ChapterFifteen
SUNDAY
Ipushed through the doors of Blackthorne Hall, Alek hot on my heels as I ran down the stairs.
“Sunny, wait up. Where the hell are you going?”
“You heard what Dylan said. I have to track him.”
Alek raised a brow. “Is that what you’re doing?”
“It’s what I’m about to do. You don’t have to come with me. I can do this alone.”
He clamped a big hand on my shoulder. “You can, but you won’t. I’m not leaving you to search for him unguarded.”
Rolling my eyes, I sighed and slid my gaze up to his crystal blue irises. “I’m not helpless.”
“I didn’t say you were. But while you were off... doing whatever you were doing”—his cheeks burned pink—“I fought off two demons who attacked a shifter girl outside ofIniquity. Sunny, she looked like you. They’re coming up from hell faster and more frequently than normal.”
That sent a shiver down my spine.
“It could have been a coincidence...”
Alek gave me a look. “I don’t believe in coincidences. Lilith agrees. She is concerned about the increased level of demonic activity. I may have only been in this realm for a little while, but it's obvious to me you’re being targeted. But even if that wasn’t the case, even if the woman hadn’t looked almost identical to you, I’m not about to let you wander off on your own. Where you go, I go.”
His promise wrapped a ribbon of warmth around my heart. “Is that so?”
He nodded. “Deal with it.”
“Fine. But you’ll have to keep up.”
I bolted, running hard away from the main campus and into the wooded area, heading straight for the clearing where Kingston and I trained with Alek. He was right behind me, not even winded as we drew to a stop.
“Why are we stopping?” he asked, glancing around as if searching for a clue he might have missed.
Pulling the phone from my pocket, I tossed it his way before kicking off my shoes and reaching for the hem of my shirt.
Alek caught the phone, but his eyes were locked onto me as I pulled the cotton over my head. “What are you doing?”
“What’s it look like I’m doing?” I tossed the fabric on the ground, then shucked my yoga pants before reaching behind me and unhooking my bra.
A wicked smirk twisted his lips as he shrugged and began taking off his own T-shirt. “Ah, a pre-hunt tumble. Excellent plan.”
I laughed out loud, but that didn’t stop me from raking my gaze over his insane body. Noah and Kingston were built, but Alek was something else entirely. His muscles looked as though they’d been carved from stone, the stacked slabs of his pecs and abs and the deep V cutting down into the waist of his jeans something I’d only ever seen in magazines. No. Not magazines, comic books. The ones that depicted gods and superheroes.
Alek took two steps forward, closing the distance between us as he reached out and ran his thumb slowly along the corner of my mouth. “You’ve got a little something just there.”
Heat raced down my body, making me shiver. Suddenly his plan wasn’t sounding quite so silly.
No, Sunday. Focus.
I snapped my gaze up to his twinkling eyes. “Shut up. That’s not what this is. I’m shifting.”
He pointed between the two of us. “So you don’t...” He wiggled his eyebrows.
“No. Put your shirt back on.”
“There she goes, ruining all my fun.”