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Chapter 1

DOUBLE, DOUBLE TOIL AND TROUBLE; FIRE BURN, AND cauldron bubble The Macbeth quote fit to a fucking T as Ruby stared through the ten-power Nightforce scope of the McMillan 50-caliberher way Cole "Chicks Dig It" theonskin boots How the hell had Derek Stormwind found her?

Okay, scratch that She’d always known he’d find her She’d just nurtured an unrealistic hope that he would be like most men and, once he realized she didn’t want to be found and that she’dher trail a real pain in the ass, he’d sniff out easier prey But Derek Stormas definitely not like most men Which hy she’d rather be stuck up the backside of one of Arteht than face the next fewthe rifle down on the counter, she uncapped a mini-sized vodka bottle and dashed the contents into her open Dr Pepper can, then brought the soda to her lips for a healthy swig Too healthy She choked, hacking over the part of it that had gone down the wrong tube Meanwhile, he was crossing the street, seconds away fro her store Unless she was mistaken and he was in town for a French manicure from the salon next door

Hell, she needed an extra lance down at her feet, she wheezed out the command "Theo Kill"

The elderly mastiff erupted fro muscle and sheer bulk that would have knocked her off her feet, if she wasn’t practiced at flattening herself against the aive hih the door, the dog was clattering across the floor like an approaching herd ofand so thunder A froth of drool hit the front display case, spattering the glass and obscuring the array of handguns there Ruby stuck the soda back under the counter and pummeled her chest with a decisive fist at the saht onto his hind legs and hit Derek’s chest with both front paws

"You great big baby" Derek tried to fend off a tongue that Ruby kneas like a lukewaruard, buddy"

He should look ridiculous, struggling with the dog, but of course he didn’t He’d braced all that well-sculpted ainst canine attack, which just emphasized the fit of his T-shirt over his broad shoulders The way his thighs and ass flexed in his worn jeans basically screamed sex-in- faded-deni the brown hair teasing at his collar, but which he usually kept trimmed short He’d not yet looked her way, but she knehat kind of impact those eyes had when they turned toward a ferin could disarm a woman at twenty paces But every time Ruby looked into those dark blue eyes, the country-boy theued quite decisively into the Khazad-du She could see Gandalf standing before the Balrog, his voice thundering like the word of God

You shall not pass

Her gaze dropped Anyone else would think the scuffed-up dragonskin boots were soator skin He had a healthy reverence and respect for dragonkind, particularly the non-shifters However, when she’d pressed him for an explanation of those boots, he’d siht a dangerous glint in his eye, the honor-bound sorcerer crossed with the gunslinger who’d be pushed only so far, so between Merlin and Wyatt Earp That observation had earned her a flash of that devastating grin

He was one of the most powerful sorcerers she’d ever known, directly or by reputation He flew so far under the radar that to most he was a myth, or a scary bedtis he conjured frohtood dreams she had anymore were about him Which just pissed her off If she could have banished his, things she couldn’t afford to lose, she would have That hat she told herself

Pull it together, Ruby

When he finallyback down to all four feet, which put his gigantic head at the height of Derek’s waist, she had her hip propped against the shelf behind the cash register and was eyeing theust in her eyes "I’ him in for a Chihuahua The littler they are, the nastier they are"

"Make sure it’s a felanced up at the e, safety courses and permits? Pretty radical shift froed "I got tired of the Wiccan wannabes, who think granola, hugs and ten-sticks-for-a-dollar incense will change the world"

"And this works better?" He eyed the sniper rifle under her hand

"Soh; sometimes it doesn’t But superior firepower never lets you down"

"No arguun otten stronger"

And darker She could tell he thought it, but, points for him, he didn’t say it "Told you I didn’t want to be found" She tried to y around her so it was more candy and flowers, less the ominous stillness and yellow jaundice of a pre-tornado sky On second thought, since he knew her prickly nature, candy and flowers ht trip all his alarrade to full-body-cavity search

Okay, that was entirely the wrong thought to have