Page 7

Chapter 7

Nova

N ova didn’t recognize the voice that came out of Dex. She barely recognized him at all since he wasn’t completely covered in shadow. But she remembered those boots, those gloves, and the smell of the bar clinging to him.

Her hand was on her throat, easing the strain as she watched Dex with a strange mix of fear and awe.

Whatever he was, he was stronger than a shifter. The way he grabbed the wolf and pinned him to the wall…the snarl that escaped him wasn’t anything she’d ever heard before. It wrapped around her body like a vise and her knees gave out.

Nova shivered when she hit the hard cement but forced herself to witness what was about to occur.

Who the fuck was this guy?

The squelch as Dex’s fist went into the wolf’s chest made her entire body seize up, and when he ripped out the still beating heart, she jerked as if it had been her heart in his hand instead.

Nova didn’t move, realizing very quickly that whatever Dex was, she was no match for him. Sure, taking out these two wolves would have been easy enough. Nova had tried to spare them, and that had been a mistake.

But Dex? Dex was far more dangerous than a shifter or a vampire.

“Are you okay?”

She looked up and there he was, standing right in front of her.

When had he moved?

Before she could respond, Dex dropped to a crouch and narrowed his eyes. He reached out and Nova was proud of herself for not flinching. The clean hand took her wrist gently and pulled it away from her throat.

There were two dead shifters in this sketchy-ass alley with her and whatever Dex was, but still all Nova could do was stare at the man in front of her.

How the fuck was he so beautiful?

“Can you speak?” he asked, inspecting the bruising she could feel.

She reached out and brushed a drop of blood from his flawless skin, just under his eye.

The way Dex froze, she would have thought the man couldn’t be shocked, but apparently, she was wrong.

He just…stared at her.

If only she could get her mouth to form words, Nova would have told him she was fine, that she hadn’t needed his help, and that it was actually kind of creepy that he’d been following her. But she couldn’t stop looking at his face.

Was that why he hid in shadows? Because he didn’t want people noticing how fucking gorgeous he was?

“Nova?” That deep, soothing voice was back to normal once more.

“I’ll be okay,” she murmured.

Dex stood and offered her his hand, coat flapping around his ankles like some kind of dark hero.

Nova considered that gloved hand, and then the one still covered in blood. She hesitated for a moment, but then gave him her right hand – not her left. Dex yanked her up hard, and she slammed into him.

He stared down at her, arm around her back, and Nova couldn’t fucking breathe as she stared into those golden-brown eyes with a hint of something behind them.

Dex reached out with his bloody hand and brushed back her hair, never once actually touching her face.

Her heart was pounding as she looked into his eyes, knowing what he saw – knowing what he would ask her. Nova couldn’t calm her breathing; she couldn’t do anything trapped as she was. Her hands gripped his very muscular arms and she gritted her teeth.

She should have run instead of waiting to see what he would do. There were a million things her training had taught her to do, but here in this dark alley with him, all that training had disappeared.

“I know it’s ugly,” she finally said. “But it’s rude to stare.”

Dex jerked as though she’d slapped him, eyes widening. Then he released her, blinking like he hadn’t even realized what he was doing.

Nova didn’t waste the opportunity. She went toward the shifter she’d killed and yanked her knife out of his chest.

Her first kill as a Council employee.

Her father and grandfather had spent years training her, teaching her how to efficiently kill in the most painless way possible and then to strip and dispose of the body. Something the University of Morgana hadn’t taught her.

Kneeling, she studied the wolf and then wiped the bloody knife off on his clothes.

This was the last thing she needed on her first night.

Nova stripped his pockets, any identifying jewelry, and pocketed all of it.

Looked like she was in for a long night.

“I’ll take care of it,” Dex growled. “Just go.”

“No offense, but I don’t trust you enough to take care of a dead body for me.” Nova gripped the wolf and heaved, tossing him over her shoulders in a fireman carry. Then she stood slowly, getting used to the weight. “I’ll handle it myself.”

She glanced back at him, terrified to look at his face again. Nova had no idea why she reacted to him like she did, but Dex did things to her common sense that should be illegal. “Seems you have shit to take care of too.”

Dex didn’t look back at the body, or the heart lying next to it. He just stared at her and her purple eye, but his face was carefully blank.

It felt weird to walk off without another word.

Where was she even going to take the body?

“Come with me then,” he finally said, looking up at the wolf across her shoulders, and then back down at her. “I have access to an incinerator.”

Nova hesitated, but then nodded. What other choice did she have?

Dex walked by the body he’d mutilated as if he didn’t care if he got caught, but she didn’t think that was it exactly.

Nova followed him farther down the alley, questioning her life choices once again. This was probably the stupidest thing she’d done all night.

But if the Council had to clean up one of her messes on day one, she’d get pulled on her first mission. Nova refused to let that happen.

Dex stopped at a door to a building that had no sign or designation. He shoved the door open and then took the body from her like it weighed nothing, slinging it over his shoulder. “You can come with me or stay out here.”

Again, she hesitated.

If she went into that building, she didn’t know all the entrances and exits. He could easily kill her, but if she didn’t see him dispose of the body properly, he could use it to fuck with her.

Nova studied the sharp lines of his face, the slanted upturned eyes, and his full lips as if they would give her the answers she needed.

If he wanted to kill her, he would have done it already, or he would have let the wolves try to kill her.

“I’ll come with you.”

Dex smirked at her and it was the first time she could see his whole face when he did it.

Nova couldn’t breathe.

He stepped into the building and she gasped when he disappeared into the darkness.

What exactly was it about him that shocked her brain into shutting down?

Paranormals were beautiful, generally speaking. Shifters were physical perfection, and so were hunters. Witches were ethereal and terrifying in the way they could just smite you out of existence – commanding nature like the old goddesses.

Nova had never seen an ugly paranormal.

Except her.

She brushed her hair over her face, and realized her cap was gone.

“Wait!” She ran back outside and checked the alley, making sure nothing else of hers was left behind.

It was a risk not to clean the area, but she’d take care of the body first. Then Nova would figure out what to do next.

She ran back inside and froze.

Where did he go?

Twisting her left hand, she wrapped the shadows around herself, falling deep into the darkness until she was nothing.

“How do you do that?” he asked – from directly behind her.

Nova nearly jumped out of her skin, the shadows fleeing from her like scared little kittens.

“It’s called darkness manipulation.” Why did she tell him that? She didn’t owe Dex an explanation when he hadn’t bothered to tell her what he was.

But he had killed someone for her.

She expected him to ask her another question, but he oozed out of the shadows and passed right by her.

The darkness loved him. It hung on his shoulders, trailing down like wings. The shadows clung to his hair as if they wanted to hide those blond locks from any prying eyes—worshipping him from head to toe.

Fuck, she was in trouble.

Nova followed after him, unable to look away from the sheer size of his shoulders. The guy was bigger than any shifter or hunter she’d ever seen. And he was so tall.

So tall.

Despite the dark, she could see clearly, her purple eye doing most of the work as it sifted through various enchantments and illusions. Interestingly, Dex didn’t carry a single spell.

It was all him under that coat.

Maybe he was a witch shifter? Or a vampire witch?

“Here.” Dex pressed his hand to another door and it slid open. He disappeared and then lights flickered on.

Nova stopped just inside the doorway, shielding her eyes from the bright lights.

This was a mortuary.

Dex stopped when he realized she wasn’t following. “Are you coming?”

Fuck this. What the hell was she doing here with this guy? Nova took a step back and shook her head.

Suddenly the body was gone, and he was standing right in front of her, blocking most of the harsh light.

Nova sighed in relief.

It wasn’t that she was afraid of the light exactly, or the sun. But it was just so…unforgiving.

“Why not?”

Nova didn’t say anything, not sure what to even tell him that wouldn’t sound psycho.

“Look at me,” he growled.

It was a tone she knew not to argue with.

She took a step closer so his massive frame would block even more of the light. She was less afraid of him than she was of the fluorescents that rattled the air around them. His shadow wrapped around her, shielding her from the pain and her shoulders slumped in relief.

Then she looked up at him.

Dex’s eyes were wide as he looked down at her. Clearly, he hadn’t expected her to get so close. Nova barely even breathed to make sure she didn’t accidentally touch him.

“I’ll come,” she whispered, dropping her eyes. His face was difficult to look at even in the shadows now that she knew what they were hiding. “If you could turn off the lights?”

Again, he silently studied her, but didn’t ask her a million questions like normal people did.

A second later he moved, and the lights clicked off.

The harsh buzz of the fluorescents disappeared, and the darkness wrapped around her again like a blanket – comforting and soothing.

Nova let her eyes adjust and then followed him through the back room of the mortuary and to some kind of basement. This time she didn’t hesitate. She followed him down the dark stairs and watched as he tossed the body into the incinerator.

A moment later it got hotter than hell and he crossed his arms over his chest, the light of the flames framing his body as he watched the wolf burn to ash. “Wanna grab some pizza?”