Into the Light Read Free

to stay for breakfast. Women who looked like this lightbearer were not the sort who understood the rules of that particular game. She was the type of woman Tanner would admire from a purely masculine standpoint and then walk away from—as he headed to the nearest nightclub.
    “What’s your name?” he asked.
    She didn’t answer.
    “Are you really a lightbearer?”
    She still refused to answer.
    He stood there for a while, studying her, as she studied him back. She looked defiant, determined not to give him anything, especially answers.
    “I’m not like the rest of them,” he said. “I don’t believe all that crap about killing lightbearers to gain their magic.”
    He did not imagine the look of cautious relief in her eyes. So she knew the legends as well.
    “Are you worried it’s true?” he asked.
    “I am more worried that you’ll try to find out.” Her voice was soft, with an accent that was part Midwest, part something else, something…magical.
    He cocked his head. “Do you live here in this world?” he asked curiously. A magical creature with a Midwestern accent?
    Her chin lifted a notch and she refused to answer, but that was answer enough. Tanner whistled.
    “Hot damn, not only was my father right about your continued existence, but he was right about you living in this world. Where do you live?”
    Not surprisingly, she did not answer.
    “I’ll find out from the ones who captured you, so you might as well tell me,” he pointed out.
    “Vegas,” she finally ground out. She wrapped her arms more tightly around her legs and rested her chin on her knees as she continued to watch him with those overlarge eyes.
    “You live in Vegas?” He was surprised by this information. Vegas did not seem very far from where his father’s pack lived, considering how far and wide he’d sent scouts to search for her species.
    Although, in reality, Vegas made perfect sense. It was sunny nearly all the time, and eclectic enough that even magical creatures would be able to blend in fairly easily. He wondered how many of them lived in Vegas, and how his father had finally figured this out.
    She shook her head. “That is where they caught me.”
    “And what were you doing in Vegas?”
    “Gambling. Playing. Enjoying myself. At least, I was until your stupid guard dogs figured out what I was,” she spat.
    So she didn’t live in Vegas. “Not my guard dogs,” Tanner reminded her. “I’m not pack master here. Trust me, you’ll know him when you meet him.”
    “I already have.” She shivered. Yep, she knew Quentin.
    “Are there others in Vegas?”
    She paused and then shook her head.
    “Are there others in this world?”
    “If you think I’m going to give up the location of the coterie, you are sadly mistaken. Even if I wanted to or was coerced to do so, I could not. We are all under the influence of a very powerful spell. It does not allow us to disclose the location, even under duress. You would simply have to kill me.”
    “I’m not going to kill you,” Tanner spat irritably, and then he frowned. “What’s a coterie?”
    “Where we live. A secret place that no one has discovered for five hundred years.” Her voice was slightly boastful.
    “But it’s not in Vegas. So why were you in Vegas? Presumably alone?”
    She hesitated again, and then apparently decided she had nothing to lose. “The coterie is like a tiny village. We are self-sustaining, all inclusive. We live our lives exactly as the king instructs us. It can become terribly oppressive.”
    She complained like a petulant child. Tanner couldn’t help smiling. “And you prefer to have fun, regardless of the potential danger.”
    “There hasn’t been a shifter attack in centuries,” she pointed out.
    “You just said your coterie is so well hidden no one has found it in five hundred years.”
    The woman frowned and said nothing.
    “My name is Tanner Lyons. What’s yours?”
    “Why do you care? You’re only going to kill me.” The