Eternal Flame (Night Watch 3)

But, hell, not as surprised as she was because, yeah, she did.

He shook his head. “You shouldn’t.” Zane started to pull away.

Jana grabbed his hand. “I think you’re the only one I should trust.” He’d never betrayed her. Hadn’t lied to her. Hadn’t—

“You don’t know what I can do.”

She had a pretty good idea. She’d been with him in the fire. His eyes were level with hers. “I killed him,” he said, whispering the words. “My own father, and I didn’t even hesitate.”

Her fingers squeezed his. “You didn’t—”

“I could still smell her blood on him. The bastard was high on his f**king drugs. Always the damn drugs. He killed her, gutted her, all because she tried to take away his drugs. She just wanted him to get clean.”

Jana swallowed. “Get in the car, Zane.” She didn’t like him being in the open. “Let’s go back home.” She wanted to be alone with him. To hold him. Weird. She’d never wanted to just hold a man before, but Zane wasn’t any man.

His jaw clenched. He pulled back, slammed her door, and hurried around to the driver’s side. When he jumped in, he revved the engine.

Jana touched the masculine fingers that gripped the wheel so tightly. “You did what you had to do.” She could understand that more than any other.

Slowly, his head turned to face her. His gaze was blacker than the night.

“I’ve got a lot of power inside me,” he told her, his voice quiet in the stillness of the car. “Maybe too much. I can do things …” He shook his head. “Killing him was easy for me.”

He’d never told her his demon power scale. She understood why. Most people feared the demons who tipped the scales. He didn’t want to be feared, just accepted. “You’ve got power, but you’ve got control of it.” The control was what mattered. Control separated the demons from the monsters.

“My control broke that night. I was just a kid.” His fingers whitened around the steering wheel. “But I killed him in an instant.” His lids lowered a bit. “What do you think would happen now if I lost my control?”

“I don’t think you would.” After everything they’d been through … no, the man had always been strong. Even when he faced death.

He laughed at that and shifted to reverse with a hard yank of his hand. “Baby, you don’t even know how close I’ve been.” The car slid back. He shifted again. “And you’d better hope you never see me that way. Because when my control shatters, hell comes calling.”

If he was as high on the scale as she believed, yeah, that could happen.

He drove fast. His eyes stayed locked on the road, and not on her anymore.

“Don’t go to the police station,” she told him and kept her fingers against him. “Take us back to your place.” Because she wasn’t afraid of him-or the hell he promised.

The car raced forward. Faster, faster, into the dark.

Fury coiled tight in Zane’s belly. Jana didn’t understand. She didn’t see him, not the real man. If she knew what hid under his skin, if they all knew …

They’d f**king run.

But she sat beside him, and she kept touching him. The woman should be pulling away. He’d tried to warn her while there was still time.

Because time was running out for Jana Carter. He’d realized that when he’d found her in his bedroom. She wasn’t just a fast screw. Someone to hold in the dark. A body to give him pleasure. No, she’d started to mean more.

Hell, he wasn’t even sure when the change had happened, but she mattered to him. Mattered more than anything or anyone else. And that was very dangerous.

No one got too close to him. He didn’t let himself care. He even kept the other Night Watch hunters at a distance. Because when he cared too much, if he let someone slip past his guard …

Dangerous.

But already, the demon wanted her. Jana had a darkness inside of her that the demon in Zane liked. She knew the horrors in the world. Wasn’t afraid of them. Wasn’t afraid of him.

When she should have been.

He risked a glance at her from the corner of his eye. Fucking beautiful. Deceptively delicate. And … Mine.

Maybe time had already run out for her.

He spun the car into his horseshoe drive and eased up on the gas. She’d called his place “home.” Did she even realize that? Did it matter to her? It sure as shit mattered to him.

His headlights flashed across the front of the house … and illuminated the body on the porch.

What the f**k?

Zane slammed on the brakes.

“Zane?”

Jana hadn’t seen the man. He killed the lights. “Stay here,” he growled, already jerking free of his seat belt and shoving open the car door.

“Wait!” The buckle clicked as she unhooked her belt. “What’s happening, I—”

“Stay. Here.” He wasn’t about to risk her. Not until he found out what was happening.

The blood hit him. The thick, coppery scent hung in the air. Strong and fresh.

Hell.

His gaze raked the yard. He didn’t see anyone else, but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t there, watching him.

Zane crept up the front steps, his eyes on the body. Worn boots, old, faded jeans, a too big, bloody blue shirt. When he saw the vic’s face, the breath expelled from Zane’s lungs in a rush.

He knew that face. Knew that dirty blond hair and those pale, haggard features. He’d seen the man just days before- when the wolf shifter had fled the fire.

Now, Marcus Malone lay on Zane’s porch, his right arm stretched toward the door, like he was trying to get help. The poor bastard’s throat had been ripped wide open. Ear to ear.

Zane’s eyes closed. This kid hadn’t been the killer.

Victim.

The car door groaned behind him. “Zane?”

He didn’t want her to see this. She’d tried to save the wolf.

“What’s happening?”

His enhanced vision showed him every detail of the scene. No defensive wounds on the shifter’s body. And … his clothes weren’t torn. The poor bastard hadn’t even been given a chance to shift. The killer had come on him too quickly.

And how the hell did someone sneak up on a wolf shifter?

His head snapped up. The same way a killer can-will- sneak up on a demon. When you were dealing with super-naturals, all bets were off.

His gaze flew back to his vehicle. Jana stood half in, half out of the car.