The heavily muscled vampire, one of the Fal en like her, climbed out of the aircraft with a grin, his eyes hidden behind wraparound sunglasses, his shaved head shining under the desert sun. He sized up Elijah with a long, sweeping glance. Then he looked at Vash. “I’l have to make another trip, at least. Maybe two more.”
She nodded. “Let’s get you unloaded, then.”
It took al day to move the necessary supplies into the building, even with the help of the four dozen lycans they’d brought in via bus. In addition to the electronic equipment, which took priority, they set up rows of bunk beds that drew groans from the lycans, because they were identical to the ones they’d been provided while indentured to Adrian. Cameras were set up on the roof, since any angelic incursion would come from the air, and the windows were covered with UV-blocking film, to create a safe haven for the minions that would join them in a few hours under cover of darkness.
The most important thing for Vash, however, was the van-sized map that showed the pattern of contagion around the country. She stood in front of it with her hands on her hips, knowing the radiuses had extended in the last few days she’d spent setting up the lycan/vampire al iance.
Turning her head, she watched as the lycans worked alongside her most trusted captains, Raze and Salem. Lycans and vampires working together. It was insane, real y, considering the seething hostility that weighted the air, like flammable gas awaiting the strike of a match. She was restless in anticipation of a sparking event, knowing it wouldn’t take much to set off an explosion that could devolve into a bloodbath.
It didn’t escape her attention that Elijah was the force keeping it al together. As the temperature rose, he took most of the outside shifts, hefting the heavy equipment and carrying it into the loading bays without a word of complaint. She knew how lycans hated the heat; she’d exploited how testy they became when uncomfortable countless times on hunts. But Elijah was such a powerful example of grace under pressure that the others were shamed into good behavior—lycan and vampire alike.
Although sweat poured down the lycans’ laboring bodies and their chests heaved, they worked quickly and efficiently. And the vampires gave the Alpha only a token amount of flak when he directed their efforts with firm, unwavering command. They didn’t trust him, but they couldn’t fault his leadership style. It was impossible to do so. There was something inherently majestic about Elijah, a core strength of wil that was unshakable. And he was compassionate. He took the time to speak to each lycan individual y, putting a hand on their shoulders and gifting personal words of thanks and praise.
More than once she found herself staring at and admiring him. We’re equals or we’re nothing, he’d said, referring to vampires and lycans as a whole. But it was true for them as individuals, too.
No, she corrected herself. He outranks me. His equals were Syre and Adrian. For the first time, she was confronted with an attraction to a man who wasn’t beneath her in rank. She was startled at how much that changed the dynamic.
“If this al iance sticks,” Elijah said at the end of the day, “it’l take me years to get used to.”
“How many of these lycans can you trust to have your back?”
One slashing brow rose. His hair was damp from a recent shower, inciting a mental picture him of standing beneath a spray of water, naked and wet and irresistibly sexy… “Hel if I know,” he said without heat.
Honest to a fault. She liked that about him, among too many other things. He was a goddamned lycan, a race of beings that couldn’t be trusted— His other brow rose to match the first. “Problem?”
“No problem.” She brushed past him on her way out, her nostrils fil ed with the wildly clean fragrance of his skin mixed with the earthy pheromones he exuded as a matter of course…pheromones her senses soaked up as if starved for them. “I’l see you in the morning.”
She didn’t hear him come up on her, but she felt him. Was overly attuned to him. Damn it al to hel . “Don’t nip at my heels, puppy,” she snapped.
“You’re charming when sexual y frustrated.”
Her fists clenched. “I’m hungry for food, not you.”
“I am your food. We discussed this.”
“You discussed it.” She stepped outside into the chil y desert night and took a deep breath of air untainted by the primal scent of hardworking lycans. As she walked, her head began to clear…Then Elijah cut her off by stepping in front of her, fogging her mind with the exotic scent that was unique to him, a fragrance reminiscent of cinnamon and cloves. It was delicious, as everything about him was.
“You stay with me,” he said. “That part of the deal was mutual y agreed to.”
“I’l be back. I need to take care of something.” She needed blood, and—for the first time in damn near sixty years—sex. Then she could deal with him without tripping over how scorchingly beautiful he was.
Sidestepping him, she reached into her cle**age for her Jeep key.
He caught her wrist before she passed him. “How much shit have you got in there? Cel phones, jump drives, keys.”
Yanking her hand free, she gestured at the skintight, sleeveless black catsuit she wore. “Where the hel else am I going to carry things?”
His hand, however, didn’t budge, despite the ferocity of her movement. It remained suspended by her shoulder, close enough that she tensed in expectation of his touch. Slowly, as if she might yet bolt, he adjusted his position to bring them face-to-face again and reached for the exposed zipper that was nestled between her br**sts. Breasts that swel ed and began to ache, growing heavy in anticipation of his touch.
She’d forgotten what it felt like to be physical y aroused, forgotten how intoxicating it was, how it impeded the ability to think rational y and act with common sense.
“Keep your paws to yourself,” she bit out, stepping back.
“What are you afraid of?”
“Not wanting to be mauled doesn’t make me scared, ass**le.”
Emerald eyes glittering with chal enge in the moonlight, he held up both hands. “I promise to keep my paws to myself. I just want to see what else you’ve got in there. Cash? ATM cards? Spare tire?”