by Cynthia Eden
Sully.
He ripped his mouth from hers. Breath ragged, eyes wide, he stared down at her. “You still want me?” Stunned disbelief.
What had he expected? “I’ll always want you, Sully.” Utter, stark truth.
His gaze, darkening, held hers. “I watched you.” An admission that seemed torn from him. His fingers tightened around her as he held her in a grip that would have probably been painful for a human.
For her, it felt just right.
“October twelfth, last year, I came to you. Watched you—you were walking in the rain, just before dawn. Going to your house.”
She remembered. She’d smelled him. Caught the faintest trace of his scent on the wind and ached for an hour because she’d missed him so much. She’d thought the scent was a trick of her mind.
“I’d just killed Ozur. His blood was on my hands. I wanted you so badly but I couldn’t go back to you. I was a killer, am a killer, and I couldn’t ask you to accept me.”
Her hands pressed against his chest. Such a strong chest. Sculpted muscles. Beneath the flesh and bone, she could feel his heart pounding out a frantic rhythm that matched hers. “You don’t have to ask, Sully. I want you, all of you.”
She’d given him her blood and her body. She wasn’t turning from him now.
“Sadie, I came to Miami this time because I wanted to find you. I just…I needed you. Even if you hadn’t crossed my path that night—if fate hadn’t sent me to you, I was coming to see you. Sometimes, I just…need to see you. Need to know that you’re in the world so I can keep going.”
Before she could respond, the doors of the OR flew open behind him. Sully turned at the sound, and a tall doctor in a flapping lab coat stormed toward them. His face was all angles and harsh planes. His eyes a dark silver. He pointed at them with one long finger raised. “You.”
Oh, no. This couldn’t be good news. Hell, if that shifter hadn’t made it, then—
“Why the hell did you bring a shifter to my OR?” The doctor, whose name tag read Dr. Tidas Micco, glared at Sully.
Sadie stepped forward. After his big confession, she wanted to jump Sully and let the hot sex settle things between them, but now wasn’t the time, and with the furious doc glaring at them, this was certainly not the place. “I brought him here.” Her nostrils twitched. This doc didn’t smell like a vampire or a shifter. A human? One who knew the paranormal score?
She studied him again and noticed the closely cropped black hair and high cheekbones. Micco. The name was vaguely familiar. Wait…Yes, yes, it clicked in her mind. She was pretty sure it was Native American. The Other had always heavily populated their ranks.
“You thought it was a genius plan to bring him to a human hospital?” The doctor shook his head. “What, you want him to be on the six o’clock news as a freak show?”
He was about to piss her off. A growl rumbled in her throat. His eyes widened and the doctor backed up a step. Good move. “We didn’t have a choice,” she told him, voice cool. “He was dying on us.” It had been the human hospital or nothing.
“Well…” He exhaled and seemed to become a bit calmer. “You’re very lucky I was on rotation tonight.”
“Is he still alive?” Sully asked.
“Alive and healing at an in-freaking-credible rate.” Dr. Micco rocked from one foot to the other. “You’ve got to get him out of here before people start asking questions.”
She caught Owen’s cheap-cologne scent behind her. “Will do.” Her head cocked as she studied the doctor. “You know, we could use someone like you…”
Another hasty step back. “I’m not a shifter.”
“No.” But he knew the score, and someone like him—a man with medical training who wouldn’t start screaming if he cut open a body and saw two hearts inside—he’d be a serious asset. “But you’re someone who knows all about the real world, aren’t you?”
She didn’t need his grim nod for confirmation.
“I know about it, and I want to stay the hell away from it.” His jaw was clenched when he gritted out, “I’ve seen just how much hell the Other can create.” He jerked his thumb toward the closed doors. “He wants to see you, and I want you to get him out of my hospital before I have to convince any more nurses that they imagined skin sealing back up on its own.”
Shifter flesh could mend itself. Not a perfect repair—the flesh would be lined with a faint red scar at the wound site, but it was still a pretty amazing trick.
A genetic trait she’d always loved.
Micco spun away from them just as Owen moved to her side. “Hey,” Owen began, eyes on the doctor’s retreating back, “is that the doctor who—”
“The shifter’s ready to talk,” Sadie cut through his words, deciding, for now, not to mention the full details of her conversation with the doctor. She knew a scared man when she saw one, and if she told Owen about the doctor right then, well, Micco’s choices would be ripped away.
Like hers and Sully’s had been.
Owen whistled. “That was fast. Thought for sure the cat was dead.”
She was already marching toward the swinging doors with Sully at her side. “Well, you know the old saying, cats have nine lives.” More than that, really.
“Yeah,” Owen muttered behind her, “but I think that shifter used up about eight.”
True. He’d been as close to true death as it was possible to get.
Sully’s hand shoved open the green door.
They stepped inside.
And found the shifter on his feet, clothed in a loose hospital gown, with fangs bared and claws shoving from his fingertips.
Oh, hell.
No wonder the doctor was freaking out.
Chapter Thirteen
Sully’s first instinct was to fight. He was about to go in punching, but Sadie stepped in front of him. Her move chilled the blood in his veins and made him realize that his lady walked on the wild side way too much.
“It’s all right.” Her voice was pitched low. “We’re not here to hurt you.”
The shifter’s eyes—bright, glassy green—locked right on her. “I smell you,” he spat. “I know what you are.” That stare shot to Sully. “And what you are.”
“We didn’t do this to you.” Sadie’s voice was still low and soothing as she crept toward him. They were lucky because all of the nurses and doctors had cleared out, probably courtesy of Dr. Micco. “We didn’t hurt you,” she added carefully.
“I know who the hell did this to me!” Fury. Pain. “The same bastard who has spent thirty years trying to kill me. Thirty damn years.” His blond head shook. “He didn’t succeed before, and he won’t.”
Sully kept his attention fully locked on the shifter. Sadie might feel pity for the man, but Sully knew a wounded beast was one seriously dangerous beast. One most likely to bite off the hand that wanted to help him.
Sully didn’t intend to let anyone else bite Sadie. If he had to throw the shifter across the room to protect her, he was more than ready for the job.
She still wants me. She’d looked at him with honest desire in her eyes. She knew the truth about him, and she still wanted him. Hell, no, Sully wasn’t about to let anyone hurt so much as a single hair on her gorgeous head.
“Ease up, shifter,” he ordered, aware of Owen stumbling to a stop behind him. “We pulled your body out of that house and saved your hide.”
“Hell. I knew we should have killed him when we had the chance.” Owen’s quiet mutter.
The shifter’s head snapped up. “What?” His nostrils flared. “You. You’re the trigger-happy moron.”
Uh-oh. Looked like the fellow hadn’t been quite as out of it as they’d thought.
Silence followed his charge. The uncomfortable kind.
Then Owen brushed past Sully. Sully lifted his brows but made no move to stop the man. If Owen wanted a beating, fine by him.
“I’m Special Agent Owen Miller, cat. And, yes, I’m the one who almost put a bullet in your head.” His rig
ht hand brushed back his jacket to reveal his weapon. As if the gun would help him.
Didn’t Owen understand that if the shifter decided to attack, he’d never have time to so much as draw his weapon?
Apparently not because Owen continued, “When I’ve got dead women in the city, butchered women, I don’t play nicely. The last vic is alive, thank Christ, but—”
The shifter was on him in an instant. “Su is alive?” Hope had his face lighting up like some kind of freaking Christmas tree as he clung tightly to Owen.
Ah. Sadie glanced back and met Sully’s gaze. One of her eyebrows crooked up.
He gave a slight nod. They both realized the shifter was way into this Su.
“Sully saved her,” Sadie said as she focused back on the shifter. “She’s in this hospital, recovering and—”
“What the hell?” Owen shook off the shifter’s hold and glowered at Sadie. “Why are you telling him this stuff?”
“Because now that I’ve shared with him, he’s going to tell us some information.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Aren’t you, shifter? Tit for tat. If you wanna know about the vic, you tell us about the beast who tried to slice you open.”
Tried? The guy had been sliced open.
The shifter’s shoulders fell. He turned around, paced a few steps away, and gave Sully an unfortunate view of his arse, courtesy of the gaping gown.
Sully glanced over and found Sadie getting the same view. He snarled. She didn’t need to be eyeing another man’s—
The shifter spun back around. “He—he’s my brother. Corey Blaine.” He gestured to his face. “Twin brother, but I guess you already knew that, huh?”
Sully stared into the face that was the perfect reflection of a killer’s. “He set you up—you know that, right? He wanted us to find your body and think that you were the killer.”
A nod.
“Where is he?” Sadie demanded.
“I don’t know, I—”
“He has to have a safe house around here. Friends. Hunting grounds,” she pushed relentlessly. “Tell us. We can’t let another woman die!”
“Dammit, I know that!” His hands shot into the air. “Don’t you think I fucking hate him? He took Su!”
“Just who is this Su to you?” Owen probed. “A lover?”
“She could have been.” His shoulders fell. “She could have been…everything.”
Almost helplessly, Sully’s gaze drifted to Sadie.
Everything. Aye, he knew what that was like. He could sure as hell relate. Sully’s gaze returned to the shifter.
“Now, she’ll never be mine.” Desolation washed across his face. “Because of my own brother!”
“Where is he?” Sadie asked her question again.
“I don’t know.” His lips pressed together for a moment, then he rasped, “Hiding. Waiting. Getting ready to watch the news and see the story about the dead body that was found—my body.”
A story he wouldn’t see, and when it didn’t air, he’d become enraged.
“You’re coming with us,” Owen announced as he squared his shoulders. “Until this perp is out of commission and I know for absolute certain that you weren’t involved.”
“Involved? I’m not a killer!”
“Sure you are.” Owen glanced from his face to the claws that were still out. “Everyone is, human and Other, deep inside. All that matters is how much of a push it takes to get the killer to come out.”
Sully knew that, for once, Owen spoke the truth.
“You’ll stay under guard,” Owen continued curtly. “Until your brother’s body is at my feet.”
***
They took the shifter to a safe house, one surrounded by guards who were Other.
“You should have everything you need.” Sadie tossed a suitcase onto the floor near their new charge—his name was Kyle. Kyle Blaine. Owen had sent an agent out to get clothes for him so the guy should now be well supplied.
Sully waited for her just outside the room. She hesitated. She knew she should go but—
“You don’t have to pity me.” Kyle’s shoulders were stiff as he stood with his back to her. He wore green scrubs that Dr. Micco had provided before they left the hospital.
At his low words, her eyebrows shot up. “I don’t pity you.” Wait, that wasn’t entirely true. Kyle’s brother was a sadistic killer who’d tried to kill him. He’d gotten screwed on the family end. He got a killer, while I got a brother who faced off with a devil to protect me.
“I might not be able to see, but it doesn’t mean I’m weak.” Harsh, rumbling words.
Her lips parted in surprise as she understood what he was saying. “Hold on. You need to back up a bit. No, it’s not because of—”
He whirled toward her and his eyes zeroed instantly on to her face. “You’re five-foot-two, one hundred fifteen pounds. You’ve got blond hair, you use rose-scented shampoo, and you’ve been fucking the vampire who is pacing outside the door.”
She blinked. Well, someone was certainly dead on target.
“I can’t see, but I can hear, smell, taste, and feel everything just fine.”
Yes, shifters had incredible senses. She certainly understood that. Hers were far, far superior to any human’s.
“My remaining senses are stronger than other shifters’.” Said simply. “It’s like they kicked into high gear to make up for my eyes.”
She’d heard about something like that happening with humans.
“I don’t need sight—no, forget that.” He drew in a deep breath and stalked forward and only stopped when he was inches away from her. “I was lying earlier, I can see, I just don’t use my broken eyes to do it.”
“Sadie.” Sully’s voice.
Her head whipped toward him. He stood in the doorway. His face was locked into tense lines and his black eyes were on Kyle.
She held up her hand. “It’s okay, Sully.” Time for truth. Her head turned back toward the shifter. “And I was lying, too, Kyle.”
His lips parted. “I knew—”
“I pity you because you had the shit-screwed luck to be born with that jerk as your brother. That really sucks, and I’m sorry that he hurt you.” Kyle had probably been hurt more than he would ever reveal. “But I don’t pity you for any other reason.” She’d be a fool if she did. She could feel the shifter’s power. “Got it?”
Maybe someone else would think that a shifter without vision was weak, but she knew her kind too well. No shifter was weak. Ever. They were the most dangerous hunters in the world.
And she pitied anyone who thought otherwise.
He exhaled and some of the tension seemed to drain from his shoulders. “Got it.”
“Good.” She stepped to the side. “If you think of anything else to tell us, Agent Moody’s outside.” The giant demon with the flame tattoos was a very fine guard. “Let him know and he’ll get word to Sully or me.”
Sully wasn’t looking particularly happy right then. He stood in the doorway, filling the space, and his burning glare stayed focused on Kyle.
Sadie headed for her vamp.
“Do you…know how she is?” It sounded like the words had been ripped from Kyle.
Sadie didn’t have to ask who “she” was. “Su hasn’t woken up yet.” Su Kent, the victim Sully had managed to rescue.
Su Kent, age thirty-two. Art director at the Miami Museum. Her mother had immigrated from Thailand and married Jonathan Kent, an ex-Marine.
“Is she going to make it?” he asked gruffly
“I think so.” She hoped so. Owen had checked the vic out thoroughly. From all accounts, Su was a genuinely good person, a pretty rare thing. She donated food to the needy and taught an after-school art program for disadvantaged kids. The woman had never even gotten so much as a parking ticket.
A nice lady. One who sure hadn’t deserved the horror she’d suffered.
Sadie walked toward Sully. No, Su hadn’t deserved her fate. Just like Sully hadn’t deserved the horror that h
ad happened to him and his team.
Sometimes, life truly sucked.
“I’ll help you.” Kyle’s rushed words had her glancing back at him. “I want Corey stopped. My whole life, my parents hated me because of the way I was. They said I was weak.”
The pain on his face was gut-wrenching.
“Corey made my life hell. You don’t know what he did all those years—” Kyle broke off with a shake of his head. “Doesn’t matter.”
But she thought it did.
“I survived,” he said grimly. “But he’s not going to. Not this time.”
“We’ll stop him,” Sadie promised, and she absolutely meant those words. “He’s not going to hurt anyone else.”
Yes, they would stop the leopard—once they found him.
***
The shifter whore was with the vampire again. Walking with him, letting him wrap his arm around her shoulders, body pressed to body.
She was with the parasite, all but purring up at him.
She knew better.
He snarled and lowered his binoculars.
Binoculars—a human invention, one that was coming in handy. He couldn’t risk getting close enough for the female shifter to smell him or close enough for his freak of a brother to catch his scent with that hyped-up nose of his.
Should have cut off Kyle’s nose years ago. Should have killed him years ago.
Of course, he’d tried, and nearly succeeded more times than he could count. But Kyle had always managed to survive. Somehow. Lucky bastard. That luck wouldn’t last forever. Corey would make sure of it.
This last time, she’d been the one to save his brother. Sadie Townsend. Tough agent. Sexy bitch.
Soon-to-be dead woman.
The vampire bent and pressed a kiss to her temple.
The binoculars seemed to explode in his hand. Glass, metal, and blood fell from his fingers.
Blood.
Sadie had given her blood to the vampire. Freely given blood and body. She wasn’t a worthy adversary like he’d originally thought. She wasn’t a shifter of skill to fight and challenge.
She was garbage. A whore who’d spread her legs too quickly for the undead.
She’d pay for that. Pay for desecrating their kind. It was time for the hunt to come to an end.