Eternal Hunter

Chapter 8

What did he see? What did he see?

The drumming of her heartbeat filled Erin’s ears as she fought for control. The demon — the tall, dark, good-looking asshole had to be a demon — had slipped into her mind. She hadn’t expected an attack. She’d been too focused on Jude and the demon had slipped right past her defenses.

Broken.

Twisted.

What if he knew? If he’d seen into her, he’d know her secrets. If he told Jude—

“I want you out of my bar.” A woman, her long hair so blond it almost looked white, cradled the demon. Her green eyes glinted with a swirling combination of fear and fury. A combination Erin could respect. “I want you out, and I don’t want to see you again—whatever you are.”

Jude stepped in front of her. “Easy, Catalina. I think old Zane was the one to draw first blood. And he’d better explain himself, now.”

The fire in Erin’s temples had eased, but the ache that remained sent a wave of nausea through her. A demon’s touch. Her dad had warned her about demons and their tricks. Some demons could slip so easily into the minds of humans. Some were strong enough to see thoughts, to walk in dreams, and even to control their prey.

I’m not prey.

Zane wasn’t looking quite as tan as he’d been when he first sauntered into the bar. He was braced against the woman, Catalina, and she didn’t so much as buckle beneath his six-foot-plus frame.

Zane licked his lips. “Just…checking out the waters for you…hunter.”

Erin swallowed. “Don’t ever do that again.”

Slowly, very, very slowly, he lifted his arm from Catalina’s shoulders. “Don’t…worry. Won’t.”

“No, you won’t.” Jude’s fierce voice.

“Just wanted to see…what you were.”

Her cheeks flushed. Not with fury — that would have been good. Humiliation. What I am. No one knows, not even me.

One person thought he knew, and that guy was a sadistic freak.

No, I’m not like him. I won’t ever be.

She hoped, anyway. Because with her mother’s genes, there really weren’t any guarantees that she wouldn’t go bad one day.

“Not demon.” Zane’s eyes were on hers now, his head up. She held that stare, refusing to look away. Erin wasn’t really sure what had happened to the guy. Okay, what she’d done to him. She’d acted on instinct when she felt the probe in her mind.

There’d been a push at her, shoving at her thoughts—

So she’d shoved right back.

Instinct.

Her lip curled. Demon? Had he really thought she was like him? “No, I’m not.” And just what the hell had Jude done? Gone running back to his hunter friends and told them about her secrets?

Can’t trust anyone. She knew that.

So why did it feel like she’d just been punched?

Erin straightened her shoulders. “If this little game or test or whatever the hell it was has finished, I’ll call the cops and get out of here.” The sooner, the better.

“Erin.” A rumble from Jude. Dark and intense.

Damn him. Her eyes narrowed. “I told you what I am. You didn’t need to have your friend attack me.”

Then, because her claws were almost out and her teeth were burning and the rage had her heart racing, Erin marched for the door. She’d call for backup once she was outside. That’s what cell phones were for — screw making a call from the bar.

The demon and the witch very wisely sidled out of her way.

But Jude grabbed her arm, spinning her around, and she tumbled against his chest.

Too close. Her nostrils widened and she caught his heady scent. No, no, no.

“This wasn’t my plan.”

“Wasn’t it?” Because she didn’t believe him, not for a minute. He’d wanted to know. He’d said it himself. He’d wanted that demon to see her. Thought the plan was to go to the courthouse. Asshole. He hadn’t trusted her.

Granted, she hadn’t trusted him, either. But Erin decided to ignore that point, for now.

“You just told me about your mother,” Jude said, his hold tight. “You never said what your father was.”

She jerked away from him. Too easy, that. “He was a man, Jude. Just a man.” With psychic powers, sure. But her father had been all too human. After tossing one last glare at her hunter, she shoved open the glass door and strode into the harsh sunlight.

Silence. One minute. Two.

Catalina cleared her throat and pointed to the destruction that was her bar. “Night Watch is going to be paying for that. Tell Pak I don’t want a check this time. Cash only.”

He nodded.

Her fingers trailed down Zane’s cheek. “Never gonna learn, are you?” Then she eased away from him, shaking her head.

Jude glared at the bastard.

Zane winced and lifted a hand to his head. “Uh, some sympathy would be good here, man. I mean, your girlfriend just tried to fry my brain.”

Jude’s back teeth clenched. Control. Probably a good idea. He should stay in—

“And talk about being ungrateful. Where’s my thanks? At least you know she’s not a demon hybrid now. I got in her head enough to know she’s human, part anyway. But she’s—”

Jude grabbed the demon and lifted him a foot in the air. “You hurt her.”

Zane’s eyes widened even as they flashed black. “I’m the one with the sledgehammer banging in his head.”

“Don’t ever hurt her again, got me?” He didn’t care how many cases they’d worked together. “A look — you told me you just wanted a look to see if she was using glamour.” Demons could see right past the glamour that disguised others of their kind, unless you were dealing with a level ten. Nothing and no one could penetrate a level ten powerhouse’s veil.

The faint lines around Zane’s eyes tightened. “I was takin’ a look. A real long, deep look into your girl.”

Yeah, and judging from the way she’d looked at Jude before she’d stormed out of the bar, Erin was pissed. Because she thought he’d set her up.

And didn’t I?

Aw, hell.

He dropped the demon. The agile asshole landed easily. “Why’d your look hurt her?” He’d seen Zane work humans before. They usually had no clue what was happening to them. Zane’s psychic skills, his ability to ferret out secrets, were part of the reason why their cases broke so quickly.

When the two of them worked together, they were usually a pretty good team. Usually.

“Why’d it hurt her?” Jude demanded again.

Zane’s shoulders lifted, then fell. “Don’t know.” His lips thinned. “Never happened quite like…that before.” He exhaled. “That lady packs one hell of a psychic punch.”

Physically stronger, psychically stronger. No way was she a weak hybrid.

Shifting abilities or not.

“There is something…something you should know—”

A groan from the floor — one that came from a slow-waking Mickey — broke across Zane’s words.

Jude glanced down at the shifter, frowning.

“I didn’t get deep in her mind,” Zane said. “She blocked me before I could, but, hell, it was dark in there, man.”

Jude’s eyes rose to the demon once more.

“Dark.”

Now what the hell did that mean?

“There’s power there. A lot of power. You’d better watch your step with her.”

What? “She’s the victim, Zane, not the perp. The job’s to keep her safe.” His goal wasn’t to bring her ass down. Erin hadn’t done anything wrong, no matter what Zane was rambling about with his “dark” crap.

“I don’t know exactly what she is…yet.”

Jude jabbed his finger into the guy’s chest. “I do. She’s the client, and our job is to keep her safe.”

A rush of air as Zane sighed. “Gotta wonder…what would scare her?”

Sirens shrieked in the distance. Erin had obviously done as she’d promised and called for her backup. Being the ADA, she’d gotten that backup, fast.

Jude reached down and grabbed Mickey, jerking the other shifter to his feet. The hyena’s head snapped back and his bleary eyes opened.

“What did the woman smell like to you?” he grated. Not much time. He had to know.

The bastard’s lips peeled back from his pointed, yellow teeth. “Prey.”

No, that didn’t make any sense. Sure, sometimes humans could smell like prey to a hunter, especially to one as screwed-ass up as Mickey. But Erin had shifter blood. The hyena should have recognized her true scent.

He caught sight of a patrol car outside. The car slammed to a stop. The cops jumped out, fast and ready for action.

Then they hesitated outside of the bar. They looked to the left, to the right, and Jude saw them begin to step away from the bar.

Erin grabbed the arm of the taller guy and yanked him toward the entrance. She shoved open the door. “In there!” he heard her say.

The cop blinked and gave a small shake of his head.

Humans.

The spell had ’em confused. Jude sighed and pushed the shifter toward the door. “My collar.” So he’d be the one to take him out. He’d be earning a couple grand from Mickey’s case. But, unfortunately, he hadn’t learned what he’d wanted from the shifter.

The humid air hit him the minute he stepped outside Delaney’s. The color had come back to Erin’s cheeks, giving her skin a warm glow. Her eyes were warm, scorching as she eyed him with her hands fisted at her sides.

He helped load the prisoner. Jude fought the urge to give the guy an ass-kicking, and in moments, the cops pulled away with their prisoner.

Jude turned to her, his hands on his hips. Zane hadn’t followed him outside. Had to give the demon credit on that one. Staying inside was definitely the best plan for him.

He stalked to her slowly. The woman didn’t back up even a single step. Jude raised a brow and asked the question that was driving him crazy. “Why didn’t Mickey sense you?”

She blinked.

“The hyena shifter — you recognized him, why the hell didn’t he recognize you?” Her scent had been off that first day. A mix that had tempted and teased, but he’d known right away that she wasn’t human. Not completely, anyway. But, Mickey had only thought of her as prey. Didn’t make a bit of sense. Like to like. The other shifter should have been able to recognize her, too.

“You just can’t keep a low profile, can you?” she grated, craning her neck to the left then the right as she searched the street. “How in the world you’ve kept your tiger hidden—”

“No one’s around.” Thanks to Catalina. He pinned her with his gaze. “Why didn’t he know, sweetheart?” The words were easy, but the demand underlying them was steel hard.

Her delicate nostrils widened. “Most don’t.” A shrug. “Your senses must be stronger than the average shifter’s — or you wouldn’t have known about me at first, either.”

Yeah, they were stronger. Came from being a white tiger. Rare breed, stronger shifter talents.

But if her scent couldn’t be detected by the others…shit. The woman had some serious camouflage going on. “So you’ve been just slipping right by your kind haven’t you? Walking right past the shifters your whole life.”

“Not my kind,” she interrupted, voice rising.

His turn to blink. “Yeah, we are.” A slow anger began to burn in his gut.

She swallowed. “I–I’m not going to do this with you, not now. You don’t understand.”

Because she hasn’t told me a damn thing. The lady kept telling him, “not now.” Well, when? He stared her down. “Try me.”

“Shifters…” Her shoulders straightened. “That’s not my world. When I didn’t change at puberty, the shifter world kicked my ass out and left me in the cold.”

Her mom abandoned her, dropped her off on her father’s doorstep when she was fifteen.

“I’ve lived as a human since then. I don’t transform. For all intents, I am human, and that’s the only world I know.”

No, last night, she’d found another world, with him. He’d felt her beast, raging just below the smooth, controlled surface she presented.

Erin turned away and began walking toward her waiting car.

Stop her. “Shifters don’t play by the same rules as humans.” She knew that. He shouldn’t have to shout it at her. Shouting. He winced. Good thing that spell of Catalina’s was keeping the humans away. “Sometimes we have to play rough.” Like when he’d dug his claws into Mickey the asshole.

Erin glanced back at him, black hair sliding over her shoulders. “I know how shifters play.” Anger. Fear?

“I’m trying to find the bastard after you, and believe me, I’ll play by any rules that I have to. I’ll break any rules I have to, in order to find that bastard.” Find him, stop him, put him in a shallow grave.

He’d marked her.

The killer wasn’t gonna play nice and easy. And Jude had never been that dumb nice-and-stupidly-easy type.

Their eyes held. When Erin spoke, her voice was soft but it carried easily to him as she said, “My job is about protecting the rules of the human world. Following the law.”

Sometimes, you had to bend that law.

And maybe even break it in order to stop the bad-asses. “Human laws and human jails don’t do much for our kind.” Oh, yeah, maybe he’d put too much emphasis on the our, but screw it. She was just like him beneath the skin.

Animal to animal.

Night Watch brought down criminals and sometimes, bringing down the supernatural scum meant putting a power-mad demon, a blood-sucking vamp, or even a rabid shifter out of his misery.

No, human jails couldn’t hold a strong supernatural for long. Hell, a level ten demon could blow the walls out of a jail with barely a thought. And if a guard got too close to a vamp…

Some monsters couldn’t be stopped by the normal means.

That was the reason Night Watch had been formed.

Night Watch’s mission was to bring down the supernatural criminals — one way or another.

When Mickey got to the jail, his ass would be tossed in a cage. Just where he belonged. And he’d stay in the pen, doing his time, kicking the crap out of any human foolish enough to cross him.

But someone stronger than low-life Mickey…hell, no, a prison would never work.

“Accept it,” Jude said. “Your laws just don’t work for everyone.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“Like that bastard after you. Do you really think a cage will hold him?”

She swallowed and he saw the hard movement of her throat. His hands clenched when she said, “I know it won’t. Why do you think I’ve been running?”

“Erin—”

The door to Catalina’s swung open with a soft swoosh. Zane’s head appeared and his brows lifted. “Jude, you ready to—”

Footsteps. The slam of a car door.

Jude swore when he saw his ADA drive away. Running away. “Not finished, Erin.”

Not by one hell of a long shot.

By the time she got back to her office, her hands had stopped shaking and the ball in the pit of her throat, that weird tangle of fear and fury, had finally dislodged.

Erin managed to make it through the rest of the day in a semi-normal fashion. No snarling at the other lawyers. No flash of claws or teeth.

But Jude’s words kept echoing in her head.

And they twisted with her mother’s words, spoken so long ago. “Kill or be killed, that’s the only way we know.”

Her mother had been very, very good at killing.

She hadn’t wanted to be like her mother. But the freak on her trail was giving her no choice.

Hell, yes, she knew the prisons couldn’t hold some paranormals. She knew that. But the only other option—

Death.

She’d never taken a life before.

The bastard was wrenching her choices away. Because she knew — she knew he wanted her to kill.

So she’d be just like him.

Dammit, no.

Erin went to court at the end of the day. A last-minute trip. The demon had been right. She hadn’t been scheduled for a court appearance, but the cops needed her help, so she had to go. Erin needed a warrant to search a suspected drug dealer’s house on Grant Avenue, and the cops waiting in the wings didn’t have any more time to waste. They needed to get in that house before midnight.

At 6:09 p.m., the warrant was signed, the cops were ready, and Erin was so damned ready to get back to her house that she was all but growling. She headed across the middle of the big atrium of the courthouse, eager to—

A rich, musky scent teased her nostrils.

Erin froze.

Pine trees. Sweat. Animal.

Oh, hell.

Her heart slammed into her chest just as some guy with a too-large briefcase crashed into her back. He grunted an apology and stumbled away, but she didn’t even spare him a glance.

She closed her eyes for a moment and drank in that scent.

He was there. Close enough to smell.

The whiff of his scent was deliberate. She knew it. She’d learned that lesson the hard way. He could control his scent, disguise it. The bastard had told her about his little secret technique that fateful night. He’d bragged about it.

But now, he was baiting her with his smell. Letting her know that he was close. Watching.

Her hands curled and her claws dug into her palms. Her eyes opened and her head turned to the left. There. The door marked exit in bright red letters. The stairwell.

Erin was at the door before she had time to fully realize what the hell she was doing. She shoved it open, sucking in a hard breath, then she climbed down the steps. The jarring metal echoed with every move she made, and she followed that scent with her palms sweating and the hair on her nape rising.

Tired of running. Tired of the blood.

The killings had to stop.

The stairs ended at another door. Big and thick. Erin knew the parking garage was on the other side of that door. She’d mapped out the building before her first court date. Since she’d attracted the freak, learning all the exits in the buildings she frequented had become a priority for her.

Erin licked her lips. The guy’s scent hung in the stairwell. He’d been there, recently, and he could be waiting for her now, just on the other side of that door.

Her fingers lifted. Touched the cold metal.

Was she strong enough to take him?

Not if he shifted. No way she could handle him then, but if he was in human form, well, his ass was hers. Nice little side benefit from her mother’s side of the family.

Not that dear Mom had ever cared about how strong I was.

Erin exhaled. Run or fight? Her choice was simple, and she really was tired of running.

Her cell phone vibrated in her purse, the shaking followed immediately by a loud chime.

Dammit!

Erin grabbed the phone, yanking it out. Jude. She recognized his number now. She pressed the receive button on the screen and lifted the phone to her ear. “He’s here.” A whisper.

Static crackled in her ear. Stairwells were bad for cell phones, she knew that but—“Jude, the asshole is here.” Waiting for her on the other side of that door.

“What?” A bark. “Where are you?”

“Courthouse.” She shouldn’t have been there. Another lawyer had been assigned to this case but he’d wanted to wait until morning for the court order and the cops had needed someone to move now. “Parking garage.” A quick breath. “I can smell him.” Almost feel him.

“Get the hell out of there! Don’t give him a chance to get close to you!”

“This time, I’m going to get close to him.” No more running. No more dead bodies or blood in her home.

“No! No, I’m coming. Shit, I’m on my way.”

“Then hurry,” she whispered, and ended the call. Hurry because I’m not going to run again.

He was too close. She couldn’t just stand there and let him get away. She couldn’t let him escape and attack someone else, for her.

Lee’s bloody face flashed before her eyes. The guy was in ICU, hooked to a dozen tubes and needles. Because of her stalker?

No one else could get hurt. She couldn’t stand by and let another person face the shifter’s fury.

The sick bastard needed to be stopped, and she’d do her damnedest to fight him.

Hurry, Jude.

And then the scent changed.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

When Jude’s pickup screeched to a stop in the dim garage, his claws were out, his fangs barred, and he was ready to kick ass.

And he was scared — dammit, scared. When the hell was the last time he’d been scared of anything?

She’d better be all right. Better be completely safe. Completely unharmed. ’Cause if she had so much as a scratch on her, the freak would beg for death.

Beg.

He shoved open his door, jumped out, and ran across the parking area. His nostrils twitched as he caught the other shifter’s scent. He’d stalked her, tracked Erin here.

“He’s gone.” Erin’s voice. Quiet. Steady.

Jude whirled around and found her standing in front of an open door, a stairwell.

She was alone. Hell. “You should have gone for help.” The words blasted out of him, deeper than normal, because the beast was too close to the surface. She’d stayed there, come looking for the freak. Was the woman crazy?

Her shoulders straightened. “I’m sick of running, Jude. I tried that. It didn’t work.” She shook her head. “That’s not how I’m going to play this game anymore.”

He closed the distance between them in two seconds flat. Jude grabbed her arms and pulled her toward him. “This isn’t a game. He’s a killer. A cold, seriously fucked-up”—he could still see the blood on her walls and the grin that he had sliced across Bobby’s face—“killer.” A game. His hold tightened on her. “If he gets hold of you, he’ll—”

“I know exactly what he’ll do.” Erin jerked away from him. Just broke from his grasp as if he weren’t even holding her. Why do I keep forgetting how strong she is?

Her eyes were stark. “He caught me once before.”

His heart seemed to stop. No, not here. He didn’t want to learn this here, with that bastard’s stench in the air around him. Jude swung away from her, his gaze searching the shadows of the garage. “How the hell do you know he’s gone?”

Silence.

Jude glanced back at her. “Erin?”

Her hand lifted, pointed to the right. “He left me a present.”

He stalked forward and saw the roses propped up against the cement wall.

Fresh. Bloodred. Not a bloodstained message this time. Flowers.

Oh, yeah, a real perfect Romeo.

“That’s Lee’s parking space.” No emotion in her voice.

Jude’s eyes lifted and he saw the reserved spot with the lawyer’s first initial and last name.

Dammit.

“There’s a card, but I–I haven’t read it yet.”

He would. Jude grabbed the flowers, jerked out the card and tossed the roses onto the pavement. The scent of the flowers was sickeningly sweet, combining with the stench of the shifter, a stench that seemed lighter now, weaker.

‘Cause the bastard was gone.

For now.

With steady fingers, Jude pulled out the card. Maybe he should have taken it to Tony. He should have used gloves, he should have—

Did you like my present?

What in the hell? His gaze flew to Erin, and he found her staring at him, her body still.

“What does it say?” she whispered.

Jude shoved the note back into the envelope. “Let’s get out of here.” A car horn sounded in the distance. The place was all but deserted. He knew most of the lawyers and assistants would have checked out around five. Being there, standing in that empty garage felt too much like a trap.

One Jude wasn’t about to get caught in. “Where’s your car?” he demanded.

But she shook her head. “The note, Jude. What did it say?”

His jaw clenched. “Screw your car, you’re coming with me.” He shoved the note in his pocket. If the jerkoff had been dumb enough to leave any prints, and Jude figured the guy hadn’t, they were probably long gone by now. A guy smart enough to sneak into a police station and kill a man while the cops were less than twenty feet away really wasn’t gonna be the type to leave fingerprints on his little delivery.

Crossing to her side, Jude reached for Erin’s arm. She didn’t fight him, and he knew the lady could have used her strength. She climbed in the passenger side of his pickup. He slammed the door shut behind her, raced back around, and jumped inside.

He cranked the truck and the engine snarled to life. His fingers curled around the gear shift.

“What did it say?” Her hand brushed over his. Soft. Delicate.

With an effort, he managed to unclench his jaw enough to growl, “‘Did you like my present?’”

A sharp inhalation of air. Her hand fell away and she sagged back in the seat.

He twisted the wheel, slammed on the gas pedal, and got the hell out of there.

The green pickup raced down the street, the motor rumbling as the tiger drove away, too fast.

Running scared. He watched that truck, and he smiled.

Erin had found his note. She knew what he’d done for her. Proving his love wasn’t hard. He enjoyed giving presents to his mate.

The tiger would soon realize he didn’t have a place in this equation. Erin would know he didn’t belong.

Just the two of us, love. Just us.

He’d been angry when he found the shifter at her house. In her house.

No other male should be so close to Erin.

But he’d investigated the tiger today. Found out that he was a hunter. One Erin had foolishly hired.

As if the bastard would be a match for him.

Perhaps Erin had already realized her mistake.

He could still smell her. He’d been so close to her today. Close enough to touch and to taste.

When she’d found his roses, had she smiled? Had her lips lifted in that slow, beautiful smile he liked so much? Erin loved red roses. Always had.

That dick of a lawyer never should have gone after her like he had in court. The prick had been in her face, screaming.

No one treated Erin that way.

The traffic light turned red and he walked across the street, keeping his gaze on the shrinking taillights.

He couldn’t wait to see Erin again. Couldn’t wait to claim her. It had already been so long since he’d held her body beneath his and given in to the hunger.

Did she miss him as much as he missed her? Did she long for him?

Yes.

The answer came from the beast inside. The beast that wanted Erin just as much as the man did.

Soon it would be time for the games to end.

Time to take what was his.

If the tiger got in his way again, well, he’d just slice the bastard apart. Wouldn’t be the first time he’d killed a rival.

Not the first time. Not the last.