The beautiful wings disappeared.
“Touch me,” he pleaded.
And any barrier that struggled to hold her back crumbled. Giving him a small smile, she nodded. Touch him? She could do that.
Lisette slid her arms around his waist and flattened her palms on his back.
She had been so distracted by his wings in the past that she hadn’t noticed how ripped he was. Rising onto her toes, she brushed her lips against his. He responded hungrily as she explored his warm flesh with her fingers.
She had always appreciated strength. And Zach had it in spades. All muscle and sinew.
“You taste even better than I imagined,” he murmured, sending a warm spiral of pleasure darting through her.
“So do you.” And felt magnificent, too. Unable to resist, she drew her hands down and cupped his tight, leather-clad ass.
He groaned. Still kneading her breast, he thrust against her.
Mmmmmm. So good. She wanted more. Needed more. Would he object to her jumping up and wrapping her legs around his waist? Because just the thought of opening herself to him, of settling the heart of her against his arousal, of gaining higher ground to give her easier access to his lips and tongue made her—
Zach stiffened and raised his head.
Lisette opened her mouth to protest.
Quiet, he cautioned.
It was the first time he had spoken to her telepathically, and the warm bass-baritone invading her mind, coupled with the body locked against hers, damned near made her orgasm.
Wrapping both arms around her, Zach eased them back into the dense trees.
Cool shadows engulfed them.
Lisette looked up at him, gradually becoming aware of a new tension gripping him.
His eyes focused on the canopy above them as he tilted his head and listened.
Lisette heard nothing but the usual nocturnal sounds that abounded in North Carolina.
Lips tightening, he looked over at her bike, illuminated by moonlight, thanks to a break in the trees.
He stretched a hand toward it.
Lisette’s eyes widened when the Hayabusa silently rose into the air and floated over to join them in the shadows, the tires making only the faintest sound as he returned it to the ground.
That had been some display of power.
Meeting her gaze, Zach pressed a finger to his lips.
Desire receded, replaced by anxiety.
What did he hear? What was coming? Or who?
Was it the Others, whoever the hell they were? Had they found him?
She tightened her hold on him and waited.
The golden glow left Zach’s eyes as he turned them up to the treetops once more.
Minutes passed.
Lisette heard the gentle flap of wings approach. Large wings, but not large enough to match Zach’s.
A shadow flitted across the moonlit ground her Busa had formerly inhabited as something passed overhead.
Time ticked by, every minute feeling like an hour.
At last, Zach relaxed and patted her back. “It’s okay now. We’re clear.”
Reluctantly, Lisette loosened her hold. “What was it? Or should I say who was it?”
“David, flying over in the shape of an owl.”
Reality slapped her in the face.
Zach, too, by the looks of him. Releasing her, he backed away a couple of steps.
“Is he looking for you?” she asked. “Does he know you were at his home?”
“No. But if he had seen your motorcycle . . .”
“He would have come down and investigated,” she finished for him.
“Yes. I thought it best to avoid a confrontation.”
A wise course of action.
Lisette surveyed their surroundings, not really seeing any of it. A multitude of questions and fears and complaints bombarded her. What if’s and why not’s and how’s and what will’s.
“Lisette?” Zach spoke softly.
She shook her head, not looking at him. “How is this going to work, Zach?”
A long pause ensued.
“I don’t know,” he said at last, drawing her gaze. “I admit I’m still reeling from the discovery that you wish it to. Work, that is.”
The honesty and vulnerability his words expressed pierced her heart.
“Well, think on it, will you?” she implored.
“I fear I shall think of little else.”
Sighing, she found a smile. “Me too.”
He shook his head. “You’re such a puzzle to me.”
“I don’t know why. I’m just me.” Nothing special. Just one of the guys as far as most of the other immortals were concerned.
“Why would you risk everything to be with me?”
Lisette thought Zach a far greater puzzle. He was one of the most powerful beings on the planet, and yet he seemed heartbreakingly ignorant of his own worth. “I haven’t felt like this in a very long time,” she responded, “haven’t been this drawn to a man since I was mortal. Perhaps not even then.” Zach made her feel far more than her husband ever had.
She shook her head. “I can’t just give that up without seeing where it can lead me. It’s too rare. Too precious.”
Nodding, Zach took one of her hands and lifted it to his lips for a gentle kiss.
She squeezed his hand and smiled. “Since David has killed the mood”—he might as well have dumped several gallons of ice water on them when he had flown over—“I suppose I should begin tonight’s hunt.”
He released her hand with obvious reluctance. “Shall I accompany you?” he asked as she donned her coat and helmet.
“If worry prompted that question, then my answer is I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
“Have you any of the auto-injectors that bear the sedative on you?”
She swore. “No. And I don’t think we have any at the house.”
“Then I shall accompany you.”
She eyed him speculatively. “What would you be doing if you didn’t accompany me?”
“Prowling around and seeing what the Others are up to.”
Fear rose. “Zach—”
He held up a hand. “They won’t let me go easily, Lisette. I know they’re still searching for me. They must be. I need to know where and how. For my own safety and for yours. I need to know if they’ve discovered my connection to you. If they know you helped me. What exactly they intend to do if they find me.”
“How can you do that without them capturing you again?” She had seen their brand of punishment and didn’t want him to be subjected to it again because he worried they might come after her.
“When I’m at full strength, I can conceal my presence from them even when I’m in close proximity to them, the way I did with Seth and David earlier. They only know where I am if I want them to know.”
“And you’re at full strength now?”
“Yes.”
“Not ninety percent or ninety-five percent,” she clarified. “But one hundred percent?”
“Yes.”
She could detect no uncertainty in his tone. “All right. Go then.”
“I’d rather you not hunt alone when you don’t have the sedative.”
“It’s just for one night. Watch.” Tugging out her cell phone, she dialed Tracy.
“Yeah?” Disturbed’s “Droppin’ Plates” blared in the background.
“Where are you?” Lisette asked.
“On the road, headed home.”
“Do we have any of the sedative at the house?”
Tracy swore. “No. I’ll swing by the network on my way back to David’s and pick some up.”
“Thanks.” Ending the call, Lisette arched a brow. “You see? All taken care of. It will be in my hands tomorrow night.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’d rather you not hunt alone tonight without it.”
She groaned. It was like dealing with Seth or her brothers. “Are you going to be this stubborn about everything?”
>
“Everything that involves your safety,” he said, unmovable.
“Fine. I’ll go by the network myself and pick up the sedative, even though it will take over an hour away from tonight’s hunt.”
His face cleared as he lowered his arms. “Thank you.”
“What about you?” she asked. Two could play the overprotective game. “What weapons will you carry with you when you go spy on the Others?”
“I have no weapons.”
She stared at him. “None?”
“Not one. Though I know how to use them, I’ve never needed to carry them.”
Well, screw that. Crossing to stand before him, Lisette gripped the lapels of her coat and opened it wide. A small arsenal hid inside, tucked into various and assorted loops and pockets and sheaths. “Take your pick.”
His eyes lit with a faint golden glow. “I can have anything I want?” he asked in a silky voice that turned her insides to mush.
Her pulse leapt. “Yes.”
“How you tempt me,” he murmured. Stepping so close she could feel his warm breath on her forehead, he reached inside the coat on either side of her and drew two daggers from their sheaths. “Thank you. Be safe.”
She kissed his chin. “You too.”
As he backed away, his wings reappeared. “May I see you again tonight? After your hunt?”
She nodded. “Meet me at my place.”
Offering her another courtly bow, he leapt up, drew his wings down, and sailed into the moonlight.
Lisette intended to swing by network headquarters and pick up the sedative. She really did. But, on her way there, she heard Étienne call out to her.
Lisette!
Yes?
Where are you?
On my way to the network.
Fuck the network. Come to UNCG. Krysta and I have come up against some of the vampires with skills, and I fear she’ll be injured.
Do you have any of the sedative on you?
No, we were headed to the network to pick some up when we caught wind of the vamps.
I’m on my way.
Lucky for him, the new network headquarters was just outside of Greensboro. If she defied every speed limit and traffic law, she could be there in only a couple of minutes.
Richart, she called mentally. Even though he wasn’t telepathic, she would hear his reply as long as the two were in the same state.
What? came his rather distracted reply.
Do you have any of the sedative on you?
Yes.
Can you get it to Étienne and Krysta at UNCG?
Jenna and I have come up against quite a large number of vampires at Duke.
Skilled vampires?
No, the usual fare. But I intended to use the sedative on some of them in hopes that they had heard something.
Save it for Étienne. He and Krysta are facing the new breed of vampires there and could use it.
All right. We’ll be there as soon as we can.
Is Jenna fighting alongside you? Lisette asked as an afterthought.
Yes, he groused, and I swear she’s turning my hair gray.
Lisette laughed as she reached UNCG’s campus. Taking her Busa up onto the sidewalk, she followed the sounds of battle to her brother and his wife and plowed right through the vampires.
Bodies flew through the air. Blood splattered.
Krysta laughed. “Nice!”
Grinning, Lisette parked the bike, drew her shoto swords, and leapt into the fray.
A quick head count yielded over a dozen vampires. At least three bore thickly muscled physiques and brandished weapons with expertise. Étienne fought one and kept trying to engage another to keep him from joining the third, who battled Krysta.
Krysta, Lisette noticed, held her own better than Étienne did, thanks to her ability to see auras. While the auras of humans told her little beyond the man or woman’s mood or health, the auras of vampires behaved differently. According to Krysta, they shifted and moved before the vampires did, alerting her to the vampires’ intentions. So she could anticipate a vampire’s every move and kick his ass. As she did now.
With a speed and strength that matched her husband’s, Krysta dodged every strike of the muscled vamp she fought and inflicted wound after wound after wound with her own weapons.
Étienne didn’t fare quite so well.
Lisette swung her swords in sweeping arcs as she raced forward, cutting the carotid and femoral arteries of a couple of the standard deranged vamps. Reaching Étienne’s side, she then took on the second muscled vamp he struggled to keep away from Krysta.
Once more, battling the vampire proved to be a challenge. Had she, Étienne, and Krysta only fought the skilled vamps, Lisette thought the three of them would have triumphed more easily. But the damned psycho vamps proved to be dangerous distractions.
The large vampire Lisette fought was so adroit that she had to keep her attention focused on him at all times, which left her vulnerable to attacks from the other vamps. While she met the muscled vampire strike for strike, the less practiced vamps darted in and drew blood with wild slashes and stabs. If she took her gaze away from the adept vampire for even a second, he scored a hit.
Étienne swore.
They all did, encountering the same dilemma.
Their frustration mounted as wounds multiplied and stung. But they kept their cool as their training dictated.
Lisette spun away from the muscled vampire long enough to swipe the head from the body of a gangly vamp attacking her from behind and was rewarded by her primary foe with a cut across the neck. She hissed in pain and repaid him with two swift slashes to his right arm, hoping to hinder his swing.
Lisette? Étienne asked.
He nicked my carotid artery, she said, but I’m okay.
Okay and losing blood. Unlike a vampire, she wouldn’t bleed out if a major artery was slashed. If she lost too much blood, she would simply slip into a sort of stasis or hibernation until a blood source came along. Fortunately, the cut the muscled vamp had inflicted was minor enough that the virus was able to seal it.
Her movements slowed, a result of blood loss.
From the sounds of it, Krysta was kicking her vampire’s ass.
A lanky vamp shot forward and slashed at Lisette’s legs. The sharp blade went right through her coat and sank into her thigh.
Stealing herself against the pain, she bent her knees, leapt up, somersaulted over the muscled vampire’s head, and landed behind him. Her blade sank deep into his back before he could spin around. Leaving her shoto in place, she drew a dagger and tore into two of the slacker vamps as the muscled vampire struggled to reach behind him and remove the sword.
“Mine’s down!” Krysta called and took on some of the vampires circling her husband.
As Lisette finished off the two vamps she fought, she scoured the muscled vampire’s thoughts and found a chaos of rage and pain. She could see nothing of the one who had turned him or trained him.
She dipped low and cut the femoral artery of the last slacker vamp facing her. As she straightened, a blade sank into her side, narrowly missing her heart.
She cried out, the last comfortable breath she could take as blood began to fill her lung.
She turned to the muscled vampire.
His eyes glowed with triumph as he raised a long dagger above his head.
Dodging his downswing, Lisette drove her shoto sword up into his stomach, severing his abdominal aorta.
He froze, eyes widening, then stumbled backward, the movement removing his flesh from her blade.
Hunched over, Lisette watched his shirt turn crimson, watched him sink to the ground, and didn’t turn away until he breathed his last breath and began to shrivel up.
A quick look around told her Krysta and Étienne would soon defeat the last of the vampires.
Gritting her teeth, Lisette reached under her arm, gripped the handle of the weapon still imbedded in her body, and drew it out. “Ahhhhh!”
“Lisette
!” Étienne cried.
She stared in disbelief at the weapon in her trembling hand and turned to face her brother as he decapitated the last vampire standing and rushed to her side. “Bastard stabbed me . . . with my own . . . weapon,” she wheezed, then spat a mouthful of blood on the grass.
Krysta darted over to her side and wrapped a supportive arm around her. “Are you okay? What can I do? Do you need blood? Étienne always brings some with us in a cooler now because he hates it when I’m injured.”
As far as Lisette could tell, all of the blood that painted Krysta was vampire. She barely had a scratch on her. “Blood would . . . be good . . . thanks.”
Nodding, Krysta dashed away so fast she blurred.
“Damn it, Krysta!” Étienne shouted. “There could be . . . more,” he finished with a sigh.
Lisette sure as hell hoped there weren’t more vampires. Not unless they were of the typical easier-to-defeat variety.
Richart appeared, holding Jenna’s hand as she leaned into his side. Blood speckled their faces and necks and saturated their clothing.
“Really?” Lisette hissed. Damn, it was hard to breathe. “You show up . . . now?”
“Where have I heard that before?” Richart muttered. His eyes widened as he took in her battered condition. “Merde!”
Étienne didn’t look much better.
Jenna hurried to Lisette’s side and carefully touched her back. “Are you okay? Can we do anything?”
Lisette shook her head, unable to speak and lacking the energy to think a response.
“I’m fine, by the way,” Étienne drawled.
Richart snorted and said something derogatory.
Krysta reappeared with a couple of bags of blood in her hand. “I’m sorry. This is all we brought with us.”
Lisette took one bag and motioned for Krysta to give the other to Étienne, who was stooped over a bit himself and held one side.
Étienne tried to refuse and insist that Lisette take it.
Lisette gave him the finger.
Immortal males tended to treat her as one of the guys until she was wounded and then—holy crap—the fuss they made over her! And her brothers were the worst. Étienne could be missing a limb and would still try to insist she take all of the blood herself.
Lisette sank her fangs into the lone bag she accepted. Sighing, she let them siphon the blood into her veins, replenishing some of that she had lost. It was enough to stop the bleeding of her wounds, but she would need more to heal them all. Her shallow, rapid breath evened out as her lung reinflated.
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