DEMON SENSE (Completed)

Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

When Larson had pulled away, I looked to Nathan and tried to gauge how upset he really was. Instead of meeting my eyes, he kept his gaze focused straight ahead, and began walking off towards the busy street. My black high-heels clicked against the ground as I hastened my pace to keep up with Nathan’s long strides. When I realized I wasn’t sober enough to be running in heels, I stopped briefly to slip them off. Breaking an ankle would not be ideal.

“Where are we going?”

“My house,” was his short reply.

I looked around for his sting ray. “Where’d you par—”

“I didn’t.”

Perfect. I was going to have to walk back barefoot who knows how many miles with my ticked off bodyguard. This night was so not turning out to be the fun, carefree outing I’d hoped for. Feeling utterly defeated, I let out a heavy sigh, my shoulders slumping from their previously confident and worked up stance. One of the straps of my black dress slipped down the side of my arm, only to be brought back up to its rightful place by cool hands.

I looked over at Nathan, a little surprised. The gesture had been a small one, but it said a lot. Nathan was upset with me for probably a million reasons, but he wasn’t so appalled that he wouldn’t touch me.

“Thank you,” I said almost in a whisper.

Nathan stared back almost emotionless. Key word being: almost. His face was stoic but his eyes were kind. “You’re welcome.” At some point during all this we had stopped walking, but quickly resumed our pace. “Do you mind telling me why you two were out hunting demons at Club V?”

“Er…”

“Viktoriya?” His tone was mildly agitated.

“Well, we didn’t really have plans to hunt,” I admitted reluctantly.

“What were your plans, then?”

I could tell that he already didn’t like where this conversation was going. As much as I wanted to lie to avoid conflict, I couldn’t. There was no way I could bring myself to be untruthful now. I felt I owed it to him to be honest.

“Larson thought I needed a break—a chance to go out and have some fun.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I beat him in training today, so we went out to celebrate.”

Nathan’s initial silence unnerved me. Finally, he said, “You were gone quite some time. I didn’t sense you were in trouble until recently.” It was clear in his tone that he wanted to know what had kept us so occupied.

“We had some drinks.”

His response was stiff, “Is that all?” I could tell from his determined tone that he wasn’t going to stop badgering me till he had all the details.

“No.”

Nathan stopped in his tracks to face me. “No?” His whole body had gone rigid.

I shrugged, trying to look casual about it. No way was I going to let him know how intimidated I was. “We danced.”

“I see.”

We stood facing each other, an uneasy sort of quietness filled the air around us, and the tension only continued to build with our growing silence. My heart began to pound hard in my chest. Why did it seem to bother Nathan so much?

He moved in closer, and brought one of his hands up to brush back the hair that hung around my neck. Understanding made me laugh.

“He didn’t bite me,” I said, even though he’d know that now, after glimpsing my unmarked throat.