by Cynthia Eden
Mistake. The word blasted through the growing fog of lust in his mind. Tasting the vampire had been a serious mistake.
Because now he wanted more. A hell of a lot more.
Fuck, he was so screwed.
Fighting his instincts, struggling for control, Adam managed to lift his head and step away from her. Her scent, roses and aroused woman, tickled his nose and made his cock jerk.
Maya’s lips were still parted. She swallowed, staring up at him.
He figured she was about to rip him a new one, but she stared at him, looking a little lost.
And damn if he didn’t want to put his arms around her and just hold the woman.
So. Screwed.
Then that chin of hers shot into the air and her index finger jabbed into his chest. “I don’t remember asking to be kissed, Slick.” She barred those fangs. “Try that again and you might just get bit.”
His breath expelled in a hard rush. “I’ll keep that in mind.” Because he sure as hell planned to try that again. That, and a whole lot more.
She frowned at him, then straightened her shoulders and stalked toward the bike. For a moment, he admired the sway of her ass in those jeans.
The woman knew how to move.
He followed her slowly back to the waiting bike. Maya glanced over her shoulder, not to look at him, but to stare at the glowing lights of the gallery.
Her lips curved down, just the tiniest bit.
He balled his hands into fists so he wouldn’t give in to the urge to touch those lips. Not again. Not yet. Adam cleared his throat, and tried to figure out how to get back on neutral ground and away from his building lust. He looked toward the gallery, saw the outline of a tall woman in black gazing out of the window. Staring at him.
Huh. She’d been watching them.
He glanced back at Maya. “How’d you meet her?” And just what was going on between them?
Maya turned toward the motorcycle. “I found her in the middle of a gang war.”
Not the answer he’d been expecting.
“One of the assholes had a knife at her throat. She was up against the wall, bleeding, not making a damn sound. And he was laughing.”
He studied her profile. Heard the anger in her voice. “What’d you do?”
She shot a hard stare toward him. “I was still a cop back then. I told him to drop his weapon. To stand down.”
“Did he?”
“Hell, no. He came at me, blade flying.”
His stomach knotted. When she’d been a cop, she’d been human.
Humans were so weak.
They died too easily.
A slow smile spread across her lips. “Then I beat the hell out of him. Necessary force, you know.”
He should have known. Adam shook his head and grabbed the black helmet. “So your friend’s pissed because you saved her life?” She was still watching them. He could feel her stare.
“Nah, she’s pissed because I’m a vampire. Josette was fine when I was human, but when I changed—” A shrug. “Let’s just say her family doesn’t have the best track record with supernaturals.”
The woman, Josette, had power. He’d felt the lick of her magic in the air. She wasn’t strong. But something had been there.
She’d known he wasn’t human.
“Josie’s mom was killed by a vampire. So she pretty much thinks we’re all bloodsucking bastards or bitches.”
Ah, well, no wonder the woman hadn’t greeted them warmly. “Will this Marie have the same feelings? Will she talk to you?”
“Yeah, Marie’ll talk.”
And she’d better have something interesting to say. The news that Nassor didn’t yet have Cammie had thrown him and made a rush of excitement leap in his blood. If they could find her before he awoke—
But he couldn’t hope yet. Maya had said that she could track the vampires who’d taken Cammie. So far, the only thing she’d done was take him to an art gallery.
He hoped her next stop proved more helpful.
It had better.
“Josie’s turning away from the old ways,” Maya said, climbing onto the bike. “She’s seen too much darkness in her life, and now she wants to try to pretend it doesn’t exist—that things like me don’t exist.”
Maya wasn’t a thing. He frowned, holding the helmet. What did she mean about the old ways?
“The lady tends to get pissed off when she’s reminded that things on Earth aren’t all caviar parties and cocktail dresses.” The cycle’s engine roared to life. “No matter how much she might wish they were.”
“Sometimes people need their illusions.” That was why so many refused to accept the reality of demons. Vampires.
“Guess they do.”
Adam climbed onto the motorcycle behind her, his body stiff. He was getting rather tired of being her tag-along. It wasn’t a position he was used to, but he knew he had to play the role for now.
But later…
“So why is it so important to find Marie?” He had to shout over the roar of the bike.
Maya laughed. He could barely hear the soft sound and her equally soft reply. “You’ll see, Slick. You’ll see.”
He clenched his teeth. The lady could only try his patience so far. Adam wrapped his arms around her waist, holding on tight. His cock pressed hard against her perfect ass, a deliberate move on his part. He was still horny as hell, and feeling her ass against him, holding her to his chest, well, it was the closest thing to relief he was going to get.
He had to suffer the indignity of riding behind her.
But at least he got the benefit of her soft body.
And when the ride was long, he sure as hell did enjoy her.
Maya had no trouble finding 208 Mythlin Street. The bike bounced down the old pothole-filled road. Drove past the ramshackle buildings. Stopped at the two-story brick house that was nearly hidden by twisted trees.
Maya parked her bike and they stepped onto the broken sidewalk. It wasn’t quite midnight, but the yard was full of people. Men, women. All dressed in white.
Five tall, muscled men with skin a deep brown and bodies humming with tension, immediately walked toward them.
Maya raised her hand. “I’m here to see the Mambo.”
Mambo.
The word was familiar to him. He struggled, trying to remember where he’d heard it before.
The men looked back toward the house. Silence stretched across the yard.
“Maya.” A whisper. Could have been the wind. Could have been a woman’s voice. Adam wasn’t sure, but the men stepped back, eased into the shadows.
He stared at the house then. It wasn’t like the others on the street. No disrepair. No neglect. Strong bricks. Long, wraparound porch. White windows open to the night.
The house didn’t belong on this road.
There was something off about the place. About the people who watched them walk forward and whispered quietly, their eyes knowing.
Lights burned brightly from inside the house.
The porch steps creaked as Maya climbed them. She didn’t look nervous. Hell, so far, he hadn’t seen her look nervous at all, not even when the L10 had gone after her.
But he was getting a bad feeling. Every instinct went on full alert as his body tensed.
The front door was open. Waiting.
Inviting?
Maya stepped over the threshold.
Adam froze.
He glanced down and saw the red dust. The thin line that went all the way across the entranceway.
Shit.
Mambo.
Maya glanced back at him, brows lifted.
His jaw locking, Adam gritted, “This Marie, just what is she?” Why had Maya wanted so badly to see her?
The power from the house, from Marie, swept around him.
Hell, no.
Josette’s power had been weak, but she’d still sensed his deception.
This woman, Marie—she was too strong for him to fool.
A man’s laugh
rang from the darkness.
Maya wet her lips. Her own gaze fell to the line of dust. “Don’t you know?”
Yeah, he did.
The woman was a voodoo priestess.
Sonofabitch.
“Let’s get out of here.” His skin was prickling, the hair on his nape rising.
“No, you don’t understand.” She leaned back over that line. “Marie knows things. She might be able to tell us which vampires took Cammie.”
“Yeah, and we can also just go and find some feeding rooms and start kicking ass until we round up the vamps who know.” Going into the mambo’s house—that wasn’t an option for him.
And he didn’t want Maya out of his sight.
A half-smile curved her lips. “That’s plan B, Slick. The slow plan. For Plan A, I wanna see what Marie knows.”
A growl rumbled in his throat. The men around them slipped back even further into the shadows.
Shit. This hadn’t been part of his plan. “Next time, you go over Plan A with me, fucking thoroughly, before you act.” When she went in the house, he wouldn’t be able to protect her.
And since when did she need protecting? He shook his head, but couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed to watch over her.
Bullshit. Utter bullshit.
Maya didn’t need anyone’s protection.
So why did he want to shield her?
“Go in,” he finally snarled, fighting to control the rage coursing through his veins. He’d never be able to cross that red line, but if he sensed any trouble, if he so much as heard Maya cry out—
He’d tear the house down.
Then no damn magic line would keep him out.
The beast within him began to roar.
Chapter 4
Marie Dusean could have been anywhere from fifty to a hundred. Her face was lined, but eerily beautiful in the flickering candlelight.
She stood when Maya approached, holding out her hands. “Child, it’s been too long.” The sound of her native Haiti flowed richly in her voice.
Maya took her hands, felt the delicate bones, the fragile skin.
“You’ve fed well.” Marie’s eyes swept over her. “And you still look so young.”
Maya stared back into Marie’s faint, crystal blue eyes. Eyes that were completely covered by cataracts, and had been, for as long as Maya had known the priestess.
She forced a laugh. “Gonna keep looking that way, Marie. We both know things aren’t gonna be changing for me.”
Unlike Josette, Marie didn’t hate all vampires. Or, at least, she didn’t hate Maya.
Back when she’d been human, Marie had even tried to warn Maya about the fate that waited for her.
That first night, when she’d brought Josette back home and found Marie waiting with her pale eyes and knowing voice, the lady had whispered, “Beware of the night, child. He’ll wait for you, hiding a monster, behind the face of man. He’ll take you. Change you. Destroy what you’ve been.”
She hadn’t listened to Marie’s words. Hell, she’d thought the lady was crazy. She remembered mumbling something and trying to get the hell away from Marie as fast as she could.
It was only later—too late—that her words had made sense.
Marie Dusean was a very special woman. Maya didn’t doubt her powers even for a minute. Marie knew things—things no human should know.
Very slowly, Marie lowered into a faded red velvet chair. Her eyes never left Maya’s face. “You’ve come about the child.”
She nodded.
Marie’s hands flattened on the round table before her. “Dreamed of her. Child of light, taken by the dark.”
Tension tightened her body as Maya leaned forward. “Her uncle thinks she’s being used as a gift for Nassor.”
Marie hissed at the name, and her fingers curled into gnarled fists. “Rises soon.”
“Yeah, I thought he might.” Dammit. “So the vampires who took her, where are they? Have they already gone back to his—”
The mambo’s hand shot across the table, grabbed Maya’s. “You will have to choose, child. Life or death.”
Well, shit. Wasn’t she already dead? Well, undead? Her heart had stopped during that fateful attack. She’d seen the faintest glimpse of another world—then she’d been yanked back to hell. “I already chose once.” She wasn’t particularly in the mood to do so again.
“The desert. Seek the vampires there.” Her nails dug into Maya’s wrist. “Hiding where the rocks have bled.”
Where the rocks have bled. Excitement pumped through her.
“They keep the girl, waiting.” Marie’s voice lowered to a whisper. “Not much time before the Born Master rises.”
Then the shit would hit the fan.
A hard sigh shook Marie’s chest and her hand slipped away as her body sagged against the chair.
Maya knew their talk was at an end. The Mambo’s strength wasn’t what it used to be. “Thank you, Mambo,” she said softly and reached into the right front pocket of her jeans. Carefully, she pulled out a small ring. A ring of pale gold, crowned with a delicate oval ruby.
Marie’s lips trembled. She lifted her hand. “Carline.” Grief choked her voice.
Maya pushed the ring across the table. “Thought you might want this back.”
Marie’s trembling fingers closed over the ring. A lone tear slid down her cheek. “It is done?”
“Yeah, it’s done.” She’d had to track the vampire to Louisiana. He’d stayed on his hunting grounds all these years. She’d tracked him, found him with his necklace of trophies—rings, earrings, jewels of all sorts. He’d had his next victim in his hands, a girl, barely eighteen. Her blood had been on the ground.
Blood was precious. It wasn’t to be wasted in a slaughter by a beast who’d long since lost touch with good and evil.
But the beast wouldn’t hurt anyone else, she’d made sure of it.
The pale eyes closed for just a moment. Marie brought the ring to her heart. “It is I who owe you now, child.”
Shaking her head, Maya rose to her feet. “No, you don’t owe me a damn thing.” Marie had been the one to help her after the change. The one who taught her how to survive.
The wooden floor creaked beneath her feet as Maya walked across the room. She stopped in the doorway, glanced back. A question had been nagging at the back of her mind. “Mambo, I brought a man with me. Why wouldn’t he come in?”
Marie’s head was bent over the ring. She was rocking back and forth slowly. But at Maya’s question, her head lifted. “Evil—it cannot cross my line.”
The red line of dust.
But that didn’t make sense. “No. Adam’s not evil. He’s looking for his niece, he’s not—”
Her head lowered again, and the rocking continued.
He wasn’t evil. Was he?
But Maya couldn’t just dismiss Marie’s words. She’d done that once before, and had her life stolen as a result. She turned away, her hand gripping the doorframe. “I should have listened to you all those years ago. Things could have been so different for me.”
A soft laugh floated in the air. “Ah, child, now whatever made you think I was talking about the vampire?”
Her heart kicked into a furious rhythm. If not the vampire, then who? She turned around, the question on her lips.
But Marie was gone. The red velvet chair sat empty, and the ruby ring glinted on the table.
Maya stormed out of the house moments later. The yard was empty—all the men and women in white had disappeared.
Where the hell was Adam?
Evil—it cannot cross my line.
She stepped off the porch—
And was jerked against a hard male chest.
Her claws lifted and a snarl curled her lips.
“Easy, vampire. It’s just me.” Adam’s arms tightened around her as his breath fanned over her cheek.
She glanced over his shoulder. “Where did everybody go?”
“Don’t know. Just seemed to disapp
ear right before you came barreling out of the house.”
That wasn’t a good sign. Why would they all leave? Unless—hell. “We need to get out of here.” She shoved away from him. Noticed the utter silence of the yard.
Oh, no, not good.
She’d left her gun with the bike, not wanting Marie’s guards to think she was a threat.
Marie had enough threats in her life—that was why the mambo had to move locations every few months.
Fucking stupid.
“Why do—”
She took off running for the bike. Her nostrils flared as she moved, drinking in the scents of the night. Human flesh. Decayed vegetation. Dank earth. Wisps of smoke. Animal.
Wolf.
She heard the growls just as she touched the cold metal of the motorcycle. She reached into her saddlebag, locked her fingers around the butt of the gun.
Over the years, she’d learned a few important facts.
Fact one. Bullets soaked in holy water could kill a vampire—if they pierced his heart. She’d been lucky enough to learn that one while she was still alive. Well, sort of.
Fact two. The bullets could be made of any metal to work on a vamp, but if she was going up against shifters, particularly those damn vicious wolf shifters, she needed to make absolutely sure the bullets were made out of silver.
Fact three. A silver bullet/holy water combination could really save her ass.
A howl sounded to the right.
Maya spun around, weapon ready.
“What the hell was—” Adam jerked to a stop beside her, his chest rising and falling quickly.
“Get on the bike.” She could smell the wolves, hear the soft pad of their paws as they closed in.
How many? Three? Four?
Damn. Six?
More?
When the wolf shifters tracked in packs, they were nearly unstoppable. The fact that they could communicate telepathically while in animal form, well, that just made it all the easier for them to hunt.
And they were very, very good at hunting.
Definitely time to leave.
She heard him draw in a deep breath. “Shit. Why are the wolves stalking us?”
“’Cause they’re probably working for Nassor’s men.” She’d seen it before. Vamps using the wolves as hunting dogs. But now wasn’t the time to talk about how easily some of the wolves’ allegiance could be bought.