Deadly Is the Kiss

by Rhyannon Byrd

  It was a direct order, but as soon as the door slammed shut behind him, Juliana scrambled off the bed. She had no intention of hiding out like a coward when he might be facing God only knew what downstairs.

  Dressing as quickly as she could, Juliana pulled on her jeans and T-shirt, then opened the door and crept barefoot into the hallway. The sounds of fighting were louder in the hall, the staircase at the far end leading down to the bar. Someone shouted something that sounded like “Fucking assassins!” but she couldn’t tell who it was. Knox, maybe? As she neared the top of the stairs, she could see crazy shadows thrown against the wall, the sounds coming from below more animal than man. Something made a hissing catlike sound, the thick, musky scent in the air belonging to what must have been a cat-shifter of some sort.

  Actually, it smelled like a lot of cat-shifters, and fear slithered down her spine.

  Releasing the talons at the tips of her fingers, she kept close to the wall as she started down the stairs, the open area of the bar coming into view on her right about halfway down. With her heart in her throat, she spotted Ashe fighting what looked like four leopard shifters near the entrance, the cats in their partially shifted forms. They stood on their hind legs, like a human, but were covered with spotted fur and had animal-shaped heads. It was terrifying, knowing Ashe was in danger, but it was also breathtaking to watch his sexy body in action, his chest gleaming as he punched and slashed, his muscles rippling beneath the dark sheen of his skin. The leopards were good, but Ashe was better, and he fought dirty as hell, which she kind of liked.

  Shaking her head at her ridiculous fascination with the man, when she should have been scared out of her mind, Juliana scanned the rest of the room, catching sight of Knox in the middle of the floor, battling against another group of leopards. Knox had long claws at the tips of his fingers, and a vicious set of fangs, but she still couldn’t figure out exactly what kind of shifter he was. Then he let out a bellowing, ear-shattering roar, the sound deep and guttural, reminding her of a furious bear. She knew the species’ numbers were small, but would have been willing to bet her life’s savings, if she had any, that Knox was a grizzly.

  Though most of the patrons seemed to be making for the exit as quickly as possible, about ten to fifteen of them hung back to face off against the leopards. For a gang of assassins, it was a big one. Especially seeing as how leopards were known to be solitary creatures.

  From the looks of things, they obviously had no problem fighting together when there was enough money on the line.

  Torn between wanting to help with the fight and worried she’d just get in the way, Juliana tried to stay out of view, deciding she’d only intervene if Ashe or Knox needed her help. It would have been a sound plan, if one of the leopards Knox was fighting hadn’t caught sight of her crouching on the stairs. He must have been shown her picture, because he immediately recognized her as his prey. With a sly smile, the shifter leaped across the ten feet separating them, clearing the railing to land on the steps just below her. She hissed, kicking out at him in a move that Micah had taught her, but he caught her ankle, his claws digging into her skin in a brutal, crushing hold.

  She’d trained for combat, along with the rest of her family, the ability to fight a necessary skill if you wanted to survive in the Wasteland. But the assassin was so freaking strong, it was like trying to escape from a steel manacle. Kicking out with her free leg, Juliana landed a solid blow against his jaw, but it didn’t even make him flinch. Accepting the fact that she would never be able to pull free, she flexed her talons. She was about to throw herself at him, clawing at his face and throat, prepared to fight with everything that she had, when the sound of gunshots ricocheted through the air. Bam bam.

  Flicking a quick glance across the room, she spotted the blonde who had served them drinks the night before standing on the bar, a large automatic handgun in her hand. Bullets wouldn’t kill the leopards, but they’d slow the assholes down enough that Ashe and Knox could quickly finish the job.

  A wet gurgling sound drew Juliana’s attention back to the shifter trapping her ankle, her bile rising at the spray of blood streaming from his throat, a bullet hole piercing his Adam’s apple. His grip on her ankle grew lax as he slumped to the side, and she wasted no time pulling her leg free. Moving back to her feet, she was ready to heed Ashe’s original command and get her ass back to the room, when she looked up and found two more of the shifters leaping toward her, the gunshot probably what had drawn their attention.

  It had drawn Knox’s, too, she realized, when he turned his head and spotted her on the stairs. “Ashe!” he roared, turning his back on the leopards he was fighting to throw himself at the ones leaping toward her. They crashed into a violent, snarling tangle of bodies at the foot of the stairs, Knox’s deep voice booming louder as he shouted, “Get your damn woman out of here!”

  Ashe swung around from his fight, the body of his last opponent falling to the floor. The instant he saw her, white-hot fury transformed his expression into a savage mask of rage. He roared for her to get the hell out of there as he started running toward her, but the other leopards were already closing in. The blonde continued firing shots, taking down one of the spotted shifters, but Juliana knew it was far past time to go. She turned, banging her knees against the next step as one of the leopards leaped past her, crouching on the stairs above her and blocking her escape. He smiled down at her, his expression gloating.

  “Get down!” Knox growled, his big body suddenly sailing over her head as he slammed into the leopard. Since Knox and the leopard were blocking her escape up the stairs, she twisted back around, her eyes going wide as she watched Ashe cut his way through the remaining shifters. He looked like a wild animal, raw and lean, a deadly fire burning in his eyes as he fought to reach her. She’d never seen anything so magnificent, her heart pounding as she watched him tear his way through the leopards with deadly skill, the blonde’s shots stopping those who tried to charge the stairs.

  Though time seemed to move like a slow, sticky spill of molasses, Juliana knew the whole thing was actually finished within a matter of moments. Knox tossed the dead leopard over the banister, then followed him over, landing on his feet, just as Ashe shoved the last of the assassins to the floor. With his glittering gaze locked on her face, he came up the stairs, looking ready to throttle her.

  “What part of stay the hell in the room didn’t you understand?” he grated, wrapping his bloody hands around her arms and giving her a hard shake. “You could have been killed, you little idiot!”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I just…I wanted to make sure you were okay. To help, if you needed it.”

  He still looked as if wanted to throttle her, but as he took a swift look down her body, she had the feeling he wanted to kiss her, too. But he didn’t. He just pulled in a deep breath, then roughly exhaled, his body still vibing with tension. “I can see right through your shirt,” he muttered, jerking his chin at her chest as he lowered his arms. “Get up the stairs. Now!”

  She jumped, hurrying up the stairs, only distantly aware of him saying something to Knox, her mind finally assimilating what had just happened. A group of leopard shifters had come into Knox’s bar to kill her. Her jaw started shaking as she headed into their room, Ashe right on her heels, closing the door with an angry click.

  She stood trembling at the foot of the bed, numb with shock, while he went into the bathroom. He came out holding a towel, using it to wipe the blood off his face, chest and arms. She stared, relieved that most of the blood must have been from the leopards, and was not his own. He had a few scratches on his left arm and across his ribs, but nothing that wouldn’t heal quickly.

  Tossing the red-smeared towel on the floor, he went back into the bathroom and came out with a clean one. “Wipe off and get your shoes on,” he told her, tossing her the towel. “We’re getting the hell out of here.”

  “Are you okay to travel?” she asked, scanning his body for any injuries she might have missed.


  His snort sounded hard and angry. “I’ve gone into battle a hell of a lot worse off than this. And those bastards coming after you are tenacious. We don’t have time to wait around.”

  “Do you think Knox sold us out?” she asked, after wiping her face.

  “I might have,” he grunted, “if I hadn’t seen the way he fought to protect you.”

  “Right,” she whispered, wetting her lips. “I’m sorry. I just…I mean, how did they find us?”

  He cut a sharp look toward the pack she’d left sitting on the dresser. “I’m guessing there’s a tracking device in that bag that was left for you.”

  “No, that isn’t possible,” she said, sitting down to pull on a pair of socks and her boots. “I told you on our way to the train station last night that I checked it carefully.”

  “Then it was one of the Lycans.” He sat down on the edge of the bed to pull on his combat boots. “They must have tagged our clothing last night. Probably my jacket. And the leopards were able to pick up on the signal.”

  “What do we do?”

  “Leave it here, along with everything else.” He quickly pulled on a sweater. “Only things that go with us are what we’re wearing. We’ll stop in a store before catching our next train and ditch our clothes for some new stuff.”

  “What about the bodies downstairs?” She had a feeling his friend wasn’t going to be happy about having his bar wrecked…and even less so if they left such a disgusting mess behind.

  “Don’t worry about them,” Ashe said, stuffing his wallet, passport and cell phone in his pockets. “Knox will take care of them.”

  “But shouldn’t we help? It doesn’t seem right to—”

  “Jules, focus!” She jumped at the drill sergeant tone of his voice, his rage-edged energy all but blasting against her as he reached for the door. “We can talk about this shit later,” he barked, the impatient look on his face telling her to get a move on. “Right now, I just want your ass as far from this place as we can get it.”

  Grabbing her passport from her bag, Juliana quickly followed him out the door, hoping that wherever they were headed, the nightmares from her past wouldn’t be able to find them.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  IT TOOK THEM FOUR HARD HOURS of traveling before they arrived at their next destination, a rough-looking nightclub near the seaside in one of the less refined areas of Nice. Since the leopards had found them at Knox’s bar, a place well-known for being part of the Pinero Dominguez, Ashe had decided they needed to change tactics. Knox had suggested this particular club, which was run by a friend of his. A Lycan friend who catered to an inhuman clientele, but with everything kept aboveboard, which was why he hadn’t been made an official member of the P.D.

  A wry smile twisted Juliana’s lips as she stood on the sidewalk, watching the way the fading sunlight glinted off the club’s neon sign. Instead of Knox’s half-dressed biker babe, this one showed a woman bending over at the waist in a red thong, her lips pursed as she blew a kiss back over her shoulder. “Gee, Granger,” she drawled. “You really know how to impress a girl.”

  “It might not look like much,” he murmured, “but you won’t mind.”

  “Oh, yeah? Why’s that?” she asked, the briny scent of the Mediterranean filling her nose.

  He shot her a cocky grin. “Because I’ll keep you coming so hard, you won’t be able to see straight.”

  She couldn’t help but laugh, relieved to finally see him lightening up a bit. He’d been so pissed at her for leaving the room during the fight at Knox’s, she was worried they’d just spend the rest of the day arguing. But he obviously had other ideas, and Juliana found her body responding with a warm wave of desire, apparently liking those ideas just fine.

  Yes, she was afraid to trust him—that hadn’t changed—but she could still enjoy him. God only knew she’d liked what they’d done so far.

  With their new bags draped over their shoulders, the things they’d bought that day stashed inside, they made their way into the club. From behind the bar, a surly old guy with a crew cut and a scowl told Ashe that Knox had booked them a room. Some kind of construction work was taking place in the middle of the floor, several workmen using saws and hammers to repair a giant hole in the floorboards. Juliana snuffled a soft laugh under her breath, wondering just how rough this place got.

  Ashe chatted to the guy behind the bar for a few minutes, questioning him about the exits and potential escape routes, and then they headed up to their room. The second he closed the door behind him, sealing them in a small sitting room, he flicked the lock and slid her a glittering, heavy-lidded look. “If you don’t want those new duds of yours in shreds, get them off. Right now.”

  It wasn’t the most romantic come-on Juliana had ever heard, but she’d have been lying if she’d said she didn’t think the raw hunger roughening his voice wasn’t sexy as hell. It burned in his eyes with a wild, feral glow, his long, muscular body seeming even bigger as he came toward her, rippling with power and strength. “Don’t you need to get some rest first?” she asked, reaching down to pull off her new boots.

  “Waste of time,” he replied in a low voice, stopping to toss his new leather jacket aside and pull off his shirt. “I still have an adrenaline hard-on from that fight and it isn’t going away anytime soon.”

  “Not that I’m complaining, but I didn’t think you’d want to have sex again today.” She pulled her jacket off, then her sweater, liking the hungry way he stared at her body. “Aren’t you still unhappy with me for what happened?”

  Pulling her long hair over her shoulder, Juliana watched a hard, sexy smile twist the corner of his mouth. “Welcome to the world of the male animal,” he said with an amused snort. “You might drive me crazy, but I still want you.”

  Then he herded her into the small bedroom, and their jeans hit the floor at the same time, followed by their underwear and her bra. He reached out, probably intending to toss her into the middle of the bed again, but Juliana held up her hand, warning him to stay back. “Before we…uh, hit the sheets, I need to shower first. Think this place has any hot water?”

  “Let’s find out together,” he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her along behind him into the even smaller but thankfully clean bathroom. There was a tub with a white shower curtain against one wall, and he leaned down, turning the knobs to get the shower running.

  Enjoying the spectacular view of his ass, Juliana chewed on the corner of her lip…and tried not to feel nervous about something that most women her age would have done many times already. “Are you, um, taking one with me?”

  Something in her tone must have given her away, because he had a curious look in his eyes when he turned around. “Never done it in a shower before?”

  She shook her head. “I’m afraid not.”

  “Don’t worry,” he murmured, his deep voice stroking across her senses as he reached out and pulled her against his hard, surprisingly warm chest, the feverish heat of his skin making her jump. “You’ll enjoy it.”

  “It’ll be nice to feel clean again,” she stated with a dreamy kind of sigh, her head tilting to the side as if it had just grown too heavy for her neck, while he pressed a warm kiss to the sensitive skin beneath her ear.

  “And here I was planning on making you like it dirty,” he said with a wicked drawl, and she could feel his smile as he ran his firm lips along the edge of her jaw.

  Feeling guilty for enjoying herself so much, considering the circumstances, Juliana suddenly felt as if she should put up at least a little resistance, instead of just falling right back into his arms. “You’ve already had me once today, Ashe. Shouldn’t we save this for later and spend some more time on the investigation?”

  Despite the relief she felt at the knowledge that her family would soon have the protection of a Specs team, their lives would continue to be in danger until Ashe and his contacts had managed to get to the bottom of those assassination orders.

  Steam was starting to fill the small bat
hroom as he trailed his lips down the side of her throat. “Knox and I have already made all the necessary calls to get things moving. So right now, we need to just lay low for a while and give it time.” He drew back his head, looking her right in the eye, his hands sliding down her back to curve over her bottom, pulling her tighter against his body…and his rampant erection. “And as for already having had you once today, I’ll say this. I could have you ten times over, and it wouldn’t be enough. I could stay inside you for days on end, and it still wouldn’t…” He broke off, shaking his head with a dry laugh. “Just quit dragging your feet and get in the damn shower.”