Most Wanted - A Fantasy Romance Novel (The Shadow Blade Series) (2 page)

She turned back
to Ezekiel, flicking her hair over her shoulder to give him a sight of her neck
and her jugular, and then smiled at him again, though it took every ounce of
acting ability she possessed. Some days she seriously thought she should have
gone into acting. She deserved an Oscar for this performance. She opened her
palm, showing Ezekiel two blue pills – Viagra - stolen from some random guy’s
bathroom a few months ago.

‘You wanna try
one?’ she said, leaning over.

‘What is it?’ he
asked, his interest aroused.

‘Sweetest high
you’ll ever experience,’ Ariel smiled.

He paused,
finally starting to look suspicious.

‘What’s your
name?’ she asked him, flashing him a smile and hoping to distract him.

‘Zeek,’ he said,
his gaze dropping to her breasts again. ‘You?’

‘Ariel,’ she
answered. It didn’t matter if she gave him her real name. He wasn’t going to be
alive long enough to tell anyone. ‘So, you wanna try one?’ she asked, giving
him a low-lidded stare. ‘Why don’t we ditch this joint? I’ve got some Tequila
back at mine. We can have ourselves a little party.’ Even as she said the words
she was amazed that he was buying them. I mean really? He honestly thought
anyone would want to party with him? But she supposed that was Suckers for you;
big on lust, short on brain.

Ezekiel hopped
off his stool. ‘Let’s go somewhere more private,’ he said. He was unsteady on
his feet but certainly eager. He wove straight between the tables, heading
towards the door.

Perfect. Ariel
hopped off her stool and followed after him. The biker rubbing his head glared
at her as she strolled on by.

Once outside
Ezekiel started pacing the parking lot like a caged rat. Ariel sauntered
towards the filth-lined alley where she’d parked her van. ‘Round here,’ she
called over her shoulder in what she hoped was a sultry manner, though
truthfully she was starting to lose patience with the whole seduction routine.
She just wanted to prick him and bag him. In her head she began picturing the
moves that would have Zeek bound and sedated in the back of her van in the next
thirty seconds.

As he trotted
after her eager as a puppy, his feet kicking up the gravel, she weighed her moves.
The easiest thing to do would be to get him inside the van before she injected
him with sedative otherwise she’d have to carry him and she really didn’t want
to have to touch him. The needle was in her pocket. She eased off the lid of
the syringe and pulled it out of her jacket, but just as she was getting ready
to whip around and plunge it into his neck she was grabbed from behind and
thrown against the wall.

‘Ahhhh,’ she
grunted as Zeek pressed his scrawny body flat against hers. Her cheek scraped
brick and she let out a yelp that was more angry than afraid. He pulled her
hands behind her back, gripping her wrists tight. She felt the syringe drop to
the ground at her feet. Damn it. He was surprisingly strong for a Sucker.

‘Who sent you?’
he whispered in her ear.

Ariel struggled
against his pincer tight grip on her wrists, trying to turn her head away from
his stinking breath. His eyes glowed in the dark and his fangs glinted just
inches from her face. As she struggled, a tongue came out and licked a long,
slow trail up her neck, tracing her jugular.

Nausea rose up
her throat followed quickly by red-hot rage. ‘The Brothers,’ she hissed. She
lifted her foot, thanking God she’d worn stilettos, and slammed it down onto
the top of his. He let go of her at once, screaming a high-pitched wail, which
Ariel cut off with a sharp blow across his windpipe. ‘Goddamn, wake the dead
why don’t you?’ she muttered angrily, reaching to pick up the syringe.

As his hands
clutched at his throat she roundhouse kicked him in the stomach. ‘And that’s
for licking me you undead piece of shit.’

Jax saw red the
moment the Sucker's tongue snaked out and slimed up the girl’s neck. He had
followed them out here, wanting to know what would possibly possess a girl like
her to go anywhere with a piece of trailer trash Sucker like that. He’d
wondered if maybe Cy was right and she was a Sucker lover. The thought made his
stomach turn and he was aware that he was hoping like hell it wasn’t so. But as
Jax stepped towards them, his blade in his hand, the Sucker suddenly bent over double,
gasping and clutching at his throat. Jax moved instantly, pushing the girl out
of harm’s way and grabbing the Sucker around the neck, shoving him hard against
the wall.

‘That’s no way
to treat a lady,’ he said, through a clenched jaw. The Sucker’s eyes started to
bug in his head, the irises bursting red and then black.

Suddenly someone
grabbed his arm and started tugging. It was the girl.

‘Hey,’ she spat.
‘I had it handled.’ Her eyes flashed with fury. Jax’s gaze glanced off her
body. The tops of her breasts were exposed in the low-cut top she was wearing,
the swell and curve of them momentarily distracting him from the job in hand.
Swinging his attention back to Ezekiel, he pushed his thumbs into the base of
his neck and lifted him off the ground.

The girl was
right there watching him and generally speaking he didn’t like to kill in front
of humans, but sure as hell he wasn’t letting this little bloodsucker live.

‘Hey,’ the girl
said, pulling on his arm. ‘Let him go.’

She was
defending this low life piece of scum? Could she really not tell what he was?
Or maybe she could and she really was a Sucker lover.

Maddened at the
thought, Jax brought up his knife and slashed it through Ezekiel’s chest,
piercing the stone that was once his heart.

Ariel let out a
yell and grabbed for the guy’s arm before he could do what she saw he was about
to do, but it was too late. As she watched he slammed a knife straight into
Ezekiel’s chest. Ezekiel let out a little mewing sound and then slid to the
ground. Dead.

Ariel glared
down at his body. Great. Just great. He was wanted alive. Not dead. This
asshole had just cost her ten thousand dollars. ‘You idiot!’ she yelled,
turning to face him.

The guy twisted
his head in her direction, the blade still in his hand. Ariel shoved him
backwards. He stumbled, his cap flying off.
 
‘What the hell?’ he protested.

‘Who do you
think you are?’ she yelled, anger getting the better of her. Not only was she
going to have to report back to Jimmy on this, she was also going to be ten
thousand dollars down, and she had a debt to pay.

The guy was
staring at her like was insane. ‘I just saved your life,’ he spluttered.

‘No, you did
not!’ she spat back. ‘I had it handled!’

He stepped
towards her then, stopping in a band of light thrown by an Emergency Exit sign
and Ariel did a double take. He was the guy from the bar, the one who had been
sitting in the corner booth. Since when did good Samaritans hang out at
The Spithound
? With a sickening
realization she glanced at the blade in his hand. And who carried a silver
blade around with them and knew exactly what to do with it when faced with a
Sucker?

 
He smirked at her. ‘Yeah, it really
looked like you it handled,’ he said. ‘Do you even know what that thing was?’
he asked her, jerking his head in the direction of Ezekiel’s body.

Ariel’s stomach
clenched tight. This guy was a Blade. That was the only thing that made sense.
She assessed him. He was easily two or three inches taller than her even though
she was wearing heels, maybe six two, twice as broad, probably as strong…
though maybe not. He was dark haired, with liquid brown eyes, full lips and a
square, clean-shaven jaw. He looked like he spent his days posing in his underwear
for Calvin Klein ads. Though right now he was wearing dark jeans and a
lumberjack shirt over a grey tee. No pregnant belly in sight. In fact, even in
the darkness, even though he was fully clothed, she could just tell he had a
very well defined physique.

The syringe was
in her hand. She wondered what the Brothers would pay her for a Blade.

She stepped
forwards into the light. She going to need her two best assets for this one.
Gratifyingly the guy’s gaze darted to her cleavage, but only for a second. His
expression darkened when he looked back at her face. He was a scowley one that
was for sure.

‘Why are you
hanging out in a place like this?’ he asked, shaking his head.

‘I just
love
the music,’ Ariel said with a tight,
sarcastic smile. A spark of regret flared briefly through her. It was a shame
the guy was a Blade. He was the first guy she’d seen in a long time that made
her think he’d be worth the effort. Her gaze raked the length of him, the
regret growing. He was really quite unbelievably hot. Her imagination was
already leaping ahead and mentally removing the Calvin Klein’s.

Taking a deep
breath and summoning some resolution, Ariel gripped the syringe in her hand and
started to raise it, but just as she was about to stab it into the Blade’s
chest the door behind him slammed open, bouncing against the concrete with a
retort as loud as a gunshot. They both whipped around.

Shit. Ariel
groaned inwardly to herself. It was the biker she’d laid out earlier. And he’d
brought his buddies. His eyes lit up at the sight of her.

‘There’s the
bitch,’ he grunted.

Jax glanced over
his shoulder at the girl, shaking his head slightly. What was with her and
angry men? Who the hell
was
she?

Six guys in
leather poured out the bar’s back door and spread out along the alley facing
them. Jax cricked his neck to the side and rolled out his shoulders. Once upon
a time this would have been fun, but he had shit to do - Suckers to kill,
demons to hunt.
 
The bikers looked
like someone had just told them their Harleys had been clamped and towed.

‘You got a
problem?’ Jax asked drolly, stepping in front of the girl, instinctively trying
to shield her. But even as he did so she stepped out of his shadow and moved to
stand beside him, hands on her hips, eyeing the bikers up with a bored
expression on her face.

‘We got a
problem with her,’ the big guy opposite Jax answered. It was the same one whom
she had put on the floor earlier. That must be what this was about. ‘Why don’t
you go take a little walk?’ he sneered at Jax.

Amused as much
by the curt dismissal as by the squeaking of his leather pants, Jax started to
smile. He scanned the alley then decided he’d give them one last chance. ‘Why
don’t you head back on inside,’ he suggested as politely as he could.

The six of them
exchanged glances then stared back at him, sniggering. He caught a flash of
steel out the corner of his eye. Well, he had given them a chance. What more
could he do?

Jax flexed his
hands. ‘You want her, you’ll have to come through me first,’ he said softly.

Ariel snorted. I
mean really, where was he taking his lines from? Mills & Boon novels?
 
She guessed it would be sweet if she was
a damsel in distress but she wasn’t. And the thought of six against one was
making her blood fizzle with excitement. She didn’t want to share. As the men
went on with their little pissing contest Ariel slid her hand down the length
of her thigh and pulled the knife free from her boot.

The fat biker
moved first, barreling towards the Blade, obviously hoping to catch him by
surprise. But the guy was fast. He sidestepped him easily, tripping him with an
outstretched leg and then hurled him into the side of the dumpster behind.
Ariel almost winced at the sound of skull hitting metal.

The other five
hesitated for a second, exchanging more glances, and then on some unspoken cue threw
themselves into the fight. The Blade swished his knife, cutting his first attacker’s
arm. He kicked out at the second one, sending him sprawling. Ariel stood there
for a few breathless seconds feeling totally indignant. First he had killed her
bounty and now he was finishing her fight? She wasn’t even going to get a look
in at this rate.

Shoving the
syringe in her pocket, Ariel charged forwards with a banshee yell, smashing her
fists into the face and body of the nearest guy in leather. He grunted and bent
over and she jackhammered him into the ground. Once he was down she whipped around,
sending her leg ramming into the soft belly of a second guy. He went flying
back against the wall and she grabbed him around the throat before he could
fall and held him in place. Smiling as she held him, Ariel took her knife and
sliced it the length of his pants. ‘There,’ she said as his pants fell open
exposing stained underwear, ‘that should help with the chafing.’

His face turned
purple. He tried to break free of her grip but she head-butted him and knocked
him out.

Turning back
around, her fists raised, she saw the Blade standing in the middle of the alley,
breathing heavily, his shoulders rounded and his head lowered. Three unconscious
bikers lay on the ground around him. Damn, he was good, she thought grudgingly
to herself. He looked up then, seeing Ariel standing between the other two
unconscious bikers. He tipped his head at her in astonishment then his gaze
flew to the knife she was holding in her hand. Finally it settled on her face.
She saw with a growing sense of disquiet that see he was figuring out what she
was. Damn. She sheathed her knife and slid her hand into the pocket that held
the syringe.

‘You,’ he said,
taking a step towards her. ‘Who are you? What are you?’

Ariel eased the
syringe free. She licked her lips, hoping he kept his eyes on her face.

‘You’re not a
Blade,’ he said, frowning now.

‘No,’ Ariel
said, taking a step closer and shaking her head. She’d aim for the jugular -
make it nice and quick.

‘You’re a bounty
hunter,’ he suddenly said, shaking his head in disbelief and what she liked to
imagine was a little bit of wonder.

He had figured
it out. Ariel nodded. ‘Yep. And you just killed my bounty,’ she told him. ‘So I
figure you owe me.’

He opened his
mouth to argue. Ariel brought up the syringe, ready to plunge it into his neck,
but over his shoulder she caught a sudden movement. One of the bikers, the one
he’d thrown against the dumpster, was back on his feet and was stumbling
towards them with a knife in his hand.

‘Watch out!’
Ariel yelled, shoving the Blade to one side and throwing the syringe she was
holding like a dart.

The Biker fell
to the ground swiping at the syringe that had embedded itself into his neck.
Ariel leaped forwards and dropped down on top of him, straddling his enormous
chest. She jabbed the syringe’s contents hard into his neck and held him down
until his eyes lolled back, his mouth fell open and he passed out.

‘Damn it to hell
and back,’ she muttered.