Jules (Golden Streak Series Book 5) (7 page)

“You’ll need to eat more when you and Jules come to be mated.
There’s a lot of energy burned up between newly formed couples.” When Brock wiggled his brows at her, she flushed. “I heard what he said to you at the hospital.”

Lenny nodded.
“He’s nothing to me. As soon as I’m able, I’m thinking within the week, I’m going back to Washington to try and see if I can find a job working with the police. They won’t let me go out on the cases anymore, but maybe they can—” Brock and Em both were shaking their heads. “What do you mean ‘no’?”

“You
can’t go back, and they aren’t going to hire you at any job. You’re marked. And not just as Jules’s mate. You do know that the mark he gave you will be seen by all tigers, and if there are any among your other detectives or even officers, they won’t work with you.” She asked him what he was talking about by saying she was marked. “They think you killed Mason. And those that don’t think you’re insane and should be locked up before you hurt yourself will never trust you with their back. They won’t accept you back because no one would back you up. Or did you mean the mark that Jules gave you?”

She was pretty sure he knew just what she meant.
Lenny thought about the fact that her fellow officers thought she’d killed her friend, but the fact of being marked by Jules still burned in her mind. He had marked her? How the hell had…the bite he’d given her in the hospital.

“He kissed me
and then he nipped at my shoulder.” Brock and Em both nodded. “He marked me as what? You said mate. Is that all?”

“Not really. He’s started to claim you.
And if he has sex with you in any way, he will claim you. If you bite him, then all bets are off, kiddo. He owns you as well as you do him.” Lenny stood up but had to sit down quickly. Pain shot through her and she didn’t want to fall. She had a tiger to kill.

“And if I tell him to back the fuck up and leave me alone, that won’t work either
, will it?” Em shook her head. “I’m really sorry then. I’m going to have to kill him. Prison will be better in the long run than having him speak to me the way he did. And if he thinks I’m going to be a doormat for him, he’s a fucking idiot.”

Neither
of them said anything for several minutes as they finished their tea. Then Em looked at her and asked her about Rice. The question had been simple, too.

“He was a moron.
He actually raised his hand to ask me a question, like we were in grade school. But we got him at the scene. He had a weak stomach, and every time he came into one of the rooms where I was working, one of us would make a gagging noise or show him some other body part that we’d found. It wasn’t meant to be showing disrespect to the dead, but he was messing up the crime scene every time he fell over into the blood and—” Lenny looked at Em. “There was blood. I’m not…I can’t remember where it had come from, but I was point on the scene.”

“Think about Rice
, not the scene.” Lenny nodded at Brock. “Close your eyes and think about what he was doing the first time you saw him.”

Lenny closed her eyes
, thankful for the small memories she could get now and in some sort of order. “He was standing by a car. I think he was going to go with me to the scene. He had on a pair of black pants with a shiny belt and a white shirt. You never wear a white shirt to homicide. It will be covered in something as soon as you enter the crime scene.”

“What else?”
Brock’s voice sounded far away now and she let herself be comforted by it. She liked Jules’s better, but was not particularly fond of what drivel spilled from his lips. The man was an ass and—Brock said her name softly.

“
My previous partner had transferred out. His wife, he said, wanted him to be safer. He told me on his last day it was because I was a control freak and he couldn’t stand to play second fiddle to me. I had a feeling that was it, but it didn’t matter. He’d nearly gotten us killed when he’d pulled into an intersection going ninety chasing a bank robber and not waiting a second to see if it was clear.” She shifted on the couch. “Rice was on the rotation to ride with me. He was the mayor’s nephew and Mason told me…later I think…that he’d put him with me because he knew I’d run him through enough horseshit to make him quit. I think he did.”

Images
flipped though her mind like a fast-moving picture album; Mason standing above her looking happy with himself; a hand, severed from a male, being held by someone else; a shoe lying in a doorway. Lenny felt her head begin to pound again and opened her eyes. She was surprised to see that at some point Jules had come in, and she hated that her heart took a weird leap in her chest.

“I think we have enough now to get a start.
If you remember any more, don’t hesitate to give us a call and let us know.” As Brock moved out of the house, Em continued speaking. “As we get information, too, we’ll pass it along. It might trigger you to remember something else or nothing at all. But we’ll be nearby.”

Brock handed her three boxes of ammo for the gun and she looked up at him
, surprised. “There are several rogues out there that might come around. I’m not sure they will, but this will give you a chance to take them out before we get here. The silver works on wolves as well, but not tigers. Not unless you shoot them in the head or heart.”

He was still laughing when he and Em left.
She started for her bedroom, hoping that Jules would get the hint and leave, but he followed her. She pulled some clothes off the chair that her grandma had brought from her suitcase. She was taking a shower and to hell with him.

“Are you not speaking to me?
” She didn’t even turn around to look at him. “You should know that I don’t want a mate. Not like you anyway, but I guess we’re stuck with each other.”

She paused long enough to count to ten before going to the bathroom door.
If he was still standing there when he came out, she was going to shoot him in the head. She’d had enough of him today already. When he touched her shoulder, she thought about three things at once; hit him, which seemed her best course of action; ignore him…so not going to happen with him breathing on her and scorching her skin like he was; or simply walk away. She tightened her clothes in her hands and walked into the bathroom. It was by far the hardest few steps she’d ever taken.

Tu
rning on the water, she stripped off her shirt and stepped under the cold spray, and never opened her eyes the entire time. She was hurting enough without seeing what had happened to her just yet. And realizing that she’d forgotten to take off the bandages only made her madder at the large tiger outside. By the time she was finished, her hair and body were clean, but she was dripping blood from the wet gauze. Another thing to blame on Jules.

Chapter 7

Naomi looked around the
devastation that was once her lovely office. She’d been more than a little pissed off, and it showed in every broken piece of pottery she’d been collecting over the centuries, as well as the new office equipment that had only been installed the month before. She sat down on what she thought was once a chair and tried to regain some control. When the vampire walked in without bothering to knock, she flew at him and wrapped her hand around his throat so quickly she doubted that he had time to blink.

“What have I told you about coming into my home
without permission?” Truman Smith glared just long enough for her to think she’d imagined it, but still she shook him. “You’ve been told several hundred times in our short acquaintance to knock, but you continue to simply have bad manners and piss me off.”

“I’m sorry
, my lady. I came to talk to you about the wolf you hired.” She tossed him across the room, sighed when he hit the only piece of art that had survived her wrath, and sat back down. He was just picking himself up when Milo came into the room.

He
didn’t say anything but looked at her oddly. So the fuck what? It was her house, and if she wanted to trash it daily, it was her business, not his. He leaned against the mantel and nodded for the other vampire to speak.

“He’s been to the house that the girl lives at
, but he didn’t kill her. I saw her and that old broad walking around the house. She’s had a couple of tigers inside, but they left a long time ago. One of them stayed for a while, but he never came out while I was there. When I took a leak, he was gone when I came back. But the wolf, I could smell him at the house.” He looked confused for several seconds. “I think I smelled a bear, too, and a bunch of other wolves, so I’m not sure it was him. It could have been a lot of others.”

He nodded
, and Naomi started to rise up and kill the dumbass, but Milo spoke first. “You say a lot of others. You mean other wolves? There were other wolves on the property?”

“Yeah. And some…I swear I smelled
that bear and cat. Not like the tigers smell when you showed me, but like other cats. You think they have a kitten or something?” Naomi shook her head. Where the fuck had this idiot come from? Then she remembered.

He and three other vampires, all of
them fairly young, had come to her just after their master had been killed. They were not only lost but also ignorant of what to do to survive. Of course, it hadn’t taken her long to figure out they were just plain ignorant, but that was beside the point. They had come in handy so far in tracking the girl.

“I’m betting it’s some of those Golden men. I’ve heard that they’ve taken a special interest in the girl. Probably one of them is sniffing around her.”
Naomi mentally rolled her eyes. Sometimes Milo still sounded like the dock worker she’d taken as her lover all those decades ago.

For her own peace of mind
, she asked if they were the panthers or the tigers. She hated both kinds of cats, but tigers terrified her to no end. She didn’t even know why, but whenever she thought of coming into contact with one of them, she felt her skin crawl. She shivered when Milo told her it was the tigers.

“Well
, if the fucking wolf would ever call us back, we can get some things taken care of. Or at least some answers.” She looked around the room again. “He’s going to pay for not calling me back when we see him.”

Truman
nodded and slowly started for the door. The sun was still hours away yet, and she wanted to play, but Milo told him to leave now, and she looked at her lover, disappointed. He sat down but made no move to touch her.

“You should know that I’ve heard your good frie
nd Viktor is around again.” Every nerve in her body seemed to freeze. “He was spotted at a flower shop about two weeks ago with some other being that I can’t figure out what she is.”

“How did you find out?” She tried to act as if it didn’t matter to her if he was close
, but Milo knew the history between them and wasn’t fooled for a minute. When he laughed, she saw red.

“You might as well just face the fact that you still want him and move on. He certainly has if the way he was laughing it up with that other being is any indication.” She tried to
take shallow breaths to curb her temper, but he just wouldn’t shut the fuck up. The more he said, the hotter she got until she turned and attacked.

“They were all chummy and touching each other.
I think she was a tiger but a lot more. I’m not sure. Anyway, when they left together, I followed. He took her to lunch. Then they went to a studio downtown. I’m betting he bought her the nice piece in the front lobby because he put it in her car when she left.”

He wasn’t prepared for her
, so she was winning before he could gather his strength. By the time she’d sank her fangs deep into his throat, she was beyond caring that this man was all that lay between her and danger. She wanted him to pay for what he’d made her feel, and all the other pent-up rage she’d had since waking. By the time she lifted her head, he was too far gone for her to save, and without even trying, she lifted from his body and walked away. By the time she’d gone to her lower levels to lock herself in, he was dead.

Smiling for the first time since she’d found out that the girl was close
, she went to bed just after midnight, long before she normally did, and closed her eyes. Tomorrow she was going to find the wolf and replace Milo. Enough of this bullshit waiting around for her to come to find her.

Mommy was going to kill her daughter if it was the last thing she did.

~~~

Jules was waiting for his replacement to show up when he noticed the wolf again.
It wasn’t unusual with this many weres helping them keep an eye on Lenny’s home that he’d not know one or two of them, but this one was different than the others.

For one
, he never engaged in much conversation, which he supposed was the man’s biggest giveaway. Wolves were pack animals and needed the company of others. Secondly, and he thought most importantly, he seemed to be watching the house more than he was the grounds. Jules started for him when he felt the first bit of unease. He turned to the house to see if he could find anything.

Other than the giant bear seemingly sleeping on the porch, there was nothing.
Going back the way he’d come, he called for Ryland, who was patrolling the grounds with him tonight, to go and find the wolf.

He’s just sitting there and watching
and not doing what he should be doing. Not watching the grounds like I would think he should, but the window where Lenny is sleeping.
Ryland laughed.
I don’t know a great deal about tracking like the rest of you, but I know when I can feel things are off.

She’s going to kick your ass if you go into her house again. I’m pretty sure that she made her
position pretty clear today.
Jules didn’t stop walking toward the house.
She’s not going to be any happier with you when she finds out for the past few nights you’ve called in every favor you’ve had in getting other weres here to help.

She’ll get over it.
Besides, if she had spoken to me today, I would have told her what was going on.
The closer he got to the house, the more fearful he became. Then he realized it wasn’t him but her he was feeling. He was just telling his brother something was off when he heard her scream. Not bothering with shifting and going in the front door, he crashed through the window to her room.

Her screams tore th
rough him, as did the emotions that went with them. They weren’t just like fear, but of terror like nothing he’d ever known before. Even as he scanned the room, he knew she was alone, and when the door opened suddenly and a flash hit his eyes, he snarled at whoever was there.

“
Dreams. Wake her.” Nicee had entered and the flash was a light she carried. She yelled at him again to wake Lenny up. He leapt up on the bed as he shifted to human and took her hands, which were flaying at him, and held them above her head. He tried his best not to hurt her, but if she screamed again like that, he wasn’t sure he could handle it. When she started sobbing and looked at him, he kissed her on the mouth. It was the only thing he could think of.

When he lifted his head
, she was staring up at him, and he let her hands go. He heard Nicee leave the room and tell someone that he had it under control. The slight breeze across his ass made him realize he was naked.

“He took him.
When Mason went into the house, someone jerked him into the house so quickly that he lost his shoe. He lost his shoe.” Jules nodded at her. “I remember now. All of it. I remember that I had been working another crime scene and that there were five bodies messed up, but the male had been torn to pieces.”

She
wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held him as she shuddered. She started her story over and over. He let her know that now that she remembered, she’d line it all up and tell it to his brother in the right order. He could feel her mind working out what she had seen as opposed to what she’d thought she’d seen. He held her, never letting go of her, holding her to him until she was finished.

When
she curled her fingers into his back he watched her mouth. She had stopped talking a little after the sun peaked in the sky. He wanted desperately to lean down and kiss her, then bury himself deep inside of her.

“You are probably uncomfortable.”
He didn’t know how to answer that, so he didn’t. “I’m really sorry. I’m not a cry baby. But the dreams…I guess I needed the push your brother gave me today. Well, yesterday, I guess now.”

“He said that you remembered a little.” She nodded
, and he could feel her breasts move against his chest. “I talked to him and Em last night before I came over here and….”

She licked her lips.
Jules watched as her tongue moved from one side of her luscious mouth to the other. He wasn’t sure if he’d seen anything more beautiful or more erotic in his entire life. Then she pulled her lower lip into her mouth and bit it.

“Lenny, I want to kiss you. I actually want to do a great deal more than that
, but kissing you won’t kill me.” She smiled at him, and he thought maybe he was going to die anyway.

Lowering his head slowly
, he moved his hands down her body to her waist. He could feel the bandages there and thought they’d help him remember not to hurt her. But when he touched his mouth to hers, nothing mattered but taking more of her into him.

Her tongue slid around his as soon as he deepened the kiss.
Moaning when she cupped the back of his head, Jules slid his hand under her ass and lifted her into his cock. She jerked her mouth from his and moaned low. He nipped at her exposed throat, licked along the vein there, and suckled in her pounding pulse. He wanted to bite her, sink his teeth into her as much as he did his cock. Moaning again, he moved his way down her chest to her breast. Sucking at the tip hard through the sheet that kept him from her, he rocked harder into her. Lenny moaned his name.

He heard a slight noise and lifted his head. Growling low in his throat
, he looked behind him at the broken window, as well as Ryland standing there with his back to him. He would gladly kill him right now.

You’re not being very
discreet there, brother dear. Anyone in the yard can see the two of you. Is that what you want?

Jules growled again and looked back at Lenny.
Her eyes were glazed over and there were bite marks all along her throat and down to where her breast was hidden beneath her sheet. He had a feeling that she was as naked as he was and wanted to snarl at the way things were right now. But as much as he hated to admit it, Ryland was right. Their first time together shouldn’t be done where everyone could watch them.

I’ll need help getting the window fixed and some clothes.
He saw a small duffle slide across the floor.
Thanks. Christ, Ryland, I don’t want to leave her right now.

But you have to. Come on. I’ll walk away
, but you have to get going. There are things you have to know as well about the wolf from earlier.

“There are others too close right now for me to finish what we’ve started.” Lenny looked at him without focusing.
He wanted to make her look like that a great deal more, like she’d just been made love to hard and quick. “I have to get up.”

She nodded and shifted in the bed
, and his cock did as well. He could feel how hot she was, how wet the sheet was between them. He groaned hard and rocked again. When she rolled her hips up to meet him, he buried his face in her neck and did bite her. She cried out but didn’t pull away as her hot blood filled his mouth.

Lifting
his head again, he looked down at her. Blood trickled from the wound he’d given her and he wanted to take her more than ever before. But he had to get up because if he didn’t, there wouldn’t be a person within a hundred miles that wouldn’t know that he’d claimed her. He lifted his body from hers and licked the wound at her throat. She shivered beneath him and moaned when she looked down their bodies.