Sunglasses at Night (Claws Clause 3)

It was just another reason to want to keep her around.

He could hardly believe it himself. Adam went from counting down the days until he could walk out into the sun and forget about what his life had become to having something to live for. Having someone to live with.

He never wanted to be a Para. Now, with the only elixir anyone knew of spilled and smeared along an old, tile floor, Adam had no choice but to come to grips with it. For as long as he lived, he was a paranormal. A Nightwalker.

“Sounds good to me,” he murmured. And then, because he had to know, “Does it bother you?”

“What? All the dust in my hair from the vent? Yeah. I’m gonna need a long shower before we go to bed.” She plucked at his t-shirt, drawing his attention to the spray of Rafe’s blood that covered him. “You, too, champ.”

She wasn’t wrong, but that wasn’t what he meant.

“Not that,” he said. “The elixir. She smashed it, Tab. There’s none left. I’m stuck like this.”

“So?”

“That doesn’t bother you?”

She cocked her head, looking at him as if she wasn’t sure he was being serious or not. “Why would it? Adam, I didn’t chop off your head after you bit me. Then I slept with you. That should’ve been a big clue that I don’t give a crap if you’re Para or not. Didn’t I tell you that already?”

“Well, yeah, but that was when we thought I might be turning back.”

Tabby patted him on the chest, that same, you stupid idiot, you’re lucky I like you kind of gesture she did so often. “I only went along with it because you wanted it. I don’t care if you’re Para, a human, or a slayer. You’re Adam. I like you just the way you are.”

Like.

He could do a lot with like.

They made it back to Grayson with plenty of time to spare before sunrise. It was easy, since the Nightwalker twins were eerily missing when Adam and Tabby went looking for him.

Adam thought it was strange, but his slayer just shrugged it off. A fight for another night, she told him. He had to agree.

They already had plans for that one.

Tabby had curled up in her seat, humming along softly to the songs playing on the radio. He tried to lower it just the once, giving her the chance to rest and relax before he got her back home and proceeded to keep her up well into the day, but she quirked open an eye and told him to leave the volume where it was.

So she wasn’t quite sleeping, though she definitely looked comfy and cozy with her eyes mere slits in her face.

At least, until he turned his car onto her street, that was.

“Oh, no.”

Her eyes flew open as she cursed under her breath.

Adam looked ahead of him. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary—except for maybe the car parked up ahead that he didn’t remember seeing around before. Not that it mattered. This part of Grayson wasn’t as crowded as the downtown area, but seeing an unfamiliar vehicle wasn’t so odd.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her.

“Keep driving, keep driving,” Tabby chanted, ducking down in

her seat as if she was hiding. “Go, go, go.”

Adam didn’t ask twice. If her reaction to seeing a plain, black SUV was to freak out like that, he was going to follow her lead and get the fuck out of there.

As if the driver of that car had been waiting for them, the second Adam tried to navigate his coupe past the SUV, it jumped out into the middle of the road, cutting him off before turning so that the only way Adam could keep going was by slamming into the SUV’s back doors.

No way.

Adam slammed on his brakes while Tabby’s hand flew up to the grab bar.