“Done.” I held my phone up to him so he could see that the money had been transferred.

He grunted which I took to mean that he was happy to continue with business.

I did a one-eighty toward the door. Even though I hadn’t slept since the night before, adrenaline buzzed through my veins and I wasn’t the least bit tired. Finally. Finally, I was getting somewhere.

“So does this mean you’re officially on the job now?” I called over my shoulder.

I stumbled when I found him right behind me. I hadn’t even realized he’d crept up on me. Damn, he was good, a predator through and through. I took a deep breath, and my gaze crawled up his chest past those perfect pectoral muscles to his strong neck and square jaw.

A smirk lifted his lips when our gazes finally connected.

Fuck me sideways. He’d definitely scented my desire again. I hastily glanced away.

“Yes, I’m officially on the job.” He reached past me, his arm brushing mine in the process. Once again, tingles of awareness danced across my body, setting my nerves ablaze.

He opened the door. “After you.”

I snorted. What a gentleman.

In the stairwell, he followed behind me. Once outside the building, I pulled up my rideshare app. The nearest public portal was only a block away, but that portal wouldn’t get us anywhere near Chicago’s supernatural marketplace. Nope, that one would take me to Shanghai, which was great for shopping trips but not so great for getting around Chicago. Human transportation was needed to get me to work each day.

“No need to hire a car.” The Fire Wolf pulled out that yellow crystal from his pocket. “What’s the address of where she was taken?”

Holy shit, he was going to conjure another portal. How much magic did this dude have?

I cleared my throat and tried to act like it was perfectly normal to have a portal conjured before me without an expensive portal key. “She was abducted from our magic shop. Practically Perfect is in the supernatural marketplace, downtown. Its nearest intersection is Wolf Lane and Schloster Row.”

He began swirling his crystal in the air, doing those circular motions that had a yellow glow sparking. I listened for a spell or incantation, but none came. For all intents and purposes, it looked like the guy simply wanted a portal to be created, and so one was.

Holy hairy balls.

I glanced around the street, my eyes wide. If any humans saw this happening, they would be massively freaking out. “Aren’t you afraid somebody will see us?”

Every supernatural knew that our kind needed to remain hidden. While we were much more powerful than humans, they vastly outnumbered us and would no doubt declare war on our species if they knew we existed. As a rule, we never revealed ourselves to mortals. All supernaturals were taught that from a young age.

The Fire Wolf shot me an amused smirk. “I’ve already cast an illusion spell around our perimeter. Nobody can see us.”

Seriously? Only sorcerers could cast illusion spells, and I hadn’t heard him utter any spells for that one either.

“What are you?” I blurted. Okay, it was a rude question, I knew that. But at this point, it wasn’t like either of us was minding our manners. I mean, the dude had just broken into my home.

The portal appeared in front of him, and he put his crystal away. “Are you always this direct?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Do you really need to ask?”

Amusement glinted in his eyes before he gestured toward the portal. “After you.”

Of course, he didn’t answer my question about his genetics. I paused midstep. “How do I know you’re not sending me to the underworld or some abominable location that will leave me stranded in the desert or on top of a frozen mountain? Or what if you’re sending me to some nether region in the fae lands?”

He cocked his head. “What an active imagination you have. Were you like this as a child?”

When I raised an eyebrow at him, he reached down and threaded his fingers through mine.

My breath stopped. His warm palm grazed my skin, his hand rough from callouses. So, he was a man who worked with his hands. Those damn tingles started up my arm again before traveling lower. Seriously, vagina, you have got to be on crack.

I managed to suppress my frustrated groan at how embarrassing my physical reactions were as he tugged me forward. “Since I can see you’re not the trusting type, which I have to say surprises me, we can go through the portal together.”

I planted my feet. “Why are you so surprised that I don’t trust people? Oh wait, does it not fit the prejudged persona you pegged me with back at the Black Underbelly?”

He sighed. “Just get in the damn portal.”

I bit back a smile. For some asinine reason, I took great pleasure in knowing that I could rile the Fire Wolf.

I let him pull me forward, and my breath sucked in when his portal swallowed us whole.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 8

The Fire Wolf’s personal portal was just as trippy as the public ones. The feeling of popping and breaking closed in around me, but so did the feel of his hand on mine. He didn’t let go. Not once. So when his portal spat us out, our fingers were still entwined as we stared at the front door to Practically Perfect.

The second I realized that, I let go. It was unnerving how much I’d enjoyed having our hands joined, all because the Fire Wolf was big and warm. His delicious scent still tickled my nose. That damn citrusy cedar scent, the richly decadent fragrance doing my head in.

Seriously, girl. Pull yourself together. Prisha was right. I needed to get some sleep. Because I was beginning to act like a schoolgirl with a bad crush, and I was certain that whatever this attraction was, it was one-sided. Besides, it made no sense that he evoked these intense sensations in me. Honestly, Tala, you don’t even know the guy.

“So where was she taken?” he asked, breaking the quiet.

I cleared my throat. Right. The hunter was here to do business. “Inside the store.”

I dug the shop’s keys out of my purse and led him inside. He followed right behind me, all predatory and big. When he stepped over the threshold, the enchantment next to the jingling bell triggered like it always did. A black dagger appeared above him.

Before I could blink, he dipped and rolled. With the flick of his wrist, a spell shot from his fingertips and hit the enchantment. It exploded in a plume of dust and smoke.

The substance drifted down, creating a cloud around me. I coughed, and fanned it away, then arched an eyebrow at the hunter as irritation prickled my skin. “Is there a reason you just blew up my enchantment?”

He rose to his feet, the picture of grace and stealth. A growl rumbled in his chest. “What the fuck is this? Do you think I’m that easy to kill?”

Kill him? He thought the door’s magic was a trap?

I eyed the enchantment that was now dust. “News flash. Illusions can’t kill.”

He stalked forward, fire burning in his eyes. His hard, toned body loomed over me, all death and menace at my fingertips. “What kind of game are you playing?” he asked in a lethally quiet voice that promised retribution.

That deceptively calm question shot straight to my core, but I managed to smother my hormones before I did anything embarrassing.

When I finally trusted myself to speak coolly, I pointed to where the enchantment had previously perched above the door. “It just so happens that the black dagger that formed over your head was merely an illusion enchantment designed to activate anytime a new customer enters the shop. Its purpose being to sense what each person is here to buy, and that tells Tessa and me where to steer them.” I waved upward. “The black dagger? That was merely the enchantment telling me that you’re here to kill. And as strange as it sounds, I was happy to see it. Because if you don’t kill the fucker who abducted my sister, I will.”