Eternal Hunter (Night Watch 1)

Erin’s head whipped to the left and her mouth dropped open as she stared at Antonio. “Bullshit.”

He smiled at her, flashing his perfectly capped, too-white teeth. The teeth looked even whiter next to his caramel skin—coloring Jude knew the guy had gotten courtesy of his very lovely Mexican mother. “’Fraid so, Ms. Jerome. ’Fraid so.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not quite as clueless as you seem to think I am.” His voice was low but fierce. “And one look at that body told me the cops in that room weren’t suspects.” He jerked his thumb toward Jude. “But one of his kind sure as hell was.”

She froze. Then, it was as if a veil fell over her face. Erin’s expression cleared, until only a false mask remained. “His kind?

What’s that supposed to mean?”

Jude blinked. The lady was good. If she hadn’t just been snarling at him about claw marks, he might have bought her confused act.

Or maybe not.

Because apparently even Tony wasn’t buying it. The captain snorted and said, “If you really don’t know, ma’am, then you’re gonna have one hell of a time survivin’ in this town.”

She was living a nightmare. An absolute somebody-please-wake-me-up screaming nightmare.

Antonio knew about the Other.

Yeah, that was a problem, but the big deal was that she had a shifter gone bad who was slicing up killers right under the noses of the PD.

The news headlines would be brutal.

“I hate to break this to you, Ms. Jerome—”

“Erin,” she choked out because the captain drawled her surname out in a way that was like nails grating on her nerves.

“But the world you live in, well, only half of what you see is real.” Antonio paced the small confines of his office, looking very much like a caged cat.

He wasn’t. The guy didn’t so much as give off one whiff of shifter scent.

But then, her smell was pretty damn hard to detect, too.

“Really?” She kept her voice mild with an effort. After the captain’s big revelation, he’d herded her and Jude into his office.

She was playing the innocent human, for now. And for as long as necessary.

“Two years ago, I was out in the swamps. A vampire tried to drain me and leave my body for gator bait.”

Nice visual. “A vampire?” Erin shook her head. “Sorry, captain, but vampires aren’t real.” Yeah, right. Those bastards were as real as she was.

Jude rolled his shoulders beside her. He’d been doing that every few moments. What was up with that?

“They’re real.” Antonio stopped his pacing. “Get used to the idea.”

She had, about twenty-five years ago, when she’d watched her mother go claw to teeth with a vamp. “Um…tell me, captain, have you been in for an evaluation recently? Perhaps a trip to the police shrink is in order.” Erin braced her hands on the armrests of her chair and pushed to her feet. “Now, unless you want to tell me a few fairy tales about some trolls running loose in the city, I’ve got a murder to solve. I don’t have time for this crap.” A good exit line. She headed for the door, chin up, shoulders back.

And heard clapping behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, Erin saw Jude smiling at her.

“Nice.” He pointed one long finger at her. “But why don’t you cut the crap, ADA? We both know you understand all about the monsters in the dark, and playing the innocent isn’t gonna work with me.”

We both know you understand all about the monsters in the dark. Her lips parted.

He rose slowly and stalked toward her. Yeah, stalked, his movements slow and steady, strangely graceful, his eyes predatory. His bright gaze dropped to her mouth. Seemed to heat.

Trouble. Oh, but the man was going to be dangerous to her. She’d known it from that first glance. Erin licked her lips. “I, uh…” No, that wouldn’t work at all. She cleared her throat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Donovan.” One fast glance toward Antonio. “I’m not going to jump on this insanity parade—”

“Gloves are off, lady. You know what I am.”

Shifter.

He leaned in close and she watched the flare of his nostrils. “And I know what you’re not.”

Human.

Asshole.

“So let’s cut to the chase, here, okay? No pretending’s necessary when the door’s closed.” And the door was closed.

Closed and locked. She’d heard the soft snick after Antonio shut the door. “You saw the body. You said yourself—those were claw marks, right?”

Her gaze darted once more to the left. Antonio stared at her with his wide eyes. Denial was still an option. She didn’t have to blow her cover, the cover she’d worked so hard to get. Four months. It had taken her four months to find this job and to escape from her past.

A past that had come calling today—memories stirred up by the cloying scent of blood and death.

Running from monsters was hard work, because they were everywhere.

Silence hung in the room, too thick.

Jude swore. “Fine. I’ll take a look at the body and see what I—”

Erin grabbed his hand when he tried to push past her, and she kissed her new life good-bye. “It was a shifter.”

Antonio exhaled. “Damn woman.”

Jude’s skin felt warm beneath her fingertips. His eyes bored into hers, and she watched his pupils flare.

Dangerous.

She pulled her hand back and smoothed her fingers over the soft cotton of her pants. “It was a shifter, and, how convenient—there’s a shifter standing right in front of me.” Towering over her. Surrounding her with his heat and scent.

“I didn’t kill him—”

“Jude wouldn’t—”

Their words twisted and blurred in her mind. She waited for the denials to finish, then raised a brow. “You said you could prove your innocence.”

His eyes narrowed, but Jude nodded. “Good,” she muttered. “’Cause you’ll have to do that.” And she believed he could.

After that whole alibi business was taken care of, it would be time to get down to business.

“Call Night Watch,” Jude said. “You can verify my whereabouts in less than two minutes.”

She’d do that, but first…“Are you up for another case, hunter?” She knew just how hard it was to catch a shifter, especially one who hungered for the sweet thrill of human prey.