Eternal Flame (Night Watch 3)

Jude held up the pages, and the first thing Zane saw was … her.

No, not Jana. Not exactly. Different hair. Blond. Different eyes. Brown, not blue. Same mouth. Same nose.

Pak had told him a blonde was seen at the other scenes. So she’d dyed her hair. And he’d found a black-haired lady at Francis Street. “Who is she?” he demanded.

They left holding, walking back to the Night Watch’s main offices. “She’s got some aliases,” Jude told him. “Katherine Tanner, Judy Bright, Melissa Jones. But from what I can tell, her real name’s Jana Carter—”

Jana. Wait, she’d given him her real name?

“She was put in a juvenile facility when she was thirteen. She stayed there for five years.” Jude’s bright gaze met his. “Apparently, the woman liked to start fires.”

Fuck.

“Police want her for a series of fires in New Orleans,” Jude said.

Zane took the pages and scanned the info. His prey was thirty-one, five-feet-four inches tall, and one hundred-and-thirty-three pounds.

“Her stepfather died in the fire that landed her in the juvie facility,” Jude continued. “I guess she started young.”

Looked that way.

A killer? He’d stared right into her eyes and hadn’t seen what she really was. He was slipping. Or maybe she was just real good at lying.

“From what I can tell, she’s been selling out her services to the, ah …”

Zane glanced up at him, eyes narrowed.

“Highest bidder for the last few years. If you’ve got a supernatural you want taken down, she’s your girl. Vamps, charmers, low-level demons … she’s a real equal-opportunity killer.”

How can I ever thank you?

Such a sweet, lying mouth. He stared down at the picture again. At her. He’d really thought she might be innocent.

He kept making the same dumb-ass mistakes.

“You gonna be okay on this one?” Jude asked quietly.

The office buzzed around them. Phones rang. Voices called out. The fax machine beeped.

Zane tucked her picture into his back pocket.

Jude frowned. “Look, I know the last Ignitor case you worked with was—”

“I handled her, didn’t I?” Zane fired back, breaking through the words.

Jude’s head moved in the faintest of nods.

Handled her. Such cool words for the death he’d given the other woman. “I can do my job. I can do what needs to be done.” The same spiel he’d given Pak, but he meant the words. Nothing, no one would stop him.

“Good.” Pak spoke from behind him, and Zane tensed. “Because Jacobson gave me a location. He says the woman found him in a dive called Dusk. It’s a new club that opened on St. Antony and—”

“I know the place,” Zane said, exhaling. Word traveled fast in this town. “It’s a den.” A demon’s den. The place for his brethren to go in and take their drugs of choice. Darkness rode many of his kind, and the drugs, oh, they tempted.

“Oh, shit, man, I can take this one,” Jude offered. “I know you—”

“Can take on a den any day of the week.” Damn, but he regretted the drunken night he’d made the mistake of spilling his past to the tiger shifter. That guy never forgot anything.

“Then go get her,” Pak said, “bring her in. No matter what it takes, bring her in. “

Time to take another killer off the streets.

“You shouldn’t go in there.” The husky, very female voice stopped Zane cold just as he prepared to climb the steps leading up to Dusk.

The voice was laced with a soft drawl, edged with a breath of sex, and it crawled over his body like a caress.

A demon shoved past him, heading inside Dusk, and when the door opened, the beat of the music blasted Zane’s ears and the scent of drugs burned his nostrils.

“Of course, you don’t have to listen to me,” she murmured. Jana. He turned his head a few inches to the right and saw her slide from the darkness. “It can be your funeral.”

She looked vulnerable. Small, delicate. Almost helpless as she stood in the shadows with her arms crossed over her chest. Watching him with such big eyes.

But her words … “Ah … did you just threaten me?” He moved away from the door. Turned his back on the den and began to stalk her.

She crept once more toward the shadows and he followed her. His heart rate kicked up. She’s making it too easy.

“You won’t believe this,” she told him, “but I’m not the threat tonight. Well, not the one you need to be worried about.”

She was close enough to grab now.

A soft sigh slipped past her lips as her hands dropped to her sides. “You shouldn’t have come here. You should’ve just taken the demon in and called it a day.”

A shocked laugh broke from his lips, one without a drop of humor. “Lady, you killed someone in that alley.”

She flinched. “The vampire would have killed me. I didn’t have a choice.” Her right hand lifted and rubbed against her chest. Thanks to his demon-enhanced senses, he saw the blood on her shirt, and he caught the coppery scent on the wind. “What did you want me to do?” she asked, and heat blasted through her words. “Just stand there and let him cut my heart out?”

A muscle jerked in his jaw.

“Or maybe I should have waited for you,” she muttered, those sexy eyes narrowing, “like he wanted. I should have waited, and then I should have made sure you were the one who didn’t walk out of that alley.”

His hands flew out and he caught her, pulling her close and lifting her right off her toes. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m easy to kill.”

Her chin inched up. “And you don’t need to make the mistake of thinking you’re immortal. Everyone can die. Everyone.”

“You’d know, wouldn’t you, baby? You kill for the highest bidder.”

She didn’t blink. Those eyes stayed locked on him, still blue. The fire hadn’t lit within her yet. If it had, her eyes would have been blood-red.

“Do you know what I did to the last Ignitor who came at me with fire in her eyes?” he demanded. Her mouth was temptingly close. He’d kissed that mouth before. Tasted her. Wanted more. Fool.

A guy’s dick could get him into some serious trouble.

“Dumb ass,” she said, and his eyes narrowed. “I’m not charging up. I’m trying to warn you.”

“About what?”