Hunter's Salvation (16 page)

He opened his mouth to say something, but Jess turned away, walking around to her side of the car. As she climbed in, she sensed him moving towards the passenger side. She started the car and slammed it into drive. She pulled out onto the road, gravel flying behind her as she accelerated.

“Do you want me to say I'm sorry?”

Jess stared straight ahead. She was afraid that if she looked at him again, she just might pull back over and crawl into his lap. So what if they were on a public road? It was night. So what if there was a werewolf-thing in the trunk of her BMW? It wasn't too much of a threat this very second.

“Do you?”

Through gritted teeth, she growled out, “No.”

His hand came up, cupping the back of her neck. She tensed up, mostly to keep from leaning into him. “You sure about that?”

She hunched her shoulders and tried to shrug his hand away. “Apologize for what?”

“For kissing you, maybe?” Then he leaned over the console and brushed her hair back. Vax pressed his lips to her ear and asked, “Or maybe it's because I stopped?”

I'm not answering that question on the grounds that I might embarrass myself.
By stopping the car and demanding that he pick back up where he'd left off. Her common sense finally started to kick in, and a quiet voice in her head reminded her of why she hadn't let him kiss her before. He was too damned complicated, and Jess had a bad feeling she could fall for him.

Really fall—like the fall-in-love kind of fall.

Even if this wasn't the completely wrong time for it, even if she wasn't trying to track down Randi's killer, he was the completely wrong kind of man. He was a
witch
, for crying out loud. A Hunter. They didn't stay in one place, and they led lives that would make the life of a Navy SEAL seem dull.

She tried once more to pull away from his touch, and this time he let her, moving his hand away with one last, lingering caress. “You don't have to apologize,” she said.

His tone was wry as he said, “But you'd rather I not do it again.”

She finally dared to look at him, and saw that he was watching her with that faint, aggravating, sexy little smile. The kind of smile that told her he was going to do pretty much whatever the hell he wanted—and if he decided he wanted to kiss her again, he knew she wouldn't stop him.

“You're impossible,” she mumbled.

“So I've been told.”

 

T
HANK
God for gym bags.

Jess always kept hers in the backseat in case she felt like hitting the gym. The billboard they had seen on the side of the highway had been like a message straight out of heaven.

Not because of the hot food, or the hot coffee, although the promise of caffeine had her nearly drooling.

Nope, the sign for the truck stop had been glorious because it had in big, bold yellow letters:
CLEAN SHOWERS
. As she climbed from the car, she was all but itching. Jess paused only long enough to reach under the backseat and grab something.

She slid it inside her gym bag, watching the back of Vax's head. He never looked her way as she slid the bag's strap over her shoulder. “I won't take too long,” she promised.

Vax sat in the passenger seat with his eyes closed and his arms folded over his chest. He didn't respond, just lifted his lashes and glanced at her before closing his eyes once more. Covered with grime and sweat, she was so anxious to get clean, she practically started stripping in the middle of the very public hallway.

She took the bag inside the shower stall with her. Her clothes might get a little damp, but she couldn't let it out of her sight. The bag was waterproof, though, so she hoped she'd have dry, clean clothes to wear when she finished.

It was a lot cleaner than she'd expected, but at this point she wouldn't have cared how filthy the place, so long as it had running water. Not only did it have running water, but it had hot, pulsating streams of running water. She stood under the shower with her face upturned, letting the water beat some of the dust and dirt out of her hair before she shampooed it.

She felt just a little guilty. Vax wouldn't leave the car, or their reluctant passenger, even to use the bathroom, so he was missing out on the shower. She washed her hair and then grabbed the body wash and started scrubbing every last inch of her skin. She had dirt and grass stains smudged on her hands and arms from when she'd hit the ground. Until she'd looked in the mirror in the bathroom, she'd had no idea just how bad she looked.

And she'd gone into gas stations looking like this. She grimaced and rinsed off the body wash. “I bet that made an impression.”

She knew she had felt grimy—she just hadn't realized how very grimy she was.

“You had other things on your mind.” Like the werewolf in her trunk and the witch in her front seat. The most disturbing thing, though, was that the witch was bothering her a lot more than the werewolf was.

Jess hadn't realized just how absolutely wonderful clean clothes were until she was pulling on the black yoga pants she wore when she worked out. The sports bra and form-fitting black T-shirt followed, and then she finished towel drying her hair.

She tossed the ruined pajamas into the garbage can and repacked her gym bag. She left the bathroom feeling almost normal. Even a little hungry. The truck stop had one of those travel stores with anything and everything that a person who lived on the road might need.

Including clothes.

Considering how the guy liked to eat, she doubted the junk food that filled the store was going to do much for him, so she went to the café-style food area and bought him a twelve-inch meatball sub, a salad, some chips, and a couple of cookies. She grabbed some apples for herself and hit the clothes section. After finding some jeans that looked like they might fit Vax, Jess grabbed two pair and a plastic package of black T-shirts. There was a small selection of underwear, but for some reason she couldn't quite see him as the tighty-whitey kind of guy. She did grab some socks for him, though.

She ended up having to get a basket to carry everything to the front of the small travel store, but the cashier didn't so much as bat an eyelash. Jess figured they had a lot of people come through who had to buy everything but the kitchen sink from this place.

Vax looked a little surprised when she dumped the bag of clothes into his lap. “I figure once we get back on the road, we'll find someplace where you can change by the car without getting arrested for indecent exposure.”

He smiled a little. “Thanks.”

As she rooted through the bag for his food, she looked in her rearview mirror. “She making any noise?”

Vax shrugged. “Just a little. The silver's making her weak. She feels pretty groggy.”

Jess arched a brow. “She tell you that?”

He tapped a finger to his temple and said, “She didn't have to.” He gave her an appraising look. “I'm kind of surprised you aren't picking up anything from her. I thought you said your psychic gift was weak. That wasn't a weak call I felt last night.”

“It is. I was terrified last night—you know what terror does to psychic gifts.” She handed him the plastic bag holding his sub and the rest of his food, and then she pulled her apple out of the bag. She set it on the console while she started the car and pulled out. She breathed a little more easily as they left the truck stop, and all those helpless, clueless people, behind them. Before taking a bite of her apple, she glanced at him. “I don't think I said thank you.”

“Sure you did. When I was worried I might tear up your leather, you told me we could call it even if I got you through this alive.” He grinned a little as he ripped the wrapper off his sub. “So you decided living isn't so bad, huh?”

“I can't get Masters if I'm dead,” she said softly.

“You don't really want to die, Jess. There's too much life inside you.”

At that moment, she could easily hate him. Life? She felt dead inside. She'd felt like this for so long. “Don't try to psychoanalyze me, pal.”

He shrugged. “Didn't realize that was what I was doing. Just telling you what I see when I look at you.” He was quiet for a few minutes as he polished off half of the sandwich.

“You handle yourself well. Hard to believe you're only human.” He skimmed his fingers down her temple and mused, “Even if you do have something extra behind those pretty eyes. You're strong, you're smart. You also taste pretty damn good.” He touched her mouth lightly, and Jess felt her heart skip a beat or two. “You've got the prettiest eyes. I don't like to think about seeing them lifeless.”

Her throat felt tight. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing wanted to come out except a couple of weird little hiccouping sounds. Okay, compliments hadn't ever impressed her much. How come one coming from him left her temporarily speechless?

Jess cleared her throat and was finally able to speak. “Would you stop acting like you found me standing on a chair with a rope around my neck?”

His hand settled possessively over the back of her neck, which didn't do much to help clear her clouded mind. “Just don't go using me as a means to an end, not if you don't plan on walking away from this.” He squeezed lightly and then pulled his hand away.

Foil crinkled, and Jess watched out of the corner of her eye as Vax popped a potato chip into his mouth. He chewed slowly, his eyes staring straight ahead. “You know, I've been thinking. There are some people I need to talk to. We need to figure out what to do about our friend. They might be able to help.”

Jess wasn't sure what he was talking about. “Friend?” Well, shit. She sounded bright. The weak thump on the trunk of the car jerked her back into reality. Back to the reality where she had a monster in her trunk that wanted to bleed her. “Oh.” She heaved out a sigh and rubbed her temple. A vivid flash from the past night leaped before her eyes—obsidian black claws and cold, hungry eyes. “So what do we do? Are we going to drive and see them?”

“Well, since I'm not sure where they are, that wouldn't be very practical. We'll find a place to stay, then I'll track them down.”

“What do we do until then?” If she could have taken the question back, she would have done it. His eyes dropped to study her mouth, and a wicked grin curved his lips. She could feel the blood rushing to heat her cheeks—and elsewhere. That grin of his had a bad effect on her. It made her feel too hot and too hungry. Dangerous. He could make her forget anything and everything. “Damn it, would you at least pretend to focus? Shouldn't we try to find out where she came from?”

“Hey, I am focused. I'm talented, blondie. I can focus on the problem we have in the trunk and still focus on you.” Vax shrugged his shoulders, his attention shifting away from her. Irritation and frustration colored his voice as he said, “Besides, I've already tried that. The last time I saw a were like her, I spent weeks trying to track her and found nothing but dead ends.”

There was another thump from the trunk, this one weaker. Still, for some odd reason, it formed a leaden weight in her belly.

The memory flash that Jess had picked up from the wolf-woman started to do a little tango through her mind. Thomas holding out a syringe as he stared at the woman in the cell and he said,
You still can't make the full shift, can you? How did the moon feel last night, Dena?

Jess's mouth had gone dry. She swallowed against the knot in her throat and licked her lips nervously. “Maybe you didn't know where to start.”

“That hasn't changed. I still don't know where to start. And I don't think
that
is going to help us.” He shifted his gaze toward the trunk before leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

Dena.
Her name was Dena. And whatever was going on with that woman had something to do with the syringe Thomas had been holding. Jess's belly felt queasy as angry little butterflies of anxiety started jumping around. She rubbed the back of her hand over her mouth. “I think I know where to start.”

He flicked a glance at her. She didn't exactly feel that look was a vote of confidence. “Look, I'm sure you've got a whole smorgasbord of witches, vamps, weres, and whatnot. You can all get together and sit down in some dark, secret room, and brood over the fate of the universe. That's just fine. But…” Her voice trailed off. Damn it, why was she wasting her time? She was an investigative reporter trying to kill the man who'd killed her sister, and so far she hadn't been able to get even a good look at him.

This guy was a Hunter. He knew what he was doing.

She almost just shut up. Almost.

If that image she'd gotten from Dena was worth anything, Jess had a weird feeling they were in trouble. She made her voice sound a lot more certain than she felt. “Thomas.”

He didn't say anything. The guy had a way of saying a thousand words with just one look. She bet those looks also tended to make people run off at the mouth. She was feeling a case of babbling coming on. In effort to keep the babbling to a minimum, she clamped her lips shut and drove.