Then, she thought about how humiliated she would be if he rejected her and told her to go back to her own bed. She would never be able to look at herself in the mirror again.
Aching for his touch, she fell asleep, picturing him, and almost feeling him lying next to her.
6
Nick
As Nick softy closed the door behind him, he leaned his forehead against the cool wall. Lana’s hair had been up in a knot every time he had seen her so far, but since she brushed it out before bed, she had taken down her hair. It was thick, like a silk curtain of deep red hair that hung all the way down to her butt. His fingers tingled with the urge to run his fingers through her luscious mane.
It had taken every ounce of willpower he had to walk out of that room. The jeans she was wearing accented her curvaceous butt, and he wanted to palm her ass cheeks and pull her close to him.
The t-shirt she wore outlined her large, firm breasts. The large shirt did nothing to hide the flatness of her stomach. He even found her muscular arms to be sexy. She had just the right amount of muscle to be sexy as hell, but not enough to take away from her femininity.
He knew that he could have her. The want and need in her clear eyes were very evident. Nick mentally kicked himself for having morals. Although he could mate with her and teach her about the exquisite art of lovemaking, he would never forgive himself if it happened tonight. He would never regret being with her as she was an amazing woman, but he would feel guilty because he would feel as though he had taken advantage of her.
He could see from the shadows cast into the hallway that she was still standing at the door. He wondered what she was thinking and whether she was tempted to turn the door knob and come after him. If she did that, he wouldn’t be able to resist. He had a lot of willpower, but not even he could withstand that kind of temptation.
But she was very vulnerable right now, even if she would never admit it, even to herself. That means that he had to be the responsible and moral one.
After a few minutes the shadows faded and he heard her footsteps go toward the bed. After a few seconds, he heard her crawl onto the mattress.
He pictured her lying on the deep emerald sheets, her red hair haloed out around her. The vision was almost too much. He reached out his hand and grasped the door knob. The battle was almost physical. The righteous side won, and he wrenched his hand away.
Clenching his hands into tight fists to keep them from opening her door, he headed to his own room. After he undressed quickly, he jumped into the shower, with the water running as cold as he possibly could stand it, hoping to take the edge off his desires.
He stayed in the shower for a long time, until he thought his body temperature must have dropped a couple of degrees. The shower didn’t work. Now, he was freezing, covered in goosebumps, shivering, and still had the strongest hunger to devour Lana.
Sighing heavily, he flung himself down onto the bed. Sleep eluded him. Every time he closed his eyes, Lana’s emerald eyes stared at him. He imagined that he could see clear into her soul through them. Her “girl next door” beauty was breathtaking. Her innocence of the world, coupled with her strength, determination, and courage, made her completely irresistible.
Nick checked himself. He wondered if it was possible that he could be falling in love. While several women have tried to get him to commit to them, his heart was never in it. Now, with Lana, everything was different.
Growling loudly with frustration, he tossed and turned. His mind was filled with visions of Lana. His thoughts were consumed by the knowledge that she was in danger. She didn’t seem to be aware of how much danger she was in.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he drifted off to sleep. His dreams were filled with visions of a huge herd of rogue dragons flying through the air, picking off female shifters, one by one.
By nature, Nick was an early riser. He groaned when he looked at the clock and saw that it was before dawn. As tempting as it was to try, he knew that it would be useless to try to fall back to sleep.
Grumbling, he rolled out of bed, stumbled into his clothes, and headed for the kitchen. Today was going to be a “pot of coffee” day instead of just a “cup of coffee” day.
Soon after, Lana popped into the kitchen. Her hair was tied up in a knot again, sending a wave of disappointment through Nick, who longed to see it hanging down.
“Good morning,” Lana said, smiling at him. It was like the sun lighting up the room.
“Good morning,” He answered. “How did you sleep?”
“Once I got to sleep, I felt great. I’m pretty sure the exhaustion just completely set in,” Lana said. “Did you sleep well?”
“Fine,” Nick lied. “Are you hungry?”
“Ravenous,” she answered.
Me too, Nick thought, licking his lips and looking at her.
Mentally shaking himself, he stood up and said, “I’m going to make some breakfast. There is nothing in the world like bacon and pancakes.”
Nodding, Lana looked out the window. “I’m going to go for a short walk, unless you need help cooking.”
“I’ve got this. You should be safe enough. This is a busy neighborhood and it’s daytime. Stay close, though,” Nick said.
Nick reluctantly watched her leave the house. He was torn between the idea that she was in danger and the knowledge that she was a grown lion shifter who could hold her own in a battle. She knew there was danger, so she would be alert and prepared for anything.
It seemed like an eternity, though, before she returned. He couldn’t help but think of all the terrible things that could happen to her. He was worse than a mother hen.
He breathed a heavy sigh of relief when he heard the door open and her footsteps across the floor.
“You have perfect timing. I just finished cooking the last of the pancakes,” he said.
She seemed to inhale the food. It seemed that she ate her three pancakes and four pieces of bacon without taking a breath. She was especially fond of the bacon.
She was definitely no fainting miss. Lana didn’t let the chaos and danger ruin her appetite.
“Bacon seems to be one of the most popular foods in the human world,” Nick said. “Be careful, or you might just grow to like this world a lot and find it hard to go home.”
“Nah. I can have the best of both worlds,” she told him. “I know where to find bacon. I’ll come here for the bacon and take it home with me.”
Nick was just about to reply when his phone began ringing. It was a call from the manager of the hotel where Lana had been staying.
“You have to come quick. I got a phone call this morning telling me to look in the room. The man calling said that it was a message for Lana. I went up and checked. There is a dead body in the room. The police are on their way,” he said, frantically, his voice rising to a high pitch in his panic. He was talking so fast that Nick had a difficult time understanding what he was saying.
“We’re coming,” he said.
He hung up in time for his phone to ring again. It was his lieutenant. “We’ve had another murder. It’s at the Regional Hotel, room 314.”
“In route,” Nick replied.
They hastily threw their dishes in the dishwasher. Nick grabbed his gun and badge. They were headed back over to the hotel in less than five minutes.
Lana sat silently in the passenger seat. She was wringing her hands and bouncing her leg until he thought she was going to rip off her hands and vibrate herself right out of the vehicle.
He couldn’t think of a single thing that he could say to her that would put her at ease.
“I don’t understand what his hang-up is about me. I’ve never met the man. I wasn’t a part of the people who took over his leader’s lands. I don’t have anything to do with him,” Lana said. She didn’t sound bitter. She was simply musing as to why Dizag had made her a main target.
“I think there are a couple of reasons,” Nick answered. “First, he is married to your sister. He proba
bly thinks that it is a game to get both sisters as his captives. Second, you are hunting him. That likely either amuses him, making him think he is playing a game, or annoys him, since he hates women so much. Third, you are the daughter of nobles in the shifter world. He’s got some kind of plan. We don’t know what that plan is, and it might not even make sense to us, but it makes sense to him. That makes him dangerous.”
There was a huge crowd of onlookers and reporters outside of the hotel. Holding Lana’s hand tightly, he pushed through the crowd. After he showed his badge to the officers manning the crime scene boundary, they hurried up the stairs.
If possible, the scene was even worse than the night before. It was evident that the victim had been tormented. The walls were covered in a spray of blood.
The victim was lying in a heap on the pile of clothes that Dizag had burned the night before. She had deep gashes all over her body. Her eyes were wide with terror and her mouth was open in a silent scream.
One of the other detectives at the scene said, “She has been identified as Brandy Jones. She was last seen at a local club. Her friends said she left alone around one in the morning.”
Nick recognized her. She was a cat shifter. She had a full-time job as a waitress and was going to school to become a nurse.
He closed his eyes for a nano-second, as though he could erase the crime. However, when he opened his eyes again, the body was still there.
Lana was staring at Brandy’s body, wide-eyed, without blinking. All of the blood had drained out of her face and she was as white as a ghost.
Nick thought that she was in shock at seeing the body.
He gently touched her arm. “Are you okay?”
Lana nodded. “Why didn’t anyone hear her last night?” she asked.
“That’s a good question. Just like no one heard him when he was tearing up the room yesterday. It’s baffling,” Nick said.
Finally, Lana was able to tear her eyes away from the poor woman. Tears rolled down her face.
“He killed her because he couldn’t get to me,” she said. “It’s my fault that she was tortured and killed.”
Nick grabbed her arms and turned her toward him. “No, it’s not. It is Dizag’s fault, and only his fault. Besides, even if you were here and he had killed you, he would have continued to kill and kidnap other women. He enjoys it. He has a thirst for murder and bloodshed. You wouldn’t have been able to stop him.”
Lana nodded at his words, but Nick wasn’t sure that she believed him.
The medical examiner and his team came. When they picked up the body, a white note in a clear plastic baggie was found underneath.
In red ink (or so Nick hoped it was ink), were the words:
Lana, sorry I missed you. I was hoping we could party. I left you a little gift. I’ll be seeing you soon. Dizag.
7
Lana
Lana was numb. Never in her life had she even imagined anything so heinous. How could anyone be so evil inside that he could justify doing this to another living creature?
If Dizag ever had a soul, it must have died and withered up a long time ago for him to be able to do this.
Then, she became angry. How dare he? Who or what did he think gave him permission to do this to someone else? Someone he likely didn’t know, who had never done anything bad to him.
Her heart hurt for the woman. She must have suffered through hell. She knew from much smaller injuries that when a person is in pain, one minute can feel like an eternity.
“If I could only get my paws on his throat,” Lana muttered to herself.
The room was so quiet, that although the words were said in a whisper, they echoed around the crimson-stained walls.
One of the detectives patted her on the shoulder. “We’re all with you, Little Sister,” he said. The pain and anger were evident on his face.
As Lana surveyed the room, she saw that everyone felt the same way.
“How are we going to catch him?” Lana asked. “If he can destroy my room yesterday and torture, then kill, this woman last night, without anyone hearing a sound or seeing anything, then he must be invisible. I’ve never heard of an invisibility shield existing outside of books, so what is the deal. How does he do it?”
She looked around the room, looking for answers, hoping that someone had an idea.
“Until we figure out how he did it, we might never find him. He could be anywhere, hiding right in front of us, and then popping out like the boogie man from little kids’ nightmares,” Lana said, passionately.
Everyone nodded, trying hard to think. Like Nick, most of the detectives and officers had been up for several days in a row, without so much as a nap, trying to catch him. Yet, Dizag always seemed to be miles ahead of them.
“He’s got my sister. He’s got Lucy. We have to get her back,” Lana said. The catch in her voice was heart-wrenching, revealing the anguish she felt at not knowing whether her sister was dead or alive. Or was she, at this very moment, being tortured by this hideous evil creature that seemed to have slithered out of the depths of hell?
Lana had always taken pride in controlling her emotions, especially in front of others. Her mother had always told her that it would never do to let others see her pain. Yet, now, she could no longer hold it in.
She began to tremble so hard that the men swore they could feel the room shake. Feeling as though she couldn’t take any air into her lungs, she began to breathe heavily, sucking in as much air as she could. She was hyperventilating, the people surrounding her becoming blurry and the room beginning to spin.
Nick gently put both hands on her face. “Breathe. Steady. You need to slow your breathing. Take in slow breaths. Breathe in to the count of four, hold it for the count of four, and then breathe out through the count of four,” he gently instructed.
Finally, Lana’s breathing returned to normal. Her trembling slowed and then stopped.
“We have to find her,” Lana said, her words coming out almost as a whimper. She immediately hated how weak she sounded.
“We will,” Nick said. “I promise. For now, let’s get out of here.”
Lana nodded, smiled weakly at everyone else in the room, as they bid goodbye. Then, taking one last sweep of the room, she stepped into the hallway.
She was amazed that walking five steps down the hallway made it seem like the carnage and destruction didn’t exist. There was no sign that anything bad had happened just feet away from where they were standing, waiting for the elevator.
Needing the fresh air, they decided to walk to the Paradigm. Nick texted one of the detectives who agreed to take his car back to his apartment.
The walk was not a relaxing one. As they strode toward the club, they made certain to stay extremely vigilant, not wanting to be caught unaware by any nasty characters who might be waiting to ambush them.
By the time they reached the club, Lana was so tense that she was sure that her entire body was about to shatter into little tiny pieces.
Brady looked up as they walked in. The color in his face drained. Soon, everyone stared at the pair who made their way through the now silent crowd. They knew that whatever happened was not good.
Nick and Lana sat down at the bar and Colleen hastily set two shots of whiskey in front of them. Lana slammed hers down without even thinking about it. The burning liquid sliding down her throat brought her out of the daze that had shrouded her.
Looking around the room, Nick knew what everyone was waiting for. After slamming down his shot, he said, “Yes, there was another one. It was by the same individual who had done all the others. This one was pretty nasty. I can’t tell you anymore, since it is an ongoing investigation. However, be very, very cautious when you go anywhere, especially at night. Women should never, ever go anywhere alone. I hate to sound sexist, but try to have a man with you, since this monster seems to be targeting only women—at least for now.”
Nick turned back around to see that Lana had her third empty whiskey glass lined up on
the bar. He would have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so horrific. He knew that she wasn’t a drinker, and was surprised to see that the whiskey hadn’t seemed to affect her too much.
With the buzz of whispered worried conversations in the background, Nick sighed heavily. Then, tonelessly, he asked Brady, “Have you heard anything that might help?”
Brady reluctantly shook his head. “There is nothing that can help you find Dizag. Obviously, most of the shifter world has heard about this. Alix refuses to go into hiding, which isn’t surprising. She says that a queen would never abandon her people when there is danger around.”
Nick smiled. “That sounds like Alix. She is one tough cookie,” he said.
He looked at Lana and asked, “Have you met her?”
“No, but I’ve heard of her and everything she had done for the people of her kingdom, especially all of those who were hurt by Vardok. I think I would like her,” Lana said.
Brady smiled. “I think you would, too.” Turning back to Nick, he said, “Father sent a messenger to ask what was going on over here. He told me that there have been some disappearances and deaths in the shifter world, although the deaths don’t seem to be quite as gruesome as they are here.”
Nick turned around to survey the hushed crowd again. He saw Lucian in the back of the club, simply observing what was going on and nursing a bourbon. Lucian raised his glass to Nick, who nodded back.
After chatting a little more, Lana could see the pure exhaustion etched on Nick’s face. She touched his arm, and leaned into him.
“Let’s head back home. I need a shower and some sleep,” Lana said.
Nick agreed.
Once they were back home, Lana stood outside on the porch. “The neighborhood is lit up, making it seem more like noon instead of midnight. I know I’ll be safe if I just walk up and down the block a bit. I need to stretch and breathe and just not think about anything for a few minutes.”
Nick wasn’t about to let Lana out of his sight. Grabbing her hand, he pushed his keys back into his pocket, and they walked slowly down the road. The moon was missing just a tiny sliver, and Lana fancied that she could see the old man in the celestial body weeping.
Detective Lion Shifter (A Paranormal Night Club Book 3) Page 4