by Cynthia Eden
She took the blow. Took it, even as her stare darted to Simon’s tense face. “They knew the first hit wasn’t successful.” Knew she’d still been living while the vamps hit the ground. “How?”
His fangs were out. “Because word travels fast in this town and his men—” He spared a hard glance at Tony. “Know more about this city than he thinks.”
A leak. No, a spy. One who reported to Grim’s vampires.
One who wanted that sweet promise of immortality?
Why did everyone want to live forever?
“I’m going to the scene,” Tony said, “and I’ll see if I can figure out just what we’re up against.”
Easy. A Born Master and his gang of bloodsuckers. Guys who liked to 129
drink, drain, and torture for fun.
“Harper, Post,” he fired at the two charmers. “Watch this freak.”
“Run, little vampire,” Leo murmured. “Run fast. Grim’s coming for you, and he won’t stop until he has your head.”
She glanced back at the prick.
But found sadness in his eyes. Gray eyes now, not black. “Even being Born won’t save you,” he told her. “Run, while you can.”
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Chapter 11
They needed sanctuary, and they needed it fast.
Simon and Dee ran down the deserted streets in the heart of the city.
Pink strands of light crept across the sky. Dawn, bitch that she was, would be there soon.
He needed to crash. Needed the healing sleep that would come.
So did Dee. And with her fresh wound, she’d need blood. Mine.
The cop bastard had gone off to investigate the attack, ordering them to stay away.
Not much choice. For now.
“Here,” Dee said, and Simon stopped in front of an all-too familiar bar. No, no way were they going to seek shelter from—
The glass doors swung open. “Dee?” A woman with long, pale blond hair stood just inside. Her eyes glittered, and her hands, bare and small, fluttered in the air. “I was wondering when you’d come to me.”
The woman—the witch—lifted her eyes and met his stare. “And when I’d be seeing you again, Chase.”
Hell. He had such shitty luck.
“Don’t even want to know right now,” Dee muttered and shoved past Catalina. “Cat, I’m calling in my favor. I need a roof, a bed, and protection for the day.”
Catalina smiled at Simon and motioned for him to enter the bar. “I see you found your key, and you thought I was just bullshitting you.”
She’ll be all that you need.
But there’s a price for her. One you may not want to pay.
He’d agreed to pay everything. To trade everything, for the chance to have full control of his soul once more.
And for revenge. Sweet, sweet revenge.
Catalina closed the door behind them. She flipped the lock, then whispered a fast spell. “One day,” she said, turning back to face them. “I don’t want to get in the middle of your war.”
A broken laugh slipped past Dee’s lips. “A war? Is that what I’m in?”
“Honey, you’ve been in a war for years.” Sad. “You just didn’t know it.”
“And you did?” Snapped fast. “Thanks a hell of a lot for telling me, Cat.”
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The witch’s lips tightened. “Some things you weren’t ready to know.”
She swallowed, then pointed to the back of her empty bar, to the door with the gold EMPLOYEES ONLY sign. “Take the second room at the top of the stairs. Chase can have—”
“He’ll stay with me.” Flat.
Simon’s brows shot up.
“Ah, like that, hmm? Fair enough.” Catalina tossed him a smile, one brittle around the edges. “Told you what would happen, didn’t I?”
“But you didn’t tell me.” Not flat now, furious. Dee’s hands slapped down on the bar. “I trusted you, Catalina. Watched your back for years. I never came in your bar. I respected your surface rules, never tried to push your spell—”
The spell that made all the humans walk right past Delaney’s. The spell that only let supernaturals gain entrance to the bar.
“—but you and me—I thought we were friends.”
“We are.” Soft.
Simon knew better than to get between two fighting women.
“Friends don’t keep secrets.”
“You didn’t want to know this.” Catalina’s long hair floated behind her as she walked around the bar, poured a whiskey, and drank it in two gulps. “When I scryed and found out—you didn’t want to know.”
“My choice.” Dee threw this over her shoulder as she marched toward the marked door. “You took it away.”
Catalina’s fingers clenched around the glass. Dee shoved open the door. Simon followed, slower.
Glass shattered. “I didn’t take it away.” He caught the whisper of the witch’s voice. “I gave him to you, and I gave you a fighting chance.”
Dee didn’t glance back. Maybe she heard the witch. Maybe she didn’t.
Right then, he guessed it didn’t matter.
She awoke to hands on her flesh. Slow, stroking fingers that pushed up her shirt, skated over her stomach. Gentle. So gentle.
Her lashes lifted. Darkness surrounded her, but she could see so well.
See him.
Healed now. Not even a scar to mar his face or the bare flesh of his arms. He leaned over her, eyes intent, fangs gleaming.
Dee reached up and touched his chest. “I dreamed about you.” Yeah, vampires dreamed. Or, in her case, had nightmares.
The flames, burning Simon’s flesh. Killing him.
He’d walked through the fire for her. Whatever agenda the guy was 132
working, he’d sacrificed for her, again.
His gaze held hers. His fingers were a warm weight on her flesh. No aches troubled her body. No pains. Healed, just as he was.
But…hungry.
The bloodlust, rising again.
She’ll drink from any fool she wants. Drink, drain, and fuck—and you’ll be just as screwed as before.
No, Leo had been wrong about her. She would have control and she would have Simon. “Stop risking death for me,” she whispered and the words stuck in her throat.
A sad smile twisted his lips. “Don’t you understand? I’d risk any damn thing for you.”
He kissed her. Still gentle. Still soft.
And the hunger grew.
Her hands clamped around his shoulders and she pulled him closer.
His tongue thrust into her mouth. She moaned, eager, and arched toward him.
Taste.
His hands eased up, sliding under the shirt that still covered her breasts. His fingers skimmed over her bra, over the nipples that were pebbled and hard, thrusting up against the cotton.
She could smell her own need in the air. Feel him all around her.
Simon’s head lifted. “I want your throat.”
Drink.
Asking, not taking. The lust was there, brimming in the eyes gone black.
For vamps, blood was about power, control, life.
In Simon’s eyes, she just saw need. The same stark need that she knew would be reflected in her own gaze. Dee tipped back her head.
Should have been repulsed. Horrified. Even with what she was—
His teeth scraped over her neck.
Her sex clenched.
Should have been afraid.
His teeth pierced her flesh. Her nails dug into his skin. “Simon!” A bolt of pleasure shot straight to her core. Her belly quivered, her knees shook, and she wanted.
Dee’s hands pushed between them. Fumbled with the snap of his jeans.
Dee wanted his flesh beneath her fingers. She needed more. So much more.
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Her hands shoved inside and she found his cock. Fully erect, thick, so hot to the touch.
“Inside,” she managed to gasp, “Inside, Simon, I need—”
His tongue
swiped over her neck and he lifted his head. “Take from me.”
Her lips parted and her tongue pressed against a fang. Sweet blood.
Simon.
She rose, and her hands pressed him back against the mattress. He went willingly, letting her have the control she needed then.
Power.
No, not about power.
The hunger. The lust.
Craving.
She didn’t take his neck, though he offered his throat to her. Dee yanked off her shirt. Tossed her bra aside, then straddled him, her legs resting over his powerful thighs.
Her fingers trailed down his chest and she leaned forward. A dull thudding filled her ears. Her heartbeat? His? Her mouth pressed against his flesh. Not in a bite. A kiss.
Pleasure.
She closed her lips around his nipple. Swirled her tongue over the hard nub. His cock pushed up between her thighs, rubbing at the crotch of her jeans, and the pressure had her rocking back and forth.
More.
“Take, Dee. Take from me.” Guttural. A demand.
But he wasn’t in control anymore.
Her tongue swiped over him and she let him feel the press of her teeth. Not a bite. Not yet.
Maybe he’d beg for that.
His hands clamped over her hips and he ground her against his cock.
Oh, damn, but that was good. Just not—
Enough. Not even close.
“Don’t play.” An order given as her fingers crept down the hard plane of stomach. “You don’t want to push me, you don’t want—”
She looked up at that and knew her eyes would be black. “I want everything.”
“Then you’ll get it,” a harsh whisper. “Hope you’re ready.”
So did she.
But she had the power, she’d be in control.
Her teeth sank into his chest. His growl filled her ears even as the hot 134
warmth of his blood slipped over her tongue.
Life.
Power. So much power.
Her hips lifted and her fingers curled around his cock. She pumped him, once, twice, felt his length swell even more in her grasp. Felt—
Dee stood in an alley. One hand on her hip. A vampire hissed at her, and that preppy fool holding the vamp blinked his eyes.
“Just how long do you think it’s gonna take me to shove this into your heart? A minute? Less?”
She pulled back from him. Her memory, seen from his eyes. No, his memory. “Simon, why do I—”
“Not now,” he gritted. “Ditch the jeans or I’ll rip them off.”
She didn’t have any backup clothes then and—
“Fucking rip them off.”
Dee rolled off him. She shimmied out of her jeans and panties even as she licked her lips and tasted him.
His hands, warm, strong, closed around her thighs. He pushed her legs apart and his breath blew against her damp curls.
“Your smell.” His nostrils flared. “I could devour you.”
Um, now, since he was a vamp that could—Oh, damn.
His mouth took her sex. Lips, tongue. Tasting, claiming. Her hands fisted in the sheets. Dee heard a hard rip. Didn’t care.
That mouth.
His tongue swiped over her clit and Dee nearly came off the bed. She squirmed, trying to get away, no, get closer, but his hold stayed tight and strong.
And he took. His tongue drove into her sex.
She climaxed against his mouth. A long, hard wave that trembled through her body.
But he didn’t stop. That tongue tasted and licked and stroked and Dee realized she was calling his name.
Nearly freaking begging. Her.
She swallowed and her nails dug into his back. “Simon!” Demand there.
Command.
One more swipe of that tongue. Her calves stiffened. Oh, sweet hell.
Then he rose above her. Positioned his cock and drove into her.
Yes.
Her legs clamped around him and when he began to thrust and retreat, she shoved right back at him. Harder. Harder.
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The bed banged against the wall. Simon’s gaze burned hers. So much fire there. So much need.
He lifted her hips higher, plunged deeper even as his fingers bit into her flesh.
Marking her.
She’d marked him.
Another climax bore down on her. Her sex trembled, tightened, and she tossed back her head.
Simon came, pouring into her.
She watched him. Watched the pleasure, the near-pain of it sweeping over his face.
Then she came, pulsing, throbbing, breaking, beneath him.
Pleasure. So much pleasure.
Enough to nearly die from.
Good thing they were both already dead.
Zane Wynter didn’t glance to the left when he exited the Night Watch building. He didn’t need to look to know that blood still stained the sidewalk.
The blood of hunters.
The scent teased his nose and a growl built in his throat.
Vampires. Hitting here.
Come and get me.
The stakes he’d taken from Dee’s stash were slung in a pack that dangled from one shoulder. He hadn’t needed to sharpen them. Dee always kept her babies in such fine form.
He’d find the assholes, all right.
An eye for an eye. He’d always thought that way.
“Zane!”
He swore at the call. Not one from another Night Watch hunter, but from the cop he sometimes called friend.
A mistake that. Taking humans for friends just led to trouble.
Tony hurried to his side. The guy’s badge flashed. It hung from Tony’s hip. All official-looking. The cop had to be on the clock.
Or hunting, just like he was. Pity they didn’t always play by the same rules.
“I need to find Dee,” Tony said the minute he reached him.
Zane didn’t stiffen. Just stared back at him. “Good luck with that.”
Dee. Pak hadn’t called him in when she’d been hurt. Hadn’t told him about what happened, not until the bastard had given Dee a running start.
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Pak had always had a soft spot for her. He wouldn’t do what needed to be done. The guy just didn’t understand…
“I—if something ever happens, you’ll come for me, won’t you, Zane?” He could see her so clearly. One hand tight around a stake as she stared down at the still body of a teen, a young girl with blond hair and blood all around her. A girl who’d gone on a killing spree and attacked her two younger sisters. “ I’d never want to be like them.”
Dee’s nightmare. One some bastard had made come true.
Pak said she’d adjusted. That she’d maintained control. And that she had a pack of vampires after her ass.
But could any vampire maintain real control? What happened when the bloodlust grew too strong? What happened when Dee turned on an innocent?
“You’ll come for me, won’t you, Zane?”
Good thing they’d never fucked. If they had, knowing what was to come would have made the job so much harder.
Impossible.
Tony grabbed him and shoved Zane back against the side of the building. The bricks bit through his shirt. “I need to find her!”
Tony had slept with her. There was pain there. In his eyes. On his face. “Haven’t seen her.” Truth. Though he had a good idea where to start looking.
Dee would be licking her wounds. She’d need shelter. Someone she could trust.
Mistake.
Tony’s face mottled. The guy had always been so in control. So restrained. One of the reasons why he and Dee hadn’t lasted.
She’d needed a guy who didn’t understand control.
“That bastard Leo bit his own wrists open and the fucking guards didn’t check on him. He was in a padded cell, they thought he was safe. The vamp bled out, bled out!”
Zane blinked at that. Yeah, vamps could die from blood loss, but he’d never heard of
a vamp taking his own life that way.
You had to want death pretty badly to take that route.
“Last night, he said some SOB named Grim was after Dee. She needs help. I’ve got to find her, help her—”
At that, Zane knocked the cop back. Tony staggered, nearly fell to the cement. “And how are you gonna help her?” He demanded. “Offer to be her snack?”
A muscle flexed along Tony’s jaw. “She’s not like that. She wasn’t 137
crazy, she was just…Dee.” Sadness again.
Fucking shame.
Tony’s chin jerked up. “I don’t want her to wind up like Gomez or Grace. I don’t want—”
He stiffened. Okay, yeah, this was one of those moments in life that sucked. “Grace was working with the vamps. She lured the hunters out, got them to lower their guards.” Then served them right up to the vampires.
A woman he’d known for years. He’d laughed with her. Talked with her about her dumbass dog. Stolen her coffee more days than he could count.
And she’d set them up.
“What? No, man, she was a vic, same as the others, Grace wouldn’t
—”
“We hacked into her hard drive today. Did interviews with family, friends, and we got her doctor to talk.” Patient confidentiality, his ass. That old rule stopped the moment the patient got zipped up in a body bag. “She was dying. Cancer. She had about six months left to live.”
“Christ.”
“You know humans,” Zane said softly, watching the cop carefully.
“Once the clock starts running out, they get desperate. They’ll try anything.”
“Hell!” His throat worked. “Grace saw Dee.” He ran his hands over his face. “She was here. She saw Dee change, survive—live.”
Vampire. “Guess it was too much temptation for her. The bastards sent her an e-mail. Told her to bring a trade outside to them. The vamps promised her a new life.”
But just gave her death.
“They’re going after Dee. You know they won’t stop until she’s dead.”
No, they wouldn’t. “It’s time for you to step back, Tony. You’re not strong enough to handle the hell that’s coming.” Not with a Born Master playing in the game.
“I’m not leaving her alone.”
His brows shot up. “Who says she’s alone? Word I have is that Dee’s got a new lover, a vamp who risked the fire for her.” Interesting. In his experience, vamps really didn’t like to burn.