The woman was already asleep.
He let himself look his fill. Her light hair splayed out in every direction like sunshine, a perfect backdrop for her pale skin and firm body. Her breasts were small, with light pink nipples that matched her lips. He tried not to wish for things that could never be. Even now, after a truly spectacular time with her, his body ached. His hip hurt like he’d been burned, and his head was starting to pound.
He lifted her easily off the bed and pulled back the covers, setting her inside as gently as possible. Then he slid in beside her, turning to spoon his body around her. For as long as he was able, he’d protect her. Then he’d come up with a plan for when he was gone, which was going to be soon.
It already felt like he had a fever.
Chapter 7
God, she was hot. Burning hot. Tabi opened her eyes, blinking several times as memories rushed in. “Evan?” she whispered, turning to where the heat emanated from.
He lay on his stomach with the covers pushed down to the dip of his waist. Sweat dotted his entire back, which was flushed a deep red. The muscles bunched and tightened as she watched.
“Evan?” she repeated, rolling to place her hand between his shoulder blades. “Ouch.” She jerked back, her palm slightly burned. Awareness swept through her, and she sat up, poking his sweating shoulder. “You have a fever. A way too high fever.” When he didn’t move, she prodded harder. “Wake up, Evan.”
His face was turned away from her, so she scrambled over him, standing by the side of the bed and leaning down. More sweat rolled down his ruddy face, and his hair was sopping wet. She smoothed strands away from his forehead. “Please wake up.” Then she leaned down and shut her eyes to listen.
He was breathing, but it was labored.
Oh, this was so bad. Had she been too late to save him? Still naked, she ran to the guest room and yanked her phone from her purse, dialing quickly.
“What?” Raine growled into the phone. “It’s too early to call, demon.”
“Who are you calling a demon? That just isn’t nice,” a sleepy female voice muttered. A different voice than from the one the other day.
Tabi’s legs trembled. “I need help, Raine. I might’ve goofed up. Or maybe it’s the illness. I don’t know.” Her voice rose as panic tried to take her.
“Okay. Slow down. Where are you?” Covers rustled softly as the vampire obviously got out of bed.
She quickly rattled off the address. “Come as soon as you can.” She ended the call and ran back into Evan’s bedroom, stopping short as a wave of power hit her. Whoa. What was that? Her hands shook, but she quickly put on her clothes from the day before. “Evan?”
He still didn’t move.
All right. That fever couldn’t be good for him. She hurried into the master bathroom and doused several towels in cold water, returning to gently place them on his back and behind his neck. Then she winced as she saw the clear outline of her bite right beneath his jaw.
Her fangs were small but sharp. Very rarely used.
She quickly braided her hair out of her face while watching Evan, her stomach cramping. What if she’d just sped up his death? Oh, she should’ve done more research before trying to mate him. What the hell did she know about the process?
A loud knock sounded on the outside door. She jumped and then ran through the house to yank it open.
Raine Maxwell stood in the dawn light, his hair mussed and his jeans wrinkled. A dark tee stretched tight his wide chest. “Are you all right?”
She gulped and nodded, pulling him inside. “I’m fine. Although I may have really screwed up.”
Raine stepped inside and looked around, his green eyes blazing. “Where are we? This isn’t your place.”
“It’s Evan’s,” she said, her breathing shallow.
Raine’s eyebrow rose. “You killed the cop?”
“I don’t know.” She grabbed the vampire’s arm again and yanked him. “This way.”
Raine sighed and followed her through the house and down the hallway. “I thought he was on your side. Why would you kill him?”
They reached the master bedroom, and Tabi pointed inside. “I mated him.”
Raine jerked to a halt, and his eyes widened. “You fucking did what?”
Tabi winced. “I mated him. He’s a nice guy, and he should live forever.”
Raine shook his head like she’d thrown water up his nose. “You mated a human male?”
She gulped. “Yeah. I think so. I mean, I’ve never done it before, but I bit him and I think I marked him.” She held up her hand to show her family marking on her palm. When a demon found their mate, a marking appeared with the first letter of their surname, kind of like a family crest. The marking transferred during the mating.
“You think?” Raine snapped, stepping into the room. He stopped cold. “Wow. That’s a bucket full of power coming from that bed.”
The wooden floor was cold on her feet but solid. Very solid. “I know,” she admitted.
Raine shook his head and continued forward, looking down at the burning-up male on the bed. With one finger, he slid the sheet down to reveal Evan’s hip and the perfect branding of the Rusko marking. “Yep. You sure branded him.”
Tabi’s eyes widened as she studied the marking. It was far more delicate than the military tattoo on Evan’s shoulder. “He bit me, too.” Her neck still hurt, and she sent healing cells to the injury. “Does that usually happen when an immortal mates an enhanced human?”
“I don’t think so,” Raine said, tugging the sheet back into place. “But we don’t know much about enhanced males, since there aren’t supposed to be many, if any, still alive.” He stepped away from the bed, leaned against the wall, and stared at the silent male still sweating profusely.
“What now?” Tabi asked, her legs weak again. What had she been thinking?
“Hell if I know,” Raine admitted. “You’re young to mate, and he’s a human who was dying of some sort of disease that I could sense.”
“Huntington’s Disease,” she confirmed. “But mating should cure him, right?” Although she wasn’t as strong as she’d be one day, once she’d lived a century or two. Surely that couldn’t hurt Evan. Or could it? Yeah, she should’ve done a lot more research, somehow, before she’d risked his life like this. She was so impulsive sometimes.
“Shit,” Raine said. “You might’ve just created a monster. We really don’t know much about enhanced males. There’s even a theory that they’re more related to dragon shifters than witches.”
Tabi coughed. “There’s no such thing as dragon shifters.”
Raine crossed his arms. “Yeah, there is. I guess it’s a big secret, but it’s getting out these days. Secrets never stay for long, you know.” He shook his head. “We need to find out more, just in case I have to put him down.”
No way. Tabi shook her head. “You will not harm him.”
“Might not have a choice,” Raine said. “Either way, we have to make a call.”
Tabi’s eyes widened. “No. Please.”
“Yeah. We’re calling the queen.” Raine reached for the phone in his pocket. “God help us.”
* * * *
Evan burned from the inside out. So this was what dying felt like. It hurt.
He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids stayed shut. Lights swirled behind his closed eyelids, white and bright, muted and colorful. Pain took him, head to toe, centering in his chest like a ball of fire. Memories assailed him. His childhood, his parents, even his football coach. He relived his time in the military, made friends, lost brothers, then got sick.
Finally, the night with Tabitha.
At the thought of the stunning woman, he growled.
“What the fuck was that?” a male voice snapped.
Everything inside Evan bunched and coiled. He opened his eyes and jumped out of the bed, looking for the interloper.
Raine Maxwell leaned against his bedroom wall, a phone in his hand, his eyes a piercing green.
The smell of woman caught Evan’s attention, and he swung his gaze to Tabitha. His.
She stared at him, her eyes a wide black catching all the light in the room. “Evan?” she asked.
The rumble of her voice spurred the beast suddenly inside him, and he reached for her arm, jerking her behind him. She fell against the bed and sputtered, standing up. “What the heck?” she whispered.
Evan turned to face Raine, his chin going down. He clenched his fingers into fists and prepared to charge.
“You’re naked,” Raine said reasonably, slipping his phone into his front pocket. “I’m ready to go if you are, and it’d be a good fight, but you are buck-assed nude. If you want to grapple, that’s fine, but I’d really appreciate it if you’d at least put on some jeans. Dude.”
Evan looked down at his nude body. His very hot, sweaty, tingling body. The room began to spin around him, and he staggered. He growled. Really growled. What the holy hell was happening?
“You’re okay.” Tabi’s voice cut through the cloud in his brain, and her soft touch on his arm eased the raging turmoil inside him. “Let’s sit you on the bed before you fall down.”
Evan looked toward the one threat in the room, appeased that Raine hadn’t moved away from the wall.
“Here you go,” Tabi said, her voice slightly higher than normal. Stress? Fear?
He reacted to her emotion and sat, pulling her onto his bare lap. The room smelled like sex…and sweat. She struggled against him, and he tightened his hold, forcing his gaze to focus again.
“Well,” Raine drawled. “This is certainly interesting.”
Evan swallowed, barely catching enough spit in his mouth to ease down his desert dry throat. “Why are you in my bedroom?”
Raine smiled, the sight not even close to being amused. “Tabitha? Want to field that curveball?”
She partially turned to face Evan, her butt nicely placed over his suddenly aching cock. “Well, now. I need you to keep an open mind.”
Evan’s gaze jerked from her face to Raine’s.
The man chuckled and held up a hand. “No. Not that open. God.”
Tabitha sighed and patted the side of Evan’s face. “Concentrate, would you? It’s like this. Well, I’m a demonness, and I mated you when we had sex.”
Oh God. Evan deliberately, very gently, set her next to him and stood to face Raine. “You’re a part of this cult?” What had he been thinking to sleep with her? His head pounded like he’d been punched repeatedly with a rock, but he’d deal with his illness later. Right now, he had to help the woman he apparently had just taken advantage of during the night. He’d known she was troubled. “Maxwell?”
Raine sighed. “Cult? What’s he talking about?”
Tabi started to stand and then halted when Evan glowered at her. “It’s a long story, but there’s no cult. Honest, Evan. You’re an enhanced male, maybe part dragon or witch or something, and I mated you.” She frowned, peering closer. “Do you feel any better? Maybe stronger?”
Actually, he felt like his head was about to blow right off his neck from the pounding agony at his temples. “Okay. Here’s what’s going to happen.” He needed to drink a glass of water to stop sounding like he’d been chewing soup cans all night. “Tabi? I’m going to take you to Dr. Lopez to get some help, while Mr. Maxwell and I go to the station. I think you’re under arrest, Raine.” He’d get the threat behind bars before making sure Tabi was cared for.
“You were fired,” Tabi reminded him.
Raine’s eyebrows rose. “Fired? What did you do?”
Oh yeah. Evan had forgotten. He eyed Raine. “Did you kill Monte Loften? As part of your cult or something? Is Siosal involved, and did he get Abby Miller to help?” It would make sense since they all had provided an alibi for each other. What had he gotten Abby and now Tabi involved in when he’d all but forced them into that anger management group? “Is the shrink part of the cult?”
Raine scratched his head. “Did the mating scramble his brain, do you think?”
“I don’t know,” Tabi said softly. “He has a pretty high fever. Maybe he’s delirious.”
“A fever?” Raine twisted his mouth, obviously thinking. “That’s rare. I don’t think Abby got a fever when Siosal mated her. I’ve never heard of that, but I guess it could be possible. We’ll know soon enough.”
Tabi stood, pausing when Evan instinctively turned to keep his body between the woman and Raine. “You did not text the queen,” she whispered tersely.
“Queen?” Evan said, anger flushing through him hotter than his fever. “Your cult has a fucking queen?”
Raine rubbed the whiskers along his jawline. “Maybe you should show him the marking?”
Tabi gasped. “Maybe. Look at your hip, Evan.”
Was this a trick? Evan looked at his left hip and then his right, seeing a perfect tattoo of the R that had been on Tabi’s hand. It looked kind of small on his hip, set crooked and leading to his ass. He gingerly touched it, noting the slight pain. His eyebrows rose, and fury lanced his chest. Had they somehow knocked him out during the night? Had he been poisoned or drugged? He felt like it. “You branded me when I was asleep? With your fucking cult sign?”
Raine knocked his head back against the wall. “For God’s sakes. He’s too dumb to be immortal.”
Tabi sighed and wrung her hands together. “You’re just not getting this, Evan. Please pay attention this time.”
He turned fully to face her, that weird growling sound emerging from his gut. The room wavered and then started to spin around him dizzily. They had drugged him.
It was his last thought before falling hard into unconsciousness.
Chapter 8
A pounding not inside his head jerked Evan awake again, and he bolted upright on his bed. His bedroom was empty. He lifted his head, smelling Tabi’s alluring scent right before sensing threats. He shoved from the bed and yanked his jeans on, drawing his backup gun from his dresser and padding barefoot down the hallway toward the living room.
Raine and Tabi were at the door, and they let in a definite threat. The man had black hair, deep black eyes, and a wide chest. He was as tall as Raine and moved like he could fight. His expression was pissed off, without question. “Maxwell,” he said, his slight brogue Scottish.
“Who the fuck are you?” Evan snapped, pointing the gun at the newcomer.
The guy looked his way. One very dark eyebrow rose. “He’s got power.”
Ah shit. Another cult member. Evan sidestepped into the room, keeping all three in his sights. “Tabitha? Behind me. Now.”
She threw up her hands and strode toward him, letting him put his body nearer the men. “Evan. Listen to me.”
“Against the wall. Both of you.” Evan gestured with the gun, feeling in control for the first time that day, although his temples still thrummed. “What drug did you give me?”
The newcomer gave Raine a side-eye look. “You drugged him?”
“Of course not.” Raine pulled the guy inside. “What the hell are you doing here, Adare?”
Adare kept his focus on Evan. “I was on my way to fetch my wayward mate when the king asked me to detour here and lock down a threat until he arrived.”
Not another freaking cult member. “Do you guys have a size requirement, or what?” Evan muttered.
Raine paused and looked at Adare. “You’re working with the Realm?”
“No, but I’m not working against them, and when the king asks for a favor, it seems prudent to grant it. For now.” Adare’s brogue deepened and he tilted his head to look at Tabi behind Evan. “Who’s the demonness?”
Raine sighed. “Tabitha Rusko and Evan O’Connell, this is Adare O’Cearbhaill.”
Adare jolted. “Rusko? I thought you’d all died out. Aren’t you crazy?”
Tabi stamped her foot. “I am not crazy, and we did not die out. Well, I’m alive, anyway.”
This was too bizarre. “Where are my dogs?” Evan asked.
“
Outside,” Tabi whispered.
Raine shrugged. “All righty then. I’m out of here.” He began to move outside, into what looked like late afternoon.
Evan had slept all day? “Stop, Raine. I will shoot you,” Evan growled.
“Listen, copper,” Raine said, looking even more put out than he had earlier. “No offense, but the Maxwells like to stay off the Realm’s radar, and they’re about to descend on you like moss on a river rock.”
Evan stiffened. “Are we in danger?”
Raine lifted a shoulder. “Probably.”
Evan had to get Tabi out of there.
She pushed to his side. “You can’t be leaving me with the Realm,” she protested.
Raine smiled. “I sure can. Good luck, you two.” He hustled away faster than Evan would’ve thought possible.
“Don’t shoot him,” Tabi said. “He didn’t do anything wrong, except leaving me for the Realm, and I’ll handle him later. Somehow.”
The Realm must be the name of the cult. Evan focused on Adare. “You said something about your wayward mate.” Was there a woman in danger from this guy? While Evan wasn’t a cop any longer, he couldn’t let this massive man harm a woman.
“Aye,” Adare said, holding up his right palm to show a faint tattoo. “The brat has sat on my last nerve, and I’ve allowed her enough freedom.” The tattoo was different from the one on Tabi’s palm and now on Evan’s ass. Why didn’t they have the same tattoo? The Scottish guy looked Evan up and down. “How are you feeling?”
What the hell? “I told you to get against the wall.” Evan aimed his weapon between Adare’s eyes.
The guy actually rolled them. Seriously.
Tabi hovered next to Evan. “Have you ever seen an enhanced male human? Especially one who got mated?”
Adare slowly shook his head, watching Evan closely. “Nope. I thought the Kurjans killed them all—mainly because there was something off with the biology of enhanced human males.”
Tabi audibly gulped. “Off? Like what?”
“Like when their chromosomal pairs grew to the immortal level, they became themselves times a hundred. Assholes became serious assholes, and so on.” Adare smiled. “I hope this guy wasn’t an asshole.”
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