Most Wanted - A Fantasy Romance Novel (The Shadow Blade Series) (3 page)

‘You have a
name?’ Jax asked her.

For a brief
second she paused, as though considering lying. ‘Ariel,’ she finally said.

Her voice was
low, soft as velvet, but with an edge to it. Like her name and her voice she
seemed soft, almost ethereal on the outside, but what intrigued Jax the most
was the sense that on the inside Ariel was as tough and unforgiving as a rusty
razor blade.

Jax held out his
hand to her. ‘Jax Sayer,’ he said, introducing himself.

Ariel studied
him before taking it, as though not sure if she could trust him. It was why he
had suggested coming here, to a crowded bar in Los Feliz, a place a lot less
divey than
The Spithound
. There
wasn’t a biker in sight. Only hipsters and he knew from experience they weren’t
into fighting, at least not half as much as guys who liked to wear leather
pants.

Since finding
out she was a bounty hunter Jax had been trying to work out what kind of demon
she was. A Chameleon maybe? A Shifter? Something he’d never seen before? She
was almost too beautiful to be believed. There was something unreal about the
smoothness of her skin, the way it gleamed beneath the lights. And her figure was
so perfectly hourglass she looked like she’d been sketched by an artist who’d
then printed her off on a 3D printer and somehow blown life into her.

There was a
fierce, feline-like quality to her eyes too. She looked like a predator. And
the guarded way she sat, legs-crossed, back straight, eyeing him with suspicion
just added to the sense she was about to spring at him. Not for the first time
he considered whether it had been wise to sheath his blade back in his boot
where he couldn’t readily reach it. But no, he didn’t think she would make a
move here.

She was on edge,
despite the tough act. If she had fur she’d be bristling. She scanned the crowd
often and frequently checked the exits. He on the other hand was finding it
hard to take his eyes off of her. He had absolutely no idea where the exits
were.

Ariel seemed to
flush at his scrutiny, turning abruptly and signaling the waitress. Her foot
tapped restlessly under the table and he had to fight the urge to reach out and
still it. When the waitress came over she ordered a beer and a tequila shot.
Jax asked for water. He felt the sudden need to keep his head straight around
this woman. Because up close it was clear she wasn’t a girl, she was very much
a woman.

As soon as the
waitress brought the drinks Ariel necked back her shot, slamming the glass down
on the table and ordering another before the waitress had time to leave. Jax
hid his smile behind a cough.

‘So,’ Ariel said,
once the waitress had left to refill her shot glass, ‘what did you want to talk
about? I don’t have all night.’

 
‘More monsters to hunt down before the
sun comes up?’ Jax responded drily.

She narrowed her
cat-like eyes at him and he wondered suddenly what it would be like to kiss
her, to have her gaze at him without suspicion and distrust but with desire, to
see her completely disarmed. He pushed the thought aside, reminding himself
that she was a demon. And a bounty hunter at that.

Ariel wondered
how Jax Sayer had become a Blade. He would certainly earn a lot more money
adorning billboards or sauntering down catwalks. Slaughtering demons didn’t pay
that well. She would know. And the life expectancy wasn’t that great either.
But then again, she remembered, most Blades were born into it. And the Blade
family was rumored to be obscenely wealthy. The family was so shrouded though
in myth and mystery it was hard to know what was fact and what was fiction. She
couldn’t tell much about Jax Sayer from looking at him. He dressed well, wasn’t
wearing a wedding ring, had held the door open for her which suggested he had
manners and was well brought up. He’d led the way to the bar on a motorbike.
She’d followed behind in her van. He was obviously confident, he moved with
that self-assurance she often saw in men who had been in the army or Marines
but he wasn’t cocky. Yeah, he had that smirk thing going on, but if anything
the melancholy look in his eye undid it. This was all she’d managed to deduce
in the time they’d been sitting here and she wondered what clues he was reading
in her body language, what deductions or guesses he was making about her
background, her personality, her life.

Ariel noticed
now that the waitress was hovering by the table. She’d brought the second shot
of Tequila but her eyes were glued to Jax’s face. She was practically
quivering. He didn’t seem to notice though, his gaze staying firmly fixed on
her (he still hadn’t looked once at her breasts), and finally the waitress took
the hint and sloped off.

‘What are you?’
Jax asked her once she was gone.

Ariel leaned
back against the leather banquette, smiling smugly. He couldn’t tell. No one
ever could. It was what made her such a good bounty hunter. Well, normally.
She’d had a dry run recently. Tonight’s screw up followed hot on the heels of another
screw up where she’d accidentally killed a Chameleon demon (in her defense he’d
blended with the furniture so she’d stabbed randomly and managed to hit an
artery).

‘You’re not a
Sucker,’ Jax went on, leaning his forearms on the table.

Ariel sighed. Of
course she wasn’t a sucker. That was obvious. She was breathing for a start and
she didn’t have fangs.

‘You’re not a
Saw demon, unless you’re hiding a tail under that dress,’ he smirked, leaning
backwards and glancing under the table at her legs. ‘You’re not a Seer,’ he
said, looking up. ‘Or you would have seen those bikers coming.’

She pulled a
face at him. No, she wasn’t a Seer, though she sure wouldn’t mind being one.
Being able to see the future would definitely be a bonus.

‘Are you a Shifter?’
he asked.

She shook her
head.

He seemed
relieved, which made her smile.

‘You don’t let
off the same scent as the others,’ he said, his brow creasing in puzzlement,
and making her wonder what the hell scent she did let off. ‘And you look human
so what are you?’

‘I’m half,’ she
told him.

He raised his
eyebrows. ‘Half?’ he asked, as though the very idea was something he’d never
come across before.

‘Yeah, half
human, half Shadow,’ Ariel answered, holding his gaze.

‘Shadow?’ he
asked in surprise.

Ariel nodded,
feeling a flush of pleasure ride through her at the way his pulse quickened
beneath his skin. She felt it. That ripple of nervous energy. She liked it that
she’d surprised him, had made his heart rate spike.

He took a sip of
water. Ariel watched his hands gripping the glass. He’d taken off his shirt and
she was getting an unrivalled view of his tanned forearms, and the shape of his
muscles beneath his T-shirt, and she had to say, she was not complaining.
 
‘I’ve never come across a Shadow before,’
he said now.

‘That’s because
we’re good at disappearing,’ Ariel answered with a small smile. Shadows that
didn’t want to be seen wouldn’t ever be seen. That’s why they made the best
assassins. But she was only half, which meant she didn’t have the full ability.
She could only disappear, fade into the shadows, for short amounts of time, at
most ten seconds. On the upside, she blended completely with humans, making her
undetectable when she walked among them.

He shook his
head at her, wonderingly. ‘How did you become a bounty hunter?’ he asked.

Ariel suddenly
scowled at the tabletop and took another pull of her beer. Jax could feel her
foot still tapping beneath the table, the pent up energy bursting off her like
infrared rays. Immediately he thought of ways he could help that energy find an
outlet. He suppressed the urge to reach across the table and take hold of her
hand, to stroke his palm along her arm. Half of him wanted to check that she
was real, feel if her skin was as soft as it looked, and half of him knew that
to dare to do so would probably result in loss of limbs. She was half-human,
half Shadow after all. He could hardly get his head around it. It had never
occurred to him that a human might mate with a demon, but then again, the
thought of getting intimate with someone as beautiful as Ariel was not exactly
a challenge to imagine. She wasn’t exactly a Scarab demon.

Without thinking
he pressed his foot against hers. Her foot stopped tapping instantly, she
tensed and her head flew up. Jax didn’t move, keeping his leg in place. When
she didn’t move her foot, he felt something stir in his core. She had stopped
tapping too. He tried to picture the long, lean length of her thigh beneath the
table and fought from brushing his own leg against hers. His imagination was
heading places it hadn’t been in a while.

 
‘My father was a bounty hunter,’ she said
eventually, her jaw pulsing. ‘He died ten years ago What about you?’ she asked.

She was
obviously not over it, Jax thought to himself before answering her question.
‘My parents were both Blades.’

She nodded as
though that made sense. The Blades were all descended from one bloodline. She
probably knew that.

‘My mother died
when I was twelve. Killed by a Driller Demon,’ Jax said.

She couldn’t
hide the wince.

‘My father died
before I was born,’ he continued. ‘He was killed by a Seer. A bounty hunter
like you.’

Ariel’s
expression darkened. She eyed him carefully. ‘So you and I are on opposite
sides then,’ she said, her gaze dropping to his mouth.

‘With the same objective,’
Jax answered, unable to stop his own gaze falling to her lips. He contemplated
for the second time that evening what those lips would be like to kiss.

She was looking
at him strangely now, a low glimmer in her eyes.

‘You need
bounties,’ Jax said smiling. ‘I like hunting demons. We’re a match made in
heaven.’ As soon as he said the words he felt that stirring once again in his
core, his blood racing to areas that had long been dormant. He glanced again at
her lips, his imagination taking him places it was dangerous to go, not least
as he was going to have to stand up some time this evening, and could feel the
press of his erection already biting against the leg of his jeans.

Jax heard her
heartbeat spike and a smile tugged at his lips. She felt some attraction too
then. It wasn’t all one way. Her foot was still pressed to his beneath the
table. Jax leaned forwards, more so he could inhale her scent than for any
other reason, and let his thigh touch hers. ‘We can help each other,’ he
murmured, his eyes flicking to the long, smooth length of her neck.

She jerked her
leg away abruptly. ‘I don’t need help,’ she spat, her expression scathing. ‘You
tried to help me earlier and look what happened.’

Jax leaned back
in his seat. ‘I thought bounties were paid whether you brought them in dead or
alive.’

‘They wanted him
alive.’

‘The Brothers?’
Jax asked.

Ariel frowned at
him, a line creasing between her flashing eyes. ‘Yes,’ she nodded.

‘Oh,’ Jax said,
realizing with a silent curse of regret that he had blown it for her. She
looked seriously pissed. Maybe she needed the money. ‘Sorry,’ he said and when
she continued to shoot him daggers he added, ‘I’ll make it up to you.’

Instantly images
of Jax Sayer making it up to her filled Ariel’s mind. She could think of
several ways he could make it up to her. None of them involved clothes. It had
been a while since she had been intimate with anyone, at least anyone worth
remembering, and she had a feeling that sex with Jax would be memorable.

It was ironic
that he thought of her as a demon because, though Blades looked like humans,
acted like humans and smelled like humans, there was something preternaturally
non-human about them. They might not have saw tails or fangs, they couldn’t
turn invisible or see the future, and they didn’t come from another dimension
like demons did, but they weren’t fully human either. They healed quicker, were
much stronger, way faster and far more resilient than other humans.

‘Listen,’ Jax
said, interrupting her thoughts. He leaned forwards again, his fingers brushing
hers. That low level current that she’d felt when his leg was pressed against
her thigh returned. ‘Come with me tomorrow night, out hunting.’

The invitation
in his eyes was clear. Out hunting? Her eyebrow rose of its own accord. She
drew back, crossing her arms over her chest. ‘I don’t hunt my own kind for fun.
I only go after bounties, demons who are wanted for crimes.’ She thought it was
important to make it clear she felt more demon than human, always had, always
would. The statement was a line drawn in the sand. Jax killed her kind, hunted
them down and slayed them. Why would she trust him or even partner up with him?

‘Crimes against
your kind,’ Jax sneered. ‘I hunt down the kind that prey on innocents.’

‘Well, Batman,’
Ariel told him, making to get up. ‘I don’t need to be anyone’s Robin.’

He grabbed her
wrist and yanked her back into her seat. She hissed at him through her teeth
and wrenched her arm free. ‘I help you, you help me,’ he whispered in a low
voice. It was a statement, not a question.

‘Help you with
what?’ Ariel asked, her interest annoyingly piqued.

‘There’s a group
of Suckers.’ He broke off and paused for a beat before beginning again.
‘They’re targeting the homeless under the piers. I figure maybe you could help
me with that.’

She tipped her
head to the side and studied him. He needed help with that? What kind of Blade
was he?

Seeing the
cynical expression on her face Jax continued. ‘There are over twenty of them.
And these aren’t your usual kind of Sucker apparently.’