Crave the Night (34 page)

"That is true, but she's not exactly a
demon, is she?" Mary Beth's talons flexed as she gestured to where
Nicole stood. "Not when she's without awareness of how to use her
powers. Since she's not much more than a human, only one thing
would allow you to communicate with her mentally."

"What's she talking about?" Nicole
whispered. It didn't matter. Mary Beth heard.

"Didn't you tell her?" the vampire asked
with mock surprise.

Dak took a step forward before he could stop
himself. Sweat chilled his skin, adding to the sickening dread.
There was nothing he could do to prevent the words that were
coming. It didn't take a genius to guess that Nicole wasn't going
to be any happier about the situation than he was.

"Shame on you," Mary Beth said and tsked
softly. "Don't you think this psi tracker should know you're her
mate?"

Nicole sagged as tension left her muscles.
She'd expected some kind of bombshell from the vampire and had
warned herself to show no reaction, but this? Totally
anticlimactic.

Except Dak remained rigid.

If what Mary Beth had said meant nothing,
wouldn't he have relaxed, too? Wouldn't he be laughing at the
feeble attempt to stir up trouble? But he wasn't and Nicole
stiffened again. What did this mate thing mean? Was it something
she'd be concerned about if she understood it?

She almost jerked when she felt Dak brush
against her mind and then she heard him talking in her head.

We need to leave as soon
as we can.

Nicole nearly answered aloud, but
stopped herself and tried sending her reply.
Why?

What she got from him next didn't come in
words, it was more like she suddenly had what he wanted her to
know. She quashed her satisfaction at communicating telepathically
and paid attention to what he transmitted. It took less than an
instant to understand the vampire had zapped him with some sort of
weapon, one that was recharging as they spoke, and could take him
out of the fight completely if she fired it again before he
recovered.

Nicole didn't want to care. She could kill
the enemy and they'd both be fine. Except she didn't believe she
could win against Mary Beth, not after the past two nights, and
simply imagining anything happening to Dak made her hurt.

"Nice try, but Nicole's not upset," Dak
said. "No points for you, Mabilia."

The vampire bared her fangs at the sarcasm.
It was a fearsome expression, but Nicole sensed Dak's amusement.
Maybe his face gave away his humor—she couldn't see from behind his
back—but Mary Beth snarled and retracted her canines.

It left Nicole confused. A vampire's teeth
were formidable weapons. Why pull them back in? It wasn't only
tonight either. Last night had been the same. No fangs.

Demon blood is poisonous
to vampires,
Dak sent.

This time he hadn't given her advance
warning and Nicole had to suppress a flinch. Her relief at not
reacting didn't last long. He'd read her mind and that didn't make
her feel warm inside. Especially when she remembered the things
she'd fantasized about doing with him.

"But then it hasn't been a good night for
you on any front," Dak said to Mary Beth with a shrug. "That wizard
really screwed you over. I hope you didn't pay him too much."

"The wizard didn't—"

"Didn't he?" Dak interrupted. "Then why are
Nicole and I standing here when you wanted to be invisible to
us?"

Last night had been weird and tonight was
turning out to be every bit as bizarre. Wizards? Wizards were
fictional—or at least she'd always believed that—but Dak and the
vampire were throwing the word around as if it was a given that
they were real. What else didn't she know?

Humans are coming. We'll
use them as a diversion to get away,
Dak told
her.

After sending him an acknowledgment, she
tuned out the exchange. Mary Beth and Dak were just snarking at
each other anyway. Instead, Nicole scanned until she found normal
people. Judging by the number and what she felt from their energy,
she suspected a group of gang members was headed this way.

She focused back on the conversation fast
when Mary Beth said, "The wizard might not have blocked half
demons, but he prevented you from tracking me, didn't he? You're
using her—" the vampire gestured again with her talons "—to find
me. And the amulet worked on you. You're weak, demon, and as soon
as the stone recharges, you're dead."

Whatever Dak would have said was lost when a
burst of laughter intruded. The instant Mary Beth turned her head,
Dak grabbed Nicole's hand and then he moved. Fast. The world around
her blurred, but to her surprise, she could keep up with him. She'd
never realized... But then she didn't know a lot, it seemed.

First things first, though. "Is she chasing
us?"

"No," Dak said, not bothering to glance over
his shoulder. "We're both cloaked."

Nicole wasn't ready to assume that meant
they were invisible. "She's an old vampire and they're more
powerful than average."

Dak's hand tightened around hers. "Not old
enough, not when we're both strong demons."

"She knew I was there last night while I had
my energy concealed."

His grimness washed over her, and a
heartbeat later, he extended his own cloak, wrapping her inside
with him. Physically, they were no closer than before, but it
ratcheted up the intimacy enough to make Nicole shiver. Hoping he
hadn't picked up on that, she asked, "Why are we running if she
can't sense us now?"

"Because we need to be out of range of the
amulet."

"
We
need to be out of range or
you
do?"

He didn't reply and Nicole decided that
meant it was him. The world continued to rush by and she tried to
assimilate that. Sure, she'd run before. She'd even run to save her
life, but she'd never attained this kind of speed. Amazing. It
reminded her that there were many potential talents she didn't know
about, but that Dak could teach her. Looking at his profile, she
decided to bring that up later—there were other things on the
agenda.

The mate thing for one, but that made her
uneasy and Nicole wasn't ready to face it yet. "There are really
wizards around? In Los Angeles?"

"Yes."

She needed more than a one-word
confirmation. Nicole scowled. "Why didn't I know about them?"

"Maybe because they're more secretive than
demons."

More secretive? That was hard to believe
because demons—and vampires, too—did their best to make sure humans
didn't believe in them. Neither group was above using mind control
to ensure they remained under the radar, either. "Are wizards
aligned with vampires?"

Dak glanced over briefly. "Wizards aren't
aligned with anyone. They're out for themselves first, last, and
always. Remember that."

A demon telling her not to trust a
wizard definitely fell under the heading of irony. Demons lied
easily, manipulated for fun, and cheated whenever they could. It
was their nature. And yet she'd put her faith in Dak anyway. Nicole
grimaced, but she tightened her hold on his hand. No doubt she was
an idiot, but she believed in
this
demon.

She just hoped it wasn't lust overcoming her
common sense.

Lust, yeah. Nicole's scowl deepened. As much
as she didn't want to ask, she had better. Squaring her shoulders,
she took a deep breath and said, "Explain this mate thing to
me."

Dak flinched. It wasn't physical—the
reaction was purely mental and she'd felt it. Nicole wasn't sure
what she thought of that, but it did put them on more even ground.
"Well?" she prompted.

"It isn't the best time for this
discussion." He took another corner fast enough to leave her
dizzy.

"It's as good as any," she disagreed when
her head stopped swimming. "Mary Beth clearly expected to cause
trouble between us when she said that. I want to know why."

"What sane demon can understand a vampire's
motives?"

Nicole stared at him, counting on him to
safely maneuver them both through the streets. Dak had evaded the
question, but he hadn't lied. He could have made up some story, and
if it were plausible, she'd have believed him. Yeah, desire had
left her stupid, but maybe not as dumb as she'd feared.

He hadn't lied to
her.

And his evasion hadn't been all that slick
either. "Come on, Dak, give."

"You humans are always a pain," he muttered
with disgust.

The tone made her grind her teeth in an
effort to rein in her temper. "I'm not human, remember?" And it
galled her to admit that.

"You might as well be. Only a human would
want to have a conversation like this now."

Her jaw clenched as she struggled to contain
the torrent of words she wanted to hurl at him. If she said
anything, he'd take advantage of an argument to distract her and
Nicole wouldn't make things that simple for him. When she had
control, she said, "We've been running at mach speed forever and
you have us cloaked. The vampire shouldn't be any danger to
us."

She sensed his intention to stop an instant
before he did it and Nicole thought he'd given her the information
to save her from a hard yank. He'd interceded twice to protect her,
so she was pretty sure it wasn't her hormones ascribing honorable
motives to him.

Dak's eyes met hers, the red glow nearly
bright enough to obscure the amber of his irises. "If I answer your
question, you'll accuse me of lying. I'll cite proof. You won't
believe it, and unable to stop myself, I'll try to convince you I'm
telling the truth. This is a fairly busy street."

"Yeah, so? What does that have to do with
anything?"

With a gentle tug, he pulled her against him
and then turned her until her back pressed into the side of a
building. His body was hard and Nicole couldn't stop herself from
putting her hands on his shoulders and arching her hips more firmly
into him. She wanted Dak. Now. Standing up. On the street.

Voice intense, Dak said, "Yes, just like
that. I could have you here, but if you think I can keep us cloaked
when I have my cock deep inside you, you're greatly overestimating
my control."

Nicole wanted to be furious. Never
mind the crudeness, the assumption that she'd be that easy galled
her—especially since it was true. At least it was true
with
him.
Only, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't manage to
become angry. She couldn't even hang on to her pride.

"If we went far enough down the alley, no
one would see us."

The red in his eyes eclipsed the amber now.
Nicole had no doubt her own eyes were glowing, too, but she wanted
him every bit as much as he appeared to want her. She angled her
head and leaned in to kiss him.

"Stop."

Her lips nearly brushed his. "Why?"

"This lust, it's part of our being
mates."

Dak's words came out thick and husky and the
rasp was so damn sexy, Nicole shivered. "This is a problem
because?"

"Because once we have sex, there'll be no
one else for either of us. We'll be mated, tied to each other
exclusively until death, and Nicole, demons live thousands of
years."

Dak stepped past Nicole when she gestured
him into her apartment and looked around, curious about the
insights her home would give him. The walls were a neutral
off-white shade, but nothing else in the room was bland. One couch
was pink, the other an oddly shaped orange thing, and a third had
straight lines and wild, mixed up colors. A pink lamp reached
toward the ceiling and a glass coffee table stood in the center of
it all.

He heard Nicole close the door and moved
deeper into the room. That's when he detected her wards. Dak
scowled. They needed to be strengthened.

Heading to the corner of the living room, he
picked up the crystal there, closed his eyes, and quietly intoned
the spell to bolster its power. The next ward was in the kitchen.
This space was plain and had no signs of any personality. Even the
dish towels were white.

She trailed after him, not saying anything,
but he was aware of her with every step he took. They needed to
talk, but he shouldn't be here. Dak knew that being alone together
could lead to things between him and Nicole exploding out of
control before he could stop it. Hell, he'd been on the edge on the
street. Coming to her home was definitely a bad idea.

The third crystal was in the bathroom. More
color—a shower curtain with some unusual dark pink, gold, and black
swirls and dark pink towels.

In contrast, her bedroom was nearly
colorless. The silver bedspread was only slightly darker than the
off-white walls, and while there was a colorful acrylic hanging
above the bed, it was small and not enough to liven up the space.
Dak considered Nicole. Who was this woman? Two rooms a riot of
color and shapes; two rooms boring to an extreme.

Shaking his head, Dak went to the last
crystal. As soon as he finished the spell, he returned the ward to
the corner, straightened and turned. Nicole was right there and he
sucked in a harsh breath as desire rushed through him.

The wall was at his back, there was nowhere
for him to go to put space between them, and Nicole wasn't
moving.

Two steps and he could have her on the bed,
his body over hers. Two short steps.

He drank her in. Her dark hair was pulled
back, away from her face and the brown of her eyes was nearly
overpowered by the red glow, proof he wasn't the only one aroused.
High cheekbones tempted him to run his thumbs across them, a gently
elfin chin had a slight indent that he wanted to kiss, and those
incredibly full lips... He remembered how close her mouth had been
to his not that long ago, remembered how much he wanted to explore
her.