“Who are you?” I finally asked as I watched the room study him.
“I’m the man who’s hunting your attackers.”
“That’s not an answer. Who are you? Who do you work for?”
He set his glass down as if dropping a heavy burden. “I run Dockside, this section of the city.”
That explained a lot—he was a king in his petty kingdom. Probably a powerful politician. No wonder everyone seemed to bend before him.
I opened my mouth to press him, but Jaxson leaned back and traced me head to toe with his eyes. They flashed gold for a second, and heat rushed through me.
“Why don’t you tell me who you are?” he asked.
“You know who I am.” I prickled. He seemed to know a lot about too many things.
“Who were your parents?”
That killed whatever heat had built up in me. “Nobodies. They’re dead,” I snapped. “It’s time to stop delaying and tell me what’s going on.”
I shoved the last bacon-topped fig in my mouth to make a point.
Jaxson inclined his head with a look of amusement in his eyes. “You have a healthy appetite.”
Was he judging me? I wiped my sticky fingers on my napkin. “My only appetite is for information. Dish.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Who attacked me? You said you believed my story—that I was attacked by people with claws for hands. That they’d chased me down on the road. What the hell were they?”
Jaxson looked around the room, then rose. “We should discuss these things discreetly. Why don’t you join me on the terrace?”
I nodded. At last, I was going to get some real answers—and they were going to be good ones, because Jaxson didn’t want people eavesdropping.
We took our drinks, left the table, and headed to the rooftop terrace. It was packed with revelers when we arrived, but Jaxson gave the waitstaff a look, and the place emptied in a few minutes.
Holy smokes, he’d just kicked everyone out like it was nothing.
The terrace offered a view of the entire island. The skyscrapers of downtown sparkled to the northwest, and the whole city was a sea of light, with the nearly full moon floating high overhead. A light breeze stirred the leaves of potted plants, and I sighed, for some strange reason feeling at home here overlooking the city below.
I joined Jaxson at a small table positioned next to the railing. “Okay, you’ve used your mojo to clear the deck somehow,” I said. “You need to start giving me some straight answers. Who attacked me? None of it makes sense.”
He leaned casually against the railing, disarmingly handsome and dangerous. “Ms. Caine, when you set foot in Magic Side, you entered a world very different from the one that you thought you knew. You’re going to need to open your mind to possibilities you’ve never imagined.”
“Fine. I’m used to batshit-crazy discussions with my aunt. Who attacked me?”
Jaxson fixed me with a long, serious gaze.
“Werewolves.”
10
Jaxson
Savannah shot whiskey out of her nose and snorted with laughter. After a minute, she paused, took one look at my growing grimace, and started cackling again.
Frustration wormed its way beneath my skin.
Finally, she wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist. “Sorry about that.” She sighed. “That was way funnier than it should have been. It’s just been a long twenty-four hours. I’ve been so scared. I needed that.”