He looked up at the sky. Dragos was the only person she had ever met who could stare directly at the sun. “There’s something here,” he said finally. “It’s a feeling akin to a ley line or the kind of energy vortex you would find in Sedona. It’s what attracted me to this spot in the first place—that, and the way the concert hall is positioned so that it should have some of the best views of the city and the harbor.”

“But none of that should cause a problem with construction, right?” she said.

“Right. If we were on Earth, we could utilize technology to get some imaging of what might be going on deep underground, further down than we’ve gone to build the foundations here. There’s something called an advanced ground penetrating radar system—GPR—that archaeologists have used to map out an entire buried Roman city in Italy without needing to excavate. I’d love to use that here.”

She loved it when he talked geek, even if she tuned it out half the time. “You’re sexy,” she told him.

A masculine grin creased his face, even as he asked, “Does that add anything to this conversation?”

Lifting one shoulder, she muttered, “It adds to my conversation.”

The sexual awareness in his gaze deepened. As he stepped closer, she knew she was about to be kissed. Yippee ki-yay.

Something brushed past her.

The hairs on the back of her neck rose. She spun, staring, eyes opened wide. There was nothing… There was….

There was the faintest, transparent outline of a tall figure walking past. She received a fleeting impression of flowing grace, an exquisite, inhuman face that turned to look at her, a grand curving shape that trailed behind, and radiant eyes.

“Did you see that?”

With the flex of one muscled arm, Dragos unsheathed his sword. “No. What is it?”

The frame of the concert hall listed. With a great yawning noise, it collapsed.

The figure had disappeared. She stared open mouthed at the rubble, then at Dragos. “It was magnificent.”

Gripping his sword as if he wanted to cleave something in two, he snarled between his teeth, “What was it?”

He was the perfect killing machine. There was nothing more barbaric or splendid than he was when he got ready to do battle, but he had nothing to hit and no one to fight. She shook her head. “You might as well put your sword away, because it’s gone.”

Scowling, he snapped his sword back into its sheath. “Describe it.”