Midnight Rising (6 page)

    “Yes,” Marie agreed. “Maybe we should.”

    Dylan shook her head. “Absolutely not. I’m not going to ask any of you to spend the last day of your trip babysitting me when it’s really not necessary. I’m a big girl. Nothing’s going to happen. Go on, I’ll be perfectly fine.”

    “You’re sure, honey?” Janet asked.

    “Positive. Enjoy yourselves in Vienna. I’ll see you back home in the States in a couple of days.”

    It took a further round of fretting and tongue-clucking before the three women finally made their way to the departure platform. Dylan walked along with them, waiting as they boarded. She watched the train roll out of the station, then turned to leave with the rest of the people who’d come to see loved ones off that night.

    As she walked toward the station exits, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being observed. Paranoia, no doubt, brought on by Janet’s worrying on her behalf. But still…

    Dylan glanced around her in a casual pan of the area, trying not to look anxious or lost-emotional beacons for the types of people who liked to prey on stupid tourists. She held her purse in front of her, one arm locked down over it to keep it close to her body. She knew public transportation areas were prime targets for thieves, just like in the States, and she didn’t miss the fact that the group of local teens hanging at a bank of pay phones near the exit were casting measured looks at the crowds as they dispersed. Pickpockets, most likely. She’d heard they often ran in packs around these places.

    Just to be safe, she cut a wide berth and avoided them, taking the farthest door from the group.

    She was feeling pretty street-savvy when she noticed a uniformed security guard walk up to the guys and show them the door. They loped off, and Dylan reached for the push bar on the glass door in front of her.

    In the reflection coming back at her from the glass, she saw a familiar face-one that made her heart seize up in her chest.

    Behind her, almost close enough to touch her, was a very large man barreling at her from the direction of the train platforms. Fierce eyes seemed to burn like coals under the fall of his dark hair.

    And his mouth…

    Good God, she’d never seen a more terrifying sneer in her life. A row of perfect white teeth were clamped tightly behind the lips that were peeled back in a feral snarl, pulling the muscles of his lean face into a stark, deadly mask.

    It was him-the man she’d found in the mountain cave outside Jicín.

    He’d followed her all this way? Evidently so. She’d thought he might be crazy when she saw him earlier that day, but now she was certain. The way he looked at her now, he had to be an utter psychopath.

    And he was gunning for her like he meant to tear her apart with his bare hands.

    Dylan shrieked; she couldn’t hold back her sharp gasp of fear. She ducked away from the exit, pulling a hard left and running, hopefully out of his path. A quick glance backward only made her pulse slam harder.

    “Oh, Jesus,” she murmured, fright arrowing through her.

    It couldn’t be him. He couldn’t be here looking for her…

    But it
was
him.

    And from the knot of terror that was lodged in her throat, she wasn’t about to stand around and ask him what he wanted from her.

    She raced over to the station security guard and grabbed the man by the arm. “Help, please! Someone’s after me.” She flung a look over her shoulder, pointing behind her. “He’s back there-light trench coat and long dark hair. Please. You have to help me!”

    The uniformed Czech frowned, but he must have understood her because he followed her panicked gesture, his narrowed eyes scanning the station. “Where?” he asked, his English thickly accented. “Show me this man. Who is bothering you?”

    “I don’t know who he is, but he was right behind me. You can’t miss him-more than six feet tall, shoulders like a linebacker, dark, dingy hair hanging over his face…”

    Feeling safer now, she turned around, ready to confront the lunatic and hopefully watch him be carted off to the local asylum.

    Except he wasn’t there. Dylan searched the crowds for the big man who would stand out like a rabid, snarling wolf in the center of a herd of milling sheep. There was no sign of him at all. People filed past in ordered calm, nothing out of sorts, no hint of disruption anywhere.

    It was as if he’d simply vanished.

    “He’s got to be here somewhere,” she murmured, even though she couldn’t find him-not among the throngs entering and leaving the terminal, nor among the station’s population of homeless people. “He was right here, I swear. He was coming after me.”

    She felt like a fool as the security guard’s gaze swung back to her and he gave her a polite smile. “Not anymore. You are okay now?”

    “Yeah, sure. Okay, I guess,” Dylan said, feeling anything but okay.

    She cautiously headed for the front entrance of the station. Although it was a beautiful summer night, with clear skies and plenty of people walking through the surrounding park and on the streets leading deeper into the city, Dylan hailed a taxi to take her the few blocks back to her hotel.

    She kept telling herself that she must have been imagining things-that she couldn’t possibly have seen the man from the mountain cave stalking up behind her in the train station. Still, as she climbed out of the taxi and hurried into the posh lobby of her hotel, her nape continued to prickle with anxiety. The feeling persisted as she stood outside her room door, fumbling with her electronic key card.

    As she finally got the door open, a noise behind her made her pause. She glanced around but saw nothing, despite the continued wash of paranoid apprehension that hung over her. She rushed inside like her life depended on it, feeling a startling blast of ice-cold air envelop her in the dark of her room.

    “Air conditioner, doofus,” she told herself as she reached for the light switch and flipped it on. She had to laugh at her own paranoia, even as she quickly turned all the locks behind her.

    She didn’t see him until she took a step farther into the dimly lit room.

    The man from the mountain cave, the lunatic from the train station, was somehow-impossibly-standing not ten feet from her.

    Dylan’s mouth dropped open in shock.

    And then she screamed.

Chapter Six

R
io closed his hand around the female’s open mouth just as the first high note of terror ripped through the room. He’d moved too quickly for her human eyes to track him, employing the same Breed ability he’d used to tail her taxi from the station and follow her up into her hotel room. She’d probably felt him move past her as he had entered ahead of her-registering him only as a sudden draft of chill air-but even now he could tell that her mind was struggling to make sense of what her eyes were seeing.

    She twisted her head, attempting to break free of his unrelenting grasp. Another scream formed in the back of her throat and blasted hotly against his palm, but the effort was useless. The hard clamp of Rio’s fingers snuffed out all but the barest tremor of her cries.

    “Quiet.” He held fast, and pinned her with a look that demanded obedience. “Not one more sound, do you understand? I’m not going to hurt you.”

    Even though he meant it-at least for now-he could see that she was far from convinced. She was trembling hard, her entire body taut and rigid, fear pouring off her in vibrating waves. Over the edge of his palm, her gold-flecked green eyes were huge and wild. Her fine nostrils flared with every short, panicked breath she took.

    “Do as I tell you, and you won’t get hurt,” he said, holding that wide, wary gaze. Very slowly, he began to ease some of the pressure from her mouth. The moist heat of her lips and sawing breath seared his palm as she adjusted to the tiny bit of freedom he’d granted her. “Now, I’m going to take my hand away. I need you to stay quiet. Agreed?”

    She blinked slowly. Gave him a faint, tremulous nod.

    “All right.” Rio began to lift his hand. “All right, that’s good.”

    The female didn’t scream.

    She bit him.

    No sooner had Rio relaxed his hold than he felt the sudden, blunt force of her teeth latching on to the web of flesh between his thumb and forefinger. He spat a vicious curse, more pissed off that he hadn’t seen the attack coming than he was put off by the pain of her bite.

    She drew back just as swiftly as she’d struck and managed to break away from him. She lunged for the locked door but didn’t even make it one step. Rio tackled her from behind, his arms wrapped around her like iron bands.

    “Oh, God-no!” she cried, and went down hard on her knees, too fast for him to cushion her fall.

    She collapsed in a clumsy, face-first sprawl on the floor. Rio heard her breath whoosh out of her on the abrupt impact and knew her lungs had to be screaming. Not that it sapped her of her determination. Damn, she was tenacious.

    She made a last-ditch, frantic scrabble on her belly, trying to drag herself over the carpeted floor to get away from him. But she stood no chance, certainly not against one of his kind.

    Rio crawled up the length of her, trapping her under the weight of his body. She was panting as he flipped her over onto her back and sat himself astride her. She wriggled, still fighting him for all she was worth, but she wasn’t going anywhere. Rio had her imprisoned beneath him, holding her arms tight against her sides with the strength of his muscled thighs.

    She was completely at his mercy now, and from the look in her eyes as she stared up at him, she didn’t expect he had much to give.

    Rio could guess what he looked like-Jesus, what he smelled like too. This close, he couldn’t hope that his scars were hidden behind his overlong hair. He saw her terrified gaze flick to the left side of his face, where the flames and flying shrapnel had left their mark a year ago. The tight, reddish-silver tangle of ruined skin must look especially hideous underneath all his grime. He must look like some kind of half-crazed monster…

    Yeah, he did, because that’s just what he was.

    And he was also suddenly, acutely aware of the soft, warm woman trapped beneath him. Where he was dressed to offend, in torn clothes that were too far gone months ago to even make decent rags, she was wearing a curve-hugging, cap-sleeved tee-shirt with a pleasantly deep V-neck and light tan cargo pants that rode just below her hips. She smelled clean and fresh, infinitely female.

    And she was beautiful.

    Holy mother, was she ever.

    He’d never seen eyes of her precise color, a rich, verdant green flecked with pale gold. A thick fringe of dark brown lashes framed those intelligent, mesmerizing eyes, which stared up at him now in such wary uncertainty. Her cheekbones were delicate and high, accentuating the graceful line of her jaw. She had the kind of beauty that made her seem both innocent and wise, but it was the shadows in her incredible eyes that intrigued Rio the most.

    This woman had known disappointment and hurt in her life. Maybe even betrayal. She’d been wounded before, and now here he was adding a new brand of terror to her life experience.

    Even worse, she aroused him.

    Not only the knowledge that he had her caught between his thighs, but the sight of her pretty mouth, which was stained with a trace smear of his blood from when she’d bitten him. Everything male in Rio was alert with the feel of her beneath him. Everything Breed in him was tuned in to that scarlet smudge on her tempting lips…and to the thrumming tick of her pulse where it beat so quickly at the base of her creamy throat.

    He wanted her.

    After the months of exile in that godforsaken cave, after Eva’s deception that had left him dead in so many ways, Rio looked at this woman and felt…alive.

    He felt ravenous, and she likely picked up on that fact from the low growl he could do nothing to suppress. He felt his vision sharpen as his pupils began to narrow with his interest. His gums ached as his fangs began to elongate behind the tight line of his lips.

    And his cock was suddenly, achingly erect. There was no hiding that fact, even as he shifted his hold on his captive.

    “Please…don’t do this,” she said, a tear sliding down her cheekbone and into her silky red hair. “Whatever you’re thinking, just…let me go. If it’s money you need, take it. My purse is right over there-”

    “I don’t want you or your money,” Rio ground out tightly. He got off her, angered with himself for the twin physical reactions he was having a hard time holding at bay. “Come on, stand up. All I want is your camera.”

    She slowly pulled herself to her feet. “My what?”

    “The camera you had with you in the cave, and the pictures you took. I need all of it.”

    “You want…the pictures? I don’t understand-”

    “You don’t need to. Just give them to me.” When she didn’t move to comply, Rio trained a piercing look on her. “Get them. Now.”

    “O-okay,” she stammered, and hurried over to a large backpack that stood in the corner of the room. She dug through it and pulled out the slim digital camera.

    When she started to open it up to pop out the image disk, Rio said, “I’ll do that. Give it to me.”

    She held the camera out to him with shaking fingers. “You followed me all the way to Prague for this? What’s so important about those pictures? And just how did you find me anyway?”

    Rio ignored her questions. In a few minutes, none of this would matter. He’d have the images and then he’d scrub the female’s memory of the entire chain of events.

    “Is this all of them?” he asked her as he turned the camera on and scrolled through the contents of the disk. “Have you downloaded them to any other devices?”

    “That’s it,” she replied quickly. “That’s everything, I swear.”

    He reviewed the handful of shots from the cave, the ones of himself in partial transformation, and the ones that showed the Ancient’s hibernation chamber and the
glyphs
painted in human blood on the walls. “Have you shown these to anyone?”