More Than Blood (7 page)

Inhaling, she caught the scent of him, that arousing combination of spice and heat that had her body immediately reacting with a clenching of her stomach muscles.

Not again.

She didn’t need to turn around to know Marshal Gabrial Ferrar was there. She could freaking
feel
him. His presence kept her body so on edge that she ached from head to toe. It made her yearn to unsheathe her claws and drag them down the walls to relieve some of the frustration.

Forestor was already peeved at her about her behavior earlier in his office. If she went around shredding the walls, he probably would take her up on the challenge to spar she always threw at him. She was strong, but he’d probably hand her ass to her wrapped up in a bow.

So she busied herself by jerking back the Velcro straps on her gloves instead. The marshal’s scent wrapped around her, seeped into her. Her gums tingled with a forewarning of fangs threatening to descend. She could add that to the many new experiences she could have gone her entire life without.

“It’s not personal, Marshal Ferrar,” Kel snarled without turning around. She couldn’t prevent the scorn that dripped from his name. Even to her own ears she didn’t sound very sincere. She wasn’t, of course. And the thought of forcing a faked pleasantness during this entire case made her cheeks ache.

Well, she never had been very good at false congeniality. No reason to try to polish it now.

“What the hell,” Kel snapped as she tossed the gloves on top of her bag, snatched up the bottle of water, and spun to face him. “You know what, that’s not true. It is personal. The Ferrar doyen is a callous and incompetent leader who doesn’t stop to consider the effect his prejudice has on his people.” Kel eyed him over the length of her water bottle as she took a long drink.

If he carried the Ferrar name he was a son of the leading family of the Ferrar House. Sanguen leaders had to be a marshal for so many years before they earned the right to lead the House as a doyen. Her statement should have at least offended him yet he didn’t so much as raise a brow. He leaned against the white pillar with his arms crossed over his chest, those strange green eyes not even blinking. Looking sexy as hell, dammit!

Despite the danger of it Kel couldn’t help but let her own gaze travel over him. He was lean and tall with wide shoulders that narrowed into slim hips. And very muscular arms.

Kel was an arm girl.

He had dark blond hair that reached his shoulders and was pulled back at the base of his neck. His goatee was closely cropped around those full lips and she knew from experience that it was indeed as soft as it looked. His lips had been so much softer though.

Immediately, her body responded. Her breasts tingled and her nipples peaked against the thin, damp material of the sports bra she wore.

Okay, that thought had been completely unnecessary.

A knowing gleam brightened his eyes as they roved over her chest and returned to hers with a raised brow. His lips parted on a breath, and she could see the white expanse of one lengthened canine.

With a frustrated growl she dropped to the floor in a squat. After pulling open her bag with a little more force than was necessary, Kel yanked out a hooded sweatshirt. She pulled it on over her sweat-dampened sports bra. He obviously knew what his presence alone did to her body. No need to throw a peep show into the deal.

“You have personal experience with my doyen’s leadership?”

Kel cocked her head to one side. “What, and spoil the ending? You can buy the book.” After jerking the zipper closed on her bag she stood and hoisted it over her shoulder. “It’s called
None of Your Damn Business
. Coming to a bookstore near you.”

Kel turned to walk away, the conversation finished. The bastard could go back to where he came from, and take his monopoly on her libido with him. She wasn’t interested in that mate bullshit anyway. With him or anyone else, for that matter.

When Gabe was suddenly standing in front of her, she jerked to a stop to keep herself from walking right into his chest, which was currently at eye level. It
was
a nice chest. Taking short breaths through her mouth to avoid breathing him in and risk jumping him in front of everyone around, she tilted her head up to pin him with one of her best glares. “In case it wasn’t obvious enough, that was the end of the conversation.”

His green eyes trailed over her face and one corner of those full lips quivered. He was laughing at her. “It is far from over, but I can settle for your help on this case for the time being.” He pulled a folder from under his arm and offered it to her.

Kel looked down at it suspiciously. She hadn’t noticed it before, but then again it hadn’t been part of his hard body, and that was the only thing she seemed to have the attention span for when he was around.

“What’s this?” she asked as she reluctantly took it and opened it. Photos of young girls smiled up at her from the pages. It contained information. Information on missing Sanguen girls.

Damn
.

“Four girls have disappeared in the last six months, all located within a twenty-five mile radius of my House complex, all between ten and fourteen years of age. All crossbreeds. My partner was spotted in each location prior to the disappearance, which is why I followed him into the city.”

Kel snapped the folder shut and offered it back to him, trying not to betray the cold knot that settled in her stomach. “Yeah, about that, I’m sorry.”

Gabe gave a curt nod. “He made his own choices.” He lifted the folder. “These girls did not.”

Kel sighed in resignation. Despite her desire to be as far away from him as possible she couldn’t deny the glaring connections between their cases. And the faces of those girls would haunt her.

More innocence snuffed out. It was her weakness.

“If your perp widened his hunting ground to include the city he would have a larger base to operate in and less chance of attracting notice.”

Gabe frowned. “Wouldn’t the House marshal of this territory notice?”

Kel appraised him for a long moment. Was he joking?

“House marshals?” Kel raised her brows. “You aren’t in Kansas anymore, Toto. House marshals around these parts only concern themselves with their own communities, not with what bleeds into the periphery.”

“Periphery?”

“Yeah, you know, the redheaded stepchildren of the Arcane.” When his frown didn’t budge she explained. “Crossbreed and half-breed children. They would be the easiest marks in the city. And they overrun this city and every other large city in this country. Compliments of the Triumvirate and their laws. Good parents abandon their kids in Triumvirate homes by the hundreds because they’re afraid they’ll be hunted by the Triumvirate Guardians.”

“Is that what happened to you?”

Kel paused and stared up at him. She’d gone too far, revealed too much. His face was carefully devoid of expression, but she could feel his reserved tension as he waited for her response. Did he not want to have to face a problem that existed at all levels of full-blood Arcane society? He definitely needed to, but she wasn’t sure she could make herself vulnerable to a man who already had such a strong effect on her merely to help him strip away his rose-colored glasses.

In the end, she merely shrugged it off with a tight lift of one shoulder.

“What happened to me was years ago and has no bearing on this case. I turned out fine. Those girls, they’re what’s important now.” Kel glanced toward the double doors leading out of the Incog training room and nodded toward them. “Walk with me. I need to hit the showers and then I’ll fill you in on what I know.”

His eyes deepened and those gold centers writhed mysteriously as his nostrils flared. She could scent a stronger, more pungent heat radiating from him. Each breath she took, she pulled his arousal in deeper and deeper until she couldn’t determine where his ended and hers began. Instantly her stomach rolled and the already damp flesh between her legs swelled and throbbed in response.

“None of that.” Kel said, wanting to growl in frustration. “I can’t think when you do that.”

His eyes flared in surprise at her words, his eyelids lowering heavily as he looked her up and down. He seemed to shake himself, running a broad hand over his goatee. Had his hand trembled slightly? Could it be that he was just as much a victim as she, thanks to this blood bond attraction they had going on?

Interesting.

It definitely made her feel a little better. Misery loved company.

Gabe pulled a rough breath in and linked his hands behind his neck. “Go shower. We can talk while you eat. I can feel that you are hungry.”

Kel cocked an eyebrow at that insight. She was famished. Being half Guardian gave her a sky-high metabolism.

“I cannot help that I am aware of you. I like this even less than you, but I can see no way out.”

“Right, whatever.” There was no way she was even going there. In fact, this was the perfect time to run. And she did.

GABE WATCHED IN fascination as she bit into the thick sliced beef sandwich with something that looked like pure carnal pleasure. He should have been disgusted. Most Sanguen were vegetarians, and those who weren’t at least avoided red meat. Yet, he felt his cock lengthening beneath the laminate table while she ate.

He couldn’t pull his gaze away from her mouth and his brows lowered as he digested what she’d said a moment before. “My partner said that ‘he’ would want the actual source of the blood?”

With a sigh of pleasure she nodded. “Hmmm. He seemed pretty anxious, said it would be ‘over’ if he didn’t bring something good this time.”

She ran her tongue over her shiny lips and licked a drop of sauce off her hand. His cock rose to painful proportions. He wanted to give himself time to carefully consider what was at risk here, but he hadn’t had blood for over two days and everything she did gave him a raging hard-on. “So where would this James Centrone have gotten the girl?”

“Take your pick. There’s probably twenty Triumvirate homes for crossbreeds all throughout the city.”

“What makes you believe he’ll go after crossbreeds in these homes?”

A shadow passed through her dark eyes but was gone as quickly as it appeared.

“Easy pickings.” She shrugged and her pink tongue came out to lick the pad of her thumb. His mouth ached with the effort it took to prevent his canines from pushing forward.

Kel fixed her dark eyes on his and slammed her half-eaten sandwich down on her chipped ceramic plate. “I can smell you,” she hissed around a mouthful of sliced beef. “It’s driving me crazy. I can barely think, hardly eat. Get it under control, Ferrar, ’cause it isn’t happening regardless of what the mojo is whispering in your head.”

He couldn’t prevent the slow smile as she swallowed hard. He liked that she was honest. That she didn’t try to pretend. What would be the purpose? He could sense her reaction as strongly as she could smell his. “Unfortunately my hunger for you is beyond my ability to control.” She’d closed her eyes and breathed through her mouth. “I’m afraid it will only get worse.”

Kel groaned. “It gets worse?”

“We can fix it.” His voice dropped low and suggestive. He revealed the sharp points of his fangs. Oh, how he would like to fix it right now, right on this greasy table with the cigarette burns.

Her liquid brown eyes snapped open to glare at him in a way he was beginning to find rather arousing. But then just about anything she did would be arousing to him right now.

“Just sit there and think of your mother or something, would you? I want to finish this and we’ll hit a few Triumvirate homes.”

Gabe focused on what she’d told him thus far, staring out the window to distract himself from the sight of her.

“So Karl was meeting this blood dealer –”

“Jimmy,” Kel supplied, and he turned to watch her as she swirled two fries through her salt-laden ketchup. He forced himself to look away again as she popped them past those soft pink lips. He could almost see her tongue running over them, licking the salt away. His cock responded with a hard jerk, and he shifted to gain some relief. His imagination tortured him as much as the real thing. Maybe more.

Gabe cleared his throat. “Meeting Jimmy for a buy that wasn’t for himself, but for a secret third party who wanted more than a sample. This third party would only pay if he got the source, which you believe is a young girl from one of the homes set up for crossbreeds by the Triumvirate.”

Dark chocolate eyes peered at him over the rim of her coffee cup, that tiny diamond in her nose glittering. She nodded. “That pretty much sums up what we’ve got so far.” Setting her cup down, she pushed her empty plate away and stood. “Ready?”

Gabe rose smoothly to his feet, towering over her slight frame, his eyes devouring her. Her proximity had his heart thudding heavily in his chest, setting a tempo for the throbbing of his cock, overwhelming him. He suddenly couldn’t remember why their bond was such a bad idea. All he could think of was how the softness of her lips beckoned him as he cupped her smooth cheek and ran his thumb over her full bottom lip.

“You missed something.” His head lowered, drawn to the liquid depth of her dark eyes.

Panic flared in her liquid eyes as she jerked back, and he wondered at the source of it.

“Easy,” Gabe heard himself whisper. They were close enough that he could smell the tang of the ketchup that marred the corner of her soft mouth. “I would never harm you,” he murmured as his lips brushed hers, tasting the salt from her fries, breathing her in deeply. He angled his hips, his straining cock making contact with the heat of her soft belly through the material of their clothes.

Her dark eyes jerked to his at the contact, and his lips parted around his descending canines.

This bond was a force that could never be explained in words. It was no wonder that his people revered it as sacred. He was overcome with the urge to draw her in to him, protect her, bury himself in her so deeply they could never be parted. The power of it pounded a heavy beat in his head until he couldn’t think or feel anything else. And they’d barely exchanged enough blood for a true bond.