by E A Price
Ryder didn’t feel accommodating and stepped out of the way, enjoying the fire in his little vampire. Fire usually reserved for him, but he was happy to share the wealth.
Juliet glowered. “Who’s Joanne?”
“I am,” came an irritated voice behind them. A second too late Ryder sniffed and looked up to see Kevin’s girlfriend.
Lioness rumbled his beast a tad shamefully – he really should have scented and heard her the moment she opened the door. Lionesses could be sneaky bitches. He found that out the hard way. Not all his scars were from fighting; some were courtesy of ex-girlfriends.
Joanne scowled at them. She was naturally stocky and had a square, pugnacious face. “Who are you? What are you doing in my apartment?” Her golden eyes zeroed in on Kevin, virtually making him jump. “Who are they? You know you’re not supposed to have friends over when I’m not here.”
Ryder’s tiger shuddered. Yep, from experience he knew her type all right. He bet if he looked in the fridge he’d find all the food was marked with her name. Bossy, sneaky bitch.
If Kevin wasn’t worried before, he sure as figs was now.
Juliet took a moment to drink all of the six-foot lioness in. Ryder pondered whether he would have to forgo his no hitting girls rule. To be fair, Joanne was hardly feminine, and she looked like she could throw a mean punch. Even his tiger wouldn’t want to meet her in a dark alley.
“I’m Juliet,” said his mate at last. “SEA.”
Joanne flickered for the tiniest shade of a second, yet neither Ryder nor Juliet failed to see it. In that shade, they knew they’d met their killer.
Save for Kevin’s almost asthmatic breathing; the room was dead silent. Ryder could hear his heart beating like a drum, competing with the growls of his inner beast.
Juliet just smiled benignly while Joanne turned redder and redder, sweat trickling down her face until finally, she howled. Her clothes shredded as her animal exploded, hurling herself at the vampire.
Ryder roared and shifted to his own beast, throwing himself in front of Juliet. Trying to protect her, even if she seemed strangely unconcerned by the lioness.
Juliet held up a slim pale hand. “Stop,” she commanded.
The sabre-tooth’s jaw virtually hit the floor. What the hell was she doing? She was standing there saying ‘stop’ to a ruthless lioness?!
Even more surprising, was the fact that the lioness did stop in her tracks. Her claws scraped along the floorboards as she forced herself to halt in her tracks. The tiger looked between the two of them. The lioness was growling lowly, her tail swishing as she stood before Juliet. She wasn’t moving, but she sure didn’t look happy about it.
Juliet, despite her small stature, looked magnificent. Her dark eyes sparkled. Power and dominance oozed from her. Ryder felt a twinge of pride for his mate.
“Shift,” she purred.
Grumbling, Joanne did, limbs cracking and reforming into an angry looking young woman.
Juliet nodded her head at him and told him to shift. He shrugged, and she pouted again. He didn’t feel the urge to do as she said, but he would anyway. Can’t have his mate put out. Besides he could never spend too much naked time around her…
*
Ryder really needed to find some clothes. For Juliet’s sake, he needed to be dressed. Or rather, for his sake.
It really had been a while since she last had sex, and the sight of his naked body, the acreage of tanned, taut muscle was not conducive to her staying un-debauched. The desire to remove the indecently small towel covering his man bits and ride him until she was hoarse from screaming so loud was disturbingly powerful. She bit her lip. His butt really was just begging to get bitten.
Joanne confessed to murdering Carrie. She was jealous that Kevin was still in love with her and he was still hoping Carrie would return to him. Joanne admitted she was the one who spread the rumor that Carrie was going to mate the vampire to try and snap Kevin out of his puppy-dog love. She told a couple of vampires she went to college with, and they must have passed it on to other vampires they knew… eventually, it must have made it to the council member, Julian. She would have to question Julian about that when she met up with him later. Not something she was looking forward to.
Her assignment was to apprehend the person or persons who killed Carrie as well as the vampire she was involved with and deliver them all to the vampire elders. She hadn’t done either of those things and wasn’t going to either.
Julian assumed his information was correct and assumed Carrie was about to mate a vampire. He also assumed she was murdered for that reason. Neither of those things was true, but vampires weren’t known for being particularly flexible. Neither Julian nor the rest of the elders were going to be happy with her.
Juliet hesitated for a moment before she arrested Joanne, but only for a moment. Arresting her and handing her over to the SEA was the right thing to do.
Now, she was watching while Avery and Isis, a lioness and tiger shifter, took Joanne’s confession once again. She didn’t deviate much from what she told Juliet at her apartment. Except instead of anger, she was now wallowing in self-pity and claiming she only did it because she loved Kevin so much.
The short, gangly asthmatic human flashed before her eyes and Juliet repressed a snort - snorting was unladylike. Ryder stretched out beside her and Juliet forced herself not to peek at him. Just a small whip of her hand would pull that darn towel away…
Gunner entered the viewing room at that moment, and Juliet let out an unexpected snarl. The huge polar bear shifter raised an eyebrow and Ryder struggled not to smile at her. She was certainly glad she was no longer able to blush.
“Do you think you can find some pants for him?” grumbled Juliet, cocking her head at Ryder.
Gunner nodded and said to Ryder, “Go down one floor to the gym. There’s a llama shifter there about your size with spare clothes.”
“Luis?” queried Juliet.
“Yep.”
Luis kept about eight changes of clothing in case of emergency for every situation. He used to be a model and was very fashion forward. Or at least, he told her he was fashion forward, she honestly wasn’t impressed by some of his ensembles.
Ryder didn’t want to go but after some very pointed looks and sighs from Juliet he did. Though not before rubbing his hand up and down her arm, bestowing her with some more of his scent. Not to mention the warning glare he threw at Gunner.
Gunner looked at her curiously when Ryder finally left. “Want me to get a restraining order for him?”
“No, there’s no need. He’s…” She was going to say harmless, but she doubted that would ever be true about him. Instead, she cleared her throat. “You don’t look pleased,” she commented.
“It’s nothing, ma’am.”
“Really?”
“Just not sure why you took over the case… ma’am.” He looked almost disgruntled. As though her taking the case away from him was due to the belief that she didn’t think he could handle it. Men and their egos.
“Why don’t we just say politics and leave it at that.”
Gunner nodded, mildly appeased and not wanting to take the matter any further.
The interview was wrapping up, and she decided it was time to speak to Julian. She excused herself from Gunner and to her irritation, found the insipid Kevin loitering in the hallway.
“Mr. Fleegman, you can go home.”
“What’s going to happen to Joanne?” he asked, rubbing his hands nervously.
Juliet regarded him a little more kindly. He really was worried about his girlfriend, or at least she thought so until he said, “Will I be able to stay in her apartment while she’s in prison?”
She ignored him, sweeping past him, deaf to his whines. She found Ryder decked out in a pair of yellow pants leaning against her car.
“Snazzy,” she commented.
Ryder scowled and pulled the car keys out of her hand. “That’s enough lip. You sweet thing, have a lot of explaining to do.”
<
br /> “Perhaps,” she admitted, “but I have a stop to make first.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Julian tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair. Juliet kept her eyes on a spot just above his head. In her haste to inform him of the arrest, she didn’t think to call ahead and let him know she was coming. Finding Julian in flagrante delicto with his human maid was not something Juliet wanted to do again.
Even now the maid was lying naked on the bed, exhausted and still cooing in pleasure. Meanwhile Julian was sitting across from her, dressed only in a short robe and clearly sporting an erection. Apparently, the maid wasn’t going to get much of a break before round two.
She had offered hopefully to come back later, but he wouldn’t hear of it. So, now she was desperately trying not to look anywhere near the danger areas on Julian’s body, while not gagging on the heady smell of sex.
He wasn’t happy on hearing that she had handed Joanne over to the SEA, but she was managing to persuade him it was the right thing to do.
“The elders may still wish to speak to you.”
Juliet certainly wasn’t pleased to hear that, but she understood. Older vampires tended to be very rigid. The elders were old and could spend years pondering matters that humans would only spend hours on.
Since taking on the job as director of the Los Lobos SEA, she’d been before the elders a number of times. Each time was a knee-knocking experience and not one she wanted to repeat.
“If they wish to question Petrov themselves…”
“They probably will,” admitted Julian with a rueful chuckle, “though I doubt he was lying. He is an older vampire and known to a number of the elders. I doubt they would worry about him mating with a shifter.”
“Who was your source on this?” she asked. It was something that had been niggling her from the start.
“One of my young turns.”
Juliet blinked at him.
“Youngish,” he admitted, “a little over a hundred.”
Vampires were very choosy about their turnings. They had to be; otherwise, the world could be overrun by vampires. In comparison to humans and even shifters, there were a very small amount of vampires around. In spite of a large amount of the vampire population griping about the world being overrun by walking meals, truthfully they liked to keep it that way. Vampires needed their food in strong supply, and they didn’t want too much competition.
Juliet had never turned anyone. The few times she had even considered taking humans as lovers, they had begged and pleaded with her to turn them, but she didn’t want that. They soon left her when they realized they wouldn’t get what they wanted. She just couldn’t bring herself to do that to anyone.
However, since the SEA began life, it was now law that all turnings had to be licensed. There were one or two exceptions. Like if the vampire and human were true mates, and the vampire was forced to turn them in life and death conditions. Though they would be rigorously questioned over the matter after when the newly turned vampire registered with them. The SEA had a whole department for vampire affairs – it was mostly paperwork and interviewing snippy vampires. Even though she was a vampire, she could take them or leave them.
“He currently holds a teaching position at the University Carrie and Joanne attended, so it would certainly explain how he heard the unfounded rumor.” Julian ran a tongue over his fangs thoughtfully. “The elders wanted to talk to the killer first.”
“Well… tough.”
It was Julian’s turn to blink at her.
“The world has rules,” she said, “and they have no jurisdiction when it comes to talking to her. I’m willing to give them my report, but that’s all they can get.”
“Laws and rules mean little to vampires. We live so long we watch as they change and bend. Nothing is set in stone.”
“Well, the rules of the SEA were created by humans, shifters, and vampires, so maybe they should mean something.”
This would be the point where if she could hold her breath, she would. Julian eyed her for the longest moments of her life before he finally nodded.
He actually smiled at her, though it wasn’t particularly comforting. It gave her the same feeling people probably got while stranded in the middle of the ocean while sharks were circling.
“You are quite wise for someone so young.”
Juliet bit her cheek – hard and with fangs – at that. No one in their right mind would call her young.
“I will try to convince the other elders that this is the best possible scenario.”
He nodded at her, and she almost sagged in relief that she was being dismissed, were it not for the next thing he said.
“Why do you smell like shifter?”
*
With relief, Ryder saw Juliet walking to the car. She didn’t look happy, but she looked whole and unhurt.
She had been adamant about him not going in there with her, even trying to resort to the whole dominatrix thing where she told him no. That didn’t work, but he didn’t want to upset her particularly, so he agreed to wait in the car while she had her super secret vampire meeting.
His sabre-tooth curled his lip in annoyance. He didn’t like their mate keeping secrets from them. Patience soothed Ryder. She would tell them everything. He was sure of it. He was sure she wanted to tell him everything, sure she wanted to mate him.
That reminded him, he really needed to talk to someone about that garbage she was spouting about not being able to mate him.
Admittedly, for a second, he wondered if that was right, and maybe he had been mistaken about her being his mate. Then his tiger gave him a paw-slap upside the head, and he came to his senses. No, she was his – no doubt. He wanted her, needed her with every fiber of his being, and that was the end of it.
He just needed to figure out where she got her screwy information from, and how he could make her forget it to mate with him.
Juliet got in the car and slammed the door none too delicately, making the whole vehicle rock.
“Good meeting?” he asked innocently.
She snarled at him, cutely.
“Want me to beat him up?”
Her lips pursed. “I appreciate the offer, but you getting beaten up won’t make things better.”
His tiger roared, affronted by her assumption. How dare she?!
It must have shown on his face because she started giggling. “No offense, darling, but honestly, I doubt I’ve met more than about five people in my life who could physically best Julian. He’s small but old and strong. To strong even for your muscles.”
Okay. She was probably right about that, even if his beast didn’t want to admit it.
“If it’s any consolation, I’m sure you’d get a few good punches in,” she added.
Ryder pretended to ponder that for a second and then made his pecs dance, sending her into peals of laughter.
As her mirth died, a warm smile remained on her face. “He accepted the Joanne situation, but he chastised me for the company I’m keeping. He could smell you on me.” She gave her jacket an experimental sniff and frowned.
Ryder gave her a toothy grin. “Not the first time a girl’s been told to stay away from me.”
“I’ll bet,” she bit out, her eyes glittering darkly as her good mood evaporated.
His tiger preened. “Don’t be jealous, sweet thing, you know you’re the only woman – dead or alive – for me.”
“Aha.”
Juliet looked out the window, and the mood in the car became noticeably frosty.
Ryder grunted angrily. “Filling your head with more crap about how vamps and shifters can’t mate.”
Juliet flashed her fangs at him. “It’s not crap! This is serious.”
“How do you even know it’s true? It could just be some story all parents tell to their kids as a warning.” Except in this scenario, the parents are makers, and the kids are newly turned vampires.
“It’s true because it’s happened before.”
“Pfft!
”
“Don’t pfft me! According to history, there were three vampire brothers, right?”
“Right.” All that reading was paying off, and to think, this was the first time he’d picked up a book since he left school. Other than that time he pretended to be buying one to get into that mountain lion shifter’s pants.
“Wrong! There were four brothers. After a couple of hundred years of being alive, the fourth brother tried to mate with a wolf shifter. He died, all the other vampires he had created died, and the wolf shifter went feral and had to be put down. This isn’t just some hokey old wife’s tale – this is serious!”
Ryder looked at her uncertainly. This required more research. Nothing he had read mentioned the fourth brother, but Juliet wasn’t the type to make up something so elaborate.
“Why would all the vampires he turned die?” he asked slowly.
She rolled her shoulders. “Supposedly because they shared his blood.”
“Technically so did his brothers and his mother – but they didn’t die.”
Juliet’s eye twitched. “No,” she said slowly, “but they didn’t share his blood – they never drank it to turn into a vampire, they just had similar DNA.”
“Hmmm.” Ryder tapped the wheel. “So why would mating a shifter cause so much death?”
“Incompatible magic is the most common belief. Vampires were created by dark magic, and dark magic allows us to create more vampires using our blood. Shifters also have a little magic in them, which allows them to shift into animals and also allows them to bond with other shifters and humans.”
“Vampires can also bond with humans and…”
“Yes,” she interrupted impatiently, “but humans don’t have any magic in them at all.”
“But vampires can mate with witches, and they have magic.”
Juliet opened her mouth to argue and then snapped it shut before glaring at him. “Look, the truth is, a lot of my kind died the last time a vampire tried to mate with a shifter. It was shocking enough that mating shifters is forbidden and scares vampires enough that they would do anything to make sure no vampire tries it again.”
The truth dawned on Ryder. “That’s why you had this case.”