In that moment, I came awake, my body shuddering as pain gripped me.
I gasped and in a blink, two men stood over me.
One was Will and I glared at him balefully.
Okay, yeah, I’d been the one to pounce on his back and send the two of us tumbling to the ground—or…through it?
I still didn’t know.
But whatever had happened, it resulted in me hurting more than I could remember hurting, short of dying.
And I didn’t think that was getting ready.
But then my gaze skipped over and hit the other man.
Open your mouth now…
I sucked in a breath and that very action brought tears to my eyes, but it wasn’t enough to make me look away from him.
Silvered moonlight washed the color from his eyes, from his hair, leaving him cut with swathes of pale light and deep shadow.
His face was harder.
Grimmer.
But…
My throat locked.
A name sprung to my lips, but instinct had me locking it back.
Thom…
Open your mouth now.
Shaken, I tore my gaze away. Unable to find a single thing to look at, save for his profile or the star-studded sky overhead, I closed my eyes.
Thom. His name was Thom. Thomas…Thomas Finn. It connected in my head. Reflexively, I clenched my hands into fists.
“Do you remember what happened?”
The low, cool voice forced my attention away from Thom and I found myself looking at Will.
Oh, bite me. The comment burned on the tip of my tongue, but I held it back. It was my own damn fault, I was lying there, feeling like I’d been worked over by a couple of the meaner demons—there were some who liked to eat people. Literally. They were vicious and once I’d stumbled across a group of them, interrupted the meal time. If I hadn’t had the Colt I coddled like a baby, I never would have made it out of that alive.
Two of them had still gotten their hands on me and I’d spent two weeks pissing blood and eating nothing any harder than mashed potatoes while healed up over the damage they’d done me.
It was the most damage I’d ever taken.
Right now? I didn’t feel quite that bad. But it was close.
“Remember?” I curled my lip at him as I slowly worked on getting my arms under me. That hurt. I eased upright. That hurt worse. Something ground inside me and I gasped. Okay, broken ribs. Lovely. Panting, I made it upright and saw that Will was watching me with unsympathetic eyes. Off to the side…I swallowed, tried not to let myself think about him, his name…his hands on me. I remembered that. Bits and pieces of a life I’d suspected but never really remembered. That had changed now.
“Sure.” I settled my weight back on my hands, doggedly focusing on Will’s face. “I remember you grabbing me, knocking me out. Then I’m in a hotel room and you won’t let me leave. You yammering in my ear—then inside my head—and then without explaining jackshit—you tell me I’m free to go.”
Silver flashed in those eyes. A silver glow. It was eerie as hell.
I tensed and braced myself to grab for a weapon, only to remember he’d taken them all. And I hadn’t gotten them back.
His voice was still soft as he asked, “Do you remember what happened next?”
“Oh, yeah. That was the Tilt-A-Whirl ride from hell, man. Now. Where are my weapons? Get them and I’ll get out of your hair.”
“Will you…” He drew those words out, a thin, mocking layer of amusement under them as he rose and turned.
I flinched at the sound of the next voice. “She’s human.”