Читать книгу Code Wolf - Linda Thomas-Sundstrom, Linda Thomas-Sundstrom - Страница 13

“They’re back, and we need to go,” Dale messaged, vying for Derek’s attention, which was riveted to the cruiser getting ready to pull away from the curb.

He and Dale were on the rooftop of the pub, peering at the scene below after taking this slight detour from their agenda, though it could be a costly detour if they didn’t get moving toward any new vamp problem that turned up.

He just had to be sure she was safe.

Derek turned around, nodded to Dale and walked to the opposite edge of the roof, where the shadows were deeper and there was no hint of human presence. It was a shame, he decided, that the owners of these buildings didn’t upgrade their lighting systems. Bloodsuckers hated lights almost as much as they hated noise, and would have been much easier to spot without all that pooling darkness.

“Marshall will take care of her. You know that,” Dale added, following along in Derek’s wake.

“Yes.”

“She’s not your type anyway, Derek.”

“Most assuredly not,” Derek half-heartedly agreed.

But the woman had some kind of hold on him that he could not shake. Or didn’t want to.

She had smelled so damn good. Her skin was like velvet. Yes, she wasn’t a Were. They had nothing in common. Yada yada.

His head came up. There was a scuffling sound to his right and an unnatural wave in the shadows below where he stood. The sudden distraction broke into Derek’s inner discourse on the pitfalls of human-Were relations. It seemed that Dale had been right. Bloodsuckers were gathering here.

Hell...

Derek knew there’d be no way to slow down these numbers unless they could find and deal with their queen. Without a Prime or Master, most vampires couldn’t survive on their own for long. The undead didn’t possess the brains and the skills to keep up their attacks. A Master was just that—the mastermind behind the nest. The core that kept a nest growing.

There might have been one sure way to find this one, but he wouldn’t go that route, since it would entail bringing back the immortal Blood Knight, who had faced this queen down years before. The same f-ing immortal that had driven a Harley away from Seattle with McKenna Randall on the seat behind him.

Immortality aside, some women seemed to prefer bad boys in black leather.

“Five,” he sent to Dale as he peered into the dark. “Five more parasites down there.”

“Is that all?” Dale messaged back.

Derek looked at his partner. “Piece of cake?”

Dale nodded and leaped onto the brick ledge next to Derek. “Right behind you.”

“I wonder,” Derek sent back, “why it is that I always have to go first.”

“Shinier badge,” Dale said as they jumped.

They landed in the alley side by side and on their feet. Derek’s announcement of their presence was a deep, guttural growl that served to halt the moving trail of shadows now hugging the building beside them. He really was tired of fighting vampires without ever seeming to stem the tide, but if he and his pack were to give up, who would take over?

Beyond the alley, several police and fire sirens wailed in earsplitting decibels that might have caused these vampires to think twice about emerging from behind the pub, if in fact they maintained thoughts about self-preservation. As it was, the swirl of moving darkness pressed on.

Derek caught one of them with his claws and dragged the bloodsucker backward. The sucker didn’t have much time to protest or put up a good fight, and was reduced to a cloud of flying dust seconds later.

The vamp in front of that one paused, whirled and hissed like an angry cat through chipped fangs that no longer could have punctured human flesh. Derek tossed that one back to Dale and held his breath as the filthy, foul-smelling ash rained down.

That little deletion left three remaining vampires. If he and Dale took care of them quickly, he could get a last look at that woman before the officers took her away. One final glimpse was all he needed to settle his nerves and maybe even the question of why he wanted that last look so damn badly.

He barreled through the vamp lineup like a football lineman and turned to head them off before they reached the street. With Dale bringing up the rear, the three vamps were squeezed between them. It wasn’t much of a party, and the fighting, which didn’t last long, wasn’t pretty. Black blood dripped from Derek’s claws. Ash swirled everywhere like dark, discolored snow.

Wasting no time, Derek stepped onto the street, careful to keep to the shadows that no longer stank of vampire presence. He leaned forward to view the cruiser that was making its way into traffic. His heart was beating faster than normal and his boots were already starting to move him in that direction...until a claw snagged his belt.

Dale’s message came through loud and clear. “I wouldn’t recommend taking that next step, boss. And I think you know why.”

Well...maybe he did know why.

And maybe he didn’t have to like it.

Riley stared out the window of the police cruiser until her chills had subsided, but hadn’t gotten anywhere in terms of finding her rescuers. When she thought she saw something, it turned out to be nothing more than a passing flash of tanned flesh seen against a dark backdrop, and could have been anyone.

She didn’t speak to the two cops in the front seat. It angered her to think that she had nearly been a victim of a violent crime, and that she might have placed herself in danger by following a whim.

“Turn right, here,” she finally said as the cruiser approached the parking spot where she had left her car. “This is it.”

No longer feeling quite so weak or frightened, Riley opened the door and got out on steady legs. Her hands didn’t shake when she brushed her hair back from her face.

“You’ll be okay?” one of the officers asked.

“Yes. Thanks for your help.” She fished in the pocket of her skirt for her car key. “I’ll be fine.”

“We’ll follow you home, all the same,” the cop said.

She hated to turn down an offer like that. The only problem was that she had to. The car key wasn’t in her pocket. The damn thing was missing. Short of heading back to the site of the incident to look for it, the only way she was going to get home would be to either take a bus, or have these nice officers drive her. Then she’d have to break into her house because she had left her purse, which contained the rest of her keys, locked inside the car.

Riley blinked slowly to absorb all of that.

The alternative was to go to her office, where she kept spare keys. The building’s night watchman would let her in to get them. Although she didn’t particularly like the idea of going into that building alone after what had happened tonight, it would be all right. Plenty of people worked late, and the building was well lit and secure.

“Thanks for the offer. I need to go back to work first to pick up a few things. My office is just down the street,” Riley said.

The cop that had helped her out of the patrol car nodded as he peered into her car. “No key?”

“I seem to have lost it,” she admitted.

“I can help with that lock.”

He had it open in less than thirty seconds with a slim-jim device, and it was difficult for Riley to hide her relief. But it still didn’t help in the long run, since she couldn’t start the car without that blasted key.

After retrieving her purse, Riley glanced at the cop and shrugged. “I’ll be fine now.” She waved a hand at the street. “There are lots of people around.”

“You sure?” the cop asked.

“Positive.”

He nodded again. “Please come to the precinct tomorrow for a more formal statement. And take care.”

“I’ll do both of those things,” Riley said.

She searched the street in all directions when the patrol car drove away, knowing she had to get going, but unable to shake the feeling of being watched. More imagination?

Instead of wondering who had made those howling sounds that had kicked the night into high gear, she now wanted to punch that person for his or her part in nearly getting her killed.

Derek couldn’t help taking a closer look at the woman whose rapid steps gave away little of what she had been through tonight. His packmate’s expression was filled with sympathy, but there was only so far a Were could go in a disagreement with his alpha. And Derek had never been mistaken for stupid.

Both he and Dale were in human form again. Derek’s nerves were charged from changing back and forth so many times in a single night. Shape-shifting came with a cost, and he was experiencing that cost now. Prolonged time spent as a wolfed-up version of himself not only heightened his senses for a long time afterward, but actually also left him feeling kind of beastly.

His animal instincts were working overtime at the moment and directing him to go after the woman who had looked into his eyes not more than an hour ago. He had questions about her that needed answers. For instance...how had she seemed to have gotten past the incident so quickly? She was carrying on as if nothing had happened.

She was tough, at least on the outside.

He liked that.

Who are you? I wonder.

Dale leaned against an ivy-covered wall, content for the time being to have dealt the vampires a warning blow. But in terms of the antics brought about by a full moon, the night was still young. Hell, the hunting hadn’t even really begun.

“Happy now?” Dale asked, stripping most of the wryness from his tone.

“I wonder where she’s going,” Derek said.

“Maybe she has a hot date.”

Though Derek gave Dale a long glance, Dale persisted. “A hot human date.”

Jealousy was an ugly emotion that Derek understood all too well, having had a tough time watching his ex and her new lover together. Still, he experienced a brief pang of jealousy now for whatever lucky bastard had this woman’s attention.

“We’d better check in with the pack,” he said, ready to put his muscles to more good use. He couldn’t just follow the woman to wherever she was going because of a wayward bit of electricity that had flared between them earlier, or because of the fact that he still felt that electrical buzz when they weren’t anywhere close.

He had lost sight of her, and shrugged off the desire to follow. There were more important things to take care of in the city’s shadows. Other Weres would be out and about now, and as the alpha of a Seattle pack, he was needed for his directions.

Coming from his human throat, the growl he issued sounded downright rude. Even as his boots thudded on the asphalt and he moved in the direction of the last skirmish with the vampires, he felt the tug to turn around. It had been a long time since his allegiance had wavered between duty and a woman, and he had solemnly vowed never to let that happen again.

From several steps behind him, Derek heard Dale say, “Good choice.”