Midnight Rising (Midnight Breed 4)

It couldn't be him. He couldn't be here looking for her...

But it was him.

And from the knot of terror that was lodged in her throat, she wasn't about to stand around and ask him what he wanted from her.

She raced over to the station security guard and grabbed the man by the arm. "Help, please! Someone's after me." She flung a look over her shoulder, pointing behind her. "He's back there - light trench coat and long dark hair. Please. You have to help me!"

The uniformed Czech frowned, but he must have understood her because he followed her panicked gesture, his narrowed eyes scanning the station. "Where?" he asked, his English thickly accented. "Show me this man. Who is bothering you?"

"I don't know who he is, but he was right behind me. You can't miss him - more than six feet tall, shoulders like a linebacker, dark, dingy hair hanging over his face..."

Feeling safer now, she turned around, ready to confront the lunatic and hopefully watch him be carted off to the local asylum.

Except he wasn't there. Dylan searched the crowds for the big man who would stand out like a rabid, snarling wolf in the center of a herd of milling sheep. There was no sign of him at all. People filed past in ordered calm, nothing out of sorts, no hint of disruption anywhere.

It was as if he'd simply vanished.

"He's got to be here somewhere," she murmured, even though she couldn't find him - not among the throngs entering and leaving the terminal, nor among the station's population of homeless people. "He was right here, I swear. He was coming after me."

She felt like a fool as the security guard's gaze swung back to her and he gave her a polite smile. "Not anymore. You are okay now?"

"Yeah, sure. Okay, I guess," Dylan said, feeling anything but okay.

She cautiously headed for the front entrance of the station. Although it was a beautiful summer night, with clear skies and plenty of people walking through the surrounding park and on the streets leading deeper into the city, Dylan hailed a taxi to take her the few blocks back to her hotel.

She kept telling herself that she must have been imagining things - that she couldn't possibly have seen the man from the mountain cave stalking up behind her in the train station. Still, as she climbed out of the taxi and hurried into the posh lobby of her hotel, her nape continued to prickle with anxiety. The feeling persisted as she stood outside her room door, fumbling with her electronic key card.

As she finally got the door open, a noise behind her made her pause. She glanced around but saw nothing, despite the continued wash of paranoid apprehension that hung over her. She rushed inside like her life depended on it, feeling a startling blast of ice-cold air envelop her in the dark of her room.

"Air conditioner, doofus," she told herself as she reached for the light switch and flipped it on. She had to laugh at her own paranoia, even as she quickly turned all the locks behind her.

She didn't see him until she took a step farther into the dimly lit room.

The man from the mountain cave, the lunatic from the train station, was somehow - impossibly - standing not ten feet from her.

Dylan's mouth dropped open in shock.

And then she screamed.

Chapter Six

Rio closed his hand around the female's open mouth just as the first high note of terror ripped through the room. He'd moved too quickly for her human eyes to track him, employing the same Breed ability he'd used to tail her taxi from the station and follow her up into her hotel room. She'd probably felt him move past her as he had entered ahead of her - registering him only as a sudden draft of chill air - but even now he could tell that her mind was struggling to make sense of what her eyes were seeing.

She twisted her head, attempting to break free of his unrelenting grasp. Another scream formed in the back of her throat and blasted hotly against his palm, but the effort was useless. The hard clamp of Rio's fingers snuffed out all but the barest tremor of her cries.

"Quiet." He held fast, and pinned her with a look that demanded obedience. "Not one more sound, do you understand? I'm not going to hurt you."

Even though he meant it - at least for now - he could see that she was far from convinced. She was trembling hard, her entire body taut and rigid, fear pouring off her in vibrating waves. Over the edge of his palm, her gold-flecked green eyes were huge and wild. Her fine nostrils flared with every short, panicked breath she took.

"Do as I tell you, and you won't get hurt," he said, holding that wide, wary gaze. Very slowly, he began to ease some of the pressure from her mouth. The moist heat of her lips and sawing breath seared his palm as she adjusted to the tiny bit of freedom he'd granted her. "Now, I'm going to take my hand away. I need you to stay quiet. Agreed?"

She blinked slowly. Gave him a faint, tremulous nod.

"All right." Rio began to lift his hand. "All right, that's good."

The female didn't scream.

She bit him.