The drunk waved his hand, then frowned when he realized it
was empty. “What the—” He looked up and blinked at Quinn. “How’d you do that?”
Quinn signaled a white-faced Katie to step away. She glanced
around to be sure everyone was out of reach and then faced the drunk.
“You want to leave my establishment,” she told him with
forced calm.
He scowled. “T’hell I do. I ordered a beer! And I’m not
leavin’ till I get it!”
“Yes you are.” She jerked back as the man lunged at her,
flicking her fingers at him. He slammed into an invisible wall but only grew
angrier. Quinn swallowed hard. She didn’t have the power for more than this,
and she couldn’t risk her staff getting hurt. Summoning the knife and stopping
the drunk’s movement required only a little access to the waning moon. But
because it had already passed the zenith of its arc, even this drained her.
She had enough for one more act. Please let it be enough. She thought heat and pointed at the sleeve of the man’s denim jacket. A second later it caught fire. He yelled and slapped at it, extinguishing the flame almost immediately, but it had done its job.
His eyes wide, he tried to back away. The overturned chair
tripped him up and he stopped. “What are you?” His voice quavered.
Electric awareness alerted Quinn to the presence of the man
two feet behind her before she heard his voice, a slight Texas drawl mellowing
the deep rumble that always made her think of his perfectly tuned muscle car.
“She’s a goddess.”
“Goddess,” the drunk scoffed. “Them’s just a myth.”
Nick Jarrett stepped past Quinn, standing between her and
the drunk without making it look like he was getting in her way. The hunger
that had been easing all day flared, but because she’d never recharged with
Nick, she was able to stamp it down more easily than she had last night.
“You don’t believe your own eyes?” Nick said to the drunk.
The drunk scowled at them, then at the tiny wisp of smoke rising from his
sleeve. He blinked blearily and stumbled toward the door, grumbling under his
breath.
“That’s what I thought.” Nick swung around to look at her, a
hint of a smile on his full lips and welcome in his green eyes. “Nice parlor
tricks.”
“Sure.” He pulled out his cell phone and hit speed dial on
his way out. Everyone else dispersed, leaving Quinn relatively alone with Nick.
Adrenaline drained out of her, and she would have sat, if showing weakness in
front of him wasn’t so unappealing.
“So what’s going on?” She tucked her fingertips into her
jeans pockets. The anxiety buzzing in her all day disappeared, allowing the
alarm triggered by the e-mail to resurge. “You’re never early.”
“We’ve got a problem.”
Quinn watched him scan the room, cataloging her customers
and staff, lingering on her computer in the far corner and the closed door to
her office. His face tightened, and he moved a step closer.
“I know we do,” she said.
He whipped his head around, his eyes sharp. “You do?”
“I just found out. Come here.” She led him to the table
where her computer slept, its screen dark. “I read this e-mail not five minutes
ago.” They sat down, and she tapped a key to wake the computer while Nick
signaled for a beer.
They waited for the wireless connection to reestablish. “You
getting a lot of trouble like that guy?” he asked.
“No more than usual.” She glanced at him. “Why? Is someone
else?”
Quinn didn’t bother to argue. They had the same argument
every time he came. Sometimes she won, sometimes he did. It balanced in the
end.
Nick sat back down and took a pull of the beer, his strong
throat working with the swallow. Light from a nearby candle picked up glints of
gold in his short-cropped, dark blond hair. “Where’s Sam?”
Quinn cleared her throat. “In the office.” She diverted her
eyes to the computer screen but heard his small snort of derision. “I had it
under control, Nick.”
“The moon’s waning, Quinn. I don’t care how powerful you are
at peak, you’re tapped out by this time—”
“Not completely. And protecting me isn’t Sam’s job.” She
winced, realizing too late it might sound like criticism of Nick, and she
hadn’t meant it to be.
He froze, the bottle halfway to his mouth, then set it down.
“I told you to stick close. He should be out here. Or you shouldn’t. And I’m
not listening to you argue with me. What have you got?”
He turned the computer toward him, ignoring her
exasperation. She twisted to read the e-mail with him, now more confused by the
words on the screen than anything else. “Well?”
Seconds passed while his eyes tracked over the words. “Fuck
me,” he said softly. “That’s not the problem I was talking about at all.”
Their power gives them strength…and makes them targets. Quinn Caldwell is the epitome of a modern goddess. Her power source is the moon, her abilities restricted only by physical resources and lunar phase. She runs a consulting business and her father’s bar, serves on the board of the ancient Society for Goddess Education and Defense, and yearns for Nick Jarrett, professional goddess protector and the soul mate she can never have. But someone has developed the rare and difficult ability to drain a goddess of her powers, and Quinn is a target. With the world thinking Nick has gone rogue (whatever that means) and that Quinn is influenced by “family ties” she didn’t know she had, keeping themselves safe while working to find the enemy proves harder each day. But not as hard as denying their hearts…
Look for Heavy Metal, Book 2 in the Goddesses Rising series, in March 2013!
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