Chapter One
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Jenna’s fingers were shaking so hard, it took her three tries to buckle her seat belt. Then she peered out the airplane window, watching the last streaks of sunset paint the sky the color of blood. A red light flashed at the next gate, dragging her gaze to the right. Beyond it, shadows danced over unlit areas of the terminal, and she squinted at every one.
On instinct, she reached down as if to scratch her ankle, then stopped. Shit. The knife wasn’t there. Of course, it wouldn’t be. She’d had to pack it in her luggage for the flight.
She took three deep breaths and glanced around the plane, counting rows to the next exit. Then she watched baggage handlers thump the last suitcases onto the cargo belt. Which was fine, right? The likelihood of her needing that knife in the next six hours was close to zero — or so she hoped.
You’ll probably never need it, her sister Jody had said when she’d handed over that frighteningly sharp blade. It’s just in case. You know how it is.
Jenna fidgeted with the bangles on her wrist. Up to a few weeks ago, the you know part would have made her draw a blank. Like most people, she’d grown up believing vampires and other supernatural creatures were only legends. Her sister Jody had too. But after Jody’s fateful trip to Maui, everything changed.
You need to be careful. The monsters who attacked me might come after you, Jody had said when she’d last visited California. She’d taken Jenna over to a quiet corner of Old Town Park and explained.
Werewolves…tigers…vampires…
Apparently, those weren’t just a bunch of harmless legends. They were real — and any one of them might come after Jenna for a taste of her blood.
Jenna shivered and hugged herself.
Yes, there really are vampires, her sister had said in a hushed and scratchy voice. And other evil creatures. You need to keep your eyes open, okay? Not that I’m aware of a specific threat. It will probably be all right.
At first, Jenna had thought it was all an elaborate joke, but the fear in her sister’s eyes was real, and it had jumped over to her. Especially when the stalking began.
It started with one text — then another and another.
Dear Jenna. I know we are meant for each other. I am your destiny, and you are mine.
The mystery texter would ask her to meet, and he’d follow up afterward, sounding hurt that she hadn’t come. At first, she’d ignored the messages, but the tone had gone from relatively harmless to dark and threatening.
My dearest Jenna. We’re meant for each other. Don’t you see, my pet?
She held her head in her hands, desperately wishing she could go back to her old life. Helping her dad at home and in his shop, surfing or beachcombing in her free time, and generally putting off the serious stuff in life. And why the heck not? She’d felt a decade older than her true age for a long time now, so she’d given herself license to live a simple, carefree life for a while.
But here she was, jumping at shadows, suspicious of everyone.
The texts were followed by little gifts and trinkets. Flowers delivered with unsigned notes. Seashells with little hearts scratched into them left on her locker near the beach. An antique music box — all of which meant the stalker knew where she lived, where she worked, and where she surfed.
Did you like my gift? I thought you would.
No, she didn’t. Not one bit.
She sat back, forcing herself to take a deep breath. There was no reason to be paranoid. Everything was going according to plan. She’d taken a circuitous route to the airport, and only her closest family members knew where she was headed. Now that she was on her way to Maui, she could finally relax.
Or try to, at least.
She kept perfectly still, tuning into the hairs on the back of her neck. They weren’t registering the slightest hint of I’m being watched — not the way they often had over the past few weeks, so that was promising. She’d never seen her stalker — well, not that she knew of — and frankly, she never wanted to. She just wanted him gone. Forever. She wanted her freedom back, her innocence. The ability to wake up and enjoy a day without the feeling of impending doom hanging over her head.
Except she couldn’t, not with the specter of some creep sneaking up on her from behind and—
She cut the thought off and fidgeted with her bangles — a gift from her mother, who’d died a long time ago. So long that Jenna had more memories of memories than direct recollections of her mom. But deep in her heart, she held on to the lessons her mother had taught her and her dad had reinforced. Life was for living. Enjoying. Making the most of each and every day.
So, no, damn it. She wasn’t going to let her imagination run away from her. Especially not when she was traveling to beautiful Maui, where she’d be able to talk to her sister and figure things out. Not only that, but she would make the most of an incredible opportunity to apprentice with a master surfboard shaper for a few weeks.
A phone pinged — not hers, but with a tone just like hers — and her eyes snapped open again.
“Welcome aboard,” the flight attendant said as each new passenger filed by. “Welcome aboard.”
Jenna scrutinized each and every one. Even if they appeared normal, you never knew. Her eyes darted from the near to the far aisle, checking every man against a mental lineup of shadowy faces provided by her imagination. There was a tall, pale guy who looked a hell of a lot like a vampire — up until the moment the woman behind him handed him a baby and rooted around in a diaper bag. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t a vampire, just a really overworked dad. But what about that fiftysomething woman with long, unkempt hair who scowled as she shuffled down the aisle? Was she a witch, maybe? According to Jody, there were all kinds of supernatural beings living secretly among humans.
Jenna closed her eyes. She would drive herself crazy if she kept this up. Any minute now, a perfectly normal human would take the seat next to her, and the worst that would happen would be a conversation that dragged on for too long.
Still, her heart beat faster as witch lady approached. But the woman passed without so much as blinking in Jenna’s direction. An older woman in a flowery Hawaiian dress moved past next, flowing more than walking, almost like the fairy godmother Jenna had always wished for. Then came a scary-looking bald guy in a rumpled suit and a too-wide tie, and Jenna’s nails dug into the armrest. Was he a vampire?
She inhaled and wrinkled her nose at his body odor. That meant she could strike him off the lists of suspects. According to her sister, vampires had no smell. So as long as Tie Guy didn’t sit next to her, she was okay.
“Twenty-six D, right over there,” the flight attendant said, making Jenna gulp. A moment of truth, because that was the seat next to hers. But she couldn’t see past the next couple in the aisle — a happy twosome who looked like they’d come straight from a wedding chapel. It was only when the groom turned his head to kiss the giggling bride that the view behind them finally opened, and Jenna’s mouth cracked open at the sight of the next man in line.
Not the man of her nightmares. More like the man of her dreams.
He had dark, piercing eyes — an intense green with a hint of brown. Below them were thickly muscled shoulders and a chest a mile wide, construction-worker style. His gray T-shirt couldn’t quite contain his bulging biceps, and his jeans were just snug enough to show off a tapered waist.
Jenna’s eyes went wide. Even a woman on the run from supernatural beings could stop to admire a good-looking man, right?
His short brown hair was spiky and a little mussed, but he didn’t seem to give a damn. Another passenger stood for a last stretch — a big islander — then hastily sidestepped at a single, expressionless look from that man. Then he strode right up to her row, checking his boarding pass, and even that little motion made his chiseled forearms bulge.
“Hi,” he murmured, towering over her.
“Hi,” she said, playing it cool.
He put his khaki-colored duffel bag in the overhead compartment and closed it with a decisive thump, then sat down beside her with a faint jingle of the dog tags around his neck. Jenna inhaled a lungful of his scent. It was pure, airy, and fresh, like he’d spent the past hour flying an open biplane and had only now switched over to a regular commercial flight.
No way was he a vampire. But, damn. For all she knew, the flight attendant was a witch and the pilot a warlock. Now that a terrifying new world had been revealed to her, she didn’t know who to trust or what to believe.
Except every vibe in her body told her this man was honorable, through and through.
I’m Jenna, she wanted to say. Nice to meet you.
Her pulse quickened. Maybe he was one of those air marshals placed randomly on flights. That would explain his size, his black belt aura, and his vigilant eyes. And that meant she could relax, right? Or at least try to, because the second he slid into the seat next to her, her pulse skipped.
Definitely not the stalker type. If that man wanted a woman, he’d come straight to the point and ask her out.
So she was strangely deflated when, ten minutes later, he hadn’t uttered so much as a word. Up to that moment, she’d been hoping for a not-too-talkative human to sit beside, but she started wishing for the opposite. Who was he? Was he working or vacationing in Maui? How long was he going to stay?
Get his number, a giggly inner voice told her. You know, just in case.
Yeah, just in case her vampire stalker showed up? Jenna kept her mouth shut and spied on him from the corner of her eye. No book, no music player. Not even a phone. Nothing to keep him busy on the six-hour flight. His lips were pulled in a firm, straight line, his hands quiet on his thighs. He hardly moved, but she had the distinct sense of some slumbering giant inside.
And the good news? Anyone who wanted to get to her had to get past G.I. McStud first.
Ha. She’d like to see her cowardly text stalker try that.
But that was the problem. Her stalker wasn’t man enough to approach her in the open. He’d sneak up when she least suspected and—
A shiver went through her, and she went back to gripping the armrest hard enough for her fingers to turn white.
“You okay?” her neighbor rumbled in a deep, resonant voice.
She looked left, meeting his hazel eyes. The mottled greenish-brown formed twin pools that seemed to connect to a soul with fathomless depths. An impenetrable soul, too, one that had seen much more than a guy in his early thirties ought to have seen.
She slapped on a chipper smile. “I’m fine, thanks.”
“It’ll be all right, you know.” He nodded to where her hands were twisting her seat belt. “I’m sure we’ll have a smooth flight.”
She laughed. He thought she was scared of flying? How cute.
If only she could say, I’m terrified of the stalker who’s turned my life into a nightmare for the past few weeks. A stalker who might be a vampire. Any way you could help me with that?
“I’m sure we will,” she said, releasing her death grip on the armrest.
His eyes dipped, catching that detail, and she wondered what else he noticed. The nibbled fingernails? The shadows under her eyes? Or did he stick to the superficial like most guys did — her blond hair, blue eyes, deep tan.
The phone of another passenger pinged, and when her head jerked up, Good Guy looked up too. His eyes scanned the width of the plane — really scanned it the way Secret Service guys did on TV — then landed back on Jenna. She could feel the weight of them on her, sense the unspoken question.
No, I’m not terrified of anything right now, she’d say innocently. Why do you ask?
God, he’d think she was a total pushover — not a girl who paddled into the teeth of the gnarliest waves, claiming her spot alongside the most accomplished guys, nor the girl who’d given the star quarterback the shiner of his life when he’d tried to grab her ass in her junior year of high school. She was a woman who could hold her own against any man, damn it.
Well, any man brave enough to actually face her, at least. A cowardly stalker, on the other hand…
“Boarding completed. Doors to automatic and cross-check,” the captain announced.
She swallowed away the Thank God on the tip of her tongue and smiled at her neighbor. “Sorry. I’m fine. Really. Just a little preoccupied with something at home. Good time for a trip, huh?” She tried joking it off.
“Good time for a trip,” he echoed, studying her face.
Any normal person would have smiled, opened a book, or commented on the weather. But Jenna found herself speechless, motionless, and staring into those bottomless eyes. Wondering why it felt like a momentous occasion and not just another passing encounter. For every second she stared, the man’s eyes shone brighter, like he’d stumbled across something he’d never seen before.
Then he jolted a little and swung his jaw from side to side as if holding a private conversation with himself. When he turned back to her a moment later, she half expected a probing, insightful question or some deep truth. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally spoke.
“First time to Maui?”
She blinked and shook her head a little. So much for deep truths.
“Second time. My sister lives there.”
Her sister, who’d gone to Maui, met the man of her dreams, and settled down, talking about love and destiny and forever. Jenna’s chest rose and fell with a sigh.
Of course, her new neighbor wouldn’t have much interest in that. Guys like him knew about sweat and clocking in on the job — and possibly killing people with his bare hands — but not about mushy things like love.
“How about you? First time to Maui?” she asked.
“Yeah. First time.”
She looked him over, searching for a clue of some kind. He didn’t seem like the type to lie around on the beach or to hit the waves. Was he visiting a relative? Embarking on a top secret underwater salvage operation?
“Work or pleasure?” she asked. And damn it, her voice went up on pleasure, implying all kinds of intimate things.
The right side of his chin twitched — a chin covered with the kind of light stubble a girl could drag her cheek across a few times — and his eyes shone with a suppressed smile. “Work.”
Which was a good thing, because hearing that deep, gravelly voice utter a word like pleasure would probably make every woman in a ten-row radius orgasm.
“New job,” he added.
Just enough of her old, unfettered self snuck back in to make her hazard a guess. “Fireman? Lifeguard? Construction?”
He smiled, and she checked his teeth as he weighed up his answer. No pointy fangs, which was a plus. Her eyes wandered to the swirling edge of a tattoo barely poking out from under his short sleeve.
Nice tattoo, she burned to say. Is it a dragon?
She imagined him flashing a huge, perfect smile and pulling the sleeve up to show it off. Then she would turn to show him the leaping dolphin tattooed on the small of her back, and before long, they’d be chatting like old friends. Maybe even trading phone numbers, arranging to meet up someplace.
But then she remembered her stalker and went stiff all over. She wasn’t giving her number to anyone. Not even this man.
The plane lurched away from the gate, getting ready to taxi down the runway. The man’s eyes flicked to the window, and a ripple of foreboding traveled through him, as if he, too, had just remembered the importance of protecting some deep, dark secret he could never reveal.
“Security,” he said in a clipped, no-bullshit tone that made it clear he wasn’t going to volunteer much more.
“Security, huh?”
He nodded curtly then rolled his neck absently as if limbering up for a fight.
“Nice,” she murmured.
And damn — it was nice just having him there, shrinking her world down to a protected, manageable space.
Within minutes, the engines were straining, the plane rattling, and gravity pressing Jenna into her seat. The plane took off, rose sharply, and banked in a big curve over the Pacific. A totally normal takeoff, but somehow, Good Guy didn’t seem impressed.
“Do you know much about flying?” she asked.
His nostrils flared as if he were the one watching out for a vampire. But then he cracked into a grin, amused. “Yeah. I do.”
His tone had a note of finality to it, and he looked away. Okay, so he didn’t want to talk. So she gave up on conversation and looked down at the lights of LA. Somewhere down there was her stalker. And, ha — she was getting away! But the elation was followed by a riptide of exhaustion, and she blinked as the stress of the past weeks slowly steamrolled over her eyelids. She rested her head against the wall. Maybe her neighbor wasn’t going to provide sparkling conversation for the next six hours. But as long as he was there, protecting her like a castle boxing in the king on a chessboard, she might as well get some sleep.
Just as she was bundling her sweatshirt into a makeshift pillow, though, a hand appeared beside her head, and she nearly jumped out of her skin.
“Sorry,” the man in the seat behind her murmured, releasing her seat once he turned on his overhead light.
Jenna tried to slow her speeding pulse by taking a couple of deep breaths and closing her eyes. When she opened them again, Good Guy was studying her.
“Did you say something was bothering you — or someone?” His voice was a low rumble, his eyes fierce.
She froze, not sure what to say. Could she even come out with it? Yes. I’m afraid I have a stalker, and he might be a vampire.
“Maybe I can help,” he said, very quietly.
He put his left hand on the seat in front of him, blocking off any dangers that lurked in the aisle or beyond. That revealed another tattoo on the inside of his forearm — a sword crossed by lightning strikes.
Special Forces. A friend of Jenna’s had once crushed on a soldier, going on and on about every little detail of the man and those elite fighting corps.
Her heart thumped with new hope, and yes, please jumped to the tip of her tongue. But she bit her lip before the words slipped out, because the answer had to be no. She already had help — or rather, she would as soon as she got to Maui.
“Thanks,” she said, shaking her head. “I think I have it under control.”
His eyebrows went up a little, catching her lie.
“Well, if you change your mind, you let me know.” After another long minute of studying her, he nodded slowly and extended a hand. “I’m Connor.”
The moment her hand slipped into his, her whole body tingled, right down to her toes.
“Jenna,” she said a little breathlessly.
It was a good thing her sister wasn’t there to tease her about going all dreamy-eyed over a man, and Jenna couldn’t understand it herself. No one had ever affected her that way.
Her pulse skipped in a burst of anxiety. What if no one ever did again?
“Jenna,” he whispered, trying her name out like the first notes of a song.
She didn’t realize they were still holding hands until the plane shook with a little turbulence, making her grip her armrest. The second she did, something in her wept. Why couldn’t she have gone on holding his hand?
“So. Jenna,” Good Guy said in a low, secret voice that vowed never to expose her fears to anyone. “It’s a long flight. Too bad I’m not tired. But you could get a little shut-eye.”
Jenna smiled. Connor was definitely a nice guy, subtly promising to watch out for her. Not assuming or posturing, just suggesting. She bit her lip. How often did a guy like that come along?
“That would be nice. Thank you,” she whispered, hoping her tone said more than those overused words did.
“Sure.”
He looked down the way men uncomfortable with praise did, and her heart thumped a little harder.
His words — and body language — didn’t leave much room for a response, so she closed her eyes and leaned against the window. Even if she couldn’t actually sleep, she could rest a little. Sleep had been tricky to find lately, and when it came, it brought dark, twisted nightmares.
But when she inhaled deeply, catching Connor’s scent, her mind went blissfully blank. Her shoulders slowly unwound, and instead of anticipating nightmares, she imagined guardian angels fluttering down around her. Angels with fluffy white wings sent by her mother to assure her a good night’s sleep.
Everything will be okay, the angels sang, lulling her to sleep. Everything will be all right.
The airplane’s engines hummed, and the cabin was quiet. And instead of vampires, her mind filled with serene images of sea life. Turtles grazing on sea grass. Fish flitting around in silvery schools. Coral bursting with color and life. Her favorite dreamscape — one she’d had since she was a little kid.
And slowly, gradually, she drifted off into a blissfully peaceful sleep.