Authors: Lorraine Kennedy
Anton had been so busy sizing the woman up that he had forgotten to answer her. She was staring at him as if he were the most bizarre person she’d ever met.
She was coming on to him strong, and his male instincts didn’t miss it. Anton’s eyes roamed over the woman’s curvy body and immediately his thoughts went to how it felt to have Summer in his arms while they danced.
“I’m fine,” he told her, looking away. He didn’t like where his thoughts were leading him at the moment.
It had been a while since he’d enjoyed the feel of a woman’s body against his bare skin. Since Lex was no longer the leader of the Zen, he was now free to enjoy the company of a human female. But he’d done so only on rare occasions, and then only when he’d gone a very long time without indulging his needs.
Some did it often, but Anton always felt a little as if he were taking advantage of them - taking from them without being able to give back. Though Lex’s mandate about mating with the human female had been eradicated, the Zen still could not marry or take a life mate.
Tonight was one of those times when the longing to feel a woman’s flesh was nearly strong enough to override his morals. The problem was that when he thought of indulging his need, it was Summer’s face he saw.
Something was wrong!
* * *
The bright and colorful lights that illuminated the exterior of the casino helped to light her way as she searched for her car in the crowded parking lot. There were hundreds of cars, but there wasn’t another soul in sight. The sound of her heels of her shoes tapping against the blacktop was loud - echoing through the silent jungle of automobiles. She couldn’t remember where she’d parked, but she knew it hadn’t been too far from the entrance.
Out of the corner of her eye she caught the fleeting movement of shadow. She stopped in her tracks, waiting to catch another glimpse. Though she could not take the form of the wolf, she still had the wolf’s blood and she could sense danger.
She was being hunted, but by who or what? No human could move that fast.
A shiver ran down her spine, but she forced herself to move forward. Summer wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
Finally she spotted her small red sports car a few rows back from the building. She quickly walked in that direction. Her hands still shaking, she fumbled with the remote to unlock the doors. Once inside, Summer hit the lock button on the door before digging into her handbag for her mobile phone. Her hands were shaking so badly that she had trouble hitting the right buttons, but she finally managed to press the speed dial button for Sanders.
Summer groped for a way to tell him about her suspicions, without sounding too crazy. “I was thinking about it tonight, and I have this strange feeling that she is in a closet. It could also be a coffin or tomb. I think she’s locked away somewhere.”
“I know that your strange feelings are usually pretty good, but I don’t see how that would help us. There must be thousands of places in the Reno area that fit that description.”
What he said was true, but she knew there had to be a reason why Bridget had tried to bring attention to her hands. It reminded her of a story she’d once heard about a girl who had been buried alive. For some reason the body had been exhumed. When the coffin was opened, they found deep gouge marks in the lid. Summer squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the terrifying vision of Bridget Pearson being buried alive.
Her voice shook when she tried to talk. “I … I don’t know. I just think that the police should check the cemeteries for signs of disturbed graves.”
She should have waited until tomorrow to talk to him, but she’d freaked out when she saw that girl. Through the summer she had been helping Warren Saunders with some of his criminal cases. He was the local expert on criminal psychology, and known for his skill in homicide investigations. The local police often consulted him, as they had done with these latest homicides. Summer had been studying under him since she was an undergraduate. Even with both her education in criminal psychology, and her psychic ability, she just couldn’t seem to figure this killer out.
They knew that when a victim was taken, it was only a matter of time before they’d find her body somewhere, and now there was another missing. All of the victims had been college girls, but so far that seemed to be the only connection.
Saunders often asked her to help out with difficult cases because of her uncanny ability to feel things, and to flesh out the crime. He thought she was a gifted investigator, with the unique ability to get into the criminal mind. And though she had always been a good profiler, it was her other talent that helped her most of all. The talent that Summer never talked about. It was the one thing she’d inherited from her mother that she wasn’t so sure she wanted.
Drained and tired, she stuck the key in the ignition, but before she could start the car, a dark shadow blocked the light from the driver’s side window. Summer couldn’t bring herself to look. A scream tore from her throat at the sound of a loud thud against the window.