by Cynthia Eden
“Oh, you are perfect.” She dropped Malik’s hand.
And every muscle in his body stiffened.
Josephine reached out to the human. “Right size. Right build.” Her fingers stroked along his arm.
Jealousy flared within Malik. He was familiar with the emotion, familiar in a way few other angels were. Because he’d felt this beast before. Felt the hated tendrils streak through him whenever Josephine had gone to another, and she hadn’t even known that Malik was there—
“I’m going to need your jacket, your shirt, and those awesome boots.”
The biker was smiling at her.
She nodded. “I think we’ll take the bike, too.”
He handed her the keys. Then the human proceeded to strip for her.
Josephine glanced over at Malik. “You’re the same size. The clothes should fit. Lucky for you, huh?”
Hardly. “I don’t believe in luck.”
“Maybe you should.”
The human was just standing there, shirt gone, jacket tossed on the ground. Boots near the bike.
“Go on up to your room,” Josephine urged the man. “I’d go quickly. The ladies might jump you in the lobby if you linger too long.”
He hurried into the building.
Josephine scooped up the discarded items and tossed them to Malik. “Dress fast, okay?”
He yanked the shirt over his head, frowning at the doorman who was giving him the side-eye.
Josephine jumped onto the bike and, a moment later, she revved the engine. “Very nice.”
He’d dressed. The boots and shirt were a little tight. As for the jacket—he didn’t need it.
“No jacket?” Josephine sighed. “I think you would have looked hot in it.” She winked at him. Winked. Right then? When they were basically under attack?
She was…flirting with him? He wasn’t sure if he’d ever understand her.
He jerked on the jacket.
“Hop on, angel,” she all but purred.
His vamp oozed sex appeal as she straddled that motorcycle. And since he was already hard and aching for her, the idea of sliding behind her on the bike and caging her with his body definitely appealed.
Malik jumped on behind her. His thighs slid against hers. Her curved ass pushed against his cock as he leaned forward and locked his fingers around the handlebars.
Shouts came from inside the hotel.
“We’ll be going fast,” Josephine told him. “Hope you can handle it.”
He could handle anything she threw at him. And he’d prove it.
Right before she shot that bike forward, his mouth slid down to the curve of her neck. He kissed her. Licked her. Then bit…very, very lightly.
At first.
Her moan was drowned out by the motorcycle as they leapt forward and raced into the night.
***
The angel was gone.
The penthouse was empty when he strode in from the balcony. He’d waited for the spell to end, waited to swoop in and find his enemy weak but…
Fucking gone.
He stood in the middle of the penthouse, his nostrils flaring and rage pouring through every single vein in his body. He pulled in the scents that surrounded him. The angel. The vampire. Blood.
Sex?
He stiffened. Impossible. Angels didn’t fuck vampires.
A fallen might.
A roar of rage broke from him. Then he decimated the penthouse, tearing it apart with his bare hands. When he was done, he followed the blood trail. Found the pool of red near the elevator. Saw the feathers that had been lost. Feathers foolishly left behind by the angel. A pile of them. Magic, just waiting for him. He’d use those feathers and their magic.
He grabbed a bloody, black feather. Lifted it up with satisfaction and—
The feather turned to dust in his hand. “What in the hell?” He grabbed more feathers, but they all disintegrated as soon as he touched them. Just fell apart. Vanished, right before his eyes.
Vanished…and took their magic with them.
“Malik!” He was going to claw that angel into pieces.
***
The motorcycle vibrated between her legs, and the big, muscled angel behind her—he licked her neck again.
Her blood always had an interesting impact on those who sampled it. And that was one of the reasons why she didn’t go offering it up to just anyone. In fact, only a very, very select few had ever been allowed to drink from her.
Her blood could make humans go absolutely insane with craving. One sip, and they wanted more. They wanted her. They would be willing to kill anyone, commit any crime for another taste.
As for paranormals, the few paranormal men who’d had her blood had seemed to get horny as all hell. One taste, and they wanted to fuck her. She figured her blood was like some kind of major aphrodisiac to them. Instant hard-on. They were sexually obsessed, until the high from her blood wore off, so Malik’s reaction wasn’t a big surprise.
What was a surprise…she wanted the guy just as badly as he seemed to need her. As if she’d been infused with some kind of aphrodisiac. Every part of her body was sensitive. She was almost moaning as the bike braked, and this situation couldn’t continue. They were being hunted. She had a job to do. Sex right then—not an option.
“It will fade,” she told Malik and her voice was husky. Sensual. She had not meant to speak like Marilyn Monroe. Or at least, Josephine didn’t think she’d meant to sound all seductive and breathy. Her feet touched down on the asphalt as she balanced the bike. “Just…um, give it a moment.” Or a day. Maybe two. Three? Her head turned as she glanced back at him. “The lust you’re feeling isn’t natural. It will lessen—”
“It hasn’t lessened in all of the time I’ve watched you. Angels weren’t supposed to want someone this badly, but I did.”
She swallowed. Twice. “Look, my blood—it’s, um, not like a typical vamp’s.” Because she wasn’t exactly typical. But those were her secrets and she didn’t share them for shits and giggles. She didn’t share them at all. “It’s messing with you.” She pulled in a deep breath. “We should probably put some space between us.”
He didn’t move. “Why did you give me your blood? If you knew it would do this…”
“Because you needed it.” Confession time. “It’s probably why we wound up in bed together in the first place.”
He laughed. “Your blood didn’t make me fuck you.”
Her angel had a dirty mouth.
She liked it.
“I did that because I’ve always wanted you. Because I’ve thought about having sex with you too many times to count.” He leaned close. Feathered a kiss over her lips. “And I want you now for the same reason. You. I’ve always wanted you.”
Okay, either she moved away from him, fast, or they’d wind up having sex right there. While the idea of more sex was ever so tempting and fun, the guy wasn’t thinking clearly. He’d just taken a whole lot of her blood. Enough for her to be feeling a little light-headed, so he didn’t exactly get the full ramifications of what was happening to him.
She climbed off the bike. Started to put some nice, safe space between them but—
His hand flew out and curled around her wrist. Curled right over the spot that he’d drank from back in the elevator. They were on a deserted, dark street. Just the two of them. She’d stopped to get her head back in the game. And, dammit she’d also stopped because she needed some blood. He really had taken too much.
“You control humans very easily,” Malik noted in his deep, rumbly voice.
He was right, though. She did. Too easily. Another secret. She had so many of them that sometimes, even Josephine lost track. “I’m very good at compulsion.” She tried a weak smile. Her heart raced too fast. “It’s one of my skills. If my prey doesn’t have any kind of psychic powers, I can usually push my way right inside his or her mind.” She didn’t particularly like doing it these days, but she still could. When she’d been younger, she hadn’t realized how
powerful she was. Or how fragile human minds could be.
More sins on my list. My never-ending list.
“Why did you think your blood made me fuck you?” He still straddled the motorcycle as he held her hand. One of his fingers stroked along her inner wrist.
“Vampires are supposed to be able to seduce prey. All vampires have, um…sort of a built-in drug in their blood.” Some of them didn’t even realize it. She had no idea why—it seemed pretty obvious to her. “We give our prey a little taste, and they’ll do just about anything to get more.” Another hit.
His eyes burned in the dark. “You gave me your blood to help me. Not to seduce me or control me.”
Now she shrugged and tugged her wrist—only he didn’t let it go. “Look, you’d just protected me. Unnecessarily, I might add. But your wings got cut to hell and back because you were shielding me. I figured the least I could do was try and heal you. In case you didn’t notice, my blood has a definite healing kick.”
“I noticed.” Once more, he stroked along her inner wrist.
“We probably shouldn’t have just left your feathers back there.” Something she hadn’t thought of at the time because she’d been a bit distracted. “They’ll be used by whoever sent that spell to us.”
“They won’t be used. They’ll be gone.” He seemed utterly confident.
But she had to disillusion him. “Angel feathers are huge on the black market. That’s probably why you were targeted at the penthouse.”
“My feathers will do no one any good. The minute they fall from my wings, they’re useless.” Another sensual stroke of his fingers. She may have shivered a bit. “Shadows. Dust. That’s all they’ll be. That is all I ever leave in my wake.”
He seemed certain. She’d let him go with that certainty, until she learned otherwise.
He stroked her—
“Stop,” Josephine ordered. Her fangs were stretching in her mouth. She’d given him too much blood, his touch was making her ache, and she had to get control of this situation, right the hell away.
“You don’t like what I’m doing?”
Oh, she loved it. She’d love for him to be stroking her all over. But, business first. “Any idea who came after you?” More importantly, how had the SOB used her attack? To do the glass breaking trick, he’d need a witch.
Her shoulders stiffened. Hell.
“An enemy is after me,” Malik confessed.
An enemy. And not just someone off to make a quick buck or score some fast magic from angel feathers. “Since when do angels have enemies?”
He just stared back at her.
“Since the fall?” Josephine pushed. “Is this someone you’ve pissed off since you’ve been earthbound? Or does this feud go back longer?”
His jaw hardened. “Longer.”
Why was he being stingy with the details? Then it hit her. “You don’t trust me.”
His bright gaze slid from her. “No.”
Why did that curt answer make breathing a little harder? They’d just met. Sure, they’d had phenomenal sex, but sex wasn’t trust. Sex was pleasure. And so he’d protected her. Sang some song and dance about being her guardian. She didn’t trust him, either. She didn’t trust anyone, not even her own flesh and blood. She trusted them least of all.
He was stroking her wrist again. And this time, she looked at her wrist. She realized he was stroking the lone tally mark over her skin. His mark. Josephine also realized that when she’d cut her wrist and given him the blood in that elevator, she’d made the cut right on top of the mark.
Yeah, she had issues.
“You’re going to turn me in,” Malik murmured. “If I trust you, you’ll just betray me.” His lashes lowered and shielded his gaze. “I saw the bear shifter make that mistake long ago.”
Her spine couldn’t get any straighter. Yes, the bear had trusted her. Because they’d known each other for a very long time. She’d used that trust against him. “Don’t act like Henri was innocent. He never was.”
“He thought he wasn’t the target. You told him that you were just looking for a place to crash. As soon as his back was turned, you attacked.”
He was judging her? Seriously? “His beast was out of control. When Henri shifted, the bear ruled. The man was absolutely lost. He’d killed five women in the area. If I hadn’t completed my mission, more would have died. The man trusted me. The bear didn’t. The bear would have torn my head right off my shoulders.” Now she did yank her hand from his grasp. He’d just pissed her off. “And by the way, I knew one of the women he killed. She was a human, but she was my friend. I get fucking angry when my friends are attacked.” Her smile was cold. And she knew it showed her fangs. “So I would have taken out Henri even if he hadn’t come up as a target on my list.” Just for killing Lin.
Malik stared back at her.
“Don’t trust me.” There. She’d just put that shit out there. “Don’t ever make that mistake. Because you are a tally mark for me. My final one. I will get my freedom. The deal will end.” She shook her head. “But it’s not ending now. For now, I’m going to see a witch. I’m going to find out why he helped the bastard who came after us, and then I’m going to find out who that SOB is.”
“It’s my fight.”
Sure. His fight. “And you’re my bounty.”
Malik’s voice was hard and tight when he said, “The one after me is an enemy of all the angels. He targets us. Kills without conscience. I’ve found the dead left behind. Finding the dead…it’s something I’m good at doing. I know his work, and I will stop him.”
He’d just shared more with her, despite saying that he didn’t trust her. What did that mean? She wasn’t sure.
One thing she did know—the darkness was starting to ease. Dawn would be there soon. And with dawn, well, that six-hour deadline she’d given Lawrence would be nearing an end. “We need to find our witch.”
Malik’s brow furrowed.
“In case you haven’t realized it, Lawrence sent the jerk to your penthouse.”
“How do you—”
“Spells have signatures, all right? And I’ve seen that particular signature before. It’s Larry’s. So move back, and I’ll drive us to his place—”
“I…would like to drive.”
“What?”
He’d already climbed onto the motorcycle. The engine revved, and a faint smile curved his sensual lips. “I want to drive the bike.”
She narrowed her eyes on him. “Do you know how to drive a motorcycle?”
The engine revved again. “I hadn’t ever had sex, but I think I figured it out pretty quickly.”
He’d figured things out very well. But it wouldn’t do for the angel to get too cocky. “That was an intro.” She climbed onto the bike behind him. Then she leaned up and whispered in his ear, “Consider it the prologue of the book. There are things I can show you that would make you absolutely insane.”
She felt him stiffen as she curled her arms around his waist. Then, for fun, for wickedness, she dipped her hands and let her fingers trail over the front of his jeans. “Try not to wreck, would you, angel?”
The motorcycle’s engine gave a low, fierce growl, and the bike hurtled forward.
Chapter Eight
“I didn’t wreck.” His grip tightened on the handlebars, and for a moment, Malik wondered if his hard hold would crush them. He’d just braked in the alley that led to the witch’s apartment. The bike was still growling, and his heart was still thundering in his chest.
“No, you didn’t.” Her breath blew lightly over his neck. Her arms were wrapped tightly around him, her breasts crushed to his back. “I’m impressed.”
She shouldn’t be. He was about to jump her.
Her lips feathered over his throat in a quick kiss. “Seems you’re an angel with hidden talents.”
You have no idea.
She moved back and hopped from the motorcycle. “I’m not sure what to expect inside.”
The witch’s place was dar
k. Pitch black. He killed the engine.
“Why don’t you just stay out here? I’ll be right back.”
Malik almost smiled. Instead, he shoved down the stand on the bike and pocketed the keys. The jacket was handy—it had a lot of pockets. “Aren’t you worried I’ll vanish on you? That you’ll have to hunt me again?”
Her back was to him, and he saw her stiffen. Then she tossed a wide smile over her shoulders. Faint streaks of the sun’s light had started to slide across the sky, but he would have seen her in perfect darkness. An angel could see in any light or in no light at all.
“I’m not worried. I can find you anywhere.” Josephine’s words were said with utter confidence as she turned to fully face him.
Too much confidence. “How?”
“You have my blood. It lets me locate you.” She winked at him. “So I’m not worried about you running. Or even riding away on that gorgeous beast of a bike that we stole together. Because if you try to get away, I’ll just find you.”
Was that the real reason she’d given him her blood? So that she could always find him? Or had she been helping him? “I want to come inside with you.”
Because he truly didn’t trust his beautiful vampire.
But at his words, Josephine tensed just the faintest bit. Her gaze cut to the witch’s front door, then back to Malik.
She doesn’t want me going inside.
“If this is a setup, if another attack is waiting for us inside…” Josephine gave him a wide smile. One that he didn’t trust. “Isn’t it smarter for you to stay out here? Especially since you seem to be the target in the attacks?”
He slid off the motorcycle. Stalked toward her. She didn’t retreat. She never did. Her head tipped back as she gazed up at him.
“The first attack was launched against you,” Malik reminded her. He was trying to be helpful.
A furrow appeared between Josephine’s brows.
“The coyotes,” he murmured. He bent his head, letting his mouth drop closer to hers. “They were after you.”
“True.” Her hand rose and pressed to his chest. Her touch seemed to singe his skin straight through the jacket and the t-shirt he wore. “But you were the one tossing the vamp out of the window at that fancy casino, and then you were the one targeted in your penthouse.” She gave him a little pat. “I think that puts you ahead of me on the target list. So how about you just keep an eye out here? If you see danger…” She leaned up, pulled his head closer, then licked his lower lip. “Give me a shout. I’ll rush right back out to help save the day.”