Authors: Rhyannon Byrd
Raine wet her lips as she looked over the crowd, then lowered her gaze and gave a little nod. “Yeah. He’s the one at the far end of the bar. Shaggy black hair and a goatee.”
Despite the mass of people, Seth was tall enough to see over most of the other customers, giving him a clear view of the Casus as the guy downed what looked like a shot of tequila. It was difficult to fight against his natural instincts, but he managed to hold himself in check.
As if the human-looking monster sensed their presence, he turned on his stool and started spreading a slow look over the crowd. Seth swung toward Raine, using his body to block the Casus’s view of her. “I think he knows we’re here.”
“That’s not possible. I’m masking my scent, so he couldn’t know that it’s me.”
With a shrug, he said, “Maybe he’s just picking up a bad vibe. Can you get any kind of read on him?”
She closed her eyes and drew in a slow breath of the smoky air, her attention focused completely inward. “He doesn’t know anything about the two Casus you killed in Paris, or the one I killed in Spain, but he’s got a bad feeling that something’s going down. Something he doesn’t know about. Seton was meant to contact him today, on his cell phone, and he never did. Now he’s nervous. Feels like maybe he’s being set up.”
“Does he know we’re here?”
He watched those long, golden lashes lift, revealing luminous eyes that were dark with emotion. “He’s looking for something out of place, but hasn’t found it yet. He’s wondering if someone is tailing him—if they’re going to come after him when he leaves. If we’re not careful, he’s going to plant his ass on that stool all night.”
“Then we’ll blend in,” he rasped, and before she had time to react, Seth grabbed hold of the high counter on either side of her body, caging her in. She blinked as he leaned in close, her eyes going wide as he lowered his face over hers. “Don’t panic,” he whispered, and in the next instant, he brushed her mouth with his. The soft, fleeting contact wasn’t nearly enough, and he found himself slanting his mouth over hers, seeking more of that succulent warmth, her taste hitting his system like a drug. She made a muffled sound of surprise, but didn’t try to claw his eyes out, so he kissed her a little harder, thrusting his tongue against hers, his hands leaving the bar to snake slowly around her back, carefully avoiding the golden tips of her hair.
“What the hell are you doing?” she suddenly growled, ripping her mouth from his as she braced her hands against his chest, her nails digging into his rigid muscles.
“Looks like I’m losing my head again,” he muttered, before going in for a deeper, wetter kiss, unable to get enough of those plush lips or the sweet, slick well that lay within. If he was only going to get this one shot, Seth figured he might as well make it count. He could feel the heat of her skin through the thin camisole, his callused
palms snagging on the delicate material, while his cock hardened to the point of pain as she finally stroked her tongue against his.
Somehow finding the strength to pull back, Seth swept his gaze over their surroundings as he grabbed hold of her hand and all but dragged her through the nearest doorway, into what was some kind of dimly lit storeroom used for cleaning supplies.
“Are you out of your freaking mind?” she demanded, staring up at him as if he’d lost his grip on reality. “I didn’t come here for a make-out session. I’m on a hunt!”
Seth slammed the door shut and moved closer, crowding her against a bare patch of wall beside a shelving unit. “You wanna get made here?” he asked roughly, bracing his hands against the cracked plaster on either side of her head. “Or do you want him to stay relaxed until he heads for a place we can take him down?”
“Obviously the second,” she huffed. “But I don’t see—”
“Then just shut up and kiss me,” he muttered, cutting her off with the touch of his mouth against hers. It was hell on his system, but he forced himself to be gentle, his hands curling into tight fists as the kiss spiraled into some kind of moist, intimate exchange that damn near blew the top of his head off. Neurons had to be melting down, his wiring so fried he was surprised steam wasn’t coming out his ears.
“Why?” A soft, breathy thread of sound, so unlike her usual snippy tone, the sexy way her soft lips were
moving against his making him sweat. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because it’s a helluva lot better than arguing,” he growled back, shocked by the tremor in his thick words. But Christ, he’d never felt anything like this in his life. Her taste was addictive, the warm silk of her mouth too sweet to be real. He could have easily kept kissing her for hours, days, but any second now they were going to run out of time. She was going to be torn away from him when reality reared its big, ugly head, and he’d be left sucking wind. Writhing in a shitload of frustration.
Which meant he had to get as much of her as he could, while he still had the chance.
As his mouth worked over hers, Seth placed his battered right hand against the side of her throat, his thumb settling against the rushing beat of her pulse. She moaned a thick, hungry kind of sound as he dragged his hand lower, sliding beneath the edge of the chemise, seeking out the exquisitely soft skin that lay beneath. His palm smoothed over the gentle swell of her breast just as she pushed her hips forward, rubbing against the aching ridge of his denim-bound cock. Her head fell back as she panted for breath, eyes closed, lost in sensation…and something clicked inside him. It was so simple, and yet, the reverberations of that little click were huge. Mindshattering. Life-changing.
With his breath jerking between his parted lips, Seth stared down at her, lost in the dazzling, heart-pounding details, thinking she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. He touched his mouth to the bloom of color
burning in the elegant curve of her cheek, the tender action completely at odds with the way he shoved aside the fragile silk of her bra. He had his mouth on her before she could draw her next breath, lapping his tongue against a hard, rosy nipple, the earthy, feminine taste of her skin no doubt doing some kind of internal damage to his organs, considering he felt like a twisting, snarling mass of need. He greedily sucked that tender bud between his lips, teasing it with his teeth, and would have worried he was being too rough with her if she hadn’t arched her back higher, grinding herself against his mouth and his cock, her nails biting into his shoulders as she held him to her.
“You are so fucking beautiful,” he rasped, baring her other breast with a shaky hand, his other hand sliding to her lower back, inside the waistband of her jeans…then inside her panties, while he licked her nipple with teasing flicks of his tongue, making it shiny and wet. He gripped the silky curve of her ass, sliding his fingers lower, seeking that moist, humid heat between her thighs. He was desperate to feel her come in his hand, clenching around his fingers, before he tore those fucking clothes off her and felt her coming around his cock. But the moment he grazed her slick flesh, she flinched, stiffening in his arms, and he quickly withdrew his hand.
“No!” she snapped, shoving at his chest so hard that he stumbled back, her eyes wild with panic. “I can’t…I can’t do that. Not with you.”
“Jesus, Raine.” He speared his hands through his hair,
curving his fingers over his skull. “What the hell did I do?”
“I should…I should have stopped you sooner,” she stammered, panting, her hands shaking as she wrenched her bra and top back into place. She kept her face averted, no longer looking him in the eye. “I just…I don’t want this.”
Seth scrubbed his hands down his face, then dropped his arms. “Maybe not now,” he told her, the rough words scraping his throat. “But there will come a time when you want a man again.”
“Yes, but he’ll be someone I feel comfortable with.” She lifted her face, locking her gaze with his. “He’ll be someone I can trust.”
Anger followed fast on the heels of concern. “You can trust
me
.”
“Knowing the things you’ve done?” she asked, with a brittle thread of laughter.
Feeling like he’d just been sucker-punched, Seth narrowed his eyes. “I would never hurt you,” he growled, his hands flexing at his sides as he fought the need to pull her back into his arms, knowing it would only make things worse. “Damn it, you know that.”
“And what about guilt?” Her voice was dangerously soft, those dark eyes burning with challenge. “Think about it, McConnell. Do you really believe I could ever want a man who cringes at the idea of being with a vampire? One who can’t stand the thought of letting me feed from his vein?”
F
ORGET ANGER.
Fury poured through Seth’s veins like a hot, slick acid, his jaw aching as he ground his teeth together. He couldn’t believe it was all going to come down to this. That his blood would be the thing she used to keep him at a distance.
“Let me get this straight,” he bit out. “Are you actually saying that I can’t fu—can’t
be
with you unless I’m willing to let you drop fang on me?”
“I’m saying that even if I weren’t a mess, which I am, I don’t want to be with a man who’s ashamed of what I am!”
“I’m
not
ashamed,” he argued, unable to recall the last time he’d been this pissed.
“You can lie all you want, but it isn’t going to change the truth.”
Seth turned away from her as he rubbed a hand over his eyes, the taste in his mouth almost too bitter to swallow. “We’ll finish this conversation later,” he rasped, after he’d taken a few deep breaths and finally trusted himself to speak. “Right now, I want you to stay focused.”
“Then keep your damn hands to yourself, because he’s finally leaving.”
“Good. But I’m warning you, Raine. Do
not
do
anything stupid.” He slid her a hard look as he placed his hand on the door latch. “You’ll listen to me and do what I say.”
“Like hell. I don’t take orders from you,” she snapped, pulling the Marker from her pocket. “So just stay out of my way and try not to get hurt.”
They made their way out of the bar, the street eerily silent, while a violent rumbling of thunder could be heard in the distance, the air damp with the thick scent of an approaching storm. Raine jerked her chin to the right, indicating the direction the Casus had taken, and Seth started to reach for his gun, but stopped short at her look of outrage.
“You shoot only if there’s no other choice!” she said in a low, angry slide of words.
He didn’t even bother to respond, not trusting what he would say at that moment.
With the Marker held in her right hand, its power already making her arm glow, Raine started walking more quickly, then broke into a light jog. “Come on,” she told him, turning into the small alley on their right. “He just turned a few blocks up ahead of us. If we hurry, we can get ahead of him and cut him off.”
Keeping close to her side, he asked, “Is he on a main road?” As much as Seth wanted to see the bastard pay, he didn’t want to fight a battle in the midst of innocent bystanders.
“He’s actually heading into one of the local parks. This is our best shot. There’s no one else around.”
“Just stay sharp,” he growled. “And whatever you do, don’t let him rile you.”
They ran the rest of the way, the rolling thunder masking the sounds of their boots striking the ground as a light rain began to fall, helping to cover their scent. Within minutes they’d made their way to the far side of the park, a winding path snaking its way through the rolling hills and patches of lush, dense foliage. The path was illuminated by a series of softly glowing antique streetlamps that cast out a flickering wash of light, the moonlight snarled by the swiftly moving storm clouds.
Raine came to a stop in the center of the path and stared at the point where it disappeared around a bend in the trees. “He’ll be coming around that curve in the next twenty seconds.”
A violent crack of lightning smashed into the ground a quarter mile to the east of their position, illuminating the night with glittering sparks of light, and it was in that moment that the Casus came into view, his pale, ice-blue eyes widening with shock when he caught sight of them.
“Whoa,” he called out, his curious gaze shifting from one to the other as he continued to move toward them. “What’s this?”
“I’ll tell you what this is.” Raine’s voice lashed out like a weapon, cutting and sharp. “This is your last minute on earth before crashing straight into hell.”
Stopping about fifteen feet away, the Casus ran a quick glance over her glowing arm, then lifted his gaze and smirked. “Don’t be so sure of yourself, sweetheart.”
“You should listen to her,” Seth warned him.
The guy sniffed at the air, then gave him a slow smile. “Is that right, human? And here I was thinking that you should learn not to mess with things that are scarier than you are.”
“You don’t scare anybody,” Raine shot back. “And since I know you haven’t heard, I’m thrilled to be the one to tell you that Bryce and Carlson are already dead.”
“Is that what this is about?” he asked with a gritty laugh, flicking his eyes over Raine before locking his pale gaze with Seth’s. Those eerie, frozen chips of ice-blue darkened with surprise. “You’re coming after me because I fucked the bitch?”
“This is for my sister!” Raine shouted, her voice cracking at the end. “The one you tortured. She was just a girl!”
“The little teenager? I remember her,” he drawled, his mouth curving as he stroked a hand over his goatee. “She was as sweet as she looked.”
“You’re a pig!” Raine choked out, shaking with fury, the storm drawing closer with loud, bellowing roars of thunder. The air tasted electric, charged with rage, their faces misted with cool drops of rain. They had only minutes before the full deluge was going to hit, and Seth wondered which storm would strike first: the one moving in with the weather front…or the one Raine was about to create.
Another rusty laugh shook the Casus’s chest as he took in Raine’s reaction to his cruel words, but Seth was beginning to think the guy’s cockiness was just an
act. Raine had said that Schultz was nervous in the bar, and even though Seth didn’t have Raine’s exceptional Deschanel senses, he could have sworn he could smell the bastard’s fear.
“You know, if you wanted the girl to live,” the Casus murmured, keeping one eye on Seth as he spoke to Raine, “you shouldn’t have lied to Westmore about where the Markers were hidden. He had no choice but to punish you.”
Seth knew exactly what the asshole was trying to do. The Casus wanted to push her until she lost control and attacked him in a blind rage, abandoning caution in exchange for fury. And it was working. She was glowing all over now, sparking with anger, the raging emotion pulsing off her slim, shaking body with so much heat he was surprised she wasn’t steaming.
For a moment, all Seth could do was stare. Hardly the time to be left with his jaw hanging, but
damn
. A guy had his limits. She was over-the-top gorgeous, glowing with a soft metallic light, so beautiful she hurt his eyes. And yet, there was something all wrong with the picture. It was the fury, the rage. Yeah, he liked seeing her all charged and glowy, but as trite as it sounded, Seth wanted her vibing with happiness. With pleasure. He didn’t want her revved up with some seething need for revenge, knowing damn well how dangerous it could be. And he suddenly understood what had prompted the changes in her body. She was riding a hard, dangerous high fueled by hatred, the emotion making her feel stronger, even as it was slowly eating away at her soul.
“If Westmore was angry about what I did, then he should have punished
me,
” Raine snarled at Schultz. “Not Rietta!”
“I don’t think so.” The bastard’s voice dropped as his smile spread wider. “I think knowing your little sister was taking your beating hurt you a helluva lot worse than if you’d been in her place. And we did everything we could to make it last, just so we could listen to her scream.”
Raine immediately gave a shriek of outrage, and the dam on her restraint broke, shattering like glass. Before Seth could grab her, she launched herself at the Casus, striking out at him with so much speed she was little more than a blur of color as she used the talons on her free hand to slash at Schultz’s face. Seth was already running toward them, a guttural roar on his lips, when the Casus released his long, sinister-looking claws to strike back, but she was too fast, twisting to avoid what could have been a potentially deadly blow, if it weren’t for the cross in her right hand. But she wasn’t so lucky the second time, and after getting nailed with a nosecracking jab to his face, Schultz managed to catch her in the ribs with his foot, the powerful kick sending her sprawling over the ground.
“I’m fresh off an afternoon kill,” he growled down at her, jagged fangs beginning to fill the human mouth of his host body. “So don’t think this is going to be easy, bitch.”
He started to go in for another kick as she was moving back to her feet, but Seth threw himself between them,
taking the brunt of the blow on his thigh. The air left his lungs in a hard burst as he hit the ground, rolling, his body already moving into position for his counterstrike. Whipping his leg around, he caught the Casus across his lower back, pitching him forward, and Raine delivered a powerful kick right to the bastard’s chin. Schultz snarled with fury while Raine hissed back at him, baring her fangs—and in the next instant, Seth watched on in horror as they crashed together, their bodies locked in brutal combat. Unable to tear them apart, Seth shouted for Raine to back off, but she wouldn’t listen, her eyes glowing a hot, gleaming silver as she fought. When she smashed her boot into the asshole’s jaw and sent him sprawling, Seth was finally able to get between them. He grabbed hold of Schultz’s neck, wrestling him facedown against the path. “Now!” he shouted, using all his weight to hold the bastard down. The Casus’s body shuddered, bone and muscle expanding, his spine becoming bumpy and ridged as he began to transform into his true shape, and Seth roared, “Goddamn it, do it now!”
Thankfully, Raine didn’t waste any more time. She sank to her knees on the ground beside the Casus and slammed the hand holding the Marker into the back of his neck, right at the base of his skull. A sizzling, crackling pop filled the air as her hand sank deep, the monster’s body bucking so badly Seth had to fight to retain his hold. Lightning slammed into the ground again, closer this time, illuminating the night with surreal, metallic streaks of light, just as the skies opened, sheets of rain
falling hard and fast, hissing like oil in a hot pan as the drops splashed onto Raine’s glowing arm.
She cried out as her hand sank deeper, that sizzling sound growing louder as the scent of burning flesh filled the air. Her face contorted with pain, eyes closed, teeth clenched, and Seth couldn’t take it. Couldn’t stand seeing her in so much agony.
Releasing his hold on one of the Casus’s arms, he started to reach back for his gun. But he was already too late.
J
UST AS HER ARM
erupted into bright, fiery bursts of flame, Raine threw back her head and screamed…and screamed…and screamed, until it felt like her throat would implode.
She’d thought she’d be prepared this time, after killing Bryce this same way, but the pain was just as sharp and excruciating. Tears poured from her closed eyes, and she could tell from the blast of heat and Seth’s rough curses that the fire was spreading through the Casus’s body now. A bright, orange glow burned against her thin eyelids as Schultz’s body was torched from the inside out, the ground beginning to shake with deep, rumbling shocks, as if an earthquake was mounting beneath them.
“Raine, come on.” Seth’s voice was pleading, his strong, calloused hands suddenly settling on her shoulders, trying to pull her off the monster. “Damn it, let go of him! That’s enough!”
She hissed, baring her fangs, knowing damn well that she couldn’t let go until Schultz was nothing more
than a smoldering pile of ashes. The pain in her arm intensified, as if her skin were being stripped from the straining limb, and she screamed louder, the stark sound clashing against Seth’s furious roar just as a red, pulsing wave of rage swept through her, impossible to contain. She was pissed at the Casus and the past. Pissed at Seth for trying to stop her. For kissing her. For showing her that she could still feel pleasure, when all she deserved to feel was loneliness and pain. The wave grew, blasting through her, consuming her, turning black and oily and thick, and just as Schultz’s body erupted in a violent, deafening blast, she opened her eyes and launched herself at the human with everything she had, the force of the explosion slamming them through the air.
He went down hard, landing on his back, and before he could so much as grind out another outraged curse, Raine was straddling his waist, pinning him to the ground. Her fangs grew longer as she crouched over him, hissing, her talons digging into his flesh. All her hatred and rage had been transferred to the soldier who was pressing his big hands against her chest, holding her away from him.
“Raine, goddamn it, stop!” The force of his words finally punched through that electrifying haze, and she blinked, shaking her head, trying to figure out what the hell was happening. “It’s over, okay? The bastard’s dead. I’m not going to hurt you.”
She blinked again, wetting her lips, and started to move off him, when she realized her talons were buried deep in his shoulders. “Oh…God,” she choked out, a sharp hiss rushing through his compressed lips as she
retracted her talons, jerking her hands from his body. “What…what did I…?”
“It’s okay,” he told her, his voice thick with something she couldn’t quite place. He didn’t sound angry or afraid. Just worried…and something more. Something she wanted to understand more fully, but was too confused to focus on. “You just got a little carried away, but it’s okay.”
Her gaze was locked on his bloodied shoulders, and she jerked herself out of her stupor, scrambling to her feet. “I could have killed you!”
A dry note edged into his careful words as he sat up. “Raine, I’m not as easy to kill as you seem to think. Everything is
fine
.”
“No, it’s not.” Her own voice was shredded, the painful sound making the muscles in his face tighten. “You should never have rescued me,” she said brokenly, stepping back until she came up against one of the broad tree trunks, her hands rubbing up and down her rain-spattered arms. Despite the flames that had engulfed her arm only moments before, her skin was unharmed, thanks to the protective powers of the cross. “You should have left me with Westmore. I’m too dangerous. Too unstable.”
“Damn it, will you just shut up?” He was all masculine power and grace as he moved to his feet, stalking toward her, while the wind and rain rushed against him. He didn’t stop until he was towering over her, so close she could scent the heat of his body. See the droplets of rain collecting on his thick lashes. “You haven’t done anything wrong!”