The Barrier Between (Collector Series # 2) by Stacey Marie Brown Page B

summons.
    “Beer?” Ryker asked.
    I nodded.
    Ryker held up two fingers and motioned to his
bottle.
    I looked forward, not wanting to face him. “I’m a
liability. They hear the rumors, but until they see me they
probably doubt the truth of them.” I picked at a napkin on the bar.
“If more people learn you don’t have your powers, they will come
for the stone. In droves. If for one moment they see me and think
I’m Amara and hesitate, it’s worth it.”
    Ryker grabbed my arm, turning my chair to him. He
reached out, twirling my hair between his fingers. “You did this to
protect me?”
    “Yeah.”
    Ryker’s mouth opened and closed, his fingers trailed
through my hair, his gaze growing so intense I stopped
breathing.
    Tulio set the beers down, the glass bottles clanking.
Ryker and I jerked back, turning our attention to the objects in
front of us. He reached for his beer and I did the same.
    “ Salud .” Ryker tipped his beer bottle to
me.
    I lifted my beer. “ Salud .”
    The clink of our bottles was sharp, echoing, but the
noise of the bar kept it contained to our little bubble. We watched
each other as we each took a swig. My eyes darted away from his
gaze as I placed the bottle back on the napkin. My hands shook as
my fingers played with the edge of the white paper. Relax, Zoey.
We are only having a drink.
    Pushing back my shoulders, I sat straighter in my
seat, holding up my beer. “Here’s to us making it through...
again.” I shook my head, remembering all the crap we’d survived and
escaped the past month. “And to us finding someone to help transfer
your powers back.” I felt no need to keep my voice down. The noise
level of the bar was so high I practically had to yell, the
celebration energy tingling at my skin.
    Ryker tapped the neck of his bottle onto mine. I
downed the rest of my beer. One of his eyebrows hitched up.
    “Come on, Wanderer. Keep up.” I motioned to the
bartender. “I see. Look like a Viking but drink like a pussy.”
    He snorted and downed the rest of his beer.
    The dark-haired, older bartender made his way back to
us. There were at least a hundred people in the small bar, but he
came the moment I signaled.
    “Are you glamouring him?” I asked Ryker. He only
smiled in return.
    “ Dos cervezas más .” I held up two fingers to
Tulio.
    “ Y dos tiros de whisky ,” Ryker told the
barkeep and turned back to face me, a slight smirk on his face.
“Don’t challenge me, human.”
    “Can you really even call me human anymore?”
    “You’re still human. You’re not one of us yet.”
    “Thank God.”
    His foot hooked the rung at the bottom of my barstool
and tugged at it. My arms went flying when I felt my chair go
backward. The instant of fear sent adrenaline into my veins. A gush
of wind slammed into me. I blinked... and I was standing at the
opening of the restroom.
    Oh hell .
    The place was so crowded no one observed my sudden
appearance near the bathrooms—this time. I was going to need to get
more of a handle on my emotions. The jumping was starting to happen
a little too often. Soon someone would notice.
    I pushed through the crowd and made my way back to
Ryker. He sat there sipping his whiskey, looking impervious. My
eyes went to his shoulders, searching for the hidden fury, but he
was relaxed.
    “Now look who’s behind.” He tipped the rest of the
brown liquid down his throat. I slipped back onto my stool. “You
obviously didn’t go far.”
    “The bathroom.”
    He chuckled. “Takes you where you need to go.”
    “You are being awfully calm about this.” I took a sip
of my drink. The smoky aroma reminding me of the night we spent in
the house together in northern Seattle. The night I sewed him up,
and we slept in the same bed. My shift from hate to tolerance had
been slow, but from tolerant to... whatever I was feeling now, was
fast.
    “I’m not.” His white eyes turned to mine; the cold
seriousness ran deep in his black pupils. “And we still