Authors: Rhyannon Byrd
Now, he was one of the good guys. But how long would it last? Despite the kindness he’d shown her, Raine still didn’t trust him. And considering all the twisted, complicated issues that stood between them, she sure as hell didn’t have any business being attracted to him.
“Come on,” he growled, his deep voice nearly drowned out by the synthesized beat of the music. Before she could protest, he curled his long fingers around her arm, pulling her through the nearby doorway that led into one of
the bar areas of the club. The high-ceilinged room was no more private than the one before, but at least the music was muffled enough that they could talk.
Only, Raine didn’t want to stand there and have a conversation. She wanted to run. To hide. To get as far away from him as she could!
And for one brief moment of madness, she wanted to throw her arms around his neck…breathe in that rich masculine scent and simply hold him close, as if that was exactly where he belonged. In her arms. Against her body…
And I’ve lost my freaking mind,
she silently groaned, wondering what was wrong with her. No other man had even remotely sparked her interest in the past months—so why in the hell did she find McConnell so damn appealing?
Needing to put some space between them, before she made a fool of herself, Raine jerked out of his hold and took an unsteady step back, coming up hard against the wall behind her. But he didn’t take the hint. Instead, he took another step closer, so that she had to crane her head back to hold that hot green stare. With a shaky breath, Raine concentrated on trying to get inside his mind, but all she could pick up was a hazy blur of shadows and white noise, as if he’d thrown up some kind of mental block. Which meant she was just going to have to get her answers the “normal” way…and talk to him.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” she choked out, fighting to keep her voice as level as possible. “What are you doing in Paris?” She knew she sounded rude and
abrasive, but didn’t see that she had any choice, since she needed him to keep his distance.
He didn’t give her an answer—just took a slow, deep breath, his head tilting a little to the side, the green of his eyes turning darker—and for a fraction of a second, Raine thought she caught an image from his mind. An image that showed the two of them together, his tall, powerful body pressed tight against hers, pinning her to the wall. His lean hips were wedged between her thighs, her legs wrapped possessively around his waist, while his strong hands held her head, keeping her still as he ravaged her mouth, kissing her long and hard and impossibly deep.
Gritting her teeth, Raine forced the provocative image from her mind, furious with herself for letting the human get to her so easily. He hadn’t said more than two words to her, and already she was shaking with nerves, imagining things that didn’t exist. She knew damn well that the vision wasn’t real. That it had come from
her
thoughts, and not his. But that wasn’t even the part that had her so irritated. No, it was the fact that they’d both been steamy and naked, not a stitch of clothing between them—and while Seth McConnell looked good in jeans, the bastard had looked even better
out
of them.
And that’s really something I could have gone without thinking about.
A second demand to know exactly what he was doing there had just settled on the tip of her tongue, when his gaze dipped to the gleaming metallic cross hanging around her neck, the ancient weapon resting just between
her breasts. “If you’re here for the Marker,” she told him, wondering why there was a bitter edge of disappointment to her words, “you needn’t have bothered, McConnell. When I’m finished with the cross, I have every intention of returning it to your friends.”
“I figured as much.” His voice was rough, even huskier than she remembered it. “But the Marker isn’t the reason I’m here.”
Her brow scrunched with confusion. “It isn’t?”
With a slow shake of his head, the soldier locked his piercing gaze with hers. “You are.”
A
S SHE STARED UP
at him with those big, dark eyes, Seth figured the little crossbreed couldn’t have looked more panicked if she’d found his blade at her neck, ready to open her throat. “
I’m
the reason you’re here?” she croaked, a quiver moving through her slender frame, while a flush of color burned in her high cheekbones and across the delicate bridge of her nose. “But…that doesn’t make any sense.”
Pushing his hands in his pockets, he forced out a gruff explanation. “I’m here to protect you.”
“Protect me?”
Her nostrils flared, hands fisting tightly at her sides. “Have you lost your bloody mind, McConnell?”
Ever since Seth had discovered Raine’s absence from the compound in England, he’d been asking himself that exact same question. His actions were not only illogical, they were impulsive and reckless. There were a thousand and one other things he
should
have been doing at that moment, and yet, there he was, following after Raine Spenser like some kind of lovelorn hero intent on rescuing his damsel in distress.
Only, he was a far cry from hero material.
And she sure as hell didn’t look like she wanted to be rescued.
But it didn’t matter. Seth knew he should have been refocusing on his hunt for Ross Westmore—Westmore was the man working to bring back the Casus, as well as the one who’d held Raine captive at the beginning of the year—but from the moment he’d learned that Raine had left the safety of Harrow House to visit her parents in Rome, then set out on her own again, he’d panicked. All he’d been able to think about was finding her. Keeping her safe. Keeping her
close
.
Not that she was his to look after. They weren’t involved. Hell, they barely knew each other—and what they
did
know wasn’t much to build on.
She was a half-blooded vampire who wanted nothing to do with men.
And he was an ex-hunter who had spent the past twenty years of his life slaughtering every vampire he could get his hands on.
And since she was also part psychic, Raine had no doubt been able to see each and every one of those killings the first time she’d ever laid eyes on him. But even knowing he was the last person in the world she would want to have close to her, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about tracking her down and getting her some place safe. And it didn’t end there, because after he got her out of danger, he wanted to get the crazy little vamp someplace private. Someplace where he could do things he knew damn well he would never be able to do outside
the realms of his imagination. Things like touching her. Kissing her…
It was probably wrong in more ways than he could count, but Seth had been drawn to this woman from the moment he’d first carried her small body out of Westmore’s compound, when she hadn’t even been conscious. Over the weeks that he’d known her, that interest had grown into an uncomfortable attraction, and now that attraction had damn near become an obsession. A stupid, dangerous one that had sent him running from Harrow House a month ago, only to leave him burning with lust for a woman who had seemed to go out of her way to avoid him.
Despite everything he couldn’t stop wanting her—though
want
didn’t actually come anywhere close to describing this strange desire that only seemed to be growing stronger each day. What he really wanted was to possess her in some kind of primal act of dominance, the need reminding him of the way the shifters he now called friends acted with their women. Seth wanted to get her under him and go at it until their bodies were slick and steaming and they were barely able to breathe. Wanted to lose himself in her until he’d somehow managed to ease this infuriating ache that continually grew, spreading, until it now filled every cell of his body.
So yeah, he had the mother of all hard-ons for the vamp, jonesing for her like an addict. And yet, at the same time, there was a part of him that wanted to stay away from her out of sheer self-preservation. All of which meant that, somewhere along the way, he’d clearly
lost his damn mind, the war no doubt screwing with his head. From the moment the Casus had started to return, everything had been turned upside down on him, until he didn’t even know who he was anymore.
And since he’d met Raine Spenser, everything had really gone to hell.
As her shoulders pulled back, pressing her breasts against the thin material of her sweater, her gaze locked with his, burning with a fury Seth had never seen in her before. The last time he’d been near her, she’d been closed down, as if an off switch had been flicked inside her chest. But now she vibrated with anger and power, that wild gaze nearly stealing his breath. Yeah, it only added to his current state of idiocy, but there was no point in lying about it. Her eyes were the pale, pure gray of the Deschanel vampires, but with threads of dark Alacea blue woven through, and he found them unbelievably beautiful. As unique as the woman herself.
Seth studied her face and her eyes, searching for the signs of trauma that had been there when he’d first met her back in February, but was unable to find them. Lowering his gaze, he noted the changes in her body, as well, and it was clear, even to his human eyes, that she was finally…mending. She looked different than she had a month ago, fuller, healthier, no longer the starved little waif she’d been when he’d carried her out of that miser able compound. And in the weeks that had followed, her health had only deteriorated, her body growing weaker, instead of recovering.
Obviously, something had happened to turn all that around.
“You look…stronger,” he said in a low voice, when what he was really thinking was that she looked good enough to eat. Sexually, that is. It seemed an important distinction, considering this was a woman who had a
thing
for blood.
“What is it you want, McConnell?”
He cocked his head a little to the side as he held her stare. “First of all, you know my first name, so use it. And why ask the question when you already know the answer? Can’t you just read my mind?”
“Believe it or not,” she snapped, her tone one he’d never heard her use before, “I have better things to do than go digging around inside that thick skull of yours.”
Seth accepted her answer with a quiet shrug, wondering if her mother was right. When he’d talked to Simone Spenser earlier that day in Rome, the woman had been surprisingly open with him, taking him into her confidence, when he’d honestly expected her to slam the door in his face the second she laid eyes on him. But instead, they’d talked for nearly an hour, and she’d told him she believed Raine’s mental powers were still decreasing due to the trauma she’d suffered, and Simone was afraid that if Raine didn’t come to terms with what she’d been through, she might lose her psychic abilities for good. Seth had hoped the woman was wrong, but surely Raine would have used her powers to discover his intentions if she’d been able to.
And if her powers
were
still weakening, then she was in even more danger than he’d first assumed. Whatever she was up to in Paris, he had no doubt that it was dangerous work. Though the others figured she’d simply wanted the cross for protection, since the Markers acted as a talisman to those who wore them, Seth believed there was only one reason she would have risked the wrath of the Watchmen…and that was to kill a Casus. She might have made a quick trip to Rome to see her family, but the real reason she’d left Harrow House with one of the ancient crosses was because she was going on the hunt.
“It shouldn’t be so hard to figure out why I’m here, Raine. Did you really think we were just going to let you run off and get slaughtered?”
One slim brow arched with derision. “Look around, McConnell. I don’t see anyone else stalking me.”
“The others would have come after you as soon as they realized you were no longer with your parents, but all hell’s started to break loose, which is why I was called back to England. I only found out that you were no longer at Harrow House when I returned to the compound. No one had even told me you were gone.”
Annoyance filled her expression. “My comings and goings should hardly be any concern of yours, so why would they bother to tell you anything?”
“Because they knew I expected them to protect you,” he growled, fisting his hands in his pockets. “The second you set foot outside of Harrow House, I should have been notified.”
“There was nothing to worry about. They knew I was with my parents.”
“I don’t care if you’d gone to visit the bloody Prime Minister,” he shot back, his blood running cold at the thought of her being alone and unprotected. “They should have told me that you’d left.”
“And so you just came on your own? Without anyone else?” It was clear from her tone that she was hoping for a way to ditch him.
“Garrick was with me until this afternoon, but he got a call from his parents and had to head home.” Before their defection, Trevor Garrick had been Seth’s second-in-command when they’d both been a part of the Collective Army. He was a hell of a friend, and an even better soldier, which was why Seth continued to put his trust in him.
“Well, you should have gone with him. Whatever you came here for, you’re wasting your time.”
Ignoring the assholes bumping into him as they pushed their way toward the crowded bar, Seth crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll be the judge of that,” he muttered, no doubt sounding like an asshole himself, and a surly one at that. But damn it, he
was
surly.
Her chin lifted a fraction higher, her husky voice thick with anger and something that sounded close to panic. “How did you even know I was in Paris?”
“I paid a visit to your parents.” For safety purposes, her family had been staying at the Watchmen compound in Rome ever since Raine had been rescued, so it had been easy for Seth to find them.
Her color drained at his words. “If you hurt them—”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” His lip curled in an offended sneer. “Of course I didn’t hurt them. Despite what you seem to think, I’m not in the habit of murdering innocent people, even if they are vampires.” At least, not lately.
That little notch was back between her brows. “Then how did you get them to tell you where to find me?”
For a brief moment, the corner of his mouth twitched, but he fought back the smile, knowing it would only piss her off. And she was already prickly enough as it was. “Actually, that part was pretty simple. Your mother likes me.”
Her eyes went round and she had to open her mouth twice before she was able to say, “That’s not funny, McConnell.”
He gave her a believe-what-you-will kind of shrug, ticked that she kept refusing to use his first name. “I’m just stating the facts, Raine.”
“No. You’re lying,” she snarled, the gray of her eyes beginning to glow with an unholy light that should have freaked the hell out of him, but the surge of blood to his groin said otherwise.
“I’m not lying,” he replied in a low voice, making sure he was shielding her from anyone who might catch sight of that strange silver gaze. “After we talked for a while, she told me you were in Paris and gave me the name of your hotel.”
“My mother wouldn’t do that,” she argued, and it didn’t take a genius to see that she didn’t want to believe
him. “It doesn’t make any sense. Her Alacea powers are incredibly strong. She would have been able to use those powers to read you…to see into your past.” Her voice was rising with each word, a testament to her distress. “You actually expect me to believe that my own mother would send a vampire killer after me?”
“If you don’t believe me, call her,” he suggested.
She crossed her arms over her chest, mirroring his own stance, and forced her response through tightly clenched teeth. “I will.”
Seth’s mouth had just started to tip with a slow, wry smile, when she added, “Even if you’re telling me the truth about my family, that still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here, in this club. How did you know I was here?”
Well, shit.
To be honest, he’d been hoping to avoid this part of the conversation, but the woman was like a pit bull with a bone. Scraping his fingers through his rain-damp hair, he blew out an exasperated breath and told her the truth. “I don’t actually know.”
“How can you not know? You’re here, aren’t you? You had to find me somehow!”
“Hell, I’d explain it if I could, but I can’t. I knew you were in the city, but I didn’t have any idea where. I started at the hotel your mother gave me and just…kept walking the streets, looking for you. I’d finally decided to head back to your hotel, and wait you out there, when I saw you walking across the street out front and heading into this place.”
Disbelief filled her gaze. “So you just happened to
run into me? In a city the size of Paris? Do you realize how…
improbable
that is?”
He shrugged his shoulders again. “What can I say?” he muttered, feeling almost embarrassed by the strange coincidence. Trying to make light of it, he added, “Maybe the fates were looking to bring us together.”
“The fates?” Shock widened her eyes, while anger darkened them. “Isn’t that a little fantastical for a man like you?”
Seth arched a brow at her snarly tone, enjoying the way her cheeks burned with color as her temper rose, the fierce emotion a welcome relief to the pale fear she’d worn the last time he’d seen her. “You think I could still be close-minded, after all the crazy crap I’ve witnessed? I might not understand most of it, but I know the world works in mysterious ways.”
“Great,” she snapped, the panic in her eyes growing sharper. “So now the fates are conspiring against me?”
Suddenly feeling like a jackass for riling her, he softened his tone. “I’m here to help you, Raine. I didn’t come to cause you any trouble.”
“Well, I haven’t asked for any help, and better yet, I don’t want any. Especially not from you!”
That quickly, his guilt vanished. “In case you didn’t notice,” he growled, “I didn’t ask.”
She muttered something under her breath that he couldn’t quite make out, but it was clear she didn’t trust him.
“And to be honest,” he added, “I’m surprised you didn’t see me coming.”