“And did you sleep with this Mariah?” I asked, and then was glad the darkness hid the uncomfortable flush on my cheeks. Why did I care if my ex-boyfriend slept with some skanky vampire chick?
“I have never approached her,” he said in a low, soft voice. “Never had any interest at all, never encouraged her. Nothing. This is all Mariah. I changed my name and went into hiding, figuring that if she had a few decades to forget about me, then I could reenter vampire society, but she is making things… difficult.”
“I’ll say,” I said. “And this Angelo guy, is he powerful?”
“He’s the head of the vampire clan in this area.”
“That’s a yes, then.”
An awkward pause fell. After a moment, Michael peeked up at me again. “You saved my life? How?”
The gleam in his eyes was a little disconcerting. Was that affection? Lust? Unrequited love still burning after four long years of misery? Or was I just imagining it?
“I heard you gasp, and something told me to check it out. So I did what anyone would do—changed to my shifter form and scared him off.”
He reached out to brush a stray curl off my shoulder, his cool fingertips gliding over my skin. “Not anyone. He could have hurt you.”
“Actually,” I said in a light, breathless voice as his fingers moved down my bare arm, “he probably couldn’t. Apex predator and all.”
Michael snatched his hand away from my arm. “Of course. Were-jaguar.” He glanced around the warehouse. “And you somehow managed to bring me here?”
“I did,” I replied firmly, wondering why it bothered me so much that he’d jerked away as soon as the were-jaguar thing was mentioned. I mean, heck, he was freaking undead, and you didn’t see me panicking and going all to pieces, did you? No, you did not.
“I owe you a debt of gratitude,” he said in a soft voice.
I squirmed a little, uncomfortable at the thought of him owing me. Me, who had kept secrets and stomped on his heart. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“At the very least, I owe you an apology,” he said softly. “I wasn’t kind to you at dinner. The blindfold was cruel. I’m sorry.”
I waved off his apology. “I’ve hurt you, too. I guess we’re even, right?”
“I don’t want to be even,” he said in a low, husky voice.
“Yet you wanted to hurt me once you found out that I was in the agency database. When you figured out I had lied to you about what I was.”
“I did,” he admitted, his green gaze on me. “But I’ve changed my mind.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Already?”
He brushed his fingers over my cheek, confusing me with flutters of feeling all over again. “You saved my life. And what we had before… it was good. I’ve missed you. I want to be friends again.”
My heart skipped an excited beat even as I was crestfallen. After all the heartbreak and the agony, all he wanted was to be friends? Could I be friends with a man I’d once loved?
And really, had I ever stopped loving him at all?
“Friends,” I repeated with a forced smile, and stuck my hand out.
He looked at my extended hand in surprise. Then he smiled and shook it. “Friends, then.”
My heart felt as if it was breaking into a million tiny pieces.
Chapter Four
Michael was still a little weak and slow-moving because of the poison, but he didn’t like that I was stranded there naked and that his bounty hunters likely had my ID and home address.
“We can go to my house,” he said. “I’ve been living under an assumed name for quite a while now. I doubt they know it.”
“They know something about you,” I pointed out. “Otherwise, how were they able to find you at the restaurant?”
He shrugged. “Dumb luck? They know I’m in the area, they just don’t know where.”
I frowned at him. “Then why don’t you leave the area and go somewhere safe?”
He shrugged, glancing away. “I like it here. It’s home.”
“Not if home gets you killed,” I retorted, and got to my feet. “What’s the plan?”
His gaze strayed back to my nude body, pale in the moonlight, and then quickly flicked away again, as if he couldn’t help himself but was trying to be polite for the sake of our friendship. Already I hated that word. “We should scout the area, see if they’re still nearby. If not, we can head out.”
“And go where?”
“I have multiple safe houses in the area,” he said calmly. “One of them is bound to be secure.”
We didn’t have any other options that I could see, but I didn’t like it. It felt like tempting fate. “Fine. I’ll scout the area, and once I know it’s clear, we can go.”
“I can scout, too,” he said. He jumped to his feet and immediately swayed, reaching for a nearby crate to hold himself up.
I went back to his side. He leaned against me heavily. “What’s wrong?” I asked, worried.
He shook his head and righted himself. “Just a little residually weak from the garlic oil. It’ll be fine once I feed again.” He gave me a hopeful look. “Don’t suppose you’d volunteer for the task?”
I shuddered, remembering those enormous teeth sinking into my wrist and the excruciating pain. “No, thank you. It’s not my thing.”
“Most people enjoy it,” he said, his tone light and cajoling.
I waved my bandaged wrist at him. “I already did my good deed for the week. Find some other sucker to drink from. It’s not my idea of fun at all.”
Michael looked stricken, grabbing my wrist and pulling it forward to inspect the bandages more closely. “When did I do this, Ruby?”
“When you were sick and the sunlight hit you. I thought you were going to die, so I offered my wrist.” A tiny shudder went through me again.
He saw my reaction, his face pale and dismayed. “And it hurt?”
“Yes.”
He released my arm with a small sigh. “Then I owe you another apology.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, not liking how hard he was taking this.
“I must not have prepared you. I’m sorry.”
No amount of preparation could have prepared me for four-inch-long fangs sinking into my wrist. “Like I said, the vampire thing just isn’t for me.”
He looked tense. “No, I guess not.”
Again, the uncomfortable silence fell. I gestured at the moonlight streaming in through the dusty windows. “I’m going out to have a look around. It’s safest if I go alone. You stay here.”
He stripped off his jacket and began to remove his shirt. “Here. Take my clothes, at least.”
I put a hand on his chest, stopping him. Okay, I hadn’t needed to touch him, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. “You keep it. I’ll just tear it when I shift.”
He looked at me in surprised fascination. “Are you going to shift right now?”
“I am. You might want to turn away,” I said, then stepped away a few feet and behind some boxes to prevent him from seeing the worst.
A lot of people find shifting hideous. As we move from one form to another, our muscles bunch and redirect. Our bones become almost bendy and shift and flex with our bodies. I don’t know how it works in a scientific way—all I know is that our entire being rearranges itself, and it’s probably something straight out of a horror movie unless you’re expecting it.
I looked over midchange and noticed that he wasn’t looking away. He’d moved so he could get a better look at my shift, leaning heavily against one of the nearby crates.
When I was done, I stretched in my cat form, my tail flicking.
Michael looked impressed. “That was amazing.”
Flatterer. I blinked my cat eyes at him, then went back to his pallet, circled there twice, and then stared at him.
“All right. I’m going,” he said, unable to keep the smile from his face as he sat down.
—
Although the night breeze was brisk, the air was warm and carried with it numerous scents. I could smell exhaust and hear the movement of cars in the distance. I also smelled small rodents, reminding my rumbling stomach that I needed to eat just as badly as Michael did.
I also smelled something else—a spicy, enticing smell that I was becoming all too familiar with.
Vampire. And not Michael.
I found the scent on the far side of the building and tracked it, but I could find no other traces of his scent in the parking lot. I checked the loading-bay doors on this side of the building, but the lock and chain were undisturbed. The windows were unbroken there, but on the other side of the building, where Michael and I were hiding, I’d broken a window. He’d be able to get in through it.
I moved to the far side of the building and picked up another scent, and this one made my blood run cold.
Werewolf. The vampire was using a tracker to hunt us.
Shit. We were in trouble. The wolf would smell jaguar all over this building and know that I was hiding here. I padded back through the parking lot on quick, silent feet, heading for the window that led me back to Michael.
A dark form crouched close to the window. I gave a low, chuffing cry of warning and watched the canine head turn toward me. The wolf raised his head, scenting the air. He hadn’t yet seen me, but he’d heard my warning and smelled me on the wind. I stalked out of the shadows and let him get a good look at my size. At my long, pointed teeth. I hissed, baring my teeth, my tail lashing.
The wolf took one look at me and ran like the wind. He didn’t stand a chance, and he knew it. Wolves were strong when they were many in number.
I was strong just being me.
That took care of the bloodhound. Now to find the other vampire before he shot Michael full of garlic again—or worse. I climbed up to the ledge of the broken window, then dropped inside. I immediately lowered myself to my belly, tail twitching as I scented the area.