Always go with the stronger side, she thought. Mara wrenched away.
“Jones deserves to die. I don’t need saving. Go bite a surfer. Leave me alone.”
“I cannot, Mara. Our destinies have collided.” His gaze burned with intent. “You saw the vision. We will be lovers.”
Cold sweat trickled down her back. “It was just a dream!”
“You know it was not,” he said gently. “Come with me. I don’t wish to see you die, and you will die if you kill Jones.”
The threat hung between them. But she had yet to fully explore her own powers. And to leave Jones unpunished, free to hurt more innocents?
Jones left the restaurant. He glanced across the street, saw her and smiled. Fear threaded through her, then curdled into cold rage.
“Bring it on,” she whispered.
Snarling, she felt her teeth sharpen. Fingers unfurled as talons sprouted. Mara itched to shred and rip and hurt. Just as he’d hurt her.
People glanced at her. Their eyes widened and then they scurried past. Some made remarks about Halloween photo shoots.
Jones gazed at the traffic as if to cross the street. Mara shot to her feet, only to have Lucien seize her wrist.
“Hurt him and what pain you inflict will be visited on you double.”
“Worth it.” She reached for the switchblade.
Lucien muttered an oath in a language Mara recognized as Latin. Her mother had spoken Latin fluently. Her sweet, angelic mother.
Her father had the real power, Mara thought.
“Look to your right,” he told her. “Two Society bounty hunters are waiting for you to attack Jones. When you do, they’ll be free to draw your blood. Not destroy you. Just hurt—and they can hurt very badly. Sometimes they don’t wait if they’ve seen your powers manifest.”
He gave a pointed look at her long gray talons. Terror snaked in her heart as the hunters started forward. Hunters never gave up. They liked to play, torment prey before they brought them in dead or alive.
With her parents, they had settled on dead.
Lucien held out a hand. “Come with me.”
The darkness screamed and raged. The calming light pulsed with common sense. She couldn’t take Jones here, out in the open.
The vampire offered safety away from the bounty hunters. He might be more dangerous, but for now, she’d take her chances.
Sheathing her talons, Mara took Lucien’s hand.
As she stood, the two hunters walked closer, their expressions savage and intent.
“Damnit,” Lucien muttered.
Shock filled her as he pulled her into his arms and covered her mouth with his.
Chapter 4
Warmth sang through Mara’s veins as Lucien’s lips coaxed and teased. His arms were two solid bands around her, holding her fast. She stopped trying to push him away. The snarling darkness faded, replaced by intrigue and desire.
Her arms slid up to wind around his neck. Drew him even closer as he deepened the kiss.
She’d never known kissing could be so wonderful. Parting her lips, she took his tongue inside the wet cavern of her mouth. Teasing, licking, tasting. Her tongue flicked at the tip of a fang, feeling it descend in response.
He tasted of darkness and sin, temptation and delicious need. And yet, beneath the wicked wanting was the bitter tang of sorrow, as if Lucien had danced with a devil much more powerful than the one inside her. Passion wound both of them together.
His scent wound around her in tendrils of spice and pure maleness. Mara whimpered as he fisted his hands in her hair. His erection rubbed against her lower belly.
We will be lovers.
Claiming her body, as he claimed her soul, dominating her and never allowing her the heady freedom she’d called life. The vision burned in her mind as his tongue tangled with hers.
And then he pulled away, his dark eyes calm while hers were wide with desire, his breathing even as hers was ragged. The kiss meant nothing.
Nothing at all. Trembling, she wiped her mouth clean of his taste, his touch. Anger burned with a cool flame. “What the hell was that about?”
“Give me a moment,” Lucien told her.
Jones had vanished. But the hunters hadn’t left.
His gaze locked on them like a laser beam. “Leave us. She’s violated no rules.”
A deep growl rumbled from one werewolf. They did not budge. Lucien squeezed his fist.
Blood streamed from the nostrils of the growling hunter. Holding his head, the shifter cursed as his partner paled. They turned and stalked off.
“Come.” Lucien took her hand. “My hotel is near.”
He escorted her to a sleek Mercedes. When they reached the beachside resort, she finally spoke. “You kissed me as a distraction.”
Lucien got out and then opened her car door with a courtly, Old World manner as a valet rushed to aid them. “I kissed you to mark you as mine. As a warning for them to keep their distance. And when that didn’t work, I applied a little more pressure.”
“I’m not yours.”
Desire smoldered in his gaze. “You will be—soon. It is our future, Mara.”
Shock left her speechless. As they entered the hotel, the doorman gave her a friendly smile and a wink. As if he knew Lucien’s intentions.
Mara growled and sent a thought stabbing into the doorman’s head. Wincing, the man pressed two fingers against his temple.
Lucien frowned and hustled her toward a bank of elevators. “No more of that, Mara. He did nothing to you.”
“What’s the big deal? You did the same to the hunter. I only gave him a splitting headache so he’d think twice about winking at me. Not that he has a brain, seeing what he does for a living.”
As they stepped into the elevator, Lucien shook his head. “Don’t judge so quickly. That doorman is named Mark, and he was a professor of economics. Mark developed a gambling problem, his wife divorced him and he took to drinking. This is only temporary.”
“Who are you, Saint Lucien? Who gives a damn about a doorman?”
The bell dinged and Lucien stepped aside to let her pass. “You did, Mara. You met Mark when he was homeless, dirty and panhandling on the street and you gave him money for a hot meal. No one else would look at him, but you. Your kindness gave him confidence to seek out help and get this job.”
Too stunned to respond, she waited as he unlocked the door to his suite. Mara followed Lucien into a living room with an L-shaped white leather sofa, a wet bar and sleek wood furnishings. Behind the living room was a bedroom with sliding glass doors looking out to a frothy turquoise ocean.
Closing the door behind him, Lucien leaned against it. “You’ll stay here, with me and out of sight.”
“Like hell I will. I’m here only until those hunters stop following me. Or I can harness enough power to break their kneecaps.”
“You will not touch them and you will not disobey me in this.”
Bristling, she told him to do something anatomically impossible. His sculpted lips twitched.
“Such a filthy mouth. You should be spanked,” he murmured.
“I dare you to try it,” she taunted.
Breath hitched in her lungs