by Cynthia Eden
Enough was enough. The wound in his chest was slowly closing, but his shirt was soaked with blood. He needed to drink soon, and he hadn’t been kidding when he said Sadie would be giving him her blood.
In the next two minutes, he planned to have her pinned against the wall, her soft body pressed to his, while his teeth pierced her lovely throat.
He could hardly wait to taste her blood on his tongue.
“I’m not afraid of fire, asshole.” Her chin notched up. Stubborn. She’d always been stubborn—and there hadn’t been much that Sadie had feared.
But that had been before…
She cast a disgusted glance over his body. “And I sure as hell am not afraid of you.” She spun around and took a step away from him. “See you later, vamp—”
Sully grabbed her. Whipped her back and shoved her against the wall of the bar. He leaned over her. Pushed his weight against her and trapped her against the wall—just as he’d planned. Her breath panted out. She twisted, snarled, but she didn’t break free of his hold.
Sadie was strong, but he was stronger. “I told you, already, you made me lose my prey.” His head lowered. His mouth hovered over her throat. His teeth were burning. Stretching. The already sharp canines elongated in preparation for that sweet bite. “Now, I’m going to have to take you.” His mouth opened. His tongue swiped over her skin.
Fucking delicious. Tangy.
His cock was rock hard. His teeth were ready.
Time to take a bite.
She shook against him. A small tremble. His teeth pressed right over her pounding pulse. So close.
But her claws—actual, freaking claws—dug into the bloody mess that was his chest. “Not so fast, vampire.”
His head lifted. He gazed into her eyes. Eyes that were shining, no, glowing, with some kind of bright light. Sully’s breath heaved out. “Well, well…” It looked as if he wasn’t the only one who’d taken a walk in the Other world.
Sadie Townsend—the best lover of his life, the beautiful dream he’d held in the darkness of his heart—wasn’t human.
She flashed her own sharp teeth and growled.
He smiled.
Then Sully ignored the fiery pain of her wicked claws. He moved quickly as he ducked his head and sank his teeth into the side of her throat.
Chapter Three
It wasn’t supposed to feel good. A vampire’s bite was a degradation. An unforgivable crime against her kind. Blood was sacred. Blood was power.
No, a vampire’s bite wasn’t supposed to feel good, and his didn’t feel good—it felt amazing. Sadie gasped as a hot pulse of lust and hunger shot through her. Her breasts ached. Her sex tightened.
And, humbling as all hell, she found herself arching her throat and offering herself to him.
If her brother had seen her, he would have roared his fury.
Thankfully, Jacob wasn’t around—and Sully was.
She didn’t remember taking her claws out of his chest, but her hands were now curled around the strong width of his shoulders. Holding him tight. Pulling him closer.
Sadie could feel his tongue. The press of his lips. The hard bulge of his cock.
Voices buzzed around her. Music. Scents. She ignored them and closed her eyes to the sight of the bar.
She’d been a fighter all her life. It was all she’d known. But for once, she was tempted to just be…taken.
Taken.
The word echoed in her mind and had her lashes snapping open.
Taken—the name for the vampires who were converted. Sanity reared its head with a snarl.
No, no, what was she doing? She wasn’t some drugged vamp slut. She was a shifter. The strongest of the Other.
“No!” Husky. Not nearly loud enough. Get a grip, girl. You know vamps don’t stop with a sweet “please.”
She clenched her teeth. This was gonna hurt.
Sadie shoved him back a good two feet. His teeth raked over her throat and left a trail of pulsing fire in their wake.
“What the hell?” Sully swiped his hand over his mouth, wiping away her blood, and she almost slugged the jerk.
How dare he? Drinking without permission. Vamps always thought the world was their drive-in restaurant. She put her hand to her throat. Shit, it hurt. Another sin for Liam Sullivan. “What do I look like?” she demanded. “A buffet?”
His eyes, still the soulless black of a vampire in hunting mode, swept down her body. “Love, you know how I like to eat—”
Her nose twitched as she caught the new scent in the air. The wild fragrance of an animal. Fur. Fury.
Sadie shoved around Sully. Her eyes scanned the bar.
Business. Hell, she’d almost forgotten why she’d come into this little shithole of a vampire feeding room, er, bar in the first place. She had a case to solve. One of her kind had gone rogue. Two bodies had turned up in Miami within the last month. Nearly ripped to freaking shreds.
Her boss at the Bureau had thought that a vamp was behind the slaughter, but one look at the claw marks and Sadie had known that she was after a leopard.
After someone just like her.
Someone who was in the bar right then.
Her kind could always smell other shifters. Her too-sensitive nose was the perfect homing device. Her gaze tracked to the left. Followed the scent. Saw the man. Tall, sleekly muscled. Long, blond hair. He caught her stare, lifted a brow, and smiled.
A smile that chilled the blood in her veins.
Wonderful. Now her night was a real party. A vampire lover and a shifter-gone-bad were both in the same place. Her luck so sucked.
The jerk across the bar lifted his hand and crooked his finger at her.
Her muscles quivered. Time to give that psycho shifter an ass kicking.
“Who the fuck is he?” The rumbling demand came from Sully. The Irish was heavy in his voice again, blending perfectly with the rage.
She didn’t glance Sully’s way. The shifter had already caught sight of Sully. Not a very hard task. The blond’s eyes were narrowed. His head cocked.
“Is he your new lover?” Sully snarled.
Not likely. She wasn’t so hard up that she hooked up with psychos. Her nose twitched as the heavy odor of blood flooded her nostrils. There was so much blood in the bar. It was a scent her kind enjoyed too much.
A scent that she’d known would draw the killer.
“Stay out of my way, vamp.” It was her turn to give the warning. “I’m going to—”
Too late. The shifter she’d sought spun around and pushed his way back toward the door. Oh, he thought he could run?
Not that easy.
Sadie raced after him. Three weeks’ worth of tracking wasn’t about to go down the drain just because she’d gotten a brief case of lust-induced insanity and she’d momentarily lost sight of her mission. No way, no day.
***
When Sadie bolted away as if level-ten demons were after her—level tens being the absolute strongest and baddest of the demon bastards who strolled the earth—Sully followed right on her heels.
He could still taste her blood on his tongue. Sweet but tangy. Absolutely delicious.
Different from a human’s. He’d known that fact from the first sip. He’d gotten a staggering rush of power and a hit of stark desire from the precious liquid.
So the rumors were true.
The blood of a shifter was much, much stronger than a human’s. And his Sadie…he’d bet his undead life she was a shifter.
The glowing eyes. The claws. The teeth. That sweet little purr she’d made when he’d had her against the wall and her body had gone all soft against his.
Sweet hell, he’d wanted to fuck her.
Now, she was chasing after someone else. Another man. One who smelled like some kind of wet animal.
Sully’s teeth snapped together. Did she think she could just run off with that wanker? No. Not happening. That was not the way the night was going to end for Sadie.
As he chased after her, Sully
realized she was damn fast. Leaping and running so quickly that he struggled to keep up with her. In and out of the shadows. Around the corners of buildings. Over cars. Out of alleys.
No human could run that quickly or be that agile. But then, his Sadie wasn’t a human, was she?
Shifter.
How had he missed that? And what other secrets had Sadie kept from him?
Even as an angry growl built in his throat, she zipped between two parked cars and headed into the darkness of an abandoned lot. Dammit. Good thing her blood was pumping through him and giving him needed energy. He leapt over the cars. Charged into the woods at the back—
And found Sadie facing off against a crouching leopard. A right ugly beast—matted fur, yellow, spotted, and with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.
Fuck me.
“Get back, Sully!” Sadie called out without looking his way. “The bastard’s shifted!”
Aye, he could see that for himself. But no way was he about to back off. Liam Sullivan had never run from anything before.
Well, except from her. But he’d left to protect her. Not like she’d ever buy that…
The leopard sprang forward and launched right at Sadie. They crashed onto the ground. The beast’s broad head and snapping teeth went for her throat. Sadie screamed and managed to hold him off, just barely. The leopard’s teeth were inches away from her delicate neck.
A neck Sully particularly liked. He shot into the fray. Grabbed the shifter around the middle and hauled back with all of his considerable vampire-enhanced strength.
The leopard let out a roar of fury. He twisted his thickly muscled body and swiped his claws at Sully even as Sully launched the bastard into the air in a hard throw.
Luckily, the big cat’s claws missed Sully’s body. A very near thing.
The cat crouched and bared his teeth. Before the beast could attack, Sully stepped in front of Sadie. “You want to play, do you? Well, come on. Let’s play!”
Instead of springing forward, the leopard padded back. The animal paused with its body close to the ground. The cat’s broad head tilted up, and his glittering eyes measured Sully as a long, pink tongue flickered out.
“Not…your…fight…” Sadie’s voice was strangled.
He grunted. Like he would have walked away and left her alone.
“Don’t…watch…” The last of her words ended in a growl.
Wait—what was she talking about? Don’t watch what? He hauled his gaze away from the leopard, for just a moment, and glanced back at Sadie. She’d stripped off her shirt, giving him a truly splendid view of her lacy black bra and those gorgeous breasts that he’d never been able to forget. She was on her knees. Head tossed back, arms up, and—
Her bones began to snap.
Oh, for the love of—
A train hit him and knocked Sully off his feet. No, not a train. A stinking, snarling, teeth-snapping, heavy-as-hell jungle cat.
The beast’s breath choked him. A foul stench. Saliva dripped onto his face, but Sully held the cat back with a white-knuckled grip around the animal’s throat.
“I’m not…easy prey.” Sully gathered his strength, then hurled the beast toward the line of trees.
But the cat twisted in midair and landed agilely on his feet.
Piss.
Sully rose to his feet. Brushed off his hands. Okay, time for another round. He stepped forward, just as a blur of gold and black fur streaked past him.
Snarls.
Growls.
Claws and teeth.
His mouth dropped open. Two leopards were before him. Muscled bodies moving. Tumbling across the earth. The second cat was smaller, its fur a rich gold dotted with dark circles—rosettes. The cat’s long tail swished behind it—
No, not it. Her.
The second leopard was Sadie.
And she was fighting for her life. Fuck me. Like he was just going to stand on the sidelines. He dove into the battle. Sully grappled with the larger leopard. Pounded at the cat with his fists and avoided those dangerous claws as best he could.
He and Sadie would take the beast down, together, just like they’d taken down so many others.
His Sadie was a fighter. And, apparently, she was also a large, spotted cat.
The wail of sirens cut through the air.
The larger leopard’s head rammed into Sully’s chest and knocked him back. Then the cat leapt away from Sadie, shaking his body and swishing his tail.
The sirens screamed in the night. Tires squealed as patrol cars came to a shuddering halt nearby.
The bastard leopard disappeared into the woods. And Sadie tried to go after him.
“Sadie!” Sully called her name in a fierce demand.
Humans were around. Even now Sully could hear people rushing toward them. She couldn’t be seen as a leopard. She had a job. A career with the FBI. She couldn’t afford to be careless.
She glanced back at him, and her whiskers twitched.
“Change.” An order.
The leopard flashed her teeth, but her ears were up, and he knew that she heard the approaching footsteps, too.
His gaze locked on her as the change began. In seconds, the fur melted away. Bones reshaped. Supple female limbs reappeared. Soon he was staring not at an animal, but at the nude form of a woman.
A woman who had been his for all too short a time.
A woman who was about to be discovered—naked—by half of the Miami PD.
Sully shrugged out of his jacket and reached for her. “Sadie…” He kissed her. A hard, deep kiss as he wrapped the jacket around her. He would set the scene. He could play this thing out—
“Freeze!” The yell came from less than ten feet away. “Put your hands up and step away from the woman.”
Sully’s mouth lifted. His gaze met Sadie’s. A bullet wouldn’t kill him, but it would make his night suck even more.
Slowly, he raised his hands, but he didn’t step away from Sadie.
“I’m with the FBI,” she said, her voice clear and cool. Her hands fumbled with the jacket. She managed to zip up the front. She was such a tiny thing that the heavy leather fell all the way to mid-thigh. “Agent Sadie Townsend. I’ve been tracking a suspected killer in the city and—”
“Christ, Townsend, save the explanations.” A deeper voice—one tinged with a Chicago accent—cut through her words. “I already told them who you were.”
Sully stiffened. No, no bloody way.
Talk about sucking. He turned slowly, with his hands still up and with fury boiling his blood.
Special Agent Owen Miller blinked when he saw him. “What? Sullivan.” Surprise, followed quickly by disgust. “You were supposed to stay on the other side of the ocean, you bas—”
“You knew!” Sadie stormed past Sully. A few of the cops gasped when they caught full sight of her, clad only in his jacket. The woman was sexy as hell.
Sully couldn’t help it. His gaze dropped to the perfect lines of her legs.
Oh, to take a bite.
“Sadie, you don’t understand!” Owen fired back at her. “Listen to me—
She punched the special agent right in the face. Swearing, he stumbled back. The uniforms around him lifted their guns and pointed them right at Sadie.
Nope. Not happening. “Stand down!” The order was Sully’s. Shouted. “Owen, tell ’em to drop their weapons.” Sully knew a bullet to the heart or head would kill a shifter. That scenario was not about to happen in front of him.
“D-down…” Blood dripped from Owen’s nose. The agent put a hand to his probably broken nose and only looked at Sadie’s exposed legs three times.
That was three times too many. Sully felt his teeth begin to burn—from the lure of the blood and from his growing fury. He’d wanted to rip out Owen Miller’s throat for a long time. Ever since the SOB had turned his back on Sully and left him to struggle with his new life and with the guilt of ten dead men and three dead women on his soul.
Screw the hands-up crap. If
the humans wanted to fire at him, he didn’t care. Right then, he wanted to know just what kind of case Sadie was on and why she’d been tracking that other shifter.
Sadie’s small body was tight with her own fury as she faced off with the special agent. “You let me cry for him—and you knew? You knew?”
Chapter Four
Sully stilled. Sadie had cried for him?
Owen’s muddy brown eyes swept the circle of armed men and women. “We can’t talk about this here, Agent Townsend. You know better.”
A growl was her answer.
Owen swallowed. “Wh…where’s the suspect?”
She jerked her thumb back toward the waiting darkness. “Long gone. The sirens alerted him. You gave him a chance to run.”
His stare narrowed. “The perp got away from both of you?”
“Wasn’t your typical perp,” Sully noted blandly. “Something else I don’t think you want us discussing here.” Oh, but the smug jerk was due for a serious set down.
Soon.
Owen swore. “Spread out,” he yelled to the cops.
They jumped to do his bidding. Obviously, they thought the wanker was in charge. Fools.
“Search the woods,” Owen added quickly. “We’re looking for—”
Oh, this should be good. Sully crossed his arms over his chest.
“A man in his late twenties,” Sadie interrupted. Her voice was cool and clear. “Blond hair. Blue eyes. Six-foot-four, two hundred pounds.” A pause. “He’s quite possibly naked, too.”
Definitely naked. The guy’s torn clothes were less than a foot away. Of course, the shifter could have stashed spare jeans and a shirt somewhere close by. Shifters usually had a backup clothing plan.
“He should be considered armed and very dangerous,” she continued crisply. “Approach with extreme caution.”
“Hunt him.” From Owen. “Now.”
The cops scrambled to obey. Sadie didn’t move. The wind tossed her hair.
My Sadie. She was so sexy to him. Soul as hard as nails. Skin as soft as satin.