Awakening Kiss (Watcher's Kiss Book 4) Read Free Page B

dropped. All night? “I…”
    “It’s warm. No predators. Unless you have more friends lurking out here. Though I wouldn’t advise siccing them on me.” A threatening note crept into his tone.
    All night. Predators or non-human, fantastical creatures. Enza’s vision swam and she couldn’t fight the jello effect that took over her legs. She dropped awkwardly to the grass. “Need to lay down for a…” She gulped air. No. She couldn’t do this. What the hell was going on? Her heart pounded heavily and her eyelids refused to stay open. “F-for a minute.” Her hands slid along the soft grass as blackness washed over her field of vision.

C HAPTER 3
     
     
    “A H, FUCK. ” R HYS DARTED TO THE female, catching her before she face-planted in the thick grass. Gently he rolled her to her side. Her skin was clammy. Long eyelashes fluttered as shallow breaths escaped her lips. He wasn’t sure if she’d passed out, but seemed like she was halfway there.
    Conscious or not, she wasn’t going anywhere. Not that she would succeed if she tried. She couldn’t out run him, and he doubted she had the energy to hike out of this place. He crouched next to her and pulled out his phone. All the Watchers had an app that could quickly identify a creature’s race. And rarely had Rhys not been able to ID a female, but this one confounded him. Her scent was more human than supernatural. She claimed to know nothing, yet she’d locked on to the portal like a lifeline. He’d seen her . Then there was the screaming fact that she smelled like a bakery, and not from a brief stop to pick up sweets and dash out the door. No, the scents of sugar, butter, and dough layered heavily around her like an aromatic mist. Something didn’t add up.
    He held up his phone and swiped to start the app. Seconds ticked as she lay, eyes closed. His screen flashed. “Deserati.”
    Interesting. Deserati demons were among the few predatory demons that could walk unobtrusively among humans. Though they had small horns and a tail, they also had the ability to “hide” them as if they weren’t even there. His eyes flicked to the female in the grass.
    The phone abruptly went dark and he glared at it. “What the—” But the thing blinked on with a new word. “Human.”
    Rhys stared. Made on Torth, his phone didn’t glitch like the ones on Earth. The display darkened, then lit up again. “Deserati.”
    Then again. “Human.”
    He shifted his focus to her as surprise drop-kicked his earlier suspicion. Not what he expected…
    The demonic and fae species from Torth could cross mate. And if they had any children, the kiddos would be either one species or the other—not a blend of the two.
    But when human physiology entered the mix, all bets went out the window. A demon and human, or a fairy and a human, could produce a half-breed offspring. No one knew how many existed, since they could blend in among Earth’s population. Some may not even know their true heritage. He studied the soft curve of her lower lip, and that mouth that had just sworn up and down that she didn’t know how they got here.
    The female let out a sigh and flexed her fingers into the grass. Rhys fought an insane, out-of-nowhere urge to comfort her. She could be an enemy. She could be a liar…though her confusion had seemed real enough. And he’d seen plenty of creatures scared shitless, usually on the other end of his sword or demonfire. He recognized fear.
    But what he couldn’t tell from her was if it was fear of being caught, or fear of the unknown. He wasn’t always the best judge of character, especially when it came to females asking questions.
    He scowled and dialed Brenin, who answered on the first ring. “Yo. Where are you?”
    “The fucking Arboretum.”
    “Huh. Not where I would think to look for dark elves.”
    “No shit.”
    “The female there with you?”
    Rhys looked down at her pale skin, clear to him with his enhanced night vision. “Yeah. She passed out. We