Hood's Obsession by Marie Hall

they hurt you?” he asked again, snapping her from her heat-induced trance.
    “No,” she whispered softly, more grateful to see him than she cared to admit, and crawled toward him, snatching the necklace off of Karis.
    “Hurt our sister and we will kill you,” Rayale said menacingly.
    “Shoot that flaming arrow at me—it cannot harm me,” he said as though taunting, turning his face toward Ying. “I was born of fire, I cannot die of it.”
    Moving her shot down an inch so that it now rested on Lilith instead, Ying smiled. “I’ve got no beef with you, demon. Give us the wolf and you can go.”
    Lilith was literally outgunned and out-magicked. It’d taken a pack of ten, her, and her brothers along with a few cousins to get the women out of their woods, spreading the word to kill them on sight should they ever attempt to enter their glen again.
    Karis glared at Lilith with fury in her brown eyes, but she didn’t move an inch.
    Lilith had to admit to being a tiny bit awed by Giles. Here was a creature more fearsome than any she’d seen before, and he wasn’t doing much other than sitting on Karis.
    Rayale inhaled, lifting the flute to her mouth.
    “Breathe on that thing and I will possess your soul.” Giles held out a hand that now glowed with an orange, hazy hue.
    Hands trembling just slightly, Rayale lowered the flute.
    Ying pulled the arrow back tighter.
    “I don’t think you’re listening to me,” Giles murmured, “so let me make myself perfectly clear. Any of you kill her—in fact, if any of you lay another hand upon her—I will rip your hearts out and eat them for supper.”
    His body was tense, his words unwavering, and he was both terrifying and unbelievably sexy in that moment.
    Confused by her unexpected turn of emotions, Lilith turned her face to the side and spotted her red cloak lying not ten yards away. Fisting her mother’s pendant tight, beyond grateful to have it back, she could almost sympathize with Rayale’s desire to get hers back.
    Rayale shrugged. “All we want is our charm back.”
    “What is it?” Giles asked. “Why does it matter?”
    She lowered her gaze to the ground. Ying was the one to speak up.
    “Because it holds a sliver of our souls. Without it we are not whole.”
    He looked at Lilith. “Do you know where it’s at?”
    She shook her head. “I swear that I don’t. But…” She glanced at the women, now fully able to comprehend why they’d been willing to step into a den of wolves to get it back. “But maybe I could help you get it back. For a price.”
    Rayale hissed. “You’re as devilish as your brother. You can rot in Hell with your devil.”
    Giles narrowed his eyes in Lilith’s direction, and there was a question burning inside them. She gave him a tiny nod, hoping he understood that she wanted him to go along with her.
    As much as she wasn’t the world’s biggest fan of this trio, they were powerful. She and Giles were headed into the heart of darkness, any advantage they could gain she would take.
    Notching her chin high, she shrugged. “You want your souls back, I will get it back for you. But there’s a price to be paid. Nothing in life is free, ladies, not even this.”
    Growling, Ying finally put her bow away. The flaming arrow disappeared the instant she placed it on her back. “Let Karis up, we have to convene.”
    Slowly Giles got off her, keeping his gaze locked with hers as she wiggled her way off the ground. Snatching up her sword that’d fallen when he’d tackled her, she turned on her heel and marched over to the others. They all three bowed their heads and began whispering.
    “What are you doing?” Giles leaned in and asked close to her ear.
    The scent of his flesh, the warmth of his breath playing along the shell of her ear, it broke Lilith out in a wash of goosebumps. Swallowing hard, she turned to him. Her lips coming dangerously close to his own.
    But Giles didn’t back up.
    It would take nothing for her to lean in and