What the fuck was she doing?
Leona met her own incredulous stare in the bathroom mirror as it fogged with steam. Harboring a fugitive vampire in her basement, that’s what she was doing. A murderer. Not Bob’s murderer, but he must’ve killed somebody. Pallas didn’t have a dangerous grace because he’d been a ballerina for centuries. He was a vampire. They had killed their food in the old days.
She shook her head. Should she be judging someone on their past when they had lived for so long and times had changed? Evidence showed the vampire bite was faked. Pallas was innocent. He’d had plenty of opportunity to exact revenge on the hunters who had tried to burn down his home and killed one of his wolves. At a gut level, she trusted him with her life, but as long as anyone doubted his innocence, he would be persecuted by the townspeople. His home.
Leaning her hands on the side of the sink, she hung her head, stretching the tight knots in her neck. She hated this. She hated the stress yet it had managed to follow her into the Adirondacks.
She undressed and stepped into the shower, letting the hot water beat against her tired body. Her chest ached. Not from work but from feeling so hollow for so long until Pallas kissed her. Talk about panty melting. If she wasn’t so exhausted, he would be in serious trouble. She hadn’t wanted to be with someone this bad since college.
He wasn’t really a man though. That was the kicker. A vampire? She had never understood the attraction. Some people flocked to vampire clubs to be bitten and more…
She touched her lips. She could blame the kiss on her exhaustion, but she’d be lying to herself. After three ex-husbands, she learned to listen to her instincts. That little voice in the back of her head that whispered he’s cheating on you or he’s using you.
When she was around Pallas, that voice said look at how he protects the weak and damn, that ass. He didn’t mince words. He spoke his mind. She’d known for a while that he’d been attracted to her. She just never thought he’d actually act on it. She gently knocked her head against the shower wall.
If she was smart, she would call Homeland right now. Turn Pallas in. She would be the hero of the town. Of the nation.
And never be able to look at herself in the mirror again.
She’d be serving a great injustice. Pallas hadn’t wronged anyone in this town. Not a single vampire bite on anyone. She’d checked—hospital records, gossip, outright asking. He hadn’t even propositioned or signed a contract with any townspeople. She always wondered how he fed until he’d shown her his bagged blood collection.
Could he feed off his werewolves? So many questions and none of them pertained to the case. Her mind was stuck on a hamster wheel and the only way off was sleep.
She finished her shower, bundled herself into some flannel pajamas and gathered her spare blankets.
Pallas was still where she’d left him in the basement, kneeling before the television trying to figure out the remotes even after her instructions. “Why do you have three?” He rose, holding them out to her. “What is the point of all these buttons if none of them work?”
“Don’t you own a television?” She worked her magic and turned on the news. Not pointing out that one of the remotes he’d been trying to use was her portable phone.
“No.” He sat on the couch, arms spread over the top, ankle resting on his knee. “I tried to keep distraction to a minimum at the manor—that includes electricity.”
She tried to picture a house full of young wolf shifters with no power and shuddered. “I would think you would need something to keep a pack occupied.”
He snorted. “Don’t worry. They’re very busy. Everyone falls to bed exhausted in the morning.” His gaze traveled over her attire. “This is a new look.”
She tossed her wet hair over her shoulder and sat next to him on the couch with a blanket. “You can’t think I sleep in my uniform.” That was disturbing. There was a woman under the badge and she’d been ignoring her far too long. If Pallas couldn’t even fantasize about her naked, obviously she’d read too much into that kiss. She simply looked at him, at the exquisite balance of beauty and cruelty.
He plucked the collar of her jammies. Maybe she should have gone with something silkier, but she really needed sleep.
Pallas rubbed the material between his fingers, his hard expression softening. “I like this.” He ran his finger through her loose hair. “This, too.”
Heat burned her cheeks. So maybe he saw the woman behind the flannel after all. God, talk about terrible timing. She couldn’t get involved with him while he was wanted for murder. Any evidence she discovered would be scrutinized if it was discovered they had a relationship, let alone were lovers. She pulled the blanket over her shoulders. “Let me have a few hours of sleep then we can discuss strategies when my brain is more rested.”
“You’re sleeping down here with me?” His spine straightened and he leaned away.
“Is that dangerous?” She hadn’t considered the possible consequences of sleeping in the same room with a vampire. She just didn’t feel like being alone. “I mean, do you need to—uh—to drink?” Yep, that was her, Miss Smooth as ex-lax. She thought better on her feet when she was furious or fighting.
Flirting, not so much. She regressed to being in the sixth grade when she consciously tried. God, how had she ever been married once, let alone three times.
He arched his sexy eyebrow the way she liked. “I already fed.”
“Joe.”
“Yes.” He pulled her against his chest and lay along the couch with her as his blanket.
She rested her head on his chest and listened to silence. No heartbeat. But he was warm and strong.
Pallas wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on top of her head. He was tall enough that she lounged on top of him without her feet touching his boots.
She ran her hand over his biceps. Except for the lack of heartbeat, he felt very alive.
“You keep that up and I’ll be tearing you out of that outfit like it was Christmas,” he murmured, the threat real in his voice.
With great regret, she tucked her hands under the blanket. One touch was enough of a promise of what was to come that she grew determined to clear Pallas’ name of this crime.
Leona’s warmth ebbed bone deep into Pallas’ body. He sensed the sunset but didn’t want to move. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d held a woman and let her just sleep.
Possibly never.
She looked so exhausted. He could hear the weariness in her mind. She had pushed to the ends of her limit and that meant more than any declaration of alliance. A feat worthier than words. He was a man of action after all.
The television still played in the background. Leona had been so tired she’d fallen asleep as soon as her eyes closed. He had no desire to disturb her by reaching for the remotes. Humans on the news report were discussing wolf shifters and they named his small town. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and slid out from under Leona.
She moaned but curled into an adorable ball under the blanket.
The smile on his face faded as the news showed a picture of his home. He crossed to the television and studied the moving picture of state troopers carrying out his stock of weapons. Fuckers. Those were all legally owned. They had no right to remove his things. Daedalus had made sure all the paperwork was in order. The reporter was now discussing Pallas’ escape.
He should call his brother.
The picture changed to Agent Gillipsie as he explained how they were hunting for a rogue wolf pack in the surrounding forest for questioning.
They were going to hurt his wolves.
He punched Gillipsie’s face in the center of the Leona’s television.
She startled at the shattered glass. “What did you do?” She wrestled free of the blanket.
“They’re hunting my wolves. They are going to kill them.” He clutched the sides of the television and hung his head. The creek of metal reached his ears as his grip tightened.
Leona stood next to him, gently prying his fingers loose. “Who?”
“Gillipsie.” He lifted his chin to meet her gaze. “I have to protect them.”
She paled. “They won’t kill them.”
“You’re naïve if you think that.” His vision turned inward to the past. To his old pack. Burnt bodies tied to stakes. No mercy had been shown to the young or old. Slaughtered while he had been away on a solo mission for his vampire clan. He had spent centuries with those families. Helped raise their pups until he was a trusted member.
Family.
Soft hands cupped his face. “Pallas? Come back to me.” Leona’s face was mere inches from his, her lips thin and eyes filled with worry.
He gave her a slow blink. “I shouldn’t have come here. I’m endangering you.”
“Don’t…”
Pallas pulled away from her tempting caress. Why had he allowed himself to dream of a different future? Humans had advanced in technology but at the core, they were still the same. They saw vampires and shifters as monsters. Didn’t matter that at one point all shifters and vampires had started out as human.
The sun was almost completely behind the horizon. “I need to use your phone, then I’ll go. You should report my presence to Homeland. Tell them I threatened you.”
She handed him a cordless phone. “I’m going to make some coffee, then I’ll be more capable of talking.”
He appreciated that she didn’t argue with him for once. He needed her safe while he rescued his wolves.
Dialing Daedalus’ number, Pallas tried to figure out how to explain this disaster to his brother. There was no easy way to say I fucked up.
On the second ring, Daedalus answered. “Hello?”
“It’s me.” He rested his left hand on his hip, mentally preparing for a berating.
“So I see you managed to get on national television. Impressive for someone who was supposed to be running a secret werewolf boot camp.”
“I was framed.”
“No doubt,” replied his brother.
“You believe me?”
“You’re not stupid enough to leave your kills on your land.”
“I haven’t killed anyone since moving here.” Pallas really was trying to change his ways.
“Where are you?” asked Daedalus.
“Still in Alberg.”
“Are you injured? Should I send an extraction team?” There was the Daedalus Pallas had become a Nosferatu vampire with. Straightforward tactician.
“No, they are hunting my wolves. I can’t desert them.”
Daedalus sighed on the other end. “They can’t be linked with the Vanguards. It will undo everything we built.”
“I won’t let that happen. I’ll gather my pack and will vanish into the wilderness.” He had been forced to do this before. His pack wouldn’t be happy and some might not survive, but what choice did he have?