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a lot for you, but you have to hold it together a few minutes more. We have to get out of here. Ben is outside waiting for us.
    She locked her gaze with his. Ben?
    Yes, he’s outside. Let’s go .
    She jerked free of his hold and bent to yank her purse out of the cabinet beneath the counter. Slinging it over her shoulder, she shoved past him.
    Follow me.
    *   *   *
    Faith raced through the storage room and out the side door into the paved alleyway alongside the store. The cool evening air embraced her, a balm to her perspiring skin and burning lungs. She inhaled deeply of the sweet, clean oxygen before she turned to face the Seer. He had hobbled out behind her, leaning heavily on his cane. He bent over, coughing, clearing his airways as she had hers.
    Now that they were alone, she realized her legs were trembling. Tonight’s events had shredded the safe little life she had built. Corinne and Erok tracking her down had not been entirely unexpected. But Wei Jun, dead? Azotay, here? And now him, the Seer. How had he slipped through her defenses back in the store? Even Erok hadn’t been able to penetrate her Stone Shield, that protective bubble she spun from the Earth’s energy, but this guy had simply reached through it like it wasn’t even there. And when he’d touched her … Her hand still tingled from his caress. She’d never reacted to a man like that, not even Michael.
    That made him dangerous—more dangerous than even the Mendukati or Criten or Azotay.
    She could slip away now while he was unguarded. With his disability he wouldn’t be able to keep up with her if she ran full speed and got her car from the lot next door. She could disappear. She took one tiny step back.
    He looked up, those amazing blue eyes pinning her like a butterfly to a board. “Just to get things out in the open, I’m Darius Montana. I know you’re thinking about running, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t. I’ve already overextended myself more than I should have tonight.”
    She edged away another step. “Thanks for the help, but I’m fine on my own now.”
    â€œNo, you’re not.” He straightened to his full height, a good head above hers, his broad shoulders and muscular torso an odd contrast to the presence of the cane. “Look, you and I both know that those people aren’t going to stop until they get what they want from you.”
    â€œAnd what about you?” She slipped her hand in her jeans pocket and touched the bear Ben had carved for her. The fetish warmed her fingers and still vibrated with the melody humming in the back of her mind, like a gun cocked and loaded. “Maybe it’s time you told me what you want from me.”

 
    CHAPTER TWO
    The fire crackled behind them, smoke twisting like a serpent into the air. The streetlights cast her features into relief, but even through the falling darkness he could see her eyes, green and piercing like a cat’s and just as wary. Her short dark hair emphasized her cheekbones, her skin nearly alabaster in the dim lighting. She kept her hand in her pocket, her lean, athletic body poised to run at any second. Her uncertainty pricked at him, so different from the calm he usually inspired in others. Obviously trust was not her strong point, and though she might feel cornered, she wasn’t going down without a fight.
    He could respect that. Admire it. And had to admit that her grit just added the cherry on top of the attraction he’d been trying to ignore since he first saw her.
    And attraction was as far as it could go. Relationships weren’t for him. He scratched the itch with occasional, no-strings-attached sex. But not with her, not with the Stone Singer. She was off-limits.
    A couple of streets over, a siren wailed. “Guess someone finally dialed 9-1-1,” he said.
    â€œYou didn’t answer me. What do you want?”
    â€œI need your