Slade shrugged. “Works for me.”
She groaned out her frustration. “And how are you planning to get Ty into this clever trap of yours?”
Slade’s jaw popped as he worked it back and forth. He hadn’t considered what he’d have to do to get Ty’s attention. He kind of figured just strolling onto Were territory would be enough.
“You could use me as bait,” she suggested.
His gaze locked down hard on hers. “No.” He lengthened his stride, as if putting distance between them would make the idea go away, but the soft feminine scent of her had invaded his senses, making him all too aware of how very mortal and fragile she was, no matter her determination or training. One hard hit from a Were and she was dead. Simple as that. And that was not going to happen. Not on his watch.
“But they—”
“No.”
“I coul—”
“No.”
Raina came to a dead stop in the hallway and he was forced to turn around. Her hands were wedged on her hips and her feet spread apart, looking every inch the police officer who wasn’t used to taking no for an answer. “Look, Donovan. We don’t have a lot of options here. They don’t want you. They want me. I’m their Whisperer and if they think I’ve defected to their side, they’ll be all over it. I’m not just good bait. I’m perfect bait and you know it.”
“No.”
She marched toward him, the planes of her face catching the shifting shadows between one artificial light and the next suspended along the hall. Determination had hardened her features, her gaze, as she stared into his face. Slade second-guessed himself. Maybe he actually preferred her frightened instead of no-guts-no-glory bold and willing to put herself in danger to help others.
“What other options have you got? Roll into Were territory Rambo style and hope you don’t have to shoot through them all to get to Ty?”
The corner of his mouth tipped up in a bad-boy smile that made her heart double-bump hard in her chest. “That does sound appealing,” he said.
Raina punched him in the arm, pissed off at both her irrational attraction to the man and his irrational refusal. She was the most logical choice to tempt the Weres, in particular Ty, into a trap. It made sense. Why fight it? “Get real, Donovan. You want this Were or what?”
The smile faded, replaced by an expression of sheer determination that knitted his dark brows together in a firm line. “Yeah. He’s the one I want.”
“Then let’s do this.”
“I don’t like it.”
Raina grinned at him. “I think I can handle it. Officer, remember?”
He deliberately ignored her comment, and turned to walk away. “We’ve got a plan, now we need to get you to a bed.”
She raised a brow. “Wow, that was smooth. You always sweet-talk ladies that way?”
Slade spun on his heel, leaning in close enough to her that his body heat seeped through her clothes. His face was hard, and a little bit frightening, giving her a glimpse of the darkness lurking just below the surface.
He put one hand on the wall just beside her head. His sensual lips curved into a sexy-as-hell grin that really did make her knees suddenly unstable. “As tempting as that sounds—” he raked her with a red-hot gaze that made her breasts tighten in response “—I’m worried that you’re going to fall over if you don’t get some sleep. Being sleep deprived makes you an easier target.”
“For you or for the Weres?” she teased, her tone just this side of breathless.
“Both,” he shot back, not to be outdone.
Raina brushed her hand over her forehead, where a headache was starting to throb behind her right eye. Now that Slade had mentioned it, she was bone tired and her eyes were gritty. Sleep couldn’t hurt and it might actually help. “Fine, whatever. I don’t suppose your commander would consider letting me stay in a hotel nearby.”
“Nope.”
“Great.”
“He said to keep an eye on you, which is precisely what I plan to do.”
She crossed her arms. “You are not watching me sleep.”
He grinned. “You’re welcome to try and stop me, but I think you’re going to be dead to the world once you hit the sheets.”
“So where are you taking me?”
“My place.”
Chapter 12
He didn’t ask. Instead, Slade grasped Raina about the waist, bringing them together in full-body contact that made her skin contract over her bones and her breasts ache. “No point in making you walk the remaining sixteen blocks to the living quarters.”
She didn’t even get time to protest before the hallway outside the clan security room turned into a swirl of light and dark and she was tugged backward by an unseen force. Raina shut her eyes tight and clung to him.
As soon as the unsettled, floaty sensation that transportation caused settled down again, she opened her eyes and pushed away from him. She stepped cautiously into his private realm, taking it all in—clues to the man he really was.
They were in an upscale apartment that was part bachelor pad, part garage. The entryway looked partially into his living room, where she spied a black leather recliner and the glass edge of a coffee table. The floors were dark wood.
Rather than windows, the plain white walls sported enormous blowups of full-color pictures of various scenic sites around the Pacific Northwest. Mount Rainer, the ancient volcano, with its ever-present cap of glacial white, a stretch of tree-rimmed coastline littered with monolithic rocks out in the water like enormous stone haystacks, and a forest path winding into the mists through a stand of ancient old-growth timber heavy with moss on the massive lower branches.
“Funny. You don’t seem the outdoorsy type.” She turned her gaze away from the pictures for a second. He was standing beside her, a warm and solid presence, but not touching her. That didn’t stop the vibration of the air between them.
“I’m not. Just find it soothing. I haven’t been a vampire long enough to feel comfortable with the lack of windows down here.”
“When did you become a vampire?”
“When I was twenty-five.”
“But you’ve been here longer than that.”
He nodded. “Yeah. They took me in when I was ten. I’d been living on the streets for two years.”
“You were homeless?”
Slade cupped the back of his neck with his hand. “Yeah. But it taught me a lot.”
Raina was surprised at how casual he sounded. It had to have been incredibly traumatic to be a small kid alone and homeless in a big city.
“Why didn’t they just transition you when they found you?”
“The clan has pretty strict rules about transitioning kids. They took care of me, then let me serve as a Shyeld first, starting when I was twelve.”
“Shyeld?”
“Mortal security officer pumped up on vampire ichor.”
“But you were just a little kid.”
Slade dropped his hand and shrugged. “I didn’t mind. Being on ichor in small doses like that makes you feel like you’re a superhero. All of a sudden you can do things most kids your age only watch on cartoons. You can see things far away, you can jump and run faster than anybody else and you’re strong. And—” he winked at her “—the girls can’t resist you.”
Raina shifted uncomfortably. Knowing how the feeding had made her feel, she could only imagine how taking the ichor might work. It would be every teen boy’s fantasy. No wonder he’d never questioned his decision or given a damn where he’d come from. If she’d felt thrown away, she never would have looked back, either. “That’s what Dr. Chamberlin was talking about.”
“Yep. The clan is pretty much the only thing I’ve ever known.”
Raina could suddenly see how news about his Were heritage would have been even more disturbing. It would be like finding out you were adopted and had been lied to your whole life. Everything you’d come to rely on as reality would shift like unstable sand beneath your feet. No wonder he held such c
ontempt for the Weres. They threatened his connection to the only home and family he’d ever known.
She glanced at his coffee table, a twisted, bleached piece of driftwood, the mangled roots of a tree at one time, spreading out from a thick base and topped with a glass oval. On top of it was a spread-out newspaper with what looked like engine parts on it and a couple of tools neatly lined up.
Slade might look like a bad boy, might even talk and act like one, but he had layers. A bad boy to the core didn’t give a damn at the mess he left behind; he lived totally in the moment. The precision and order in how the tools were set up and the engine parts arranged said there was part of him that craved order and rules.
On the other hand, in the far corner, where a normal person might have had a couch to go with the recliner was a huge flat-screen TV bolted to the wall and a Softtail Harley Davidson motorcycle, low, black and mean-looking. Raina’s breath caught for a second, then she felt compelled to touch it. The black paint seemed to shift in color, sometimes glowing with a deep amethyst, sometimes with a royal-blue, and the chrome on the dual exhaust pipes and engine block had been lovingly polished to a mirrorlike sheen.
“That’s my baby.” Slade’s voice held a note of pride as he leaned his large shoulder against the wall, crossing his arms.
Raina slid an appreciative hand over the arc of the thick chrome handlebars and saw her distorted reflection mirrored in the enormous exhaust pipes. He took exquisite care of his bike. “Nice.”
“If I’d known you like to ride, we could have taken this up to Teanachee instead of your car.”
Raina couldn’t keep herself from smiling. She nibbled on her bottom lip. “We still could.” She slid to straddle the bike and sighed, then glanced at him.
Slade’s tawny eyes smoldered. “You’d look good on it.”
A spark of awareness arced in the air between them, causing a shiver to dance along her skin. His gaze was mesmerizing, sucking her in, making her want to snuggle up to his bare chest the way she’d done in the tent. “It’s a growler, isn’t it?”
“I was thinking more of a screamer. But, yeah, that works too.”
Her gaze flicked to the recliner. “That where you sleep?” She knew she was playing with fire and she didn’t care. The uneasy chemistry simmering between her and Slade was slowly morphing and changing into something far more dangerous and sexual.
He grinned, pushing off the wall, moving toward her. Despite his size, his movement was sensual and fluid. “No, but I’d be happy to give you a tour.”
“Of your recliner?” she teased.
He stepped around her, growing closer like a wolf circling its intended target, moving slowly and deliberately in on her space, stealing her air. His eyes glittered with golden promise. “Where I sleep.”
Suddenly, Raina’s mouth felt very dry, and her pulse was hammering hard. Maybe sleep was highly overrated.
“Vampires sleep?” She sounded a little breathless. But then looking at a man like Slade, who wouldn’t be?
He grinned. “Usually only during the daylight hours and only if there isn’t something more interesting to do.” He jerked his head to the side. “Come on, as long as you’re bunking here I might as well give you the dollar tour.”
He strolled past her, filling the air with a mix of leather and cedar that made her inhale deeply. Raina fell into step behind him. They went into the kitchen. It was sparse, just like hers. The black granite was shiny under the overhead lights and the dark cherrywood cabinets made it look more upscale than her apartment. In the center was an island with three bar stools. She didn’t have time to cook; in fact, she wasn’t even sure she’d used her stove in the past month. If it couldn’t be microwaved, eaten fresh or quick heated over a camp stove, she didn’t bother with it. “Nice. Looks like you don’t use it much.”
“Liquid diet means I don’t have a reason to cook much,” he said with a wicked smile.
The tour took a turn out of the kitchen into a small dining room that contained a home office rather than a dining-room table and chairs.
“I take it you don’t entertain that often, either?” she said, gesturing to the computer with a three-screen setup and rack of DVDs beside it.
“If I’m going to hang out with friends, we usually go out to eat.”
Her hand slipped lightly over her neck, where his lips and fangs had touched her. She could only imagine what kind of places they liked to go out to catch a bite. “Where do you go? The local blood bank?”
He chuckled, the smile touching his lips, curving them into a sexy-as-hell smile that made her tighten all over. “Funny. Nah, I’m young enough I prefer the live stuff. Believe it or not, it’s not too difficult for me to find a willing donor or two.”
She’d bet.
“Let me show you the rest of the place.”
As they walked down the hall, she followed behind him, admiring his broad back, narrow hips and fantastic butt.
He cruised past the half bath in the hallway, jerking his thumb at a darkened, half-open door. “There’s the bathroom.” He stopped at the end of the hall and opened the shut door, then leaned against the door frame. “And here’s where I sleep.”
Raina peeked in the door.
Slade snapped his fingers and a dozen candles scattered on the nightstands and dresser burst to life, their flames dancing. They illuminated a room with a king bed decked out in a loud, colorful comforter and black satin sheets.
“Nifty trick.”
“That’s nothing.” He ran an assessing gaze over her, making her catch her breath. “You look like you could use something comfortable to sleep in.” It was true. All her things had been left behind in the trunk of her car when they’d transported. She didn’t have a toothbrush with her, let alone a change of clothes.
He snapped his fingers. A cool rush of air against her skin prompted her to look down. He’d somehow traded her uniform for a soft, worn hunter-green man’s T-shirt that skimmed around her thighs and barely covered her rear. “What, no silk teddy?”
He chuckled. “Don’t tempt me. I was trying to be a gentleman. I figured this would be more comfortable. I know you’re tired.” He moved his fingers, and the rustle of the comforter made her tear her gaze away from him to see the covers being pulled down for her by invisible fingers.
“Now I know you’re showing off,” she said, her voice laced with sultry amusement.
His lips twitched. “Just a little. Am I scoring any points?”
Raina pulled the elastic band from her hair, letting it uncoil from the tight bun down her back. She ran her fingers over her scalp, letting them slip through her hair, fluffing it. She dipped her chin slightly, lowered her lashes and cast him a sultry look.
“What do you think?”
The color of Slade’s eyes lightened several degrees. His pupils grew larger, like a predator scenting its prey. The air between them seemed to swirl with the aroma of leather and cedar. It reminded her of the summers of her youth, carefree and adventurous.
“I think if we let this go any further, you’re not going to sleep at all. Get in the bed.”
“Are you turning me down, Donovan?”
He took a strand of her hair and rubbed it between his fingers, giving her a half smile. “Absolutely not. Just making sure you’re rested enough to enjoy the full experience.”
Raina shook her head, strolled past him and climbed between the cool, slick sheets. “You aren’t everything you seem, Donovan.”
He winked at her. “Neither are you.” He snapped his fingers and the candles all went out at once, leaving his large body silhouetted by the light in the hallway. “Sweet dreams.”
Slade went out the door, shutting it behind him, then fluxed and phased right back through it. From the shadows he watched her toss and turn until she curled up on her side and her breathing grew slow and regular.
Confident she was sleeping deeply, he phased back through the wall and into the living room, fluxing back to normal. He kicked
back in the recliner and flipped on the big-screen television. He left it muted so as not to disturb her. Not that it mattered. He wasn’t even aware of what was on the screen. The image of Raina asleep in the bed in the next room kept popping up in his mind, taunting him.
She looked good, fantastic, really, in his bed. Her dusky skin almost glowed when surrounded by the dark sheets, and her dark hair was indistinguishable from the black silk of the pillowcase. Her hair was certainly soft enough to be silk when he’d touched it, as was her bare skin. He’d already bent the rules by glamouring then feeding from her. He’d gone as far as he dared, treading a fine line that, once crossed, couldn’t be undone. He didn’t dare compound his screwups by indulging himself physically. Nothing good could come from it. Not for him. Definitely not for her.
The problem was his attraction to her wasn’t just physical anymore. When she wasn’t busy being a nosy cop, Raina actually could let loose and was smart-mouthed enough to keep up with him. She wasn’t afraid to get messy or smart off. And she clearly loved motorcycles. All combined into one sexy package that made her very dangerous for him. He’d never let another person get close to the protective armor he’d built around his heart, let alone get past it.
Slade phased himself a beer. He needed a drink. Something stronger than beer would be required to get rid of the ache throbbing against his belly. He tossed the bottle up into the air where it disappeared. The skill of materializing objects had been one of the first things he’d worked to master when he’d become a vampire. Being able to call what he wanted, when he wanted it, meant he’d never be hungry or cold again, huge pluses when you’d lived on the streets. The problem was that didn’t cover all the bases.
Sure, being a full vampire was everything he’d expected it to be and more. He’d worked hard to achieve it. But it wasn’t everything. Not now.
Deep down there was still a gap that no amount of super skills, excitement, danger or fast motorcycles could fill. A hole that had to do with belonging, not just to a group or a family, but to someone. And somehow Raina had enlarged that hole, making him more aware of it than ever.
The Half-Breed Vampire Page 12
