by Jessica Sims
I turned away, heading for the door on tiptoe. I kept the finger to my lips, ensuring that Michael would remain silent, even if he didn’t like my idea. Behind me, I heard his hand swish through the air, no doubt trying to get my attention and tell me what a bad idea this was.
But all of my attention was focused on the door. I could occasionally hear the wolf shifting his weight and the quiet clicking of keys on his phone. Texting? Web surfing? Getting the pass code even now?
My hand on the handle, I moved it down by silent millimeters until it had turned completely. Then I pushed the door open as hard as I could, using all of my weight to shove it backward with force.
The man leaning against it went sprawling on the other side. I heard the smack of his skull and his groan of pain as he was thrown against the opposite wall.
I leaped onto him. He’d fallen on his stomach, one hand cradling his head. I moved over his back, grabbed his hair, and slammed his head back onto the floor.
His head made a sick thud, and he went still.
“Damn,” said Michael behind me. “When you said you were a predator, you weren’t kidding.”
His compliment pleased me, and I felt the absurd urge to purr. Instead, I brushed a finger under the nostrils of the wolf. Still breathing, just unconscious. “Save your flattery for later. Let’s tie him up.”
We used the bedsheets to hog-tie the werewolf on the bed, then locked him inside. Now no one would be able to get to him unless they had the pass code. Michael looked reluctant to abandon him, but I explained that as soon as he awoke, he’d start chewing through the bonds anyhow. Our goal was to get Michael to safety.
I changed to my jaguar form and led the way. Michael’s other place and my house would probably be too vulnerable, so we’d head to my sister’s apartment. It was on this side of town, and I hoped she wouldn’t be too peeved when I showed up with a vampire and a bounty hunter on our tails.
Either way, she’d at least have clothing for me. I was getting rather tired of being naked.
I’d wanted to stick to the alleys and shadows, but Michael shook his head. “It’ll take too long. Between that and the fact that they have a tracker, they could find our trail.”
He had a point.
He put the pink bow collar on me, and while I hid in the nearby alley, he went into a nearby business to call a cab. When the cab driver saw us, I thought he was going to drive away, but Michael offered enough cash that the man let me into the backseat, although he kept the glass divider up and shot me nervous looks the entire time.
I did my best to appear as meek and house-cat-like as possible. Michael stroked and petted my head as we drove, his calm masking the nervousness we both felt.
As the car pulled up to a stop sign, Michael tensed, looking out the window. “Wait,” he said to the cab driver. “Can we stop here?”
I lifted my head from his lap, confused.
The cab driver looked at the stop, then back at me hesitantly. “I’m not sure—”
Michael pulled out his wallet and extracted several bills, waving them at the cab driver.
“You got it,” the driver said, pulling into a nearby parking lot. “I’ll wait here.”
The cab was put into park, and Michael opened his door and jumped out. He gave a tug to my leash, indicating that I should follow. “Come, Ruby. I’ve got something to show you.”
As I slunk out of the cab, I heard the cab driver mutter the word “crazy” under his breath. I could see how Michael wasn’t looking like the sanest person right about now. We’d stopped on a side street, with a chain-link fence dividing us from a nearby park. It looked familiar but not so much that I understood why we were there.
Michael leaped over the low chain-link fence and grinned at me from the other side. “Follow me.”
As if I could protest while in jaguar form. I also couldn’t stay out there, lest the rednecks bring out their guns. So I leaped over the fence, trying to figure out his plan.
He shoved his hands into his pockets, allowing me free rein, and began to stroll forward, whistling. Intrigued, I followed him, noting our surroundings. We were on a playground. I passed a soccer goal, the net gone. I could smell the chalk lining the field and hear the creak of a distant merry-go-round. Off to one side, a pair of swings swayed in the evening breeze, and Michael headed toward those. He sat on one of the swings and reached a hand out to me.
I moved forward, pushing my muzzle against his hand.
His fingers scratched just under my whiskers in a spot that was pure heaven. I began to purr, leaning heavily against him. I didn’t know why we were there, but for a brief moment, I didn’t care.
“This is where I first saw you,” he mused in a low voice.
I looked up sharply. Here? I waited for an answer, and when he didn’t go on, I pushed at his hand with my face. He scratched me again, so I bit him, lightly, just enough to get his attention.
Instead of being frightened, Michael chuckled. I guess teeth didn’t scare a vampire. “Sorry. Yes, I saw you here first. I was here to pick up one of my cousins from school, and I think you were here to pick up Jayde.”
I looked around. Sure enough, this was a school that Jayde had worked at a few years ago as a third-grade teacher. I’d forgotten all about it until he mentioned it. Had I met Michael here? I didn’t remember.
“You were in the parking lot, and I noticed you leaning against your car door. I thought you were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen,” he said in an almost dreamy voice. “You had long, curly black hair and a small, curvy body. You looked so soft and sweet, but I couldn’t take my eyes off you because you were so sure of yourself. Every bit of you seemed to sing with vitality and strength. I remembered thinking that I’d love to date a girl like that.” He glanced over at me, skimming his fingers over the short hair on my muzzle. “You were reading a magazine. I kept trying to get your attention, but you never looked up. That was a week before classes. When I went into American History and you were sitting there with an empty chair next to you, I thought it was fate.”
I’d had no idea. Such a small, chance meeting simply had not stuck in my memory, and Michael had never mentioned it to me, even back when we were dating. As far as I had remembered, my relationship with Michael had begun the first day of classes, when a handsome tall boy with wild hair had slid into the chair next to me in History and leaned over to borrow a pencil. His scent had been clean, just a hint of soap and cinnamon, as if he’d been chewing gum. I remembered being charmed by that and by the smile he cast in my direction. The first time he’d raked his hand through his hair and it stuck up in spikes, I was lost.
Michael scratched my whiskers again. “I suppose I’m just being sentimental,” he said with a half smile at me. He stood up and brushed off his wrinkled pants. “Either way, I wanted to show this to you because . . .” He struggled for the right thing to say. “Well, I suppose because I’m glad you’re back in my life, Ruby. It feels richer with you in it.”
I couldn’t smile, so I leaned in and gave his hand a gentle lick, as if to say, I’m glad you’re back, too.
“Friends forever,” he said quietly.
I resisted the urge to bite his damn hand.
Chapter Seven
After the cab dropped us off at Jayde’s apartment complex, I led the way to her place. A small light was on in the window of her second-story apartment, and I sighed with relief. She was home.
Michael knocked on her door, and we waited. A moment later, Jayde opened the door and stared up at Michael in surprise. “Holy shit, Michael? I—” Her voice broke off as she spotted me in cat form, rubbing against his legs.
She opened the door wider, letting us in. “I’m hoping a kitty-cat fetish isn’t why she’s wearing that ugly-ass collar.”
Michael laughed, but the sound was forced. “We needed a disguise for her. Might be too many questions otherwise.”
I crouched on the floor, low, and began my transformation back to human.
“A disguise is one thing. A pink bow is just downright humiliating,” Jayde said, then gestured toward the kitchen. “Coffee? She’ll be a minute.”
Michael looked at me changing, then back to Jayde. “No thanks.”
She shrugged and crossed her arms, staring at him, then back at me. “And here I thought she might have finally found a guy to run off with when she turned up missing for the last three days.” She sniffed the air, then frowned at Michael. “You smell like . . .”
“I am,” he said, showing his fangs.
“Yuck,” Jayde said with a wrinkle of her nose. She gave me a dismayed look. “Have we fallen so far?”
I shook off the last of my transformation and flexed, then stretched. “I’ll explain it later, Jayde. Right now, I need to borrow your phone.”
Michael immediately shrugged off his jacket and handed it to me.
“I’ll get you the phone—and some panties,” she said, tossing her long black hair. She reached into her purse and pulled out her cell phone, then gave it to me. “Call the agency first.”
I frowned at her. “Why?”
“Because they put out an ATL on your vampire boyfriend.”
I looked at Michael in alarm, then back at Jayde. “ATL?”
“Yeah. Attempt to Locate. The Alliance figured ol’ ‘Valjean’ here went rogue and left your drained body in a ditch somewhere. There’s a task force combing the area for him.”
“You don’t seem worried,” Michael commented.
“I wasn’t,” Jayde said, and looked down her nose at him. “She’s a were-jaguar. She could mop the floor with you if she wanted to. It’s that high-strung blonde at the agency who’s freaking out.”
Oh, boy. “I’ll call and explain everything.”
Ryder sounded exhausted when she picked up the phone, but her exhaustion disappeared as soon as she heard it was me. I got an intense scolding, and I meekly apologized for scaring her. I hadn’t intended to cause her days of sleepless worry, which it sounded as if I had. She’d truly thought that Michael had killed me and left me somewhere. She’d revoked his Alliance membership, canceled his record out of the Midnight Liaisons database, and said that she’d sent his profile to the Alliance security team, which was now searching for him.
That was bad news. Rogue vampires were to be killed on sight. I slipped on panties and a bra. “Valjean didn’t do anything wrong, Ryder. I’ve spent the last few days protecting him.”
“Protecting him from what?”
“Never mind,” I said quickly, tugging a shirt over my head. “How soon can you lift the ATL so it’s safe for him to go out?”
She typed into the computer, and I heard paperwork shuffle. “I just sent the message to the late-night task force, but I don’t know when they’ll get it. And then I have to wait for the day shift to check their e-mails and text messages. You guys just lie low, and I’ll call you when we have the all clear.”
“Okay,” I breathed. “Thanks. Sorry about all this.”
“Just don’t go to your house. It’s one of the stakeout points. They might shoot garlic first and ask questions later.”
“Got it.”
“Or to his house. Just to be safe.”
“Okay.”
“Or to your sister’s house.”
I winced. Too late. “Thanks, Ryder. We’ll hide out for another day or two.”
I gave her my sister’s cell number and ended the call, then pulled on some yoga pants, thinking hard. I needed to cancel my credit cards, check if they’d robbed my house, call my job and let them know I was alive—there were so many things I needed to do.
But I found myself drawn back to Michael. If he was leaving me soon, I wanted to spend every minute I could with him. I returned to the living room, my gaze devouring him. He paced as my sister watched from her perch on the arm of the couch, worried and uneasy.
He seemed to untense at the sight of me, although his gaze remained worried. “Ruby, I can’t stay here.”
“I know,” I said with a glance at my sister. “It’s not safe for Jayde. They have teams out looking for you—and me, in a sense. If they come here, I don’t want the situation to escalate.”
Jayde snorted and stood, arms crossing over her chest. “Don’t be silly, little sis. Stay here.”
I shook my head. “Michael’s really unpopular right now. I’m going to stay with him.”
“No.” Michael’s voice was quiet but resolute.
I turned to look at him in surprise. Dread curled in my stomach. “What do you mean, no?”
“I mean that it’s too dangerous for you.” He shook his head. “Worst blind date ever, remember? It’s my fault that it’s gone on two days too long. You’re probably sick of watching over me, and I don’t blame you.”
Of course I wasn’t sick of Michael. I loved him. Always had, always would. Being with him again made my world finally feel right once more. As if a missing piece had locked into place. I’d been okay without him, but I hadn’t been happy. I missed being happy.
“But . . .” I said.
“It’s okay, Ruby,” he said, and took my hand in his.
Jayde said, “Looks like you two need a moment.”
As she left the room, Michael placed his other hand over mine, staring down at our clasped hands. “I really appreciate what you’ve done for me the past few days. You’ve been such a good friend to me.”
There was that damn f-word again. “You can’t go off on your own. That werewolf is working with the bounty hunter,” I said, wondering if my voice sounded as desperate as I felt. “They can track you by scent. And there are even more people looking for you tonight. If you go out without me at your side, you might as well paint a big target on your back.”
“Better on my back than yours,” he said, and brushed his fingers over my cheek in a caress. “You’ve done enough. I know that you didn’t want to see me again. I could tell the moment you took the blindfold off. It was obvious from the look on your face, and I’m sorry that you’ve been stuck with me. I need to let you get back to your regular life. I’m sorry I dragged you into this.”
What life? Watching security cameras at the storage unit? Spending my nights off bored and looking for awkward first dates on the dating service? Spending my time regretting the choices I’ve made?
“I’m not sorry you dragged me in,” I said softly.
He leaned in and kissed me. I felt the barest graze of teeth against my lip. “Good-bye, Ruby.”
And before I could stop him, he walked past me and opened the front door, as I sat there and stared. He was leaving me. The nightmare of four years ago came crashing down over me once more.
Jayde came out of her room a few moments later, no doubt scenting that Michael had left. “So you’re just going to let him walk out again?”
I said nothing—the knot in my throat was as big as a bowling ball.
“I know you want him,” Jayde prompted. “Normally, you have a miserable expression on your face, but tonight you’re lit up like a firecracker. Doesn’t take a genius to realize that it’s him. And you’re just going to let him leave? Again?” She gestured toward the front door. “Vampires aren’t off-limits. What’s the problem?”
“He thinks we’re just friends,” I said bitterly. “He’s reminded me of that repeatedly.”
She snorted. “I may not know what’s going on between you two, but the way he looks at you? It’s obvious you two were never just friends. Did you sleep with him?”
I felt my cheeks heat.
“Uh-huh,” Jayde said knowingly. “And do you sleep with your other friends?”
“No.”
“Do you think he sleeps with his other friends?”
Startled, I looked over at her. “I guess not.”
She gave me a little push. “Then I guess you should go tell him that your girl parts keep having unfriendlike thoughts about him.”
“But, Jayde, he thinks I cheated on him. He hasn’t asked me about it, but he couldn�
�t have forgotten.”
I still remembered the look of utter anguish on Michael’s face, the sick clenching in my own stomach, the tears that wouldn’t stop flowing after he slammed the door shut.
“You ever hear of second chances?” Jayde gave my shoulder a harder shove. “Go on. The worst he can say is no, and then you’ll turn into the crazy cat lady that you’re heading for anyhow.”
She was right. I had to try. Even if he turned me away, I had to know how he truly felt. What did I have to lose? If he left, I lost everything.
I went outside and paused, sniffing the wind, looking for Michael’s spicy scent. Maybe it wasn’t too late. I could explain what he’d seen four years ago. Maybe we could go on another date, take it slow.
Maybe he’d stop calling me his friend.
The wind carried the scent of vampire on it, and I inhaled, wanting to fill my lungs with Michael’s aroma. Maybe he’d give me a second chance—
But the vampire scent wasn’t his. I gasped.
“Rube?” Jayde called from inside the apartment, hearing my gasp through the door.
I bolted through the parking lot, following the scent, scanning for Michael’s familiar form. There!
He strode down the street in the shadows, hands shoved into his pockets, head bent. His spiky hair seemed flat and wilted, as if his entire being were dejected.
A shadow moved to his right, and I saw the other vampire raise the crossbow to his shoulder.
I dashed forward, screaming. “Michael! Duck!”
Michael dropped to the pavement, his jacket flaring out behind him as he rolled to the ground. I kept running to him, my legs swift even if my steps were short. I could reach him in time. I could.
I heard the thwack of the crossbow releasing, and something slammed me in the back, knocking me forward onto my stomach. I gasped, the wind knocked out of me for a moment.
“No!” Michael yelled, the sound rough and hoarse with outrage. He ran for the man in the bushes, and I heard his fist slam into the man’s mouth. I heard them scuffle, yet I couldn’t seem to focus in and see what was going on. Was Michael whaling on the guy? I heard the chuffing cry of a jaguar nearby, and the wind smelled like my sister . . .
