“I’m not what you think,” she whispered, still with her head down.
Not gonna have that. “Look at me.” Guttural. The need was too stark for anything else.
Her head lifted and the coal black strands slid back. Her eyes held his in the mirror.
She said, “I-I’ve got shifter blood.”
No doubt.
Her head moved to the left, then right. “But I can’t shift. I can’t.” Anger, no, fury in her voice.
Well, hell.
He’d heard of a few others like her. Hybrids. From the matings of shifters and humans. Or shifters and charmers or even demons. Some hybrids came out even stronger than the purebloods. The strength of both parents, the weaknesses of neither.
But then there were tales of other hybrids…
Those who got the weaknesses, but not the strengths.
No, I’ve felt her strength. Erin sure as shit isn’t weak.
“I’m…flawed, okay? The beast in me—hell, she may as well be dead.”
He leaned over her, grabbed her hands and trapped them against the countertop. “She’s not dead.” Erin felt so good against him.
Right.
“Look,” he ordered. Across the top of the counter, etched in deep, were claw marks. Just like the ones on his chest.
“You’ve got a beast all right, sweetheart. And whether you can shift to let her play or not, doesn’t make a bit of difference.” He turned his head, rubbed his nose against her throat.
Some cats really were all alike.
“I want you, and I don’t f**king care what you are—or what you aren’t.”
Then, before the last of his control splintered, he shoved away from her.
Erin twisted, staring up at him with those eyes that he knew could easily see right through him. In too deep.
“And you’re f**king not flawed. ”
He stormed for the connecting door. So the lock was broken. He needed space right then. Or else he was gonna pounce on her.
“You don’t know, hunter.” She’d followed him from the bathroom. Her voice sounded hollow and when he looked back, her face could have been a blank mask. “You don’t know me.” Her chin lifted. “And trust me, you’re better off that way.”
Jude had left her. Good. She didn’t need things to get sexual between them. It would just make the situation worse.
Like it could really get much worse.
He didn’t understand. When she’d told the guy she was flawed, she hadn’t been talking about her inability to shift. No, she’d always thought not shifting was a blessing.
“You don’t understand.” A whisper directed at the closed white door.
No one did.
Well, just one person…the bastard who’d left her the bloody love letter. He knew too well what she was like on the inside.
That knowledge was why he was after her.
Damn him.
Flawed.
Broken.
Chapter 5
“We’ve got a new case.” Jude kicked the conference room door closed and eyed the man who’d first recruited him.
Jason Pak. Half-Korean, half-Choctaw—and one hundred percent charmer. A tough ass**le, one who liked to wear three piece suits and go gator hunting on the weekend.
Well, not so much hunting, since his gift allowed him to talk with the gators.
Pak lifted a brow. The guy was pushing fifty, maybe sixty, but there wasn’t a single line on his face. “I’m aware of the situation with Bobby Burrows. I talked to the ADA myself last night.”
“Not just about Burrows.” Jude had come to Jason right away, because he wanted the backup of the agency. “It’s about Erin.”
“Our ADA is much more than she seems.” Pak eased back in his chair, steepling his fingers beneath his chin. “Isn’t she, Jude?”
No shifter senses, but Pak always seemed to know everything about the Other.
“Gus is sure she’s not demon, and I don’t take her for a witch.” Pak’s black stare didn’t leave Jude’s face. “You stayed with her in a hotel last night. Does that mean she’s one of yours?”
Mine. If only. “It means she’s my client.”
Pak didn’t blink.
“She’s got an ass**le stalking her. He’s Other. Last night, he left a bloody message on her wall.”
“I know.”
Of course he did. “She needs protection, the kind of protection the cops can’t give her.”
A slow nod. “But we can.”
Damn straight. “I want this guy.” Well, mostly he just wanted to kill him. “Give me Daniels and Wynter.” They were the best, well, after him.
As far as Jude knew, Pak was Night Watch. The agency was his baby. If there were superiors to him, Jude had never seen them or caught even a whisper of their names. So if he was going to pull in the other two agents, he’d need Pak’s go-ahead.
And if he didn’t get permission—screw it. He’d find another way to protect Erin and to nab the bastard.
“All right.” Pak’s long, bony fingers reached for the phone. The speaker clicked on and he ordered, “Send in Dee and Zane.”
Yes.
Normally, Jude hunted alone. He liked it that way. But this time, he wanted extra eyes. Not eyes for his own back, but for Erin. The better to keep her safe.
Pak rose from the chair. Straightened his jacket. “Careful, shifter. If you let the case get personal, you could find yourself in dangerous waters.”
Too late. He watched silently as Pak left the room. When the door shut, he muttered, “It’s already personal.”
One beat of time. Two, then…
The door shoved open. Dee came in first, her small body moving fast. “Hey, Jude! What’s up?”
Zane strolled in after her. The guy always seemed to take things at a stroll. When the door shut behind him, he lifted a brow and just…waited.
Jude’s gaze drifted between them, the two agents he trusted the most at Night Watch.
Dee. Ms. Sandra Dee Daniels. But if any fool made the mistake of calling her Sandra Dee, she kicked his ass.
Dee was small but deadly. She could track a man across three states and barely break a sweat.
And Zane Wynter. Tall and lean, the guy knew how to hunt and how to catch prey. Dark hair, green eyes—a lie that, because Jude knew the cagey bastard really had demon black eyes—and a knack for tagging supernatural killers. The guy loved playing on the dark side and playing with his prey.
Dee stared, one golden brow arched. “This got anything to do with all the action that went down at the ADA’s place last night?”