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Chapter One

THE MAN SMILED ANDILET MY GAZE LINGERover his face His eyes were a lovely shade of pale blue Their color re next to me was no animal Of course, he wasn't human, either

"I have to leave now, Nick," I said "Thanks for the drinks"

He stroked my arm "Have another one Let er"

I stifled a snort Wasn't he flattering? But if he liked lued to e

"All right Bartender"

"Let uess" The loud voice cain and tonic, right, Reaper?"

Shit

Nick froze Then he did what I was afraid he'd do-he ran

"Code Red!" I barked, vaulting after the fleeing figure Heavily ar the patrons aside

Nick threw people atbodies hita silver knife through Nick's heart even more difficult One of my blades landed in Nick's chest, but too far center to have hit his heart Still, I couldn't just let those people splatter to the floor like so ht think of people that way I didn't

My tea to herd the re patrons out of the way

Nick reached the far end of the bar and glanced around frantically There waswith uns pointed at him

"You're surrounded," I stated the obvious "Don't ry Drop the girls"

He had two of the the terror in those girls' eyes es Or murderers, like Nick

"I leave, they live, Reaper," Nick hissed, no roer "I should have known Your skin's too perfect to be huray"

"Colored contacts Modern science's a bitch"

Nick's icy blue eyes bled to glowing vas slid out

"It was an accident," he yelled "I didn't mean to kill her, I just took too much"

An accident? Oh, hehad to be kiddingdoould have warned you," I replied "Don't try that accident crap on me, I live with a vampire, and he hasn't had an 'oops' moment once"

If possible, Nick looked even more ashen "And if you're here"

"That's right, mate"

The accent was English, and the tone was lethal Invisible waves of power rolled over my back as my men parted to let Bones, the vah

Nick's gaze didn't shift, which I'd been hoping for No, his eyes didn't leave me as he suddenly yanked irls in the chest

I gasped, catching her instinctively when Nick threw her at me

"Help her!" I yelled to Bones, who'd lunged at Nick instead With that wound, unless Bones healed her, she had only seconds to live

I had time to hear Boneshis pursuit of Nick to drop to his knees beside the girl I vaulted after Nick, doing so myself Gunshots went off, but only a few With the rest of the bar patrons still scrairl like a shield, my team couldn't just open fire Nick knew that, and so did I

Nick leapt across the heads of the crowd in a gravity-defying burst, flinging the girl at a member of my team as if she were a weapon Helpless, the nearby soldier fell back with the girl on top of hiun away

I flung threefrom the people around me, my aim was off Nick let out a yell as they pieced his back,his heart Then he turned and fired at me

I had a fraction of a second to realize that if I ducked, those bullets would hit the people around me instead They weren't half vampire like I was; it would likely kill them So I braced myselfand was spun around in a blur in the next heartbeat, my head jammed into Bones's chest while three hard vibrations shook him The bullets meant for me

Bones letacross the rooe Nick didn't h for both of the over people, in time to see Bones twist his knife in Nick's chest

I relaxed Silver twisted through the heart meant curtains for Nick-and any vampire

Bones gave one last twist for goodover me

"You're bleeding," he said, concern creasing his face

I touched my cheek, where someone's belt or shoe or whatever had scoredpeople like human speed bumps to slow me down

"You've been shot, and you're worried about a scratch onme?"

Bones ca my face "I heal instantly, luv You don't"

Even though I knehat he said was true, I couldn't help but feel his back to reassure myself that his skin was smooth, no more shredded flesh from the bullets

"Speaking of, there are dozens of injured people here you need to heal You can get to my scratch later"

Bones ignored that, drawing his thu the cut it made first to my cheek, then to my mouth

"You always come first for me, Kitten"

No one else called me that To my mother, I was Catherine My team called me Cat To the undead world, I was the Red Reaper

I licked the blood off, knowing that arguing with him was useless Besides, I couldn't help but feel the same hen it came to Bones

"All right," I said, the burning now gone from my cheek "Let's wrap this up"

The girl Nick had thrown at one of ave her a sweep of the eyes, saw she wasn't physically hurt, and moved on

"That's ahe's not" she started to babble, seeing his fangs and glowing green eyes

I patted her shoulder "Don't worry You won't remember any of this in ten minutes"

"B-but what?"

I ignored the rest of her sta on the other people No one seeotten killed, thank God, aside froirl who'd been taken hostage Now the only thing on her chest was a blood sotten lucky