by Gaja J. Kos
“Police! Put your hands behind your head. Now.”
Chapter 4
Well, this was certainly a surprise.
I swore, softly, then laced my fingers behind my head. While I didn’t think the authorities were hunting me specifically, standing over a corpse sure as shit didn’t work in my favor.
For a moment, I contemplated blasting the intruder with demon fire, but it, much like reaching for the umbilical cord connecting me with my lair, was far, far slower than a speeding bullet. If the policeman was trigger-happy, it’d never make it. Ugh.
The only way I was getting out of this without a neat little hole in my flesh was by playing along. At least until he holstered his weapon.
I blew out a thin breath and mentally scolded myself. How could I be so fucking careless as to forget to monitor my surroundings after my preliminary sweep of the woods?
A ton of perfectly logical excuses popped up in my mind, the majority of them revolving around my deceased mark, but I pushed them away. There was nothing that could be done about it now since I couldn’t turn back time, so I focused on the one thing that was still within my power—slipping from the law’s grasp with minimal damage on my end.
“Turn around. Slowly,” the voice ordered.
For the first time, a hint of recognition slithered through my mind. It couldn’t possibly be…
Keeping my movements as nonthreatening as I could, I crushed the grass beneath my feet and finally made the dreaded turn. A silent gasp left my lips.
Couldn’t be. But it sure as fuck was.
“You…” the policeman breathed, the barrel of his gun pointed right at my chest. A kill shot, if he could make it.
My gaze drifted up to the familiar spill of curly black hair, brushed back to reveal his handsome, if stern, face. But those ember eyes—they widened in surprise as they bore into mine. Even in his plainer work clothes, he still looked striking. Only now, there wasn’t a single trace of lust filling out his sensual lips. A shame, really, because those were some fine lips.
“Hi there,” I purred as if there wasn’t a body leaking blood at my feet.
The Perelesnyk kept staring at me, but I could see a hint of hesitancy slipping into the assured grip he had on his gun. He didn’t lower the weapon, which made me respect him a bit more despite it keeping me in the bloody line of fire, but he did seem to contemplate giving me the benefit of the doubt.
“Don’t move,” he warned, then strode up the gentle slope and came up behind me. He cuffed my hands with the skill and efficiency of someone who’d done it hundreds of times, and just as I contemplated blasting myself into particles and fleeing to my lair, he added, “Don’t even think about it.”
The cold barrel pressed into my back drove the point home.
I sighed. Fine. I wasn’t going anywhere yet.
With a steady hand wrapped around my arm, he led me away from the body. Wretched heat spread from the seam where our flesh touched, the human persona he wore like a coat becoming porous, allowing faint hints of the incubus to slip through.
A thought slipped into my head. Although, surprisingly, it had nothing to do with sex. Not this one, at least.
“I thought there were no supernaturals on the force?” I dared to angle my head a little, peering at him out of the corner of my eye. “With all the random blood tests and all…”
While most supes passed for human on the outside, the same definitely didn’t apply to the inner workings of our bodies. Even a random scan for illegal substances could reveal irregularities that couldn’t be explained regardless of how much one tried. So with the edict that the human population needed to be kept in the dark about our existence—save for vamps, who’d become quite mainstream over the decades—it was simply too dangerous to wander into waters where we could be discovered by something as trivial as a checkup.
“Not your concern, love,” he said when we finally stopped.
I hated how his voice made my heart pump faster. And it certainly didn’t help that he had me cuffed—or that he was standing so close behind me my body drank in all that delicious heat radiating from his flesh. If it weren’t for that damned gun digging into my back, this could have turned into quite an intriguing encounter.
I snorted at myself and mentally applauded my stupidity. I was basically a single twitch away from getting shot, possibly killed, and all I could think about was how hot the dragon-officer made me.
Great, just fucking great, Lena.
Momentarily, I considered that perhaps I deserved to get a bullet lodged between my shoulder blades, but when his voice fluttered against my ear—still hard, only now with an edge of lust mixed into the all-business tone—something within me eased. Maybe I wasn’t the only one messed up here.
“Mind telling me what you were doing, bent over a body?” he demanded.
A smile teased my lips. “Uncuff me, and I will.”
His laugh rolled across my skin. “I like seeing you cuffed. I think they’ll stay on for a while.”
Sadly, he wasn’t joking. But the kiss of the barrel did retreat form my back, and the next moment, I found myself staring at a pair of alluring amber eyes.
“I have credentials in my back pocket.”
“Hoping I’d cop a feel?” he asked, a single corner of his unnervingly attractive mouth curling up.
I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me, but quickly reminded myself of what had happened between us yesterday. It was bad enough that I was in his proximity so soon after having sex; I certainly didn’t need to encourage flirting. Gods knew my energy was already acting up in unspeakable ways.
“I’m a PI,” I clarified, the half-truth coming to me as naturally as breathing. “I was hired to track down Mitja Sever, which is precisely what I was doing when I found him dead in the woods.” I jutted my chin in the direction of the corpse. “Just like that. I trust the coroner will be able to confirm he’s been dead for at least half an hour.”
“Half an hour in which you could have already been here.”
I groaned.
Unfortunately, he had a point. There was nothing to indicate my time of arrival—
“Mountain bikers,” I blurted. “A group of them passed by my car when I parked. I can give you their description. Besides, with the amount of blood Sever is leaking, if I were the one who’d done him in, I wouldn’t be standing here spotless.”
The Perelesnyk didn’t say anything. He simply moved around, and a soft, treacherous gasp tore itself from my chest as his hand slid into my back pocket to retrieve the credentials. Not for the first time, I was fucking grateful I renewed my license regularly, but on the wings of my relief, a string of tension slithered through me. Shit, it felt so damn good to be touched.
Some semblance of clarity returned to my mind when the officer—no, detective, I realized once I caught a glimpse of his badge—stepped in front of me once more. His amber gaze drifted up from my license and met mine.
“Lena Ambrose,” he drawled. “Nice to finally put a name to the face.”
I blushed, and hated myself for it. “You were the tight-lipped one, if memory serves me well.”
He smiled, the sight hitting me like a punch in the gut. “Oh, my lips were many things, but tight certainly wasn’t one of them.”
Right on cue, memories of those many things swarmed my mind. Him going down on me, then smiling up from between my legs as an orgasm broke down the walls of my reality. The numerous paths across my body he’d drawn with teasing flicks of his tongue. And the way he’d kissed me—so hungrily, so demanding, I felt as if I were living on the sensation alone.
Lust swept through me with such force I almost did something stupid. Almost.
“Now you know my name, it’s only fair that I learn yours.” I arched an eyebrow, ignoring how breathless I sounded. “Aren’t men of the law supposed to identify themselves? Or is there a special exception on the rule for dragons?”
I could have sworn I saw a pulse of heat flash in hi
s eyes, but he fished out his credentials nonetheless and lifted them in front of my face.
“Caz Zeman,” I read. “Senior detective. Huh, I never thought Kranjska Gora had a need for detectives. Naughty tourists?”
He laughed, a magnificent sound that caressed my very core. “I drift between stations in the Gorenjska region, go where I’m needed.”
“So what brought you out to these woods?”
The amber in his eyes turned a shade darker. “You know, I still haven’t received a satisfactory answer from you on this matter.”
“Like I said,” I purred, “uncuff me and I’ll spill the beans. These things chafe.”
“You certainly didn’t mind it rough last night.”
Again, there was that edge of a smile in the corner of his mouth, and it took all my self-control not to obliterate the distance between us this very instant and fuck him right on the damp forest ground. I licked my dry lips and took a sharp intake of breath that did little to stem the burning desire.
“Are you going to seduce me or arrest me, Caz?”
“Right now, a combination of both sounds pretty fucking nice, Lena.”
He was standing so close I could feel his breath on my lips, and fuck if it wasn’t turning me on far more than was acceptable. I angled my head, knowing I was playing a game I just might lose, but doing it anyway. Shit, we were both fucked up if we could give in to teasing while a crook lay dead just a few feet uphill.
I must have said that part out loud because Caz staggered back, shaking his head as if to clear away a daze. Unfortunately, I could sympathize all too well.
“Sever was suspected of kidnapping a girl about a month ago,” I said to help us both. “Her parents contacted me soon after, when it became clear that with the lack of hard evidence, the police couldn’t arrest the son of a bitch… In fact, they hardly managed to get him in for questioning before the fucker lawyered up.”
“But you had no such restrictions.” There was anger in his voice, but somehow I sensed it wasn’t directed at me.
“Yeah, I didn’t have such restrictions.”
Caz ran a hand through his hair, ruffling the dark curls. “How long have you been tracking him?”
“Three weeks,” I hissed, my voice now the one tainted with anger. “Every time I thought I pinned his location, he was already gone. I got a lead from a contact this morning and rushed out here, but, well…” I nodded at the bloodied mess that had once been Sever. “I guess someone got to him before I could.”
Caz’s gaze drifted from the body back to my face, studying me in silence. Seeing if he could trust me, I realized, then received my answer in the form of a key he produced from his pocket. He stepped behind me, his presence brushing against my spine until it arched without my permission. Caz moved in to undo the cuffs, standing closer than the task itself demanded. It took up every ounce of my will to not grind my ass against him.
Mercifully, the heat of him faded once he retrieved the cuffs. I rubbed my wrists out of reflex—or simply because I needed to fumble something since Caz was off limits—but when I met those amber eyes once more, everything inside me went still, my fingers halting.
“It isn’t just a missing girl,” he said, then produced a card from his pocket and handed it over. “I get off shift at six. Meet me at this address. There’s—there’s something I think you need to see.”
Chapter 5
The words bad idea rumbled in my head like a death march of a thousand stomping feet. I probably shouldn’t ignore the cascade of chilling warnings, but this seemed to be one of those times when reason held little power over me. Obviously, since I was standing on the stone-paved path, gazing at the white wood door, I knew in my bones I’d step through.
So why was I still postponing the inevitable?
I sighed and scanned my surroundings again. In all honesty I’d expected to find some kind of apartment, given Caz’s penchant to move around. Instead, the address he had given me produced a lovely, small house, sitting in the heart of a calm district just south of Kranjska Gora’s center.
While I wasn’t one to go for the cozy, suburban lodging or life, I had to admit there was something inviting about Caz’s home. Or maybe that was just the Perelesnyk himself.
Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea.
By the gods, this was a fucking bad idea.
My energy thrummed with excitement, my mind caught somewhere between intrigue and the desperate need to get the fuck away and just forget about this whole ordeal. But at the same time I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Regardless of how much I wanted to deny it, I was interested in what Caz had to say.
For three fucking weeks I hunted Sever only to find someone had managed to bleed him out first. I wanted answers. I wanted to patch up that little hole in the brilliant canvas that was my pride. But most of all, I wanted to know what Caz had meant by “It isn’t just a missing girl.”
So, honestly, who was I kidding? There had never been a choice. Not in this.
As for the excited little dance my power was doing… Well, I just needed to keep it bottled up and my hands firmly to myself.
I let out a hissing exhale. I’ll be fine.
Caz materialized on the threshold on my second knock, the rush of his energy that teased my skin indicating his arrival long before the door swung aside to reveal the dragon himself. He was dressed from head to toe in black, the casual slacks and a fitted tee doing wonders for his athletic figure. I noticed he was barefoot, and there was an enchanting air around him, speaking of someone who had the luxury to relax a little and enjoy the solitude after a long day. And yet for all his carefree demeanor, the lines in the corners of his eyes let me know his mind was still very much at work.
I knew the feeling.
“Come on in,” he said and stepped back to let me pass. “Coffee?”
“Please.”
The easiness of my voice took me by surprise. Good. That was good. And it gave me hope that I might yet survive this encounter.
I followed Caz down a short hallway and into the kitchen set on the right. Much like the outside, every inch of the interior was cozy to the max—a semblance of a dragon’s lair, only wrapped in human standards. Caz poured us both a nice cup of the aromatic brew, then motioned to the sugar.
I shook my head and smiled. “Bitter and black, like my heart.”
“Ah, no wonder we mesh so well.” His gaze swept across my face, a dash of heat igniting in the amber. “Like calls to like, or so they say.”
He handed me my cup, and I did my best not to groan as his fingers brushed against mine. What was that about surviving again?
Luckily, he stepped away before the thrall of lust snatched away what little still remained of my senses.
I drank in every detail of the house like a thief as I followed him towards the living room, and the more I saw, the more I realized that I liked it. Sincerely. And a lot.
There was no air of pretentiousness lingering in the tasteful furniture, and the few, but impressive-looking antiques were probably old enough to give my sister cardiac arrest. The good kind, I meant.
The artifacts were, for the majority, stunning weapons, with a couple of dragon-depicting pieces of something that was probably considered art in the very old days thrown in between. Somehow, I had the suspicion Caz hadn’t only collected these at the time they were made, but was their star subject.
I frowned. It felt odd to think of him as ancient with his good looks and killer smile that practically oozed life in a far different manner than demons struck me. Then again, I was only twenty-three. I still had quite a few centuries to go before I conquered this whole ageless aspect of my near-immortality, let alone undersood others’.
Still, it got me wondering just how nice it would be to spend that unimaginable length of time tangled in bed with someone so—
I slapped myself mentally and cradled my cup hard enough to chip it. I loosened my grip, willing some clarity into the treacherous piece of shit that was
my mind.
To spend immortality with someone… No, I was so not going there. Not now. Not ever.
Lusting after him was one thing, but actually considering to develop something more...
I shook my head.
My sisters had both found and taken their mates. They were happy, too, more than I’d ever seen them. But that kind of life… It didn’t fit into who I was.
I liked my job, liked the freedom it gave me. And even if I wanted to explore this whole mated path, how could I drag someone onto the perpetual roller-coaster ride that was my life, leaving them suspended in limbo while I ran around killing nasties?
I might be a bringer of death, but I wasn’t cruel.
Much to my relief, Caz saved me from my thoughts as he opened a door leading from the living room into what appeared to be a study. Eagerly, I shimmied inside behind him, but my jaw went slack as I noticed the fucking impressive murder board dominating the opposite wall. Pictures were glued to the rectangular surface—some of men who were clearly alive, others of people I presumed had long since entered Veles’s realm. Notes filled up the empty spaces between them, all written in slanted handwriting that carried a hint of old-world elegance. It was the single whisper of beauty in this dark place.
But as if seeing the bones of a crime organization that had probably left more corpses behind than even I had wasn’t bad enough, recognition stirred the longer I looked. Because in that interconnected mass of suspects and victims, I knew one of each.
Unsurprisingly, both belonged to the case that had quite literally met a dead end.
I spun around and caught Caz’s gaze, clutching the coffee. I barely felt the heat seeping into my fingers as a deep chill washed over me.
“All of this is connected to my missing girl?”
Expression grim, Caz nodded, then pointed at the unimpressive mugshot of a middle-aged man pinned in the middle. “That’s Kauer. PI by day, crime lord by night.”
