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instead of standing there talking about me like I’m not here, why don’t the two of you fuck off and let me have my bad night?” He let his wolf show in his eyes as heflicked his gaze to Dominic before he looked back at Nessa. “I’m sure the two of you are still having a lot of fun tearing up the sheets and all that jazz. Leave me the hell alone, old woman.”
     
    The scent of anger lit the air around them— Dominic’s. Dominic was pretty strong for a vamp less than two decades old, but he was still young. He couldn’t handle Toronto.
     
    Nessa, though, Nessa would leave his head ringing. That would stop any pitying talk. Except, of course, she knew exactly what he was after.
     
    “Don’t even think of it, wolf.” Nessa’s voice, cool and sharp with warning, wouldn’t have been enough to get through to him.
     
    Right then, he was so desperate to get them both away from him, to stop that infuriating pity,
nothing
would get through to him. But when he tried to take a step forward, he found he couldn’t and there was an unseen, warning
hand
around his neck.
     
    Witches. Strong ones were a pain in the ass. They manipulated the elements the same way others could flip a light switch, and the stronger they were, the easier it was to manipulate said elements. Nessa was the strongest witch alive.
     
    “Fuck, Nes—”
     
    That was all he got out before she tightened her grasp. “Do stop, Tor, my dear,” she said, sighing. “You’re pissing Dom off and trust me, while it would be great fun to watch the two of you wrestle around like buffoons, that’s not why I’m here.”
     
    She peered at him, her big blue eyes narrowing. “So, if I let you go, are you going to behave yourself? As best as you know how, at least?”
     
    He glared at her.
     
    The unseen “hand” around his neck tightened and he tried to suck in a desperate breath of air. Damn it, she hadn’t gone and forgotten he still needed to
breathe
, had she? Black dots started to dance in front of his eyes.
     
    “Toronto, you have always been so bloody stubborn.” The hand loosened, and he sagged, sucking in desperate draughts of air.
     
    “And you were always so damned determined to mother me.” He shoved his hair back and glared at her. His throat ached, damn it. “Mother me and then do crazy shit like fucking trying to
strangle
me. What in the hell do you want, Nessa?”
     
    “Oh, do be quiet.” Nessa shot Dominic a warning look. “Really, Toronto. If I’d wanted to strangle you, there would be no
try
to it, and you well know it.”
     
    With the blood still roaring in his ears, Toronto struggled to hold on to his control, but every second made it harder. The wolf inside him started to stretch, rolling around inside his skin.
Out
… the wolf whispered.
Let me out… let me run. Let me hunt…
     
    “What do you
want
?” he snarled.
     
    Something about the way she stared at him made the wolf still. Toronto’s blood ran cold and his heart shuddered inside his chest. “Darkness… you know it’s part of us all, don’t you, Toronto?” Nessa eased away from Dominic to stand at Toronto’s side, staring out over the river.
     
    “All of us?” He tried to force himself to smile. “You don’t have a lick of darkness in you, old woman.”
     
    A faint smile curled her lips. “You know, it’s terribly amusing to hear that from you, when
I
look younger than
you
now.” Then she slanted a look up at him. The look in her eyes was… awful.
     
    Something he’d never thought to see from her, something he never
wanted
to see from her. Something too close to a monster peered at him from her lovely blue eyes and he watched, with his heart racing, as that darkness leeched away, replaced by a grim, bleak sadness. “We all have darkness, Toronto. Mine is a burden I’ll have to bear for all my days, I fear. You…” She closed her eyes. “Your darkest days are in your past, Toronto. Let them stay there. Leave it