“Are you here by yourself?”
“Do you want me to be?” Coyly, I fluttered my lashes at him. This one wasn’t going to get away, by God.
“I very much want you to be.” His voice was lower now, his smile deeper. God, but they had great intonation. Most of them could double as phone-sex operators.
“Well, then I was. Except now I’m with you.”
I let my head tilt to the side in a flirtatious manner that also bared my neck. His eyes followed the movement, and he licked his lips. Oh good, a hungry one.
“What’s your name, lovely lady?”
“Cat Raven.” An abbreviation of Catherine, and the hair color of the first man who tried to kill me. See? Sentimental.
His smile broadened. “Such an unusual name.”
His name was Kevin. He was twenty-eight and an architect, or so he claimed. Kevin was recently engaged, but his fiancée had dumped him and now he just wanted to find a nice girl and settle down. Listening to this, I managed not to choke on my drink in amusement. What a load of crap. Next he’d be pulling out pictures of a house with a white picket fence. Of course, he couldn’t let me call a cab, and how inconsiderate that my fictitious friends left without me. How kind of him to drive me home, and oh, by the way, he had something to show me. Well, that made two of us.
Experience had taught me it was much easier to dispose of a car that hadn’t been the scene of a killing. Therefore, I managed to open the passenger door of his Volkswagen and run screaming out of it with feigned horror when he made his move. He’d picked a deserted area, most of them did, so I didn’t worry about a Good Samaritan hearing my cries.
He followed me with measured steps, delighted with my sloppy staggering. Pretending to trip, I whimpered for effect as he loomed over me. His face had transformed to reflect his true nature. A sinister smile revealed upper fangs where none had been before, and his previously blue eyes now glowed with a terrible green light.
I scrabbled around, concealing my hand slipping into my pocket. “Don’t hurt me!”
He knelt, grasping the back of my neck.
“It will only hurt for a moment.”
Just then, I struck. My hand whipped out in a practiced movement and the weapon it held pierced his heart. I twisted repeatedly until his mouth went slack and the light faded from his eyes. With a last wrenching shove, I pushed him off and wiped my bloody hands on my pants.
“You were right.” I was out of breath from my exertions. “It only hurt for a moment.”
ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE
Cat Crawfield is now a special agent, working for the government to rid the world of the rogue undead. But when she’s targeted for assassination she turns to her ex, the sexy and dangerous vampire Bones to help her.
“Witty dialogue, a strong heroine, a delicious hero, and enough action to make a reader forget to sleep.”
MELISSA MARR
Hallo, Kitten.”
I was so preoccupied with my breakdown that I didn’t hear Bones come in. His voice was as smooth as I’d remembered, that English accent just as enticing. I snapped my head up, and in the midst of my carefully constructed life crashing around me, found the most absurd thing to worry about.
“God, Bones, this is the ladies’ room! What if someone sees?”
He laughed, a low, seductive ripple of the air. Noah had kissed me with less effect.
“Still a prude? Don’t fret—I locked the door behind me.”
If that was supposed to ease my tension, it had the opposite result. I sprang to my feet, but there was nowhere to run. He blocked the only exit.
“Look at you, luv. Can’t say I prefer the brown hair, but as for the rest of you . . . you’re luscious.”
Bones traced the inside of his lower lip with his tongue as his eyes slid all over me. Their heat seemed to rub my skin. When he took a step closer, I flattened back against the wall.
“Stay where you are.”
He leaned nonchalantly against the countertop. “What are you all lathered about? Think I’m here to kill you?”
“No. If you were going to kill me, you wouldn’t have bothered with the altar ambush. You obviously know what name I’m going under, so you would have just gone for me one night when I came home.”
He whistled appreciatively. “That’s right, pet. You haven’t forgotten how I work. Do you know I was offered a contract on the mysterious Red Reaper at least three times before? One bloke had half-a-million bounty for your dead body.”
Well, not a surprise. After all, Lazarus had tried to cash a check on my ass for the same reason. “What did you say, since you’ve just confirmed you’re not here for that?”
Bones straightened, and the bantering went out of him. “Oh, I said yes, of course. Then I hunted the sods down and played ball with their heads. The calls quit coming after that.”
I swallowed at the image he described. Knowing him, it was exactly what he’d done.
“So, then, why are you here?”
He smiled and came nearer, ignoring my previous order.