Page 49 of Ballad of Nightmares

Thank fuck for that distraction.

Ana turned her attention away from how alarmed she’d been and tried to focus on what Sam was saying.

Call me,he texted. I want to hear that fucking noise you make.

She’d never reached for her earphones so quickly before.

“There’s my girl,” was the first thing he said when he answered.

Ana let out a heavy breath at the comfort of him on the phone. He sounded like he’d just woken up, his voice warm and throaty and seductively vibrating.

Lightning snapped right outside her window, hitting the tree. All relaxation she’d just felt hearing his voice waned, and Ana nearly fell out of bed trying to sit up.

“Are you there, Ana?” he asked when she didn’t speak.

“I’m here,” she said, though her voice wasn’t wholly hers.

Sam chuckled quietly. “You sound breathless, baby.”

“The power just went out,” she said, swallowing hard as her eyes darted around.

Wind whistled by her window. The tree outside by the lamppost thrashed.

“Old building,” Sam said. “I’m sure it’s just the storm… nothing moresinister. Though there are a few reapers and shifters that live in the buildings around you.”

Ana stared into the pitch black and removed one of the ear pieces so she could hear for anything. The hair on her neck prickled as she searched that darkness. She swore it felt like eyes were on her, though she couldn’t see a damned thing.

“Maybe one of them heard that pretty moan of yours and decided to scare you into a little fun,” Sam said in a teasing rasp. “It is…oh-sointriguing,” he added.

“Sam,” she snapped, knowing he was trying to scare her.

His soft laugh came through the earphone, and he said, “Shh…” with amusement in his tone. “Lie back and relax for me,” he said. “I’ll keep you safe.”

Ana willed her heart to steady as she leaned back against the pillows again and closed her eyes.

“What would you do if someone did come in right now?” he asked.

“Really not helping me relax,” she muttered.

“I think you’d enjoy it,” he said, and Ana stared at the phone. “I think you would fight.”

“I would fight,” she agreed. “And I would win, too.”

He laughed. “So sure of it,” he said. “How would you kill a demon?”

Ana paused. She blinked into the darkness, letting the caress of the thunder humming outside move over her skin. She glanced toward the kitchen, to the knife block she knew sat on her counter in the darkness. “I have my ways.”

“Hopefully never on me,” he said.

“Something tells me you might like it if I came after you with a knife,” she said, trying to pull her attention to anything except the noise of the wind.

“Mmm… Keep talking like that, baby,” he said. “Tell me how you would kill me.”

Ana smiled. “Is this what turns you on?” she asked. “Talking about how I would kill you?”

She heard him suck in a sharp breath, and then her phone buzzed. She picked it up off the pillow, finding a picture of him in her messages. A picture of his very nice cock, erect and shadowed in his tattooed hand. Her thighs squeezed at the sight of it. She could practically taste that bead of liquid on her tongue.

“I’ll keep that picture for any other lonely nights you choose work over me,” she said.