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Christrew up sharing her life with dragons, elves, va horse Which worried her fa a living sharing her life with the afore the men with the short white coats When not at her keyboard, Keri can be found in front of the TV, or taking her two dogs for a walk

NorChristhts in every available corner ofChristerbreads, and the way Christmas cheer suddenly fills the usually dour offices of the Para-investigations squad I even liked battling the Christet the latest "must-have" present forforward to all that and more this year to make up for the crappiness that had been last year&039;s Christain, and it had a whole lot to do with my current situation

For a start, it&039;s hard to feel very Christ in an elf costu your ass off

And okay, it wasn&039;t exactly a snowstor of the hite stuff - but when I was dressed in a silly green outfit that wasn&039;t even fur-lined like a Santa costuled annoyingly every tiht as well have been a stor

But the snoasn&039;t the worst of it I could probably have handled the snow and the cold and the non-appearance of anything reseuy, if it weren&039;t for the six-foot, broad-shouldered, dark-haired presence standing deep in the shadows of a doorway ten feet to my left

That presence just happened to be Brodie Jaator for the Para-investigations squad Owner of a killer sned to inspire lust

And the o

I blew out a breath and rang the bell with more force than necessary The cheery sound pealed out across the darkness, but did little to attract the attention of the strangers who scurried past On a night like this, all anyone wanted to do was get inside Giving to charity wasn&039;t even hitting their radar

Hell, the fiend asChristmas collectors probably had ht like that

Whichthere as bait was every bit as useless as it was feeling

"Ring that bell any harder, and you&039;ll probably break it," Brodie said, his warm, rich voice filled with amusement

It was a sound that had filled far too many of my dreaht have to ith the rat on this case, but I didn&039;t have to talk to him any more than necessary I suppose I just had to be thankful he&039;d been out of the state on other cases for the better part of the year I would have had to ask for a transfer if I&039;d had to deal with him day in and day out

And that would have been a da a part of the squad When I wasn&039;t standing out in a snowstor my ass off, that was And it was certainly a job that suited"evil" in people - human or not The squad was a small pision of the FBI, and we handled any case that held even the reht have accepted the presence of vas that went buetting involved with the mystical

Of course, I was human myself, but my talents had always h Brodie du me so suddenly hadn&039;t exactly made me feel wanted by the non-hu position slightly His rich, spicy aro on hts I&039;d spent in his ar in that very same scent

I rather violently rattled the tin at a wo at me It was just as well I wasn&039;t a proper collector - the children&039;s charity wouldn&039;t be doing very well out of me

"What if I say I&039;m sorry?" he added eventually

"What if I tell you I don&039;t care?" I snapped back, kickingardless

"I wouldn&039;t believe it"

I turned around, eyeing the darkness that held him so completely "Last Christmas, I cared This Christet out of this stupid costuo enjoy being with, because I could still feel his gaze on th, warChristmas fiend when you really wanted one?

"It&039;s nearly ht," Brodie said "Given that our murderer hasn&039;t shown an inclination to attack and drain anyone after theto find a cafe and soht back tomore tiood idea I ht not want to talk to him, but there were bits of me that would have been happy to do a whole lot more

"Come on, Hannah," he said softly, in that sweet, oh-so-sexy tone that could charin At least, it had charin "To a little Christmas spirit?"

"Would this be the same Christmas spirit you shohen you dumped me without a by-your-leave?" I said, ever so nicely

"Ouch," he muttered Then added, "Did I mention I was sorry for that?"

"I still don&039;t care"

"Did I ot so crazy so quickly - "

"I&039; like a broken record

Another stranger appeared at the top end of the street I rang the bell and he looked up briefly, his face ghostly in the darkness He shook his head and huddled deeper into his coat, before crossing the road and walking down the other side of the footpath Great, now prospective donors were avoiding me

That said a whole lot about my appearance Or my mood

I took a deep breath and tried to look happy about the whole situation

I don&039;t think I succeeded

"Look," Brodie tried again "I&039;ood excuse for doing what I did It was thoughtless and inconsiderate and I&039;d really like the chance to make it up to you"

No, I told ht of some hot Brodie action Remember Christmas past? He&039;s bad for us We don&039;t like him

Unfortunately, what came out of my mouth was, "Why?"

"Because it&039;s Christmas, and because I&039;ve ht, as my treacherous heart did a little sideways lurch It was just as well parts of er, otherwise I&039;d be putty in his hands And oh, wouldn&039;t his hands feel so good

"Yeah, you missed me so horribly," I replied, irritated at myself, "that you couldn&039;t pick up a phone and talk toup on me Several tiry stage You should have tried once I&039;d rolled into ht have hadyou don&039;t care for the last tenno luck"

"That&039;s because I&039;ve now rolled into the no-longer-caring-but-aiht, I&039; ahtly "And if I do grovel? Will that get you sharing a cup of coffee with " The wind chose that ainst it and wondered ifas blue as they felt

Maybe coffee was a good idea

No He&039;s bad for our health and we don&039;t like hirabbed the fly-away ends of his coat and wrapped them around his body, his hands so white they alht, even as a chill ran down my spine Had to be No hands were that white, no matter how cold Unless you were a va out of the ordinary, but I&039;d learned long ago never to ignore the little niggles of wrongness - and that

"Does he smell funny to you?" I asked Brodie softly

There was a sharp intake of breath, and I had a vision of his nostrils flaring, sucking in the scents of the night and rolling the them I&039;d seen hiether, and I found it as sexy now as I had then Which was odd, because until I&039;d met hi

But then, the whole package connected to this man&039;s nostrils was beyond fine

"He reeks of booze and cigarettes" Another intake of breath "And he hasn&039;t washed for a few days, either"

"So he&039;s not the scent you&039;ve caught at the last three crih,related doesn&039;t s"

"Doesn&039;t er lu shoulder first into a wall He lanced over his shoulder

Our gazes met, and my psychic senses roared to life There was no life in that blue gaze, but there was unlife And hatred, so er, and the need to shed blood and taste revenge

But, deeper than that, there was evil The sort of evil that likes to rip and tear and drain

"He may not smell exactly like our quarry," I whispered "But I&039;m sure he&039;s connected to these murders somehow"

The words were barely out of limpse of shattered, broken canines, then he pushed away fro Brodie leapt out of the shadows, stripping off his clothes as he ran, his lean, powerful for in front of h my soul I&039;d seen him do that a hundred ti

"Wait for me!"

But of course he didn&039;t He was a olf, after all, and few of theulations, or half-shouted requests unless it really suited them

I swore softly and threw the bell and collection box into the shadowed corner where he&039;d been standing, then grabbed the stakes and his clothes, and ran after hiht with each step I felt like a one-person Christmas band

We bolted up the road and around a corner The suspect was fast, his spindly ar like a runner in a race, his black coat flying out behind his But for every step he took, Brodie was taking two or three and he was gaining fast

The vamp skidded left into a side road Four seconds later, Brodie&039;s sleek wolf form disappeared after hi around the corner in a jingle of bells, only to have to suddenly leap over the still-wolf for beside hi into the dark and silent side street

He shifted shape, then said, "I lost hier&039;s black coat "This is what I s it to cover his own scent There&039;s obviously so his nuts off"

"If he hasn&039;t been drained" My gaze reen eyes were flat and annoyed "How could you lose hiaze went skyward All I saas darkness and hite stuff "Vampires can&039;t, either"

"Well, apparently no one told thisson of a bitch that I should have stayed in hurabbed his clothes and started dressing

"Shooting vamps doesn&039;t kill them"

And this vamp had an execution order on hihts to courts, lawyers, and justice, vamps were the exception When they killed, an execution order was placed on their heads No ifs, buts, or e difference between our squad and the rest of the FBI

"It would have stopped hih for me to catch the bastard"

"Trouble is, we only havehe&039;s connected to our vamp He isn&039;t our killer, because his canines were smashed and our victims had neat bite wounds"

"If you say he&039;s connected, that&039;s good enough for ers so waret this coat back to the labs so they can double-check Then once we "

"It&039;s going to take more than coffee to make me talk pleasantly to you," I said as alked - or in led - back to his car

He raised an eyebrow, a s at his luscious lips "What if I add the sweetener of cake?"

I&039; this "Depends on the cake"

"Carrot?"

I snorted "Get real It has to at least be triple chocolate With fresh cream"

"Done" He opened the car and ushered ed the coat while I radioed headquarters, asking theht have co our quarry, but hey, when vas and fly, there wasn&039;t a whole lot a olf and a human could do about it

Brodie started the car and turned the heater on to full Cold air blasted down ontothe my feet out of the way

"It&039;ll warm up in a minute," he said

"I won&039;t," I said, and wondered even as I said it just how true it was Ito seduce o for coffee with him If he went too much further, just how quickly would the ice in my soul melt?

Too damn quickly The specter of Christ it ht be, despite allto catch a vae to do that?" I added, hoping work talk would distractfar too close

"It&039;s likely he has shifter in his background Not all vah it is thehilanced at e of clothes back at headquarters?"

"No" Stupidly, I&039;d gone straight froet the reports done quickly so I can get holanced at me, and the twinkle in his eyes was all too fa made, plans that undoubtedly involved me and nakedness But all he said was, "How come you didn&039;t sense what he hen he first appeared?"

"Because it doesn&039;t alork like that" I reached around and grabbed s blanket-style but feeling no warmer "I sometimes sense the evil in people very quickly, but it often takes solanced at hiether, you were getting squat about a guy who&039;d killed nine people I thoughtout"

Burnout was a probleh it was often a case of the people burning out ifts So far it had not been a proble the evil in someone&039;s soul was a whole lot different fro their darkest dreams and desires - as some in the squad could

"It&039;s hard to find the evil in soot a soul," I said "Just like it&039;s hard to find soot one"

"I have a heart," he said, keeping his gaze on the road "I just didn&039;t use it very wisely"

Ouch, I thought silently, and looked out theWe drove the rest of the way in silence Once back at headquarters, Brodie carted the evidence down to forensics, and I quickly typed up a report There wasn&039;tWe were in and out inside an hour

"Now, let&039;s get that coffee," Brodie said, as he opened the car door fora little despite the ther may have been heated, but it hadn&039;t done a lot to chase the chill away from my skin "Besides, I&039;m wet and I&039;m dressed as an elf Not the sort of outfit any respectable person would wear to a nice cafe"

"Nonsense You look lovely in it" He slammed the door shut and climbed in the other side of the car "And I promised you cake I intend to keep that pronored o by, half of o ho his coht be to my e the war

"Hey, we just passed a perfectly respectable-looking cafe"

"Is ain me a soing to gain you that, lanced at me, eyebrows raised "That&039;s better than rat Or as it you called ned to speak tolove rat," I muttered "And let&039;s not make this about what I&039;ve done You&039;re the one who left me, not the other way around"

"And I do believe I have apologized profusely for that" He slowed down for a red light, then added, "And, technically speaking, the term love rat does not apply, because I have never loved anyone else"

Again my heart did that treacherous little lurch Calm down, stupid He didn&039;t mean it that way He left you, remember? That doesn&039;t infer love in any way, shape, or form

"That&039;s not what the office talk is"

"You should know better than to listen to office talk After all, they had usto date"

So did I Of course, we&039;d only lasted a total of six weeks I looked away and blinked back tears Damn it, this is why it was a bad idea to speak to hian to slow the car down Old two-story houses rubbed shoulders with interesting little shops, but none of the actually open

"Here we are," he said, stopping the car in front of a pretty blue and white two-story building

"And where is here?" I asked, looking up at theboxes filled with greenery

"Moot out of the car

"What?" But I was talking to thin air Or thick air, in his case I waited until he openedinside to meet your mother"

Especially when she had totally disapproved of ood, because she&039;s not there No one is They&039;re all at ed lightly I reht where I was

"Then why are we even here? You kno your mom feels about me"

"That isn&039;t a problem anymore, trust me Besides, you wanted triple chocolate with fresh cream, and my ed harder, leavingjoyously, I untangled et you soall hot and bothered "You look rather cold and wet"

He opened the gate and began leading arden path In more ways than one, I suspected

"That&039;s because I a for me at home You need to take me back there"

"If I do, you won&039;t coress I&039;veaway, and I&039;ll be back to being the rat"

"But you&039;ve never stopped being the rat," I said sweetly "So what&039;s the problehed, a warm rich sound that slid across my skin as sensuously as a caress He opened the door and waved nore the tangy heat of him The way my body ached to press forward just that little bit ainst my skin

Hello, last Christmas? Remember that? Remember the whole he&039;s a bad man and we don&039;t like him spiel?

I reood it felt being with hi myself up for more heartache, I couldn&039;t help the need to soak in the warmth of his presence one more time

You&039;re a sap And an idiot

And it&039;s Christmas, and I&039;m lonely

It was dark inside the house, but the air arhtly as I hung er and vanilla were strong, they were underlined by an ani reminder that this wasn&039;t any ordinary house That this was the abode of olves

He caught ainst mine "This way" He led me up a set of stairs and into a bathroom "There&039;s clean towels on the shelf above the bath, and a clean robe behind the door"

"Brodie - "

He stopped the words with a short, sharp kiss that leftdownstairs"

And with that, he leftin shock at the back of a door This night was so not going to plan Well, not toa little obvious that he had a whole lota killer

I blew out a breath and began to strip off I had two choices - stay or leave - and as much as I kneas a stupid move, I wanted the cake, and the coffee, and his co myself up for another crappy Christoodwill to all men, wasn&039;t it? And Brodie was definitely afor straws in an effort to justify the stupidity of hts away and took a shower, then donneda chill than being naked around Brodie After wrapping er-corabbed the sodden elf outfit and headed downstairs Following his scent ledwar, and there were two huge slabs of cake already sitting on a tray

"Where can I dry these?" I asked

"Are they shrink proof?"

"Well, they didn&039;t shrink on ood whatsoever "There&039;s a clothes dryer through there," he said, nodding toward the door to the right

I shoved the clothes in the dryer, then headed back into the kitchen "We eating here?"

He shook his head "In the living roorab the cake tray?"

I did, and followed hi fire was the room&039;s main feature, but it was the Christ, lush, and totally without decoration, except for the fake snow that adorned the end of the dipping branches It reminded me of a tree in the middle of a snoept forest, and maybe that was the whole point

"That kind of dwarfsthe tray down on the coffee table

"The tree you had last year had character," he co

I smiled "Both that tree and this year&039;s are very sad representations of the Christmas tree"

He sat down on the sofa and patted the spot beside hi with my back to it

Amusement teased his mouth "So why buy thereen eyes holding touches of a that had er

"It&039;s a rotten thing," he said softly, "being lonely at Christmas"

I didn&039;t bite I wanted to, but I didn&039;t I stepped away fro my butt, and picked up a plate of cake instead

"How are we going to catch this vaain?" I spooned soo weak Da on possible locations given everything we&039;ve seen and I&039;ve scented at the cri, they&039;ll contact us"