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horrible whining, grinding sound rattled the sink.
    Nika stood there with a smugly pleased look on her face.
    Madoc looked from her to the sink and back again. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
    “I’m tired of having people dictate what I can and can’t do. I don’t need Joseph’s approval for anything. Or yours.”
    She was taunting him. Maybe she didn’t mean to, but she was.
    Madoc stepped forward, letting the rage that always bubbled below the surface show in his face. He wasn’t going to wear his civilized mask with her—not if she was going to taunt the beast.
    The garbage disposal stopped, then buzzed angrily for a moment before it fell silent.
    Nika stood her ground, but some of the color in her face drained away as she watched him get nearer.
    “You’re getting dangerously close to pissing me off,” he warned.
    Her chin went up an inch. “You don’t scare me.”
    “No? Guess that just proves how soft in the head you really are, then.”
    “You’re big and tough and mean, but you won’t hurt me.”
    “You don’t know that.” Hell, even he didn’t know if he would continue to hold on to his control.
    “I do. You and I are connected the way Paul and Andra are. I don’t understand exactly how to reach you yet, but if you killed me, you’d be killing yourself, too.”
    Madoc refused to let his eyes move to the luceria ring on his left hand. He knew what he’d see. There wouldn’t be any swirl of color showing him that Nika and he were compatible—that she could tap into the vast pool of devastating power he housed within himself. There would be no movement, no subtle hum like a tuning fork after it was struck. His luceria was nearly dead, just like his soul. The colors that had lain within it for centuries, waiting for the time when a female Theronai would awaken them, had faded almost completely. The pale, nearly white band would look as it had for the last year. There was no sense in fooling himself that Nika had changed that.
    She couldn’t be his. She couldn’t save him, no matter how much he wished otherwise.
    If he didn’t get away from her soon, he was going to forget himself and decide he didn’t care that Nika would doubtless belong to another man any day now. Dozens of Theronai had been flying in from overseas, hoping she was their miracle.
    So far, the right man hadn’t yet shown up, but he would soon. Madoc needed to remember that. Keep his distance. She wasn’t a convenient fuck. He had whores for that. Nika was to be protected, even from himself.
    “We’re leaving,” he told her. The sooner he unloaded her onto someone else, the better. “Get in the truck.”
    “No.”
    That single word froze Madoc in place. “What?”
    “You heard me. I’m not going anywhere with you. Your phone is dead, so you’re not calling anyone to come babysit me, which means you’re stuck with me. Deal with it.”
    “Did you seriously just tell me to deal with it ?”
    “I did.”
    Madoc was done playing. The pain inside him was building, and without an outlet, he’d be crumpled in a sobbing heap by morning. He couldn’t let Nika see that.
    “Get in the truck. I’ll find a phone and call someone to dig up the fucking grave, okay?”
    “No. I don’t believe you.”
    “Get in the damn truck, Nika.” The warning was clear in his tone. He stepped forward, intending to crowd her personal space and intimidate her, but she didn’t back down.
    She tipped her chin up and warned him, “You come any closer and I’m going to kiss you.”
    Hell, no. That was not going to happen. Not even if he lived long enough to watch the sun wink out.
    If she kissed him, he’d fuck her. If he did that, he’d hurt her. He wasn’t exactly a gentle man when it came to sex. And if he hurt her, then the last, tiny sliver of his soul would shrivel up and die and he’d end up killing the people he was supposed to protect.
    Nika eased away from the sink, moving toward him. Her body moved with sinuous