Sunglasses at Night (Claws Clause 3)

But if he took the elixir… well, he’d be human again with a whole new outlook on paranormals. He could touch her without fear of cutting her with his claws. He could kiss that lush mouth without worrying about his fangs. And, when he was done with her mouth, he could kiss other parts of her and—

“Hey. You alright?”

Lost in his fantasies, zoning out on the empty road ahead of him, he didn’t realize that Tabby was trying to get his attention until she nudged him in the thigh.

He jumped, jerking the wheel just enough to drop his stomach down to his boots before he hurriedly righted the car.

Tabby squealed, the sound more of a laugh than a cry of fright, her hand shooting out toward the oh, shit bar over her head. “Whoa.”

“Shit. We’re good. Yeah, we’re good.” Maybe. His heart was beating a mile a minute. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, his claws scratching at the plastic underside. When he heard the creak-ing sound, he loosened his hold before he crumpled the damn thing. “Sorry about that.”

“Eh. It was probably more my fault than anything. You looked like you were in the zone, but I wanted to make sure you were doing okay.”

“I’m fine. I was just... just thinking.”

“Really?” Tabby lowered her hand from the grab bar, twirling the ends of her ponytail with her pointer finger as she leaned back into her seat, angling her body so that she was watching him more closely. “Whatcha thinking about?”

You naked.

He cleared his throat. “Thinking about this meet, that’s all. You sure your contact is going to help me get the elixir? And that it actually might fix me?”

“Didn’t know you were broken.”

“You know what I mean.”

Tabby shrugged. “As sure as I am about anything which is, I don’t know, fifty/fifty?”

“You’re kidding.” When she didn’t say anything, just hummed along to the radio, Adam turned so that he could get a look at her face. “You’re kidding, Tabby. Right?”

“Ah, don’t worry so much, champ. Besides, what’s the worst that can happen?”

He could be double-crossed.

This could be a set-up.

The elixir might be an elaborate hoax.

He could be stuck as a Nightwalker for the rest of his unnaturally long life.

He might finally give in to the dark urge to taste her again—

She lifted her phone up, tapping the screen with her thumbnail, gesturing to the blinking dot. Rapping on the dashboard with her other hand, she ripped Adam’s head out of his traitorous thoughts in time for him to follow the point of her dainty finger.

“Over there. Park over there.”

He pulled the car over, though he didn’t kill the engine. He left it idling while he leaned in his seat, peering through the windshield. With as dark as it was out there, how the hell did Tabby know she had the right spot? She’d been following her maps app as soon as they crossed into Woodbridge so he didn’t doubt her… only, if this was the meet-up spot, it wasn’t anything like he expected.

For one thing, it was an empty stretch of road. Trees stood tall on both sides, a whisper of the moon peeking out from between the high treetops. The sky was inky black, an ocean of pitch rolling over their heads without a single cloud in sight.

No houses. No stores. If it wasn’t for the street light winking in the distance and the stray utility poles popping up along the dirt path edging the asphalt, Adam might have thought he’d been thrown back in time. Growing up in the ‘burbs of East Windsor, spending his adult life in Grayson, he was used to a more urban environment. Woodbridge was a small town, though, and this corner of it proved it was more rural than he would’ve guessed.

“Why here?”

“Seems like you’re not the only one who’s worried that the world’s out to get him. The witch we’re supposed to meet arranged for us to talk here.”

“Is it safe?”

Tabby gave him a look. While still staring over at him, she blew a bubble too big to control. It was half the size of her head when it suddenly popped, leaving strands of pale pink bubblegum clinging to her lips.