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  “This one’s big, for a woman,” one of them hissed, lifting its head to scent the air. Then it hissed, curling back rotten lips to reveal massive fangs. “Warrior… it’s a warrior?”

  “Read the marks and weep, asshole,” she snapped back, keeping her blades up and circling as she tried to keep all three in sight. This was not good. So not good. It looked like these three, far older and more powerful than they usually saw in the city, had ganged up and used a younger rogue as bait to draw her out.

  “Yes… so she’ll be stronger. Plenty of blood and power for all of us.” The one in front of her slithered forward, reaching out to stroke the air with long talons.

  Hissing, she sliced at its hand, almost taking off the ends of its fingers, but it was too quick for her and yanked out of reach before her blades could touch it. She eyed them as she circled, trying to get a feel for how they’d move. Although they were well into blood madness, some rogue vampires this old regained a semblance of sanity and an ability to plan that the younger ones just didn’t have. Some—most—just went bat shit crazy, but those that didn’t were the most dangerous.

  And three working together?

  She was toast.

  Snarling, she gripped her blades tighter, swirling them around her wrists in a show of ability and experience. “Are you three just going to talk all night, or are we doing this?”

  Chapter 5

  Kalen heard the sounds of fighting well before he saw it and froze dead to isolate where it was coming from. As soon as he had zeroed in, he was off and running, barreling down the narrow alleyways and streets until he reached the edge of a small park.

  Fear raced through his veins at the high pitched battle cries and the feral snarls. Snarls… He’d been fighting the rogues for many years. He knew instantly more than one throat was making those noises. Which meant Vixen was facing off against them alone.

  A furious bellow erupted from his throat as he leaped the perimeter fence of the park in one bound, his twin blades already in his hands as he crashed through the trees.

  Seconds passed like an eternity until he finally broke through the tree line and into the small clearing where Vixen was. Ice flooded his veins for a second as he took it all in with a glance. She was in the middle of a group of three rogues. Her blades flashed in the dim light in an ever-changing and moving dance of lethal edges as she fought, keeping them off her. But it was a holding pattern. A glance told him these three were the oldest rogues he’d ever seen, deadly and relentless in their goal—taking the female warrior’s blood and her life.

  Another roar of fury escaped him and he charged into the middle of the fight, burying both his blades into the back of the rogue right in front of him. It screamed, scrabbling over its shoulder with vicious claws as it tried to dislodge the blades that had severed the ribs from its spine.

  He snarled, lips curling back from his teeth as he twisted his blades. The tension released on the ribs, and they popped through the skin to spread like gruesome wings. Sinking a blade deep into its back near the kidneys, he let go of the hilt and punched his hand deep into the wounds he’d made. His hand closed around the foul creature’s heart, and he yanked it free crushing it to ash.

  He didn’t wait for the thing’s dying scream to fade away, yanking his blades free and rushing onward as it collapsed, trails of corruption and ash consuming it to nothingness.

  He met the next one head on, shoulder-barging it out of the way as he put his back to Vixen’s. Automatically, she moved, making room for him and engaging the rogue on her side.

  “You okay, blondie?” he asked over his shoulder, gaze focused on the rogue in front of him. It feinted forward, slicing at the air. He slid to the side, easily evading it, and lashed out with a blade. But the thing was as quick as he was, skittering away with a hiss.

  “Yeah, I’m good.” Her voice wasn’t labored, but he could hear the tension in it as she kept her attention on the creature in front of her. “They used a younger one as bait. Didn’t realize these were here in the shadows.”

  Bait? Kalen blinked in surprise. Crap, they were getting smarter.

  “Well,” he snarled at the rogue. “At least we’ve evened the odds here.”

  He moved to attack, but a chilling scream on the wind from somewhere else in the city made them all pause. A rogue scream. The two corrupted vampires lifted their heads, and the one in front of Kalen screamed back. Then, as one, they backed up, peeled away from the two warriors and disappeared into the darkness.

  “Were the… Was that scream a summons?” Vixen asked in a hushed whisper from behind him. Neither of them had moved, their weapons still raised and ready. Her voice echoed the surprise and shock that rolled through him.

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Fuck.”

  Her one-word reply was as fitting as it was brutally eloquent. If the rogue were communicating with each other like that, they were all fucked. Like Vixen had been before he’d arrived. His relief she hadn’t been killed morphed into anger and he turned on her, flicking his blades clean of corrupted blood and sheathing them in one quick movement.

  “What the fuck did you think you were doing, taking on three of them alone?” he demanded, crowding her as he yelled.

  She raised an eyebrow, flicking her own blades free of blood. The same spell that kept the stuff from sticking to his ensured the weapons were clean as she shoved them home in their sheaths.

  “Funnily,” she replied calmly, “they didn’t give me much advance notice or an RSVP.”

  Her calmness pissed him off even more, and he reached out to grab her, hauling her up against him.

  “You could have been killed. Easily,” he snarled. “Even I’d have been hard-pressed to hold off three of them like that.”

  Anger flared in her eyes and she shoved at him, her hands in the center of his chest. “What, you think I couldn’t handle it because I’m a woman? Fuck’s sake, Kalen, get with the program. Did you miss these?”

  She stabbed a finger toward the warriors’ marks across the side of her face and neck where they disappeared under her clothes. Like his and every other warrior’s, they would continue down her body.

  “Because, believe me, no one else does. I’m warrior born, same as you, so get over yourself and let me do my job.”

  Before he could get a reply out, shouts from a few streets over were carried to them on the night air. A bellow and war cries identified the noise as fellow warriors engaging rogue vampires. More than a few by the sound. They had to go.

  She made to move past him but his hand shot out like lightning to grab her arm again. Her lips pursed as she looked up at him.

  “This isn’t finished, Vixen,” he warned in a low voice.

  She shrugged him off, already turning to run toward battle.

  He followed her, his easy lope keeping up with her fast run. No, it wasn’t finished between them, but while the rogues were on the streets, it would just have to wait.

  Not for long, though…

  Vixen hooked her towels over the rail and stepped under the shower. A groan left her lips as the hot water eased her sore muscles. Tonight’s patrol had been brutal. After the incident with the three older rogues in the park, all the patrols had hit huge numbers of the creatures out there. They’d fought running battles against the things until dawn had lightened the sky. Then they’d all disappeared down whatever rat holes they infested in the bowels of the city.

  She dropped her head back under the spray and exhaled on a shudder. She’d nearly bought it tonight. If Kalen hadn’t been there… She shivered, feeling sick. She didn’t want to think about that. Reaching for the soap, she blanked her mind as she washed the gore from her body. She needed something to eat and then sleep. Deep, dreamless sleep that would restore her equilibrium.

  She rinsed the last of the shampoo out of her hair and smoothed it back in a slick pelt down her back. Her hands still raised, she froze, her sensitive hearing picking out a sound in the next room that should
n’t be there. A frown creased her brow as she snapped the shower off and listened.

  Nothing.

  “Hello?” she called out just in case.

  Perhaps one of the guys had wandered in by mistake. Although there was only one of her, Marak had made sure she had her own shower and changing room. Didn’t need the rookies falling over their own tongues the first time they had to take a shower, he’d said. Early on, with each batch of rookies, the older warriors had dared them to sneak a look at Vixen in the showers. A bizarre initiation ritual, it died down after she bounced the first few off the walls.

  Still, mistakes happened sometimes. Doors were easy to mix up when you’d taken a battering out on the streets. She stood for a few seconds, ears still perked for any sound from the other room until the air on her wet skin made her shiver.

  “You’re going nuts, Vix.”

  Stepping out of the stall, she reached for the towels. Wrapping the larger one around her body, she blotted the water from her hair with the other and headed back out into the changing room.

  She got less than three steps. Hard hands closed on her and she found herself pinned against the wall by a hard, male body. The impact drove the breath from her lungs as a familiar scent filled her nostrils and sent her senses haywire.

  “I told you we weren’t finished,” Kalen’s voice close to her ear kicked her body into high awareness. “And we’re not…not by a long shot.”

  “Kalen, let go of me, you bloody idiot. I thought you were an intruder.” She struggled against his hold. The way he had her pinned, one arm twisted up behind her back and a booted foot kicking her bare feet farther apart, meant she couldn’t get any leverage to fight back. She recognized the hold. It was one they used on patrol if they found any kyn youngsters out and about and up to no good.

  She was a strong woman, but even she couldn’t break this one. It was designed to hold a much larger opponent immobile. Being held down wasn’t the worst though. Her body tightened at his touch and a moist heat slipped from between her thighs. Hot color flooded her cheeks. She couldn’t be turned on by this, no way. Not with him… not when all this was a game to him. Despite that, she still wanted him, even though she knew he belonged to another. Heat and shame flushed her cheeks.

  “Not until you tell me why you avoided me at the debrief and why you ran out the other night.” He pressed harder to quell her struggles. Hard enough she felt every solid plane of muscle in his body. And a growing hardness pressing into her ass that proved, like her, he wasn’t immune to the situation.

  “The other night? You mean when you and your wife decided to play a game with me?”

  He hissed in annoyance. “I’m not married. I was married, but anything between Astra and me is long over. I promise you that. She just wanted to cause trouble and ruin what we had. She’s never wanted me to be happy.”

  He wasn’t married. Relief filled her, making her lightheaded.

  “Yeah, well, I’d say she managed it.” Vixen laughed, a snort of amusement as she wriggled to test his hold on her. It gained her a growl, an unusual feral sound that should have warned her.

  “Don’t play games with me, blondie. I might take you up on it and I don’t think you’d like the games I want to play.” His warm breath fanned over her neck and cheek with the threat, making her body clench with need. “That kiss meant something. To both of us…”

  Despite the warning, Vixen couldn’t resist playing with fire. “What kiss?”

  “Dammit, Vix, don’t do this.” Kalen’s voice was thick with fury as he released her long enough to spin her around and pin her against the wall. His gaze blazed into hers. “If you don’t remember, maybe I should remind you…”

  She froze. She couldn’t let him do that. She was fighting a losing battle. If he kissed her, the slight resistance she’d mustered against him would crumble into dust and she’d throw herself at him.

  “Don’t bother.” She flashed her fangs warningly.

  “Unless you plan on using them, sweetheart, put them away. No one likes a tease.” His voice dropped to a dangerous growl. His hand shot out, wound into the hair at her nape and held her still as his lips descended, covering hers in a kiss all about anger and dominance.

  Tears prickled in the backs of her eyes as she struggled against her own reactions, forcing herself to hold still under his kiss. But her control was eroded by each pass of his lips over hers, and when he swept his tongue over her lower lip, demanding access, she knew she was done for. In desperation, she did the only thing she could and nipped his lip. The rich, sweet taste of his blood—the blood of an ancient vampire—exploded on her tongue. She moaned, another need swirling darkly within her as his groan joined hers. The kiss changed, his tongue sweeping into her mouth in a sensual exploration that filled every cell in her body with pleasure.

  Lost in the myriad of other sensations, she barely felt the towel fall away. The cool air hit her skin, her nipples tightening in response and a shiver chasing down her spine as he stretched her arms above her head. One large hand held her slender wrists with ease as the other explored the curve of her waist.

  He broke away from her lips, ignoring the small sound of disappointment she made, to trail white-hot kisses along her jaw and down her throat. Her back arched in response, thrusting her naked breasts against the solid wall of muscle that was his chest.

  She moaned, biting her lip to stifle the sound as his large hand closed over her. His clever fingers rolled her sensitive nipple between them. Pinching and pulling gently until a small whimper escaped her throat, and her hips bucked against him.

  All her protests, the reasons this wasn’t a good idea, were forgotten as he released her wrists. His warm mouth swept down to lave his tongue over the nipple he’d just tortured. Her head dropped back against the wall at the sensual torment, the noise from his zipper a harsh sound of promise. She bit her lip again, her cheeks flushed with arousal. Oh god, she needed this, needed to feel him filling her, stretching her and driving into her.

  Then, the wait was over and he was there. The hardness she’d felt earlier now pressed against her sex as he lifted her thigh, his big hand smoothing against her skin as he held it over his hip.

  His expression was tight, harsh, and his eyes unreadable as he dipped down to push against her. She caught her breath as the thick head of his erection slid just inside the silken entrance to her body, already slick with excitement.

  Her eyes widened as her body stretched to accept him, but he had already pulled back. She moaned in protest, a sound that became one of pleasure as he slid his cock up and then rubbed it against her sensitive clit. She closed her eyes as shivers chased over her skin. This was torture, pure torture.

  “You want it, don’t you, sweetheart? I can smell your need. So sweet, enticing. Tell me you want this… Or I stop now.”

  He nibbled along her neck, leaving a trail of tiny nips that caused fire on her skin and had her heart racing. She nodded, unable to phrase a coherent sentence. He stopped teasing her, raised her thigh higher, and opened her body completely to him. Then he drove into her in one strong movement.

  His gaze met hers, holding it as if reading everything in her soul. He thrust into her slowly, time after time, pressing her hard against the cool tile wall. The room filled with the sounds of flesh hitting flesh, soft moans… even the smell of sex hanging in the air, a combination of warm skin, sweat and pheromones. His hunger for her was now evident in the look in his eyes and so too was the fierceness of his possession.

  This was no sweet exploratory lovemaking—two new lovers coming together gently. It felt like he was staking a claim. And she was too far gone to complain, loving every moment, with her arms around his shoulder and legs wrapped around his lean hips as he pumped into her. Quick, rough sex against a wall and she’d never found anything so erotic in her life.

  She moaned as her body tensed on his where it was buried deep inside her, deeper than she’d thought possible. A familiar tension started within
her, driving the need to move faster, deeper… clench harder. Anything to realize the tension coiled low in her belly.

  “That’s it, sweetheart. Just let go.”

  Her movements slowed and became more uncoordinated. Then, everything stilled in one perfect moment of pure clarity as she hovered on the edge. Waiting for his next movement, she just needed his next thrust to tip her over the edge. He moved, hips driving hard against hers as he struck, his sharp fangs driving deep and piercing the soft skin of her throat.

  “Shit,” she gasped. Ecstasy hit her at light speed and breathy moans of pleasure filled the room. The combination of her climax and the ecstasy of his bite rendered her unable to think, mindless with pleasure as she screamed his name. His powerful body drove into her once, twice more… a guttural groan leaving his throat as he pushed deep inside her one last time. His cock pulsed and jerked as his climax hit, bathing her inner walls with his seed.

  Long seconds passed, and the only sounds in the room were of their ragged breathing. Unwelcome reality crowded back into her pleasure-numbed brain with a vengeance. Still held tightly in his arms, she struggled, raining blows on his shoulders until he let her go.

  “You… bastard.” She staggered away as he stumbled backward. His expression showed he was as stunned as much as she was horrified, as she swiped at the warm wetness on her neck. Her hand came away red with blood.

  “You bit me.”

  It wasn’t a serious bite, but that wasn’t the point. Biting was reserved for people in love, people like Maria and Marak. Bond mates, married couples. Not someone you’d just screwed up against a wall and definitely not without asking permission first.

  “Vixen… let me explain.”

  He held out a pleading hand, but she just grabbed the towel from the floor and wrapped it around her as if it were a shield.

  “I don’t want to hear it, K,” she snarled, fury in every line of her body. “Get out.”