Burning Up

by Nalini Singh

"What're you going to call her?" Ria asked after everyone had piled into the room and reassured themselves that both mother and baby were fine.

  "Joy," Jet said, touching one gentle finger to the baby's cheek. "That's what she is--our Joy."

  "It's a beautiful name."

  "Yeah. Amber wants to use Nana's name as a middle name." He drifted to his wife's side as if drawn there, curling his hand around hers. Though her face was lined with tiredness, Amber smiled. "Hey you."

  Ria began to nudge everyone out of the room.

  Half an hour later, Emmett used Simon's car to drop off Amber's parents, along with Alex and Miaoling, since none of them were in any condition to drive, before returning to pick up Ria and her father. Simon got into the passenger seat, as Ria slid into the back. Emmett could feel the older man's focus on him as they drove and it was no surprise to hear Simon say, "Ri, go inside. We'll be in in a moment."

  Ria looked from one man to the other. Emmett shook his head in a slight negative when she went to open her mouth. Pursing her lips, she got out and entered the house. Emmett glanced at Simon. "I'll take care of her."

  "She's special," Simon said, looking him straight in the eye. "We lost a baby girl to a late-pregnancy miscarriage a year after Jet was born. We weren't the same after . . . but then Ria came. She healed us. She's our heart."

  Emmett nodded, fully comprehending the sheer depth of everyone's terror at the hospital tonight. "I understand." And he did. Because she was his heartbeat, too.

  A pause. Then Simon opened the door and got out. "I'll send Ria to you. Save you sneaking up the wall."

  Emmett winced. "Um . . ."

  Simon's lips curved. "Ask me sometime about how I used to get into Alex's room when we were high school students."

  Emmett was still grinning when Ria slid into the passenger seat. Before she could say anything, he started up the engine again. "Think your dad would mind if we took the car for a spin?"

  "No, but where are we going?"

  "For a little ride." Putting the vehicle into hover-drive, he took them out of the city, and through the red arches of the bridge that had been there so long, the world couldn't imagine San Francisco without it.

  Ria sat back, releasing a sigh. "I'm so glad everyone's okay."

  "Even me?"

  "Even the idiot who got himself shot up when I specifically told him not to."

  The leopard batted playfully at her sharp response, delighted by her. "Just checking." Passing the main lookout on the other side of the bridge, he drove up a "secret" route that all the high schoolers knew about.

  "Hey, where does this go?" She twisted around. "I've never been up here."

  "Mink, you must've been one hell of a good kid."

  "I admit my nerdiness with pride." She made a choked up sound of surprise when she saw four other cars parked at the top, all of them a good distance from each other. "You brought us to a make-out spot?"

  "How else was I supposed to get my hands on you?" Parking the car at the end of the dirt lot, he slid away the manual controls, then reached over and undid Ria's safety belt. "Come here."

  Laughter danced in her eyes as she shifted over to straddle him, knees on the seat on either side of his thighs. "We are not making out in my parents' car."

  "Yes, we are. That's the rule. You think those kids own those cars?" He nodded out the window. "Exactly."

  Ria's smile softened, grew serious. "I was so scared for you, Emmett."

  "Hey." He pressed his lips to hers. "I can't promise you I'll never be hurt, but I can promise that I'll do everything in my power to come back to you every day."

  Her lips trembled. "If you don't, I'll come after you."

  "I know." After seeing her at the hospital, he finally understood what she'd been trying to tell him all this time--Ria might be small and vulnerably human, but she was also strong enough to take anything the world threw at her, a warrior in her own way. It was time he started treating her like one. "You want to hear how it went down?"

  A jerky nod.

  "Okay, we have the truck surrounded, and we've blocked off the streets he could use to drive out, so he's a rat in a cage. We wait till nightfall." He unbuttoned the first three buttons on her shirt.

  "Emmett!"

  "It's to make the bad memories go away."

  Giving a burst of stifled laughter, she thrust her fingers through his hair as he pressed a kiss to the delicate skin between her breasts. "God, you're pretty, mink. I'm gonna kiss you all over next time."

  "I like that song."

  "Me, too." Another kiss before he straightened. "So, everything's going to plan. Problem is, Vincent's smart. He's got the immediate area around his truck set up with sensors. No way to get to the truck without alerting him."

  "But you were sure he was in there?"

  "We saw him come out earlier in the day--"

  "How did you know what he looked like?"

  Smart question. Nothing less than he expected from his mate. "No need. It was obvious he was the alpha dog."

  "Go on."

  He ran his finger down her bared skin, undoing a few more buttons along the way. His leopard rose to the forefront, possessive and oh-so-hungry.

  TEN

  Breathing past the desire to simply take, he continued. "It was clear we wouldn't be able to get into the truck even if we somehow got past the alarms--thing was armored like a tank. No windows, no visible vents. So we threw something at the back doors."

  Ria blinked. "High-tech."

  "All we needed was one of the goons to open the doors. Soon as he did, we shot in so many canisters of tear gas, they couldn't throw them all back." He'd finished unbuttoning her shirt, but she was too involved in the story to notice. The cat grinned. "Bastards had to come pouring out eventually. But the morons came out shooting, even though they couldn't see a target."

  "You got shot by accident?" she asked, as if it was his fault.

  "I got shot by morons." He bent to press kisses along the creamy upper curves of her breasts. "Aside from two lucky shots, they were useless. We had them down on their knees in seconds."

  "What did you do to them?"

  Looking up, he met her gaze. "I'm a leopard, Ria. I protect what's mine."

  "I know." Absolute acceptance in her eyes, her face.

  "I was the one to take Vincent down--and maybe he got a little banged up in the process, but we turned the whole lot of them over to Enforcement."

  "Really?"

  "Scout's honor." He smiled, letting the leopard out to play. "Turns out the Crew killed two cops in cold blood only a few hours before our takedown. Enforcement was real happy to take them in."

  "Two birds, one stone," she murmured. "Vincent never again sees the light of day, and you make friends in Enforcement."

  "And," he said, knowing she needed to know everything, "by taking down the Crew so completely, we gave notice to the Psy Council that we're here to stay."

  Ria's eyes darkened. "They'll make trouble for you if they think you're a threat."

  "Yeah."

  "Good thing you cats are so tough." A soft whisper that told him she'd stand by him, no matter what.

  Proud of her courage, he said, "We did let one goon go."

  "Why?"

  "So he could take a message to the famiglia up north. Anyone else comes down, we'll be sending them back in little tiny pieces. And then we'll come up and do the same to those who gave the orders."

  "Would you really?"

  "What do you think?"

  "I think family comes first." She smiled. "You did something else. I can tell."

  He began to slip her shirt off her shoulders. "We have some expert hackers. Maybe the big bosses found their data compromised and pictures of leopards as screen savers."

  Ria's body began to shake as the shirt dropped to the floor. Her laughter was infectious--the leopard purred into her mouth as he took it in a slow, deep kiss. She kissed him back with an intensity that was pure Ria, then slid her mouth over
his jaw and up to nibble on his ear. He was stroking his hand down to cup her breast when she screamed and jerked back.

  He knew she was saying something, but he couldn't hear it, his entire body in agony.

  Mouth snapping shut as her eyes fell on his face, Ria touched her fingers to a point below Emmett's right ear. "Oh, God." She realized his ears were bleeding. Her heart almost stopped. "Emmett?"

  His eyes were hazy--he was clearly in pain. And still, she saw him turn to look for whatever it was that had made her scream. But the little spider on the headrest was long gone, scared by her stupid reaction. "Okay," she said. "Okay." A few contortions and she managed to get her shirt back on. Fastening a single button between her breasts, she slid back Emmett's door and half scrambled, half fell out of the vehicle.

  Once out, she pushed at his shoulders, trying to get him into the passenger seat. He finally seemed to get the message and slid over, his movements nowhere near as graceful as usual. Instead, he slumped heavily into the seat and mimed writing.

  Grabbing the purse she'd left on the dash, she pulled out the tiny notepad and pen she always carried. Emmett took it and wrote down an address, with the name Tammy at the top.

  "Tamsyn." Nodding, Ria started up the car. The healer was a little ways out of the city, but if Emmett wanted to go to her rather than to Emergency, Ria wasn't going to argue.

  It was the worst drive she'd ever made. Emmett touched his knuckles to the back of her cheek ten minutes into the journey, but his tenderness only made her feel worse. Fighting off tears, she drove as fast as she dared and made it to Tamsyn's just after one in the morning. Emmett slid back his own door and was out by the time she got to him. He swayed, as if he'd lost his center of balance.

  Pulling his arm around her shoulders, she began to walk him to the door. It was wrenched open before they reached the first step. Nathan, who Ria had met during his watch on her parents' house, walked out, followed by Tamsyn. The healer was wearing a kimono-style robe in vivid blue, but it was her eyes that stole the scene, night-glow in the darkness.

  "What happened?" she asked, coming to a stop in front of Emmett.

  Tears streamed down Ria's face. "I screamed right next to his ear."

  "Is that all?" Lifting her hands, the healer cupped them gently over Emmett's ears. "It won't take long to heal. He'll be extra-sensitive for a week, but after that, his hearing will go back to normal."

  Ria felt Emmett squeeze her shoulders, his eyes already looking clearer. But she didn't breathe easy until Tamsyn drew back her hands and said, "There."

  Emmett turned to Ria. "What was it?"

  "A spider," she admitted, shamefaced. "Teeny, tiny."

  "Scared of spiders, mink?" He drew her into his embrace.

  "Very." Her eyes met Tamsyn's. "Thank you."

  "No problem." Touching her fingers gently to Ria's cheek, she took the damp towel Nathan held out to her. "For the blood."

  As Ria accepted the soft cloth with a murmur of thanks, Nathan jerked his head toward the house. "I'll leave the door open if you want to come in."

  "No." Emmett shook his head. "I have to get Ria home."

  The couple headed in with a wave. Reaching up, Ria dabbed away the blood with careful hands. Emmett bent his head and let her do what she needed to do. Only when his face was clear did he take the towel and put it on the hood of the car. "You gonna look at me anytime soon?"

  She shook her head. "I'm so sorry, Emmett."

  "Hey, it wasn't that bad." He tipped up her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. "Excruciating, but otherwise not that bad."

  Guilt threatened to crush her. Then she caught the glint in his eye. "Emmett, if I didn't love you so much, I'd kill you right now."

  His eyes went night-glow between one second and the next. "What did you say?"

  That was when she realized she'd given away everything. Her heart in her throat, she swallowed. "I said I love you."

  Emmett cupped her cheek in his hand, those amazing, wild eyes becoming impossibly wilder. "Say that again."

  She did.

  Emmett's smile was slow, possessive, brilliant. "I love you, too, mink."

  Her lips trembled. Throwing her arms around him, she let him pick her up and kiss the air right out of her. Sometime later, he said, "You're my mate. Think you can handle that?"

  It was hard to speak with her heart bursting open. "Think you can handle me?"

  "So long as you're gentle with me."

  And she knew he was going to tease her about this for the rest of their lives. Her smile almost cracked her face, she was so delighted by the idea.

  EPILOGUE

  Of course Dorian flirted shamelessly with Ria at her and Emmett's mating ceremony. But Emmett didn't carry through his threat to eviscerate the younger man. Because Ria was his now, and Dorian, like every other man in DarkRiver, would rather die than cross that line.

  His leopard smiled indulgently as the blond soldier danced Emmett's mate into a whirl, then caught her laughing form. Her eyes met Emmett's over Dorian's shoulder and she blew him a kiss. Smiling, he decided he'd shared his mate quite enough. "Go find another partner, Blondie."

  Dorian released Ria with a mournful smile. "But I like your mink." Dodging Emmett's swipe, he walked off with a cocky grin.

  "Is your pack always like this?" Ria asked, looking up at him, her arms wrapped around his waist.

  "Crazy?"

  "That, too. But so . . . like family."

  "Yep. Pack is family."

  A frown gathered between her brows. "What about my parents, grandmother, my brothers, Amber, and Joy--will they be shut out now?"

  "They're family, too," he told her. "Sometimes, they might wish they weren't." Grinning, he directed her gaze to where poor Amber and Joy were being "looked after." The changelings weren't touching either mother or baby, but it was obvious they wanted to. Then Ria noticed the beautiful handcrafted baby blanket being held out to Amber. Her sister-in-law looked stunned . . . before a slow smile crept over her face.

  "We like kids," Emmett whispered in her ear.

  Pressing herself to him, she stood on tiptoe to whisper back. "Me, too."

  He squeezed her close.

  "How come you took so long to find me?" she asked.

  "Stupidity." A nip of her ear. "But now that I have you, I'm never letting go."

  Ria smiled and kissed the edge of his jaw. "Who says I'd let you?"

  Laughing, Emmett spun her off her feet and around in a dizzying circle. Ria met her grandmother's eyes halfway through the first rotation. Miaoling was holding court with the young ones, but her smile was just for Ria. And Ria knew her grandmother understood.

  Emmett was it for her. Forever. No matter what.

  It was, she thought, looking down into eyes gone cat in joyful play, perfect.

  The San Francisco Gazette

  January 1, 2073

  CITY BEAT

  A New Wind

  It seems that certain statements made in this column last year were prescient in the extreme. According to every person we spoke to during our research for today's column, the real power in San Francisco is no longer seen to lie with our elected representatives, but with a group of leopard changelings. Perhaps it's these cats who should be sitting in local government?

  Lucas Hunter, the DarkRiver alpha, had this to say when I put the point to him: "We have no desire to stand for office. But we consider San Francisco our home--and we take threats to that home, and to the people within it, very seriously."

  Bravo, Mr. Hunter. As far as this reporter is concerned, DarkRiver has proven both its determination, and its right, to hold the city. San Francisco is unequivocally a leopard town.

  BLOOD AND ROSES

  Angela Knight

  ONE

  The vampire knew how to sit on a horse. He rode with an easy muscularity despite his armor, achieving an effortless rhythm with his huge black stallion. A helm covered his head, red plumes floating in the wind, and gleaming plate mail she
athed his big body, so that he moved with the creak mail sheathed his big body, so that he moved with the creak of leather and the scrape of steel on steel.

  He was surrounded by a small troop of mounted men who maintained an alert, professional silence, their armor glinting in the light of the floating spell globes that danced over their heads. As befitted humans riding so close to Varil territory, they rode warily, with hands on sword hilts, crossbows, or spears.

  They were still doomed.

  Brooding, Amaris watched them ride through the wooded valley below. She and the three with her were shielded by a spell designed to conceal them from human or vampire senses. Their targets had no idea they were being watched.

  Feeling her gorge rise in a sick wave, Amaris swallowed hard. The sense of evil surrounding her made her skin creep. I should warn them. I can't just sit back and watch them all die.

  A male hand clamped over Amaris's knee with a force that made her kneecap creak and the leggy roan mare dance beneath her. "If you betray us," Tannaz said, serene as a priest, "I will see Marin's soul feeds the Orb. It will be a very slow death." He smiled, all chilling charm. "And I will slit your eyelids away and make you watch."

  "Get your hands off me, murderer," Amaris snarled, as much in fury at herself as her captor.

  Another mocking smile flashed white through the visor of his helm. "Is that any way to talk to your beloved father?"

  " 'Beloved?' " She let her loathing fill her eyes. But he was right, damn him. Anything she tried to do for those poor bastards would get Marin killed. She'd sworn to her mother's ghost to protect her sister, a vow she would not break.

  The two Varil raiders who stood to either side produced the grunting hiss that served their kind as laughter. They were massive creatures, bodies roped with muscle under iridescent reptilian scales, eyes glowing orange as coals in the darkness. They smelled like snakes. They wore no armor, and needed none with their thick hides. Clawed hands carried battle axes with blades the size of a warrior's shield.

  It was said they'd once been human. Amaris doubted it.

  What in the name of all the gods am I doing here?

  Raniero rode in wariness, vampire senses alert for any attack, mystical or otherwise. Though the kingdom's magical barriers should keep Varilian raiders out, sometimes the vicious bastards got through. And considering the king's suspicions about Wizard Lord Korban, Raniero was not inclined to take chances.