Fatal Sight (Harbingers Of Death Book 2) by LeAnn Mason (universal ebook reader txt) 📗

family. Leaning toward “sick” on the spectrum, I bumped those thoughts aside.

What lingered in my mind was the immortality thing. I hadn’t thought about when exactly Seke had interacted with my mom. I knew they’d fought the vamps together but... four hundred years ago? And there was Seke saying something about banshees living for a really long time... Could my mom live many more centuries? Was that how my mother had stayed alive this long?

Why would my mom want to live forever?

Seke had said a banshee could use her powers to evade death. By all accounts, her life had to have been a living hell for more than a decade. So then, why would she actively seek to extend her life, her captivity?

Could I evade death too? Indefinitely? Could I be essentially immortal? Then, I wouldn’t age... just like Seke.

A crazy thought intruded: We could be together forever. I tried to banish that thought too, but it resisted. With my legs and arms wrapped around the god, I warmed a bit to the idea, biting my lip.

He’d not only come back for me but brought his team to help me in finding out those answers — outside the jurisdiction of the formal Harbingers of Death organization at the risk of his own neck.

Freezing on the outside at the high altitude and soaking wet, I snuggled deeper into his feathers, soaking up his body heat. It was oddly intimate.

I felt the ring he’d saved from my mom press through his feathers to reach the warmth beneath. If my mom trusted him, maybe I should too?

Never trust anyone but yourself.

Yeah, well, you know what, dad? That didn’t work out so great for you and mom. Things went south when you left the HD, and you left me alone and naive to get caught. Now, I’m with those who can teach me what you didn’t.

Maybe it was time I really gave being part of a team a chance.

24

I was wet, completely soaked to the bone and shivering like a half-drowned cat, when Seke finally touched down in a dark alley somewhere in what I assumed to be southern Florida.

The night air was warm and thick with moisture. The silence of night didn’t exist here, the sounds of raucous laughter and thumping music heard from every corner. Smells of alcohol and sewage wafted through my nose with every other step. It was a lot to contend with while attempting to thaw from my popsicle state.

I glared acidly at the gorgeous god for whom I blamed my current status.

“What? You cannot fault me for staying out of sight of leering humans. And, unfortunately, being high comes at a price.” No matter what he said, I saw the hint of amusement he tried to hide.

“Not for you,” I shot back with a tinge of bitterness. “You have lovely plumage to insulate yourself. Not to mention the act of flying itself most likely also lent to a warmed temperature.”

I’d say it again: I hated flying. Hell, I’d take being seasick over what I’d just done.

Seke only chuckled, stepping closer. With a smolder lighting his hazel gaze, he reached a hand to brush the side of my face, moving the dripping, tangled mess that was my hair away from where it plastered along my cheek.

The simple gesture was anything but to my addled hormones. Seke’s touch burned a trail of heat along the planes of skin it touched. My teeth-chattering breaths hitched. I watched as the god, dressed sharply in black slacks and an olive-green button-up shirt, took another step closer.

He lost all pretense of kindly clearing my vision when his hand laid flat, cupped to my rain-slicked skin, our chests now touching, heaving. Breaths came faster as we each stood locked in the tractor-beam gaze of the other as if gravitational attraction were inching us closer. Heat radiated from all of the places we were pressed together and spread outward from there, igniting my middle and tingling each of my limbs in turn. My chills quickly shifted into a delicious shiver.

“I’d do anything to keep you soaring high with me. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a flight as much as I did with you wrapped tightly around my body.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed thickly, some unnamable emotion clogging his throat.

Seeing Seke hot and bothered was something I never thought I’d witness. He always seemed so composed. He was tall, dark, and handsome in spades. I searched his face shadowed in the evening alleyway, noting the stray lock of dark hair dipping to curl along his prominent brow. There were no lines marring his beautiful golden skin, nothing belying age or emotion. The canvas of his face was smooth, and I couldn’t help but reach to touch him, trying to read him at a deeper level.

Much like his had done, my fingers skimmed over the sharp plane of his defined cheekbone. Competing sensations prickled my skin. The first two digits met with warm, smooth skin while the others glided along the coarse hair of his trimmed and groomed beard.

“I love your beard,” I mumbled, enamored with running my hand through the scruff.

With a groan deep in his throat, Seke dropped both hands around my back and pulled me forward, wrapping me in a cocoon of heat as his eyes dipped to my lips. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a swirl of shadows pull from the alley and warp around us, largely hiding us from view, seemingly subconsciously. His tongue flicked to touch his full bottom lip before he curled the flesh toward his teeth with a quick inhale. Then, I was being lifted onto my tip-toes by the arms banded around my back and those sensual lips dived toward my own.

The moment his pillow-soft mouth closed over mine, I melted. Knees weakening, I moved my hands to his chest, grabbing fistfuls of smooth fabric to ground myself and simultaneously keep me aloft as the kiss deepened.