Chapter 175

Jace watched her while she slept and wondered what memories she saw. He knew how the bite worked. Another reason the vamps had stopped drinking directly from humans was because they couldn’t stand the memory overload. When you drank from a live source, you saw memories.
What did the vampiress see?
He bent over the bed and wiped away the bloody tears that trekked from her eyes.
He’d always hated her tears.
You see me now, don’t you? The dead had piled at his feet over the years. If he had one talent in this world, it was killing.
It would be a talent that aided them when the battle with the demons came. But
…what would Morgan think of him when she woke?
“I’m not a fucking monster.” Liar, liar…and who’d know better than her? In his head now, always, there’d be no hiding from her.
She’d know it all and understand the obsession he carried. For her. He eased away from the bed. He didn’t want to look into her eyes with the memories between them.
Not yet.
Jace spun away and left the room.
He hurried down the hall and shoved open the front door. The afternoon sunlight hit him, bright and hot, the way it always was in Miami. The buzz of insects bled from the nearby swamp, droning on and on. When he jumped down the steps, his first in command, Louis, pushed away from his truck.
Jace had heard the other wolf drive up. He’d just taken his time about heading out.
“We got trouble,” Louis said, his Cajun accent rolling easily on the words. “No one seen any sign of Mike. Nothin’ except his blood in an alley.”
Jace’s brows snapped up. “Look, that ass**le is just sleeping it off someplace, he’s—”
“That alley reeked of vamp, alpha.” Louis shook his head. “Not your pretty little vamp. Didn’t smell like sex and blood and flowers…”
Jace’s teeth snapped together. But, f**k, yeah, that was how she smelled.
“More like hate, death, and…brimstone.”
Brimstone? “You saying demons were there, too?”
Louis’s shoulders rol ed. “I’m sayin’ we got us a missin’ wolf. And blood and vamps where they damn sure don’t need to be.”
In wolf territory.
He glanced back at the house.
Gravel crunched beneath Louis’s feet. “You gave that cher your blood?”
“I had to.” It was part of the deal. The vamps wanted a power boost by taking wolf blood. “I gave her mine, and I took hers.” Jace glanced down at his hands. With barely a thought, he had his claws springing out. “It worked just like we thought. Her blood in me…”
The rush was still un-freaking-believable. “I can already feel the power.”
“You gonna get more?”
“I’ll get as much as I can take.” His gaze held the other wolf’s. Louis nodded. “Will it be enough?”
“It has to—”
The world exploded. The blast tossed Jace into the air, and he slammed into the front of Louis’s pickup.
It took him three seconds to realize it wasn’t the world that had actual y erupted. No, that giant ball of flames had come from his house.
Morgan.
The fire ripped up at the sky, twisting and turning.
Blood dripped down the side of Louis’s face. “What the hell is—”
Jace ran for the house.
“Jace! No!” Louis’s footsteps pounded after him.
He ran faster. Morgan was in the house. A vampire’s skin couldn’t stand the fire.
She’d die—
He grabbed the door handle and shoved. The door collapsed beneath his hand.
“Morgan!”
He bellowed her name and rushed inside.
And he tripped over her. Morgan was on the floor, her arm stretched toward the door. Stretched fucking toward him.
He grabbed her and hoisted her into his arms. The flames crackled and flared around him, licking out at his skin. He ignored the burn. Morgan’s head sagged against him, and her eyes didn’t open.
Jace held her tight and leapt back through that broken doorway. Smoke billowed out behind him.
She barely seemed to breathe. Ash and soot covered her, and Jace could see the angry red blisters that lined her perfect skin.
Hurt. On his watch.
Not ever again.
Windows shattered behind him, and Jace hunched his shoulders, curling his body in to protect her. Glass flew into the air, and shards sank into his flesh. Rage grew within him with each step that he took away from the inferno. Jace didn’t ease his hold on Morgan, not until he’d settled behind Louis’s truck. Then he carefully lowered her onto the ground. Her eyes still didn’t open.
“Oh, hell …” Louis’s drawl. “She’s not…” The shifter’s voice cracked. “The cher ain’t alive, is she now?”
Jace put his hand over her heart and didn’t feel it beat.
Blood flowed into her mouth, hot and rich, and she drank greedily. The blood brought memories. His memories. Not of death and hell this time, but of a wild run through the woods. The thrill of the chase.
I’m hunting.
Morgan’s eyes cracked open. She wondered why she hurt. Every part of her body burned and ached and—
Oh, yes, she burned because she’d been on fire.
Jace pulled his wrist away from her mouth. “Don’t ever do that to me again, got it?”
She was on the ground. No, not on the ground, but sitting on Jace’s lap. His blood was already sliding through her veins, healing her even in sunlight. She wasn’t naked anymore. Because she’d had to run through that fire naked. She’d woken in his room only because the fire licked at her skin. She’d leapt through the flames even as she screamed his name.
Now she wore his shirt. It smelled of smoke and him. And her teeth were still sharp, and she was pissed.
In a flash, she twisted around and pinned him against the ground. “What did you do?”
His twisted grin flashed. “Glad you’re feeling better.”
She felt rather like burned shit right then. “You tried to kill me.” The bastard had left her to the flames.
That wiped the grin right off his face. “The hell I did.”
But he hadn’t been there. “You left me when you knew I was weak.” Her hands dug into his wrists. She was aware of the other wolf shifter walking cautiously around her.
Smart wolf, he wasn’t coming too close, not yet. “You set me on fire.”
The Council had been right. She should have known better than to trust the alpha.
Not even married a full day and he was already trying to kill her. Her teeth snapped together as she glared down at him. She’d actual y started to trust the wolf. How stupid was she?
“I saved you,” he threw at her and—and he wasn’t fighting her. He was just staring at her, eyes too bright, and…bleeding. Cuts and blisters covered his skin. Blisters, as if he’d been in the fire.
Her head snapped up. An ugly green pickup blocked her view of the house, but she could hear the crackle of the flames and the stench of the smoke burned her nose.
“I was out here with Louis when the fire started.” Jace’s voice hummed with quiet fury.
“Then I fucking raced in for you.”
He’d…gone in there for her?
“I thought you were dead.” So much rage underscored his words. “So I made you drink. I knew my blood could help heal you.”
Not dead. But close.
She gazed at him. Her thighs hugged his hips just as they had last night. The memories were there, between them both.
“Uh, I hate to interrupt this would-be make-out scene…” The other wolf mumbled as he ran a hand over his face. “But I think we got us a real big problem.” Tension had tightened the faint lines on his handsome face.
Morgan rose slowly. Her knees wanted to wobble but she forced herself to stand. A quick glance showed the blisters on her arms were almost gone.
Such powerful blood.
Jace rose and towered over her. He glanced back at his house, and she saw the muscle flex in his jaw. “Some asshole is going to pay.” He pointed at the blond wolf.
“Louis, get the pack.” Then he was gone. Running back toward the fire. No, really, just… no.
Morgan leapt after him. “Jace, stop!”
“Easy.” The other guy—Louis—had his arms around her. She head-butted him and kept going after Jace. But Jace wasn’t heading back into the flames. He raced around the house. Leaned toward the flames. Sniffed—
Got a scent.
He spun around and stared at her. His whole face seemed to just go blank.
“Something you need to tell me, princess?” He murmured, voice a silken threat.
The fire raged behind him. They were at the edge of the glades. No neighbors to see the flames and cal 9-1-1.
His chest was bare. His eyes bright. Sexy.
Jace closed the distance between them and caught her hand. “Now’s the time. If you’ve been holding back, tel me.”
Holding back? Morgan shook her head.
His lips tightened. “So be it.”
What? Her head throbbed. The sun was too bright. The flames too hot, and, even with Jace’s blood, she was weak.
Almost human again.
Before she could speak, Jace had her. The guy moved in one of his quick lunges and caught her in his arms. The world spun, and she found herself hanging over his shoulder.
“Jace!” He ignored her yelp and marched for the truck.
Louis was already inside. Morgan slapped her hands against Jace’s rather fine ass. He didn’t stop marching. Didn’t even pause.
“What are you doing?” Other than hauling her around like—
He yanked open the passenger door and tossed her into the truck. “The game just changed on us.”
Her hair fell over her eyes. Morgan shoved it back and frowned at him. “This isn’t a game.”
“No.”
The truck’s motor snarled to life.
“You know whose scent I caught al around that house?”
Louis pulled out his phone and dialed quickly.
Morgan licked her lips. “Demon scent.” It made sense. If they knew she’d agreed to team up with Jace, then they’d come after her. She just hadn’t expected an attack so soon.
“Got a fire out on Mooreline Road,” Louis said into his phone. “Send the trucks.”
“Not demons.” Jace spared a glance back at his burning house. “Not this time.” His gaze came back to her. “You were almost burned alive by your own kind. It’s the vamps who came—their stench was al around the house. They set the fucking place to blow with you inside it.”
When a wolf stormed a vampire stronghold, he damn wel stormed it. Louis drove the pickup right through the fancy electronic gate at the vampire compound. “Don’t do this!” Morgan ordered Jace, grabbing his arm. “It’s a mistake! They didn’t attack me!”