Gripping the dagger tighter in my palm, I rotated my wrist and drove the blade into his side as hard as I could. An ear-piercing ululation erupted from his throat and he let go of me. I didn’t wait or look back. I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, adrenaline and my wolf giving me the speed and strength to push my muscles past what a human would be able to endure.
“Mena… Mena!” I heard the cry behind me, but my mind wasn’t registering anything except panic and the need to get as far away from my attacker as possible. “Mena—wait! It’s me…” A strangled groan had me slowing. “…it’s… it’s Phoenix. I—I’m so sorry, Mena.”
I froze, not wanting to look back at the man, terrified that what he’d spoken was true. If it was—if I turned and saw those ice-blue eyes staring back at me, it would destroy any trust I had ever had in him.
“Please, Mena, I never meant to hurt you. I was only trying to scare you so you would realize what a stupid stunt going off on your own to find the killers was. What were you thinking?”
The blood rushed through my veins at an impossible speed, and fury washed over me in waves as I stood there trying to decide whether to walk away or allow my wolf to rip Phoenix’s head off. She was all for the second option.
I heard him cough, and then groan in agony. I imagined he was pulling the dagger out of whatever organ I had been lucky enough to hit. There was a lot of heavy, ragged breathing and two more guttural-sounding coughs. It appeared as though I had hit a lung. Too bad it wasn’t his heart! I wasn’t sure stabbing him in the heart with a silver blade would kill him, but I would have put money on a bet that it would have been a hell of a lot more painful.
I turned my head to glare at him, but the hatred I had expected to feel wasn’t there. He had fallen to his knees, and his head was bent, his eyes focused on the bright red stain spreading across his new shirt.
Shaking my head, I looked up to the sky and asked, “Why me?” After receiving no answer, I sighed and began the one-hundred-meter walk back to Phoenix.
Chapter 17
Mena
“Ouch!” Phoenix yelped. “Damn, Mena, take it easy. I’m immortal, not invincible. That hurts!”
As I put a piece of tape over the last corner of gauze, I rolled my eyes and stood with the First Aid supplies in my hands. “Oh, shut up, you big baby. It’s barely even a scratch now. I’m amazed at how quickly vampires heal.”
Phoenix gave me a heart-melting smirk. It was impossible to stay angry with him when he did that. Damn him! I wasn’t done being upset, but I supposed we were even, since I shoved a dagger through his right lung.
“You heal just as swiftly as I do, Lupacchiotto.”
I frowned. “Well, I don’t want you stabbing me with a silver blade so I can find out how swiftly I heal.”
He lost his smile. “You wouldn’t heal at all if someone stabbed you with silver. It’s lethal to werewolves—anywhere on the body. The metal is like poison. It spreads… and destroys.”
“I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t accidentally poke myself while putting the weapons on then.”
He seemed to be contemplating my words for a moment then he shook his head. “I think I need to have Jaxon make you a set of steel blades. I’m not sure if the silver daggers would be lethal to you if you just barely nicked yourself, but I don’t want to risk it.”
“Will steel protect me against a werewolf?”
Pressing his lips together, Phoenix picked up the empty packaging from the gauze I had used to dress his wound and wadded it in his fist. “No,” he finally said, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was, that there was someone on the inside watching and just waiting for the right time to take me out.
“Well, I will just have to be careful when I handle them then, right?”
He turned and took my arm, encouraging me to look him in the eyes. Any sign of joking had faded from his expression. “Make sure you do, Mena. As much as I would like to be with you and protect you twenty-four-seven, it’s not possible. It kills me to think something might happen to you during the daytime, and I won’t be able to get to you. Maybe it’s not a bad idea for Alex to be here during the day.”
I started to protest, but he held up his hand, silencing me instantly.
“Can you honestly tell me that you trust your pack? All of them?”
My shoulders slumped in defeat. “I’m not sure.”
“I’ll consider that a no. You are their Alpha, Mena. You shouldn’t fear anyone who is beneath you.”
“They aren’t beneath me—”
“They are, Mena. If you don’t act like you are their Alpha, someone will step up and take it from you; they will take you from me. It isn’t a game, and it won’t just be a brawl. If you are challenged, you will fight until you or your opponent is dead.” He shook me a little. “Do you understand?”
Hot tears stung my eyes and I fought them back as I nodded. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t know what; nothing would come to me. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, with the massive lump in my throat constricting my vocal chords.
Phoenix pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me. One of his hands came up to rest on the back of my head and he kissed my forehead sweetly.
“I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do, but I am begging you to stay with me at night and allow Alex to stay with you during the day, at least until we find and destroy the killer. I honestly believe, with him being here, none of them will try to hurt you for fear of being exposed. I’m not going to say they won’t try to kill him, but he’s the one who offered to protect you.”
“A human, Phoenix. He offered to protect the human Mena, not a werewolf. He has no idea what he’s getting into.”
He shrugged. “He’ll find out soon enough. You know as well as I do that your wolf plans to make him hers…” He grimaced. “…in every way.”
I didn’t know when I had actually made the choice to be more than friends with Phoenix. Our situation was more complicated than a Rubik’s Cube, but I guess I had, at some point. I had no doubt the man would have been able to talk me into doing anything. And kissing him was no hardship, but a relationship? I knew if I gave in to him and agreed to stay at his compound at night that we would end up being more than what we are now; we just had too much chemistry for that not to happen. But I was leery to let anyone get too close. I had trusted Marc, and he had hurt me. I knew no two people were the same, but the wounds were still fresh. What was wrong with taking things slow? We barely knew each other, for cryin’ out loud!
I shrugged out of his embrace and took a step back. “Phoenix, I—”
He huffed as he ran a hand through that beautiful hair of his. Damn it, I was getting distracted again! “What is it, Mena?”
I flung my arms out toward him. “You! I’m a little freaked out with how fast this is all moving between us. I can’t do this right now—”
“Don’t do this. I won’t let you shut me out—”
“Phoenix, I am not ignorant to what will happen if I stay with you. We are too attracted to each other for something not to transpire between us. I just don’t think I’m ready for the next step.”
“What if I promise not to touch you? My only concern is your safety.”
I walked back into his personal space and placed my hand on his cheek. He reached up and covered my fingers with his. “It’s not you I’m worried about, Phoenix. I don’t trust myself not to come to your bed.”
Phoenix’s hands came up quick and grabbed my face as his eyes bore into mine; they dilated until only a sliver of blue could be seen around the pupil. The sweet scent of him overwhelmed me so much that I swayed on my feet a little. My eyes were drawn to his mouth as his tongue slid out to wet his lips. I thought he was going to kiss me, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Those magnificent eyes glared into mine as if he were looking through them. “Come out, wolf,” he growled. “We need to talk.”
I gasped. “No!”
My wolf smiled wit
h my lips. “You called me, vampire. Now, what are you going to do with me?”
Alex
Brady Lancaster, another of Montgomery’s medical examiners, zipped up the black body bag over what remained of Mena’s friend. There hadn’t been much left of the body to put in there.
“Damn,” Alex said quietly. Not giving that girl a rematch would haunt him for the rest of his life. Maybe if he had played just one more game the cops wouldn’t be knocking on the door of her next of kin right now.
His job was done here, for the moment. Waiting for forensics and lab results to come back could take days, but that wouldn’t stop him from finding the SOB who had murdered this girl.
Alex was almost positive the killer was the same person who had taken Marc’s life; coincidences like that didn’t happen every day. Plus, it had been Mena’s car, not Katie’s.
He shuddered for at least the tenth time since he’d received the call from the chief.
Glancing back at the house, he saw something unexpected: Mena, standing on her front porch, arms crossed loosely over her chest and watching him. His heart gave a little flutter at seeing her alive and safe. But for how long? Terror managed to creep its way into his thoughts before he could put a halt on that shit. It made him want to vomit, and puking all over Mena’s landscape wouldn’t win him any brownie points with her, so he swallowed a few times, desperately trying to get control over his gag reflexes.
“I’m sorry for leaving you like I did. I was just angry over what happened to Katie and… I don’t like when other people try to choose what is best for me.”
Alex shook his head as he walked up the wide sidewalk to the front steps. Noticing a porch swing out of the corner of his vision, he nodded toward it. “Let’s sit and talk.”
Uneasily, her gaze moved toward the front door, like she was waiting for something to happen or someone to join her.
“You don’t need your bodyguards, Mena, not around me.”
She snickered as she walked to the swing. “I was actually waiting for Phoenix. I guess he’s still explaining everything to the others.”
Alex’s brow furrowed as he sat at the opposite end of the swing than she had taken. “I want to ask what he’s explaining, but before I do, I would like to ask another question, since we’re alone.”
“You want to know what Phoenix is to me,” she said.
His tongue clucked against his teeth and he leaned forward, letting his elbows rest on his knees, stopping the swing’s easy glide. “You told me you weren’t having an affair, so I’m at a loss here. It seems to me like he’s more than just a friend, but that’s what he told me you were to him. I have to be honest, Mena; I don’t believe him. It’s obvious he’s attracted to you.”
“Phoenix wants there to be something between us, but I’m not interested in him intimately. He is useful to me in other aspects.”
His eyes narrowed. Drugs? He didn’t think that was it; Mena was too prim and proper to get wrapped up in something like that. Plus, he hadn’t heard any rumors on the Force about Phoenix dealing. What the fuck would she need him for? “What other aspects would that be?”
The door opened and Phoenix walked out with Daryn and Roel.
Letting the air pass through his teeth in irritation, Alex leaned back, propping his left ankle on his knee and resuming the slow swinging once again. “Never mind.”
Phoenix stopped on Mena’s side of the swing and let his shoulder rest against the stained wood siding of the house, crossing his arms over his chest as he did so. “Mena has agreed to let us protect her, with a few minor stipulations.”
Alex’s brow popped up. “Stipulations?” He moved his focus to Mena. She smiled, so he looked back to Phoenix. “Go on.”
“Until the killer is found, you and your men can watch over Mena during the day and my men and I will watch over her during the night, at my home—” When Alex began to protest, Phoenix waved his hand through the air. “I can assure you that she will be safe there. Plus, that is not negotiable, so you can save your breath. In the meantime, we are all going to look for Katie’s killer. If you agree to do this our way, Mena will share with you what she knows about the killer—”
Alex shot to his feet and glared down at Mena. “You know who did this and you—”
As quickly as he had stood, Roel placed his hand on Alex’s shoulder and promptly deposited him back in the swing. Alex sat there a moment, stunned, but Roel just grinned down at him. Did the guy have a Superman cape on under that tight T-shirt? No one had been able to manhandle him that easily since he was fifteen.
The door opened again and several more people walked out onto the porch. He must have been too consumed by his work to see any of them arrive, because none of their faces looked familiar.
Phoenix continued. “Like I was saying, Mena will fill you in on any details we have now as well as anything we find out in the future, but only if you do this our way. This isn’t your normal homicide case, detective; I can promise you that much.”
Alex cleared his throat and tried his best to relax under the pressure of so many eyes on him. He’d known this case would be different from any other he’d had, and he had a feeling these people weren’t going to let him talk about any of it to his superiors. Not that he’d want to, if he knew. That scared him a little. Well, a lot. Yeah—a lot actually better explained how scared he was.
“And what if I agree, but don’t like what I hear?”
Phoenix’s mouth spread into a big toothy grin, and Alex could have sworn something was different about the guy’s teeth. Were his canines longer than normal? No, he thought as he shook his head, it must just be the lighting mixed with the stress of a hectic week playing tricks on my mind. When he looked at Phoenix again, everything appeared normal about his mouth.
“Don’t worry, Rhodes, we won’t tell you anything that will give you nightmares.”
Alex glanced around at the standing bodies, and then his gaze fell on Mena. God, there was nothing that he wouldn’t do for her. At least, there was nothing he could think of anyway.
“Does that mean you aren’t going to tell me anything scary or that you aren’t going to tell me everything?”
Phoenix only shrugged at the question.
“Is it legal?” Alex blurted, irritation creeping into his tone.
“It has been so far, but I can’t promise what tomorrow will bring,” Phoenix said.
Alex’s gaze fell to a dark stain on the guy’s button-up, and then his eyes widened as he caught sight of a short gash in the material and what appeared to be something white on the other side—gauze; Phoenix had been injured since he had talked to him last. He was almost certain he would have noticed it before. “Are you hurt?”
Confusion filled Phoenix’s expression until he looked down. He chuckled lightly as he glanced up to Mena. “I’ll let her explain that, too. That is… if you decide to stay and play with us. Keep an eye on her right hand, detective. It’s lethal.”
Alex’s head whipped around to see amused, pale-green eyes, but before he could ask her if she was the one who had shot or stabbed Phoenix, she held up her hand to stop him.
“I want you here, Alex, but not for the reason you want to be here, not entirely. I don’t need your protection, but I doubt you will refuse this case just because I ask you to.”
Alex stood slowly and paced a few steps, eyeing Roel just in case the guy decided to do a repeat of the sit-and-stay.
It was obvious Mena didn’t need his protection; there were plenty of people here to prove that, but he couldn’t just walk away, not knowing that she was in danger and knew who the killer was. “And this information you give me about the murderer—”
“It’s confidential, cop,” Heath piped in. “If you want in, know that it’s only going to be you and that none of us are going to prison for anything we do to bring down Katie’s killer.”
On a heavy sigh, Alex said, “I had a feeling someone was going to say that. Look, as much as I hate to admit i
t, the fact remains that I am an officer of the law. I can’t just let—”
“Then you can walk away, cop,” Brad said. “Easy as that.”
“I can’t do that!” Alex shouted. “I don’t know what you people are into, but I already know too much to just walk away and refuse the case. But, by law, I can’t allow you to—”
“We aren’t asking for your permission,” Mena said quietly.
Alex’s eyes locked with hers. She was asking him to give up everything. What he believed in. His lifestyle. If he allowed them to track down and kill another human being, he’d be a fraud. He couldn’t be a detective anymore, not unless he wanted to be one of these corrupt cops that he saw on TV. The judicial system was supposed to judge and punish. He couldn’t become a vigilante. And it pissed him off that Mena thought he could.
“Mena, are you aware of the situation you’ve put me in?”
“I am, and I’m sorry.”
The exhale that passed his lips was long as he contemplated his options. He couldn’t do this. He had to leave, get away before they convinced him that what they were plotting was the right thing to do. It was against the law; he could feel it in his gut. “Mena, I—”
“Leave us,” Mena said.
Alex glanced around in shock as every person standing on the porch obediently filed back into the house. Well, all except for one: Phoenix. The guy stood there, lips pressed together, hands balled into tight fists and shaking his head. It was clear the guy didn’t want to leave Mena alone with him; maybe he already knew what she was planning to say. Alex didn’t have a clue, but he doubted there could be anything to change his mind about helping them. Only a handful of minutes before, he hadn’t thought there was anything that he wouldn’t do for her, but this was crazy talk. Going to prison swiftly moved into the first slot of things he wouldn’t do for Mena. If he left now, he wouldn’t have to continue with the list; it was sure to grow.
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