Marissa gaped. “How did he do that?”
“One of the many mysteries that are Marcus,” he said, turning to face her. “How many vampire movies are you going to make me watch before you agree to marry me?”
She laughed. “I’ll make a list.” And then she kissed him—and it was their first, shared vampire kiss. A hot vampire kiss.
THE END…
BUT TURN THE PAGE FOR THE NEXT BOOK: HOT VAMPIRE SEDUCTION!
HOT VAMPIRE SEDUCTION
VAMPIRE WARDENS SERIES BOOK TWO
Lisa Renee Jones
CHAPTER ONE
Awareness rushed over Aiden Brooks a moment before he found himself the focus of the petite package of a gorgeous female’s glower that he recognized from her pictures. This was Kelly Riggs, the thirty-two-year-old, Austin, Texas Medical Examiner, whose office he stood in without invitation, or introduction.
“What exactly do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, swiping at a strand of long, raven hair that fell from the clip holding it haphazardly on top of her head.
“Waiting on you, of course,” he replied nonchalantly, as if he had every right to be standing behind her desk, reading the file he’d been studying upon her arrival.
“While reading my private documents?” she challenged, rounding the desk to snatch the file, before fixing her rich honey-colored eyes on him, little flecks of orange fire simmering in their depths. “I need to see identification or I’m calling security.”
He barely contained a smile that he was certain would get him hit, and that very certainty, intrigued him. She intrigued him. Most humans, males included, instinctively kept a distance from him, wary of his long dark hair and the unnatural shade of his pitch-black eyes. He didn’t wear the colored lenses many of his kind chose to wear to blend in with the rest of the population and not because he had some sick desire to scare humans. Because he wanted his enemies to know who and what he was, even before they sensed that he too, was a predator. But this woman didn’t sense that in him, or perhaps, she simply didn’t care. Not only was the office small, the space limited, but he towered over what he estimated to be her five feet four inches by a good foot and still she challenged him.
“Names Aiden Brooks,” he said, intentionally ignoring her request for identification. “I’m investigating the recent deaths of six University of Texas students. I understand they were all female and all had the same drug in their systems. But your notes also indicate an extreme anemic condition. I don’t see a reference to the wounds that caused that to happen.”
She made a frustrated sound. “You press people really are bold, aren’t you?”
Ah. That explained her reaction. It wasn’t everyday a city had themselves a serial killer on the loose. The press had to be piranhas chasing the story. “I’m not with the press.”
“Then show me some ID so I know who I’m talking to and why.”
“I’m on the same team you are,” he assured her. “I’m chasing the bad guys and I’m especially good at catching monsters. And you definitely have a monster on your hands.” The blood thirsty kind of monster that her human law keepers didn’t have a chance of surviving, let alone, catching.
“ID,” she repeated, her demeanor all business.
Stubborn woman. Stubborn, sexy woman. He liked those things in a female. Too bad he didn’t have time to act on just how much. He closed the small distance between them. “Of course,” he said quietly, inhaling the sweet rose scent of her skin, his eyes capturing hers. She blinked up at him, her gaze steady, as defiant as ever, yet her pulse quickened at his nearness. That sweet scent thickened in his nostrils and told him that she wasn’t so unaffected by him, any more than he was by her. In fact, he didn’t remember the last time a female had affected him like this one, certainly not with such an instant jolt of…well, he wasn’t sure what. There was something about her, something that made him wish they had met when he didn’t have an agenda, or his duty, to attend.
Regretfully, he sent her a mental compulsion, knowing she’d hate him if she ever found out, but also knowing there were lives on the line and time was of the essence. “I’m going to need your help, Kelly. I’m going to need you to tell me everything you know about these murders. I’ve shown you proper identification as an FBI agent, rather than a private hire. You’re confident that you need to give me this information willingly.”
She blinked once, twice, then, “Yes. Yes, of course.”
He let go of her mind, watching her shoulders relax, the tension of seeing him as an intruder fading from her delicate heart shaped face. She wet her lips, her pretty pink tongue, stroking them. Fire shot through him, his precious control that had kept him alive a hundred and thirty-two years now, sliding into the darkness of desire for a woman he barely knew. His cock thickened, his mind going places it had no business going. Aiden silently cursed, turning away from her and quickly putting the desk between them. What the fuck was wrong with him? He didn’t get distracted by the taste of sin and satisfaction, certainly not the taste of blood—even that of a gorgeous woman. He was a Warden, the law of his kind that tracked down and killed those who turned humans into prey.
“You were right,” she said softly.
He turned to face her, “Right about what?”
“They were all drugged and they were all anemic. Actually, it was more than anemic. Their bodies had 50% lower blood ratios than is normal and that’s not even the weirdest part. There were no open wounds and I don’t see how anyone loses that much blood without an open wound. It makes no logical sense that a drug would cause such a thing.”
Aiden was sure this was a case of Vampire attacks, but Vampires that were infected with bloodlust didn’t bother to seal the wounds. They just ripped the person’s neck out and moved on to the next victim. Normally, that was. A vampire, or a group of vampires, who not only had bloodlust, but had somehow organized would be dangerous. That didn’t seem possible. Something didn’t add up. “What can you tell me about the drug?”
“There were only trace amounts of a substance in the women’s systems,” she said. “But it’s not anything I’ve ever seen before.” She hesitated, like she was uncomfortable with what she had to say.
He narrowed his gaze. “Tell me.”
She leaned an elbow on the table, her lab coat gaping open to show a slim cut black dress accenting delicate feminine curves. “You’ll think I’m crazy.”
“There isn’t much I think is crazy,” he assured her, resting his own elbow on the high lab table, and turning to face her. “Try me.”
“It’s not just that this substance is nothing I’ve ever seen before. It’s not anything even remotely familiar, not documented as something known to man. Almost... alien in nature.” She shook her head and laughed nervously. “Maybe my lab equipment is acting up. Or maybe the trace amounts of the substance I’ve got to work with might be the issue. Please tell me you and your people have a lead on what this drug is and where to get it. More importantly, you have a plan to get it off the streets. The women were all at the same part of the downtown party scene when they died. Lock down the bars. Just shut them down until this is over. Clearly people aren’t smart enough to stay away by themselves.”