The Heat (6 page)

Finally, she stood. Daniel closed the phone and turned toward her. His expression was dark. “I’m sorry about this, cher, but I have to go.”

“What happened?” she asked, trying to steady her nerves.

“Triple homicide on Bennett Drive.” He shoved his phone back into his pocket and moved toward her, his stride determined. She took a step back and bumped into the love seat. “I didn’t want to do things this way, Lily, but I have no choice.” He stopped a foot away from her and then he reached out and opened the drawer of the side table that rested next to the love seat. A pair of hand cuffs slid forward. He snatched them up.

Lily’s heart hammered once, painfully hard, against her rib cage and then she sprang into action. But he must have been expecting her to run because his other hand snaked around her upper arm, jerking her to a halt.

“Daniel, let me go! What the
hell
!”

“No doing, cher. I’d give anything for time to explain things to you right now, but I haven’t got it. And you have no idea how much danger you’re in.” With that, he yanked her around and bent, lifting her over his shoulder. She cried out as she was suddenly upside down and being carried like some sort of prize meat.

“Daniel, put me down!” Fear coursed through her, thick and potent now. Her mind raced.

He took the stairs two at a time, carrying her as if she weighed nothing.

Then he was moving through a doorway and tossing her onto a bed. She bounced once and tried to gain her bearings. But he didn’t give her time before he was snapping the cuffs onto one of her slim wrists and wrapping its other end around a thick metal bedpost.

Lily gasped and immediately tried to yank out of the cuff, but Daniel’s strong hand was suddenly around her throat, squeezing gently but threateningly. She instantly stilled.

“
Don’t
do that,” he growled at her. His voice had lowered menacingly and there was a strange, animalistic note to it. “It’ll only cause you harm, understand?” His eyes cut her to the bone. Her breathing was coming so quick and shallow now, dizziness swept through her. But she forced herself to nod. He released her throat.

Then he was off of the bed and she followed his form as he moved around the room with swift and determined purpose. She took a few hurried seconds to sort out her surroundings. The bed was king-sized and draped in black sheets; the rug was white, the walls a charcoal gray. The room was tastefully, if minimally, decorated.

Daniel Kane’s bedroom.

A few seconds was all she had because he was turning back toward the bed then, a second set of cuffs in his left hand, a pocket knife in the other. Her fear notched up into terror and panic flooded her system, bubbling up into a scream that Daniel ignored. The house was set back from the road; no one would hear her.

In the back of her fevered brain, Lily wondered how many women had screamed in Kane’s bed. Black was a good color for hiding blood….

Daniel had stilled beside the bed and was watching her now with an expression that looked half determined and half pained. He seemed almost torn. “Lily, I know you’re scared,” he said. “But you know I would never hurt you. Listen to what your gut tells you.”

Lily heard the logic of his words and that calm and still part of her brain that always came to the fore when dealing with crazed family members or alcoholics told her that Daniel Kane was a good cop, an old crush, and her best friend’s big brother. He wasn’t going to hurt her. He didn’t have that feel to him. Her logical brain chanted this to her like a mantra.

But her terrified brain was screaming hysterically and the sound was drowning out her other thoughts.

Daniel moved over the bed and Lily was struggling again, unable to stop herself. With a skilled and practiced ease that made her head spin, Daniel grabbed her other wrist and cuffed it securely to the opposite bed post so that her arms were stretched out to either side. He didn’t even give her the option of kicking him, as he straddled her, effectively pinning her legs to the bed.

She watched with eyes that were blurring with tears and dizziness as he pulled a wicked blade out of the pocket knife and held up his left hand. Quickly, he drew the blade across his palm, slicing deep and clean. Dark blood welled up around the wound.

Then he turned his gaze on her once more and she was caught up in it like a deer in headlights. Her breathing was so harsh and ragged that it filled the otherwise silent space between them. She could only watch helplessly as he stared down at her.

He’s so gorgeous
, her crazed mind thought.
How can he be so handsome when he’s doing this to me? He’s going to kill me.

As if he could read her mind, he shook his head once. “Christ, Lily. I’m not gonna kill you, cher.” His voice was barely above a whisper. His expression was still guilt-ridden, but his pupils had expanded, engulfing most of the blue in his irises. He looked like her cat used to look right before he would pounce on something. “Not in a million years.”

Then his hands were moving and she barely managed to rip her gaze away from his as he placed the blade against her right forearm.

“
No!
Daniel,
please
-” With renewed vigor, she fought against the cuffs, writhing beneath him. The movement caused the cuffs to bite into her skin and bruise against her bones. She barely noticed the pain, but Daniel swore softly and quickly pulled the blade away from her arm. He set it beside her on the bed and sat back, his jaw set, his eyes flashing.

“Lily, look at me.”

Lily felt her chest tightening. Stars swam in her eyes. She was hyperventilating. But she did manage to look at him.

“You have to trust me, cher. I don’t have the time to explain this to you, but I swear on all that is holy that I’m trying to protect you. This has to be done.”

“D-Daniel….” She tried to breathe, suck in air for another word or two. “I’m scared! What’s going on?”

Daniel considered her in silence for several more heartbeats. And then he reached out like lightning and grabbed her by the nape of the neck with his un-injured hand. He pulled her head back and covered her lips with his own in a harsh, demanding kiss.

Lily bucked against him as she was at once overcome with a flood of warring sensations. Fear and confusion wailed at her senses, but as Daniel opened her up beneath him, his tongue delving deep, the fear began to recede and a deep, inescapable pleasure slaked through her like fire. Heat spread across her chest, coiled in her belly, and snaked lower. It was wholly unnatural.

But she couldn’t break free.

Lily was weakening. She could feel the strength being sapped from her limbs as if by magic. Daniel deepened the kiss and a growl rose from somewhere within him, wrapping around her like thunder. She felt like he was drinking her in, slaking a thirst he’d had for too long, and she began to feel well and truly drained.

Eventually she stopped fighting. There was simply no strength left in her body. She gave in to Daniel, offering no resistance as his grip lessened in her hair and his fingers dropped to gently brush against the back of her neck. He seemed to tremble against her and, somewhere in the back of her mind, she registered a change in the way he felt on her tongue. It was his teeth…. The canines seemed longer. Sharper.

But she barely cared. She felt drunk. She wondered if she’d been drugged.

So this is what it’s like,
her inebriated mind whispered.
This is what it’s like to kiss Daniel Kane.

It was a full minute more before he broke the kiss. When he finally did, Lily’s breathing had become shallow and slow. Her body yearned for his in a way she never could have imagined. Especially not now, under these circumstances.

She watched through half-closed lids as he slowly pulled away. There was no blue left in his gaze; his pupils had expanded entirely, mirroring the black of his hair, and she now knew what hunger looked like up close and personal.

He gazed at her for what seemed like a short eternity before he picked up the knife once again and this time, he did not pause before he placed it to her forearm and quickly drew it down across the taut, pale flesh.

Lily winced against the quick flash of pain and let out a small gasp. But there was no real fear. His kiss had drained it away.

Daniel’s pitch black eyes found hers again as he then dropped the knife and wrapped his bleeding hand around her arm, covering her wound with his own.

Lily let her head fall back onto the steel frame of his bed as the pain in her forearm almost instantly melted into a strange sort of heat. That heat snaked up her arm and across her body like fingers of flame. It licked at her breasts and she felt her nipples harden against her thin dress. Then it trailed across her stomach to that moist place between her legs and she moaned and closed her eyes. It was like being kissed all over again.

She could feel Daniel lean into her, could feel his lips lower to her ear.

“You have no idea how much I want you right now, cher. Your need is nothing
compared to mine.” His voice had changed completely. It was now much, much deeper and it resonated through her body, caressing her from the inside as if it were a living, breathing thing.

Daniel’s grip tightened around her arm as he once more claimed her lips in a kiss. Lily moaned into his mouth as her body convulsed in an orgasm and her mind went reeling into forbidden bliss. Darkness wrapped itself around her, warm and tight, drawing her in like a pulling tide. She rode the last wave of her orgasm into that waiting blackness and slipped into unconsciousness.

*****

Daniel Kane very slowly pulled out of the kiss and opened his eyes to gaze down at the young woman cuffed to his bed.

Need was riding him like a demon. It was a pain unlike any he’d ever known. It was merciless and cruel beyond measure, nearly bringing tears to his eyes.

With a strength he hadn’t known he possessed, he released his grip on her arm and sat back, putting a few precious inches of distance between them. His breathing was ragged and uneven. He fought to get it, and his body, under control. His head dropped back and with tremendous effort; he forced his fangs to recede. When they were gone, he looked at Lily again. His gaze slid from her sleeping face to the mark he’d left on her arm. Where there had been a knife cut only moments before, there now rested a symbol. It was blue and intricately knotted and it entranced him to see it there, on his chosen mate.

Out of curiosity, he glanced down at his own hand. The same mark etched across his palm where he had sliced it. Both wounds were gone, as if they had never been.

It’s done,
he thought.
She’s marked.
With fingers that trembled, he gently brushed a long lock of her golden hair from her neck and traced the outline of her collarbone.
She’s mine.

It was the best he could do for now. It would protect her, at least a little.

He let his hand drop to his lap and took a deep, shaky breath. He had to go. The Mayor and his family had been killed. He knew who the killer was; he didn’t even have to visit the crime scene. He knew he would smell the other wolf the second he entered the Mayor’s home. Malcolm Cole had done this. He was a smart man. He knew it was the only way Daniel would ever leave Lily alone. The murder had to be drastic; televised enough.

Daniel had no choice but to put in an appearance. He was the new Police Chief. The media would be there. And Lily would be alone. And Cole was waiting for just that.

This was a fucking nightmare.

He’d had to steal Lily’s strength and put her to sleep with his kiss and that was
not
what he’d wanted to do the first time he kissed her. She would be confused when she awoke. Then she would be pissed. She would almost certainly try to run.

He would put a blue-and-white out front and make sure Tabitha was here. There was nothing more he could do.

Slowly, he pushed off of the bed and unlocked each of the cuffs around Lily’s wrists. Then he lifted her and repositioned her sleeping body so that she lay in the center of his bed. He gently covered her with the sheets and stepped away. Her golden hair spilled all around her, stark against the black of his covers.

He was still hurting.
God
, he was hurting. But he could get it under control in time. With another shaky breath, he pulled his cell from his front pocket and dialed it. Tabitha picked up on the first ring.

“Get to my place, Tabitha. She’s sleeping. I want you here with her when she wakes up…. Tell her I’m sorry.”

He hung up, not waiting for a response. Then he strode to the door, taking one last glance at the thin blue line that graced Lily’s right arm before he left the room.

Chapter Five: CSI – Baton Rouge

“I’m a little surprised by your methods, Jennings, but I must admit that I can see the benefit of your actions.”

Jennings was quiet for a good, long while before his voice cracked in answer as he spoke into his cell phone. “Yes sir. It seemed to make sense, sir. He’ll be confused now and you’ve taught us to weaken them however possible.”

Another long pause, but this from the other side.

“Yes. I see.” The voice was calm, the tone low. And though it filled Jennings with a sense of respect, it also gave him the creeps. In the background, he could swear he heard what sounded like the pinging of elevators, the distant chink of glasses…. Bells on slot machines?

“Jennings, you have a chance to make a real difference here. To do something good for the world. To rid it of real evil. Make the most of it and don’t fail me. You’ve done well so far and you’ve been given an in that others in your position are not given. You can set these demons against each other.”

“Yes sir,” Jennings replied. “The thought had occurred to me, sir.”

The voice on the other end continued. “Now, I happen to know that you have a personal interest in this matter, and I can understand that.”

A brief pause.

“However, I need you to keep a clear head. In the end, it is our objective that matters. Not our personal desires. Don’t let them interfere with your job. Do you understand?”