Hunter's Salvation (12 page)

“So…whatever you felt when you went and saw her in the morgue, do you feel it here now?”

The scowl on her face faded and she turned around, staring across the street at the house. She shivered, but he suspected it had nothing to do with the cold. She licked her lips. He wondered what she'd do if he bent down and did the same thing, tracing the path her tongue had taken with his own.

When she nodded, he forced himself to focus on the problem in front of them. “Yeah. I can feel it,” she told him. “They were witches. All of them.
Why?
”

Jess caught her lower lip with her teeth, and he saw the sheen of tears in her eyes. “Damn it, what the hell did I do?”

“You didn't do anything. You were trying to help. You were just…unprepared.”

Her laugh was a harsh, almost-painful sounding bark, so bitter and angry. “I was unprepared. Fuck that. My baby sister is
dead
. Unprepared. Don't you think that's maybe a little too polite?” With every word, her voice got louder and louder until she was practically screaming at him.

Vax reached out and caught her arm, stepping close. “You want to scream, you're entitled. You want to cry, you've got more reason to do it than most people. But if you do it here, we're going to have problems. We have enough problems already.”

For a second, he didn't know what she was going to do. He suspected she didn't, either. Then she turned her back on him, and he watched her slender shoulders rise and fall as she took a series of deep, slow breaths. “Yeah. I was unprepared. But it still doesn't make sense.”

Jess frowned. She lowered her head, staring down at the brick sidewalk. The neighborhood was an old one, and the people here took a lot of pride in it. A person could see that from the way the people took care of their houses, how they maintained the out-of-date brick sidewalks, not to mention the homes themselves. Houses built back in the 1920s weren't exactly easy on the pocket.

She continued to stare at the brick sidewalk's elegant pattern as though she were trying to solve some puzzle hidden inside it. “It still doesn't make sense. They weren't drained. Raped, beaten, and murdered, but not drained. If somebody is seeking out witches, wouldn't it be because they want something? Like their blood? Or their power?”

“Maybe they want something else.” She shook it off fast, that was for damn sure, Vax mused. Shook it off or locked it down. Sooner or later, she wasn't going to be able to do either one. She was blocking out the grief by dealing with the fury instead. Not the healthiest way to deal with a loss, but he couldn't think about that now.

There was a serious problem shaping up here, and she had some of the pieces.

Vax headed back down the sidewalk. By the time he'd mounted his bike, Jess had joined him. “Know where any of the others live?”

She climbed on behind him, resting her hands on his hips. “Yeah. It's a drive, though.”

“Not like I got anything else to do.” Over his shoulder, he slanted a look at her. “What about you?”

Jess just sighed. “Nope. Not a thing.”

It was the sad, heartbreaking truth, too. Jess knew there was no way she could even try to get on with her life until they found out what was going on. Found out why they had killed Randi. A sweet, innocent college girl. It was senseless. Jess had to make sense of it, or she'd go insane.

If they had killed Randi as a warning to Jess, then making sense of it would mean exposing them. Finding out what they were doing, and making it stop.

Her gut went cold every time she drove by Debach, and it was worse when she looked at the picture of Masters. He was involved in something that he was willing to kill to keep hidden. As far as Jess was concerned, her only chance at vengeance was to uncover that something.

Absolution…

Vax started the bike, and she automatically tightened her grip on him. As the ghost of her mother's voice whispered through her mind, she buried her face in his denim jacket. She could feel the heat and strength of him through it, and it felt wonderful. Almost wonderful enough that she could block out Mom's words.

Is it vengeance you seek, or absolution, baby? What happened to Randi wasn't your fault.

It was. Jess remained silent. She hadn't argued with her mother's ghost yet, and she wasn't about to start now. There was no point. Jess was right, and she knew it.

She heard something sort of like a sigh, and then her mother's presence faded. Squeezing her eyes closed, Jess unconsciously squirmed closer to Vax and held on for dear life.

 

I
T
was late.

After spending nearly three hours riding around Indianapolis on a Harley, Jess's butt was sore and she couldn't walk quite right, either. “You haven't spent too much time on a bike before, have you?” Vax asked.

As she mounted the steps to her house, Jess scowled at him. “Yes, I have. It's just been a while.”

“How long a while?”

“High school.” And she sure as hell didn't remember being this sore then, but then she hadn't spent hours at a time on the back of Danny Cirelli's Honda. Cuddling up against her high school boyfriend while they headed for the movies was nothing like sitting behind Vax.

Of course, even if she had been riding just around the block behind Vax, there would still be no comparison. Bigger bike, sexy man—nope, no comparison.

She unlocked the door and stripped off her jacket as she went inside. Tossing the jacket across the back of the couch, she turned around and watched Vax as he stepped inside and closed the door. She toed off her shoes before reaching for the phone. “I'm hungry.”

He quirked a brow at her. “You actually get hungry?”

Giving him a baleful stare, she punched in a number and asked, “You like pizza?”

A few minutes later, she had a large pizza on the way, half everything, half veggie. “Veggie is no way to eat a pizza,” Vax told her.

“Neither is everything. You got any idea how many calories are in one slice of Sal's Special Supreme?” She padded into the kitchen, making a beeline for the refrigerator. She could feel him staring at her as she opened it and grabbed a bottle of water from inside. Before she could close it, a big brown hand caught the door, and she stood there trapped between the cool air blasting out of the fridge and the warmth of Vax's body.

“I burn calories pretty easy, so no, I have no clue. And I'm not real worried about it, either. I don't see death by heart attack in my future. You know, the contents of your fridge are seriously lacking. No beer. Nothing to munch on. Hell, I don't think I saw a single bag of potato chips.” But he wasn't looking into the refrigerator. He was looking at her.

At her mouth, more specifically. Jess felt her skin start to buzz, her pulse kicking up a little at the heat she saw simmering in those thunderstorm eyes. “Ahh…pizza will be here soon,” she said, trying to inch back a little. He just moved closer. Now she was trapped. She could move back and end up falling into the refrigerator, or she could stand there and feel the seductive heat of his body. It wasn't a hard to choice to make, although Jess suspected the wiser choice would have involved the fridge.

Vax reached up and caught a hank of hair in his hand. He held her gaze as he wound the long strands around his wrist. “Yeah, I know. Funny, though, I'm not really that hungry for pizza now.”

Oooo-kay.
There was no denying the intent in that statement, or the sleepy, heavy-lidded look to his eyes. Even though her hormones were clamoring, her knees were a little weak, and she was feeling a whole lot of heat, Jess pressed a hand against his chest. He eased back a little. Regret and misery went pretty well together, she decided. The loss of his heat caused a reaction inside her that was almost painful. Still, she didn't lower her hand. “This isn't a good idea, pal.”

His hand came up, covering hers. She hadn't noticed it before then, but he wore a simple silver band on the ring finger of his right hand. Then she forgot about the ring as he closed his fingers around her wrist and dragged her hand a little to the left, until it covered his heart. Under her palm, she could feel the quick, steady beat. “Why not? Other than the fact that there's a pizza boy due here in about forty-five minutes. Forty-five minutes is plenty of time…for now.” His lids drooped, and Jess could feel herself giving in.

Just thinking about the things they could do to each other inside of forty-five minutes was enough to make her breathing kick up. He was entirely too sexy, with that thick black hair, that heavy-lidded look to his dark gray eyes, and that mobile, sensual mouth. Under his stare, she could feel everything inside her going hot and liquid. Her breasts ached, her hands itched to touch him, and she was dying to get a taste of him.

Everything inside her was clamoring, and for a moment it left her a little dazed, a little disoriented, even confused until she figured it out. She felt alive. Jess hadn't felt alive since she had stood over her sister's lifeless body.

Randi's face flashed through Jess's mind. The guilt that followed nearly choked her. Panicked, she shoved her hands against his chest and tore away from him. “I can't do this.”

A warm hand came up, caressed the back of her neck. She tensed, ready to struggle, but he made no move to pull her back against him. All he did was watch her face as he gently massaged her neck. “You feel guilty.”

“I
am
guilty,” she muttered, her voice rough. “She's dead. Until I stop the men who did it, how can I even
think
about something like this?”

Vax laughed softly. He rubbed his hand up and down her back as he responded, “Because you're human, darlin'. It's how we are. The body doesn't always understand grief or the need for revenge. It just understands living.” His hand slid down her back and cupped over one hip, then his other hand came up, sliding around her waist. He pulled her back against him. She tried to resist, but eventually she leaned back against him. “Feeling something isn't a betrayal to your sister, Jess. Let me make you feel something….”

He lowered his head and nuzzled her neck. His teeth grazed her skin, and then he whispered into her ear, “Feel alive for a few minutes…. Just feel.”

Oh, she was. She was feeling more heat, more hunger than she'd felt in such a long time. He felt good against her. Strong. Warm. Unable to help it, she slid her hands down and laid them over his. She thought about it—more than thought about it. She was tempted. So very tempted. “My life is a mess right now. It's not just losing Randi.”

“Too much of a mess for this?” He placed his palm against her belly and spread his fingers wide. That simple, almost innocent touch felt achingly good. Too good.

“Definitely too much of a mess.” And even if it wasn't, Jess wasn't sure she was ready to deal with the
this
. Not with this man.

He had
complicated
written all over him. All over the hard, sinewy planes of his body…in those amazing storm cloud eyes…
Focus, Jess
. “Look, I just…I'm a mess. Half the time, I don't know if I want to scream, cry, or beat something up.”

He pressed his cheek against hers, and she could feel him smiling. “Sometimes
this
can help. Think of me as a security blanket. Or a punching bag,” he teased. He trailed his fingers over her belly, along the waistband of her jeans, along one hip. “I can be gentle. Or not.”

His hands tightened, and he fisted a hand in her hair, drawing it aside to bare her neck. Teeth raked over the exposed skin, a hot, erotic caress. The air seemed to shimmer with the violent heat of passion. “Whatever will make you feel better—I can give it to you.”

That sexual promise was almost more than she could withstand. Even with all the nervous anxiety, grief, and confusion tangling inside her, she had to fight not to turn and press her mouth to his. “I can't handle this right now, Vax. Shoot, I can't handle
you
.”

“Nothing to handle, unless you want to.” He continued to speak with her in a teasing, gentle tone, and she suspected he was trying more to distract her than anything else. “I can do all the handling myself.” Then he rubbed his hips against her butt, and she felt him, the hard, firm length of his cock. Okay, maybe he wasn't
just
trying to distract her.

A smile curled his lips. “Baby, I'm not looking for an all-out relationship. I'd say, considering what you're dealing with lately, that's not what you need, either.”

A little miffed, but not sure why, Jess jerked her hand back and jabbed her elbow into his stomach. It was rock hard, and she suspected he only backed away because he felt like it. Her blow hadn't done a damn thing. “But some hot and sweaty sex is?” Jess refused to acknowledge, even to herself, how good the idea sounded.

“Never hurts.”

“Maybe I don't do the casual sex thing, Vax. Hell, I don't even know your last name.”