jawbone, traveling behind my eyes. I stumbled back, my ankles knocking into some piping, and I fell on my butt. His tongue darted, venom seeping out of his mouth. “This should be extremely painful.” He snapped his teeth and jumped for me, aiming for my neck.
A whoosh sound disturbed the air, resonating in my ears. Snake-man’s body stilled before crumpling onto the roof, revealing Daniel standing on the building across the narrow alley, his dart gun pointed in my direction.
“About time.” I smiled coyly, trying not to show the relief sliding off my shoulders. I got to my feet.
Daniel tilted his head and shook it slightly. “How many times have I told you not to engage without backup?”
“Today? Or a general roundabout number?” I blotted at the blood pooling on my lip. A strand of my long chestnut brown hair escaped its ponytail and clung to the wet matter.
“Zoey, I am serious.” Daniel holstered his weapon. “You are young and think you’re invincible. We aren’t dealing with normal humans here. They’re fae. They have powers and strengths we don’t have. Some we might not even know about yet. You can’t simply take them on by yourself.”
My eyes rolled as he lectured me. I’d been hearing this type of speech since I began training with him. I wasn’t very good at listening, but I’d gotten much better. I used to be extremely resistant and hot tempered, but those qualities didn’t work in a business where those behaviors could get you killed. In the moment it was hard for me to remember. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“Let’s get him out of here before someone discovers us.” Daniel walked to the ledge of the building where the ladder hung. “I’ll get the van and back it up below you. He should stay unconscious...”
“Yes, Daniel, I know the drill.” I grinned and waved for him to go.
A smile stretched across his handsome, clean-shaven features, his blue eyes catching mine. My heart fluttered in my chest. This man had me so twisted inside I didn’t know which way was up. The fact he was almost twenty years my senior didn’t alter my feelings for him. If anything, it made me like him more. Experienced in life. I usually got along with people older than me.
My life hadn’t been easy. I’d been raised in foster care, growing up tough and fast. My experiences made me relate to people not in my age group. I never dated guys who were my age. They always were five to ten years older.
Daniel didn’t seem to feel the same. From the beginning he shut down any advances I made. He stressed our age difference or commented on my youthful twenty-two years. He could discourage me till he was eighty, but it was too late. I was already in love with him.
I watched his body easily scale down the fire escape and jump to the ground. At the age of forty, he was more fit than most twenty-year-olds I met. With his military background and present training, he cut a nice figure. He was about five-eleven, but his trim muscles made him appear taller. Perfect for me since I was only five-five.
A groan came from near my feet and broke my attention away from Daniel and back to our captive. We referred to them as the collected. For the last three years, I worked for a secret branch of the government, the Department of Molecular Genetics—DMG. I also called it HQ for headquarters.
During my first semester at college, we were given a test in my psychology class. To the teacher and most students, it looked like a quiz on social behaviors and mannerisms. Pictures were flashed on the screen, and we were asked to describe what we saw. I learned later the government was testing us for “the sight” and to see if we were sensitive to the paranormal—humans who could see through the veils of glamour fae put around themselves to blend in.
Seeing creatures was always something I could do. When I was a child, I thought it was normal. It wasn’t until I was seven when I found I was different. People around me never experienced what I saw. I blocked it and turned away when I saw a glow or a creature. I got so good at obstructing my sight I started to think I made it all up—that my imagination, in desperate need to escape my own reality, caused me to see things. With my past, it was