by Cynthia Eden
Anger began to boil in his gut. Jon had loved Ada. Loved her with every fiber of his being.
Loved her so much he’d chosen death.
And left his infant daughter behind.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Maya.” She had no idea.
“Yeah, I do.” Her fists clenched at her sides. “I know it’s damn selfish and weak to take the easy way out and leave someone who can’t even protect herself all alone in this shit-hole of a world.”
Selfish and weak.
“You’ve never loved, have you?”
A short laugh. “No, Slick, I’ve never loved anyone enough to kill myself for ’em.” Her gaze was hard. “And I never will. Dying is too easy. I know—been there, done that. It’s the living, the making it every day when you see the pain all around you—that’s the hard part. And if I’d had a child,”—a flash of pain lit her now black eyes—“then I’d sure as hell fight with everything in me to protect her as long as I could. I wouldn’t just leave her alone in the dark.”
As she’d been left?
Selfish and weak.
He lowered his head. Hadn’t he secretly thought the same of Jon? When he’d taken Cammie into his arms, seen her crying and not been able to comfort her?
“You don’t understand, brother. Centuries alone. Then she was there. My light. My Ada. I cannot, will not, be without her.”
His brother’s last words to him.
But what of his brother’s child? Had abandoning her been so easy?
And would he have made the same choice?
No.
An uncomfortable truth. Perhaps he and Maya were more alike than he’d originally thought.
Maya huffed out a hard breath. “Look, your brother—that’s none of my damn business.”
That didn’t seem right. Adam opened his mouth to reply.
But Maya continued, talking fast, “The girl, she’s my business. We’ve lost two days here. And I really hate to tell you this, but you know that little whispering voice in my head? Well, let’s just say that Nassor is starting to turn up his volume.”
Fuck. “How soon until he rises?”
“Don’t know, but soon.”
If they didn’t find Cammie—
“Something else you need to know.” Her lips tightened. “He’s close. Very close to us. The vamps wouldn’t have taken Cammie far from Vegas, because the bastard is in the ground here.”
Not enough time.
“What do we do?” He asked, feeling, for the third time in his life, absolutely helpless.
Maya’s shoulders straightened. Her chin tipped into the air. “Why, we hunt, of course.”
Of course. But where, how?
A very loud thunk sounded from the bathroom, followed immediately by the sound of rushing water.
What the hell? Adam tensed. An intruder. Someone had managed to get into their room.
The dragon started to growl.
Maya cursed. “Damn idiot. I told him not to be screwing around in there.” She marched toward the bathroom, shoved open the door.
Adam followed right on her heels.
“You just don’t listen, do you?” She snapped.
And Adam blinked, stunned to see a tall, muscled male standing, soaking wet in the shower. One gleaming handcuff was locked around his left wrist, the other looped around the now slanted and streaming showerhead.
“Uh, Maya?” He should have heard the guy sooner. How had he missed picking up on his heartbeats? His breaths. Unless—
One of the guy’s eyes slowly rotated to stare at him.
Chameleon.
She glanced at him, shrugging. “Guess there was one other thing that I needed to tell you.”
No shit.
Chapter 9
“Glad you two finished fucking around!” The man shouted, yanking on the handcuffs as the water streamed over him. “Now get me the hell out of here!”
You have to be quiet. You can’t make a sound.
Now Maya’s words made sense. Too late.
Not that he really gave a damn if this guy had heard him taking Maya. He’d never been the shy type and Maya sure as—
“You broke the pipe, you idiot!” Maya stalked closer to the chameleon, shaking her head. “Now, Max, didn’t I tell you not to jerk around in here?”
Max?
“You handcuffed me in the shower and left me while you fucked!” The veins on the guy’s neck stuck out.
Maya shrugged. “At least I haven’t killed you, yet.”
Max’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. Rather fitting, considering the amount of water surrounding him.
“Maya…”
She didn’t glance back at him as she said, “You were pretty out of it when we left Blood Rock, so you probably don’t remember our little friend taking a drive with us.”
“You knocked me out! Dragged me here—”
Her hand shoved against his chest, sending him slamming back against the tiled wall. Water soaked her arm and fingers. “Do you remember what happened the last time you pissed me off? ’Cause you wouldn’t shut the hell up?”
The chameleon gulped and then a gleam lit his eyes. A gleam of hunger. “You bit me.” Said on a sigh. He licked his lips.
Every muscle in Adam’s body tightened. He remembered the heady rush he’d felt as Maya’s teeth pierced his neck. The hot pleasure.
He knew by looking into the chameleon’s eyes that the bastard had felt the same way.
Adam was across the room before he knew it, jerking Maya away and glaring at the chameleon as he snapped, “Tell me why I should let you live.” He spared a brief glance for Maya. He’d deal with her later.
Tasting another, while he was near. Hell, no, that wasn’t the way things were going to work.
A hot ball of fire lodged in his chest and as he tasted the ashes on his tongue, Adam recognized the fury for exactly what it was.
Jealousy.
He didn’t want Maya near another male, much less drinking from him.
She was his. It was time she realized that fact.
“I’ll tell you why,” Maya said as the chameleon gaped at him. “Because he’s gonna lead us to Cammie.”
The chameleon shook his head, those strange eyes of his bulging. “No! I told you, I-I don’t know where they took the girl.”
“Ah, but there’s a lot you do know,” she murmured. “And you’re going to tell us exactly what we need to hear.” Maya was pressed close against Adam’s side. There was anger in her voice. Steel.
She’d tasted the bastard. Adam’s hand lifted to the chameleon’s throat. There. He could feel the small pinpricks on the skin.
Her mouth. On him.
A haze began to cover his eyes.
“I was weak,” she whispered the words in his ear. “So were you. I couldn’t risk taking from you—not then.”
So she’d taken from another.
Her fingers stroked his shoulder, as if—as if she were trying to soothe him.
Damn if it didn’t work. The fingers he’d clenched around Max’s thin throat began to relax.
The man drew in deep, shuddering breaths.
Adam stepped back. The water continued to stream down.
Max’s hand dangled from the cuff. “I gave you my blood. It helped you—healed you.”
Why had Maya needed healing?
“Your hands—I saw what happened, how they changed.” He licked his lips. “If—if you transform me, I’ll tell you everything.”
Because everybody wanted to be immortal.
Maya sighed. “What makes you actually think you’re in the position to bargain?” Before he could answer, she said, “I’m not like those sadistic freaks you were working for. I’m not going to dangle forever in front of you in return for getting what I want.”
What they wanted, Adam thought.
“There are two ways to do this,” Maya said, raising her voice again. “Either we bite and claw the truth out of you—”
&
nbsp; For the first time since he’d met her, Adam let his claws out. Long, gleaming. Several inches longer and a hell of a lot sharper than hers.
She grunted in approval. “Or we can all be civilized and you might get to keep breathing.” From the corner of his eye, Adam saw Maya bare her fangs. “Your choice.”
Max shook his head, over and over. “No. If they find out I told, they’ll kill me!”
She laughed at that. “If you don’t tell me what I need to know in the next five seconds, I’ll make you wish you were dead.”
That stopped the frantic head motions. Both eyes gazed at Maya, as if testing the truth of her words.
Adam didn’t doubt for a moment that she meant exactly what she’d said.
Apparently, the chameleon came to the same conclusion. He gulped, then whispered, “Torrence has a feeding room near the Strip. He goes there every night.”
“And Torrence would be?” Adam asked, his voice mild as he fought the anger that still coursed through his veins. This bastard had been there, he’d known that the vampires had Cammie—and he’d done nothing to help the child.
Too busy serving the parasites. Trying to trade his life for the prize of immortality.
Fool.
“Torrence Zane. He’s pretty much the alpha vampire while the Born Master’s still in the ground.”
Torrence. “Would this alpha happen to be about six foot two, with blond hair and a pretty-boy face?” One that he’d like to smash in.
The chameleon nodded shakily.
Adam smiled. Payback was going to be a real bitch for the pretty boy.
“I need an exact location,” Maya said.
“I-I don’t have one.”
“Oh, that’s just not what I need to hear right now.” She made a faint humming sound. “Not at all.”
He swallowed.
Enough playing.
Adam reached up and grabbed the center of the handcuffs. With one hard yank, he snapped the cuffs in half. Then he grabbed the showerhead and bulging pipe and twisted, hard.
The water immediately stopped.
The wet chameleon lifted the cuff that still circled his wrist, then looked at Adam with eyes that had widened even more. “What are you?”
“Damn,” Maya said. “That was sexy.”
Adam glanced at her in surprise. Found her staring at him with bright eyes and a small smile curving her lips.
“You’ve been holding out on me for too long.” There was real desire in her eyes.
Oh, hell, if that impressed her, he had a dozen more tricks up his sleeve.
Later.
Business first. He grabbed the chameleon, yanking Max out of the tub and lifting him high into the air. “The lady asked you a question.”
Max’s entire body shook. “I-I told her—off the Strip.”
“Off the Strip—where?” She sounded annoyed now. Maya ran a claw down his chest and the man shuddered.
That had so better have been a shudder of fear, Adam thought. Or he would hurt the asshole.
“Do you know,” she continued in a light, soft voice, “just how many feeding rooms are in Sin City? Off the Strip?”
Max shook his head. His feet dangled off the ground.
“Too fucking many.” Not soft anymore. Razor sharp. “Now tell me where to find this Torrence, exactly where, or I’m gonna start slicing.” Her claws pressed lightly into the fabric of his shirt, right over his heart.
She should really be letting him do that. The sun was out, and transforming her fingernails into claws, though a small act, had to be draining on her.
But the lady seemed to be having a good time, and she sure as hell looked like she knew what she was doing.
He’d just make certain he gave her a nice, long drink to replenish her energy.
A drop of dark red blood appeared on Max’s white shirt. “I-I don’t know!” A frantic edge broke his voice. “It’s off the Strip—a place with cages for human dancers and—and they always put blond women outside, Lures, you know, women in short skirts with tight tops—fuck, I swear, that’s all I know!”
“Can you show us this place?”
“I’ve never been there.” Max trembled. “Didn’t want to go, didn’t want to see—”
“Everyone get eaten?” she asked silkily. “But I thought that was what you wanted, Max. I thought you were serving the vamps so that they’d gift you with the change. And once you changed, you’d be the one in that bar, killing the humans one by one.”
He blanched. “N-no. Wouldn’t be like that.” He jerked in Adam’s hold, but there was no escape for the chameleon. Max sucked in a sharp breath. “My kind—we die young, too young. Hazard of the genetics in our body. I just—”
“What?” Adam pushed.
“I just didn’t want to die!”
“But you didn’t care if others did,” Adam said. “You didn’t care if Cammie died.”
“I’m sorry about the kid,” he whispered. “But there was nothing I could do.”
“Yeah, well, there’s plenty we can do.” Maya’s claws retracted. She sent Adam a hard smile. “I think I know where that bastard Torrence likes to party.”
“What are we going to do about him?” Adam asked, jerking his thumb toward the chameleon, who sat, looking absolutely terrified, on the sagging couch.
“I’ll take care of him,” she said and damn if Max didn’t look like he might faint.
Jeez. The idiot worked for vamps. What, did he think he could just wander off in the world, and live all happily ever after now?
Maya had found him trying to slink away from Blood Rock, running with his body tight to the ground. She’d hit him, hard and fast, and hauled his sorry ass back to the SUV.
A get-well present for Adam.
The guy had been an inch from death and he’d still managed to utter his niece’s name. For some reason, that pain-filled whisper had jerked at her heart—the heart she’d long since forgotten existed. She’d found herself running back to the canyon, trying to think of any way to help Adam and Cammie.
And she’d stumbled, almost literally, into one of the chameleons.
Sometimes, she rather thought fate was just a twisted bitch.
A dull headache pounded behind her eyes and a sweeping lethargy weighed down her body. She needed sleep. A hell of a lot more than she was going to get in the next few hours.
Actually, she needed sleep and blood.
But she had to take care of good old Max first.
Maya grabbed one of the cell phones from her bag. Kept her gaze on Max as she punched in the numbers. She didn’t identify herself when the male voice answered, just said, “Skye, I have a pickup for you. Desert Inn, Room 204.”
Silence hummed on the line, followed by a soft click.
“Maya?”
She glanced to the left. Found Adam staring at her with narrowed eyes.
A dragon. A fucking dragon.
And she’d been the one trying to protect him.
No wonder the guy had walked into the feeding room that first night as if he didn’t have a single fear in his heart. She doubted the L10 would have lasted even thirty seconds against him.
Hell, the vamp—Torrence—had needed to blow up the canyon to take him out, and even then, Adam hadn’t stayed down long at all.
He probably hadn’t even needed her to dig him out.
But she’d had to do it.
I couldn’t leave him there. Not in the dark.
A fucking dragon. She didn’t know exactly how strong the guy was, but she suspected he could kick her ass in a fight. And probably the asses of a dozen or so vamps—all at the same time.
Dragons were huge. Ferocious. Those scales of his—they’d sliced her fingertips right open. She’d be willing to bet that the Wyvern was a hell of a lot harder to kill than a level-ten demon.
Shit. She’d tried to transform him.
When shifters or demons or any other damn supernatural being became vamps, they lost all their powers—and gain
ed only the strengths and accompanying weaknesses of a vampire.
Not an overly good trade. But, if you were a low-level demon looking to live forever or a shifter headed for a real short future, sometimes the tradeoff didn’t seem half bad.
For Adam, it must have seemed like a real piss-poor proposition.
Now she understood why he’d jerked away from her.
“Maya?” He took a step toward her.
Ah, hell, she’d been staring at him like some kid with a crush.
So the man was a dragon. Yeah, she’d always kind of had a thing for dragons. They were big. They were strong. They could breathe fire and kill anything that got in their way.
She’d seen a picture of a dragon once. In this stupid fairy-tale book at her elementary school’s library. The dragon—a big green beast with smoke coming from its nostrils—had been curled around the gates of a castle. A princess had been in the tower, peering down at him.
The teacher had told her class that the dangerous dragon was attacking the princess’s castle and that only the little fairy tale star’s true love would save her.
Bullshit. One look, and Maya had known that dragon was keeping the princess safe. Keeping everything bad away from her.
When she’d gone back home, found her mom passed out drunk on the couch, she’d wished, as only a kid can, that she had her own dragon.
She just hadn’t exactly been expecting to eventually find said dragon in the form of Adam Brody.
Yeah, fate was twisted.
And getting more so by the second.
The tattoo on the base of her back seemed to burn.
Maya exhaled. “The guy on the phone—he’ll be here soon.” Then they could kiss their chameleon good-bye.
For a price.
Damn. This was going to make her even weaker.
Not the best situation considering the night ahead.
“Was telling him our location smart?”
His tone implied that it damn well hadn’t been.
She lifted one shoulder. Let it fall in a careless shrug. “Skye won’t sell us out to the vamps—he generally hates my brethren, thinks we’re all a bunch of parasites.”
Adam glanced away.
Huh. Her chin lifted. “For the right fee, he’ll take care of our little problem. No questions asked.”