Sunglasses at Night (Claws Clause 3)

Two: if he went from a Para to a human, she wouldn’t get in as much trouble for blabbing about being a slayer. Though the Society looked down on any of the Normies finding out her secret, that was nothing compared to what they would do if they knew she’d told a Para—and let him live after the fact.

And, most importantly, three: if Adam was human, maybe they could finally act on this strange attraction crackling between them.

After the near orgasm he gave her during his bite, Tabby did a bit of soul-searching. The way he pulled back before he took too much—the look of horror on his face as he confessed that she was his first bite—convinced her that it might be worth it to try out that monster dick she felt beneath his glorious sweatpants.

If Adam was game, so was she. Something told her that he’d be careful to keep space between them until he could trust himself—and that probably wouldn’t be while he was a Nightwalker.

But if he was human...

She grinned. And if it was a little devilish? Oops. “For a price, I can. Sure.”

His expression went guarded. Even with the sunglasses, it was still so easy to read him. That day when he bit her hadn’t been a one-time thing. She really could pick up on what he was thinking—and what he was trying to hide from her, too.

“What’s your price?” Adam asked. “If it’s money, that’s fine. I’ve got more than enough. And if it’s something else… I won’t break the law. Human law or the Claws Clause. I might be stuck like this for now, but I was a cop. A good one, too. I’ve got lines I won’t cross.”

She sincerely hoped that he didn’t mean that. Because when she thought about Adam? Crossing lines with him was on her mind way more than it should’ve been.

“Let’s just call it a favor.”

“Tabby—”

“Nothing bad. Nothing illegal,” she clarified because, the more she understood him, the more she figured that’s what he meant when he was talking about crossing lines. “Just a favor. If there’s something I want and it won’t cost you much to do it, I’ll call it in and then we’re square. Sound good?”

His brow furrowed, as if he could sense she had an ulterior motive, but he couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

She had one, too. An ulterior motive. Of course she did. Tabby already knew exactly what she was going to ask of him, as soon as she could get away with it. Not that she was going to tell him that.

It would be way more fun this way.

8

Woodbridge was a small, cozy, hole-in-the-wall town about two hours out of Grayson. A mixed town, it was closer to Coventry, which definitely explained the higher witch numbers. Despite the wooded area that gave it its name, there weren’t too many shifters, though, probably because it was nowhere near pack land.

From the little bit of research he pulled off before he left with Tabby, there didn’t seem to be a big vampire population around, either. It was too far from the Bumptown, and considering a washed-out, pale vamp in shades couldn’t pass like other Paras, it was rare to find one in a place like this.

Or maybe he was just projecting.

They took his car, since Tabby didn’t have one of her own, and if he wanted to double-check the address she gave him when they started out, he kept his mouth shut because, after all, she was helping him.

To his surprise, she pulled this all together within a handful of days of his visit to her apartment. When the slayer called him just before dawn that morning, telling him that she set up a meet with someone who could help him out with the elixir, that they wanted to meet in Woodbridge at precisely three o’clock the next morning, he couldn’t believe how fast she worked.

Shit. She must really want that favor.

He had to hustle. He called Colt before he went to sleep for the day, making sure the shifter knew that he wouldn’t be able to take any deliveries that night. Then he called Hudson, ordering an extra bag of blood to guzzle that he picked up before he stopped by Tabby’s. The slayer had made it clear that she had to tag along for the meet so the extra blood was essential. Since they’d be traveling together, he couldn’t risk being around her if he was even the least bit thirsty.

The drive was actually kinda nice. Though Adam was supposed to focus on the road while Tabby acted the part of navigator, any awkwardness due to their unspoken attraction faded away after Tabby popped a piece of bubblegum in her mouth, cranked the radio up, and sang along to nearly every single song that played, whether she knew the correct words or not. And though her voice would never earn her a recording contract, she clearly enjoyed herself—and he enjoyed that.

There was something about her. That night in her apartment wasn’t a fluke. He was drawn to her in a way that he hadn’t been drawn to a woman in a long, long time.

Damn it. Why couldn’t he have met her when he was still human?

Then again, if he’d been human, he never would’ve caught the attention of a slayer in the first place. And, even though he hated to admit it, if he’d been human, he would’ve walked away from her the second he found out she was involved with the Para world.

Now he was Para.

And she was still a slayer.

His mortal enemy, according to Debbie and Diaz.