Shadow Wranglers: Slade Part 3

"I didn't get you into anything." Slade pulled something from one of the bodies before moving to the next. "I'm trying to get you out of it."

His voice was as distorted as his face.

"I was doing fine on my own."

The look he shot her said it all, and he was right. She had gotten herself into this, by taking a high-paying, do-what-you-want research job funded by shadow companies. Jobs like that didn't come without strings and she knew it, but the lure of the research had drawn her. The temptation to wipe out hunger for the world's children had been too potent to resist. She knew too well what it was like to be desperate and hungry with nowhere to turn.

Monster Slade took her arm. "Get in the car. Now."

She didn't want to get in the car. She didn't want any part of this. What she did want was an explanation that made this all plausible. Putting her hand over his, she demanded, "Who are you?"

"Vamp Man, remember?"

How could she forget? She'd thought it was a joke, a cute little play on words, but he was serious. Believed it. Maybe even was it. Dear G.o.d, was she going to have to believe in vampires now? "You really meant it when you said you were a vampire, didn't you?"

Another push and another step backward brought her up against the car. "You were the one who thought I was joking."

"Who in their right mind would take you seriously?"

"You." More pressure.

She resisted. "Look, I may be a lot of things, but I'm not stupid enough to get in the car with a vampire."

He jerked his thumb toward the bodies behind them. "You want to stay with them?"

h.e.l.l no. "Not really."

Grabbing her pack off the floor he thrust it at her. "It's either me or them."

She took it. Great.

"If they're called Sanctuary, what do you call your group?"

"Renegades."

"Perfect."

He glanced over his shoulders. His nostrils flared. She knew what that meant.

"Don't tell me more are coming."

"Yes."

"I told you not to tell me that." She fumbled for the door handle. "Good G.o.d, do they breed like rabbits, or what?"

Slade's hands covered hers. Warm, hard, rough with calluses, redolent with an energy that sank through her skin and seeped into her nerve ends, soothing the frayed edges. "I won't let them hurt you, Jane."

"Great."

The door opened. "You don't believe me?"

He arched that brow at her. She'd always been a sucker for a man who could do that. The angles in his face seemed softer, more normal. Was he changing back?

"There's only one of you and heaven knows how many of them."

"But I'm making you a promise."

He closed the door. She watched as he walked around the front of the car, every move graceful-the way a predator was graceful-the flex of muscle a smooth transition to power. He turned and caught her looking at him. She blushed. He winked and slid into the driver's seat. With a flip of the key, the engine roared to life with an incredible pulse of power. "Is the engine altered?"

"I'm good with mechanical things."

She glanced in the rearview mirror, the hairs on the back of her neck rising as shadows flickered. "Are you as good with mechanical things as you are with energy?"

"Fair enough."

"Do you think you could step on the gas pedal before the rest of those things get here?"

He cut her a glance that could have meant anything. "No problem."

The car rumbled out of the garage and into the night. No moon broke the blackness around them. Just empty s.p.a.ces in which any number of things could hide. Leaning over, she glanced in the rearview mirror again.

"Can't they hear the engine?"

Slade shook his head. "I've got a shield on the energy and an illusion over the car."

"An illusion?" The only thing standing between them and those monsters was an illusion? "Our safety net is an illusion?"

His smile was a quirk of the corner of his mouth that made her wonder how it would feel to touch her tongue to the slight dimple. Dear G.o.d, was she losing her mind?

"Sometimes an illusion beats the heck out of reality."

"Like when?"

He cut her a glance. "Like when you thought I was human."

He had her there. Unzipping the pack, she ran her fingers over her laptop. There were no dents in it, no broken edges on the first two corners, but the third hadn't fared so well. "d.a.m.n."

"What?"

"I think those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds killed my laptop."

"Their boss won't be too happy to hear that."

"What do you mean?"

"They want you, and they want the information, sweetness. Can't interpret one without the other."

"Well, they can't have either."

"On that we agree."

He was a very strange man. "What are you going to do about it?"

Reaching forward, he turned on the radio. "Kidnap you myself." The sound of soft blues music filled the car. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Kidnap?" This was a kidnap?

"Best way I know to keep you safe."

As if she should believe the man with those fangs and that still slightly morphed face. She put her laptop back in the case and zipped it. "What makes you so qualified for the job?"

He smiled, the man superseding the monster in the blink of an eye. With a jerk of his chin, he indicated the lab rapidly being left behind. "Because I'm the bada.s.s vampire who can kick Sanctuary's b.u.t.t."

3.

"ARE we going anywhere specific, or are we just going to prowl the night in this gas hog?"

Slade glanced over at Jane. She satin the pa.s.senger seat, clutching that laptop like a security blanket, staring out the window as if the scenery beyond was particularly enthralling rather than just deserted streets with a touch of winter lingering upon them. The edge to her question was echoed in the set of her mouth. She had a pretty mouth. Wide, neither thin nor full, but made for smiling. Right now it was set in a straight line.

He wished he had an answer for her. Something concrete. Something to soothe her nerves, but in reality, it wasn't up to him where they went.

"I guess that depends on you."

She didn't look at him. Somewhere between the concussion and now, she'd developed an att.i.tude. "You mean I have a say in all this?"

He swerved to avoid a pothole and bit back a smile. "Since you are the only one who knows where you've hidden your research, I'd say that makes you queen of the day."

He had to give her credit. Not by a twitch did she betray surprise at the statement.

"What research?"

He glanced in the rearview mirror. He couldn't see Sanctuary following, but the hairs on the back of his neck were tickling. They were out there.

"The research those goons back there were looking for."

"You mean those goons you hired to make you look good, and to foster a false sense of security in me?" she asked.

He was right, her mind didn't stop, it just went off on some weird tangents. "d.a.m.n, I wish I'd thought of that a couple months ago. It would have made things so much simpler."

Now she did glance at him. The black and white of his night vision caressed the planes of her profile. She wasn't a beautiful woman, but she was s.e.xy, with an earthy, girl-next-door kind of cute tossed on top. With a snort that did nothing to diminish her appeal, she muttered, "And I'm supposed to believe you're some sort of genius."

Despite the danger, he couldn't help being amused. "I never said I was some sort of genius. You're the one who gave me that appellation."

"I think I was overly impressed with your ability to crack my security code."

He c.o.c.ked an eyebrow at her. "I think the proper statement would be that you were thrilled that I cracked your security code."

Another glance, this one as autocratic as any queen had ever tossed. "That doesn't even make sense."

"It does if you were bored and looking for a little mental challenge."

"I'm a top research scientist in a lab that will give me whatever I want. How on Earth would I be bored?"

A shadow in the side-view mirror caught his eye. The faintest flicker of light. Not a solid image, but something more dangerous. Sanctuary. Rubber squealed against pavement as he made a sudden left turn. "You lack social challenge."

Grabbing the armrest, she asked, "Are you saying I'm awkward?"

He checked the rearview again. "No. I'm just saying it's been awhile since you had someone to match wits with."

Her eyes narrowed and she glanced at the pa.s.senger-side mirror. There was no way she could see Sanctuary. Though she had to be terrified, she didn't betray an ounce of fear. His admiration for her, which had been building over the past few months, increased that much more. "And you appointed yourself my court jester?"

The arrogance of the tone made him smile. "I may have been toying with taking on the role."

That might just have been a huff that preceded her mandate. "Well, if I'm going to have an opening for a court jester, then I'm not taking the first applicant that comes along. There will be an application process. I a.s.sure you, my prime requirement will not be a determination to win the position by subterfuge."

s.h.i.t. They were coming up fast on the crossroads at the edge of town. East circled back. West headed into the country. He headed west. The rows of houses got farther in between. The yards larger. "I haven't tricked you."

She looked behind again. "So you say."

"Yes, I do." He couldn't see the flicker in the mirror anymore, but the hairs on the back of his neck were practically dancing. "Hold on."

He hit the gas. The powerful engine roared to life, accelerating with the bit of his energy he poured into the engine, giving it that extra boost just as a Sanctuary vampire appeared in the rearview.

This time there was nothing fake about her gasp. "What was that?"

"Just one of those trumped-up goons you think I conjured."

"Seriously, what was that?"

He couldn't blame her for the shock. Sanctuary didn't improve in looks when they were up close and personal. "I already told you-Sanctuary."

"And what the h.e.l.l is Sanctuary?"

"An arrogant bunch of vampires ..." He took the next corner too fast, levitating the car as it tilted up on two wheels, holding it on the road until gravity took over again. The wheels. .h.i.t the road with a thump. "Who seem to think your research on how genes and amino acids interplay in nutrition is d.a.m.n interesting."

Jane's grip on the handle above the door was white-knuckled, but her voice didn't lose a bit of its arrogance as she retorted, "Of course it's interesting. I wouldn't be studying it otherwise."

"It's not your study they're interested in. It's what you discovered that's captured their attention."

"I haven't discovered anything."

It would be nice if they all could believe that. "You haven't announced anything, but you've discovered something."