of her that would’ve been overjoyed to find that he’d developed a pot belly, some acne scars, and maybe a receding hairline since they’d last seen each other. Alas, that wasn’t meant to be. Because as soon as he’d opened his door to her, he still looked like a romance novel had vomited up a bad boy hero who’d been built to her specifications. It was, frankly, pretty rude.
His fallen-angel face was annoying enough. But that facial bone structure in combination with his black-as-Satan’s-soul eyes, pillowy, highly kissable lips, messy, wavy black hair, and super lean-but-muscled body, and he was the embodiment of a thousand bad decisions come to life.
She let her gaze travel the length of him for a split second. The jeans he was wearing in combination with that beat-up leather jacket were annoyingly sexy on him, too.
Showy bastard .
But that wasn’t the direction her train of thought should be traveling in at the moment. “What exactly did you have in mind?” she asked Levi.
He gave a lazy one-shouldered shrug. “You’re part of Section 8, and your aunt is the Angel of Death. I’m guessing you’ve been in a few fights.”
You have no idea .
“So, you want me to fight one of you?”
Another shrug and a cocky smirk. “That is how shifters handle things.”
“No fucking way,” Roan growled.
Levi’s eyes hardened as they moved past her to Roan. “I don’t have to answer to anyone who isn’t an alpha.”
“Then fight me ,” Roan said, his voice dangerously low.
Levi shifted his gaze between her and Roan. “No offense, pal, but she’s clearly calling the shots here. Even if you can beat me in a fight, I question whether you can—or would— beat her . Which makes her the only one worthy of my time. So, what do you say, little red? You in?”
The “little red” thing gave her pause. Then she remembered that she was wearing her favorite cherry-red cashmere hoodie. Cute .
Well, he’d all but double-dog dared her. And everyone knew only pussies turned down a double-dog dare. But just when she was ready to tell him he should prepare for an ass-whooping of epic proportions, Roan yanked her back so that she was facing him instead of Levi.
“Don’t do it,” he whispered. “It’s not worth it.”
“It’s not that big of a deal,” she whispered back. “I can win.”
“That’s not the point. It’s an unnecessary risk. Besides, you know this is like foreplay to a wolf. He’s challenging you because he wants you.”
Her blood pressure was shooting up. She could actually feel it. He was making her blood pressure shoot up. “You think I’m being reckless again.”
“Yes,” he hissed. “We can figure out what mutilated those cows without his help.”
“You could try,” Levi said. He pointed to his ear when they glared at him. “Shifters have excellent hearing. I figured a Section 8 princess and her demon bodyguard would know that.”
Haven rolled her eyes. “I’m not a princess. And it’s very bold of you to assume he’s the bodyguard in this scenario. Fine. I’ll fight you. But only in your human form.” She gestured to her outfit. “This is my favorite pair of jeans, and I’m not looking to have them shredded by werewolf claws.”
One corner of Levi’s mouth tipped up. “Deal.”
The rest of the wolves howled (literally) with excitement at the thought of new blood in their little fight club. Levi played into it by stepping into the circle and ripping his shirt in half like he was in the WWF. Idiot.
She took off her hoodie. “Relax,” she said to Roan. “I’ve got this.”
“I’ll kill them all if it looks like you don’t for even a second. You know that, right?”
She swallowed hard, almost forgetting that she was furious with him. Almost. Even though it irked the hell out of her, the fact that he was so worried about her safety was sweet…in a murder-y, unnecessarily violent kind of way. “It won’t come to that. I promise.”
“Hey, demon,” Levi yelled. “Think you’ll be able to sit this one out? Or do my boys have to restrain you?”
Roan crossed his arms over his chest and snorted. “If I choose to get involved, trust me: none of your boys will be able to stop me.”
The werewolves were too amped up to take Roan’s threat for what it was. They hooted and hollered like he couldn’t burn this entire camp to the ground with every one of them still in it.
Levi merely smirked at him. “Fair enough.”
Haven tossed her hoodie at Roan who caught it and tightened his fist around it like it had wronged him somehow. “Hang onto that for me, would you? This will only take a minute.”
Then she patted his cheek (more like a light slap, really), turned on her heel, and marched into the fighting circle.
Naturally falling into the fighting stance her aunt had taught her when she was barely old enough to walk, she faced her opponent and said, “Remember, you’re the one that asked for this.”
Haven tightened her clenched fists until her knuckles cracked as Levi danced around her like they were in a title fight on pay-per-view. What a fucking idiot.
She’d never truly sparred with her father because he was terrified of hurting her, but the one or two times he’d taught her self-defense moves, he’d told her something that always stuck with her, and that was the importance of not doing anything show-y in a fight. It was a waste of energy and strength, and the whole point in any real fight was to win—quick, dirty, and brutal.
Quick, dirty , and brutal was where her lessons with Aunt Seven began.
Something told her Levi hadn’t had her kind of training. He’d probably always relied solely on his shifter strength in fights, which she imagined would work just fine when he was fighting other werewolves, or maybe even young vampires. But a dhampyre like her?
Puh-lease . She could’ve beaten this guy when she was a preteen on skill alone.
Roan had obviously forgotten her skill level, though. He was pacing around the fighting pit like a nervous parent. She wasn’t sure whether she should be flattered or offended.
She was leaning toward offended.
Levi threw the weakest right hook she’d ever seen at her head. She slapped it away, then gave him a what the fuck gesture. “Don’t pull your punches with me, asshole,” she warned him. “You’ll regret it.”
And to prove her point, she nailed him in the nose with a short jab, then followed up with a swift roundhouse kick to his thigh. She’d backed both off to about fifty percent power. Just a warning. It apparently got his attention, though.
He swiped a hand under his nose and looked a little shocked when it came back covered in his own blood. Why did everyone seem so surprised that she could defend herself? For fuck’s sake, she’d trained for this shit her whole life!
Levi’s shock was short-lived, though. His eyes glowed yellow for a second, letting her know she’d definitely hit his rage button. About damn time someone started taking her seriously. She didn’t have all freakin’ night.
This time, Levi put his head down and charged her like a pissed off bear. She side stepped him, then stuck her foot out so that he tripped over it. On his way down, she gave him an extra shove.
He was fast, though. She’d give him that much. He was down on the ground for only a split second before he managed to sweep her legs out from under her. The whooshing noise she made when her back hit the dirt was not cute.
Roan’s roar of outrage shook the ground. Haven glanced over and saw every werewolf except Levi had surrounded him and was holding him back. There was not a trace of black in his eyes as he stared back at her.
It had all been consumed by fire.
He was ready to destroy them all. She shook her head, letting him know she was fine. It wasn’t the first time she’d been knocked on her ass and it wouldn’t be the last.
Levi was on her, trying to pin her down with his superior weight, before she was able to get back on her feet. He grinned down at her, eyes still blazing yellow. “I think I like having you in this position, little red.”
“Wouldn’t get used to it, pal,” she said through gritted teeth as she planted her hands on his chest and shoved him off her, using her full strength that time.
Play time was over .
Levi flew off her, landing in a crouch ten feet away, lip curled back in a snarl. He charged her again, but she was able to get back on her feet in time to stop him with a quick but very firm throat chop. When he staggered back, clutching his throat and gasping for breath, she kicked him in the nuts, because that quip about how he liked being on top of her, pinning her down, was gross. But, because she was in a good mood, she’d only put ten percent power behind the kick. He could thank her later.
Anyone who said she wasn’t the very picture of a benevolent goddess, the epitome of grace under pressure, could eat a bag of dicks.
The werewolves had turned away from Roan by this point and were staring at her like they’d never seen a badass boss bitch before. Glancing down at Levi, who was curled up in the fetal position, moaning, she asked, “Are we done? Was that alpha enough for you?”
He rolled to his knees, but made no effort to get up. “Fucking hell. Yeah, little red, you’re definitely the alpha. We’ll tell you whatever you want to know.” He gestured to one of the wolves who’d been trying to hold Roan back. “John, tell her what you saw.”
John, who looked all of seventeen, bit his thumbnail nervously. “It was a monster, man. I ain’t never seen nothing like it before. But all it did was touch those cows and they melted. Then it ate their hearts and livers before it kinda…dissolved into thin air. It was fucking wild .”
Haven tipped her chin at Roan. “Ever hear of anything with powers like that?”
He frowned back. “No. Never.”
Well, wasn’t that just fucking awesome? The guy from an actual hell dimension, the one who’d visited at least fourteen other dimensions that she knew of, hadn’t seen anything like the cow melter before. “What did it look like?” she asked John.
“Huge. At least eight feet tall. Muscle-y. Really muscle-y. Purple scaly skin and two giant black horns on its head. Smelled like sulfur.”
This just kept getting better and better. “Any idea where it might’ve went?”
Levi coughed, finally finding the strength to stand up, albeit in a slightly hunched over position. “We tracked its scent to the old quartz mine. We didn’t engage it, though.”
“Huh,” she said. “Maybe you’re not as dumb as you look.” She glanced over at Roan. “I think we have what we need. Right?”
“We have more than enough to tell your parents and have them assign a team to check out the mine,” he said pointedly.
Haven rolled her eyes. “We won’t engage, either. We’ll just do a little reconnaissance and surveillance.”
His eyes narrowed. “ Just surveillance?”
She blinked innocently at him. “Of course.”
It was a lie. She knew it and he knew it. Hell, the werewolves probably knew it.
His chin hit his chest. “Fucking great,” he muttered.
Turning back to Levi with a wide grin, she said, “This has been fun. Thanks for the info.”
Levi grabbed her arm before she could get too far from him. “Go out with me,” he blurted.
Well, that was unexpected. “Huh? You just tried to beat the shit out of me and now you want a date ?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation.
Her gut told her to refuse. And not because Levi wasn’t attractive.
Werewolves all had a certain…hungry look about them. It wasn’t an unattractive look. In fact, there was something kind of sexy about their feral nature and innate strength. Vampires , dhampyres , and demons had it, too. For werewolves, though, it was more earthy, less elegant. They were apex predators, they knew it, and they exuded that confidence and power with every step they took.
Levi was the quintessential werewolf.
Over six feet tall, wild, unruly dark hair, the kind of 5 o’clock shadow that showed up at noon every day, face that was far too rugged to be considered pretty but attractive enough to still put him in the “crazy hot” category, gorgeous hazel eyes, the lean, muscled body of an Olympic swimmer…yeah, he was kind of spectacular. If all that turned her on, she’d be one lucky bitch.
But it didn’t. Damn it. She still wanted Roan. How sad for her.
Not that she was telling him that. Not after what he’d said to her earlier.
Even though he didn’t want her, though, he wouldn’t want her to go out with Levi. So, she should definitely say no, if for no other reason than to keep the peace.
Haven pulled one of her business cards out of her back pocket and handed it to Levi. “Sure,” she said. “Why the fuck not? Give me a call.”
Peace, in her experience, was highly overrated.
Levi’s wolves went back to howling like idiots as she stalked back to the car. She didn’t glance in Roan’s direction, but his seething aura was coloring the air all around her.
She’d managed to successfully fight off a werewolf, got solid intel about her case, earned herself a date with a hot guy, and pissed off Roan.
Maybe her luck was starting to turn around after all.