The morning began surprisingly quietly. The city was only just stretching in the gray mist of dawn, but on the sixteenth floor of Virexon Technologies, the lights were already on.
Elara sat at her workstation in the corner, her back to the floor-to-ceiling windows, beyond which the steel-gray horizon of the city watched her every move.
Three open case files, a cup of coffee, and a tablet waited on her desk, but Elara's hands kept pausing, her fingers hovering above the screen. Her body was working, but her mind wasn't following.
Images from the night before kept returning:
Dareth's arms around her. The blood. The sudden desire. The bond pulsing through her body-still buzzing beneath her skin.
And how he had said it: little lily.
As if the word itself carried magic, recognizing someth
