Chapter Eleven
The water poured down on Jane as she stood beneath Aidan’s shower. He’d carried her up the club’s stairs. A sweet, but totally unnecessary gesture. She hadn’t stopped him, though, because if the guy wanted to carry her…
Why not relax and enjoy the ride? He’d been so tender as he eased her into his shower. His hands were careful on her skin. Even now, he stood just behind her, lightly smoothing soap and lather over her arms.
“Did I hurt you?” His voice was quiet.
She smiled as she turned toward him. Her body was slick and her skin slid against his. “Not even a little.” But…was that the truth? When he’d marked her, it had stung. A sharp flash of pain that had caught her off-guard. The pain had only lasted a moment, and then there had been so much pleasure.
His hands slid down her arms.
And he stepped away from her.
Jane stayed beneath the warm spray of the shower, watching him as he slipped out and quickly toweled off. He knotted the towel around his waist, and her gaze drank him in. Those wash-board abs, his powerful shoulders.
Sexy. So very sexy.
“I…died in the fire, Jane.”
It took a moment for his words to register. She shook her head, and even managed a quick laugh. “No, you didn’t. I got you out. I saved you, Aidan.”
Steam drifted in the air around her.
And Aidan shook his head, just once. No.
The warm water was suddenly chilling her. Jane’s hand flew out and she turned off that water. The drip, drip, drip that followed seemed way too loud to her sensitive ears. She stepped out of the shower, standing on his lush mat and dripping all over the place, but not really caring about that.
More important things were happening. “I saved you,” Jane said again.
He pulled out another towel. Big, fluffy, white. With the same care he’d shown her before—as if he were afraid a touch would bruise her—Aidan carefully dried her skin. Then he wrapped the towel around her body.
“Aidan?” Jane prompted.
His hands fell away from her.
“I burned and I died, Jane.” Stark. Cold. “My last thought was of you. I can remember that. The flames were eating my flesh, I hurt so much, and all I wanted…it was just to see you again.”
Tears stung her eyes. “You—you were breathing. I got you out.”
He started to speak, but then stopped. He turned from her and paced to the small closet in the bathroom. He pulled out a pair of faded jeans and yanked them on. Then he jerked a soft, black t-shirt over his head.
Jane stood there, wrapped in the towel, goosebumps covering her skin, and feeling more vulnerable than she’d ever felt before.
Aidan reached for her spare clothes. He offered them to her. “Dress…then we’ll talk.” His jaw clenched. “It’s…too hard to focus when I can see you like this.”
Then he turned his back on her and walked away.
Jane stood there a moment. The clothes were on the sink near her. And all she could hear was…
I died.
She dressed with shaking hands and hurried out of the bathroom. Aidan was standing in front of his desk, with his back to her. She wanted to run to him and wrap her arms around him, but something held her back.
That something? It was fear. Plain old fear.
“I was changing before the fire,” Aidan spoke without looking at her. He was running his fingers over the top of his desk, as if tracing something there. “I knew it. I started to crave blood and…my instincts changed.”
His instincts. “You mean the urge to kill every vamp on sight?”
Finally, he looked back. “Yes.” There was a pause. “And the blood that I craved the most? Jane, it was your blood.” He swallowed. “And I still crave it.” The words seemed to be a warning.
She wasn’t in the mood for warnings. She moved closer to him.
“I died in that fire. You were my last thought. But…I came back.”
“Vamps don’t rise that fast,” she whispered. He’d died violently, with a vampire’s blood in his system. Okay, yes, technically, that might make him change but— “Werewolves aren’t supposed to become vampires.”
“I did. Paris did. I think we can just screw that ‘supposed to’ shit straight to hell.”
Jane flinched.
“I came back. I woke up burning and I woke up…” His gaze slid down to her neck. “Hungry.”
She had to touch him. Jane’s hand pressed right over his heart. “You woke up as you. You came back totally—”
“Vivian had seen to it that I was given blood before I even opened my eyes, Jane. Plenty of it. Vivian wanted to make sure I was strong so she did what she thought was best. She didn’t even realize that she was strengthening a vampire, but that was what she did. That’s how I held onto my control. But my control is getting weaker. There’s a darkness growing in me, and I feel it becoming stronger every single second.”
His heart thundered—too fast—beneath her touch.
“I’m worried about what I’m going to do.”
“You aren’t going to do anything wrong!”
He smiled at her. “The wolf in me didn’t stay dead, Jane. It came back, too. A wolf and a vampire living in one body…and they’re trying to tear me apart.”
Her breath seemed to freeze in her lungs.
“I’m afraid I’ll hurt you,” Aidan said.
“You won’t.”
But his hand slid over her neck, moving down to brush over the mark he’d left on her. The mark that, even with her new healing powers, hadn’t faded. “I already did.”
“Aidan…”
“You are mine, Jane. And I can’t let you go.”
Had she asked to be let go?
“I worry about what I’ll do…when you finally run from me.”
That—that was crazy. “Do I look like I’m running?”
“Not yet.”
But you will. She could practically hear those words whispering in the air between them.
“No,” Jane fired back. “I’m not going to—”
The phone rang, shrilling loudly on Aidan’s desk. He glanced at it, his eyes narrowing, and she thought he’d ignore the call because, you know, they were in the middle of important shit. But then he reached for the phone. “Locke,” he growled.
Jane could hear the caller all too clearly. It was Vivian, and she said, “Aidan, I’ve got one of the EMTs, Sharon Lawson. She swears that Paris was alive when she first brought him in her ambulance, but something happened…she blacked out for a moment and when she woke up, he was dead. His neck was broken and Sharon is swearing to me that wasn’t the case before she passed out.”
Fury darkened his face. “Why the fuck didn’t she say something to someone before?”
“Because she’s a human,” Vivian said, her voice soft. “And she’s terrified. She has vague memories of a man climbing into the back of the ambulance with her, but considering that her patient died on her…Sharon is blaming herself. I found her in a damn bar, just down from you on Bourbon Street. She’s trying to drink herself into oblivion.”
“Drag her ass out of oblivion and get her here. I’ll make her remember.”
“On the way, alpha,” Vivian responded. The phone clicked when she hung up.
Aidan slanted a fast glance at Jane.
“We aren’t done with our conversation,” she warned him.
“What more do you want me to say?” His smile was bitter. “I’m losing myself. I can fucking feel it. I’m drowning, and I’m afraid I’ll pull you under with me.”
“I’m not afraid of sinking.”
His hand slid over her cheek. “I think I should tell you to run, while I still have some control. This beast that I’ve become…it wants you something fierce. Vamp and werewolf…a fucking abomination.”
She caught his hand and held tight. “Then I’m an abomination. You know I have both wolf and vamp running through my blood, too. But I’m not going crazy. I’m not turning psycho and attacking everyone in sight. You won’t do it, either! I know that you won’t—”
“I wasn’t born to be a vampire, Jane. You were.” His expression was tormented. “Right the fuck now, I want to sink my fangs into you. I want that sweet blood of yours on my tongue, and I want my cock in you. I have a hunger for you that’s not ending. It’s getting stronger and deeper with every moment that passes.”
“You think I don’t want you just as much?” She remembered the wild need that had burned to life inside of her when he’d taken her blood. “Because to be clear, I do, Aidan. I do.”
“You don’t understand.” The lines near his mouth deepened. “You aren’t seeing the danger.”
“Because it’s you!” Jane nearly yelled. “There isn’t any danger for me when I’m with you! Don’t you get that, Aidan? You’re my safe zone. My anchor. I’m not afraid when I’m with you.” She stared into his eyes, needing him to understand this. Needing it to go bone deep. “I won’t be afraid when I’m with you.”
He gazed back at her.
Jane exhaled and turned away from him. “Let’s go downstairs. I want to hear what that EMT has to say, too, and—”
“You will be afraid of me, Jane.” His voice came out low, without any emotion. “Before I’m done, I’ll terrify you.”
***
Vivian dragged the blonde with her as they hurried down Bourbon Street. The woman was still clutching a hurricane in her hand, and her steps were weaving as she struggled to keep up with Vivian and not spill her precious drink.
“I want to go back!” Sharon called. “I need more drinks!”
Vivian rolled her eyes. “You need to get your ass sober, woman.” She got it—she did. Sharon had been crying into her hurricane when she arrived. Sharon was convinced that she’d done something to cause Paris’s death. Like there isn’t already enough guilt going around on that one.
“I’m going to lose my job,” Sharon mumbled. “When my boss learns that I passed out on a patient…he’ll think I was drinking on the job.”
“Yes, well, the fact that you’ve been chugging drinks all morning isn’t going to help that case out any,” Vivian retorted. She could see Hell’s Gate up ahead. Good. Now to get Sharon inside and let Aidan work his magic.
“I wasn’t drinking.” Sharon jerked to a stop.
A stop? Now? When they were so close?
Sharon stared down at the drink in her hand. “I was trying to save him. I wanted to help. But when I-I opened my eyes…I was lying on top of him. My hands were at his throat. And his neck…it was broken.”
Vivian snatched the drink from Sharon’s hand. “I don’t think you’re strong enough to snap a man’s neck.”
Sharon blinked at her. “I…I lied.” A stark whisper.
Does the woman even realize she’s talking to a police captain? Vivian had identified herself earlier but…
“I told everyone on scene that he’d broken his neck during the fall. He didn’t. It happened in my ambulance. It must have been me.” She shuddered. “It was me. Me, me—”
“Stop that shit,” Vivian ordered flatly. They’d already been through this guilt routine at the bar.
Sharon stopped. She blinked at Vivian.
“You want to know what happened in that ambulance? Then you come with me, right the hell now.” She’d questioned Sharon for a while before and gotten the woman to mumble an admission about the man who’d appeared in the ambulance, then Sharon had clammed up. Aidan will take care of that situation.
“H-how can you find out the truth?”
“I have a friend who can help you remember what went down. Remembering things like that, well, it’s his specialty.”
Hope flashed in Sharon’s gaze. “You mean it? He…he sounds like some kind of amazing friend.”
Vivian steered her toward Hell’s Gate. “Oh, yes,” she murmured. “Trust me, he is.” Aidan’s the kind of friend you don’t want to piss off.
***
Roth Sly stumbled into his apartment, and the soft footsteps of his guest followed him right inside.
“You were hired to follow Jane,” the guy groused. “What the hell kind of screw-up are you pulling? If you can’t do the work, I can sure as hell pay someone else for the job.”
Jane.
Roth glanced to the right, to the images that he had pinned to his cork bulletin board. Shots of Mary Jane Hart were up there. Mary Jane with her gun drawn as she faced a thief. Mary Jane as she prowled through a cemetery. Mary Jane as she stood outside of Hell’s Gate with that big, dangerous bastard Aidan Locke at her side.
Roth quickly glanced away from those photos even as he edged closer to the bulletin board. Without looking directly at the image of Jane again—for some reason, he just didn’t want to do that—he reached out and grabbed the photos. He tossed them into the trash.
“What the actual fuck are you doing?” The man who’d followed him home demanded.
Before Roth could speak, the fellow had grabbed him and shoved him against the wall. The guy held him there, far too easily. And Roth found that he didn’t want to look the fellow in the eyes, not directly.
Because…
Because I know he’s not human, no matter what he might want me to think.
“You let Aidan Locke get to you,” the man snarled. “I told you he was dangerous. That you could never get fucking close to him. I gave you the lotion to use in order to hide your scent from him. He wouldn’t have known you were ever close…”
Roth hadn’t wanted to talk to the guy at the coffee shop, and, honestly, he’d been kind of dazed when he first walked in the place. It had taken him a few moments to even recognize his employer of the last year.
The last year.
Yeah, he’d met the secretive asshole a long time ago, long before he’d ever encountered Mary Jane for the first time. The sly bastard had offered him one thousand dollars a week to watch her.
A thousand dollars? When he’d barely been bringing in anything with his art work? Hell, yes, Roth had jumped at the chance. Especially since Jane was just the type of pretty brunette he liked to watch, anyway.
And I’d gotten paid for the gig. I thought it was my lucky fucking day.
He wasn’t feeling so lucky any longer.
“Aidan Locke is an alpha werewolf,” his boss snapped. “He can play with your head and you wouldn’t even know it.”
Actually, he did know it. His temples were throbbing. Nausea rolled in his stomach.
“What did you tell him about me?”
“N-nothing,” Roth said. That was the truth, he hoped. He hadn’t told the guy anything about his boss. At least, he didn’t think he had. The whole scene was kind of blurry in his mind.
“Why don’t I believe you?” His boss dropped his hold on Roth and paced away.
Because you’re not a very trusting bastard?
“Aidan could have made you forget every single fucking thing you said to him.” The boss peered out of the blinds that covered Roth’s windows. “He could be hunting me, even now. Dammit, I needed more time.”
His boss was seriously pissed.
“Aidan won’t forget you,” his boss said. “He’ll start digging into your life. He’ll want to learn everything he can about you. And if he digs too hard into your world, he’ll find me.”
Roth’s heartbeat was racing in his chest. The job had taken a far darker turn six months ago, and yeah, the money had increased to go along with the new orders. First his payment had increased to five grand a week, then to ten grand recently, and the money had been so good that he hadn’t cared that some people were getting hurt.
When you went so long without money, getting it…well, it could change a man.
The boss's rage wasn't a good thing. It was very, very bad, and Roth tried to defuse the situation before it headed to hell. “I gave the other wolf the blood!” Roth said quickly. “Just like you said to do!”
“At least you did something right.” A dark mutter.
Roth notched up his chin. “More than just something. I’ve been doing exactly what you told me, all along.” Maybe the boss needed a reminder. “I-I broke into the ME’s lab the night it caught on fire, remember? The night Jane changed? I snuck in there while Jane was still out cold on the ME’s slab. Heider had samples of her blood and I took them, without him even noticing me.” And one of those samples had been given to Paris. See—I was following orders.
“Yes,” the man acknowledged. “That night, you did very, very well.”
Roth blew out a low breath. Damn straight, I did well. “And when I gave it to the other wolf, to Paris, I was doing exactly what you wanted. I’ve always done what you wanted.”
This time, a soft smile flickered over his boss’s face. “You have.”
Roth began to relax. This was good. He was going to be okay. “I’ve done all the tests, monitored Jane’s progress exactly as you wanted.” Hell, maybe by the time he was done talking, the boss would even give him a raise. “Look, I won’t make the mistake of getting near Aidan Locke again, okay?” It had just been a screw-up that night. He’d taken pictures when he shouldn’t have lingered. “I’ll keep doing my job and no one will know what’s happening.”
His boss nodded as he came closer. “It is important for no one to understand what’s happening. At least, not yet.”
“I won’t breathe a word—”
The boss’s hand flew out and locked around Roth’s throat. “I know you won’t. After all, it’s incredibly hard for the dead to speak.”
Roth tried to fight him but…but the bastard was so much stronger than he appeared. He clawed at the guy’s hold, twisting and kicking and—
“Thanks for all the hard work,” his boss whispered. “Now consider yourself fired.”