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Taking her chances, she gripped the bars and pulled hard. The cage was heavy, but without too much trouble—and without the bird making a move for her fingers—she dragged it free of the crate. With every step around the cage, her curiosity grew, her eyes never straying from the creature that turned its head to follow her.

Was this some late April Fool’s present? Seeing as Kyle had once sent her a snake as a joke, she wouldn’t put it past him. He could be sitting in some South American bar right now, laughing his ass off as he pictured her reaction to his gift.

Inside the cage the eagle—which was her best guess—inched down the horizontal bar, its talons curling tighter. She wouldn’t have thought birds this large existed anymore. Obviously rare. Which made it all the more strange Kyle sent it to her in the first place.

The creature’s golden eyes surveyed her carefully, as though it sized her up the same way she assessed a potential threat.

“You’re certainly beautiful, aren’t you?” Eve whispered.

The eagle squawked at her.

Still puzzled, Eve moved until she was just shy of touching the bars. She could quickly back away if need be, but she couldn’t stop from getting as close a look at the large bird as she could.

How long had it been in transport? Had anyone fed it? A few small skeletons littered the cage floor, but told her nothing about how old they might be. She didn’t want to give much thought to what a bird this size would eat. Somehow she doubted field mice would come close to putting a dent in this creature’s appetite.

At the thought of food, her own hunger pulsed fiercely inside her. First, she’d try to get in touch with Kyle then she could hunt. There was a blood supply here, but she preferred to keep that for the rare nights she couldn’t tear herself away from her latest book.

With one more curious look at the eagle, she turned towards the kitchen. Kyle might not be anywhere near a tower capable of carrying a cell call, but she had to try. As she punched in the numbers on her cordless phone, she found herself moving back to the foyer.

The eagle followed her movements, but didn’t appear nervous. Maybe he was used to seeing people.

As expected Kyle didn’t pick up. Eve gave the feathered animal another once-over, still unable to figure out what Kyle had been thinking, and then crossed to the front door. Once she took care of the thunderous need surfacing within her, she’d decide what to do about the eagle.

Logan watched the woman dim the lights before letting herself out the front door. The sound of it closing echoed in the front hall.

Who was she? She had looked surprised to see the contents of the crate he’d been shipped in. Did she know the man who had found him in the rotting hole Dominic and the rest of his clan had banished him to more than fifty years ago?

Overhearing the present date after he was found a few days ago shocked him. At the beginning of his imprisonment he kept track of the days, but eventually that became harder to handle than simply not knowing.

An invisible fist clawed his insides at the thought of how they had locked him away because of a prophecy, one he was more certain than ever involved Dominic, not Logan. But upon discovering the contents of the encrypted scroll, Dominic had no doubt feared he himself would be banished and had taken steps to ensure that didn’t happen.

And so Logan spent the last half a century buried in some abandoned temple in South America, barely surviving on the occasional creature unfortunate enough to get within striking distance. Immortal or not, he still needed to feed to live and only in eagle form could he manage that. He was far stronger that the average mortal but he’d been unable to free himself from the cage with only his hands.

But then someone had stumbled along and found the temple. Logan hadn’t cared who the man was that arranged to have him shipped back to the U.S. He had bided his time, waiting for the most opportune moment to try to get free of the cage. One way or another he’d find a way out, familiarize himself with the changes fifty years had brought about, and then he would track down his brother.

Logan wasn’t sure how much time had passed before the front door opened and the woman again stood in front of his prison, studying him. The smell of blood teased his senses and he shifted in place, the animal within reacting to the scent. He looked her over, but saw no sign of injury.

Like before, Logan found his attention drawn to her extraordinary blue eyes.

She wasn’t mortal.

The realization spun through him, unexpected, but intriguing. He had wondered when she opened the crate with far more ease and speed than he would have expected. Still, it left him speculating on whether or not her immortality had anything to do with how he wound up with her.

Logan tilted his head to the side, watching the woman brush a few red curls that fell from their clip over her shoulder. He was glad to be in eagle form. As a man the sight of her, the soft, warm scent that was distinctly feminine, would have been damn painful to bear after being far from the opposite sex for so long.

The woman inched closer. She tried not to show she feared him. Not that he blamed her. His talons could easily tear through her flesh.

Her eyes widened when he hopped off the bar and moved towards the bars. She stayed rooted in place, her lush lips parted, her expression curious before a frown brought two sculpted brows together.

What he wouldn’t give to know what was going through her head.