Shadow Kissed 03 - Shadowman

to her shoulders, so she must have bathed. She had one of Kathleen’s larger paintings propped against a wall. She paced before it, biting a nail, then stopped to search the canvas. She reached her fingertips to touch the shifting trees of Twilight.
    â€œHave a care,” Khan said, emerging from the darkest Shadow beneath the boughs. “One good push, and you may cross.”
    â€œOh, thank God you’re here. Why don’t I cross then, and we can talk like normal people?” Her tone was strong, words coming rapidly. Whatever had happened, she had resolved her fear and was ready to fight. “There’s a lot we have to talk about.”
    He had to quash the stinging Yes! that rose in him. In Twilight he could appear however he wanted. Draw her close. Stroke that skin. But . . . “If you physically cross, bring your mind and body across the divide, you will soon go mad. We’ll have to speak like this.”
    He would not compromise her mind, risk her spirit.
    â€œI’m already going mad. Besides, you’ve brought me through a couple of times already.”
    â€œYes, but I brought you right out again as well. Without me, you would be trapped here. The fae will prey on you.” Moira would keep her under her skirts just like that other mortal woman. “Stay where you are. Visit me in dreams.”
    It would have to be enough.
    Her face flushed, and she turned her head to the side, hiding her expression. If at all possible, he’d have reached through the veil and touched her like a man. She seemed so solitary, standing alone in her room, waiting with thoughts crowding her head and no one to share them with. In that way, she was his mirror image.
    â€œPlease, do not look away. I would do anything to be with you.” She was his beacon in the dark. Something bright to look on in the pitch of his existence. No one shone like her. Nothing illuminated like her soulfire. Yes, he’d do anything. He had already.
    She turned back, eyes flashing. Anger flared. “Yeah, speaking of which . . . you made a gate to Hell ? Who does that? And why would you think Kathleen would be there in the first place? What did I do to deserve that?”
    â€œYou laid down with me.” She’d accepted him, embraced him, in every way. The tide of that union still moved his Shadow.
    â€œOh, God.” She ran a hand through her hair, gathering it on the top of her head, and gripped her hand in the mass.
    â€œDo you regret it?” That one touch. Human. Carnal. Ecstatic.
    â€œWho are you?”
    â€œI am a beast, Layla. The worst imaginable. Can we not leave it at that?”
    â€œHell no. Not when last night . . . when we . . . I . . . Just no.”
    â€œDo you regret it?” he asked again. Her emotions were in turmoil, and yes, regret was one of them, overtaking the others. But regret for what?
    â€œWell, apparently I am going to die.” She dropped her hand and her hair fell wildly around her shoulders. “What the hell am I supposed to do with that bit of news? I can’t believe it, and yet, I’ve had too many close calls to deny the possibility.”
    â€œWe will defy Fate”— and everyone else —“for as long as we can.”
    â€œFate. Bullshit. I’ve almost died a million times now.”
    â€œLayla—”
    She turned and jabbed a finger toward the canvas. Her voice lowered with menace. “There was a spider.”
    Khan wished he had the angels’ gift to read minds; hers moved so fast.
    â€œAnd the devil bitch,” Layla continued. “ I let her out of Hell, and she’s killed half a dozen people.”
    Twice that at least. “I built the gate. You were merely under its power. The responsibility isn’t yours.”
    And he had no trouble bearing it. Death was his specialty. “Besides, this life is a second chance for her, too. She could have lived among you humans, tried for peace, respected life, but she chose otherwise.”
    Layla made an impatient gesture. “Oh, just save it. I swear, around here if it’s not one thing, it’s another. All of it bad.” Her jaw clenched. “The question is: Why’s it happening now?”
    Her tone suggested she knew the answer, but Khan replied anyway. “Fate.”
    â€œNo, buddy boy—” Layla sent a glare across the veil. “It all started when I met you.”
    He shook his head. “But our meeting