Free Warrior's Angel (The Lost Angels Book 4) by Heather Killough-Walden Page A

took her closer to her hotel. Very, very smooth.
    Lambent was an enigma. Rhiannon had dealt with enough non-human people over the years to recognize little signs or clues to an individual’s otherworldliness. Was he more than he pretended to be? The man hadn’t aged a day since he’d taken to the public eye. Of course, with as much money as he possessed, there were plastic surgeons who could see to that.
    But he didn’t have the aura of someone who’d been “messed” with cosmetically. No, it wouldn’t surprise her if Lambent was something more than human. He was too handsome, almost unnaturally successful, his reach was scary long, and the way his eyes made her feel….
    “He can’t be a vampire,” she whispered to herself, and then realized she’d spoken out loud again. Fortunately, she’d done so quietly enough that Frank hadn’t heard her this time.
    Lambent couldn’t have been a vampire. He was seen out and about during the day, and from what she’d learned through her dealings with them, va mpires could not take the sun at all. Besides, she’d only met a few vampires old enough to be able to control the length of their teeth enough to make the fangs disappear, and vampires that old were very, very rare.
    That meant the stranger in black was in the clear, too. When he’d smiled at her, there had been no hint of fang. Thinking back on it now, she remembered that she’d half expected to see them. It would have explained a lot.
    Rhiannon sighed and rested her head against the leather back of the seat. The two men would remain a mystery for now.
    An odd thing, though, was that no one had mentioned anything to her about the man in black. No one had seen her dancing with him, and in fact, Mr. Verdigri had told her he hadn’t known she was dancing at all. It was as if she’d gone out there with one man and then vanished for several minutes.
    One down….
    Rhiannon experienced a sudden shiver as a crystal-clear image of the stranger’s eyes appeared in her mind and his voice echoed through the halls of her brain. He’d said “One down,” as if referring to the weaknesses he’d promised to uncover.
    But what had he been referring to? She hadn’t done or said anything.
    Rhiannon took a deep breath. Assuming the man was a creature who could read her mind, the only thing she’d been thinking about was him. Except when the lightning struck and she’d forced herself out of her seduction-induced stupor because she was worried about people getting hurt.
    Oh my God.
    That was it. Her number one weakness – was her fear that others would suffer, and her hatred of the fact that they did.
    He wouldn’t have had to read her mind to figure that out. She’d pulled away from him when chaos ensued. She’d been lost in him until that moment. Up until then, he’d been in complete control. It was her fear for the people in the cathedral that finally gave her the will to break away.
    In that sense, it was not only her greatest weakness – but perhaps her greatest strength.
    Rhiannon’s gaze became distant. The stranger had gotten under her skin, to say the least. She rubbed her face, looked out the window, and got lost in the lights and people going by. Several minutes later, her driver was pulling up to the red carpet of her hotel, and the footman was opening her door. She bid Frank goodnight, tipped the footman, and headed inside to her room.
    The “Do Not Disturb” sign was still dangling from her door knob. She pushed it aside, slid the key into the door, waited for the red light to turn to green, and stepped into the clean, cool interior of her suite. As always, she’d left the lights on to avoid any uninvited surprises.
    But this time, it hadn’t done any good.
    Rhiannon stood in the entryway to the room and let the doo r loudly swing shut behind her. She couldn’t move. She was frozen to the spot – staring at the object at the center of the suite’s living room.
    It was a treasure chest. An honest to