Marcus’s head pounded. His heart raced. He lunged forward with his fist raised. The beast inside was screaming, but trapped, trapped—
Claws slashed across Marcus’s throat. The pain was hell-fire hot, and the blood splashed down his shirt as he tried to breathe, tried to gasp, tried to say … Rita.
He fell to his knees.
“Two down …” The whisper filled his ears. The last fucking words he heard were … “Three to go.” Rita. He could see her now, could see—
The shifter and the ADA searched the scene. Their eyes- and their noses-probably didn’t miss a thing. But, well, there wasn’t anything to miss.
“You found dog hairs on the body?” Jana asked. “Just the body, nowhere else?” Odd. Those wolves sure were hairy beasts.
But if they weren’t dealing with a wolf … “Just the body,” Tony agreed.
Setup. Didn’t the guy see it? Marcus wasn’t the one they wanted for this. No way would a wolf’s fur—so not dog hair-have been left in one spot.
“There’s nothing here. Take me to the body,” Erin said flatly.
Tony nodded. “Let’s go. You and Jude can follow me in.” But Erin hesitated beside Jana. “You don’t really look like a killer.”
Jana smiled at her. “I know. That’s why I was so good at my job.” Was, shit. She needed to be more careful.
Erin’s gaze dropped to her throat. “What got ahold of you?”
Oh, yeah, that. “A vamp.”
“Did you burn him? I mean, that’s what you do.” “I didn’t burn him.”
The lady waited. Her dark hair blended with the night.
“She shot him,” Zane said.
“And you didn’t rip him apart?” Erin shook her head. “Zane, I’m surprised at your restraint.”
Tony hurried to his car. “Come on, we need to get to the station. If this killer’s hunting, we don’t have time to waste.”
Erin inclined her head. “You’re right, you know,” she told
Jana.
About what?
“Not all wolves are psychotic.” Her teeth flashed in a white grin. Hmmm … those teeth looked a little too sharp. “And surviving hell is easy for us.”
Then she was gone. The ADA disappeared into the night with Jude and Tony.
“Come on,” Zane said. “We need to go to the station and—”
Okay. A woman had to draw the line somewhere. “I’m not going to the cop house.” Willingly step into the PD? Hell, no. She sucked in a deep gulp of night air. “She was a wolf? A wolf? Jeez, thanks for the head’s up.”
They walked out of the alley. A few college kids were milling around. Two guys. One girl with long, braided hair.
“She’s wolf.” A small hesitation. “And she’s human. Erin’s a hybrid.”
Hybrid. She turned toward him, stopping under a street light. At least this one wasn’t flickering. “A hybrid. Like you.” He nodded.
Jana licked her lips. “Back at Perseus, everything you told them … was it true?”
“Yes.” His eyes darkened.
The night air grew colder. Another girl came out of the dorm, her shoulders hunched, her hair down. She was moving fast, and her blond hair flew behind her. After what had happened there, Jana didn’t blame the girl. She’d be running fast, too. Don’t want to be caught out alone.
“My dad was a sick, sadistic bastard,” Zane said. “One who just happened to be a demon.”
Okay. Not exactly a sweet walk down memory lane. She inched closer to him and felt the warmth of his body seep into hers. “My stepfather was a perverted freak who got off on hurting people, and he happened to be human.” She forced a shrug. “Guess you just can’t ever tell about folks, hmmm?”
His gaze bored into hers. Black now, she could see that. “You don’t care that I’m a demon, do you?”
Um, no. Hadn’t she proven that by all the wild, hot sex she’d had with him?
“Have you ever been afraid of me?” he asked her.
Sometimes. Because he made her feel too much. But she didn’t say that. Instead, she asked him, “You been afraid of me?”
She expected him to grin. Expected some smart-ass answer. His lips tightened. “Yes.”
So not the answer she’d wanted to hear.
His hold on her tightened. “You scare me … because you make me weak.”
“I don’t—”
“You push me to the edge. With you, I’m always afraid I’ll go over.”
“And if you do?” So what?
He shook his head. “Come on.” The others had already left. Gone to the PD.
He opened the passenger door for her. Jana climbed in. Her legs slid over the leather. Zane stared down at her, then leaned forward. “You trust me.” He seemed surprised.
But, hell, not as surprised as she was because, yeah, she did.
He shook his head. “You shouldn’t.” Zane started to pull away.
Jana grabbed his hand. “I think you’re the only one I should trust.” He’d never betrayed her. Hadn’t lied to her. Hadn’t—
“You don’t know what I can do.”
She had a pretty good idea. She’d been with him in the fire. His eyes were level with hers. “I killed him,” he said, whispering the words. “My own father, and I didn’t even hesitate.”
Her fingers squeezed his. “You didn’t—”
“I could still smell her blood on him. The bastard was high on his fucking drugs. Always the damn drugs. He killed her, gutted her, all because she tried to take away his drugs. She just wanted him to get clean.”
Jana swallowed. “Get in the car, Zane.” She didn’t like him being in the open. “Let’s go back home.” She wanted to be alone with him. To hold him. Weird. She’d never wanted to just hold a man before, but Zane wasn’t any man.
His jaw clenched. He pulled back, slammed her door, and hurried around to the driver’s side. When he jumped in, he revved the engine.
Jana touched the masculine fingers that gripped the wheel so tightly. “You did what you had to do.” She could understand that more than any other.
Slowly, his head turned to face her. His gaze was blacker than the night.
“I’ve got a lot of power inside me,” he told her, his voice quiet in the stillness of the car. “Maybe too much. I can do things …” He shook his head. “Killing him was easy for me.”
He’d never told her his demon power scale. She understood why. Most people feared the demons who tipped the scales. He didn’t want to be feared, just accepted. “You’ve got power, but you’ve got control of it.” The control was what mattered. Control separated the demons from the monsters.
“My control broke that night. I was just a kid.” His fingers whitened around the steering wheel. “But I killed him in an instant.” His lids lowered a bit. “What do you think would happen now if I lost my control?”
“I don’t think you would.” After everything they’d been through … no, the man had always been strong. Even when he faced death.
He laughed at that and shifted to reverse with a hard yank of his hand. “Baby, you don’t even know how close I’ve been.” The car slid back. He shifted again. “And you’d better hope you never see me that way. Because when my control shatters, hell comes calling.”
If he was as high on the scale as she believed, yeah, that could happen.
He drove fast. His eyes stayed locked on the road, and not on her anymore.
“Don’t go to the police station,” she told him and kept her fingers against him. “Take us back to your place.” Because she wasn’t afraid of him-or the hell he promised.
The car raced forward. Faster, faster, into the dark.
Fury coiled tight in Zane’s belly. Jana didn’t understand. She didn’t see him, not the real man. If she knew what hid under his skin, if they all knew …
They’d fucking run.
But she sat beside him, and she kept touching him. The woman should be pulling away. He’d tried to warn her while there was still time.
Because time was running out for Jana Carter. He’d realized that when he’d found her in his bedroom. She wasn’t just a fast screw. Someone to hold in the dark. A body to give him pleasure. No, she’d started to mean more.