Edge of Moonlight by Stephanie Julian Page A

You’re Evie, right? John told me you and he lived together.”
    “And you are?”
    Kaine didn’t blame Evie for the suspicion in her tone. The woman had been kidnapped and subjected to testing for something she would never understand. While the streghe had taken all of John’s and Evie’s memories of the Etruscans, they had left the siblings with everything else that had happened to them.
    Of course the woman would be frightened to find someone she didn’t know in their apartment.
    “I’m Kaine. Your brother and I, ah, met at the bar down the street tonight. We came back here for, ah, drinks.”
    Yeah, right. Why the hell didn’t you just say you came back here to bang his brains out?
    Evie’s eyebrows lifted as the realization of what Kaine wasn’t saying filled her expression. “And where’s John?”
    Kaine felt an actual blush paint her cheeks, though not from embarrassment.
    Images from their time together ran through her head. “He’s in bed. Asleep. I need to get up for…work tomorrow so I need to go. Now. Yeah, I can’t stay.” Blessed Uni, could this get any worse? She needed to leave. Right now, before she said something incredibly stupid.
    “Uh huh,” Evie said as she finally moved into the room, though she stayed near the door she hadn’t closed. “So you’re leaving?”
    “Yes.” Kaine nodded, trying to contain the gamut of emotions threatening to swamp her as she pulled her hoodie over her head. “I’m going right now. Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
    “Do I know you?” Evie asked. “Have we met?”
    Kaine tried not to let the shock of Evie’s questions show on her face even as adrenaline raced through her system at the scent of magic coming from the other woman.
    What the hell was going on?
    The streghe had supposedly erased all traces of magic from Evie after she’d been infected by the woman who’d kidnapped her. Using a mishmash of spells from all sorts of origins including Etruscan, Egyptian, Celtic and Norse, the woman had given Evie the ability to call power, much like the Etruscans did. But whatever had been done to her, it’d nearly destroyed her.
    Evie had had no control over the power. She’d been dangerous, to herself and others. If the streghe hadn’t been able to scrub it from her system, they never would have released her. She would’ve been unstable and dangerous. A time bomb waiting for a trigger to set it off.
    So why the hell did she still smell like magic?
    With as much calm as she could pull together, Kaine slowly approached Evie. She kept her expression friendly and a little abashed. As if she were embarrassed at being caught sneaking out of John’s bed.
    Evie watched her as warily as a cat being stalked by a larger predator, her hands curling into fists at her sides, ready to defend herself if necessary.
    When she was only a few feet from the door and Evie, Kaine smiled. “Sorry, I don’t think we’ve ever met.”
    Nodding slowly, her gaze still locked on Kaine’s, Evie took a deep breath. Then another. And another.
    Kaine’s gaze narrowed. “Hey, are you okay?”
    She automatically reached out to touch Evie, to offer her some comfort but Evie pulled away as if Kaine had drawn a knife.
    “I’m fine. Just a long night at work. I don’t mean to be rude but I’m really tired, so if you could just…”
    Leave.
    But Kaine couldn’t.
    The scent of magic continued to intensify around Evie. Kaine felt Evie drawing it to her, felt the other woman pull on the power from the ley line in the earth below the city.
    And from the look on her face, Evie didn’t have a clue what she was doing. Only that she felt something happening and it scared the hell out of her.
    “Evie, you look really tired. Why don’t you go sit down? Can I get you a glass of water?”
    “No, please, I just need you to leave. I need…”
    The look of fear on Evie’s face made Kaine’s stomach clench. Evie began to back away, her eyes widening as she stared at