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  She stiffened, slid her front leg into a cat stance, set her jaw, and waited. The punch came at her, but slowed almost to a halt as it approached. Reaching, she grabbed the fist inches from her.

  A strange recognition flittered across his face, like the one he’d had when she said she could feel his excitement on the bike. “Good,” he said.

  “What did I do?” She heaved between breaths, the world around still moving at a sluggish pace.

  “You stopped me.”

  “Everything slowed down. Like how everything slows in a wreck.”

  “Cool, huh?” With a flick of his head, he tossed hair from his eyes.

  “Did you do that?” she whispered.

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Can you do that anytime?”

  “Pretty much. What you saw is what we always see, Nikki. Everything moves at a slower speed for us. And when we try, we can stretch the immediate atmosphere. Sometimes, humans are aware of it — like in the wrecks you mentioned. Most often, that’s where humans become aware of the supernatural at work around them, though they seem to remain clueless as to what it is. Not that I’d expect your brains to get it: we can move so fast, the molecules disappear. It’s also where you get the term déjà vu.”

  “No, I read about that. It has to do with the brain misfiring.”

  “Really?” Raven said.

  She nodded. A flash, and she frowned.

  “How about that time?” he asked.

  “Whoa.” Again, the immediate seconds stretched.

  “How about that time?” he repeated.

  She shook her head. “Stop it. That’s freaky.” She reached behind her for something, anything to steady her balance. Everything seemed off, her judgment included. Suddenly she knew coming to Arkansas with Raven had been a grave mistake.

  And yet …

  He was training her. How could she find fault in that? He wanted to give her something Mace had never offered. Self preservation.

  “I can relive any moment I’ve experienced.” His eyes dropped to her lips. “Again and again and again.”

  She swallowed the newly formed lump in her throat. “I suppose that’s faster than the speed of light?” she asked, training her thoughts on the lesson. Sensei Coble taught her to always rely on her training.

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “Amazing.” She dropped her hands. “There’s no way I can win against a supernatural foe.”

  “Wrong,” he corrected. “First, all foes won’t be supernatural. You’re being hunted, Nikki. And not just by hell’s army. Human armies as well. Flesh and blood. Bone and joint. They share your weaknesses, but what they don’t have is your advantage.”

  “What’s my advantage?”

  “They’re never going to expect you to hunt them.”

  She had to admit it made sense. If she hadn’t been a fighter, she’d have never survived this long. “Hmm. Predator becomes the prey?”

  “Exactly.” He stepped away from her. “Or you can continue being a damsel in distress and let Mace protect you.” He shrugged one shoulder. “But wouldn’t you rather be your own hero?”

  “Yes,” she said, and as quickly as she answered, she formed a plan. When he dropped his hands, she advanced. Faking a spinning crescent kick, she landed a roundhouse kick to his jaw.

  His head barely moved from the jolt. “Nice, but not enough power to stop me. Where was your target?”

  She pulled a breath and reached to touch his right jaw.

  He grabbed her hand. “No. Not here.” He slung her hand to the opposite cheek. “Here.”

  “I should have kicked the other side of your face?” she asked.

  “No! You should have driven through my jaw. Your target is always six inches past the point of contact.” Roughly, he dragged her hand to his chin. “If you’re trying to punch me here, where should your target be?”

  Before she could answer, he put her hand to the back of his neck. “Here, Nikki.” He tapped her fingers against his neckline, hot from the sun’s rays and the fight. “Six inches past. Drive through. You get it?”

  “I get it.”

  He threw her hand down. “Now do it.”

  She punched and connected soundly with his rock-hard stomach. “Wow.” The power behind the strike shocked her.

  He smiled.

  “In self-defense, they teach girls to strike and run.” Suddenly, Raven disappeared.

  She spun, looking for him.

  From her right side, she felt him grab her loose T-shirt, twist, and toss her to the ground. “If you’re going to insist on being a victim, please continue to dress like one. It makes my job so much easier.” His voice bounded off a tree behind her, and she jumped, turning to it.

  “What’s wrong with strike and run?” she asked, twirling the hem of her T into a knot, lessening his ability to grab.

  “You don’t have that luxury anymore. You have to strike and kill because you can’t outrun us.”

  When he appeared before her, she attempted a ridge hand to his temple, but grabbed only air. “And we’ll never give up.” He threw his fist into a tree beside her and bark rained around her head.

  Alarm fought for control of her mind, but she fought back. Raven was helping her, not trying to hurt her.

  “Mace said he didn’t think there were Halflings fighting on the enemy’s side.”

  “He’s wrong. Poor little naïve Mace. He’s dead wrong.”

  “Glad you’re more enlightened,” she said when he reappeared at her feet, and for a fleeting moment she gazed right into his soul. What she saw frightened her. When she spoke, the words were distant. “Maybe you don’t know which side you’re on.”

  It stopped him cold. Dust settled around them.

  This was her chance. She lunged, swept his leg, and threw him to the ground. He landed flat on his back. Nikki dropped to her knees. Hovering above him, she smiled, a hand planted on each side of his head. “Used your weakness.”

  Raven’s midnight-blue eyes changed to something needful. He closed his fingers around her arms and pulled her closer. “I’m a good teacher.”

  “I’m a better student,” she countered. She cast a glance at his strong fingers wrapped tightly above her elbows, which sent waves of syrupy heat into her skin. “You should let me go.”

  “Your lesson isn’t over yet,” Raven said. His hair fell away from his face, highlighting the contours of his cheekbones, his strong jaw, his bow-shaped lips. People always looked different when flat on their backs, and it was doubly true now. Everything beautiful about Raven seemed magnified by his vulnerable posture.

  She tried to return her focus to the fight. “I … I can’t beat you,” she said, and wondered on just how many levels she meant the comment. “It’s impossible. You can’t be hurt, at least not by me and my bare hands.”

  “I can, Nikki.” His fingers glided down her arm and clasped her wrist with such tenderness, it shocked her. He dragged her hand to the center of his chest and pressed.

  Beneath his shirt his heart pounded, synchronized to the beat of her own. Something so sad, so human entered his gaze. A longing she — and she alone — was able to fill. For a brief moment she wanted to kiss him, if for no other reason than to stop his pain. Danger flashed like a warning sign in her mind, but there was something so beautiful about his desire to protect her. No, she corrected. About his desire to teach her to protect herself. Why hadn’t Mace done that? Why didn’t he want her to be able to defend herself?

  As she bent closer, his hand moved to the back of her head. Pulling the pencils from their place sent a wave of hair floating around her. Another bad habit I’ll have to break. She tucked it back with the hand not planted on Raven’s chest. Dark-blue eyes scanned every feature of her face, burning a trail wherever they lingered. His gaze flickered as he whispered to her. “Don’t forget, I’m the enemy.”

  She faltered. This was a lesson. Trust no one, perhaps even herself. Warring with her thoughts, Nikki licked her lips. �
�Raven,” she whispered, tilting closer. “Thanks for teaching me how to destroy you.”

  “Anytime.” His eyes closed, and when they did she grabbed the pencils, clasped one in each hand, yelled, and came down hard to bury them into his chest. She stopped millimeters above his beating heart. A mixture of fear and horror swept her.

  He didn’t even flinch. Raven lay motionless, eyes still shut.

  Trembling, she dropped the pencils. They rolled off him passively. “Raven! You didn’t stop me!” She fisted a hand and pounded his chest. “What’s wrong with you?”

  Slowly, his eyes drifted open while his trademark smirk tilted his cheek.

  “You taught me to drive through!” She pushed angry, shaking hands through her hair. In fact, her whole body was quivering and she knew exactly why. He’d given her the key to his destruction … then trusted her not to use it. “I could have killed you.” She smacked his chest with an open hand and tried to pull away.

  He restrained her, hands closing on her upper arms. When he chuckled, she pounded on his chest again. “I could have killed you! Don’t ever do that again.”

  His chuckle became a laugh.

  “Stop it,” she said through hot tears.

  “I saw you coming,” he said, casually. “I knew exactly what you intended to do. Besides, you’d never kill me, Nikki.”

  She shoved off of him and stood. Oh, I would. Right now if I could just reach my pencils again. “What makes you think I wouldn’t?”

  “You’re in love with me.”

  Something jumped in her stomach. “I am not in love with you,” she gritted through clenched teeth. “I’m not even sure I like you.” She stomped toward the bike, crushing fallen leaves and soft grass as she went. She threw a look over her shoulder as he followed her. “And I certainly don’t trust you.”

  He leaned forward and murmured in her ear. “Trust is for the weak.”

  She shooed him away like a pesky fly. “And love is for victims.” She shoved her helmet onto her head. “And like you said, I don’t have that luxury anymore.”

  Chapter

  17

  As soon as she pulled into her driveway, warning alarms rang in Nikki’s senses like internal sirens. She parked her bike, then pulled her helmet from her head. In less than a heartbeat, she was being mauled by a monster of fur and a wet tongue.

  “Bo,” she sputtered when his slobber made contact with her lips. “Ew. Stop.” She shoved the yellow lab away, but her giggle only enticed him into round two. She grabbed his massive head in a headlock. The dog squirmed, growling and wagging a golden tail.

  When she trapped him he pleaded for release with eyes too innocent for a hundred-pound beast.

  She melted, mumbled an “Aw,” and sank onto the ground. The headlock became a hug. “I know I’ve been neglecting you, Bo.” Sorry, all my time is consumed with infuriating half-angel boys right now.

  The huge animal sighed and nuzzled deeper into her side.

  “Soon as I check in, we’ll go for a walk.” She scrubbed his ears. “Okay? Just you and me.” A walk would be nice. It would give her time to process the whole Raven and Mace thing. Like it can be worked out in one trip to the park.

  Bo mouthed her arm. “Okay, okay. We’ll go to the tennis courts. I’ll take your tennis ball.”

  At the word, his ears perked, head cocking to the side. He barked.

  “You’re so easy to please. I think I could forget to feed you for a week and you’d forgive my transgression.” Transgression? Now that’s what her dad would call a three-dollar word. Where’d she get that? Ah, yes, the Bible Will had given her. “Hope I don’t start talking in King James.” While she and Bo sat in the driveway, a black Camaro pulled in.

  Mace stepped from the vehicle and slammed the door hard. “Where were you?”

  Annoyance at his tone tightened her lungs. She stood, evening the playing field. “Why didn’t you use your spider sense to find us?”

  He shoved a hand through his hair. “That’s not funny, Nikki. This isn’t some pastime.”

  Her hands flew up. “Really? It’s not? But it’s sooooo much fun! Maybe you’re just jealous because I wasn’t with you.”

  “Hardly,” he scoffed.

  The words stung.

  “You’re a job to me.”

  That hurt even more. How much of that is true?

  “You’re an assignment, and, in case you haven’t noticed, one I take seriously.”

  “Oh, is that right?” A more biting comeback failed to come. Words like job and assignment kept swirling in her mind.

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “Then why haven’t you taught me how to fight?” She closed the distance to him and shoved her finger into his chest. “You are constantly sending me these mixed signals. One minute you look at me like you’re going to kiss me and the next, you look like you want to vomit. I don’t get you, Mace.”

  “I’m not sending mixed signals. I just — It’s very complicated.”

  “Well, at least Raven is honest.”

  Fury washed over him. “Honest?” he spat. “I’m not sure Raven remembers how to be honest. Do yourself a favor and stay as far away from him as you can.”

  “Why?”

  He gripped her arms. Hard enough it hurt. “Because he’s bad for you.”

  “Why? Because he doesn’t want me to be a victim? Because he doesn’t have to be my personal bodyguard?” She wanted to lash out, strike him, but her arms were pinned. Her hands fisted and the fact they did angered her even more.

  Bo growled.

  She leveled her gaze. “Or is it because he can be honest about his feelings for me?”

  She hated the look on Mace’s face. It was both hurt and regret. “You really think he’s being honest? He’s playing with you, Nikki. Nothing more. You’re just another piece of arm candy to him.”

  Ouch! She unwillingly pulled those hurtful words into her being. “Arm candy?”

  “Ask him yourself. Raven admittedly looks for hot girls on every journey. He tends to go for the mean ones.”

  And ouch again. She shook her head. “You’re the one who runs hot and cold, not him. At least with Raven I know where I stand.”

  “No, you don’t.” His tone was filled with as much certainty as her own.

  “He’s in love with me,” she yelled.

  Something hot, practically deadly veiled his eyes. His jaw clenched so tightly, she thought it might break into pieces. “No. He. Is. Not.” And with that, he threw his hands down.

  “How do you know?” she countered, and took a step back, desperate to leave the charged atmosphere that constantly surrounded Mace.

  “Because if he was, he’d feel the same way I do.”

  She sucked in a breath at his admission. The same way he does? Did he mean, does that mean he loves —

  “And,” Mace continued, “he’d be slightly more upset about the situation.”

  “Why?” Her feet carried her back to him, his words a magnet drawing her in.

  “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.” Now it was Mace’s turn to attempt to get away. He stumbled back.

  “It matters to me. Why would he be upset?” There was an emotion surging over him she couldn’t place, couldn’t hope to understand, and it terrified her.

  After a long, slow breath, he said, “Because for Halflings, falling in love with a human is the unpardonable sin.”

  Chapter

  18

  Her heart stopped and with it, time itself. “What does that mean?”

  Mace was shrouded in despair — it almost bled from every pore of his being. “If we fall in love with a human, it guarantees we’re doomed for all eternity, because we’re furthering the enemy’s plan. It voids all our journeys. Everything we’ve worked to obtain. Everything we’ve done.”

  And Nikki knew that meant, very simply, destroying everything Mace was. He was nothing without rules and orders and boundaries.

  The world flew off kilter, spinning out
of control. She wanted to grab it and stop its rotation. No air, she couldn’t get any air. With no oxygen to her brain, she was about to pass out. Everything began to slowly darken. Nikki reached instinctively but grabbed nothing, until strong arms closed around her. The muscles of his chest became a wall of safety. For a moment, she savored his touch, but cold reality blasted her and she shoved away.

  Unpardonable sin.

  Her feelings for Mace and his for her were that wrong?

  “Look,” Mace offered, sliding his hands into his pockets. She knew it was so he wouldn’t reach out to her again. “You couldn’t have known. Don’t worry about it.”

  Indescribable pain tore through her. Her vision blurred with fresh tears. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Embarrassment shot like a rocket in the cold, wintery place that was now her heart. “Why didn’t you stop me? I made such a fool of myself.”

  Mace looked away and something — a tear? — slipped down his cheek. He scrubbed at it with a flat hand, but another followed. Nikki watched in agony as her angel, her beautiful invitation, warred with the unfair world that was his prison. He swallowed and choked back a sound so filled with pain, she could barely stand hearing it.

  No. No. No. No. No. No. She hated herself right now for causing this.

  She’d reduced him to a broken pot. Her words slipped from her lips, hardly a whisper. “I’m … I’m so, so sorry.” She turned and fled into the house.

  Mace stood outside on her front porch for nearly a half hour, trying, unsuccessfully to think of another way. He started to knock — again — but lowered his hand from the wooden door. She was asleep in the living room with the TV on, its glow throwing a blue haze against the walls of the room. All this he witnessed from the glass pane in the front door. He rested his head against the cool window, and a moment later his hand rummaged across the top of the doorframe. Nothing. The front porch was dotted with plants. He began lifting their pots until he spotted the key.

  Once inside the night quiet house, he made his way to her. Mace stood for a moment at the edge of the couch. It was wrong for him to be there, he knew, but what was one more rule to break? He’d already sought Will and asked for reassignment. Will had reluctantly agreed. But he couldn’t leave without telling her good-bye.