Jordan Summers - [Dead World 01] (37 page)

What had Morgan told her? She dropped the thoughts
as quickly as
she grasped them. Survival kicked
in and she searched the room for a weapon. He
took a step
toward her, his claws clacking on the concrete
floor. Red matched his steps
until her back hit the wall. Heavy musk filled the air, battling the odor
of blood for
supremacy.

Morgan advanced on her, drool dripping from his mouth,
pooling on the floor. Gone was the man. In his
place stood a two-legged, feral beast. He stopped
within a foot or
so, then sniffed. All the stories she'd heard, all the articles she'd read,
nothing came close to
describing what it was like to
face an Other in the flesh
.

It was horrible. He was horrible. That thought brought
Red up short. This was Morgan. The same man who'd nursed her back to health.
Cared enough to
make sure that she ate. Protected her when she
couldn't protect herself. Made love to her.

Oh God. she'd slept with him. Red clutched her abdomen
as panic threatened to rise again. Morgan
tilted
his head, watching her. He leaned forward to
nuzzle her and she flinched.

"Don't touch me," she said reflexively.

Morgan dropped his head and
slowly backed away.
It took several
seconds for him to shift into human form. The process appeared to be as painful
as the initial change. When he finally returned to normal, he was lying on the
floor naked and shivering.

Red couldn't bring herself to move. She could barely
breathe. Her heart thundered in her ears, blocking all sound but the blood
rushing through her veins. Part of her wanted to believe what she'd just
witnessed was a hoax of some sort, an illusion that only Morgan could perform.
The rational side of her knew the truth.

The man she'd slept with, the
man she cared about, the man she respected almost as much as her grandfa
ther, wasn't a man at all. He was
a creature. An abom
ination that didn't
exist except in the imaginations of
children
and a few paranoid adults like Roark Mont
gomery.

Morgan staggered to his feet and began to dress.

She forced her voice past the lump of fear in her
throat. "You weren't going to tell me, were you?"

He didn't look at her or even acknowledge that
she'd spoken. Morgan pulled on his pants and
reached
for his shirt.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

He stopped in the middle of lacing up his boots.
"What's left to say? You've clearly made up your mind about me."

Red pushed away from the wall; so many emotions
swirling, so much confusion. "What the hell did
you expect? Your blood is dripping down the wall for
goodness
sake." She pointed at the newly formed pools of crimson. A fat drop took
that moment to swan dive into the center of the larger puddle with a
ker-plop.

"I needed you to understand the facts before you
rushed off to IPTT headquarters and put in an order
for a warrant." He ran a hand over his face. Lines that
hadn't
been there moments ago, etched the corners of his mouth. The change had
obviously taken a lot out of him.

"You're asking too much
from me," she said, turn
ing away to
gather her thoughts.

"Am I?"

Red spun. "Yes, you are. I
believe that Kane is a murderer
and you're asking me to ignore
my hunch."

Morgan stood and strode across the room toward her.
"No, that's not what I'm asking." He reached out and
grasped her
forearms, but Red jerked away. He laughed,
a pained sound that plucked at her heart.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"I was just thinking about last night, and how
you
couldn't
get enough of my touch. Now, you can barely
stand the sight of me."

She frowned. "And that's funny to you?"

Morgan sobered. "No, it's not. But it is
reality." he said
bitterly.

"I'm sorry, but this"—Red swirled her
hand—"is too
much. It's my duty to report this kind of thing to
IPTT."

"Your duty, eh?" He shook his head.
"And what
about
mine? It's my job to protect the people of Nuria,
human
and
Other
alike. I can't do that if the world finds
out the truth."

"Is the whole town made up of Others?" She
stepped
forward. "Was Jesse?"

Morgan watched her, his amber
eyes dim. "No, not everyone, but most. As for Jesse, yes, she was one of
our oldest pack members. Does that change how you feel
about her? Does it make her death any less important?"

"No, of course, not." She glared.

"Then why in the hell are you holding it against
me?"

Red shook her head. "I don't know what you're
talking about."

"Oh yes, you do. When you
thought I was just an
other human, I made
love to you repeatedly—and now you can't even look at me, touch me."

"Yes, I can," she fired back.

"Then prove it. Kiss me." Morgan stepped
closer until they were mere inches apart. He stared down at her face,
searchingly.

Red didn't move. She couldn't for fear she'd bolt.

"Just as I thought," he whispered. "You
can't do it."

He began to turn, but she caught his elbow and pressed
her lips to his. The spark she'd felt from the start was still there, but
different. She released him quickly.

"I have to go," she said.

Morgan stopped her. "Where?"

She wasn't going to lie to him.
He deserved to know
the
truth, if only to prepare everyone for the tactical
team's arrival. "Home," she said.

His expression sobered and he returned to sit behind
his desk.

She unlocked the door.

"Before you go, there's something else you should
know."

"What?" she asked, wondering if he were
simply trying to delay her departure. Red didn't think she could handle much more.

"It's about your shirt."

Red's brows dropped. "My shirt?" She glanced
down at the front of her clothes in confusion.

"Not that shirt," Morgan said. "The one
you dropped off to Jim for analysis."

She stilled, but her heart continued to race. Surely
Morgan
wouldn't try to blackmail her. She knew he was desperate to keep
Nuria's secret, but was he that
desperate?
"What about it?" Red asked, as panic set in.

"I thought you might like to know how your blood
got mixed in with Moira's." He glanced at the crimson-stained wall.

Red followed his gaze. The blood had started to dry.
Her mouth watered and her stomach growled with hunger. Something inside of her
screamed, refusing
to make the mental leap to the most obvious
conclusion.

"How?" she found herself asking, despite the
pleas in
her head to stop.

"You were at the crime scene."

"I know I was. I found you there."

Morgan shook his head. "No, beforehand."

It was Red's turn to respond with refusal, as her 
worst fears came to life. "That's impossible. It's not like I'd forget to
mention it, if I had wandered by."

He continued to stare at her.
"You were there. Feed
ing. You just
don't remember."

"Morgan, if this is your way of trying to cloud
the issue, it won't work." The
word feeding
finally registered in her
befuddled mind. "What do you mean feeding?" Red swallowed hard as her
stomach somersaulted.

"It means exactly what you think."

"No!" He was insane. This whole town was insane.
Red was sorry she'd ever heard of Nuria and Morgan Hunter. Denial enveloped
her, wounding her psyche until she wasn't sure that she'd escape with her
sanity. She'd made a mistake getting involved with Morgan. Her emotions had
clouded her judgment, making her care when she should not. Damn it! She didn't
love this man. Couldn't love him. He-was barely human and now he was accusing
her of being the same.

He cocked his head and stared at her. "You don't
want to understand because the truth is too frightening."

Red's lips thinned as she covered the hurt with
anger. "The truth? What truth? You're
claiming that I
went to a crime scene that I didn't even know about and
ate Moira. And you expect me to believe you. Uh-uh, no way. I'm leaving.
Now." She turned to the door and raised her hand to open it.

"You're one of us," he said quietly, but
might as well shouted at the top of his lungs.

Red whirled around. "What did you say?"
Blood
roared in her ears as his words
pierced her humanity,
ripping it away.

He stood, placing his hands on
his desk, and leaned
forward. "I
said, you're one of us. I don't know how you've gone undetected all these
years, but I knew it the second you entered the dissecting lab. I smelled the
Other in you."

"Is that why you slept with me?"

Morgan gave her body a cold once-over. "It's not
the only reason."

"Bastard."

He flinched, but his expression remained cool.

Red backed away. "You are crazy. I am nothing
like you. Like the people here in Nuria. I'm a
pureblood."

Morgan snorted. "I'm sure you wish that were
true, but
we
both know it's not. You're no
more a pureblood than
I
am."

"I know no such thing," she spat, her gaze
darting around
the room as she searched for a means of escape. He was
crazy. They all were. She wasn't one of them. She couldn't be. Could she?

His expression drooped, giving
her a glimpse of the
disappointment he'd
been hiding. "I scented you the second
you hit town," he said. "I
couldn't believe that an
unmated female would waltz into Nuria unprotected.
Then when you didn't ask me for protection, I realized
you had no idea what you truly were."

"
Ask for your protection?" Her brows knitted.
"I don't
need any man's protection."

"Actually, in this town you do. There are
protocols to
follow when you enter an alpha's territory."

"You're the alpha of this . .. pack?" she
asked.

He met her gaze. "You know that I am. That's one
of
the
reasons that you gave yourself to me. You may not
have consciously understood what
you were doing,
but your instincts did."

"Lies." she hissed. "Nothing but
lies."

He shook his head. "Why do you think you can
smell
a
lie? Or heal so rapidly? Haven't you ever noticed
how
acute your
hearing and eyesight are?"

Fear like she'd never experienced sent shivers
rocketing
down her spine. Morgan couldn't know that.
She'd never
told anyone—not even her grandfather.
She glanced around and the walls
seemed to close in.
She needed to get out of here.
Away from Morgan.
Away from this town.
She took a step back as numb
ness settled
into her body. Escape was her only option.

"I knew you did," he
said.

"I don't know what kind of
game you're trying to
play
here, but
I'm
not buying. I'm going back to tac
tical team headquarters and get my warrant, then
I'll
return."

Morgan's jaw firmed and a muscle
began to tic in
his
rugged cheek. "Do what you need to do, Gina.
You can run from me and Nuria.
but you can't run
from the truth."

chapter
twenty-two

Red left Morgan's office with his words ringing in her
ears.
It took three tries to get into
her hydrogen car and she nearly wrecked it leaving
town.

She pressed a button and the window opened with a
slight hiss.
The hot breeze from the desert rushed in, but its arid taint did little to
clear her jumbled thoughts.
She never wanted to see or smell this place again.

How could she be one of them? She wasn't even sure
they'd existed
until a few minutes ago. Red had considered
the possibility, but that was as far as
it had gone.
Now Morgan was attempting to force a reality on
her that just
couldn't be true.