“I don’t need an escort.” She marched past him, shoulders back, head held high.
“Right. So you can sneak around some more. I don’t think so.” He caught up to her. She didn’t fool him. Not for a minute. “I’m taking you back to the bar and you’re going to get into your car and drive home.”
“Excuse me, but—”
“I give the orders,” he interrupted, a smile tugging at his lips.
“You sure as hell—”
“—can give them to you, so be a good girl and let’s get you on your way.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed her clench her fists and take a deep breath. She probably thought about hitting him. With his stronger than normal senses, he heard her heart rate speed up, smelled the salty scent of perspiration on her skin. Then she bit her bottom lip in a most distracting manner before speaking again.
“I’ll get myself where I want to go, thank you very much. You don’t get any say.”
“Tonight I do.”
“Tonight you don’t.”
“Do you argue with everyone trying to do a good deed?”
“You’re not doing a good deed. You’re annoying me.” She turned a corner heading in the wrong direction.
“Wrong way, oh wise one.” He snatched her arm to steer her the right way.
She yanked her arm back, but switched her stride. “I knew that.”
“Of course you did.” He glanced at his watch. Time ticked away. Time he should be using to hunt for Trey. He needed to ditch the exasperatingly attractive woman in the blue dress pronto. No matter how much the thought disappointed him.
“I’ll tell you what,” Tess started, “you fill me in on the Night Runners, and I promise I’ll go peacefully.” Her steps slowed. She dragged her feet as if they suddenly weighed eighty pounds each.
“Peaceful or not, I can get you to your car without saying another word.” He would not give her the upper hand.
“Yes, but that won’t stop me from yelling a few choice expletives on our way. I might rouse the neighborhood.” She tossed him a smug look. “And I’ve got news for you—when I’m mad my voice and language can be pretty alarming. I don’t think you want that kind of attention.”
Damn, she was good. Her combative nature and challenge to his authority had him wondering what she’d be like in bed. Bloody hell. Why was he letting his mind wonder there? “Two questions.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You can ask me two questions that I’ll answer honestly. And then you’ve got to go.” He picked the pace back up, the realization of what he’d just offered making him want to hurry and put an end to this conversation. For reasons he couldn’t understand, he was willing to share with her things about his pack no other human knew. Fuck. What was it about her that made him want to spill everything he’d always kept close to the cuff?
She didn’t answer him right away.
The night shadows vanished, clouds swiftly blocking the full moon as he looked up to the sky. He felt the urge to howl, just to tease Tess, but refrained. Tonight’s sky held no real power over him besides causing the occasional itch. During full moons, Night Runners especially liked to mate. Maybe that was why he felt like confiding all of a damn sudden.
He steered her down a narrow alley that cut the distance to the bar by a block or two. The quicker they parted ways, the quicker his heart could return to a normal beat.
She tucked a few more strands of hair behind her ear while she peeked at him. The small gesture made him swallow. Hard. Her subtle study of him made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. A feat no other woman had accomplished.
“Fine. But no matter what I ask, you’ve got to answer. No picking another question—and no one-word answers.”
“You’d better make them good then.” Why did he suddenly not mind the questions?
Because she already knew about Veilers, he reasoned. If he placated her, maybe she’d stop being a pain in his ass.
“First question.” She paused and once again her blue eyes slayed him. “Explain what kind of wolfen you are.”
A brief sentence crossed his mind, but instead he decided to go for the longer version. Damn blue eyes. “Night Runners are half shifters with the unique ability to perceive, experience and feel human subjectivity.”
“How can that be?” she asked.
“Is that your second question?” He sensed her disconcertedness.
“No!” She turned her face away from him as if that might make it easier to refrain from speaking out of turn.
The corners of his mouth lifted without permission. He tried not to enjoy himself, he really did. He decided to give her a little more because…hell, just because. “My father is a werewolf and my mother is a Sentient.”
Her head whipped back in his direction, eyes wide. She was about to speak, then stopped herself and just stared at him like she was trying to decipher a code.
Laughter rang inside him. He saved her by continuing. “So when I shift I remain on two legs and have all the strength and animal instincts of a werewolf, including tissue regeneration, but my mind is able to pick up on things other humans can’t.”
“Like fear,” she said, not in question, but confidence.
Hugh choked. “Among other things, yes.” There was definitely more to Tess than met the eye. She knew about Sentients. Was she some sort of Veiler? Impossible. Her scent was one hundred percent human. He wanted to ask her questions, but bit his tongue. The last thing he needed was to get to know her better.
“I’ve always thought Sentients were angels in human form, but angels don’t procreate outside their kind. Which means…” Lines creased her forehead as she paused. “Are you telling me they’re just human? With special mind powers.”
“That’s right.”
She stopped, leaned against the side of a dilapidated building, and pulled off her shoe. “I keep getting damn pebbles.” She brushed away the tiny rock and fixed the shoe back on her foot.
“Where’d the heels go?” He looked at the broken shoes and tried not to laugh.
“They were slowing me down so I got rid of them.” She stayed put, thinking. He quieted the chatter in his head, not wanting to take advantage of the situation. If he gave into it once, it would be that much easier the next time, and he’d prided himself on keeping his connection to people as human as possible.
Temptation, however, beckoned him like it never had before. Tess was quite possibly the most infuriating, sexy and adventurous woman he’d ever met.
“I need to get a move on,” he said, breaking the silence and stepping away.
“I get to ask one more question.”
Hugh looked over his shoulder. “I believe you just asked it.”
She hadn’t budged.
He wheeled around and, without warning, tossed her back over his shoulder.
“Hey! Put me down!” she wailed.
Fists met his back while he tried not to let his hands roam too much. Or enjoy the feel of her body squirming against his. “You done?”
“Yes.” She surrendered, her body relaxing.
Once again on solid ground and falling in step beside him, she added, “You’re so going to pay for that.” Tugging her dress back into position, she let out a rankled sigh. “Believe me buddy, as fast as you want to be rid of me, I want to be rid of you faster.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“Shmuck,” she whispered under her breath, obviously unaware that he could hear a pin drop. “So Night Runner, why would someone want to kidnap your friend?”
“That’s a good question. One I…” He halted and put a firm hand on Tess’s arm. His senses perked up. An acidic smell touched his nose. Whispers of breath, raspy and gruff, touched his ears. Someone or something was close. Very close.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, no hint of fear in her voice.
He looked around but saw nothing. Whatever was out there was very good at masking itself. “Nothing.” With his hand on
her arm, he moved them forward with caution. “And to answer your question, I don’t know. I met you tonight because I thought you might be able to shed some light on the situation.”
“How the hell could I do that? I just met you.”
“Yeah. About that.” Only a few hundred more feet and they’d be out of the alley, closer to a safer part of town. Shit. Was he walking them toward danger or away from it?
“About what?” She didn’t seem to mind his hand on her arm. In fact, she lifted it and put her arm underneath his to join them in stronger companionship.
That small gesture was all it took to convince him to tell her the truth. “My name’s not Trey. Trey is my missing friend. My name’s Hugh. Hugh Langston.”
She doubled over at his admission, breaking their arm connection. Choking sounds and attempts to catch her breath followed. “Hugh. Langston.” She uttered his name like it was laced with poison.
Before he could reply to her charming echo of his name, the source of his apprehension made an appearance. With a thump that shook the ground, a savage, shaggy, burnt-orange-haired Banoth dropped from above in front of them. How the hell the giant had gone unnoticed was beyond him, but here he was.
“What the—”
“No time, Tess.” He yanked her behind him then turned and grabbed her hand. “Run!”
Chapter Five
Holy shit.
Tess hated hearing the word run. She didn’t mind the act of doing so, just despised the fact that when yelled, it meant someone or something was chasing her. And she hated being chased.
But more than being chased, she hated not knowing what the hell was in hot pursuit of her ass.
He looked like a wooly mammoth on two feet—thick, clubbed feet, which right now moved too swiftly for his big size. Long hair hung over his extremely tall body, and spiraling, jagged horns protruded from his oversized head. Lips like an orangutan’s spread all the way across his face while thick saliva sputtered from his mouth. Hair covered his eyes too, allowing only a peek at his red, crazy stare. Yes, it was a he, she decided. No female creature would wear a beard that hideous.
With another quick glance over her shoulder, she found the beast a bit too close for comfort. And yet, excitement shot through her. She lived for danger. And the creature wanting to take a bite out of her was very dangerous. When she’d left to follow Trey—Hugh—she hadn’t imagined the evening turning out like this.
Hugh.
“Quick, down this way!” he yelled, his hand still firmly holding hers.
She matched him stride for stride. When her mind wandered to him shifting and what that might feel like, she gave herself a mental slap. Hugh was her assignment, the wolfen she had to investigate and e-l-i-m-i-n-a-t-e.
Nausea hit her so fast she was sure she’d throw up while running. “I think I’m going to be sick,” she yelled.
“Not here, you’re not. If we stop for even a second, that thing will overtake us.”
She swallowed the bad taste coming up her throat and tried to catch a breath. If he hadn’t been gripping her hand so tight, there was no way she would have been able to continue at the Olympic pace he’d set. “What the hell is that thing?” she asked, pushing aside the appreciation his protection stirred inside her.
He cut her a quick glance before looking over his shoulder. “A Banoth.”
“I’ve never heard of them.”
“They don’t make an appearance very often.” He sounded winded, but not from the running. It was more of a desperate, worried tone, probably from having to deal with the Banoth. And her.
He truly didn’t want to see her hurt. The thought made her want to throw up again. She should yank her hand from his and take off in another direction. Put distance between them and make her own escape. But she couldn’t. She’d found her next assignment, and like it or not, her investigation had started. The fact that he wasn’t like the marks she’d been assigned in the past complicated things, though. From the first second she’d met those Veilers, she’d known they were bad seeds. Hugh seemed like a genuinely good guy.
Which begged the question: why him? In all her years with P.I.E., not once had her investigation proved the mark innocent of any wrongdoing.
If she were smart, she’d figure out a way to let the Banoth have his way with Hugh. Let the beast do the job for her. The job that she’d been warned would be her last if she didn’t succeed.
Hot breath hit the back of her neck along with a little moisture. Eww. The lousy monster was breathing down her neck and spitting? He royally pissed her off.
“Faster,” she yelled, willing her feet to move quicker. Regardless of what she’d do about Hugh, at the moment she thought it wise to stay by his side. Two against one Banoth were pretty good odds, considering who they were.
“In here,” he called, making an abrupt left through an open warehouse door. He slammed it shut behind them and threw down the metal reinforcement bar.
A loud bang and some pretty serious bumps in the door followed, but it remained closed.
“I guess they can’t crash through steel.” She put her hands on her knees and bent over to catch her breath.
“No, but they’re very resourceful so it’s only a matter of time before it figures out another way in.”
Hugh looked around the expansive room filled with crates and machinery. Just enough light from the skylights overhead allowed Tess to see they’d snuck into some sort of manufacturing plant. After surveying the place in hopes of finding a blinking red exit sign, she turned and found Hugh staring at her.
More emotion—pain? Confusion? Trust?—crossed his face than she was comfortable seeing. Falling into those amazing eyes of his, she decided she needed to find out more before she, or anything else, took him out. She needed to play it cool and keep in contact. Do her investigating with her work face firmly in place. The face she’d perfected over the years. The face that allowed her to get close to her targets so they trusted her. Right before she eliminated them. This time was no different. It couldn’t be.
Could it?
“You’re not scared,” he said, running a hand through his hair.
“I don’t scare easily.” Why oh why did he have to stir something warm and hopeful inside her?
He took a few steps closer before reaching out and wiping a drop of perspiration from her forehead with the pad of his thumb. “Glad to hear it.”
She batted his hand away, terrified that she didn’t hate wolfen as much as she used to. “Keep your hands to your—”
He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her snug against his body. The contact sent tingles she should not be feeling straight to between her legs. Before she could protest—not that she really wanted to—he dropped them both to the floor.
Something smelling worse than a skunk-spray-cow-dung cocktail flew past their heads and landed with a splat on the wall behind them. Hugh’s arms cushioned their fall so her backside landed gently on the concrete floor. His rock hard body remained over hers and she tried not to think about her breasts pressed against his chest.
“These hands come in handy sometimes. You might want to remember that.”
He jumped to his feet and extended one of those very fine hands to help her up.
She took it with secret gratitude. The instant she was vertical again, another stink bomb whizzed past them, sparing her from saying thank you. “What is that?”
“Poison to you, a pain in the ass to me. Let’s go.” He released her and ran in between the heavy-duty shelving units lining the warehouse.
She followed right on his heels. “I guess the Banoth found a way in.”
“Yeah, and it won’t stop until it sticks its fangs into one of us.”
“Us? I think it’s after you, big guy. I’m hardly the type to interest a big hairy beast like that. You must have ticked off its mother or something.” She felt a grin flank her face. Her juices were flowing, her body was pumped. Hands down, this was one of the best romps she’d had in a l
ong time.
A piercing cry—like fingers scraping on chalkboard magnified times ten—echoed through the warehouse. The noise sent a chill over her lips and down the back of her legs, eliminating some of the excitement pumping through her veins.
“That doesn’t sound good,” she said as they turned down another aisle, this one darker and narrower.
Hugh slowed and then stopped, allowing a few seconds to pass before he spoke. “It means there’s more than one of them.”
“Don’t tell me they travel in pairs.”
“Okay. I won’t tell you.”
He stood only inches away, his nearness good and bad. She could see the wheels turning in his head, and noticed he seemed to be assessing the situation like he was clairvoyant. Which he kind of was.
“So with these killer senses of yours, you can smell and hear him even though we can’t see him?” She relaxed against the shelf, glad for the chance to catch her breath, and really happy to be on an adventure.
Her mind spun when he hesitated to answer. She could tell from the look on his handsome face that he was more concerned for her than himself. The regard caused something to shift inside her, like a vine twisting its way through her veins, awakening nerve endings she’d shut off. But feelings were something she couldn’t afford. She had a job to do. And if she discovered information about Hugh that justified his elimination, she’d follow through. Her life depended on it.
“Pretty much.” Something flashed in his blue eyes and he quickly looked away.
“Can you control your shifting?” She told herself to guard the things going on inside her head more carefully.
“Yes.”
“Are you thinking about shifting right now?”
“Yes.”
“Wanna jump off a bridge?”
“Ye—” His gaze jumped back to hers.
She smiled. “Just checking to see if you were listening. How about we grab a burger and fries when this over?”
He tiptoed closer. Her senses not too shabby either, she could feel the heat radiating off him, smell his masculine scent magnified by the intensity of the situation. She saw beyond the whites of his eyes to something that made her feel like she’d swallowed the tiny white, twinkling lights found in trees during the holidays. For a split second, she thought he might lean in and kiss her. She wanted him to lean in and kiss her.
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