Sunglasses at Night (Claws Clause 3)

Even if it was as hot as hell in there.

Good thing she wasn’t claustrophobic, she decided, as she wedged her body in the narrow space; if she’d been a little taller or a little wider, she never would’ve fit. It was a tight squeeze to begin with, and that didn’t count how difficult it had been to climb up the side of the abandoned building.

Not only that, but Tabby was doused in scent-reducer potion so that the Nightwalkers swarming this place didn’t realize she was hiding out above their nest.

Because surprise.

The address was a damn Nightwalker nest, just like they suspected—and just like Tabby discovered that first morning she drove Adam’s car into Woodbridge alone.

She was glad she insisted on the scent-reducer in the first place. For the last week, Adam kept finding flaws in her plan, trying to convince her to stay behind. Even though she was the one who could still do out during the daylight so he needed her. He still tried to talk her into staying in Grayson the night of the meet.

Yeah. Right.

As if that was going to happen.

She understood that he didn’t want to risk her or see her get hurt again, but she needed to be there so that nothing happened to her Nightwalker.

She finally managed to get the message through his thick skull. He couldn’t stop her, and he finally realized that it wasn’t worth it to try. So she slapped on the potion so that she could watch the meet from up above, and prepared herself to take out a shit ton of Nightwalkers if they so much as looked at Adam funny.

Her body count was already up to two. A pair of blood-bloated vamps were patrolling the back half of the building while she was attempting to scale it. Before they could sound the alarm, she eliminated both of them, sprinkling slayer dust so that the next round of patrols didn’t stumble on the headless remains.

It gave her enough time to get to the roof before kicking in the outside vent, shimmying inside. Like he said he would, Adam had gotten his hands on the building’s blueprints during the initial planning stages of this meet. He quizzed her on them until she had them memorized. Following her internal map, she crawled through the inside vent until she was over the largest room on the plans.

And then she settled down to wait.

Holding Venice, stroking the hilt while keeping her eyes wide and alert, she finally realized what the annoying feeling that had been plaguing her since she kissed Adam earlier and darted toward the back of the building was.

It was fear. Fear for her lover. Fear that something would go wrong and she’d never get to see him again. Touch again.

Get the chance to tell him that she maybe—okay, most likely—loved him,

too.

Ugh. Tabby frowned.

Fear.

She didn’t like it. She didn’t like it one bit.

Adam’s part of the plan was simple. Because the Nightwalkers would be expecting him, he forced himself to hang back until Tabby gave him the signal. She needed to be safe and tucked out of sight before he could even think about approaching the Nightwalkers’ hideaway.

Once his phone buzzed, the text message simply a thumb’s up emoji, Adam slipped his phone in his back pocket, patted the front to make sure he had his keys, then loped toward the building.

He couldn’t help but remember the last time he was sneaking toward a Nightwalker’s nest. He’d been alone, with only the machete strapped to his back and the syringe full of holy water his old precinct had provided him with. He was considerably better armed this time, better prepared, though he had infinitely more to lose.

He didn’t want to admit it, but maybe Tabby was right when she insisted she get to go along with him.

Last time, he thought he’d bleed out on the floor of the Nightwalkers’ new set-up. His only hope had been to take at least Julian Koenig out with him before he went. Of course, that hadn’t worked out so well for him. Julian force-fed Adam his blood, then arranged for his turning before Rafe accidentally speeded it up by going for Adam’s throat.

The only reason he was still up and walking around was because Colt Wolfe and Shea Moonshadow showed up to save his sorry ass. So, yeah, she was right. It felt much better walking into an obvious trap when he knew that he had solid back-up.

Plus, knowing she was close but safely hidden away helped him way more than worrying she was somewhere that she could be hurt.

He trusted her. He loved her so trusting her kind of had to go along with the whole love thing if he ever wanted her to return his feelings.

Maybe, he told himself as he walked straight-backed and alert to the front door of the building, once he reversed the change and he was human again, she would.

Hey. It was worth a shot.