Dark Cravings [Claiming Series, #2]

- 2 -

And the minute she stepped inside she felt it. Only now it was stronger than the sense of being watched. It was as if something dark loomed over her, threatening her. "Oh, God," she whispered.

"Stay here," Soren said. "Keep the door open." He slipped past her into her condo.

As if she could have moved anyway. The sense of a presence overwhelmed her. The air thickened with menace, and it was stronger than she'd ever felt it before. She would not, could not, walk farther inside.

She waited with a hammering heart, straining to hear, but hearing nothing. Then, almost too quickly to be believed, Soren reappeared.

"Nothing?" she asked, knowing damn well it was something.

"I wouldn't say that." HE pulled his cell phone from a belt clip and pressed a button. "Asher? That thing? It's been here. Recently. Yes, I can smell it."

"What thing?" Beth asked, barely able to whisper the words because her heart was pounding so hard she couldn't seem to get enough air.

Soren didn't answer her. "Ok," he said, then put away his phone. When he did, he looked at her.

"Can you handle a few minutes more?"

"Why?"

"Because I want to search your apartment."

A shudder ripped through her. "For what? You'd have seen anyone who was there."

"I need to look for some other stuff. And that brings me to your options."

"What options? I don't have any." Some part of her hated the weakness and fear she heard in her own voice.

"You can stay at a hotel tonight, or you can stay at my place. I have a decent couch you can use. But I have to warn you, if you stay with me."

"Warn me about what?" She was having trouble absorbing all this. What had he sensed? She needed answers. Her brain was still stumbling over the fact that he had smelled something, something he referred to as that thing. How could she decide what she could do tonight when she had no idea what she faced?

"I'm...ill," he said. "My skin reacts badly to bright light. I won't bore you with the medical study, but suffice it to say that at dawn I lock myself in my bedroom and I don't come out again until dusk. I can't. so if you stay with me, I can offer protection only for a few hours. After that, you can stay as long as you like but don't come back here."

She nodded slowly, feeling punched, her thoughts scrambling. She didn't want to accept favors from Soren Larsen—or anyone for that matter—but she couldn't bear the thought of being alone given what she was feeling right now. What is this thing, whatever it was, could follow her?

Her mind stuttered to a halt, then focused on the one certainty in her life, the one thing she loved beyond all else. Her thoughts seized on it as an anchor, stilling. "Can I at least have my laptop? So I can work?"

"I'll get it. Anything else?

She thought of nightclothes, a change of clothing. Did she want him pawing through her things? But did she want to be stuck in what she was wearing forever? "I need to come in. I need a change of clothes." She hated that she could hear fear and reluctance in her own voice. This was her own condo, for Pete's sake. She couldn't even begin to sort through the welter of emotions that reminder caused her. Afraid to go into her own home? Afraid to spend just a few minutes packing? But her feet felt glued to the floor.

He hesitated. "No," he said finally. "No. I'll get them. Trust me, I was married once, and had daughters, and I'll treat your things with respect. And I won't see anything I haven't seen before."