She smiled at him—smiled right through the blood. A willing sacrifice. “She’ll be dead,” she told him, the blood dripping down her body, “long before you can even—”
He didn’t hear the rest. He was already racing to the alley and roaring Nicole’s name.
When he saw her, the present and the past blurred. She was on the ground, fighting, struggling. But not with a vampire—with a full-on shifted coyote.
The coyote’s teeth were in her shoulder, and she was pushing her arms between their bodies, trying to pry him off her.
No, not pry him off her … she was wedging something between them. Something small and black and—
The explosion shook the alley. The retort of gunfire echoed in the night.
The coyote fell off her. The fur began to melt from his body.
She lifted her gun, aimed, and fired once more.
The animal’s body jerked. Not really an animal anymore. A man now. Naked. Hurting. The man twisted and cried out in pain as he bled out on the stone beneath him.
Nicole rose. Her eyes darted to Keenan. “This time,” she told him quietly, “I was ready.”
“Sil … ver!” Carlos’s furious yell. “F-fucking bitch … silver!”
“Good thing we stopped by that feeding room in Texas.”
The feeding room. He hadn’t even realized she’d kept the gun.
“I’ve got one bullet left.” Nicole stood over Carlos. The gun pointed right down at his chest, and her hand was perfectly steady. “That one’s for your heart.”
His body writhed. Keenan knew Carlos couldn’t shift back with the silver in him. Carlos clawed at his flesh as he tried to pull the bullets out.
“Why did you want him so much?” Nicole asked. “Why didn’t you just stay away? Leave us alone?”
Carlos threw one bullet into the gutter. “Fuck you!”
The second bullet was deep in his chest, but Carlos was digging for it, ripping and tearing into flesh and muscle.
“Nicole …” Keenan rushed forward. “End it!” The woman should know better than to play with the hunter.
“Why here?” She whispered. “Damn you, why pick here? Why this alley?”
The coyote shifter’s breath rasped out. The minute Carlos got that second bullet out, Keenan knew he’d shift.
“Because he wanted …” Carlos licked the blood from his lips. “To f**k … with your mind.”
Then he smiled, a smile as wild as the beast he carried, and Keenan knew the shifter had found the second bullet.
Behind the shifter, Keenan saw the shadows thicken. He heard the soft rush of wings.
Time for death.
Nicole fired and the bullet drove into Carlos’s heart. The shifter fell back, eyes wide. Not dead, not yet. Still struggling to breathe, the shifter fought hard to hold on. But Death was coming. Walking right there with his arms outstretched.
Az stalked from those shadows. His face was tight and remorseless. The shifter was gasping, choking as he labored to live. Shifters didn’t always die as easily as they should. The beasts inside fought hard for survival.
A footstep whispered behind him. Keenan didn’t glance back. He didn’t want to take his eyes off Carlos. Not until Az touched him. But …
“Blood,” Nicole whispered and she stepped back. “The woman—Keenan is she—”
“Don’t worry about her.” Willing bait.
Az was almost right over Carlos then. Only a few more moments.
“Choose,” Az said.
Keenan blinked. What? There was no choice. Never had been. What was he—
But Nicole was moving, spinning around and screaming as she shoved Keenan to the side.
The woman—the bait—she’d followed them. When Keenan flew back, the bait’s right hand lifted and she plunged a thick, wooden stake right into Nicole’s chest.
Keenan grabbed the woman. Touched her—and she was dead in the same second. He ripped the stake out of Nicole’s chest. Not her heart. Not her heart, not—
“It’s too late,” Az said. “It’s time for the vampire to pass.”
Then everything got very quiet as time seemed to slow. Keenan could hear the harsh gasp of Nicole’s breaths. He could feel the warm weight of her body against his.
He looked up and Az was right there, standing over him and reaching down. Az wasn’t there to take the shifter because that ass**le was still alive. Carlos was still alive when he should have been dead.
And now Carlos was rising to his feet. He’d dug all the bullets out of his chest. A walking dead man. Death hadn’t taken his prey, because Az had broken the rules.