Marked by the Vampire

Chapter Nine

Shane shoved back the werewolf who’d just gone for his throat. He heard bones crunch when the wolf hit the ground, but he didn’t care.

Ambush.

They weren’t just facing off against one or two wolves. Not just that bastard David or the warden…a whole pack had attacked them. A pack that had closed in quickly—a pack that wasn’t stopping.

Connor was in werewolf form. Fighting fiercely. Biting. Clawing.

Duncan was near his brother. Slashing with his own claws and protecting Connor’s back.

Holly was outside. Firing silver bullets at the beasts and Pate—

“Fire!” Pate roared.

Hell, yeah, Shane knew about the fire. He could smell it, too. The pack had come in from the east, and they’d torched the med cabin first. Duncan had gotten Holly out of that place with a bellow of fury.

The wolves who’d been foolish enough to try and hurt Holly were dead on the ground.

“Shane!”

Olivia’s scream reached him over the fury of the flames. He whirled and saw the fire shooting up from her cabin. No!

Two wolves tried to take him down.

They were the ones to fall, and they didn’t get back up.

He kicked in the door of the cabin. “Olivia!”

She was on the floor, backing away from two wolves who stalked toward her. One was a big, hulking white wolf. A wolf with bright eyes that were fixed solely on Olivia. The other beast was a heavy, muscled gray wolf with bright, blue eyes.

The white wolf was familiar to Shane. He’d seen that beast on Purgatory. That beast had been hunting them both there.

David. The bastard had tracked Olivia to the mainland.

And the fire was spreading around the cabin. Too fast.

“Get away from her!” Shane lunged for them.

The white wolf sprang away from Olivia and came at Shane with his fangs snapping. Shane caught the beast’s mouth, slammed its jaws shut and then threw the wolf right toward the flames.

The white wolf—David—howled in agony, and rolled, trying to put out the flames that spread on his fur.

“Stop!” Olivia’s cry. “Stay back!”

Shane whirled. She had a broken chair leg in her hand and she was shoving it against the gray wolf. But the beast wasn’t stopping.

Above Shane, the ceiling gave a low, long groan. He looked up and saw the flames rolling overhead. Shane knew the ceiling was going to collapse. Shit, Pate had said something about djinn and fire. Blood and fire?

He used his strength and raced toward Olivia. He caught her, shoved her back, but a force field seemed to rip her right out of his hands.

The markings on the floor… the fucking bottle cage that Pate had set! It was still trapping her. “Olivia!”

She was on her hands and knees.

He shoved away the markings, smearing them in a frantic fury.

The gray wolf locked its mouth around her leg and hauled her back toward him, just as the ceiling gave way and fire rushed down on them.

“Olivia!”

Eric Pate heard the guttural cry and he leapt into the flames. He hated fire. Such a pain in his ass.

Shane was burning. Flames were on the vamp’s clothes. Rippling along his skin, and the fool was trying to go deeper into the fire.

Eric grabbed him and tried to drag the guy out of the cabin.

Fire could kill a vamp. Damn easy. Too—

Shane tossed him aside. When Eric crashed onto the floor, he was pretty sure that he broke his left wrist and dislocated his shoulder. He coughed as the smoke thickened around him. He was near the cabin’s door. Shane had almost thrown him through that door.

But then he was being jerked to his feet. Duncan McGuire was in front of him, and the flames were everywhere.

“Pate, are you all right?” Duncan demanded.

Eric fumbled for his weapon. He hated to do this, but there wasn’t a choice for him. “We have to…get Shane out.” There were only a few people he considered to be his friends in this world. Shane was one of those precious few.

He and Duncan headed into the thick of the fire. Shane was clawing at part of the ceiling—the ceiling that had fallen down on the bed and now covered half of the floor.

The vampire was so frantic. Eric knew there was only one reason he’d react that way.

Olivia was under that collapsed, burning ceiling.

The fire was blazing in hot, angry bursts, and the flames were eating everything in their path. If they didn’t get the vamp out, in the next five seconds, Shane would be dead.

Duncan grabbed Shane. The vamp whirled, snarling, “I have to get her, I have to get—”

Eric shot Shane. A wooden bullet straight to the heart. A guaranteed way to stop a vamp in his tracks. Shane’s body shuddered as he collapsed, and Duncan dragged the vamp out of there.

They all barely made it outside before the cabin seemed to implode. Fire shot toward the sky in big, wild streaks of orange and gold.

Duncan dropped Shane to the ground. The vamp wasn’t moving. Stiff, hard—dead. For the moment. He’d stay that way until Eric dug the wooden bullet out of the guy’s heart.

Eric turned his head and saw that a big, white wolf was pacing a few feet away. The other wolves had assembled behind the beast. They weren’t attacking, not yet.

What are they waiting for?

Then Connor jumped in front of Eric. Connor was bloody, battered, and in human form, but claws sprouted from his fingertips. “Who wants to try and go through me?”

The white wolf snarled.

Then the wolf whirled and ran into the woods. All of the other shifted werewolves followed him. They left their dead behind.

The cabin kept burning.

Connor rushed forward, as if he’d go after them.

“No!” Eric shouted. “That’s what they want.” He shook his head. “It’s a set-up. Hell, it always has been.” No one should have been able to access this safe house. No one.

I thought the traitor was in the FBI. Because that had been the Intel he’d received. Intel that hadn’t revealed the full truth about the traitor. I didn’t realize he was the one running the whole damn show. He’d made the connection with Senator Quick too late. With his resources, the senator would be able to discover all of the secrets that the Para Unit possessed.

“We need to get out of here.” Eric ignored his throbbing wrist and shoulder. “Now.”

Because those wolves weren’t done.

Neither am I.

Holly’s soft gasp reached him and he turned to see her falling to her knees beside Shane. Burns covered Shane’s arms and chest. The side of his face was lined with blisters. The burns wouldn’t heal until the bullet was out of him.

Holly cast a glare at Eric. “Do you always have to shoot us?”

Because he’d once put a wooden bullet in his sister, too. I didn’t have a choice. Jaw locking, he glanced away from her. “I saved his life.”

Connor paced back to him. “Where’s Dr. Maddox?”

Black smoke drifted in the air above the flames.

“Aw, fuck,” Connor muttered. “He’ll go insane.”

“That’s why you didn’t need to hunt the werewolves.” He looked back down at his old friend. Holly was digging the bullet out of Shane’s chest. “He’ll destroy them all.” Because Eric had realized what was happening between Shane and Olivia Maddox.

Something that could have been great.

Something that had been dangerous.

Something that was…gone.

“Almost got it,” Holly whispered. “Almost…”

The wind seemed to moan around them. A sound of pain. Suffering.

The black smoke thickened above the fire.

“Got it!”

He looked at her hands. Saw the blood-stained fingers, the small, wooden bullet and—

Shane sucked in a deep gulp of breath. His eyes flew open. The burns on his face began to heal as he yelled, “Olivia!” Shane tried to leap to his feet, but Duncan and Eric held him down. The last thing they needed was for him to burn again, especially since they’d just saved his life.

But there was no holding Shane, not for long. With a strength that Eric hadn’t seen before, Shane broke free of their grip. He staggered to his feet. Stared at the fire. Eric knew exactly what the vamp was planning.

“I will shoot you again,” Eric swore. “You’re not going back into those flames. You know the fire will kill you.”

“Olivia!” Her name was a tormented cry.

And the fool started to run to the fire. Hell, another bullet to the heart? Was that what it would take? Was he going to have to shoot his friend again?

But then the flames just…died away. In an instant, the crackling of the fire stopped. Smoke drifted lightly in the air.

“I can…smell her,” Duncan said, sounding stunned.

Connor faced the charred remains of the cabin. “So can I.” He sounded just as stunned as Duncan. “She should be dead, just ash, but I can smell her.”

Oh, hell.

According to the FBI files that he’d accessed, the way to kill a djinn was supposed to be a deadly combination of fire and blood. But the way to wake up a djinn’s powers…the way to summon the darkness within…

Black smoke snaked toward them as they all stood there, frozen.

The smoke slowly dissipated.

And when the smoke vanished, Olivia was there. Her clothing had burned away, but her flesh appeared unmarred. She walked straight toward them with slow, certain steps.

“Olivia?” Shane ran toward her. His hand locked around her arm, and as soon as he touched her, a rush of black smoke swirled in the air again.

The djinn are creatures of smoke and magic. He’d read that notation in the files he’d accessed.

Olivia collapsed in Shane’s arms. He lifted her up, held her closely against his chest. His eyes were wild, his expression maddened as he whirled toward Eric. “A werewolf bit her,” Shane said, voice ragged. “Right before the fire…I saw him bite her! She needs help! Help!”

Holly scrambled to his side, but Eric didn’t move.

He knew Olivia Maddox was beyond help.

She hurt…a damn lot.

Olivia groaned and opened her eyes. She was in a strange bed. An unfamiliar room. And she was handcuffed.

Was this becoming the story of her life?

She tugged on the cuff. It was linked to the side of what looked like a hospital bed.

A door creaked open. Footsteps padded toward her. Olivia glanced over and saw Holly pause near the bed. “You tried to attack me the last time I was here,” Holly said softly. “The handcuffs were for my protection.” A brief pause. “If you’re back in control, I can take them off.”

“I’m in control.” Her voice sounded funny to her own ears. Too husky and raspy. Olivia cleared her throat.

Holly unhooked the cuffs.

Olivia thought about springing toward the woman, but she had promised not to hurt her. For the moment, anyway.

“Where am I?” Olivia asked and her voice still sounded funny. Like someone else was talking.

“We brought you in to one of the Para Unit’s containment areas. Pate thinks you will be safer here because it’s a place that isn’t…on the books. The only people who know about it are those of us here now.”

Olivia licked her lips and swore she tasted ash. “The fire—is Shane all right?” She remembered seeing him, right before that burning ceiling had come crashing down onto her.

“He’s fine. Relax.” Holly backed up a few steps. “You’re the one who was…injured.”

Olivia glanced down at her body. She didn’t see any wounds.

“A werewolf bit you.”

Olivia flinched. She didn’t remember that part. At all.

“So, according to all the information I know, a werewolf bite means that you should be dead or transforming.” Holly shook her head. “But that’s not happening. Not with you.”

Olivia’s breath whooshed out. Holly was wrong. Or she was lying. “I-I wasn’t bitten.”

“You may just be the cure for the werewolf infection. A person who isn’t susceptible, who has a natural immunity against the bite.”

No. There is no cure for a werewolf bite. Olivia swung her legs to the side of the bed. Stood up. Her knees didn’t even wobble, awesome. Where is Shane? She felt a hard urgency within her, a need to find him. Right then.

“I finished your blood work.”

There was a note of hesitation, almost fear, in Holly’s voice. Olivia crept toward her.

“I finished right before the werewolves attacked.” Holly tilted her head to the side. “You aren’t human, not fully.”

Olivia stiffened her spine.

“But I think you knew that, right? I think you have been holding out on us all, Dr. Maddox.”

Olivia glanced toward the door. “Is Shane outside?”

“Shane was willing to burn to protect you.”

That news rocked through Olivia.

“But you walked away from the fire without a scratch. You stand there right now, no expression on your face, when I’ve just told you that you aren’t human.”

She might not be showing her emotions but it sure felt as if Olivia were shattering on the inside.

“Which side are you on?” Holly asked her.

Olivia shook her head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Anger tightened Holly’s delicate features. “Yes, you do.”

She marched toward the door, but Holly leapt in her path and bared her fangs at Olivia.

The woman was a vampire?

“It’s not as simple as a choice between good and evil,” Holly said. “Because maybe we’ve all got evil in us. All got some good too. It’s a choice about survival. Are you going to join the supernaturals out there when they attack the humans? When they stop hiding and come out full force? Or will you try to protect the innocents before they get slaughtered?”

She’d always wanted to help people. Always wanted to stop the monsters. “I wish I could stop them all,” Olivia said softly. If only. “But I can’t.”

Holly opened her mouth to speak, but smoke blew from her lips. Black smoke. Holly grabbed her throat as she fell to the floor.

“Holly!” Horror tore through Olivia as she grabbed for the other woman. Holly was convulsing on the floor. Smoke rising from her body. “She needs help!” Olivia cried even as her fingers flew over Holly’s body in an attempt to find out what was happening. “Help—”

The door flew open. Shane and Pate rushed inside. Pate immediately fell to his knees beside Holly. His gaze flew over her, assessing, then he grabbed Olivia in a grip that hurt. “What did you do?”

She shook her head. “Nothing—”

“Pate, get your fucking hands off her,” Shane warned.

Holly gasped, struggling to breathe.

“What did you do?”

“I-I said I wished I could stop them!” Those had been the last words she’d spoken before Holly collapsed on the floor.

Pate’s eyes widened. “Un-fucking-wish that.” He shook her. “Un—”

Shane yanked him back.

Holly’s skin was ghostly pale. “I take it back,” Olivia whispered. Had she truly done this?

“Rescind it!” Pate barked. “Say you rescind the damn wish!”

“I-I rescind the wish.”

Holly sucked in a deep gulp of air. The smoke stopped rising from her skin. Light color slowly filled her cheeks.

Olivia’s shoulders slumped.

“Told you…” Holly gasped out as her fingers caught Pate’s. “She’d…do the right thing.”

Olivia’s gaze jumped between Holly and Pate. Then to Shane. Only…Shane wasn’t looking her in the eyes.

She slid back as Pate helped Holly rise to her feet.

“It was too risky,” Pate snapped back to Holly. “And the plan was for her to focus that power on me, not you.”

Olivia’s hand flew out and she steadied herself on the bed. “You set me up?”

Holly took a few more, deep breaths.

Shane still hadn’t moved. What was up with that?

“A test,” Pate explained. “After the way you, um, rather impressively walked through fire before, we realized that your dormant powers must have been activated.” His hand rubbed Holly’s shoulder. “Blood and fire…guess they can kill djinns and bring them to life.”

Her stomach was in knots. “I thought I was hurting her!”

“You were,” Holly said with a quick wince. “Burning me alive.” She glanced at Pate. “The part about the djinn’s wishes being twisted up is true, too. She said she wished she could stop all the monsters, and the next thing I know, I’m tasting fire.”

“Yeah…” Pate drawled out the word as he focused on Olivia. “How about you do us all a big favor and don’t make any wishes for a while? At least not until we can learn more about just what you can and can’t do.”

Her hands wrapped around her stomach. They’d just experimented on her. She’d thought—Olivia shook her head and focused on Shane. “Why did you let them do this to me?”

A muscle flexed along the hard line of his jaw.

“Why?”

He didn’t answer her. Rage pumped through Olivia. “Dammit, I wish—”

Shane was in front of her in an instant, and his hand was over her mouth. “No more wishes.” His voice was low, gruff. “No more.”

“Ah…I think we should give them some privacy,” Holly murmured.

Olivia didn’t look away from Shane.

“Don’t kill him,” Pate called as he turned to leave. “We need him alive.” Then the door closed behind him and Holly with a squeak.

Shane’s hand was still over her mouth. His eyes glinting at her. Betrayal burned within Olivia. She’d thought he was on her side, but—

She yanked away from him. “Don’t touch me.”

His hands fisted at his sides. “That’s not really an option for me.”

She noticed his pallor then. He was almost as pale as Holly had been moments before. And his eyes…dark shadows surrounded his eyes and the faint lines on his face seemed deeper.

“Just to warn you, my control is razor fucking thin.”

A shiver slid over her. Hell, was it any wonder she was shivering? She was dressed in a paper-thin hospital gown. Olivia saw a bag near the door. She opened it. Found jeans, a shirt, shoes—all the clothing she’d need inside. Turning her back on Shane, she changed as quickly as she could, but she felt his stare on her. Every second.

“I thought you died,” he said when she turned back to face him. “I thought I let you die. The flames were everywhere, and I couldn’t get to you.”

Her breath slid out in a fast rush. Some of her fury eased because she could feel his pain in the room around them.

“Something broke then.”

She didn’t understand.

“In me…” And he stalked toward her. “I think the darkness got out. Pate should have seen it, but he didn’t.” He caught her wrist. Lifted it to his mouth. Pressed a hot kiss to her racing pulse. “The darkness got out.”

His teeth sank into her wrist.

She tried to pull away from him, even as pleasure pulsed through her body. Pleasure that came in long, drugging waves.

He was drinking from her. Licking her skin with his tongue. Pulling her against the hot, hard cradle of his body.

Desire, lust, built within her. She should have shoved him away. Instead, Olivia rubbed against him as the pleasure surged and surged and her climax—

“No!” Olivia ripped her wrist from him and stumbled away from Shane.

His lips were dark—her blood was on his lips. His fangs were out. His eyes blazed with a wild passion.

“You’re trying to control me.” Her heartbeat wouldn’t slow. “Another test, just like what they did.” She couldn’t trust him. Couldn’t trust anyone.

But Shane shook his head. “This is no test.” His eyes were filled with a dark tangle of emotions. Need. Anger. A hard edge of possession. “I need you…to survive.”

Okay, now that scared the crap out of her. “I want to leave this room. I want you to move out of my way.” Her wrist was throbbing, but it wasn’t a painful throb. Pleasure seemed to vibrate through her in time with each little pulse.

Shane inclined his head, and he backed away. She hurried past him and pulled open the door. Olivia wasn’t quite sure what she expected to find outside of that room—maybe another prison-like facility, but the bright lights and gleaming floor just appeared strangely…normal.

She hurried down the hallway, far too conscious of Shane’s footsteps behind her. She passed offices. Saw desks, phones. But no people.

She stilled in the middle of that hallway and turned to face Shane. “Where is everyone?”

His face was tense. “This facility hasn’t been used in a while. It’s a back-up location.” He hesitated, then said, “It’s a place that the senator doesn’t know about. It wasn’t officially on the Para Unit’s books.”

“Stop it,” she whispered as she stared into his eyes and took a step away from him.

He advanced toward her. “Stop what?”

“Staring at me as if—”

“As if I want to eat you alive?” Another slow, gliding step. “But that’s exactly what I want to do.”

Her wrist throbbed again, and the pleasure seemed to roll right through her whole body. It shouldn’t happen. She shouldn’t be so attuned to him.

He’d said they could be mates. She didn’t want his words to be true, did she?

“You realize that the senator was the one setting you up. Pulling the strings.”

She shook her head. “Donald has been my friend for years.” Her mother had worked as one of his aides. Donald’s daughter had been her best friend when she was a kid. But that had been before…

Before Chloe changed.

She cleared her throat and retreated another step. “Donald pulled some strings to get me clearance for projects like this one, yes, but he wasn’t using me. He was helping me.” Shane and the others had it all wrong.

Shane shook his head. “Pate has known for some time that a powerful werewolf was setting a plan like this in motion. A plan that would turn humans into prey.”

She turned away from him. Kept hurrying down that hallway. There had to be a way out of there. “You’re wrong,” she said again. “He’s no werewolf.” And this place was a maze. Her steps tapped faster against that gleaming tile.

In a blink, Shane was in front of her. She stopped, gasping. She hated that too-fast way he could move. Hated it.

“No, love, you’re wrong, but I guess you’ll have to figure that out for yourself, won’t you?” He seemed sad then, but he pointed to the left. “You can leave that way. You’ll even find a car waiting outside for you. Use the GPS navigation system, and you can be back home by nightfall.”

No way. He was just going to let her go? “Are you serious?”

He nodded. “But it’s a fucking ridiculous plan. The werewolves have your scent. You leave here, and they will find you.”

“And the alternative is…what? To stay hidden here, a prisoner?”

“You wouldn’t be a prisoner.”

She would be. “For how long?”

“Until the threat is over.”

That was pretty much not an answer. “And what happens if Pate gets the urge to bottle me up again?” She glanced to the right and saw the video camera perched on the wall there. No doubt, Pate was watching and listening to them at that very moment.

“I won’t let him.”

She wanted to trust him, but the door to the left was so close…Olivia slid away from him.

“Don’t do this.” His voice was flat. “It’s going to be the wrong choice.”

Her body felt cold. Her wrist—she pushed it against her side. “The werewolves won’t find me. I can disappear.” On her terms. Not Pate’s.

“You don’t want to stand with the Para Unit to face whatever the hell is coming?”

“I just want my life back.” That door was temptingly close. “That’s all.”

Her hand pushed against the door.

“And what about me?”

The question sank into her, and, without looking at him, she found she could be honest in these last moments. “You scare me, Shane. You make me want things that I shouldn’t. You make me…want you.” She shoved against the door. Sunlight spilled inside and on her. “And the way I feel when I want you—” Wild, desperate, on the edge of control. “That terrifies me most of all.”

She walked into the light and left him in the shadows.

The door clanged shut behind Olivia.

“You’re really going to let her walk away?” Connor asked.

Shane had known the damn werewolf was close by. “Her life. Her choice.”

You make me want things I shouldn’t. You make me…want you.

Her blood had given him a rush, one that still had him feeling drunk—and needing more. “She doesn’t want to be with the Para Unit.” Not that he blamed her. They’d nearly killed her. He glanced at Connor, gave him a faint nod. “I can count on you for back-up?”

“Yeah, but you and Pate really need to work on coming up with better plans in the future. This one is shit.” Connor leveled his stare at Shane. “You’re risking your life for her. A woman you just met days ago.”

The werewolf didn’t get it. “I’ve been on this earth for more than two thousand years.”

Faint surprise widened Connor’s eyes.

“I’ve seen countries rise and fall. Watched more death and pain than you can imagine.” Those memories would never fade. “I didn’t think there was any pleasure left for me here, then I looked up on a storm-tossed ferry, and I saw her.” In that moment, so much had changed for him.

“It’s…it’s the blood bond that I heard Pate talking about, isn’t it? I overheard him telling Holly that the blood was tying you to Olivia because the woman was some sort of genetic match for a vampire—”

“It’s not the blood. I was addicted to Olivia before my first taste.” He could hear the car cranking outside. Time to go. “Tell Pate that the debt is paid.”

Olivia didn’t want to stay with the Para Unit. She didn’t trust them. Fine.

He yanked open the door. Olivia was starting to pull away.

Did she really think he’d let her face the danger alone? He leapt forward and came down a few feet in front of her car. She slammed on the brakes and the scent of burning rubber filled the air.

Then she honked at him.

His lips twitched.

Olivia rolled down the window. “Vampire, are you crazy?”

He took his time walking to the passenger side of her vehicle. He climbed in. Stretched out.

“Uh…what are you doing?” Olivia demanded. She pointed to the nondescript building behind him. “Your team is in there.”

“And the woman I want is right here.” He caught her hand, lifted it to his mouth. Pressed a kiss to her wrist. “I’m not letting you go off alone, not with the werewolves out there.” And with the senator ready to close in…

Olivia might think the man was her friend, but Shane held no such illusions.

“Wait…are you saying…you’re…choosing me?”

She seemed stunned. Had she seriously thought he wouldn’t keep protecting her? Now that was rather insulting. “Maybe one day,” he told her quietly, “you’ll choose me, too.”

Olivia blinked those dark, gorgeous eyes of hers, eyes that could take a man to his knees.

“I’d advise against going to your place,” he said and pressed one more kiss to her wrist. She shivered. “They’ll be waiting there. After all, the senator knows where you live. The werewolves won’t even have to bother tracking you. They’ll just be staking out the place.”

She bit her lower lip. “Donald…has always been good to me.”

Donald is a dead man walking. “My place,” he told her. “We’ll be safer there.”

He could see the hesitation in her eyes, but after a few moments, she nodded and slowly pulled her hand from his grasp.

The car accelerated smoothly, and they left the Para Unit behind.

From his office, Eric Pate watched the black vehicle drive away. “The game is in motion.”

Behind him, Holly sighed. “People’s lives aren’t part of a game. How many times do I have to tell you that?”

He turned toward her and decided to ignore her question. “You’re dead certain about the results of Dr. Maddox’s DNA analysis and her blood work?”

“Yes. I don’t make mistakes.” Now she sounded a bit disgruntled because he’d questioned her, but Holly rallied quickly. “One of her parents was human, I’d bet my life on it.”

Olivia Maddox wasn’t the first hybrid he’d come across. She wouldn’t be the last, either. And with the others, their paranormal sides had often been dormant, needing a trigger to emerge.

Blood and fire.

“He triggered her,” Eric said, certain now of the senator’s intent. “If you want to wake a beast, what better place to do it than in Purgatory?”

“But what is he going to do with her now?”

His fingers tapped against his chin. “That’s what Shane will find out for us.”

Hiding Olivia within the Para Unit would have done no good. Other agents—humans—would have just gotten caught in the crossfire when the attack came. Senator Quick had too many powerful friends and far too much pull in the FBI.

Hiding her wasn’t an option, but using her as bait…that certainly was.

Holly raised her brows. “I get that Shane felt like he owed you…but why was that? I mean, if he’s some all-powerful vamp—”

“He’s the strongest vampire I’ve ever met.” And he’d come across more than his share.

“Then how did you convince Shane that the guy actually owed you?”

He remembered a battle on sand that burned, and blood that formed the only river around them.

Before Eric had joined the FBI, he’d been an Army Ranger, working in the Middle East. “I met him on my second tour,” he said, voice soft. He didn’t usually talk about his Ranger days, not with anyone, even Holly. “Detonations were going off all around me. Screams were filling the air. And I thought I was going to die.”

Holly didn’t speak.

“There was a school up ahead. So small, right in the middle of that freaking desert. I could hear the children crying out from inside.”

She flinched.

And he kept remembering. “Shane went to help the children.” He could still hear the explosion. “I don’t even know how the hell he got there, or why he was there, but when the detonation went off, a detonation that should have killed those kids, that fucking insane vamp was right on top of it.” Absorbing the blast.

Nearly getting torn apart.

“Fire can kill a vamp.” And Shane had been willing to run into fire for Olivia. Don’t give her that much of yourself, man. “I helped him.” An exchange of blood in a place where he could feel the cold touch of death. “We both made it out of there.” And Eric …he was mostly alive now because of that change.

Mostly.

“You’re his friend.”

He was. “Yes.”

She walked toward him. Tipped back her head. The smile that crossed her face was sad. “What do you think your friend will do to you if Olivia Maddox dies?”

He already knew. Shane was protective of his allies, but his enemies…he showed them no mercy. “He’ll kill me.”