Eternal Hunter

Chapter 7

Jude’s hands clenched around the steering wheel. “You sure this is the right place?”

His voice was cool, calm, but Erin’s shoulders tensed. “It’s the right place.”

She’d seen this exact road in her dream. Those trees. The broken pine.

This was the place.

“How long you been having dreams like this?”

Erin wet her lips. “Close to seventeen years now, but I don’t — I don’t have them that often.” If she had them every night, she’d go crazy. No question. “I only have them when…when I know someone—” Didn’t have to be an intimate knowledge, but it had to be someone she’d connected with in some way. The dreams were only about people who’d stirred her emotions, good or bad.

When her emotions were stirred, then the link, or whatever the hell it was inside of her, just clicked on. When it was time for someone she’d connected with to die, the death dreams came.

Her dad told her it was a gift. One passed through generations of his blood by the gods.

Gift? More like curse.

Her dreams sure hadn’t been enough to save him.

“So if you know somebody and—”

“They have to be close to death.” For the dreams to come calling, they had to hear death’s sweet whisper.

“Huh.”

Her brows pulled together. She didn’t know quite what that sound meant. Told him I was flawed. This death dream madness is just the tip of the iceberg.

She felt the glance he gave her. Questioning. Weighing.

She couldn’t worry about that now, not when—“Stop!”

He slammed on the brakes.

Erin shoved open her door and jumped out of the truck. This was the spot from her vision, she knew it. Her body hummed with energy. Here.

“Erin, wait!” The grind of the tires crunched as he pulled off the road behind her. A door slammed.

Her gaze raked the road. The rain had fallen so hard during the night, it would have washed away any signs—

“Sonofabitch.”

Jude saw the markings first. Figured, his senses were better than hers.

Ten feet up the road, then right over the edge…

They ran together, then they went over that edge.

The mud sucked at her tennis shoes, making gulping sounds like it wanted to eat her, but Erin powered on through the falling mist. The broken car was in her sights now.

How can he be alive?

The car had been smashed, crumbled as if by giant hands, then thrown away.

In the distance, the shriek of a siren sounded. Help was coming. The ambulance she’d called before she left her house was getting closer, fast.

Jude reached the car door first. The window was broken, shattered, and inside, Erin could see Lee’s bloody form.

“Lee!” He didn’t move.

“He’s breathing,” Jude said. “But I don’t know for how much longer.” His fingers curled over the side of the door, and he yanked.

The door broke loose and fell to the ground.

Erin crawled inside the car. “Lee! It’s okay. Help’s coming!” Still alive. Finally, she’d reached someone in time.

He flinched and gave a moan.

“It’s okay,” she said again. Voices floated to her. The EMTs. They were running down the ravine now, having the same trouble with the thick mud. But they’d get him out. They’d be able to save him. They could stop the bleeding.

Because his shirt was drenched with blood.

Too much blood. And it trickled from his forehead. From the gash that went too deep.

She swallowed. “You’ll be all right.” Lie.

His eyes opened. “T-Tommy?” Rusty, weak.

“What?” Erin swallowed, fighting to stay calm. “Lee, who—”

“L-love y-you, s-son…” His eyes fell closed. His breath came out in a soft rush.

“Lee? Lee!”

“His heart’s stopped!” Jude’s snarl. He stepped back and yelled, “Get your asses over here, now! He needs help!”

“Lee?” Her whisper.

Then Jude’s arms were around her and he hauled her back. A woman in a blue EMT uniform pushed by her, followed immediately by two men.

But Lee still wasn’t moving.

Wasn’t breathing.

Too late.

Again.

Story of her life.

And Lee’s death.

Erin watched the swirl of red lights fade away. The EMTs had gotten Lee’s heart started again, but they’d been grim about his chances for survival.

“How the hell did you two even know he was down there?” Antonio’s fierce voice. He’d arrived on the scene less than ten minutes ago.

Erin shook her head. The ambulance had vanished around a curve. “We…saw the car when we were passing through.” She’d called 911 on her cell phone. Antonio wouldn’t be able to prove her story wasn’t legit. Provided, of course, that Jude backed her up.

Antonio grunted. “Uh-huh. What, the two of you decided to go for an early morning drive on this shit-forsaken road?”

“Something like that,” Jude murmured.

Thank you. He wasn’t going to tell Antonio about her dream. Good. The fewer people who knew, the better.

When am I gonna die, Erin? You know, right? You can see everything.

When am I gonna die? She’d been a freak show when she lived with her mother’s people.

The voices from her past needed to learn how to shut the hell up sometimes.

“Um…” Antonio scratched his chin. “These damn winding roads. Recipe for fucking disaster, especially with the rains we had.”

Erin stiffened. No, no, that wasn’t right.

Flawed.

Her father had been able to see all sorts of deaths. Those easy passings that came in sleep. Those tearful last moments surrounded by family and friends.

Not her.

Erin only saw the brutal deaths. Those caused by the hand of another. Blood-soaked.

Murders.

“I think you better check the scene.” Not an accident. No way. Not if she’d dreamed it.

“Why?” His gaze snapped to her. “What do you know, Jerome?”

She held his stare. “Check the scene.” If she was right, and Erin knew she was, there would be signs. Skid marks on the road. Paint from another vehicle on Lee’s car. Something.

Lee had been forced off the road. Left to die.

Not an accident. Not some bad slip of fate.

Deliberate. Cold.

The man had enemies, everyone knew that. But Antonio would have to find out just who hated the lawyer enough to kill him.

Antonio raised one dark eyebrow. “Rumor is…you and old Lee got into one hell of an argument in front of Judge Went yesterday.”

Erin tensed. Word traveled too fast in this town. “We’re lawyers. That’s we do. Argue.”

“Umm…”

Now what was that supposed to mean?

“Just strikes me as odd. First the perp you’re after winds up slashed and smiling, and now the attorney who pissed you off in court is barely breathing.”

Her own breath caught. “You think I’m involved in this?”

“She was with me,” Jude said, voice dark and menacing. “All night.”

Antonio’s eyes widened, just a bit. But the guy didn’t look intimidated. More like impressed. His gaze darted over her. “Like that, huh? Hunter, you work fast.”

Her face flamed. “You’re an asshole, Antonio.”

He lifted a brow. “Got to question things, ma’am, especially considering the report that landed on my desk right before I got the call about this accident.”

Jude stepped toward him. “The blood from her house?”

“Uh-huh. It was a match, just like you thought.”

She glanced back and forth between the two men. “A match?” Oh, this wasn’t going to be good. She didn’t need the fist knotting in her gut to tell her that. Damn, damn, damn.

“The blood on your walls belonged to Bobby Burrows.”

Her eyes closed.

“Now why the hell would the stalker — you said you had a stalker after you — kill old Bobby and leave his blood dripping onto your pretty hardwood floors?”

“Because he’s a sick freak!” And he was giving Bobby to me as a present.

She’d gotten enough of his presents to know his routine. If someone pissed her off, if someone hurt her, he stepped in.

I keep you safe, when you don’t even know it.

Bile rose in her throat. She had argued with Lee. Antonio had that part right. Had the stalker asshole been there, watching? And she hadn’t even known it?

And, oh, hell, had he gone after Lee, too? Because of her?

“Has to be a reason the guy killed Bobby,” Antonio continued. “This shit’s never random.”

No, it wasn’t. She opened her eyes to find the captain watching her.

Weighing her.

“Think you might know that reason, Jerome?”

Her lips parted.

“Back off, Tony.” Jude shook his head and stepped forward. “This isn’t the time for this conversation and you know it. I’ll come to the station, check the report—”

“It’s her story I want,” Antonio said. “There’s a murderer out there, ADA. One who seems to have killed for you.”

Not the first time, either.

“There something else about this case you need to tell me?”

Jude glanced at her.

Erin shook her head. They were starting to attract attention. The other cops who’d arrived on the scene were eyeing them with outright curiosity, and, once the news about Bobby’s blood leaked — and it would leak — she’d be kissing her new life good-bye.

And she’d barely had time to unpack.

He’d found her too fast.

Or maybe he’d never lost her. Goosebumps rose on her arms.

Antonio’s eyes tightened to slits. “I want to know everything about this bastard, you got me?”

“Fucking ease up, Tony.” Jude’s hands fisted. “Don’t push this now. We’ll both come to the station, but not now.”

Not when they had such an eager audience.

Antonio gave a grim nod and spun on his heel, calling out to the uniforms, “Rake the scene! Every damn inch.”

After a beat of time, Jude turned to face her. “More secrets, huh, sweetheart?”

Her heart almost broke, but her chin lifted. “We can’t be sure that jerk after me had anything to do with Lee’s accident.” But her instincts said he did. “Lee’s a defense attorney. Victims, criminals — they can all get pissed at him.”

“Pissed enough to try killing him?”

Maybe.

Or maybe her Romeo was out there, grinning his ass off. “Let’s get out of here.” She couldn’t stand out there with the cops and the wreckage any longer. She marched away, or tried to in the muck and mud, not waiting for him.

“Erin! Erin, shit!” The rustle of his clothes and the slog of his footsteps behind her. He grabbed her arm. “Wait.”

His hold jerked her toward him and Erin glared up at his face. “Not now, hunter.”

“Yeah, you keep saying that.” His nose nearly brushed against hers as he brought his face in close. “Newsflash, sweetheart, the asshole after you killed a man. This isn’t some game!”

“I never thought it was!”

“I’m gonna bring the bastard down, but everything you know about him, every single thing that has happened to you because of him — I have to know.”

Erin exhaled on a hard breath and knew there was no choice. “Okay.”

How would he look at her, she wondered, when he learned the truth?

At least I had one night with him.

One wild night.

Just how many secrets was the woman keeping?

Jude sat at his desk, eyes on the computer screen before him, but not really seeing the damned thing.

Erin.

The woman was fire in his hands. The hottest, sexiest thing in bed he’d ever seen.

And she was dangerous. So dangerous.

Because she’d been lying to him.

The woman had a freaking twisted killer on her trail. One the cops couldn’t catch or stop, so yeah, maybe she had a reason for the skittishness he saw.

But there was more. He knew it.

“So, stayed at the girlfriend’s last night, huh?” Zane asked as he strode into Jude’s office. The guy always made himself right at home. Boundaries didn’t exist so much for Zane.

Jude grunted and rubbed a hand over his bleary eyes. He’d stayed at the crash site, keeping an eye on the uniforms and the crime scene guys, and sure enough, they’d found black paint on the side of Lee Givens’s car.

He’d been forced off the road. No doubt in Jude’s mind.

But was the hit tied to Erin?

“Don’t blame ya.” Zane crossed his arms and leaned back against the window frame. “That’s one hot woman.”

Jude’s hand dropped. “Don’t.” A snarl built in his throat. Zane played free and easy with the women in the city, Other and human.

But Erin was off limits.

“Oooh…” Zane smiled. “Sore spot, huh?”

Jude considered planting his fist in the demon’s face. Not like it would do permanent damage, and wiping that smug-ass grin off Zane’s face would sure make him feel better.

“You found out yet just what she is?”

A woman. That’s what she was. Zane was a good hunter, but he could also be one Grade A Asshole.

“I think I’ll stop by the courthouse later. Get a good look at her.” Zane nodded. “I’ll see what she is.”

Right. Jude just bet the guy would “get a good look” at her. “She doesn’t use glamour.” Glamour was the magic demons used to hide their true selves from the world.

Demons really did look a lot like humans. The only physical difference was generally their eyes. A demon’s real eyes were pitch black — not just the iris, but the whole eye, even the sclera. When it came to demons, there was never any waiting until you saw the “whites of their eyes.”

Only darkness was in their eyes.

Glamour hid that darkness. The magic let the demons blend right in with everyone else.

Sure, the ancient demons were rumored to have a few more…obvious physical differences. But Jude had never encountered one of the horned and tailed bastards that some whispered about late at night. He figured they weren’t real.

Hard to tell in this world, though.

“You don’t know, Donovan.” Zane shrugged. “Let me get a look at her, I’ll know.”

Erin was a hybrid. He knew that. She’d said her father was psychic. Not a demon, just psychic.

But she’d been lying. Shadows had appeared in her golden eyes.

Tonight, he’d get the truth from her.

“You turn up anything on her background yet?” he asked the demon.

The smile dimmed. “You know I hate doing the grunt work.”

True. Zane liked to be out on the streets, kicking the shit out of the deserving. “Yeah, but I got seniority.” Life could be a bitch.

“Asshole.” Zane shook his head. “Her mom abandoned her, dropped her off on her father’s doorstep when she was fifteen.”

Jude tensed. Abandoned? Not really the shifter way. Even the damn coyotes kept their kids close.

Why would her mother leave her?

Fifteen. Right at puberty. The time of the first shift.

“The dad took her in, but he passed away during her first year of college.”

Talk about getting a hard punch in the face. Abandoned by one, and death took the other. “Any other family?”

“Not that I can tell. But with the mom? Could be.”

Jude’s fingers tapped against the desk top. “Track the mom, see what you can find out.” A shifter mother? And a shifter stalker. No way could he overlook that lead.

“Will do.”

Jude frowned. “Where’s Dee?” He hadn’t seen her all morning.

“Pak called her on a vamp case.” Zane looked down at his watch. “Right now, I’d say she’s…oh, cutting the head off some poor undead asshole.”

Probably. Dee did love her work. And if she was hunting during the day, she had the advantage.

Vamps were weak during the day. Almost human.

Dee always said that weakness leveled up the playing field. Of course, Jude figured the woman didn’t really need any leveling up. She could take the vamps down just as easily when they were running at full power. A talented woman.

Jude rose to his feet. Time for him to do some hunting. No sense in Dee having all the fun.

“Where you going?” Zane asked, straightening from the window.

“To rattle some cages.” And see just what the hell shook loose.

When Jude wanted, he could play the nice guy. Play.

But he could also be a real bastard.

He held his prey pinned against the wall, his forearm lodged against Michael McQueen’s throat. “Now we’re gonna go over this one more time, Mickey.” He smiled, and let the hyena shifter see his teeth. “I’m looking for the new shifter in town.”

Mickey spat at him.

Oh, wrong move. Jude threw the idiot across the room and swiped the back of his hand over his face. “Are you trying to piss me off?”

“You’re not takin’ me in!” Mickey jumped to his feet. Quick little prick.

“Yeah, I am.” Mickey liked to get a bit rough with his girlfriends. And he only dated humans. Guess beating the hell out of them was more fun for him than going up against someone with his own strength. “But before I drag your ass off to jail, you will answer my questions.”

Mickey’s red-rimmed eyes darted for the door. The guy reeked of alcohol. The tequila drifted off him in waves. It was barely one o’clock, and Jude had found the shifter knocking them back in Delaney’s bar.

Delaney’s. On the surface, it seemed like a regular place, but the owner was one real witch.

Mickey picked up a table and threw it at Jude. He swore and leapt to the side, swiping out with his claws.

“Dammit, you jerks are gonna pay for everything you break!” Catalina’s furious voice.

Noted. But no big deal because mostly, he just planned on breaking that idiot hyena’s face.

Mickey screamed, a high, shrill animal cry, and hoisted up another table.

Jude sprang across the room and knocked the table out of the hyena’s hands. Then he shoved the jerk up against the wall and pinned Mickey there with his claws.

Another desperate cry, one that had Jude’s ears ringing. Damn hyenas. They had the shrillest voices.

Jude twisted his claws and Mickey whimpered. “Who’s the new shifter, Mickey?” The guy was scum, but he knew every bit of shifter business that passed in the city. Hyenas and foxes always knew. They picked up every bit of gossip, every whisper.

Mickey shook his head. “No…new shifter.”

Not the answer he wanted. Jude sighed. “Ah, Mickey, why do we have to do this the hard way?”

The hyena flinched, and a soft, familiar scent teased Jude’s nostrils.

No, no way. She wouldn’t be there. Couldn’t be there.

But that scent — his cock began to swell.

Had to be her.

“Jude?”

Ah, hell. Talk about piss-ass-poor timing.

“Jude — what are you doing?”

Pretty much just what it looked like. Pinning prey.

“Help!” Mickey the idiot shouted. “This freak’s trying to kill me!”

Jude twisted his claws, because he could.

The hyena’s words choked off.

High heels slapped on the wooden floor. “You’re in a public bar, you can’t just—”

Sighing, he glanced back at Erin. Flushed face. Kiss-me red lips, and an are-you-crazy expression in her eyes. “Relax. The chick behind the bar’s a witch, the half-asleep asshole in the corner’s a charmer, and this jerkoff is a—”

“Shifter.” A whisper from her sexy lips. Her nostrils flared, just a bit.

Of course she’d know. Like to like.

Mickey whimpered and tried to appear pitiful. Jude had to give the guy credit — he looked pitiful. But he always did.

“You can’t do this.” Erin’s voice was still hushed. Maybe she wasn’t buying the whole the-bartender-is-a-witch story. “No matter what he is, you can’t just—”

A growl built in his throat. The rich scent of Mickey’s blood teased him. Maybe it was time Erin figured out just who, what, she was dealing with.

And sleeping with at night.

“Not a cop, sweetheart. Their rules don’t apply to me.” And what was she doing in the bar, anyway? Delaney’s wasn’t exactly well advertised in this city. More of a paranormals only club.

Catalina’s magic kept the humans out. They didn’t know why, but they just always walked right past the faded blue building with the white French doors on Louis Street.

“Lady!” Mickey’s squeak. “You gotta help me! This ass-asshole’s crazy. You need—”

He heard the inhalation of her breath. “Mickey McQueen.”

The hyena blinked.

“You’re wanted for three charges of assault and battery, McQueen.”

Yeah, and Jude would be collecting that bounty soon enough. “I want the name, Mickey,” Jude snapped, barreling right over Erin’s words. She wasn’t about to haul his prey away, not yet.

Mickey shook his head, a frantic move. “L-lady—”

“Have it your way.” The burn of his lengthening canines filled Jude’s mouth. His gaze narrowed on the hyena’s throat, on the pulse that thudded faster, faster. Jude lowered his head, teeth barred, almost tasting—

“No new shifters—none!” Mickey’s scream. Frantic. Mickey liked giving pain, but he wasn’t so much for taking it.

Jude stilled. The little asshole had to be telling the truth. Mickey had never been good at playing chicken.

No new shifters. But one new shifter was right beside him. How come Mickey didn’t realize that?

Erin grabbed Jude’s shoulder, jerked him back, and sent him hurling across the room.

Jude fell into a table. The wood gave way, smashing beneath him and sending his ass right to the floor. Hard.

“You’ll pay for that one, too,” Catalina said. The witch was just stating a fact. She didn’t sound too interested in the chaos.

Then, silence.

His gaze tracked to Erin. The lady wasn’t even breathing hard.

“Hot damn.” An impressed voice, an annoying voice. Zane. He stood in the doorway, hands on his hips, and watched Erin with narrowed eyes and pursed lips.

Well, at least now he knew why Erin had showed up at Delaney’s.

Mickey rushed toward the door, his claws out as he lunged at Zane.

The demon hit him hard and fast, and Mickey went down with a sigh shuddering out of him and his eyes closing.

Problem one solved.

Jude shoved up to his feet. Erin rounded on him, her hands fisted. “You can’t attack suspects!”

He lunged across the room. Caught one of those deceptively delicate fists in his hands. Kissed it. The woman had just tossed his ass ten feet and he wanted her. She was sexy and strong and her eyes were so dark and gold. Perfect.

Flawed? Not fucking likely.

The tiger inside was all but licking his lips.

“Mickey is guilty as sin,” he told her. “We both know it.”

“Yeah, he is,” Zane said, stepping over the prone shifter and straightening his shoulders. His gaze swept over Erin, from her head to her toes. The asshole lingered a bit too long on her breasts. He came close to getting a jab in the face then.

She ignored the demon, keeping her attention on Jude. “There are laws, you know.”

“Human laws don’t always apply to us.” She should know that.

Her jaw worked. “You were going for his throat.”

And she’d protected the little prick. Mickey sure owed her. “I wouldn’t have bitten, sweetheart.” He dropped her hand and missed the touch of her skin almost at once. But Zane was watching with those too-sharp demon eyes of his. And Catalina was pretending to clean a glass, but he knew the witch caught every word, every look. “Just trying to push some information out of him.” It was the way he worked. He wouldn’t apologize for threatening the hyena. Wasn’t like Mickey was one of the “good” guys, not any day of the week.

Her arms crossed over her chest. “Doesn’t seem like your push worked to me.”

Maybe. Maybe not. “Why didn’t he catch your scent?”

A furrow appeared between her brows. “What?”

Jude glared at Zane, but the guy just crept closer.

Finally, Erin glanced over at the other hunter.

“Some arm you got there, lady.” Zane offered her a smile. The same flirtatious grin he tossed at every female he saw, and one that usually gave him good results. Smiles back, phone numbers, even a couple pairs of panties.

“You.” She exhaled on a hard breath. “I recognize your voice.” She would. Shifters were great at recognizing tones and cadences in voice patterns. Came from their acute hearing. “You’re the one who called and told me to come down here.”

Yeah, Jude had figured as much. Glaring, he said, “I thought the plan was for you to stop at the courthouse.” And not bring Erin into his hunt.

The demon shrugged. “She wasn’t scheduled for court today. Had to improvise.”

Improvise. Right. Zane had sent her right after his ass, and Erin had seen him at the worst moment.

Well, technically, it could have been worse. Mickey had still been breathing, after all.

“You said Jude needed me,” Erin’s voice heated. “That it was urgent, that I had to get down to this Delaney’s place—”

“We’re the best bar in town.” A murmur from Catalina.

Erin blinked.

“He did need you,” Zane defended. “Why, you stopped the guy from crossing the line, from letting that wild beast out to attack and kill.”

Jude didn’t speak at that. He’d had control of his beast. He’d had control for years.

‘Cause the tiger had gotten loose once. He could still hear the screams sometimes. His prey hadn’t gone down easy.

He crept closer to Erin.

Zane’s head titled to the right, and he stared hard at Erin’s face. “You don’t seem too worried, lady.” A pause. “You’ve already seen the beast, haven’t you, Ms. Jerome?”

Her gaze darted to Jude.

“And you weren’t even a little afraid of him, were you?” Zane pressed.

No, she hadn’t been. Not when she’d seen him in tiger form. Erin hadn’t so much as backed up a step. No, no, she hadn’t looked afraid, she’d looked—

Thrilled.

Excited.

Not like a woman who was terrified of shifters.

And when he’d come back to her after the hunt, she’d done her one-eighty and seduced him.

Hands off to—

Hands most definitely on.

Not afraid.

Considering the shifter asshole after her, her attitude was a bit…surprising, to say the least.

“I’m not afraid of a little cat,” Erin said, voice soft and husky.

Little?

Zane’s loud laughter shook the room.

Jude was pretty sure he heard Catalina snort.

More laughter came from the demon. Then, after a couple of deep breaths, he managed to say, “Yeah, I guess if I were strong enough to throw him across the room, I wouldn’t be scared, either.”

The guy could throw him across the room. And had. At least three times sprang to mind. Two of those instances had happened right there in Delaney’s. Some nights, the place could get good and wild.

Erin cast a glance toward Mickey’s body. The hyena was still out cold. “I need to call the precinct and get a squad car out here for him—” She broke off, shaking her head. “I–I need…” Her voice thickened a bit and she lifted her hand, pushing her fingers against her right temple. “Th-that h-hurts…”

Jude stiffened and his stare jerked to Zane. The demon’s laughter was completely gone now and he was focused totally on Erin.

Bastard. He’d been waiting, biding his time to catch her off guard.

With a demon, one big-ass portion of his strength was psychic in nature. Demons could slip right into the minds of humans.

Erin could be half-human so would Zane be able to—

“Get out.” A grated demand, shaking with fury. Erin’s head jerked toward Zane and she bared her own teeth. Wickedly sharp teeth.

A low, pain-filled cry broke from Zane’s suddenly white lips, and his knees gave way beneath him. Before he could fall face-first into the floor, the witch was there, catching him, wrapping her arms around him.

Then Catalina stared at Erin with fear in her eyes.

Well, damn.