Hotter After Midnight (Midnight 1)

Dammit. It wasn’t as if that had been the first dead body she’d ever seen.

She’d found her grandmother after her heart attack, and her father after his suicide.

She stabbed the spoon down into the rapidly melting chocolate. No, it hadn’t been her first dead body, but the sight had still hit her like a punch in the gut.

Jesus. There had been so much blood.

And she currently had four vamps as patients, so it wasn’t as if she weren’t used to dealing with blood. Every time she touched their thoughts, images of blood took center stage.

But tonight, that man…he’d been different. The vamps she saw treated blood like it was sacred. To them, blood was life.

Yet when she’d seen the crime scene, the blood had meant nothing more than death.

I have to stop thinking about the body. Emily took a big bite of the ice cream, feeing the cold, delicious chocolate slide over her tongue.

Her toes curled into her carpet. Oh, that was better. That was—

A flash of headlights lit up her living room.

What in the hell?

She pushed the bowl of ice cream onto her coffee table, rose quickly, and turned toward her window. Through the thin curtains, she could see a vehicle pulling into her driveway.

The purring of the engine reached her ears, followed by the faint crunch of gravel beneath the tires.

Her gaze darted back toward her TV stand, locking briefly on the VCR clock. Two-thirteen A.M.

Who would be coming to visit her at two A.M.?

A car door slammed. Footsteps rapped against her sidewalk.

The image of a blood-soaked room flashed before her eyes. The image of death, of a man’s final, terrified scream.

Her doorbell rang.

Emily crept toward the door, moving almost soundlessly over the carpet. She pressed her hands against the wooden door, leaned forward, peered through the peephole, and saw—Detective Colin Gyth. He was standing just on the other side of her door, illuminated by the porch light.

Her breath expelled in a nervous rush. Okay. She should probably be glad that a cop— instead of a robber or some kind of crazed killer—had come to see her in the middle of the night. But Detective Gyth…

He just wasn’t your average cop.

And the guy made her very, very uneasy.

She opened the bottom lock but kept her security chain in place as she opened the door two inches. Enough room for them to talk, but nothing else. “Detective Gyth?”

He stepped closer. The light dipped across his face, making him look somewhat sinister.

Oh yeah, like she needed that visual right then.

“I need to talk to you.”

She’d figured that out, considering the guy had driven all the way to her place— and really, just how had he known where I lived? He must’ve had her checked out, she realized. Probably when Danny had first told him to contact her.

“Dr. Drake?” He lifted his hand, touched his palm to the door. “Let me in.”

She didn’t want to. Every instinct she had screamed at her. Letting Gyth inside would be a very serious mistake.

“I don’t want to cause a scene”—his dark voice was pitched low—“but if I have to wake your neighbors to get inside, I’ll do it.”

Her chin lifted. “I don’t like being threatened, Detective.” She started to push the door closed. She had only two immediate neighbors. One was out of town—the family had gone on a vacation to Disney World. The other, well, there was no way Shirley was home yet.

“Wait!” His palm shoved against the door, effectively halting her movement. His eyes met hers. “Would you please let me come inside?”

Umm, now that sounded like it must’ve hurt. But she still wasn’t budging. “What do you want?”

“I told you, I need to talk to you.”

Yeah, and so did all of her patients, but she wasn’t inviting them inside her house in the middle of the night.

“It’s about the case.”

He had her attention.

“All right.” Her fingers fumbled with the chain. “You can come in for five minutes. Got that? It’s late, I want to sleep, and you can just come in for—”

He pushed open the door, stepped inside, his big body forcing hers back. His thumb lifted, rubbed against her bottom lip. Then he brought his hand to his mouth and licked the tip of his thumb. “Mmmm…”

She stared at him, eyes wide, mouth agape. He hadn’t just—

His lips tilted into a smile. “I love chocolate.” His gaze dropped down to her lips. “Mind if I have another taste?”

Emily stepped back, ramming into the wall. Her heart was suddenly beating too fast. Her palms were damp, and that tight, hot feeling was back in her stomach again. And all he’d done was touch her lips.

Oh no, she could not want this man.

Getting involved with a shifter would be pure idiocy.

She swiped her hand over her lips, trying to rub away any ice cream that might be left. Didn’t want to leave any temptation for him.

“Hmmm. Guess that’s a no, huh?” Colin sighed, glancing back toward her living room.

“It’s a definite no.” Despite the little voice in her head that wondered, just for a moment, what it would be like if he kissed her.

Emily inhaled sharply. It was late, she was getting loopy, and she was most definitely not finding the shifter attractive.

“Is it because of what I am?” He asked the question as he turned his back on her and sauntered into her living room.

“What?” She shook her head, hurriedly slammed and locked the front door, and followed on his heels. “I thought you came by to discuss the case.”

“Umm.” Not really an answer. He made himself comfortable on her sofa, put his boots on her coffee table. “Nice. Real comfortable place you’ve got.” His stare swept around the room, noting the bookcases, the light yellow walls, the big-screen TV. “I like it.”

Well, that was just great.

Damn. She should have never let him in.

“You and I have a problem, Doc.” He turned that bright blue stare back on her as she stood at the edge of the couch, glowering down at him.

Emily stared at him silently, waiting.

“You know what I am.” His voice roughened slightly as he made this announcement.

She didn’t deny it. What would be the point?

His eyes narrowed fractionally as he studied her expression. “That’s not good for me. Not good at all.”

A flicker of nervousness shot through her. She wasn’t sensing any sort of physical threat from the cop, but maybe she just wasn’t looking deep enough into him.