“What the hell?” A voice from the end of the alley shouted. “You there, need help?”
Joe raised his arm and turned his face away from a bright light that blinded him momentarily. He heard the patter of feet and realized the beast had run to the opposite end of the alley. Forcing his face to reform, he drew in a deep breath and reined in his inner monster.
“Mister!” The voice was closer now. “Looks like you need an ambulance.”
Joe made out the shiny badge and the blue uniform of an NOPD cop.
The large, barrel-chested officer continued to flash his light in Joe’s face. “What the hell kind of dog was that? Animal Control’s gonna need one big mother-fuckin’ cage.”
As the man drew closer, Joe’s human perception sharpened. He realized the last thing he needed was a cop nosing around this little mystery. “It wasn’t like any Rottweiler I ever saw,” Joe murmured.
The officer shined his flashlight on his shoulder, then up again at Joe’s face. “Do you mind me askin’ what you were doin’ in this alley?”
Joe shrugged. A few months ago he would just have whipped out his badge and traded cop talk. Instead, he said, “I heard a sound.”
The officer snorted. “Do you make it a habit to investigate odd sounds in dark alleys? It’s a wonder you’re still breathin’. Looks like he took a chunk out of you—you’re bleedin’. If you’ll come with me, we’ll get that seen to.” He reached for the radio strapped to his shoulder.
With a twinge of regret, Joe lunged, his arm snaking around the cop’s shoulders to draw him close to his body.
The officer struggled, his foot stomping on Joe’s instep, his elbow slamming back into his ribcage. Joe opened his mouth and bit into the man’s neck.
The officer continued his fight for a moment, and then his body grew slack.
Joe fed for several minutes then lifted his head to whisper in the officer’s ear. “You heard a noise in the alley and investigated, but you found nothing. Spoke to no one. Now go back to your squad car.” He let the man go and shoved him toward the street.
Without looking back, the officer walked away, shaking his head. “Just a damn dog.”
Joe watched until he turned the corner, and then walked to the opposite end of the alley where he’d seen the werewolf escape. He sniffed the air, but only faint traces of the creature’s scent remained. He retraced his steps, wondering what it had been doing in the alley in the first place. Near the entrance were large trash bins, which served the apartment building. The side door of one was open and a shredded bag of trash laid half-in-half-out of the bin.
As Joe stepped closer, he saw a piece of paper flutter to the ground. It was a phone bill with the name “ Lily Carlson” printed at the top. Heedless of the acrid smell from the bin, he reached for the remnants of the one demolished bag and dumped its contents. Tissues and feminine articles littered the ground. Lily’s fragrant musk permeated the items.
What interest would a werewolf have in scenting on Lily’s trash? Joe’s instincts, his cop instincts, knew this wasn’t a random act. The wolf had targeted Lily’s bag among all the others in the bin.
He hurried back to the apartment building. Until he knew what all this meant, Lily wasn’t going anywhere without him.
* * * * *
“You snore.”
Lily lifted one eyelid and glowered at Joe. Only the light from the open bathroom door shone on his features; he’d covered the French door with a blanket. He was lying on his side, his head propped on his elbow—watching her.
She hoped she hadn’t also been drooling.
“I do not snore,” she enunciated.
A grin turned up the corners of his mouth. “How do you know?”
“I’ve never heard it.”
“Ahhh…so you only believe what you see or hear for yourself?”
She twisted to look at the digital display of her alarm clock. It was 3:30 in the morning! What right did he have to look this good and expect her to engage in an intelligent conversation? She drew a deep breath and lowered her eyebrows to show her displeasure.
His gaze went straight to her breasts and she realized she was still naked as a newborn while he was fully dressed. She pretended unconcern with the disparity and tilted her chin. “Any good scientist bases her conclusions on empirical evidence.”
“Yet you believe I fly only because I entered your room from your balcony.”
“Are you telling me I came to an erroneous conclusion?”
“No, I’m telling you that you jump to conclusions like the rest of us. Sometimes, you trust a kernel of evidence and believe what you want to believe.”
Lily opened her mouth to give him a rebuttal, but he pressed his finger over her lips.
“Sometimes, you have to forget about the survey data, or even what your own eyes tell you, and just trust your gut.”
Lily knew he was talking about more than her snoring. “I can trust,” she grumbled.
“Is there anyone you trust fully now? If he said, ‘I’ve seen the Loch Ness monster in Lake Ponchartrain’, would you trust it was true?”
Lily thought hard. The Loch Ness Monster?
“Is there anyone you’d believe?”
Lily felt her frown deepen and didn’t care her forehead probably looked as wrinkly as a Sharpei’s. “So I snore.”
“That’s better,” he said, his expression too intent for this conversation to be over.
She wasn’t ready to hear what he had to say, especially if he was going to say he was leaving. “It’s not very gentlemanly of you to mention it.”
“I thought you’d like to know. And I never said I was a gentleman.”
A yawn caught her unawares and her jaw stretched wide. She wished he’d stop staring. She knew her hair was likely squashed on all sides so that she looked like her head was really, really long and that her face looked like a roadmap from all the pink sleep creases. While he looked so damn unrumpled she knew he’d never slept.
But he had showered. She sniffed. He smelled powder fresh while she was as ripe as the inside of a gym bag. “I must have fallen asleep. Do you have this effect on all your women?”
“Would you trust me, Lily?”
She wanted to—she really did. Instead of a direct answer, she demurred. “Did you wake me for a reason?”
She’d disappointed him. It was as if a veil swept over his face, wiping the intensity from his expression, leaving a pinched, wary look in gaze. “What can you tell me about werewolves?”
“That they have hairier chests than yours?”
He didn’t appear to appreciate her attempt at wit. “Besides that.”
“You’re serious, right?” At his curt nod, she sat up and reached for her robe. She didn’t know how he could concentrate with her naked beside him—she couldn’t concentrate while one part of her brain wanted him to caress her breast or glide his lips over hers.
When she’d arranged the fabric to cover her, she sat cross-legged on the mattress. “Well, there’s pretty much an international tradition of folk tales describing shape-shifters. Of humans who could transform into animals—often into animals people considered their foes like wolves, bears, and lions. Of course, there’s the Hollywood version of werewolves—they can only be killed with silver bullets, they change to wolves during the full moon—”
“Is it?”
“Is it what?”
“A full moon?”
“I can check my calendar. Why?” Lily realized something was wrong. His change of clothing, the difference in his mood since she’d fallen asleep… “You’ve been out. What happened?”
Joe’s face darkened and his gaze swung back to nail her, accusation in his dark eyes. “Why would a werewolf be nosing around you, Lily? What aren’t you telling me?”
Lily shook her head. Werewolves? It was as unlikely as having a vampire in her bedroom. “Are you sure?”
Joe shoved up the sleeve of his fresh T-shirt to expose his shoulder. Long, angry red gash
es, already scabbing over, marred his skin.
She gasped and her gaze returned to his face. “A…wolf did this? You couldn’t have mistaken a German shepherd or some other large dog for a wolf?”
“It smelled like a human,” he said, his voice flat and hard. His gaze was so intent she feared he could read every thought that flashed through her jumbled brain.
Then her mind slowed to embrace a single clarifying thought. He wanted her trust. No, he needed it. Whatever had happened to him before, he’d lost trust somewhere.
Without a single shred of proof, she relaxed and accepted that she wanted to love him. She’d give him her trust, even if that was the only thing he ever wanted from her. Without wavering, she looked into his eyes. “All right, you met a werewolf tonight. Have you ever seen one before?”
He drew in a deep breath. “I didn’t know they existed.”
“You’re sure he targeted me?”
“Yes. And I think it has something to do with your scent.”
She grimaced. “I’ll take a bath.”
“No, your woman’s musk is very distinctive. I noted it right away.”
Not sure that was a flattering remark or not, she said, “What brought you to the conclusion he was interested in my…musk.”
“He pulled your trash bag out of the bin—the one with your feminine items.”
Lily blushed and toyed with the belt of her robe. “You mean, my panty liners, right? I told you I have…a problem.”
Joe’s hand settled over hers, and he squeezed. “I don’t mean to embarrass you, but I think your problem is more significant than just a hormonal imbalance.”
Lily nodded, but she did not want to discuss her feminine hygiene any further. “Those scabs look like they’re over a week old.”
“Vampires heal fast.”
“I should be taking notes.”
“You know you won’t be believed if you publish your findings.”
Lily gave him a lopsided smile. “My colleagues already think I’m a bit wacky because of my area of specialization.” She wrinkled her nose. “They only tolerate me because I’m multi-published.”
“So why did you choose vampires?”
Lily looked away. He didn’t know it, but she’d promised him her trust. Trust bled both ways. “I never knew my mother, but my father was my whole world. We moved a lot when I was growing up. I didn’t know why. One night we came home and someone was in our house.” Lily took a deep breath, trying not to let the horror of that night get to her like it always did.
Joe’s palm cupped her cheek.
She leaned her face into it for a moment and then straightened. “My father attacked him. Killed him. Afterward, Daddy didn’t call the police, even though he was hurt. We didn’t pack our things—we just left.” She blinked to dry tears filling her eyes. “I didn’t know how bad he was hurt. Before he died, he said I should be wary. That the man was a vampire.” She looked into Joe’s troubled gaze. “He said vampires are my mortal enemies.”
“So why would you seek other vampires?”
Lily shrugged and felt the tears spill onto her cheeks. “I had to know he wasn’t crazy. That he hadn’t died for nothing.” She sniffed. “That he hadn’t murdered for nothing.”
His thumbs rubbed her tears away. “You saw him kill the vampire?” Joe asked softly.
She nodded and blinked again. “He fell behind the couch in our living room—so I never saw his body.”
“If I’m your mortal enemy, why aren’t you afraid of me?”
“I was.”
“What changed your mind?”
His directness made her squirm. He deserved no less from her. “The fact you offered me an out, when it was obvious you were dying…to fuck me.”
His eyes glinted dangerously.
She recognized that look now and her body responded, her nipples constricting into hard, erect points. Lily nodded toward her French door. “You covered the glass.”
“It’ll be daylight soon.”
“Oh.” Worried for him, and yet morbidly curious, she asked, “Will you disintegrate in the sunlight?”
His lips pursed around a smile. “I’ll melt into a puddle of goo.”
Lily suppressed a smile at his teasing and licked her lips. “I can so relate to that.”
“Take off your robe,” his voice purred.
She shook her head and clutched the collar of her robe. “You first.”
His eyes narrowed, but he reached for the hem of his T-shirt and drew it over his head. Then he reached for the button at the waist of his jeans.
Lily’s gaze ate up every inch of flesh revealed. Despite the angry wound on his shoulder, his broad frame gleamed with masculine power. His happy trail of black hair drew her gaze downward. Her mouth watered.
Joe shucked off his jeans and his sex sprang from its dark nest of curly hair, alert and potent.
Instant, intense arousal pulsed deep within her pussy. She shrugged out of her robe and lay down, opening her arms.
Before his body covered hers, his fingers went straight for her moist cleft, sliding between her pouty lips, his thumbnail flicking the hood covering her clitoris.
Lily moaned and widened her legs, making room for him to settle between them. Her hands drew his shoulders down, scraping his back, urging him to take her with her sighs and eager caresses.
Joe’s breath, already shorter, fell hot upon her cheeks, and then his mouth closed over hers and she was lost. Their tongues warred, their chests met, his fingers rubbed moisture around her opening, and then he was pressing his cock inside, crowding the tender tissues, groaning into her mouth.
Lily slid her calves around his thighs and higher, pressing his hips closer, pleading with her body for him to tunnel deeper.
Joe’s thrusts were shallow, just deep enough to excite her inner walls into releasing more cream to coat his thick cock. He rocked inside the cradle of her thighs, ending each thrust with a little jerk.
With her legs closing around his buttocks, she lifted her hips off the mattress, squeezing, forcing him to drive deeper.
Then she was shattering, climaxing so strongly, she moaned and writhed beneath him.
His mouth ate at hers, sucking on her tongue, biting her lips, nuzzling under her chin—drinking her moans and giving them back with his own deep, rumbling groans.
Then he planted his hands on the bed and pushed up. His eyes glittered in the dim light, the skin tautening over his flushed cheeks. Beneath her heels she felt the flex of muscles in his buttocks as he rocked forward, gliding his cock inside her so deep he rammed her cervix. Another flex and he pulled out, then in, and out…
Lily’s fingernails dug into his back, as she strained upward, trying to meet each thrust—but he was too fast, too hard.
And his face was changing. She watched in fascinated horror as the bones of his forehead pushed outward, stretching his skin into a frightening mask. His lips curled up to bare his teeth, which slid downward. They gleamed white and menacing in the dark.
Impossibly, she felt a second dark wave wash over her and she held up her wrist to his mouth. “Drink! I want it all.”
He bit into her wrist and her breath hissed on an indrawn breath. He mouthed her flesh and sucked, his buttocks turning to steel, his body and cock thickening. His powerful thrusts pushed her up the bed until her head banged against the headboard. She reached with her free hand to brace herself against it, and then all thought stopped.
Only sensation registered in her brain—flames licked at her loins, curling inside her belly, drawing breath and blood to her core like a cold-hot ball of tension that curved her toes, pulled her legs higher, and arched her back off the bed.
As if from a distance, she heard a long, thready scream and color burst like a fireball behind her closed lids.
She came back to herself slowly, hearing her jagged breaths loud inside her ears. Sweat cooled on her face beneath the strokes of the blades above her, and a large weight pressed her body deep
into the mattress.
Lily raised a shaking hand to stroke the short, wet curls at the back of Joe’s head. His face nuzzled her breast and his hot mouth latched onto her nipple. Lily’s heart squeezed. In the most elemental way, he sought comfort from her body.
He stirred, but she held him within the circle of her thighs, reluctant to let him leave her. He plied her breast with glides of his tongue then kissed the crest of her nipple and raised his head. “You make me forget why I came here in the first place.”
Lily smiled, feeling tired and a little sad. She didn’t need reminding he was here only because he sought a “cure” for his condition.
“You’ll call your voodoo priestess, today?” he asked.
She nodded.
“We have two questions for her, now.”
Lily was suddenly too sleepy to ask him what the second question was.
“Lily?”
“Yes?” she murmured sleepily.
“Don’t go out alone today.”
CHAPTER SIX
Lily woke with a start. Sunlight winked from the edges of the blanket covering the door on her balcony. She reached out and felt along the surface of her nightstand for her alarm clock and held it in front of her face, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the bright readout. It was mid-afternoon.
Turning on her side she found Joe, lying on his back, his chest barely moving. Alarmed, she leaned over him and pressed her ear to his chest. His heart beat—albeit slowly. He hadn’t been kidding when he said he slept like the dead.
Lily brushed his chest with a kiss and cuddled close to his side, her arm stretched over his belly. It had been such a long time since she’d woken up with a man in her bed. She drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes to savor his man-smell—the tangy fragrance of sweat, a trace of spicy aftershave, the lingering aroma of sex.
His face, softened by sleep, was beautiful. Something she hadn’t really noticed when his dark, sensual gaze burned away all other observations. His eyelashes, thick and curly, were dark crescents, his nose a sharp blade, his mouth a wicked curve, even in his sleep.
Her gaze drifted down, across his latte-colored chest and belly. A light furring of black hair led her gaze downward to the edge of the sheet. It dipped between his legs and molded the hummock of his sex.
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