Crouching Tiger, Forbidden Vampire (Love at Stake) (7 page)

She gave him an entreating look. “If you understand the importance of family, then let me do this.”

He swallowed hard. “And the wedding? Have you forgotten you’re engaged?”

“I’ll decide if I want to do that later. For now, I’m doing what I have to. Just like you.”

He walked away a few steps, considering what to do. If he took her back, he would hate himself almost as much as she would. But he couldn’t let her venture off on her own. If something happened to her, how could he live with that? He already had the guilt of so many deaths on his shoulders. How could he handle another death, especially when it was her—an innocent, brave, and beautiful young woman whose only crime was that she loved her family too much to let their deaths go unpunished?

Take her with you,
an inner voice urged him.
No
. He shook his head. It would be a disaster. She would make him . . . care.
You already do.

No!
He rejected that immediately. No more thoughts about feelings. He had no feelings. His heart was dead. He lived only to kill Han. He needed to track the bastard down in whatever hole he was hiding in—

He stiffened with a sudden idea and spun toward her. “You can sniff out a vampire?”

“Yes.” She shrugged. “But only if I’m within a few miles of him.”

“What if he’s underground?”

“If he’s not surrounded by tons of rock, I should be able to.” She tilted her head, watching him warily. “What are you thinking?”

“You might . . . be useful.”

Her eyes widened. “Then you’ll team up with me? We can be partners?”

“Maybe.” He held up a hand to keep her from getting too excited. “I’m not sure if this is a good idea. Your cousin would want to kill me.”

“I won’t let him.” Jia strode toward him, a smile blossoming on her face. “Can we start tonight?”

“I need to test your abilities first.”

She nodded. “I can do it.”

“That remains to be seen. I’ll teleport you three miles away from my secret hideout. Then I’ll go there and wait one hour. If you don’t find me, the deal is off. I’ll find you and teleport you home.”

She winced. “And if I do find you?”

“We’ll be a team.”

Her grin returned full force. “I’ll find you. You’ll see.”

He had to be out of his freakin’ mind. Russell reached for her to teleport, but she surprised him by throwing her arms around his neck and nuzzling her face against his chest.

“What are you doing?” He grabbed her by the upper arms and tried to ease her back, but she tightened her grip around his neck.

“I have to know your scent.” She rubbed her nose against his shirt. “Lean over, please.”

He leaned forward slightly, and she buried her nose in the crook of his neck. Her fingers delved into his hair, loosening the strands from the ponytail so she could get a good sniff.

“I can’t track down any old vampire I might detect,” she whispered against his neck. “It has to be you.”

His hands tightened on her arms. Already his groin was reacting. How on earth was he going to work with this woman, a betrothed princess, when he longed to hold her in his arms?

Her breath was warm and sweet against his neck. All he had to do was turn his head and he could kiss her. Would she let him? Would she curl up against him like a tiger kitten and purr?

He shoved that thought away. This was business. Only business.

“I’m ready.” She glanced up at him, smiling.

I’m screwed
. His dead heart squeezed in his chest. What the hell had he done? Her smile was the most beautiful thing he’d seen in ages. He gathered her close so he could teleport, trying not to think about how good her body felt pressed against his own. As soon as he got to his bat cave, he’d have to take a cold shower. And then he would wait. Would she find him?

No, she would fail the test. She had to. Then he could teleport her home and return to his normal life. He would regain his sanity. He had to.

For he had a strange desire to go completely mad.

Chapter Seven

J
ia took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She was alone now, surrounded by dense forest, and the clock was ticking. Before leaving her, Russell had given her his watch with a timer set to go off in one hour. He claimed he would be able to hear the alarm even if she was ten miles away. When her time was up, he’d find her and teleport her back home.

Arrogant jerk. He’d acted like she was sure to fail. He’d even shown her how to turn on the alarm in case she got scared and wanted to give up early. His parting words—“Watch out for snakes”—had clearly been meant to frighten her.

Unfortunately, it was good advice. Rajiv had progressed to his second life after a cobra bite.

She took another deep breath. She was not giving up. She’d roamed many a forest in the dark of night without getting scared. Of course, she was usually in tiger form when that happened. And she was rarely alone, since all the were-tigers of Tiger Town shifted and hunted together.

In spite of that, she had successfully sniffed out Han’s camp in Myanmar by herself. So she could do this, too. She had her knives, her determination, her excellent night vision, and her nose.

But she had a problem. The air was so still and muggy that she was having trouble catching Russell’s scent. If she could just get a breeze from the right direction . . .

She glanced at the watch’s glow-in-the-dark face. Four minutes up already. A rising swell of panic crept up her chest.

Quickly she swung her backpack off and retrieved the red silk bag containing her mother’s bracelets. She hadn’t worn them before for fear they might gleam in the moonlight and cause her escape to be seen. “Mom, Dad, I need help. Be with me, please.”

She clasped the bracelets around her wrists, the right one just above Russell’s watch, and, as usual, they gave her a sense of comfort. Her family loved her. They were depending on her. Their were-tiger blood ran through her veins. She had their skills, their power. She just needed to trust in it.

After slipping the backpack on, she closed her eyes and focused all her attention on the smells surrounding her. The new growth and decay of the forest. The scent of animals, some asleep in their burrows, others roaming about. Slowly, she rotated.
Trust your instincts. The tiger will know.

The scent was so faint that she wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, but it was all she had to go on. She headed northwest. No doubt Russell was testing her past the limit of her ability. He had to be over three miles away. The undead creep had probably set her up to fail.

Every five minutes she stopped and rotated, sniffing the air carefully. Her gut feeling remained the same. Northwest.

After twenty-five minutes, she knew her instincts had steered her right. His scent was coming in clearly now. With a grin, she quickened her pace.

Ten minutes later, she came across a stream.
Yes!
This had to be the one that ran through Russell’s cave.

“Take that, vampire. You’ll have to work with me now.” She hurried upstream, and his scent grew stronger.

It was a surprisingly nice scent for a vampire. The bad ones like Han usually smelled of human blood. After all, she thought with disgust, you are what you eat. With a shudder, she recalled the stench of Lord Qing, one of Han’s deceased vampire lords. He’d smelled of rancid blood, greasy hair, and centuries-old unwashed skin.

Jin Long and the other good Vamps she knew had a cleaner, more sterile smell. Something to do with the synthetic blood they drank, she guessed. That and they believed in bathing.

Russell’s scent was similar, but somehow earthier. Maybe it came from living in a cave in the middle of a forest. The coppery scent of blood was overshadowed by the fresh smells of pine, oak, and moss. His hair had carried the scent of a melted mountain glacier. And his skin had smelled like . . . man. A strong, virile man in his prime, powerful and . . .

She scoffed at herself. There was no point in dwelling on his handsome face or glorious muscles. Or how her heart had raced when she’d snuggled up against him. She could never be interested in a vampire. How could she forget that it was a vampire who had killed her brother and parents?

Besides, Russell had no interest in her other than her nose. If she didn’t prove her skill at sniffing out bloodsuckers, he’d drop her off in Tiger Town without a second thought. The heartless jerk. She’d tried twice in the past to trust him, and both times, he’d let her down.

He didn’t seem to know how much he’d hurt her. Most probably, he didn’t care. It had been her fault for wanting to believe in him, for imagining him as some kind of hero who understood and shared her need for vengeance. After years of pursuing her mission all alone, she’d longed for someone to help her shoulder the burden. Someone who would understand the pain that still tormented her. Someone who would acknowledge her strength and skill without trying to lock her up in the palace to play princess.

With a sigh, she realized she’d wanted Russell to be the one. He was the only one she’d ever met who was as dedicated to killing Han as she was. And he was so wonderfully strong and capable that she couldn’t help but be impressed by him. Deep down in her heart, she wanted him to be equally impressed by her. They needed each other in order to succeed. She’d wanted to believe that so much that she’d ignored his constant warnings.
I work alone
.

“Not anymore. We’ll be a team now, whether you like it or not.” She winced, knowing he would reply
not
.

Eventually, the stream disappeared into a pile of rocks. What had Russell said? The stream went through a rock tunnel for a mile or so? She had to be close.

She glanced at the watch. Fifteen minutes to go. The terrain was hillier now, and she breathed heavily as she scrambled up a steep hill. At the top, she stopped and sniffed. His scent was strong. She was closing in.

Her heart pounded, imagining his surprise when she arrived at his secret hideout. But what if he was disappointed? He might look for any reason to break up their partnership. In that case, she needed to make sure she proved valuable to him. No matter what happened, she couldn’t allow herself to be a burden.

R
ussell paced in the bat cave, alternately congratulating and cursing himself for leaving Jia three and a quarter miles away. At first, he’d assured himself it was a good strategic move to test her to the max, but now he acknowledged he was full of shit. The ugly truth was he had set her up to fail.

What else could he have done? Every time he pulled her into his arms to teleport, he was tempted to hold her longer than necessary. Every time he looked into her eyes or saw her smile, he felt a tug at his undead heart. He couldn’t allow this to continue. Feelings would distract him, make him weak. Weakness would cause him to fail.

But what if he needed her tracking abilities? If he did, then her failure would ultimately bring about his own. And if anything happened to her in the forest, he didn’t know if he could forgive himself. Already he had the deaths of too many people on his shoulders.

Dammit. Was he putting Jia in danger just to avoid a severe case of lust? After teleporting to his cave, he’d taken a cold shower, and it hadn’t helped. His groin reacted every time he recalled the way she’d cuddled up against him and nuzzled his neck. She was so damned sweet and soft. And so alone out there in the dark forest.

“Ow.” He winced as his foot rammed into a table leg. Normally, he could see well in the dark, but he wasn’t paying enough attention. Already she was distracting him.

He turned on his sat phone to see how much time had passed. Fifty minutes. She had ten minutes to go. He strained his ears but couldn’t hear the alarm. She hadn’t given up early.

A sense of respect filled his chest with warmth. His Jia was brave. Clever and resourceful.

His
Jia? What the hell—

A noise interrupted his thoughts. He stiffened, listening closely. Someone or something was moving through the woods and not being quiet about it. Was it Jia, purposefully making noise to ward off predators?

He quickly turned off the phone. The ceiling above his kitchen and table area was very thin and porous—nothing more than a thin layer of tangled roots. Any light in the bat cave might shine through a bit, so he was being careful to keep the cave dark. She had to find him by scent alone.

He paced some more. Checked his phone. Eight minutes to go. His nerves tensed. What if she found him? What if he got to see her pretty smile every night? And he would be able to hold her and talk to her. Maybe even . . .

He shook his head. She was engaged to someone else.
You can’t have her
. The warning message flared from his brain but fizzled out before it reached his heart. To hell with it all. He wanted her to find him.

The thrashing sounds outside grew closer.
Please be Jia
.

He teleported aboveground, then levitated high into a tree so he could see who or what was approaching.

His phone buzzed. Even though it was set at its lowest volume, he grabbed it quickly so the sound wouldn’t be heard. “What?” he whispered.

“About time,” J.L. grumbled. “I’ve been trying to call you for twenty minutes.”

Russell glanced down at his secret hideout. “I was out of range.”

“Yeah, I figured that. Here’s the deal. We’ve been searching for Jia for over forty minutes. It looks like she’s run away. Have you seen her?”

“Why would she be out here?” He scanned the land below as the noise grew louder.

There! His heart lurched in his chest.

She emerged from a copse of slender young trees, headed quickly for the massive oak tree that grew close to the top of his cave. He winced. The ceiling was too thin to support—

Her foot broke through the tangled roots, accompanied by a feminine squeal. Her leg slid into the cave up to her midcalf.

“What was that?” J.L. demanded. “Did I hear a scream?”

“It’s nothing. The mating call of a . . . water buffalo. Later.” Russell hung up and jammed the phone into his pants pocket. Then he teleported to solid ground close to Jia.

Her back was to him, and she was squatting on her left foot, her hands on the ground to keep her balance as she struggled to pull her right foot free.

He caught the scent of fresh blood. “You’re injured.”

“Russell?” She twisted toward him, her face brightening with a big smile. “I did it! I found you!”

“Is your leg hurt?”

“It’s no big deal. I’ll still be able to work.”

“The ground is too thin there. Don’t move.”

“I know.” Her voice lowered to an embarrassed mumble. “I’m stuck, and I can’t get up.”

His mouth twitched. “Stay put. I’ll get you.”

“Like I’m going anywhere,” she muttered.

He levitated, stretching out horizontally so he could reach her. “Grab on to me.”

“I surprised you, didn’t I?” With a grin, she looped her arms around his neck. “You didn’t think I could do it.”

He rose higher till her leg pulled free. His body swung back into a vertical position, bumping gently against her. Once again she was in his arms, and it felt so good. This partnership was going to kill him.

She hugged his neck. “I did it! We’re a team now.”

“Yes.” He winced as his groin tightened.

When she leaned back to look at him, her smile withered away. “I was afraid of that. You’re disappointed.”

“I’ll manage.”
Don’t get hard. Don’t get hard.
Unfortunately, the more he admonished his perverse manhood, the more it defied him.

“I can tell you’re angry. You’re scowling at me. To be honest, I’m a bit angry with you, too.”

“What for?” Could she feel the bulge?

She gave him a wry look. “It’s blatantly obvious.”

Damn.
He glanced down.

“You left me more than three miles away. You wanted me to fail.”

“Oh, that.” He exhaled with relief. “Yeah. I did.”

She snorted. “Well, at least you’re honest about it. You made it very hard for me.”

Hard. For her.
He gritted his teeth. “You’re welcome to slap me if you want.” Maybe then he would come to his senses.

“You may find this hard to believe, but I don’t go around slapping people all the time.”

He arched his brow in doubt.

“You’re the exception.” Her eyes glimmered with amusement. “I’ll try to restrain myself in the future.”

“Thank you. I’ll try not to be exceptional.”

She grinned. “I think we’re going to make a great team.”

His heart squeezed in his chest. She seemed genuinely happy to be with him. Her smile had a way of lighting up her face, making her eyes twinkle and her lips look soft and luscious. Seconds ticked by as he stared at her mouth.

Slowly her smile faded. “Russell?”

“Yes.” He lifted his gaze to her eyes. Her beautiful golden eyes.

Time stretched out as they looked at each other. The air between them grew thick and heavy, almost electric. He could feel the sizzle wherever her body was pressed against his.

Her gaze lowered to his mouth, and he leaned forward.

Beep, beep, beep
.

He jerked his head back. The alarm on his watch went off.
Shit
. It was loud enough to wake the dead. Or the Undead. He’d put the alarm on its highest volume, thinking she would be miles away when the allotted hour was up.

She fumbled with her hands behind his neck. “How do I turn it off?”

“Let me see it.” He turned his head just as she leaned forward to look over his shoulder. His mouth brushed against her cheek.

Immediately she pulled back, breaking the contact.

“That was an accident.”

“I know.” Her face flushed pink.

He gritted his teeth. What had happened to that sexy moment when he’d thought she’d wanted him to kiss her? Had he only imagined it?

She avoided looking at him. “Maybe you should put me down.”

“The ground beneath us would collapse. Hang on a second.” He teleported her down into the bat cave. The damned watch continued to beep, filling the cave with a loud echo.