The Strip (10 page)

She wanted to run her fingers through his thick hair, so dark it was almost black. She wanted to kiss his sensual lips, to taste him as she ran her tongue along those sharp teeth. She wanted to feel the hardness of his muscles beneath his shirt and then she wanted him to hold her down so that she couldn’t touch him at all.

There was a part of her, a
big
part, that wanted to give up control to him. The way she sometimes did with Jessie. She’d never felt that way about anyone else before. It was as if, despite the dark promise in those all-pupil eyes and despite the cruelty in his gorgeous, fang-filled smile, she actually trusted him.

A werewolf.

She shook herself and picked up speed, allowing the blurred world around her and the hard and fast beat of her heart to distract her from the desire that she didn’t understand and that threatened to overwhelm her.

She forced her thoughts in another direction. His fangs. The strange glow in his eyes. The piercing claws that she’d felt on the tips of his fingers as he’d held her arm down in the chair.

Wolves.

Charlie had loved wolves since she was a child. They had decorated her room in her parents’ home. At first, when she was an infant, they appeared in pastels and cartoon-like figures that hung from mobiles above her crib and acted as drawer pulls of her armoire. Later, they came in actual posters of Timbers and Grays amidst tall forests, that hung from tacks along each of her four walls.

A wolf had graced the back of her leather jacket in high school. Twin wolves had been carved into her first set of drum sticks. She recalled the night she’d thought of the name Black Squirrel for her band. She’d been dreaming of a black wolf. It had been chasing a black squirrel. And when she’d awoken, she’d rolled over, scribbled down the name, and gone back to sleep.

She’d even chosen a wolf for the tattoo she didn’t actually have because a strange, emerald green mark covered her inner arm where the tattoo was supposed to have gone.

Claire’s gaze flitted to the mark as she ran, and then back up to the sidewalk so that she could see where she was going.

What had he done to her? He’d told her that she was his. That he had
marked
her as his. She chanced another glance down and noticed the shimmer along the intricate knots of the mark. It was mesmerizing.

And then she ran into a brick wall and the impact jolted every bone in her body, sending her sprawling backwards.

“I can see the wheels spinning in your head, luv,” he told her. His voice was so powerful. So damnably delicious. Even as she hastily managed to get her feet beneath her again and back away from him, his voice sent an unbidden shiver through her frame and she gritted her teeth against it.

As if he was well aware of the effect he was having upon her, Cole’s smile broadened. “Where were you thinking of going, exactly?” he asked as he took a step toward her. “The hotel’s in the other direction Charlie,” he taunted her.

Again she stepped back. “How did you get here so fast?” she asked. Her voice was rising, taking on a slightly hysterical note. “What did you
do
to me?” She wanted to know why he had this power over her. Why the very thought of him made her sexually hungry.

“I told you, Charlie,” he said as he took another step toward her. Automatically, she stepped back. His nearness was making her dizzy. He was so handsome. Nature just didn’t make men like this.

No, it doesn’t
, she thought frantically.
Because it makes werewolves instead
. Werewolves that can heal broken noses in seconds flat, apparently. Because he looked as though she had not in fact slammed her skull into him with all of her strength just a few minutes ago.

“I’ve marked you as my mate,” he continued, calmly. “It needed to be done.” His accent was rich and intoxicating. It brought her nerve-endings to delicious life, and then blanketed them like a salve.

“You’re crazy,” she told him. “Stay away from me. I don’t know what you are, but I never want to see you again.” Even as she said it, she knew it was a lie. A blatant lie. But she was desperate. There was too much coming at her all at once.

His only response was to stop in his tracks and cock his head to one side, his piercing green gaze narrowing slightly. “Do you know that I can hear it in your heartbeat and in the subtle change of your tone when you lie, Charlie?” He considered her for a moment and she was nearly paralyzed beneath that emerald scrutiny. “It doesn’t become you.”

Her fight-or-flight response was to spin around and bolt in the other direction. Once more, it mattered not where she was going. It mattered only that she put distance between herself and the green-eyed man behind her.

* * * *

Something strange flickered in the depths of Cole’s eyes.

Quite unexpectedly, he felt conflicted. As he watched Charlie’s blue eyes narrow with determination, he realized that no matter what her heart told her, her mind was trying its best to convince her that he meant her harm.

He couldn’t exactly blame it. Thus far, he had done nothing to prove otherwise. He had tricked her, held her down, marked her, chased her, and treated her with nothing but menace. The wolf in him was both keyed up and angry. While it enjoyed the chase, it also wanted her to simply accept the inevitable and stop running.

This was obviously hurting her. She was scared. He had heard the erratic, slightly irregular beating of her heart and had seen the way she trembled. He could smell the fear coming off of her.

When she spun around to once more disappear into the crowd, he found himself wondering what had brought her out on this night, in the first place. Why had she been in that club with her friend? It hadn’t seemed like her, come to think of it. She’d been… out of place, somehow. Rather like a fallen angel among demons. She’d been nervous. That much, he had scented. And what was it that her friend, Mary Jane had told her?

“
Okay, so maybe they do all want to rip your clothes off and screw you on the floor. But you can handle them. You may as well have fun until it starts getting nasty.”

He frowned as he recalled her words. An unpleasant heaviness settled somewhere in the middle of his chest.

There was much more to Claire St.James than met the eye. She was as complex and complicated as she was breathtaking. What did trouble Cole was that, for the first time in his very long life, he found he actually cared.

He let his gaze drop to the ground and pulled out his cell. By the time his call connected, he’d taken a deep, calming breath and come to a decision.

“Jake, get her a ride home.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. And then Jake replied, “Sure thing, boss.”

Malcolm hung up and ran a hand through his thick hair.
“Christ.”
This was going to be a lot harder than he’d thought.

* * * *

Lily Kane watched as the young woman with the long strawberry blond hair sped down the street several blocks away. She was inexorably heading in the direction of the taxi in which Lily now sat waiting.

“Told you!” She nudged the tall man beside her. “Here she comes! And she’s terrified. I did tell you. Didn’t I?” she repeated. She reached for the handle of the car door, but James Valentine stopped her, his fingers wrapped firmly but gently around her wrist.

“Wait.” He cocked his head to one side. “Cole’s second is out there as well. Jakob Samson. I can smell him.”

“So?” Lily turned toward him, her golden gaze narrowed. “I’m not going to let him stop me. She needs our help, James. I’m telling you, this time it’s serious.”

Valentine gazed down at her for what seemed like a long while, his silver eyes darkening into a charcoal-laden mercury. He knew she was right. He could sense the danger out there. But he was far more prepared to allow Claire St.James to wander helplessly into that danger than to allow Lily Kane to willingly step foot into it.

“Your husband will kill me if I let you do this, Lily.”

Lily gave him an
oh-brother
look. “Nothing can kill you, James. Not even Daniel.”
Though he could probably come close
, she added mentally. But she needed to get out there, and time was running short. Claire, or “Charlie,” as she was in Lily’s dreams, needed help.

Two years ago, Lily Kane had been Lily St. Claire. At the time, she’d been a social worker – and a human. But a twist of fate and a run-in with an incredibly sexy crush from high school had changed all of that in the course of a few short days.

Daniel Kane had turned her into a werewolf. With the new physiology came a change in her vocation because, for some reason, Lily now possessed the ability to see into other werewolves’ lives. She dreamed about their pasts, the dangers they were facing, and sometimes she even saw how everything would turn out. She’d gone from being a plain old social worker to a social worker for the supernatural.

Neither Daniel’s begging nor the pleading of James Valentine, her guardian had been able to change Lily’s mind when she’d decided that this new gift of hers needed to be put to good use. Now she tracked down the wolves she dreamed about and she tried her best to help them.

Daniel was the police chief of Baton Rouge, so his job kept him in Louisiana most of the time. For that reason, Valentine accompanied her when she trekked across country to set things straight for complete strangers.

It had been especially difficult when she was pregnant. At first, Daniel had steadfastly refused to let her go. But her dreams would cause her to feel guilty and, in the end, they were both worried about the effect it would have upon their unborn son. So, he allowed her to follow her heart. She was accompanied by Valentine and more than a few members of his pack everywhere she went.

Somehow, they’d made it through that rather intense nine-month stage and Lily’s son was now safe with Daniel and Lily’s best friend, Tabitha. The infant had Daniel’s entire pack looking out for him. Lily felt very, very fortunate to be a mother with so many strong, loving, and able bodies to turn to for child care. How many moms had even
one
?

The least she could do was repay the world somehow.

Right now, that meant helping Charlie.

“There’s a Hunter out there who has it in for that woman, James,” Lily told her guardian. Her tone was no-nonsense. “If anyone in the world knows what that feels like, it’s me. And this guy is a hell of a lot worse than Allan Jennings was.” She shivered as she recalled her dream of the Hunter and how he’d touched Charlie. “Trust me. We need to intervene.”

With that, James sighed heavily and let go of her wrist. He nodded and opened his own door, even as she opened hers.

* * * *

Charlie skidded to a halt when the strange scent reached her. It was a dangerous scent. Not like death, but a portent to it. Her breathing was incredibly steady for someone who had just run twenty blocks full steam. She barely felt tired as she hurriedly scanned the crowds on both sides of the street, searching for the source of the oddly different smell.

And then she saw the woman and the man getting out of the taxi two blocks down. They were staring at her. Their eyes were unnaturally stark; the woman’s a bright, glowing gold, the man’s like molten metal.

Not human
, she thought.
Werewolves.

Her heart skipped a few beats and she almost whimpered. The bizarre but beautiful mark on her arm felt like it was heating up. She glanced down at it even as she
felt
the couple from the taxi begin to make their way toward her.

“This isn’t happening,” she muttered, desperation flooding her slim form as surely as the adrenaline already coursing through her blood stream. Once more, her training took over and she bolted across the street, weaving between speeding cars and earning herself a few irritated honks and a crudely thrown finger.

She ignored them all and shot down the nearest dark alley.
I need to get back to the hotel
, she thought frantically. But it was so far. Before she’d come to Las Vegas, she’d had no idea the city was actually so big. She’d thought it was just that one street, more or less, and then a smattering of restaurants.

It wasn’t.

I need to find a cab.

And then she was cruising out the other side of the alley and a taxi was pulling up along the curb in front of her. Again, Charlie skidded to a halt. But this time, no one got out of the car. In fact, the back seat was empty. The taxi driver simply leaned over and yelled through the passenger-side window. “Hey, lady! I was told to pick you up an’ take you to The August!”

Charlie gave him a quick once-over. He was an older man, probably in his sixties, and his accent had been Jersey. He looked tired, but eager to earn money. He had a wedding ring on his left ring finger and a picture of him with his family on the front dash board. Three kids, all grown up. Four grand kids.

Charlie glanced once over her shoulder, caught the scent of werewolf again, and quickly came to a decision. She opened the back door of the cab and slid inside.

The cab driver eyed her from the front seat. No doubt, he could see the fear in her expression. He expertly acted on it. “Fare’s been paid,” the man said as he pulled away from the curb. “But if you wanna give me a great big tip, I can go faster.”

“Shit!” Lily slowed and came to a stop, bending over to catch her breath. Running wasn’t her thing – never had been. She was only
slightly
better at it now that she was a wolf. “Did you see that burst of speed?” she asked James, between breaths. “That wasn’t normal!”

“No,” Valentine agreed from beside her. His gray eyes were glowing brightly in the darkness of the alley. He’d watched the young woman get into the cab and drive away. “Not even for a wolf.”

“What happened?” Lily asked, straightening again and running a hand through her long golden hair. “How did she suddenly get so fast?”