Seduced in Shadow (3 page)

Okay, don’t panic. You can handle this.
“Are you following me? And how do you know my name?”

He stepped closer to the doe then stopped, nodding his head. “Yeah, I am following you. But I have a good reason. Your brother Justin sent me.”

What? Justin? That didn’t make sense. She hadn’t seen her brother in months. He’d been wrapped up in a new job, something about research and proof and their father.

Every time her brother went on a “Dad bender”—going on and on about their dad’s ideas about fairies and magic—she could forget about talking to him.

“Why would Justin send you? Does he need something from Mom’s house? Why didn’t he come himself?” Her eyes widened. “Oh God. Is something wrong? Did something happen to Justin?”

Now a different fear grabbed her. The kind that had plagued her for years after their father had died so suddenly.

The man across from her held up his hands. “Whoa, no. Nothing happened to Justin. Well…” He hesitated for just a second, making her fear ratchet up another notch.

“No, nothing’s wrong with Justin. He just couldn’t come so he sent me.”

This didn’t make any sense at all. “Why would he send you and not tell me? Who
are
you?”

19

Stephanie Julian

The man straightened and something crossed his expression. She’d never been able to read men well. It was why her relationships always ended in abject failure. Well, that and her inability to trust them. But really, most of them lied anyway.

His lips quirked in a self-deprecating grin. Or maybe he was just getting ready to put something over on her. Ugh. Men.

“My name is Antonin de Feo. Your brother and I have become good friends in the past few months and he asked me to come.”

“But who
are
you?”

“I’m your bodyguard.”

Her mouth opened. She wanted to say something. She just didn’t know what. Other than the obvious. “Why would I need a bodyguard? And why would my brother hire one?” Justin was an environmental researcher. Before he’d quit his job for BD

Enterprises, he’d been studying the migratory patterns of hawks. Then a whole slew of other questions kept coming. “Why didn’t Justin come himself? Where is he? Does this have something to do with his work? And why would that affect me?”

Something about this didn’t ring true. She didn’t know this man and he suddenly showed up talking about her brother. No, she’d been taken in before and that wasn’t going to happen here.

Antonin didn’t seem like a crazed killer, but who knew what he wanted?

“Ya know, I think I’ll just give my brother a call when I get home.” As quietly as she could she lifted the door handle, ready to throw herself in, start the car and speed away.

Luckily she’d only opened the driver’s side door and he was on the other side of the car.

“Why don’t you come by my office tomorrow and we can talk there—”

“Ellie—”

“If Justin vouches for you, no problem, and we can get this all cleared up. Bye now.”

She tried the door but it wouldn’t open.

20

Seduced in Shadow

No, no, no. This was
not
happening.

“Problem?” he asked.

She clicked her remote again but the door still wouldn’t open. “No, no problem. I’m sure you have something to do. You don’t need to hang around here.”

“Actually, yeah, I do.”

Panic made her heart pound worse than the run had. She couldn’t believe no one had driven by since they’d been standing here. Maybe that would make him think twice about…whatever he was planning to do to her.

Still, how did he know her brother’s name and her name?

The key! Use the key to open the door.

She deserved to be hung on a meat hook. Now she just needed to keep her eyes on the gorgeous possible psychopath and fit the key in the lock.

She babbled on, “No, really, I’m just going home now and—”

“Ma’am, do you need help?”

Hearing a second male voice, Ellie nearly screamed. She didn’t embarrass herself quite that badly but the sound she made wasn’t much better.

A middle-aged man wearing a forest green coat and pants and a hat imprinted with
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
emerged from the woods behind Antonin. He looked so normal she almost melted into a puddle of relief at his feet.

Surely her “bodyguard” would leave now. Her first impulse was to run to the ranger and report Antonin, if that really was his name. On second thought, Ellie stopped herself. What if she was overreacting again? Her panic attacks were always getting her into trouble. And to be honest, Antonin was far more appealing than he was scary. If her brother had hired a bodyguard for her, he must have had a damn good reason. She didn’t want to have to bail Antonin out of jail if she complained to the authorities about him. If Justin had sent him, she could confirm it and apologize…later.

21

Stephanie Julian

But she needed to talk to her brother first. And she would. Just as soon as she got home.

She smiled at the forest ranger. “No. I’m fine.”

“Ellie,” Antonin said, his voice low and rough. “You need to leave now.”

She didn’t question his sudden change of heart. “You’re right, I do.”

Miraculously, the key slid into the lock on the door and she twisted it…only to pull the lever and have nothing happen.

“Maybe you should come with me, ma’am,” the ranger said. “I’ll take you up to the center.”

Ellie looked in his direction…and suddenly shivered. No, she definitely didn’t want to go with the ranger. At first glance, he had seemed like a normal guy. But as she looked at him again, there was something about him, something about his cold eyes that made her want to run the other way.

Antonin snarled, “You’re not taking her anywhere.”

Okay, this was getting too freaky. The hair on her skin rose as if a huge electrical storm had settled over her head. Her skin prickled into gooseflesh.

What the hell was going on?

The ranger barely glanced at Antonin. He simply kept smiling at her, walking toward her car. He stopped when he was only inches away from Antonin.

The ranger’s smile seemed genuine enough but his eyes… They scared her. There was something unnatural about his fixed gaze, something evil lurked there. A new wave of panic hit her, this one more intense, more
real
somehow. This time she
knew
she had reason to be afraid.

Ellie frantically yanked on the door handle again but it still wouldn’t open.

“I believe you should flee,” the doe said to her. “Now.”

“Ellie, get in the car.” Antonin practically growled the words but he never took his eyes off the ranger.

22

Seduced in Shadow

“Miss, why don’t you let me take you up to the ranger station? You can call someone to come get you.” At the ranger’s cold voice, all her senses went into red alert.

“Ellie, get in the car!” Antonin insisted.

“I can’t,” she cried. She was frustrated and beginning to hyperventilate. Something about that ranger was terribly wrong. And something about Antonin suddenly felt terribly right. At that moment, she knew she would be safe with him. She could feel it in her gut. “The door won’t open.”

In the blink of an eye, Antonin vanished…only to reappear behind the park ranger.

From the look on the other’s man face, he was as shocked as she was.

Her mouth dropped open. Surely she had just imagined that.

Antonin grabbed the ranger around the neck and squeezed. The other man’s lips worked but no sound emerged. When the ranger dropped to the ground in a heap, the world went dark around the edges of her vision.

Ellie blinked, trying to bring her rapidly blurring sight into focus…and found Antonin standing by her side. She tried to scream but couldn’t find the breath.

“Ellie, don’t pass out on me now. We have to get out of here.”

“What— How— I don’t—”

“Ellie, breathe. Deep breaths, in and out. Come on. We gotta get out of here before he wakes up.”

That snapped her out of the panic attack. She had to get in the car and get away from here. Everything was jumbled, didn’t make sense.

When Antonin reached for her, the world went dark.

* * * * *

The fear on Ellie’s face right before she fainted punched at Antonin’s gut. He’d completely mishandled this.

23

Stephanie Julian

But he didn’t have time to obsess over that now. He needed to get her away from here. He’d had to nearly suffocate the fake park ranger and work a heavy-duty binding spell to keep him down. The guy was
Mal
. Antonin could smell it on him like a foul stench.

Ellie lay pliant in his arms, her body warm and soft. Lifting her against his chest, he let her head fall against his shoulder. She felt good there.

“What are you doing?” the doe asked. “Have you hurt her?”

Antonin shook his head. “She’s fine. Just passed out. You could have given me a little warning about the company.”

The doe snorted. “I did not hear him coming. He is evil, that one.”

Undoing the locking spell the other man must have put on the car while they were still in the forest, Antonin walked around and slid her into the passenger seat, buckling her in. “Yeah, I know that.” On the driver’s side, he grabbed the keys off the ground where Ellie had dropped them then waved to the doe. “I wouldn’t want to be around when he wakes up.”

“I do not plan to be. Will she recover?”

“She’ll be fine. I won’t let anything happen to her.”

Well, he certainly hoped nothing happened to her. Justin would have his head if it did.

The doe snorted again and shook her head. “Be sure you do not.” Then she hopped off through the trees.

Folding himself into the driver’s seat of her tiny car, Antonin stole a quick glance at Ellie, his gaze locking on those gorgeous lips, slightly parted and glistening. He knew he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if anything happened to her.

First things first though. Get the hell out of Dodge.

24

Seduced in Shadow

Pulling a U-turn, Antonin drove her little Miata as fast as he dared back to town.

Back to what he hoped was safety. Cam would have to pick up the company Audi he’d hidden on the other side of the street when he’d followed her here this morning.

Antonin wasn’t as familiar with the city of Reading as he would have liked. He’d only been in town a little more than a week, not long enough to find all the nooks and crannies, the hidden nodes and camouflaged hot spots that lurked in a city this old.

Laid out by William Penn’s sons in 1748 along the banks of the Schuylkill River, Reading held secrets ancient and powerful. Magic not many outside of the Etruscan bloodlines knew about, much less believed in.

The city had been dying a slow death for years, at least the non-magical part. Crime had overrun entire neighborhoods, leaving only small pockets of prosperity to flourish.

The recent addition of a sports arena hadn’t done much to perk up the once-grand Penn Street but it was pumping some money back into the economy. Just enough to make the drug trade boom.

Making it much easier for those like him to live relatively undisturbed and unnoticed as the police and other
eteri
had more pressing matters to attend to.

Antonin reached the city in minutes. Sunday morning traffic on Lancaster Avenue was light and as he raced over the Bingaman Street Bridge, he kept a careful eye on his rearview mirror to make sure no one followed him.

Even so, he took a roundabout route to his final destination, only turning into the unmarked alley off Plum Street when he was positive he didn’t have a tail.

Ellie slept through it all, thank the Goddess.

Muttering the spell to raise the garage doors, he slipped her Miata into the empty space behind his 4Runner, the doors nearly hitting the bumpers as they came down again.

The overhead light blinked on as soon as the garage doors hit the ground. Releasing the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, he turned to watch her sleep.

25

Stephanie Julian

By the Gods, she was gorgeous.
Aguane
, the most beautiful of all the females of the magical
Fata
races, were plain Janes compared to this woman. The fact that she was a god’s daughter explained a lot, though her mother had to have been a beauty if Selvans had been attracted to her.

Ellie muttered something he couldn’t make out but he clearly heard fear in her tone as she started to regain consciousness.

Shit.
He hadn’t planned on abducting her. Though if he were honest, he’d wanted to seduce her, get her in his bed and keep her safe there. Professional distance be damned.

What the hell would he do with her now?

Ellie should be safe here, for a few days at least. Until he and his brothers caught up with the guy who’d tried to snatch her.

Antonin hadn’t recognized the fake ranger but that wasn’t a surprise. The
Mal
, evil bastards with a world-domination complex and ties to ancient witchcraft, had sent a flunky who had power but not a lot of brains. They probably hadn’t thought a girl would give them much trouble.

And they hadn’t been expecting him.

He should have killed the guy but that would have freaked Ellie out even more.

And he didn’t want her freaked out. He wanted her to trust him.

Because, eventually, he wanted her in his bed.

With a sigh, Antonin got out and made his way to the passenger side. He lifted Ellie out of the car and carried her into the house. He’d chosen this townhouse south of Penn Street specifically because he could access the house through the garage. Safer that way.

The house itself had been a mess when he’d rented it just after Justin had asked him and his brothers to watch over her. The building hadn’t been updated since the ’70s and it was filthy. The kitchen and bathroom were functional though and the location was close to Salvatorus, the
salbinelli
who ran the safe house for the Etruscan bloodlines.