Blood Trails Read online

  This was the kind of domestic tranquility she’d never gotten to experience. Not even with her parents. After they’d divorced, Hailey only remembered her mom always looking haggard and stressed. She’d aged prematurely taking care of two young girls on her own. And she’d died prematurely, too. People shouldn’t just die out of the blue at age thirty-nine. They shouldn’t be wheeled off from their home in a black body bag, never to be seen again. People should have time to say good-bye and grieve. To gather with their loved ones and remember the life of their deceased.

  Hailey’s dad had never even responded to the message Amelia had left for him that the mother of his children was gone. By then he’d been remarried to some hot young thing, probably not even thinking of the people he’d left behind.

  Yeah, so she was a little bitter about that. Only once had Hailey come close to reestablishing contact with her sire. Years after her mother’s untimely death, desperate for some kind of familial connection, she’d sought out the only family she knew of besides her sister. She’d gotten as far as to find him at his new address. But she’d stopped just short of approaching him when she saw him with his infantile wife, acting like he was twenty-two instead of his obvious forty-nine and change. No kids, but the woman he was with seemed just childish enough to make up for the lack.

  Hailey had never told Amelia about that.

  She was by no means an expert on domestic bliss. But even she could tell that was wrong. The real question was: what was right?

  Was this what it should be like between husband and wife? Hailey could almost picture it like a scene playing across her mind. A leisurely morning waking up, padding around the house barefoot, a casual breakfast together, and a slow kiss at the door before they both headed out for work.

  She sensed the solace, the depth of comfort in that vision and she was so close to feeling it. Here, now, the only thing marring the scene was a set of unfortunate circumstances. There she was, the loving wife sipping her morning coffee while she checked the updates on her computer. There was Jeremy, the doting husband hovering close by because in her fantasy he preferred to be near her, even though he’d be much more comfortable sitting at the table by the window.

  Any minute now he might check his wristwatch and announce he was late, give her a quick kiss and a wink, then rush out the door, only to come back again for his shoes and his briefcase.

  He would make a wonderful husband. Just look at the way he was taking care of her, a stranger. Basically a bounty to cash in. Happy would be the woman who got to have him look at her with his whole heart in his gaze. She would never want for anything. Hailey almost wished it could be her.

  Hailey sighed, a bit regretfully. She suddenly felt old and disillusioned—and what did that say about her? Put any other woman into her shoes right now and she’d probably be gushing over the handsome prince charming who’d come to her rescue. Play the helpless damsel in distress, appeal to his chivalrous side. Not Hailey. Agent Serious must have lost some universal bet to get stuck with the one woman who was his polar opposite in every way possible. Sure, opposites attracted, but only in magnets. Other things tended to spontaneously combust.

  Last night she’d had another of those dreams. She was starting to feel as if she was having an illicit affair with the telepath. It was a welcome change from her recent stint of celibacy, she had to admit. But it would have been nice if he could have kept it simple. Instead, the whole time she’d felt conflicted. Drawn to him but wanting to keep a certain distance. Feeling protective and vulnerable at the same time. At his mercy and his master all at once. They’d touched without any barriers between them but every kiss was complicated with a messy knot of emotions that made her want to slap him, and crave him to hold her and tell her everything would be all right.

  Damn him for torturing her like that and putting ideas in her head! Shy she was not. Nor, however was she a porn star, no matter what he dreamed. Sadly, not even a cold shower had helped her libido after that dream, and she’d been forced to come out to breakfast cranky and surly, eyes glowing like stars in the night.

  Interestingly, he’d looked just as bad and wouldn’t meet her gaze. Hailey almost wished she could read his mind to know what he was thinking. Was he embarrassed? Was he regretting turning her down?

  What was it her psych professor had said? Dreams were the mind’s way of consolidating thoughts collected throughout the day while conscious thought could not process it. Exactly how much time did Calen spend thinking about her during the day if she was still on his mind at night? A ponderous development.

  “Stop looking at me like that,” he said.

  Nocturnal indiscretions aside, Hailey had more of that amazing food in her stomach and a boatload of information from Amelia, so she was feeling a lot better. Maybe even playful. She fluttered her eyelashes innocently. “Like what?”

  He scowled. “Like you’re hungry and I’m dessert.”

  Hailey grinned. “Dessert, huh?” So he hadn’t read her thoughts. Or maybe he had but just wasn’t admitting it. Either way she appreciated the illusion of privacy.

  Calen crossed his arms over his chest. Playtime over. “How long do you think you’ll need to go over all that?”

  Agent Smooth getting back on track in one sentence. Stupid track. “Not long, why?”

  “Amelia held up her end of the bargain. It’s time I held up mine.” So now he was a businessman too? “We need to get you back to Torrey.”

  “Torrey? Amelia moved?”

  “No, but we both agreed that you would be … uncooperative if we tried to get you back to Amelia’s lab. Think of Torrey as neutral meeting ground.”

  “Very diplomatic. Think it’ll help?”

  He shrugged. “You tell me.”

  “I still believe what I told you will happen.”

  “And I still stand by what I told you. Amelia will not put you in a cage. I won’t let her.”

  Hailey smiled slowly. “Been a long time since I came within a thousand miles of chivalry.” Come to think of it, she’d never come across it in person. And books didn’t really count, did they?

  “I know, I know. I’m full of surprises. Now get back to work. This hotel isn’t cheap, you know.”

  She shrugged. “So what? Amelia’s picking up the tab anyway, isn’t she?”

  “What if I said no?”

  “Then I’d say you got majorly ripped off on this job.”

  He made a valiant effort; she could see it in the way his face strained not to laugh. But his eyes were already shimmering with mirth and his mouth twitched. Finally he gave a short chuckle, which was more amusement than he’d ever shown before. He padded back to the window shaking his head.

  Hailey tilted her head, watching him go. As nice in the back as he was in front. She sighed wistfully. Such a waste to put a perfectly biteable ass like that on a guy who didn’t flaunt it one bit.

  Jeremy fumbled with a coffee cup and spilled the hot stuff on his hand. He cursed and hissed, shaking his hand out to cool the burn.

  Hailey smiled. He’d definitely heard that thought.

  About damn time he got as discomfited as she was around him. The guy wore cool and in control like armor and it just irked her all the more that she was so out of control. It was all his fault. If it weren’t for his dreams somehow making their way into her head—and he had yet to talk himself out of that one—she wouldn’t be walking around with a female leopard equivalent of blue balls.

  So not fair!

  Here was a guy who knew what she was and still hadn’t run screaming. Well … he wasn’t exactly jumping her bones yet either, but she could work with that. Calen was a guy with that rare combination of classical good looks and a whole lot of mystery in his dark eyes, who made her want to use any and every kind of sensual torture to make him spill… everything. A guy, she was beginning to understand, who rarely met her gaze because when he did he couldn’t seem to decide whether to kiss her or back away and find a tranq gun.

  Add
to that the fact he couldn’t stop dreaming about her in all sorts of naughty scenarios and there was no wonder she couldn’t keep her thoughts clean around him—who could?

  And she couldn’t do anything about it because he insisted on preserving their professional agent-target relationship, which came standard with two miles of personal distance.

  Grr. Just … grr.

  Frustration of any kind, but especially sexual, was not helping her situation. Lately it seemed like Hailey was swimming in it. She had to get her head back in the game.

  Amelia’s care package wasn’t exactly good news. Based on everything she’d read so far, Hailey could theoretically live a normal life for its average duration. If she didn’t change even a little. Not likely. Even something so seemingly small as changing her nails to claws was gradually killing her. It was impossible to tell exactly how long she had, but Hailey’s best estimate was a week, maybe two, barring a full physical shift.

  After that it was mutilation and gruesome death galore. Fun stuff to look forward to.

  But she still had some options. Once she had a lab at her disposal she could do a lot more than theorize. It would take time but she could find a way to cure the glitch in her system. And if not, there was always the option of synthesizing a protein block that would prevent her from ever shifting shape again. Hailey didn’t relish that option. She hadn’t come this far, endured so much, only to throw it all away now and pretend as if it never happened.

  “So, what’s on the agenda today?”

  “What do you mean?” he said, without facing her. He sounded gruff.

  “I mean, what do you plan to do while I work?” When he didn’t answer, she twisted in her chair to face him. “You’re not just going to sit there and watch me, are you?”

  “That a problem?”

  Hell yeah, it was a problem. Bad enough she had all the self-control of a horny teen with a sugar high; she didn’t need him tempting her with his eyes. Just his proximity was making her hormones go haywire, and after that dream last night she was a bomb primed to go off if the wind blew a certain way. Yeah, she’d told him she’d keep her hands to herself, but come on! There was only so much a woman could be expected to endure.

  “Actually, I have some paperwork to catch up on myself.”

  Phew. But still … physical proximity. “You can leave me on my own if you need to go somewhere. I’m a big girl, you know.”

  “Yeah, we tried that. Not about to repeat the experiment, thank you.”

  “You’re going to hold that against me? Do we need to talk about your dreams?”

  “No need,” he said quickly, flushing a deep red. Oh, but she wasn’t about to let him off the hook so easily this time. He didn’t get to use her in his fantasies and then slap hers in the face, so to speak. If sex was the game, he wasn’t the only one who was going to play.

  She waited for him to brave facing her and braced her foot on the table. The dress she wore slid down her thigh almost to her lap, baring a whole lot of leg. Shapely, she wasn’t too modest to say.

  His gaze heated again and she wanted to smile. She liked that look in his eyes. Touch me, she silently willed, not sure whether or not she wanted him to hear.

  He must have, given the sound he made, a sound she felt in her core. Without tearing his gaze away he said, “You make it really hard to—”

  “Do I?” she cut in, feeling wicked. The more time she spent with him the less she wanted to stay professional. It was ridiculous. She should hate him for practically kidnapping her, had every right to be as nasty to him as she wanted to be. But somehow she just couldn’t dredge up all that much resentment. Hailey had never been one to hold a grudge, except when it came to her sister. And, really, Calen was just the messenger here; the real culprit was Amelia.

  Good thing, too, because it would have been too mortifying to fall prey to the clichéd Stockholm Syndrome. As far as abductors went, this one was definitely Stockholm-worthy. Just his scent could make her go into a tizzy of head-spinning lust. The insanely powerful mix of her own desire and the beast’s was something she’d never felt before and had no defense against. Hailey knew he wasn’t doing it on purpose, but just his presence, his closeness, sometimes even the thought of him affected her.

  It was becoming a new instinct she had acquired. Sharp senses, predatory impulses, and wanting to jump the telepath. This was one she couldn’t justify having to fight. Jeremy made her feel more animal than she ever had but through it she felt more human and alive than she had in months. She craved that feeling. Might even consider doing something extremely ill-advised to get more of it.

  Already her skin was heating and her breaths quickened the slightest bit. The toes she’d braced on the table curled, muscles tensing, needing release. The kind she knew Jeremy could deliver with expert precision. A miniscule mewling sound escaped her and she swallowed hard, hoping he hadn’t heard how desperate she was getting.

  His hands curled and uncurled at his sides, eyes fixed on the length of smooth skin she’d bared. She could see his jaw working overtime, muscles jumping. Her sensitive nose picked up on his lust and she firmly kept her gaze on his face and chest. She would not look lower. If she did it would be all over.

  “Hailey…”

  “Yes?” He was seconds away from crossing the distance back to her. She could feel it.

  And then…

  A low-pitched beep announced an external call. Jeremy shook himself and answered it on a handset. “Calen,” he said. Hailey couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation but she could tell it was bad news when his face masked over and he turned away, murmuring a tense response before hanging up.

  Disappointment made her foot drop to the floor. “So I take it you won’t be hovering today.” Or doing anything else to her.

  “I have to go for a while,” he said. He wouldn’t even look at her when he disappeared into his room.

  “Whoa, wait. What’s going on?”

  He came back out fully dressed, buttoned up and official. “Just stay put. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  “Oh, no, you don’t.” Hailey was faster and reached the door before him.

  Jeremy let out a frustrated breath. “Move.”

  “No. Not until you tell me what’s going on.”

  “Do you ever just do as you’re told?”

  She considered that. “Once. But then I realized it was stupid so I did what I wanted instead.”

  “Brilliant,” he muttered.

  “God, what is it? Wha… Are you trying to shield me, or protect me, or something? You think the little woman can’t handle it? As if I’d care—”

  “The police found another mauled body a block away from where the parade happened last night.”

  Hailey’s foot moved back on its own, bringing her flush against the door. “Oh.” Her body cooled in a hurry, so much so quickly that she shivered, suddenly chilled in the warm suite.

  “Yeah, oh.”

  “D-do they know the time of death?” she made herself ask.

  “Nothing conclusive yet. Now will you please get out of the way?”

  “I want to come with.” Hailey surprised herself as much as him.

  Whatever else he’d been about to say, he didn’t. “No.”

  “Just give me two minutes to get dressed. I won’t get in the way.”

  “I am not taking you to an active crime scene. Forget it.”

  “You take me, or I find it on my own.”

  He wanted to toss her aside; she could see it on his face. Either that, or shove her back against that door and kiss her senseless. For a moment she just stood there, waiting for him to make up his mind. Part of her wanted to get physical—part of him obviously wanted that too. But Hailey already knew he wouldn’t. Damn it.

  His patience was running out and if she were a man, Jeremy would not be wasting all this time talking to her. Her rational mind told her that. Her animal senses, though, picked up on far more underlying nuances. There was ten
sion in him and she could scent the slightest hint of fear. His posture was dominant, assertive in the way a male lion stood over the females of his pride. Protective, not aggressive.

  He raised his fist to his mouth then opened his hand to make a rough staying motion. “I can’t take a civilian to a crime scene. End of discussion.”

  “I could be useful,” Hailey offered. She had to see this. Might be her only chance to get a close-up look at what was happening.

  Jeremy threw his hands up in the air. “What is this really about? Do you think you’re responsible? You were here all night long. You didn’t leave, you didn’t change—”

  “You wouldn’t have known if I did.”

  “You underestimate me.”

  Hailey considered her words, chose carefully what to reveal. “I … don’t always have control over when I change. And it’s not a pretty process to go through when it happens. But I always have the leopard’s senses and stealth. I’ve shadowed people before, walked up right behind them and they never showed any signs of knowing I was there. If I wanted to—if the animal in me wanted to—I could have snuck out without you knowing.”

  “You would have shown signs this morning.”

  “Not necessarily.”

  “If you changed—”

  “I don’t need to change completely to do a lot of damage. All I need is claws and fangs.”

  For a moment, he looked as if he would believe her. Then that chivalrous streak kicked in again and he shook his head as if he couldn’t believe he was even wasting time on this nonsense argument. “How would you even get out of here? The door will only open for me.”

  “Oh, man, you need to read up on snow leopards.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You’re telling me that you could have left this suite at any time. Through the window.” He was blatantly disbelieving now.

  Hailey raised an eyebrow to mirror him and crossed her arms over her chest. “The balconies are evenly spaced, the walls have decorative features I could use for hand and footholds, no ice to make them slippery, and a convenient pool at the bottom. Five minutes to ground level. To get back up, about fifteen. But then, I never did like going uphill.”