Shadowborn by Jocelyn Adams Read Free Book Online

charmed by a good looking man.
    A twinge caught me low in my belly. I rubbed it, brows knitting together. Why did Nix’s flirting with that woman bother me so much? It wasn’t as if I owned him. He was my guard and nothing more. A small voice in my head shouted liar, liar!
    He leaned his elbows on the tall desk and spoke so low his words didn’t reach my ears. The woman laughed through pink glossed lips, a sound like a peal of bells on a crisp Sunday morning. She stood and leaned closer to him, the tops of her ample bosom showing through her gaping blouse.
    “Lila?” Gallagher stepped in front of me.
    “What?” The word snapped like a whip as I tried to lean around him to keep my eye on the nurse, but his palm on my shoulder stopped me.
    “Look at your skin.”
    I raised my hands to find the blue tinge had returned. My wide eyes fixed on Gallagher’s. “Why is this happening? I feel …” How did I feel? He’d told me to be mindful of my emotions, but whatever gripped me was something new.
    “Are you jealous because Nix is talking to the nurse?”
    My lips curved downward. “No.” I turned to inspect a weird painting on the wall.
    “Lila.” His tone warned me.
    I snapped my head around, glared at him and spoke through clenched teeth. “Nix can flirt with every hot chick in the whole damn country, and it wouldn’t bother me a bit.”
    James and Bethany came through the main doors and strode toward us, stealing away whatever admonishment Gallagher was about to unleash from his open mouth.
    “Sorry we’re late.” James’s gaze went to my arms; his eyebrow quirked up. “Wow. Why so blue?”
    “Hardy-har-har, Mr. Funnyman.” I rolled my eyes. After a few seconds, my glamour returned. “Can we get on with this?” I sped to the elevator without letting my glare stray back to Nix and the hussy nurse.
    “Actually, they’re on the first floor, Ms. Gray.” Bethany came up beside me with questioning eyes, looking me over the way a psychiatrist would a new patient.
    I rolled my head until my neck gave a satisfying crack. “Lead on, then, Beth.”
    “It’s Lieutenant Ross.” Her ramrod straight posture and the stare were perfect. Did she practice that in the mirror every night? How did she manage to speak with her upper lip curled like that? A snort burst out of me. That earned me a full out scowl which induced more laughter.
    “This way, folks.” James pulled open a door beside the nurse’s desk and propped it with his foot. Although his perpetual smile remained, his eyes conveyed menace. “Is there a problem here, Lieutenant?”
    Bethany tore her stinging stare from me and clicked her heels along the tile toward her boss. “No, Sir.”
    I lingered behind the group, gave in and glanced over my shoulder at Nix. When he trotted up beside me, his pale skin flushed pink, I chastised myself for letting him know I’d been looking for him. Why was he blushing? From the jog, or from his little charm session with Nurse Big Tits? A growl burned in my throat. I don’t care.
    “Lila?” He cleared his throat and half jogged to keep pace with my hurried steps. “What was that all about?”
    “Don’t know.” I kept going, confused by the nasty squirming in my guts. I am not jealous. I’m not.
    “Li?”
    I stopped and jabbed a finger at him. “It was nothing, all right?”
    “Are you angry with me?”
    The strain and fear in his voice sent twinges of discomfort into my midsection. I let out a long-suffering sigh and scrubbed my forehead. “No, I’m not angry with you.”
    Nix’s brow creased. His hand slid down my arm.
    I shrugged him off and continued on. “Don’t touch me.”
    Cas stood outside a door farther down the hallway, in a guard stance—feet wide, hands clasped behind his back. Although his head dipped forward, roaming eyes still fixed on my approach from beneath the brim of his cap.
    Without stopping to chat, I entered the white room and cringed at the stale scent of antiseptic and