by Cynthia Eden
His heart jerked hard in his chest.
“I don’t know what that crazy light was that shot from your hand. I’ve never…met a Reaper before.”
His lips hitched into a half-smile. “Generally, that’s because most people don’t live to tell that particular meet-and-greet story.”
Her eyes widened.
Fear.
He didn’t like her fear. “There aren’t many of my kind left.” He gave a bitter laugh. “Actually, as far as I know, I am the last of my kind.”
Her lips parted. “Oh. I-I’m sorry. I—I understand.” And her hand reached up, as if she were going to touch him. Willingly. It looked as if she’d give him a pat on the shoulder, but then her hand stilled, mid-air.
Every muscle in his body turned to stone. “You can touch me.”
She bit that delectable lower lip. “You sure about that?”
“It’s only my hands that have the power to kill. You can kiss me and be safe.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Amber muttered.
“You can touch me,” he continued darkly, “and be safe.” Though hardly anyone ever had touched him. Why touch Death? People feared Death too much to ever want to get close. She feared him, too. She wouldn’t trust his word. She wouldn’t—
Her fingers curled around his shoulder. He felt that light touch sink beneath his skin and brush against what remained of his soul.
“Cass? I’m…I’m sorry that you’re alone. I know what that’s like.”
She had no clue.
But he couldn’t look away from her mouth. She was the first woman—the first to ever touch him so easily. He hadn’t needed to bribe her, hadn’t needed to promise her power or protection. She’d touched him to comfort him.
And she made him ache.
“Cass?”
“I want to kiss you.”
He heard the little hitch in her breathing. “No.”
His body tightened at the rejection.
“No,” she said again and her hand fell away from him. He missed that touch immediately. “No, you don’t want to kiss me. You don’t want me at all. I’m just some bounty to you, and you’re playing some dangerous game with me. But you don’t want this game, okay? You need to break the invisible cuffs or whatever the hell they are. Use the magic you talked about and set us both free.”
He couldn’t look away from her mouth. “I may have misled you.”
“Yes, I know. I just said you don’t really want to kiss me—”
“I can’t break the spell that locked the cuffs in place. They will link us for forty-eight hours, no matter what I do.” His delivery guarantee. He’d used the cuffs hundreds of times. Normally, forty-eight hours was all he needed for transport. He took in his prey, he kept the prey close, and when the forty-eight hours ended, he walked away clean.
His prey didn’t fare as easily. They often didn’t walk away at all.
“Forty-eight hours?” she repeated, voice hushed. “No, no, that’s too long! Leo will find you again!”
Cass laughed. “I don’t think so. Not if I don’t want to be found.” His gaze slowly rose to catch hers.
Hope lit her stare. “You…you can actually hide us from him?”
“I’m not working for Leo. He won’t get you.” That was a promise.
She threw her body against his. “Thank you!”
Cass was so caught off-guard by her move that he froze. Her arms were wrapped around him. She was hugging him, and her breasts pressed to his chest. Her whole body pressed to him, and she felt warm and she smelled good and his dick was hard with desire and he wanted to hold her tight—
She looked up at him. “Sorry. But, um, you said you were safe to touch and—”
His control shattered. He’d never had someone embrace him that way. Yes, she’d just been hugging him, he got that. She’d been caught up in her relief. He got that.
Cass just didn’t care.
His arms closed around her, and they tumbled back onto the bed. His gloved hands sank into the thick mass of her hair and his lips crashed down on hers. He knew he should be more careful, he should use more restraint, but…
His control had shattered. All of the needs he’d held in check for so long burst free and he had to kiss her. His mouth locked to hers. Her lips parted beneath his mouth, and her tongue swept out to meet his.
She wasn’t afraid. Wasn’t hesitant. Amber kissed him with a raw need that ignited the dark desires he’d held back for too long. Finally, someone who wasn’t afraid. Finally, someone who wanted him.
He kissed her deeper, harder. Her clothes were between them. His were in the way. He wanted the clothes gone. He wanted them to be flesh to flesh.
He. Wanted. Her.
She gave a little moan and arched up against him. Her hands raked down his back. Her nails bit into his skin. Her lips parted even more as she kissed him and he—
Stopped.
Cass slowly lifted his head. His gaze met hers. His breath heaved in his chest. “What kind of game are you playing?”
She licked the lips he’d just tasted. “What?”
“You think if you act like you want me, I’ll let you go?”
Her pink cheeks darkened even more. “You’re the one who said you wanted to kiss me!”
His legs were between her spread thighs. His hands pushed down on either side of her head. He trapped her beneath him. “I’m the one who wants to fuck you.”
Her pupils definitely expanded. The gold was almost swallowed by the darkness.
“And you expect me to believe,” his voice rasped at her, “that you’re the woman who actually wants Death?” He wasn’t stupid, and this wasn’t the first time prey had tried to trick him for freedom.
“I’m the woman who’s staring up at an idiot,” she snapped.
Cass frowned.
“Get the hell off me!” Then she didn’t wait for him to comply. She shoved against him, hard. Not hard enough to move him. Maybe she was human, after all. Because she sure didn’t seem to have any paranormal strength.
But Cass moved off her. It was either move or give in to the dark lust snaking through his body. He stood by the side of the bed.
She glared up at him.
“Kissing me won’t give you freedom,” he warned her.
Her jaw dropped. Then it snapped closed. Then she was on her feet and jabbing her index finger into his chest. “You kissed me, Reaper. Get that fact straight. You. Kissed. Me. You pushed me onto the bed. You put your mouth on mine. And you were giving me a pretty good kiss—”
Wait. Had she just said only “pretty good”? He actually felt his cheeks burn.
“Then you just blew things to hell.” In apparent disgust, she threw her hands up into the air. “Do you just have no tact or no sense? Because when a woman kisses you and you act as if she’s doing it as some kind of payment or bribe…well, that tends to make a woman feel like crap.”
“I…” He was in way over his head.
“I kissed you because—and this will sound crazy, I know, given our circumstances—I wanted to see what it would be like.”
So did I.
Only, apparently, she’d just thought it was just “pretty good.” Hell. A woman like her probably kissed plenty of men. She had dozens of lovers. Men who would jump if she crooked her finger. Men who would—
“Why are you growling? And are your hands fisting?”
He was growling because he was angry. No, jealous of the unknown men who’d been lucky enough to be near her. His hands were fisting because he was imagining driving his bare hand into the faces of those jerks. Death punch.
“Cass?”
He tried to get his shit together, but his mind was in chaos. The lust still rode him just as hard and his dick was about to shove right out of his jeans. He was not cooling down. “Come with me.” Then he turned on his heel and headed for the bathroom.
“What? Are you crazy? I—ah!”
He looked back and saw her stumbling forwar
d, her right wrist out as she was pulled after him. “Five feet is the limit. I think you can stand outside of the door.”
He marched into the bathroom. She had to follow—at least to the door.
“Wait!” Amber cried out, her voice sharp. “You’re going to use the bathroom? In the middle of our fight? You are so weird! This isn’t normal. Not at all!”
Nothing about him was normal. He yanked on the cold water faucet, sending water plummeting down into the narrow shower stall.
Then he started stripping.
“What are you doing?”
He thought it was pretty obvious. “Cooling down.” Because the lust he felt for her was too strong. He had to get his control back, ASAP.
He left his clothes in a pile and stepped under the water.
Chapter Four
“Man, I am telling you…it was the craziest shit I ever saw!” The vampire paused as his buddy propped his shoulder against the nearby alley wall. “The bartender—you know, that pretty number with the blonde hair—she pulled out her taser and knocked that guy on his ass! She didn’t just hit the bruiser once. She did it twice. Then the guy—he just got up. Like it was nothing. He walked out of the bar without even a second glance. It was like…freaking Halloween shit. He was all Michael Myers up in that place!”
“No way.” His friend was disbelieving. “You are drunk off your ass and making up crap again. You always do this.” He waved toward the vamp. “Go sober up. I’ll see you Monday in Chemistry.” Then he turned and walked away.
“It is not bullshit!” the vampire yelled after him. “That shit is real! It happened. The guy must have been freaking superhuman the way he just jumped back up. Like a horror movie villain or something—and did I mention he was wearing a hood the whole time? A hood and gloves and—”
“I don’t think your story is bullshit,” Leo announced, tired of hiding in the shadows and just listening to the drunk vampire’s story.
The vampire gave a high-pitched yell and then he spun to face Leo. The vamp actually clutched his chest.
Not a real vamp, of course. The blood on the side of his mouth was fake. The fangs were fake. Leo was just looking at a scared frat boy. A human, so Leo would go easy on him. This human wasn’t bad. Just drunk.
“Don’t sneak up on people!” the drunk vamp said—only his words came out in a too fast tumble.
Leo lifted a brow. “I want to hear more about your story.” He waved his hand toward the human. “Tell me everything you remember about the man in the hood.”
The human blinked, once, twice, then he started speaking because he had to follow Leo’s command. “He was about six foot two, maybe three. He wore a gray hoodie over his head, but I saw his eyes. They were bright blue. He had on gloves—black gloves. Looked like leather, but I don’t know if they were.”
“They weren’t.” They were made of something far more valuable. “Keep going.”
“He went to see the bartender. Only had eyes for Amber.”
“Because she’s his prey.” But he won’t keep her. He’ll just deliver her to Luke.
“She tased him and ran. I don’t think she liked him.”
She might not like him, but she’d sought the Reaper’s protection when she could have gone with Leo. She still hates me that much. His chest ached, and Leo rubbed the area over his heart. Few would believe he had a heart.
He did. And Amber owned a very large piece of it.
“Do you know anything else useful?” Leo’s head cocked. “Do you happen to know where Amber lived?”
“Near Jackson Square. In the apartment over the bookstore. I…saw her there one day, when I was out for a jog. A woman like her is hard to miss.”
“Yes. She is.” He stared at the human. “But you’re going to forget her. You’ll forget Amber. You’ll forget the man in the hood. You will walk your ass home and sleep off the booze.”
The vampire nodded. Then he turned away and began walking down the street. Leo waited until the human was out of sight, and then he took to the sky, shooting high up and rushing away. Leo didn’t look back. He didn’t look down…
His thoughts were focused completely on Amber. He had to find her. Had to get to her…before the Reaper delivered Amber back to his brother.
Amber had almost died because of Luke once before. He would not let Luke hurt her again.
***
A weakness.
Gregory Cethin watched from the rooftop as the Lord of the Light flew away. It had been pure chance that he’d been in New Orleans when Leo had come calling. When he’d seen the SUV barreling down the road, when he’d seen the mighty Leo go flying after impact…
Priceless. So he’d just had to hang around. Just had to see what wonders waited for him.
And now, Gregory had a most precious prize. Leo was gone now, vanishing into the sky, but the human was still close by. He jumped from the building and his knees barely buckled when he touched down on the street below. Whistling, he closed in on his prey.
“I like the cape,” he called out to the human.
The guy spun toward him.
“Ah…the fangs are a nice touch, too,” Gregory said. “Gives that realistic edge that vamps need.” He tapped his own fangs. “I mean, how can you bite, without the fangs?”
The human frowned at him. “Do I know you?”
He stalked forward, closing the distance between them and clamping his hand over the human’s shoulder. “You and I…we’re going to be very close.”
“I need to get home—I’m supposed to sleep—”
“You’re going to tell me all about the woman named Amber. You’re going to tell me why Leo was after her…and then you’re going to tell me where I can find her.”
But the human yanked out his fake fangs. “Look, buddy, I don’t know anything—”
No, he probably didn’t, if Leo’s compulsion had wiggled into his brain. It was a good thing that Gregory knew how to work around that pesky compulsion. “Wrong answer.” Gregory jerked the human forward and sank his teeth into the fellow’s throat. Unlike the frat boy, he didn’t have fake fangs. His razor sharp teeth sliced deep. The human tried to scream, but Gregory just clamped his hand over the guy’s mouth. He drank deep, taking plenty of that sweet blood. And then, when he was sure his victim was too weak to fight, he pulled his teeth out of the guy’s throat.
“Now let’s try that again,” Gregory murmured. His hand rose from the human’s mouth as he gazed at the fool. He’d just made a blood bond between them. A bond that would shatter Leo’s compulsion. “You will tell me what I want to know…”
Because he’d spent years searching for a tool that he could use against Leo and his asshole brother Luke. And if he’d finally found a weapon in his battle…
I will use her until there is nothing left. I will use her, and the twins will be destroyed.
Leo had applied his mind control magic on the human, but Gregory had just created a blood bond between them. He would get the truth from the human…and if the guy resisted too hard, then Gregory would just fucking kill him.
Why would he care if another human died?
If he had his way…Leo would die, too. Leo…Luke…everyone in his way.
Because Gregory had plans. Big, fucking plans…and it was time for him to take the power that had always been destined to be his.
Chapter Five
Staring was rude. She shouldn’t stare. Amber knew that.
But…something else that was rude? Kidnapping a woman. Handcuffing her with magic.
Stripping in front of her.
So if Cass didn’t want her staring at his awesome ass, then maybe he shouldn’t have handcuffed her in the first place. Or stripped.
So Amber just propped her shoulders against the door frame and stared through the glass shower door at Cass. There was no steam drifting in the air—nothing to block her vision. From what she could tell, the guy had jumped into an ice cold shower.
That was actually a bit flattering.
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He was totally naked. He’d even ditched those all-important gloves of his. The water crashed over him. His hands were flattened against the tiled wall, his head tilted down, and his shoulders hunched. He had some seriously broad shoulders—and he had a big, dark tattoo on his right shoulder. What was that, exactly?
She inched a bit closer to him as she tried to make out the design of that tat. The top looked like some kind of long, curving blade and—
Amber sucked in a sharp breath. It was a scythe.
Her lips parted. Okay. That was a little scary. But then, Cass was scarier.
He was also sexy. She should not find him sexy. She did. Sometimes, Amber thought she might be too much like Luke. Because she definitely had a dark side.
Cass’s head turned. That bright stare pierced her through the glass.
“It’s not helping.” His voice was a low rumble.
She blinked. “Um, excuse me?”
He moved to fully face her and she realized exactly what wasn’t being helped. The guy was aroused, most impressively aroused, and no, the cold water didn’t seem to be helping his condition.
“I want you.”
She could see that. But Amber spun on her heel, giving him her back. “Not happening, Reaper. Those hands of yours are bare, and if you think I’m in the mood for an up-close and personal dance with death, you need to think again.”
In response, she just heard the water thundering down behind her.
Nervous, Amber kept talking. “Besides, if you’re trying to woo a woman into your bed, kidnapping isn’t a good first step. You probably should try flowers. Chocolate. Definitely chocolate. Not handcuffs. Save that stuff for later, you know? When you find out what kind of kink she likes.”
The water kept pouring down.
Amber risked a glance back at him. His eyes were still on her. Her gaze dropped. Oh, yes, definitely still turned on. She swallowed. “I need to get out of here.” And she stumbled forward but she just got a few inches past the door frame when she was jerked back.
Stupid invisible tie.
Bam.
“I am really hating you right now,” she muttered. Being stuck to him via a five-foot tether sucked.