the edges of his consciousness. “Come back to bed, sweetness.”
She scooted off the dresser but didn’t come any closer. Damn, she meant business. “Suit yourself, but you really need to tell Mal about what you saw. You know Preacher’s got hard feelings for him. Mal deserves to know about anything new going on in that crazy daywalker’s life.”
“I will. Promise. First good chance I get.” Which hadn’t happened yet, and with the way Mal’s moods went, might not happen for another year or so. Truth was, Doc didn’t think Mal knowing Preacher had fathered a kid was such a good idea. No one knowing was a better idea. Hell, Doc was sorry he knew.
“I’m serious.” Her eyes strayed from his face down his bare chest and lower. She flipped a length of chestnut hair over one shoulder as the tip of her tongue wet her lips. She reached the end of the bed. “You’re not playing fair.”
He stretched, showing off the muscles in his arms and chest. He ached for her. For the unconditional way she gave herself to him. It was the greatest luxury in his life. One he’d kill to protect. “I never play fair. That’s part of my charm.”
She crossed her arms and shook her head. “Charm isn’t going to protect you if Mal finds out you’re keeping a secret like this. You need to tell him.”
“I will. Soon.”
“Promise?”
Doc crossed his fingers behind his hip, hating himself for doing it. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”
Fi frowned. “Don’t say that. That’s the last thing either of us wants to come true.”
He held his hands out to her. “C’mon, baby. Nothing’s gonna happen to me. I’m a big bad leopard again. C’mere and let me show you.” He growled softly from deep in his chest. Silently he wished away the words he’d spoken. Hope to die. Why had he even put that thought out into the universe?
“Speaking of big bad leopards, are you going to go back to Sinjin now? See if he’ll reinstate you into the pride?”
“No. Never. He threw me out when I needed the pride’s help and support the most. That man is dead to me.” He patted the bed again and gave her the most wicked look he could manage, then stroked a finger down the side of his goatee. “Now come here, woman, or I’ll come get you myself and I really don’t think you want that.”
She shrieked, then laughed as she jumped into bed beside him. “You have the devil in you.”
Happily distracted, he pulled her beneath him and sank into her warmth, nipping her throat lightly. “And now, so do you.”
“You the one who found her?” The officer handed Creek his license back and gave him a hard once-over. “You’re a ways off the reservation, aren’t you?”
He really needed to get his mother’s address off his license. “Yes, I found her.” Creek ignored the officer’s second question as he blew out a slow breath and tried to erase the mental image of the girl dying in his arms and how at first glance, he’d thought she was Chrysabelle. How that had sucked the breath out of him. Charged him with a rage he hadn’t felt since he’d pulled his father off his sister.
But the girl he’d found wasn’t Chrysabelle. She wasn’t even a real comarré. And the puncture wounds on her neck were meant to look like the work of a vampire, but he had his doubts. A vampire wouldn’t have had any reason to carve the girl up like that. Or leave that much blood behind.
“I understand they already have your DNA and prints.”
It was no secret he had a record. “Yes.” He wiped his hands down his jeans again, but they were stained with blood. Her blood.
The officer pulled out an e-tablet and stylus. “Tell me what happened—start from the beginning.”
“I was on my way home, and when I passed this alley, I heard her moaning.” Actually, he’d been tracking a fringe vamp that had been going after street people. The smell of blood had drawn the fringe into the alley.
“On your way home? Your license says you live on tribe land.” The officer’s eyes narrowed.
“I used to. That’s my mother’s place. I live down near Pineda.”
“We’ll need to verify that. And you need to get your license updated.”
“Will do.” Better tell Argent, his Kubai Mata sector chief, the cops were going to be calling. Good thing the KM had a system in place for that kind of