Tempting the Enemy (6 page)

“It’s
you
.” He forced his feet to stop moving, pulling in a careful breath between his teeth. Another. He stretched his fingers wide, retracting the claws that had begun to push through his skin. If he could just retract the wanting so easily. This female wasn’t for him. Would never be for him. She was a
Sibile
. A traitor by nature, no matter what his senses tried to tell him. “If you’d drop the fucking Heat, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

Her cheeks reddened but her eyes blazed. “I’m
not
in Heat.”

He put his hand over the erection she’d have to be blind to miss. “Tell that to my cock.”

She blinked, glancing away from his hand as if embarrassed. “I would if I thought it had any more sense than your head.”

Dee Tenorio

43

Great. Threatening her life didn’t seem to faze her, screwing her senseless in his mind only pleased her, but one verbal reference to sex and she turned into a grade-schooler. “I’m not going to be able to work with you this way.”

“I don’t see why not, seeing as I’m not
doing
anything to you.” She tried to put on a prim expression but that wouldn’t wash. For one, she was still a soft pink from ear to ear. For another, he’d already seen her shudder in orgasm. And God help him, he’d almost joined her.

“Because I’ll do something to
you
.” His teeth snapped at the end of the harsh words, remembering how close he’d been while feeling her as if she were real in his mind, hearing her and watching her fall apart in his arms.

She jumped, her lids fluttering with flustered blinks.

Pale closed his eyes and banged the back of his head against the soundproofed wall with a solid thump. He didn’t need this. He didn’t want this. But he
did
want
her
.

“Every chance I get,” he added, quieter. With even the smallest bit of encouragement, he’d have her on her back, moaning in a heartbeat. The notion was tempting.

So fucking tempting. “And if
I
don’t have you, every Wolf for miles is going to come after you. I’ll spend all my time in challenges, defending you until you’re imprinted. It won’t work. Having you around is going to get us both killed.”

That subtle reminder effectively dimmed the temptation. Not the erection, unfortunately, but it cleared his mind enough to push away from the wall. He still had to call Aaron. No sense in him coming down the mountain for this one. Pale would have to find some other way to 44

Tempting the Enemy

deal with her. He pulled his cell phone from his hip holder and hit the speed dial.

“I can defend myself just fine, thanks.”

He looked up from the phone, finding the suddenly feral girl glaring at him. “In the day?”

Her lips hardened and he could see those little fang tips deepening their dimples into the taut flesh.

“Favian.” Aaron’s deep voice interrupted the spell and Pale turned away from the seduction of her mouth.

“You don’t need to come down.”

“Don’t tell me you lost her.” Aaron’s surprise wasn’t unfounded. Pale never lost his prey.

He cast a surreptitious glance at the woman watching him so carefully. Their eyes met. Locked. “Not yet.”

“You’re not planning to keep her, are you?” Aaron’s laugh chafed.

His senses might be blinded by Heat, but something finally clicked in Pale’s mind as he stared into those amber irises, the color shaded with emotions he could identify effortlessly. Pride. Anger. Desire. Confusion.

Frustration. Everything he expected except deceit. “I haven’t decided yet.”

Aaron choked. “What?”

Pale closed the phone, flicking off the ringer as he slipped it back in its holster. He stepped over to her, reaching out a finger to tip up her chin. She let him inspect, staring up at him, waiting for his decision on her fate.

“Tell me, did your precious Order think to train you in group combat before they literally threw you to the Wolves? Because most other males would take you on the Dee Tenorio

45

ground in the street if they got the opportunity. Ten at a time, if that’s what it takes to get at you.”

He felt her shiver, but she didn’t back down. “I can’t leave, Detective. No matter what I might want.”

“What about what
I
want?” And how often he’d want it.

Not even a blink from those eyes. “You’ll just have to deal with your inappropriate urges by yourself.”

He almost smiled. She had no idea whatsoever what she was doing to him. What he would like to do to her.

She couldn’t fake this innocence, not to him. Somehow, she was telling the truth. A half-breed, hidden away in the Sibile enclave. Naïve. Dangerous. And, he accepted with a sigh, like any other female searching for safety, she was his to protect.

“Fine, you live. For now. And you stay on this case.

But what about the other males? You won’t be able to make them ignore your Heat.”

She squared her shoulders, refusing to be intimidated. Confident. Determined. “I’ll be careful.”

Foolish. “And what about you?”

“What
about
me?”

“Females in Heat are unpredictable.” He swept his gaze from her head to her toes and back again. A strong female’s needs and temperament while in Heat drove a few of them to kill, especially if a male attempted to take what she wasn’t willing to give. Whatever she was or wasn’t, he knew one thing for sure. She was strong.

“Deadly.”

“Oh, Detective.” The words carried a sensuality he felt like a lick to the underside of his cock. “You have no idea.”

Chapter Four

“Now that we’ve settled whether or not to kill me, tell me about your case.” She stood suddenly, crossed to the table and pulled it from where it had dented the wall.

She dragged it back to its original spot, all business, calmly neatening up the mess like a den mother. When she finished, tucking her chair up to the edge and dropping into it, Pale watched her fold her gloved hands—now torn at the tips—on the scratched surface.

Her mouth settled into a soft bow of expectancy.

He eyed her, trying to decide if she was serious. She actually thought to bring him to heel like a well-trained pup? From her expression, you’d never know anything had happened between them other than a couple calmly walking into a room to talk. Only the already fading flush at her neck where his beard had chafed her remained to tell the tale.

He, on the other hand, had blood drying on the tears in his shirt and had no idea what the hell he was going to do next.

No, he knew what he was going to do. He just didn’t like it.

He dragged the second chair over and sat across the table from her, frowning. “What have you been told about it?”

She looked down, reached into a pocket on the thigh of her pants and pulled out a single sheet of white paper.

She slid it across the table to him with one finger.

Dee Tenorio

47

Pale picked it up, staring incredulously. The only thing written on it was a sentence directing her to him.

“You don’t even know what kind of crime this is, do you?”

Her first hint of unease began to show. “I assumed a kidnapping or a manhunt of some kind.”

Because of her tracking skills. “This is a serial murder case.” With eight victims to date, even if only three of them counted officially.

“D-dead people?” She lost half her color in an instant.

“That’s what murder victims are, yes.” Damn, he’d be babysitting in every way. “Are you not qualified for this kind of assignment?”

“Too qualified.” Her color hadn’t come back, but the shadows had. In her eyes, almost draping around her shoulders. “The assignment makes a little more sense now.”

“Why’s that?”

The look she sent him said she knew he was fishing for gift details. “Death is never comfortable for my people.”

“The Sibile are sensitive about death?” The absurdity of that remark actually stole a laugh from him. An unpleasant sound, he knew, but she didn’t flinch at it.

“Tell me, Detective, with your acute sense of smell, do you
enjoy
the scent of death?”

The sickly rotting of a body left too long without a soul? The fresh tang of too much blood and pain? No, he couldn’t say he did. He hoped never to say he did.

“Then you’ll forgive me if I’m not looking forward to that aspect of my job.”

“What other aspects are you expecting?”

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Tempting the Enemy

She sighed, shaking her head in tiny motions. “I’m not giving you a list of my gifts. Give me the details so I can decide which of my abilities will serve the case best.”

His hackles twitched. “I’m not one of those pet males you Sibile keep on short leashes. I don’t take orders from you. I barely accept them from the captain.”

“We can’t keep doing this, Detective,” she answered after a long silence. “I refuse to spend the next few days fighting with you for control of every little thing. I’m not your subordinate.”

“Honey,
everyone
is my subordinate.”

Frustration tightened her jaws. “Is
every
male out here like you? Because if they are, I’ll take my chances with the pets.”

“Your chances? You say that like you haven’t been around them much either.” Which wasn’t at all likely.

Sibile females were as lusty as anyone else on the planet.

If rumors about some of the visiting scarlets could be believed, a little more so.

“Not that it’s your business, but no, I haven’t. My experience with males has always been chaperoned.”

“You’ve never been alone with a man?”
Son of a
bitch.
He’d known she was untouched, but until she said the words, he’d thought that had been by choice. Hell of an impression he must have made for his kind. Taking her to a small room and grinding her into a door? He barely kept from scrubbing his face with his hand.

“The Order didn’t think it was safe.”

With her sensuality? “Yeah, no shit.” She’d be a sitting duck.

“For
them
.” She flashed her fangs, eyes narrowed with perceived insult. So that’s what set her off. She could Dee Tenorio

49

do her Good Sibile impression when she had to, but the second she thought she sounded weak…
grrr
. Interest stirred in his belly again. Was it her Sibile side or the Wolf behind the aggression?

Part of him doubted this little female could do anyone any real damage, despite her light show earlier, though who she thought she was scaring by waving a little wand of light he couldn’t guess. Then again, his ribs itched where the cuts she’d inflicted were healing.

Definitely the Wolf side…

But how much Wolf was she?

Pale lashed out a hand, capturing her fingers. She yanked back but he held her easily. So, she hadn’t inherited her father’s strength. He parted the tears on her glove fingers, his thumb catching the tip of a sharp claw.

This time, the angry growl was hers.

He let her go and she pulled her hand to her chest as if he’d wounded it. For damn sure, he hadn’t. “Why do you cover them? You don’t hide your fangs?”

“I
can’t
hide my teeth.” Dissembling wouldn’t help her and she seemed to know it. He had too many questions. If she planned to avoid some—he wasn’t stupid enough to imagine she wouldn’t—she’d have to choose her battles wisely. This one wasn’t worth it. “This happened when I was fifteen. A partial change, but I have no control over it. Can’t make it go back, leaving me like this. Never completely Sibile, never completely Wolf. But I have strengths of both.”

He eyed the hand she still held clasped to her chest.

“I didn’t say every strength.” She tugged at the glove, pulling a small, fine-boned hand from the black leather. She fanned her fingers before him, turning them out for his inspection.

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Tempting the Enemy

Pale forced himself to remain analytical, but her long fingers were so…feminine. Graceful. Delicate, but for the lethal-looking white tips. Even those, with the pointed claws curving slightly, didn’t strike him as anything but elegant. Erotic, if he let his imagination flesh out the brief fantasy of her trailing one over his bare hip, up his back to where her slim ankle would be resting against his shoulder…

He coughed, concentrating on his own hands on the table. His claws, when extended, were black and could only be politely described as
destructive
. The not-as-polite tended to use the word
eviscerating
. Nothing erotic there.

“What else should I be aware of?” he asked, voice almost as tight as his jeans.

“The fact that I bite?” Her sugary tone did little to cut her sarcasm as she pulled her glove back on.

He grinned, flashing fangs that had lengthened again at her words. “So do I.”

Her expression faltered, but he didn’t scent fear. If he didn’t miss his guess, he smelled a spike in her arousal.

How much would it take to—

Bring it back to business, Rysen.
“I need to know what you can do, Jade.”

“Jade-Scarlet. One name. Only my family can refer to me without my title.” Her gaze felt like fingertips sliding over his face, a tinge of longing in her eyes. She blinked it away. “I’m forbidden to reveal my gifts unless necessary to the case.”

“You’re forbidden to be seen without your red cloaks, too, but that didn’t stop you coming in here Dee Tenorio

51

without it, did it?” Pale waited for her to squirm. It didn’t happen.

“It was an order from my Praemonere.”

“And your Praemonere can rewrite Sibile code that’s existed for a hundred years?”

She took too long to answer, her lips making tiny movements, but no words.

He grinned at her. “If you can break one rule, then I don’t see the problem with breaking another.”

“Why is this so important to you?” Her eyes were glowing slits of discontent.

Because I need to know how to get past your
defenses.
“The more I know about what you can do, the better I’ll know where to direct your attention.” First to the killer, then to himself. “No one else will know.”

She hesitated, her gaze penetrating. Finally, she lowered her chin in the slightest of nods.