Most Wanted - A Fantasy Romance Novel (The Shadow Blade Series)

by E. L Friel

  ‘That’s because we’re good at disappearing,’ Ariel answered with a small smile. Shadows that didn’t want to be seen wouldn’t ever be seen. That’s why they made the best assassins. But she was only half, which meant she didn’t have the full ability. She could only disappear, fade into the shadows, for short amounts of time, at most ten seconds. On the upside, she blended completely with humans, making her undetectable when she walked among them.

  He shook his head at her, wonderingly. ‘How did you become a bounty hunter?’ he asked.

  Ariel suddenly scowled at the tabletop and took another pull of her beer. Jax could feel her foot still tapping beneath the table, the pent up energy bursting off her like infrared rays. Immediately he thought of ways he could help that energy find an outlet. He suppressed the urge to reach across the table and take hold of her hand, to stroke his palm along her arm. Half of him wanted to check that she was real, feel if her skin was as soft as it looked, and half of him knew that to dare to do so would probably result in loss of limbs. She was half-human, half Shadow after all. He could hardly get his head around it. It had never occurred to him that a human might mate with a demon, but then again, the thought of getting intimate with someone as beautiful as Ariel was not exactly a challenge to imagine. She wasn’t exactly a Scarab demon.

  Without thinking he pressed his foot against hers. Her foot stopped tapping instantly, she tensed and her head flew up. Jax didn’t move, keeping his leg in place. When she didn’t move her foot, he felt something stir in his core. She had stopped tapping too. He tried to picture the long, lean length of her thigh beneath the table and fought from brushing his own leg against hers. His imagination was heading places it hadn’t been in a while.

  ‘My father was a bounty hunter,’ she said eventually, her jaw pulsing. ‘He died ten years ago What about you?’ she asked.

  She was obviously not over it, Jax thought to himself before answering her question. ‘My parents were both Blades.’

  She nodded as though that made sense. The Blades were all descended from one bloodline. She probably knew that.

  ‘My mother died when I was twelve. Killed by a Driller Demon,’ Jax said.

  She couldn’t hide the wince.

  ‘My father died before I was born,’ he continued. ‘He was killed by a Seer. A bounty hunter like you.’

  Ariel’s expression darkened. She eyed him carefully. ‘So you and I are on opposite sides then,’ she said, her gaze dropping to his mouth.

  ‘With the same objective,’ Jax answered, unable to stop his own gaze falling to her lips. He contemplated for the second time that evening what those lips would be like to kiss.

  She was looking at him strangely now, a low glimmer in her eyes.

  ‘You need bounties,’ Jax said smiling. ‘I like hunting demons. We’re a match made in heaven.’ As soon as he said the words he felt that stirring once again in his core, his blood racing to areas that had long been dormant. He glanced again at her lips, his imagination taking him places it was dangerous to go, not least as he was going to have to stand up some time this evening, and could feel the press of his erection already biting against the leg of his jeans.

  Jax heard her heartbeat spike and a smile tugged at his lips. She felt some attraction too then. It wasn’t all one way. Her foot was still pressed to his beneath the table. Jax leaned forwards, more so he could inhale her scent than for any other reason, and let his thigh touch hers. ‘We can help each other,’ he murmured, his eyes flicking to the long, smooth length of her neck.

  She jerked her leg away abruptly. ‘I don’t need help,’ she spat, her expression scathing. ‘You tried to help me earlier and look what happened.’

  Jax leaned back in his seat. ‘I thought bounties were paid whether you brought them in dead or alive.’

  ‘They wanted him alive.’

  ‘The Brothers?’ Jax asked.

  Ariel frowned at him, a line creasing between her flashing eyes. ‘Yes,’ she nodded.

  ‘Oh,’ Jax said, realizing with a silent curse of regret that he had blown it for her. She looked seriously pissed. Maybe she needed the money. ‘Sorry,’ he said and when she continued to shoot him daggers he added, ‘I’ll make it up to you.’

  Instantly images of Jax Sayer making it up to her filled Ariel’s mind. She could think of several ways he could make it up to her. None of them involved clothes. It had been a while since she had been intimate with anyone, at least anyone worth remembering, and she had a feeling that sex with Jax would be memorable.

  It was ironic that he thought of her as a demon because, though Blades looked like humans, acted like humans and smelled like humans, there was something preternaturally non-human about them. They might not have saw tails or fangs, they couldn’t turn invisible or see the future, and they didn’t come from another dimension like demons did, but they weren’t fully human either. They healed quicker, were much stronger, way faster and far more resilient than other humans.

  ‘Listen,’ Jax said, interrupting her thoughts. He leaned forwards again, his fingers brushing hers. That low level current that she’d felt when his leg was pressed against her thigh returned. ‘Come with me tomorrow night, out hunting.’

  The invitation in his eyes was clear. Out hunting? Her eyebrow rose of its own accord. She drew back, crossing her arms over her chest. ‘I don’t hunt my own kind for fun. I only go after bounties, demons who are wanted for crimes.’ She thought it was important to make it clear she felt more demon than human, always had, always would. The statement was a line drawn in the sand. Jax killed her kind, hunted them down and slayed them. Why would she trust him or even partner up with him?

  ‘Crimes against your kind,’ Jax sneered. ‘I hunt down the kind that prey on innocents.’

  ‘Well, Batman,’ Ariel told him, making to get up. ‘I don’t need to be anyone’s Robin.’

  He grabbed her wrist and yanked her back into her seat. She hissed at him through her teeth and wrenched her arm free. ‘I help you, you help me,’ he whispered in a low voice. It was a statement, not a question.

  ‘Help you with what?’ Ariel asked, her interest annoyingly piqued.

  ‘There’s a group of Suckers.’ He broke off and paused for a beat before beginning again. ‘They’re targeting the homeless under the piers. I figure maybe you could help me with that.’

  She tipped her head to the side and studied him. He needed help with that? What kind of Blade was he?

  Seeing the cynical expression on her face Jax continued. ‘There are over twenty of them. And these aren’t your usual kind of Sucker apparently.’

  Ariel frowned. She hadn’t heard of any new Sucker nests. Usually Suckers banded in small groups. She was fairly sure he was spinning her a story so he could get to see her again.

  ‘And if I do help?’ she asked.

  ‘Then I’ll help you with whatever job you need help with,’ Jax answered.

  ‘Who says I need help?’ Ariel shot back, straightening her shoulders. But the truth was her heart had started to beat faster and she had started to see that there might be something in the partnership after all. Jax smiled at her. He took hold of her wrist again, his thumb caressing the red mark he had left as though trying to rub it away. Ariel’s pulse jerked violently beneath his thumb, her blood becoming electrified.

  ‘We all need help sometimes,’ Jax said.

  Chapter 4

  Less than twenty-four hours later, Ariel stood waiting on Venice Beach pier avoiding the stares of a group of guys who were sitting on a bench drinking Tequila from a brown paper bag. She’d agreed to Jax Sayer’s offer for one reason and one reason alone. Or so she told herself.

  As much as she hated to admit it she did need help. For eight years she’d been working as a bounty hunter, barely making ends meet, and she didn’t do it out of a love for the job, no matter how enjoyable it was to put a blade through Suckers as attractive as Ezekiel. No. She did the job because it was the fastest way to make the cash she neede
d. She lived in a dive apartment and ate macaroni and cheese most nights because she needed every spare cent she could set aside. It had cost her a hundred grand to buy the information she needed on Rikon Fayette, the man, or rather monster, who had killed Saul. Ten grand short and with the offer about to be withdrawn, Ariel had been forced to take a loan from an underworld moneylender. The same amount plus interest was already overdue, and if she didn’t pay up she knew the next visit the moneylender’s goons paid wouldn’t just end up with her apartment being trashed.

  Ariel walked a little way down the pier and stood watching the waves smashing into the wooden struts below. Out of nowhere tears pricked the back of her eyes sharp as needles. She angrily blinked them away. Ariel didn’t cry. She’d given up crying a long while ago. She figured if Jax could help her bring in a bounty or two tonight it would at least get the moneylender off her back. Then, when they were done, she could turn Jax over to the Brothers and make a sweet amount of money on top. They’d pay his weight in gold. A Blade was a Blade after all. The money she would make from that would give her enough to get close to Rikon Fayette, close enough that she could kill him.

  Of course, she could just hand Jax over straight away, but she knew a guy like Jax wouldn’t go easily, she’d have to find a way to gain his trust before she could lay the trap.

  ‘Hey.’

  Someone brushed her shoulder and she turned around, her hand coming up, blade in her fist. It was just Jax though. She dropped her arm. ‘Don’t sneak up on me like that,’ she hissed angrily. ‘Unless you want to end up with this in your gut.’

  He caught a glimpse of the steel shining in her hand and smiled ruefully. ‘My mistake.’

  Ariel pushed past him, sheathing her blade. He was wearing blue jeans, a dark gray T-shirt and a black leather jacket. They were almost a match, like those couples you sometimes saw at the mall, holding hands after twenty years of marriage, dressed identically. Lunatics. She wished she’d worn something else instead of the jeans, a back Tee and the long black jacket she’d thrown over the top to hide the blades hanging at her waist. Jax must have knives in his boots she guessed.

  She let her eyes wander over the rest of him, telling herself she was checking him for weapons, when really she was just checking him out. Yeah, he was still hot. Damn him. In fact, if possible, he looked even more attractive than he had the previous night. It was because he hadn’t shaved and the stubble darkening his jaw was lending him a disheveled, just rolled out of bed, look. Something twinged in her gut. She hoped he hadn’t just rolled out of bed. Before she could stop herself she was imagining him in bed with a woman, making heated, passionate love to her. Fire licked through her veins, then all of a sudden the woman in her head morphed into her, and she was picturing herself naked in bed with him. Her breath caught, her face flushed. Pushing the thought away she started striding down the pier. Jax kept pace with her easily, his stride much longer than hers.

  ‘So, why don’t you have any Blade buddies to help you?’ Ariel asked, determined not to let her imagination or his closeness get the better of her. ‘Why’d you need me?’ She still wanted to know why he needed her help, what this was really all about.

  Jax’s face turned stony and hard to read. ‘It’s just me,’ he answered tersely. His jaw tensed and he looked away. She’d touched a nerve.

  ‘What about you? No one to watch your back?’ he asked after a moment of silence.

  Was he probing? Ariel shook her head. ‘I don’t trust most people,’ she muttered. ‘Human or otherwise.’

  He gave a rueful smile half-smile. In the moonlight the sharp angles of his face gave him a rugged, wolfish intensity. It made her cautious, like she didn’t want to turn her back on him.

  ‘So how do you want to do this?’ Ariel asked, feeling her cheeks start to flush once more. God, she needed to get a grip. He was just a guy. So what if he was hotter than a Hemsworth?

  Jax lead the way off the pier and down onto the boardwalk. ‘They’re apparently hanging around here,’ he said over his shoulder to Ariel.

  She seemed skeptical, prickly as a thorn bush. Tonight she’d worn all black - tight jeans, a figure hugging T-shirt visible beneath her jacket, but her cleavage mercifully wasn’t on display. He was pleased, he really didn’t need the added distraction. It was hard enough having to watch her walk ahead of him, her hips sashaying in time with her stride. That was why he was keeping pace with her as she marched down the boardwalk like they had no time to spare. He’d been hoping for some casual conversation before the slaying began but he guessed she wasn’t the kind of girl who went in for chitchat.

  ‘How’d you know they’re here?’ Ariel asked.

  ‘Someone told me,’ Jax answered. He was starting to have second thoughts about bringing her here. Not only because he couldn’t take her eyes off her, or because his head was swirling with her scent, but because he wasn’t sure what he was doing asking for help from a bounty hunting demon. If he’d really needed help he could have asked another Blade. The obvious truth, which he had to admit to himself, was that he’d just wanted a reason to see her again. He wondered if she had guessed as much.

  ‘There’s a group of them under the pier causing trouble,’ Jax explained. ‘A few kids have gone missing in the area and some of the homeless guys.’

  ‘So why’s that your responsibility?’ she asked, her expression bored.

  ‘This is my sector,’ Jax answered calmly.

  She cocked an eyebrow at him.

  ‘LA’s divided into quadrants and sectors,’ he explained patiently. ‘Broken up, with a Blade or several Blades policing each sector. Venice is mine.’

  She considered him, seeming unimpressed, then shrugged. ‘So how many are there of these things?’ she asked, glancing over his shoulder. Jax caught the flash of silver at her waist. The hilt of a knife.

  ‘Twenty or so.’

  She looked at him dubiously then yawned. Admittedly twenty Suckers wasn’t a lot. She was probably wondering why he was bringing her into this. Maybe she’d figured out it was purely a self-interested request. ‘They’re apparently not your average Sucker,’ he told her, aware that he had already used this excuse back in the bar but feeling like he needed to justify himself. Cy had said something about them being harder to kill, faster and stronger, but he hadn’t been paying much attention; he’d been distracted by Ariel walking into the bar.

  She glanced at him curiously, her eyes glimmering like a predator’s in the darkness.

  ‘I figured maybe you might know something,’ Jax said, unable to prize his eyes away from her lips. Now was really not the time to be thinking about kissing her.

  She shook her head. ‘I’ve been out of town for a few weeks.’

  ‘Holiday?’ Jax asked, unable to hide his curiosity. It hadn’t occurred to him that she might have a boyfriend, she just didn’t seem the type. A lover maybe, but he couldn’t imagine her in a long-term relationship. Something about her brittleness and her attitude told him she was single. But maybe he was wrong. Maybe she did have a boyfriend after all. Maybe he’d been stupid to assume otherwise.

  ‘A holiday?’ she said, pulling a face. ‘I can’t remember the last time I had one of those. I was in Montana on a job. A Chameleon who was wanted for some betting scam.’

  A wave of relief rushed over him. Not a lover then. He was about to ask her whether she’d managed to catch the Chameleon she was after, but his question was cut off by a high-pitched wail that froze him in his tracks. He caught Ariel’s wrist and pulled her to a stop beside him. She tried to snatch her arm away but he tightened his grip and held her against his side. The noise came again, this time barely heard over the crashing of the waves in the distance.

  Straightaway Ariel’s blood started to tingle, though that could just have been the pressure of Jax’s fingers searing into her skin. Then she heard the noise once more, an ear-shattering scream, the sound an animal caught in a trap might make, and her blood started to sing, her senses tuning int
o the surrounding area as if someone had just turned the dial to high.

  ‘What is that?’ she whispered to Jax, peering into the darkness under the pier. It was almost two am. The boardwalk was deserted except for a couple of homeless people lying on the grass close by, passed out.

  ‘It’s them,’ Jax said. He was still holding her arm, keeping her pressed against his side. She pulled her arm from his grip, admittedly with a little reluctance. The warmth of his body was drawing her in.

  ‘Come on then,’ she said impatiently. ‘Let’s see what’s going on.’

  Jax caught up with her as she strode across the beach. She was glad she’d worn flat shoes, as the sand would have been hard to walk across in heels. Having said that, she rarely wore heels anyway, only when she was on a case and the case required her to doll herself up and flirt with some unsuspecting idiot. That wasn’t the case tonight. Though, glancing Jax’s way, feeling the reassuring warmth of his body at her side, she wasn’t sure if flirting was entirely off the menu.

  ‘Watch yourself,’ Jax said, taking hold of her elbow and trying to get her to slow down. ‘I wasn’t kidding about these guys.’

  Ariel rolled her eyes. Whatever. A Sucker was a Sucker. She could take out twenty with her eyes closed. Jax should be able too to. He was a Blade. That was the equivalent of a wolf going up against a pack of bunny rabbits. No contest. Maybe if he’d said one hundred Suckers. It occurred to Ariel then that maybe Jax wasn’t as good a fighter as he looked. Maybe the fight yesterday with the bikers had just been a fluke. What if he was partnering her because he was actually crap at fighting and needed her to do all the hard work for him? Or what if this was some kind of trap? Her spine went rigid, her hearing pricking. Usually she was pretty good at reading her gut but Jax’s proximity was muddling her mind