Obsession

Chapter 6

It probably made me a son of a bitch to do this to her, especially considering I was in charge of keeping her safe, which by the way was ironically laughable, and in her vulnerable state, it wouldn’t help things. Not to mention this just proved my whole lack of self-control issue. Patience was a virtue I found pointless.

But we really didn’t have time for her dramatics.

The stir of energy around her was a deep violet, which meant she really was about to go off the deep end. Totally understandable—there was a dead alien on her floor.

But when I’d grabbed and pulled her close, there was something else swirling in her energy fields. Thin slivers of red broke through the violet; the hallmark of arousal. It wasn’t a lot. Serena wasn’t going to drop her panties and jump me, but it was there.

And that made me very curious.

My kind did like to covet pretty, little things.

She was frozen in my arms, eyes wide, when I brought my mouth down. Her full lips, shaped like a pouty bow, were incredibly soft and warm. I wanted to investigate that, discover if they could be demanding and hungry, but there wasn’t time.

I slid a hand to her chest, my palm resting just below her breasts. The tips of my fingers brushed the heavy swells. Very distracting. To most the move looked like one of pure dominance, and in a way, it was. But it was also necessary.

I inhaled.

Fed as I was off the Luxen, taking from a human would be like getting a cheeseburger off the dollar menu when you just had filet, but…damn. Serena’s taste —the heightened emotions and adrenaline pumping through her—was exquisite.

Warmth poured into me. Unlike with Luxen or hybrids—humans mutated by the Luxen—I didn’t pick up any memories or emotions. With them, one never knew what you were going to get. Usually it was something the Luxen or hybrid was stressing over, a memory they kept rehashing. The one I just killed had been smart. When I’d fed, the Luxen had thought about a TV show he’d watched the night prior, which meant the Lite-Brite was probably a fucking gold mine of information. Too late for that. But with Serena there was silence. Nothing was coming off her except warmth and softness and sunlight. Yeah, that’s it. She tasted like sunlight.

I wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her close as I continued to feed. She had been stiff in my arms, like she had locked up every muscle, but hadn’t tried to fight me off. Not that she could if she tried, and if I hadn’t showed up when I had, the Luxen would’ve easily killed her.

Humans were so fragile.

Serena let out a breathless sigh against my mouth and then deflated like a paper bag in my arms.

Thick lashes fanned her pale cheeks. A faint blue shadow had appeared under her eyes, and I knew that if I continued, that hue would spread through her. No doubt it already shaded her lips.

If I continued, I would kill her.

Stopping would be going against my nature. Arum were killers. And I didn’t hide from what I truly was, even if I was the DOD’s bitch boy. No matter how many leashes they put on me, or any Arum, I would always be what I was—part of a race that had been bred to kill.

But last time I checked, I wasn’t supposed to kill her.

With supreme effort, I lifted my mouth and broke the connection. Her head flopped back so quickly I caught her by the back of the skull before she cracked her neck.

“Shit,” I said, staring down at her. She was going to be out for a very, very long time.

…

Waking up was like climbing through quicksand. Every time I clambered to the top, coming close to opening my eyes, I was dragged back down. My body refused to get up and move around, and I slipped back into the kind of deep sleep that dreams couldn’t penetrate, until oblivion finally loosened its grip on me.

My eyes felt like they’d been sewed shut and when they finally fluttered open, I immediately winced against the harsh brightness. Turning my head, I swallowed, surprised by how dry my throat was. As my vision adjusted, my heart kicked into overdrive.

Where in the hell was I?

I was definitely not in my apartment. Everything in the room was far too nice and pricey. The bureau in the corner, which matched a standing mirror, looked like a priceless heirloom. A chaise lounge against the off-white walls was covered with fluffy pillows.

I turned my head, frowning.

Delicate white curtains billowed gently in the warm, rolling breeze from an open sliding glass door. I could see potted flowers in an array of colors beyond the door.

More evidence I wasn’t where I should be, because I had a thumb of death when it came to plants. It was some kind of raised deck, because it was at level with thick, leafy tree branches. The chirps of birds were a soft chorus. No sounds of cars. No people yelling or laughing.

Pushing up, I fought back a wave of dizziness and tugged the covers off—where were the rest of my clothes? I stared down at my bare legs, dumbfounded. My jeans were gone. It was just the old tee shirt and my polka-dotted panties.

“What the hell?” I whispered in a hoarse voice.

Throwing my legs off the bed, I stood on wobbly knees. NOT GOING TO PANIC. NOT GOING TO PANIC. The last thing I remembered was standing and talking to Hunter after he killed the… alien.

Hunter was also an alien.

Aliens were real.

“Oh my God.” I pushed the tangled mess of hair out of my face.

My gaze darted around the opulent bedroom. First, I needed to find my pants and then a weapon—possibly a nuclear level weapon.

Had Hunter kissed me?

No? Yes. Kind of? My brain needed to shut up, because it wasn’t spewing out anything helpful. Spying two sets of doors, one across from the bed and the other by the chaise lounge, I tried the one across from the bed first.

Locked.

Jesus. A bedroom door that locked from the outside. Nice. I hurried to the other door and discovered a bathroom…that was bigger than my bedroom back in the apartment. Enough room for me to lie down and make bathroom angels in without touching a single thing. It was ridiculous—garden tub and a separate, standing shower with expensive-looking tile.

Heart pounding and feeling sick, I quickly shut the bathroom door and backed up, sitting on the edge of the tub. Okay. It was obvious that I’d been taken somewhere, most likely by Hunter. Whatever he had done to me had knocked me out and for God knows how long. Add that to the fact that he was an alien, and I really couldn’t consider myself safe.

But he had saved my life.

Or had he?

I didn’t understand the why of any of this. Hell, I didn’t even know where I was.

Pressing my palms to my forehead, I squeezed my eyes shut. My head pounded along with my pulse. I felt like I’d just come out of a dangerous fever. Everything was surreal, too bright and vastly confusing—but this was real.

I had to come up with a plan. I needed to find out where I was, find a phone, find a weapon— FIND MY DAMN JEANS . Lowering my hands, I glanced around the bathroom.

There was nothing in here I could fashion into a weapon unless I was James Bond.

But there was a bowl of sour grape Blow Pops on the sink counter. Odd.

I stood, dragging in a deep breath. Spotting a linen closet of sorts, I found a wide array of products: soaps, shampoos, lotions, and enough girlie-girl products to survive an apocalypse with.

“Okay,” I murmured, rooting through the various bottles. Obviously a woman had stayed here before or currently did, one with really good taste, but unless I planned on throwing bath salt in someone’s face, there was nothing of use for me in here.

Going to the sink, I turned on the faucet and splashed water over my face. It cleared some of the fuzziness. Then I opened the bathroom door, stepping back into the bedroom cautiously.

I came to a complete standstill as air punched from my lungs.

There was a shadow in front of the deck doors. It wasn’t a normal shadow, either. It sucked the light out of everything around it. My heart pounded painfully. Instinct took over and a fear so cold, so powerful took root. Reaching blindly for a weapon, my fingers wrapped around a small figurine—which turned out to be a cast-iron pioneer —and I threw it hard.

The shadow took form as it darted to the side, but there was a fleshy thud as the statue hit what was now a denim-clad thigh…that belonged to Hunter, a currently shirtless Hunter.

“What the fuck?” Hunter exploded.

I didn’t wait to offer up an explanation. Darting back toward the bathroom, I opened my mouth to scream. Out of nowhere, a hand smacked down on my mouth and an arm snaked around on my waist. I should’ve known he’d move that fast, should’ve realized that escape wasn’t possible. The guy was a damn shadow.

Panic clawed its way up my throat. Kicking and thrashing, I tried to wiggle free from the powerful hold, but only managed to knock my leg into the dresser.

“Oh, for the love of God,” Hunter grunted. “Knock it off.”

I shoved my elbow back, satisfied when it connected with hard skin.

Hunter swore again, and the next thing I knew my feet were off the ground. One moment I was hovering in air, my back pinned to his cool chest, and the next second I was flying.

Hitting the middle of the bed, I let out a sharp squeak as I bounced. A second later, the weight of a building crashed into me. My back hit the mattress, knocking the air out once more. The worst sort of terror spread, and I turned more into caged animal than human. I swung wildly with both hands, but he caught my wrists with astonishing and frightening ease, securing them to the bed on either side of my head.

Arching my back, I tried to knee him where it counts, but he pressed down, covering my legs with his.

I couldn’t move—couldn’t breathe. Hunter weighed a ton, and every part of him that touched me was hard and cool. Heart racing into cardiac territory, I went completely still.

“Are you insane?” he growled. “Look at me!”

Shaking my head frantically, I kept my eyes squeezed shut. “Please don’t—”

“Please don’t what? Strangle the ever-loving common sense into you? I might do that.” There was a pause and his chest rose against mine. “Jesus H. Christ, woman, I didn’t sign up for this. I think you gave me a flesh wound.”

I pried open one eye, and then both. Those startling pale eyes, full of anger, fixed on mine.

“Are you done acting like a psychotic, cracked-out Muppet baby?” he asked, and I could tell by the way his fingers spasmed around my wrists, he really wanted to shake me. “Or do you need a couple more moments to return to sanity? I have all day. And you actually feel kind of good under me, so take your time.”

My eyes popped wide. I was under him, like really under him. Our bodies were touching in all the right areas one wanted them to touch when they were in bed. I shifted just a fraction of an inch, and his eyes narrowed. Something long and thick and hard pressed against my belly. A flush stole across my cheeks and swept down my neck. Alien or not, he was endowed like the small percentage of men who actually had something to brag about.

He smirked and then pulled back a little. The rest of his face came into view, and somehow I had forgotten how good-looking Hunter was in this form. It wasn’t a pretty kind of beauty, like Phillip or the man who attacked me in my apartment. His was a harsher beauty, wild and untamed, a kind of beauty that would be hard to replicate.

And why was I thinking about how good-looking he was? Seriously not important, but at some point, I realized he wasn’t trying to kill me…and that my heavy breathing had nothing to do with fear at the moment.

“Calm now?” he asked.

“You’re a—”

“If you say alien again, I’m probably going to strangle you a little. Okay?” By the edge in his voice I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. “We’ve already established what I am. You don’t see me walking around blabbering about you being a human.”

My mouth dropped open. “But that’s different!”

“How so?” he proposed.

“You’re on Earth!”

He smirked. “Okay. I’ll give you that.”

That infuriated me. “What did you do to me?”

“When?”

My fingers curled helplessly around air. “When you, like, kissed me?”

“I didn’t kiss you,” he scoffed.

For some reason, I thought I should be insulted by the way he said that. “All right, when you put your mouth on mine? Is that clear enough for you?”

Hunter’s grin tipped higher. “You have a feisty little attitude, don’t you?”

“You’re about to get a feisty little foot up your ass,” I spat back.

Tipping his head back, Hunter did the most mysterious thing. He laughed. At me. A deep, body-shaking laugh that shook me and made me shiver for what was probably all the wrong reasons.

Quieting down, he lowered his chin. “I fed off you.”

“You fed off me?”

“Yes. I took some of your energy from you—sort of like tapping into your life force,” he said, giving me a cheeky grin that said he didn’t feel bad about it.

My face scrunched up. “You’re like an incubus or something.”

“Well, how do you think myths get started? And stop staring at me like I’ve damaged you. I didn’t take enough to kill you. You’ve only been asleep for two days.

Eat some chocolate and you’ll be back where you were.”

I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right. Two days? That meant today was Saturday. I’d lost two whole days. “You knocked me out for two days? That can’t be healthy.”

His brows lowered. “You could be dead.”

Good God, I wanted to hit him. “You fed off me, dude. I can’t even categorize how messed up that is. That’s not okay.”

“I’ll tell you what’s not okay, is you throwing shit at me.” Curiosity marked his expression. “Why did you throw something at me?” When I didn’t answer, a muscle popped in his jaw. “You’re not going to answer me? Or do I need to repeat myself for a third time? It’s okay. I like to hear myself talk.”

In a second, anger and irritation roared through me. Something about his cocky tone pissed me off. So did my body’s reaction to him. Parts of me were all kinds of tingly, especially when I wiggled again and felt him twitch.

“Get off me.” I tried to push him off, but that didn’t work. “Get off me now!”

“Or what?” He tilted his head down so that his mouth was inches from mine. “You going to pick up a picture frame next and wing it at my head?”

“Maybe,” I snapped back.

“Then I can’t let you up.”

I stared at him in disbelief and sputtered, “You can’t— Get off!”

One single brow arched up. “I can’t get off? Oh, I most definitely can get off.”

The flush increased until I felt like I was under the sweltering sun. Muscles in my stomach tightened. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“Hmm, so you say…so you say.”

He was— Oh my God, I was struck speechless.

A long minute passed as he stared down at me, and then he released my wrists, finger by finger. Then in one fluid, unbelievably quick motion, he rolled off and stood. Jesus, the guy was part alien, part human, and part ninja.

I sat up and almost toppled off the side of the bed. Peering through the mass of tangled hair, I got my first real good look at Hunter. I’d been caught off guard in the parking garage and too frightened in my apartment to really get a good look at him, and since he had all that very human flesh on display, I drank him in.

Holy hotness…

Jeans hung low on narrow hips. Hunter’s stomach was perfection—each taut muscle tight and totally lickable. Not that I’d ever licked a man’s stomach before, but now I got why someone would want to. I was in six-pack heaven. He even had those dips beside the hip-bones…

Oh God, I felt dizzy.

His chest was defined and cut like marble. I got hung up on staring at that for a few moments before I literally had to force myself to look at his face.

Checking him out couldn’t be right. What was wrong with me? “Look, I’m sorry about the whole throwing things at you and everything else—”

“You don’t look very apologetic.”

I frowned. “Well, I am. Things are kind of…messed up. And you knocked me out.

And you’re half naked—”

“Have you looked in the mirror?” he cut in. “You’re just as naked as I am. And I didn’t throw anything at your head.”

Glancing down at myself, I cringed. Somehow I’d forgotten that I was in my shirt and undies. Flushing all over again, I wanted to dart behind something, but I folded my arms. “I didn’t throw anything at your head. I was—”

“Do you always overreact like this?”

Oh my God, if he interrupted me one more time I was going to throw something at his head. “I woke up in a strange place, kidnapped by an alien. I can’t even believe I’m explaining why I overreacted. What were you doing in my room anyway?”

He mimicked my stance. “Correction: this is my house and therefore this is my room. Not that I need to explain myself, but I was checking to make sure everything was secure outside.”

“But you did kidnap me.”

“I did not.”

I threw up my hands. “What’s all this? Where am I?”

“West Virginia.”

My mouth dropped open. Oh my God, this couldn’t be happening. “I’m in a different time zone? Are you fuc—” Hunter threw up his hand, silencing me. The tip of my tongue literally burned to lay into him. “What the hell is that noise?”

Before I could respond, he stalked past the bed and entered the bathroom.

“Jesus! What are you trying to do in here?” His voice carried from the bathroom.

“Giving the floor a bath?” he demanded.

I searched desperately for my jeans, but came up empty.

Hunter returned, hands on his hips. Too late. “Seriously?”

“I forgot I turned the faucet on. Geez, you’re grumpy.”

“And you’re already turning out to be a huge pain in my thigh.”

“Look, I’m really sorry about that. Okay? I’ve been through some really traumatic events here recently and, yes, I might have overreacted.” I struggled with my patience.

“And I really would like to know where my pants are.”

“Your pants were folded on the corner of the bed. You probably knocked them on the floor.”

What? I wanted to check, but I so wasn’t bending down in my panties in front of him. “And how did they get off me and folded on the bed?”

“I did it. Thought you’d be more comfortable.”

Oh geez, I had no idea what to think about that. A thank -you so wasn’t in order though. He undressed me while I was unconscious, for crying out loud. My entire body felt red-hot. “I’m not going to say thank you for that.”

“Not like I’d expect that common courtesy from you,” he replied, his pale eyes dancing…with what? Anger? Amusement? “After all, you never thanked me for saving your ass—a pretty ass at that. So I can add inconsiderate to your growing list of attributes. Put that right next to: overreacts, acts first and then thinks, drama—”

“Oh, go fu—”

“You do not want to finish that sentence,” Hunter warned , his voice low enough to send warning shivers down my spine. “The one thing I don’t do is fuck myself.”

I doubted he needed to. Then again, he probably opened his mouth and ruined everything. “All right, this is not what I intended. I just need to know what’s going on and get my pants—”

“How about you do this,” he said, stalking up to me. I took a step back, hitting the bed. His gaze dropped from my face to my chest, his stare so intense it felt like he was touching me. “Why don’t you put some more clothes on? You’re a little distracting right now.”

I gaped at him in disbelief. What the hell had I been trying to do?

A quick grin flashed across his face. Not necessarily warm, but there was definitely something to it. Was he messing with me?

“When you’re done, you can join me downstairs,” he continued, strolling past me.

“We have a few things we need to go over.”

I spun around, hands curling into useless fists. “Why don’t you put some clothes on?”

Stopping at the door, he glanced over his shoulder. “Do I distract you?”

Clamping my mouth shut, I glared daggers at him. He was distracting, but a zombie could eat my brains before I’d admit that.

Hunter smirked. “Downstairs. Five minutes.”

“You—” He slammed the door shut in my face.