Sunglasses at Night (Claws Clause Book 3)

by Jessica Lynch

  “Yup.”

  “Falchion, huh?”

  She nodded. “That’s what it’s called.”

  “I’ll have to remember that.”

  Because he was going to keep it. Even though he knew he should probably clean it up and ask Diaz to toss it back down to evidence now that he’d used it like he wanted, it didn’t seem right to give it up. Besides, if his old squad hadn’t figured it was missing yet, it probably wasn’t like they’d go looking for it any time soon.

  It was his. From the moment he accidentally triggered the enchantment with the tip of his claw, it belonged to Adam. And now that his hopes of getting the elixir were as dead as Rafe, he might as well continue to use it.

  So long as he used the magic to guide him to exterminate the Paras who didn’t have a shred of humanity in them, maybe Adam could hold onto the last of his.

  Because walking out into the sun? He peeked over at Tabby. Yeah… it just didn’t have the same allure as it used to.

  Tabby nodded to herself, looking around the empty room. “So what now?”

  Adam blinked, then turned so he could meet her curious expression. That… was a good question, actually.

  What now?

  All along, he had convinced himself that getting his revenge on Rafe was his only goal… until, somewhere down the line, he fell in love with a sexy slayer who could kick ass and still never lose her smile.

  Like now. Her cheeks were flushed red, the sweat along her brow and her temples causing a few stray strands of blonde hair to stick to her skin, her dark brown eyes glittering with something he couldn’t quite get a read on… but she was smiling.

  His heart started to pound again. Adam felt the undersides of his hands go slick with sweat. He curled his claws in, not because he was still ashamed of them, but because he couldn’t believe his body’s reaction.

  Facing off against a murderous vamp? No problem. Gazing down at Tabby while she smiled up at him? He was a lost cause.

  What now?

  Ever since he had been turned, Adam had just one focus: revenge. Tabby was only in Grayson because she was on a routine hunt. Tracking down killer Nightwalkers had brought them together, then the elixir, and he might’ve started to think about a future with her after Rafe was dead, but he always knew that Grayson wasn’t her home. Not the way it was his. So long as she had a reason to stay, she was there—but what happened now that her reason had gone up in dust?

  What happened now that his reason for existing as a Nightwalker was over with?

  And that’s when Tabby’s pretty smile quirked up a little higher, turning almost devilish—and incredibly arousing. Though it was probably the most inappropriate time and place possible, Adam’s cock started to harden. He remembered how Tabby told him once that a good fight got her going.

  Hmm…

  She would be leaving soon. No doubt in his mind about that. But maybe he could try to give her a reason to stay…

  His fangs tingled at the idea of biting her, of making her his, of bonding him to her for eternity. He would never—not without her promise or her consent—but, well, he was a man. To love her, to protect her, to fight at her side for as long as she allowed it… Adam would take what he could get.

  So… what now?

  If she was asking him, it was because she didn’t have an idea herself.

  Good.

  He could work with that.

  “Wherever you want to go, Tab. Your place. Mine. Who knows? Maybe we can find that house on the other side of Woodbridge and see if any other shifters want to track us down. So long as we go together, I’m down with wherever.”

  It had been his intent to make her laugh. And, while she chuckled under her breath, she also pulled her phone out. She glanced at the screen.

  Her chuckle died, turning into a soft sigh.

  Adam was immediately on alert. “Something wrong?”

  “Nope. Just making sure it wasn’t dawn yet. You don’t know how lost I got up there. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the sun snuck up on us. It’s not so bad. There should be plenty of time for us to get back to my place if you want. We just have to get past the goons in there.”

  “Goons?”

  “Yeah. Didn’t I mention… the queen”—and he loved the way she made a face when she mentioned Alexis like that—“told them to wait for you.”

  Adam reached out, using the side of his claw to loosen one of the strands of hair curving around the height of her cheek. He tucked it behind her ear, awarding her with one of his rare grins as he took the excuse to touch her.

  “You ready to kick some ass?”

  “I think we have a little more time until dawn. Sure. Why not?”

  He loved that about her, too. She was always so sure to keep an eye on the time. He used to think it was because she never forgot for a second that he was a Nightwalker. Now? He liked to think it was because she had his back.

  It was just another reason to want to keep her around.

  He could hardly believe it himself. Adam went from counting down the days until he could walk out into the sun and forget about what his life had become to having something to live for. Having someone to live with.

  He never wanted to be a Para. Now, with the only elixir anyone knew of spilled and smeared along an old, tile floor, Adam had no choice but to come to grips with it. For as long as he lived, he was a paranormal. A Nightwalker.

  “Sounds good to me,” he murmured. And then, because he had to know, “Does it bother you?”

  “What? All the dust in my hair from the vent? Yeah. I’m gonna need a long shower before we go to bed.” She plucked at his t-shirt, drawing his attention to the spray of Rafe’s blood that covered him. “You, too, champ.”

  She wasn’t wrong, but that wasn’t what he meant.

  “Not that,” he said. “The elixir. She smashed it, Tab. There’s none left. I’m stuck like this.”

  “So?”

  “That doesn’t bother you?”

  She cocked her head, looking at him as if she wasn’t sure he was being serious or not. “Why would it? Adam, I didn’t chop off your head after you bit me. Then I slept with you. That should’ve been a big clue that I don’t give a crap if you’re Para or not. Didn’t I tell you that already?”

  “Well, yeah, but that was when we thought I might be turning back.”

  Tabby patted him on the chest, that same, you stupid idiot, you’re lucky I like you kind of gesture she did so often. “I only went along with it because you wanted it. I don’t care if you’re Para, a human, or a slayer. You’re Adam. I like you just the way you are.”

  Like.

  He could do a lot with like.

  They made it back to Grayson with plenty of time to spare before sunrise. It was easy, since the Nightwalker twins were eerily missing when Adam and Tabby went looking for him.

  Adam thought it was strange, but his slayer just shrugged it off. A fight for another night, she told him. He had to agree.

  They already had plans for that one.

  Tabby had curled up in her seat, humming along softly to the songs playing on the radio. He tried to lower it just the once, giving her the chance to rest and relax before he got her back home and proceeded to keep her up well into the day, but she quirked open an eye and told him to leave the volume where it was.

  So she wasn’t quite sleeping, though she definitely looked comfy and cozy with her eyes mere slits in her face.

  At least, until he turned his car onto her street, that was.

  “Oh, no.”

  Her eyes flew open as she cursed under her breath.

  Adam looked ahead of him. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary—except for maybe the car parked up ahead that he didn’t remember seeing around before. Not that it mattered. This part of Grayson wasn’t as crowded as the downtown area, but seeing an unfamiliar vehicle wasn’t so odd.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked her.

  “Keep driving, keep driving,” Tabby chanted, ducking down in
her seat as if she was hiding. “Go, go, go.”

  Adam didn’t ask twice. If her reaction to seeing a plain, black SUV was to freak out like that, he was going to follow her lead and get the fuck out of there.

  As if the driver of that car had been waiting for them, the second Adam tried to navigate his coupe past the SUV, it jumped out into the middle of the road, cutting him off before turning so that the only way Adam could keep going was by slamming into the SUV’s back doors.

  No way.

  Adam slammed on his brakes while Tabby’s hand flew up to the grab bar.

  As they panted, the doors on both sides of the SUV popped open. The passenger’s side spat out a well-built man in his late twenties, early thirties with dark hair and thick brows narrowed in dislike. The driver was older, at least by another thirty years, and he was so tall and so thin, he looked like he could pass for a skeleton if it weren’t for the thatch of blond hair on his balding head and the tailored suit cut to his lanky frame.

  “Well, Adam…” Tabby reached out, stroking his thigh. “It was fun while it lasted.”

  “What’s going on?”

  She didn’t answer him. Instead, with one last look at him, she opened her door and stepped out onto the street.

  No way in hell was Adam going to let her go alone. He threw open his door, flying around the front of the door so that he could stand at her side. Not in front of her, not behind, but right by her.

  The younger man huffed, throwing daggers at Adam with his gaze.

  The older man pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “Ah, Tabitha. I had hoped that my intel was wrong. A Nightwalker. Really?”

  “What’s the problem with being a Nightwalker,” Adam demanded. The irony was not lost on him that, after months of wishing he could go back to being human, as soon as he accepted he couldn’t was when he finally stood up for his new race.

  Ah, well.

  The man looked at Adam like he was the dirt beneath his expensive, shiny shoes. “My niece was sent here to do a job, young man. Did she tell you that, or was that one of our family’s secrets that she actually managed to keep?”

  “Boone, that’s not fair—”

  Adam moved in front of Tabby, using his body as a shield between her and the two men. He stored the word niece in the back of his mind to wrap around later. For now, it was all about standing up for Tabby.

  “I don’t like your tone, tough guy. What’s the deal? She came to clear up the Nightwalker problem in town. Tabby didn’t tell me shit. I guessed.”

  That was true. In Woodbridge, while they were passing time just talking and getting to know each other, he asked her what slayer was doing in Grayson; after Diaz planted the worries in his head, he had too.

  When she tried to change the subject like she often did, he figured she was there to do exactly what hew as doing: take out man-eaters and dangerous vamps like Rafe Silverson.

  He was right.

  Jutting out his chin, he said, “It’s not her fault I used to be a cop. I can spot a lie a mile off, just like I can spot an asshole. Back off.”

  Boone’s thin face wore an unreadable expression as he eyeballed Tabby. “You’re going to let this corpse talk to me like that?”

  To their surprise, Tabby actually laughed. “Um, have you met Adam Wright yet? Do you think I can stop him?”

  If he didn’t feel like his back was up against the wall all of a sudden, Adam would’ve barked out his own laugh at that. Did Tabby really feel that way? All along, she was the one he couldn’t dare try to control and she thought the same thing about him?

  Ha.

  Boone shook his head. “I’d hoped you would have figured this”—he said this with a wrinkle to his long, narrow nose as he gestured at Adam—“out by now. Coming here was a last resort, Tabitha, but you’ve left me no choice. It’s time.”

  Her humor died. Adam could sense it like a balloon losing all of its air as she said sharply, “No.”

  “It’s not just about ending the hunt anymore. I warned you not to get involved. There are consequences, Tabitha. There are rules.”

  “The code,” Adam spat out through gritted teeth. A shiver jolted down his spine.

  Though he knew it was probably a stupid thing to do, he took his glare off of the men, focusing on Tabby. He never would’ve expected it… but maybe that was the point.

  “Diaz told me about the Slayer’s Code… I didn’t think… did you set me up?” He heard a snort come from one of the other slayers. He ignored it. “Tab?”

  A stray hunk of blonde hair had fallen free from her ponytail. As she nibbled on her bottom lip, she dipped her head. The hair fell in front of her right eye. Adam had to curl his hands into fists to keep from brushing it back or gripping her chin to tilt her head up again to meet his gaze.

  When Tabby stayed quiet, Adam tightened his fists. The point of his claws bit into his palms, slicing right through the calloused skin. He scented blood—his blood—and growled softly.

  That did it.

  Her head jerked up. “Don’t growl at me. I’m trying to think.”

  “Think?” echoed Adam. “About what?”

  “What’s the matter?” called out the younger slayer. “Did you think she cared about you, Nightwalker? That she wasn’t luring you close so it’d be easier to swing her piece?”

  Her dark eyes skittered across the road. “Eddie,” she warned.

  Eddie. Adam didn’t know the guy, but he hated him anyway.

  “What? Boone’s right. You know he is. I told you the other day that covering up for a Nightwalker wasn’t worth it. And, look. He’s still one of them. The elixir didn’t work, Tabby. You know what that means.”

  “What are you talking about?” Adam growled. Couldn’t help it. “She did what she was supposed to. You sent her to Grayson to clean up the Nightwalkers, right? She did that. I saw her take out at least half a nest over the last few weeks all by herself, and now the reigning king is dead.”

  The other man—Eddie—scoffed. “Come on. You think that’s what we mean? That that was what she was doing here? Tab was here to do a job alright. She’s got a target and, until she eliminates it, she’s failed in the hunt. Because, you see, she hasn’t quite pulled it off yet.”

  “Rafe Silverson is dead—”

  “Rafe Silverson wasn’t the target,” mumbled Tabby. “Not mine. He was yours, Adam. I just helped you get to him.”

  Then if it wasn’t Rafe...

  “Come on, corpse,” the younger man taunted. “You can’t be as stupid as you look.”

  “Me.” The realization slammed into him like a ton of bricks. “You’re supposed to kill me.”

  24

  Instead of answering him, she turned toward the older man. “He’s not a threat. Boone, you’ve got to listen to me. Slayers eliminate threats. They kill the killers.”

  “My dear niece, can you tell me that he’s not a killer and mean it?”

  “If he’s a killer, then so am I. He has a slayer’s falchion, Boone. He only hunts those who would target humans and weaker Paras. So he has fangs? He’s as much a slayer as we are.”

  “No. He’s not.” The words were solemn. Final. Without tearing his dark stare away from Tabby, he called out a name. “Daniels.” When the younger slayer jumped to attention, he said, “You know what to do.”

  Eddie Daniels might know, but hell if Adam did. Didn’t mean he liked the sound of that. There was no time to reach for his own weapon before Eddie drew his blade, stalking toward him with the intent to kill.

  Adam flexed his hands, readying his claws. His fangs were already extended as far as they could go.

  And that’s when Tabby jumped in front of him, intercepting the other slayer. As fast as ever, she yanked her dagger from its sheath, gripping the hilt as if she had every intention of using the weapon if Eddie didn’t stop.

  Eddie paused for a heartbeat before taking another step closer. He didn’t lower his weapon even a little. “You know the code,
Tabby. I’m sorry, but this has to happen.”

  “Eddie, you can’t!”

  “He’s a corpse. He’ll turn on you.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “He won’t.”

  “Yes, I do,” she snapped. “He loves me.”

  “You’ll thank me for this, Tab. Now back down.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Tab—”

  “I love him!”

  That stopped Eddie. He actually froze mid-step, his boot landing with a thump, an expression of dismay mixed with horror twisting his features. “You what? But he’s a Nightwalker.”

  “No,” argued his slayer. “He’s Adam. My Adam… who just so happens to be a Nightwalker. Just like you’re an asshole, Eddie. Now go away.”

  That broke the man out of his stupor. Firming his resolve, he lifted his sword up.

  “I won’t let you kill him,” Tabby said.

  Eddie glanced over at Boone. When the older man nodded, he gave his head a sorry shake. “Then you’ll have to stop me.”

  “With pleasure.”

  Adam thought that walking away from Evangeline was the hardest thing he’d ever done. Then, when he let Rafe escape, he thought that was the hardest thing.

  Bullshit.

  Standing back as Tabby slid her cinquedea from its sheath, remaining frozen in place as she faced off against the slayer prick… that was the hardest thing. It took every bit of grit and will he had to stay where he was instead of rushing forward and taking out the threat to his Tabby.

  Especially with her honest declaration echoing in his stunned brain.

  I love him… I love him… Ilovehim—

  She never told him that before. She slept with him and she fed him and she worked with him, and while Adam realized the depth of his feelings for her ages ago, he was content to take whatever Tabby would give him without hoping he’d get a single scrap more.

  But she loved him. She was fighting for him. And if it was any other woman but his slayer, Adam would’ve taken her place in the fray.