Angel of Darkness (The Fallen 1)

Cross the line and die.

“I know about Night Watch, but I don’t work for them.” His head cocked. “I don’t work for anyone.”

Now her heart raced too fast. “But you said …”

“No, you said. And I was hunting at the time, so I guess that did make me a hunter.” His lips twisted. “Of sorts.”

“What were you hunting?” Her fast heartbeat seemed to shake her chest.

“You.”

She jumped off the bed. The sheet ripped, but she kept a hold on just enough fabric to cover her body.

“I’ve been chasing after you for a while now.”

“Chasing me … but not because you were hired to find me.”

He shook his head.

Where were her clothes? “Then why?”

“Because you’re the key.”

No, um, she was a vampire. Not some kind of shiny—

“I lost something very, very important, and you can help me get it back.

—magical—what?

He rose from the bed. The sheet dropped. Oh, damn, she looked. Very impressive.

Too bad he was crazy. “I’m not a key to anything.”

He walked around the bed and gave her a real nice view of his sculpted ass. Then he snagged a pair of jeans from the back of a chair. Well, that was probably for the best. He yanked up the jeans and kept stalking toward her. “Actually, I think you’re the key to everything.”

Her gaze searched his. “You’re wrong. I’m a schoolteacher. I-I—”

“You were a teacher. Now you’re a vampire.” He shook his head and studied her a little too clinically. “I don’t know if that will make things easier or harder.”

Nicole started creeping away from him. “Look, I really wish you luck on finding your lost key, but I think it’s time for me to leave.” Her back bumped into the door. “Thanks for the, ah, blood, and the bed, but now—”

His gaze flew to the door behind her.

Then the door shook. Hard. Someone was banging a very powerful fist against that wood.

“I’m not the only one who thinks you’re the key,” he growled. “You ever wonder why all those demons were after you?”

“I just thought I had really crappy luck.” Even before her change, she’d been dealt one raw hand by fate. If the vampire hadn’t taken me out …

“Actually, you may be the luckiest woman I’ve ever met.”

Bull.

The door shook again.

“There’s a demon on the other side of that door,” he told her. “He knows you’re here, but he thinks I’m just some human, so that means we’ll both be easy prey.”

She sidled away from the door. “I don’t care much for demons.” Not since that gang had jumped her.

His eyelids flickered just a bit.

“But I’m not scared of them,” she continued quickly. “I—”

The door smashed as wood splintered beneath the force of the intruder’s blow. Nicole jumped back as the demon shoved his way inside.

The guy was muscled and tall and had angry, pitch-black eyes. A demon’s real eyes were always black. The iris, the sclera—everything was black. But usually the demons used glamour magic to hide that telling indicator.

Guess this guy didn’t care that she knew what he was.

“Vamp,” his voice thundered, “I’m tired of chasing—”

His head snapped up. His eyes zeroed in on Keenan. And the demon paled. “You … you’re not …”

Keenan stepped forward and a grim smile curved his lips. “I’m her guardian.”

The demon’s black eyes seemed to double in size. “Bullshit! She’s a vamp, she don’t have—”

“No one touches her, no one hurts her, without going through me first.”

Oh, wait, that was … Nicole’s breath rushed out. Nice. But she was a vamp with superhuman strength, and she could certainly manage to handle a demon or two.

Even if the guy in her doorway looked to be close to six foot four and made of bricks. Size didn’t equal strength. Not in this new world she lived in.

So she stepped forward, still holding her thin sheet. Her arm brushed Keenan’s because their bodies were so close.

The demon couldn’t seem to tear his gaze off Keenan, and yes, that was fear in the guy’s eyes.

She slanted a quick glance at her hero. He didn’t look particularly scary to her. Sexy and strong? Double check. Scary? No.

But he was sure making the demon tremble.

“You don’t want me as an enemy,” the demon finally said, but he made no move to approach them. Actually, she was wondering if the guy could move.

“Yes,” Keenan said flatly, “I do. You … and your boss.”

Why did everyone but her seem to know what was happening here?

“So go run back to Sam and tell him that she’s off-limits. There’ll be no more vamp hunting, not unless he wants to lose his demons.”

The demon’s head jerked in a fast nod, but as he stepped back, his gaze darted to Nicole.

Her breath sucked in on a hard gasp. Hate. There was no mistaking the hatred and fury in that demon’s stare.

Even as the guy turned and ran, she knew she’d be seeing him again. She also knew that if she faced him alone, he wouldn’t hesitate to go for her throat.

“We have to get out of here.” Keenan’s eyes were still drilling through that broken doorway. “Even in a dump like this, that crash would’ve attracted attention, and the cops are the last thing we need now.”

Right. She realized her claws were out and that burning black eyes were imprinted in her memory. “He was scared of you.”

“He should be.”

“I’m the vampire, but he was scared of you.” She turned and caught his arm with her right hand. Her left still gripped the sheet and held it just above her br**sts. “Before I go anywhere with you, I want to know just what the hell you are.”

That same grim smile tilted the corners of his perfect lips. “I just told you, sweet, I’m your guardian.”

“Bull.”

He turned away, those strong shoulders shrugging, and her gaze dipped down the taunt lines of his back. Golden flesh, muscle, and—scars.

Bright, angry red scars. Two of them—each about seven inches long—sliced right along his shoulder blades.

“What happened to you?” The scars were still fresh and damn vicious.