Evan shoved his hair into some sort of shape. “Wait a minute. Noah and Raine are hybrids, and you’re a demon? What the hell are you doing in my town and in a stupid anger-management course? You’re all immortal.”
Tabi blew out air. “Well, let’s see. Noah was forced into it to help that Ivar dude who’s gone, and then I think he stayed because of an interest in Abby. Raine was there to maybe kill that Ivar guy, and I’m not sure why he’s still around. He must have a reason. And I was there because you got me on video and wouldn’t give it to me until I’d successfully completed the course.”
Evan shook his head. “Immortals are crazy. Batshit nuts.”
“That’s just not nice,” she countered.
He looked at her—really looked at her. Sexy, beautiful, and something else. Yeah. He could see it. A heat spiraled through him, landing hard in his chest and expanding out. His. “Before I was sick, when I was me, I was a possessive and way over-protective jackass,” he rumbled.
Her eyebrows rose. “Why tell me that?”
“Fair warning,” he said, a newfound power filling his body. He didn’t have time to figure this new reality out right now, but whatever was going on, it started and ended with the miniature blonde looking warily at him right now.
“Hmm. Well, bottom line is that I saved your life.” She tugged her wrinkled shirt into place. “We can be friends, we can be sometimes lovers, but I’m a free spirit. Don’t ever forget that.”
She was cute, too. He let his teeth show. “Don’t think for a second that I’ve forgotten about Richard. Is he a demon, too?”
“Yes. You can tell by the light hair and really dark eyes. And mangled vocal cords.” Her eyes flared. “I can take care of myself, Evan.” A stubbornness tightened her jaw, and an impressive power flowed from her, easy to discern now that he knew more about her.
“Well now, I wasn’t going to let you deal with him by yourself before I knew he was a demon.” Evan strode through the living room, reclaiming his gun to tuck at the back of his waist. “You should’ve gotten to know me a little bit better before mating us together for eternity.” The whole idea was blowing his mind, but the more he settled into it, the more he felt like himself again.
He would’ve never let the woman take on a powerful adversary on her own. Immortality or not.
Chapter 10
Tabi didn’t mind hiding from enemies, and she enjoyed having a good fight once in a while. However, what she hated was feeling off balance. Evan had made her feel that way from the beginning, and now that she’d mated him, that sensation increased tenfold. “I really think we should talk about us and what we expect from each other,” she said as he drove through town. The man had insisted on driving, and damn if she hadn’t let him.
“That’s fine, but right now I want to know who Richard Goncharov and the Popovs are.” He turned a corner, his gaze scouting both sides of the car.
She’d forgotten he’d heard the threat from Richard. “You don’t need to worry about them.”
“Tabitha.” One word, steel in the sound.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I was business partners with the Popov brothers for a while, and we didn’t get along. We amicably split up our business interests. Then my developers created the spray that’s going to make me billions, and the Popov brothers are pissed and out for blood.”
Evan pulled into the lot of the police station. “And Richard?”
“He’s very wealthy and owns a few islands. He’s offered to mate me and protect me from the Popovs.” Not that she needed protection, as soon as she made her own billions from the masking spray. “I’m a purebred demon, without any family, and that matters to him.”
Evan frowned. “Does it matter to you?”
“No. I’m not going to mate him, and I’ll handle the Popovs.” She released her seatbelt.
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Evan cut the engine. “As I see it, you’ve made all the decisions so far. It’s my turn.”
She didn’t like that at all. Her chin rose. “Now wait a—”
He was already out of the car and striding toward Noah, who waited near the front stairs of the station, looking for all the world as if he was about to storm the building.
Tabi scrambled out of the car and ran behind him, catching up just as the two males stared at each other. Why hadn’t she realized how broad Evan was before?
Noah cocked his head and took them both in. “You did not.”
Tabi kicked a pebble out of her way. “I did.”
Evan watched him. “How can you tell?”
Noah, his eyes a blazing black, shook his head. “I can smell the change in you. In you both.” He focused on Tabi. “How did you even know he was enhanced? I didn’t sense anything. Didn’t even know there were enhanced males around.”
She swallowed. “I couldn’t attack his mind, and he protected me from another attack.”
“So you just went and mated him?” Noah lowered his voice. “Are you nuts? There’s a reason we let enhanced human males die out.” He shifted his gaze to Evan. “No offense.”
“None taken.” Evan turned and started climbing the steps. “You two stay out here.”
Oh, she was not starting this matehood by taking orders. Tabi hustled after him. “Abby is not only my friend but my employee, and I am going to help her.” Even if she had to melt the minds of everyone inside.
Evan opened the door and leaned down, his gaze hot. “Don’t even think of attacking anybody. I will handle this. Got it?”
Man, he was bossy. She swept by him without answering, for the first time wondering what she’d gotten herself into. This time. “Hello.” She put every ounce of charm she owned into her smile at the lone uniformed officer behind the reception desk.
The man had to be in his early twenties with wiry blond hair and a smattering of freckles that went from his forehead down his scrawny neck. He gulped. “Hi. Um, hi. Can I, um, help you?” He sat straighter in his chair and put his narrow shoulders back.
She reached the desk and leaned over, tapping her nails on the wood. “Oh, I’m sure you can, Officer…Thomas.” She read his name and then focused on his eyes. “My friend was brought in here.”
He swallowed loudly. “Your friend?” The man sounded like he’d really like to be her friend, too.
“Yes,” she purred. “Abby Miller. Could I see her?”
The man turned red and breathed in. “Um, Abby Miller. Let me see. Um, I probably have a file here.”
Evan reached her side. “Jesus. Give the kid a break, would you?” He frowned at the officer. “Barry? The sheriff arrested somebody with a solid alibi, and her name is Abby Miller. I don’t want you to get in trouble, so sit here and talk to my girlfriend. I’ll be right back.”
Tabi’s head jerked. Girlfriend? He’d said the word with more than a hint of possessive warning to the officer. “I’m not the girlfriend type,” she retorted. She was a demon, for Pete’s sake.
Evan turned, pinning her with that unreal blue gaze. Was the blue rim around his iris darker than it had been before? His chest seemed broader, too. Although he’d been pretty damn muscled before the mating. “Oh, we’ll find the right term for you later, Tabitha. Right now, stay here.”
A threat and an order. She’d created a monster. So she smiled, lowering her chin, and gave him a full shot of charm. “No problem.” Then she winked at the furiously blushing cop. “Barry and I will just have a nice chat.”
Evan’s nostrils flared and he turned to stride past the desk to a wide wooden door, which he easily opened. Then he was gone.
Tabi lost the smile. Oh, that male had another think coming if he thought he was calling the shots. “Bye, Barry,” she said, turning toward the outside door.
“Wait,” Barry protested. “Evan said you should stay here and talk to me.”
She pushed open the door, smiling over her shoulder. “Evan should learn not to give orders.” Then she left the station and her new mate behind.
Jack
ass.
* * * *
Evan nodded at the few folks he liked and strode into the sheriff’s office, slamming the door with enough force to knock a framed painting of the sheriff and his pompous family off the wall. It fell to perch on one corner of the metal frame, teetering by a scratched file cabinet. Silence reigned outside the office, and it was telling that nobody tried to intervene. “I don’t think anybody likes you,” he observed, staring at the sheriff across his shiny desk.
The sheriff’s pudgy nostrils flared. “What the hell are you doing here? I fired you.” He stood, broad and beefy, with the window open to the quiet trees outside.
“You have one second to tell me where Abby Miller is before I call the press, Baker,” Evan said, leaning back against the door. “Not just the local press, either. Those big city reporters love a small town corruption story, now don’t they?” The place smelled like mothballs. Why hadn’t he noticed that before? “Where is she?”
Baker’s face turned a motley red color. “She’s cooling it in a cell right now before I question her.”
“Probable cause?” Evan barked.
“Murder. I know she murdered Monte, and I’m going to prove it. Maybe she paid those criminals in anger management to cover for her. Maybe she fucked them all. I don’t know, but I will find out.” Baker’s eyes swirled a furious hue.
Anger settled like a cold punch in Evan’s gut. “You don’t have probable cause, and you know it. Not only have you harassed an innocent woman, one your buddy beat the crap out of for a year, but you’ve opened the county up to a lawsuit now. You’re not fit for the job.”
“You think you can challenge me for the job? I fired you, and doesn’t that look just great?” Baker smiled, showing tobacco stained teeth. “Besides, we both know you ain’t gonna be around for much longer. I’ve seen you shake and tremble. I saw when your leg gave out and you fell into your chair, just a couple of weeks ago. Even if you live through whatever is happening to you, you can’t do this job.”
“A doorknob could do this job better than you have,” Evan growled, his limbs feeling like his own for the first time in years. Could he run for sheriff? Had this whole mating thing cured him, or was this just temporary? He needed to get answers from Tabitha before making any plans. Hope tried to rise in him, and he ruthlessly shoved it down. For now, he had a job to do. “Let Abby Miller out right now. Her lawyers are going to be here any minute, and from the sound of it, they’ll already be planning the lawsuit.” Well, probably.
Baker shifted his belt over his big belly, his eyes darting around. “I’m not out of line here.”
“Wrong.” Evan was done. He grabbed the keys off the hook by the door. “I’m letting her out. If you try to stop me, I will beat the absolute shit out of you in front of the other cops here. The whole town and no doubt county will hear about it, I’m sure. Yeah, I’ll take a battery charge, but it’ll be a first offense, and it’ll hit all the papers. You know what? That might be a decent launch to a campaign for sheriff.”
Baker sputtered, even his ears turning red.
Evan opened the door and strode through the bullpen to the back hallway leading to the cells. Quick movements had him at the farthest cell, unlocking the door.
Abby looked up from sitting on a blanketless cot, her greenish-brown eyes wide. She looked small and defenseless in the claustrophobia-inducing cell. “Detective O’Connell.” She stood, looking over his shoulder.
“Noah is outside,” Evan said, gesturing her toward him, his temper fraying. How dare the sheriff scare her like this?
Relief smoothed her features as she hurried out of the cell. “Thank goodness. I thought for sure he’d come in ripping off heads and everything.” She stopped cold. “I meant that figuratively.”
“Right.” Evan clasped her arm and started down the hall. They probably didn’t have much time before Baker found his balls and tried to stop them.
Pain ticked through Evan’s palm, and he jerked away, looking at the rash on his skin. “Oh.”
Abby kept walking. “Maybe you’re allergic to my laundry detergent.”
He opened the hallway door for her. “Or it’s the mating allergy,” he muttered.
She swung toward him, her jaw slack. “What did you say?”
“Later.” He pointed toward the end of the bullpen, careful not to touch her again. The rash was already abating. It had appeared so quickly. Was it because they were both newly mated? Man, he couldn’t believe any of this was real. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Good plan.” She smiled serenely and nodded at the other officers, picking up her pace until she reached the door to the reception area.
The sheriff stood in his office doorway, his hands at his sides. “I’ll let you go for now, Mrs. Loften. But we’re not done.”
Abby paused by the doorway and turned to face him fully.
Evan stopped and then waited.
“It’s Ms. Miller now.” She smiled. “You’re a corrupt moron, Sheriff Baker. I know it, you know it, and I suspect most of the people who work for you know it. Falsely arrest me again, and I’ll sue you for everything you have.” She looked around at the silent officers at their desks, confidence in her gaze and her shoulders back—so much different from the woman Evan had rescued just a month before. “One of you should think about running for sheriff—if Detective O’Connell doesn’t want to do so. I’ll start a campaign fund right away.” Then she turned and opened the door, her head held high as she exited.
Evan banked a grin and followed her through the reception area and outside, where she ran full bore into Noah Siosal’s arms.
Noah grabbed her up, lifting her, inhaling her scent. “You’re okay?”
She nodded. “I’m fine.” When he let her down, she snuggled into his side.
Evan looked around the quiet sidewalk. “Where’s Tabi?”
Noah shrugged. “She came out a while ago and drove off like hell in the BMW.”
Evan’s jaw set. His nostrils flared. His chest heated and his ears began to ring. “I told her to wait for me, and I believe she agreed.” Oh, she had. They were about to have a serious discussion, once he found her. For now, he focused on Noah. “So. Rumor has it you’re a vampire-demon hybrid.”
Chapter 11
Rain started to fall as Tabi drove sedately home from her factory where the techs would work late. She was so close to mass production, and she was going to make a fortune. She glanced at her phone, which she’d left in the car all afternoon. Yep. Several calls from Evan. Too bad. He shouldn’t have ordered her around earlier that day. The sooner he figured out she was her own person, the easier this transition would be for him. Hopefully Noah had given him a ride home from the station.
She shouldn’t feel guilty about ditching him, so she didn’t. Yet she bit her lip. The poor guy was probably really confused by this new world, and maybe she should help him out a little, considering she’d yanked him into immortality. Maybe she’d look him up in the morning.
Turning into her driveway, she stilled at seeing him leaning against her one-car garage, a badass motorcycle to the side of him.
Her panties turned wet. Plain and simple.
She swallowed and turned off the car. Okay. She could handle this. Keeping her posture ramrod straight, she stepped out of the car, grateful for the four-inch heels on her boots.
He crossed his arms, his gaze a burning blue through the dusk. “Where have you been?”
Irritation prickled up her back while heat flowed down her front. She blinked from the contrary sensations. “I was working at my factory.” Not that he’d know which one was hers—there were many outside of the mainly industrial town, and she’d purchased it using several dummy corporations. “Also, you don’t have the right to question me. You’re no longer a detective.”
“I wasn’t asking as a detective,” he rumbled, the rain dancing lightly over his hair.
Why was he giving her the arrogant immortal act? “You’re human,” she blurted o
ut.
“I’m male,” he countered, the statement firm. “Maybe human, maybe not. I don’t know. What I do know is that I told you to wait for me at the police station hours ago.”
She couldn’t breathe. There had always been something about him, this steel hard core covered by protective instincts and kindness. “I don’t take orders from you,” she said, stopping a couple of feet away from him.
He cocked his head, studying her.
Tingles exploded across her skin, zipping through her body. She set her stance to hide her reaction to him. This was not going according to plan. At all.
“I had quite a nice talk with Noah today. All about vampires, demons, and the rest. All about mating and the rioting feelings that arise.” His voice was low…silky. “You know what I think, Tabitha?”
Her mouth went dry. “I have no idea.”
“I think you mated a human on purpose. Ambitious and independent twenty-five-year-old demonness obviously running from danger finds herself a nice human male to lead around by the nose. Have some fun and then move on, safely mated but with all the freedom in the world.”
There was enough truth in the statement that her hackles rose fast. “I saved your life.”
“That remains to be seen, although I have stopped shaking and feel like I could handle anything.” His arms dropped to his sides. “Including you.”
“That’s doubtful, human.” She tossed her purse back into the car and slammed the door. While only a quarter of a century old, she’d trained to fight almost from birth. If she had to beat the crap out of her new mate and show them both how this was going to go down, she’d do it. “Your stance is the wrong one. Change it.” Her voice trembled just enough to piss her off even more.
He blinked. Once and slowly.
Never in her life would she have thought a blink could be threatening. Yet this was. Those blue eyes burned through the dusk, and that rim around his iris had darkened. She was sure of it. “You’ve lived in my world for one day, Evan. Don’t think for a second you understand it,” she said.
Vixen: A Dark Protectors/Rebels Novella Page 8