Lover's Bite (27 page)

“I will if I have to,” Magnarelli promised. “But I was asked to keep you conscious until you could be questioned.”

“By whom?” Reaper asked.

“You'll find out when he gets here.”

“Has to be Dwyer. My former boss. Well, it'll be great to catch up,” Reaper said.

Topaz noticed something moving inside his shirt, though, and frowned, wondering, What the hell?

Get their attention off me for a second,
Reaper thought.

Topaz stared at him but didn't bother questioning him. The big guy was up to something, and she didn't much care what it was, as long as it would get them out of this mess and get Jack some relief, and soon. She wasn't sure how much longer he could last in this much anguish.

She rose, picking up her chair with her and, shrieking like the proverbial banshee, she charged the wall, smashing the chair against it, then backing up and preparing to do it again, her attention focused on Reaper the entire time.

The two agents rushed her, as she'd hoped they would do instead of shooting a lethal dose of tranquilizer into her, seeing as she was only hurting herself, not going after them. And even as they tackled her to the floor, she saw the small red fox squeeze up out of Reaper's shirt, leap lightly to the floor and race across the basement room to where the breaker box was. Neither of the agents had seen it. The fox curled up on itself and lay still, tail curling over its tiny brown nose.

Vixen. And she was going to shift back at any moment. They would spot her fast, but it wouldn't take long. Even now, the others must be gathering beyond this door. Waiting.

Topaz drew her eyes from the little fox, who was beginning to squirm and writhe now, to the men who'd taken her to the floor. They were threatening violence if she didn't calm down. She decided to go for hysteria. She cried, she screamed, she shouted the walls down. “You have to let us go! You said you would. I can't be in here any longer! I can't. Let me out, let me out, let me ouuuuut!”

One backhand to the jaw silenced her, but even as her head snapped back, she saw Vixen shifting. She couldn't give up her act, not yet.

“There's no need to strike her!” Reaper shouted.

“Don't,” Jack muttered. He was oblivious to what was up with Vixen, his attention only on her. “Please, baby, don't give them…a reason…”

But she kept on screaming and crying, thrashing and twisting in their arms, until one of them pointed the tranq gun at her.

“It's enough to kill. You want to die?”

She looked at Jack. “If you don't get him some help, he
will
die, you idiots! And if he does, yeah, that's exactly what I want. But not until I can take the two of you with me.”

Vixen rose from the floor, stark naked and utterly beautiful, and threw the switch.

“Now!” Reaper shouted at the top of his voice.

Instantly the door burst open, and vampires swarmed inside, an imposing and unfamiliar vampiress leading the way. The agent with the tranq gun turned to fire at her, and Topaz sprang, hitting his arm with her head as hard as she could. The dart went wide, and then the woman was on him, and Briar was on the other one. The two vampiresses met each other's eyes, and almost as one, snapped the necks of the men they held. Seth was running toward Vixen, while Mirabella rushed to Topaz, bending over and trying to release her from the cuffs, but she was too weak from everything she'd been through to snap them on her own.

“The older one has the keys,” Topaz said. “Hurry.”

Briar dug in a pocket, found the keys and handed them to Crisa before letting the man's limp body sink to the floor. Crisa ran the keys back over to Bella, who freed Topaz. “Are you all right, darling?”

“Yeah. Fine.” Topaz turned, ran to Jack and fell to her knees close to him. Carefully she moved him just enough so that she could unfasten the cuffs that held him. Then she bent close to him, sliced her own arm and pressed it to his lips.

He drank only a little before pulling away. “Don't. You need it.”

“Not as badly as you do.”

He shook his head, then looked into her eyes.

“I meant it this time, Topaz. I meant it. I'd have died for you.”

“You nearly did, Jack. You very nearly did.”

“I love you, Topaz. I think I have all along, only I just didn't know it. Didn't believe in it, so I didn't see it as even the most remote possibility. But I couldn't keep your money. I regretted taking it. I've missed you and ached for you every minute that we were apart. And I swear, I'll never lie to you again. I love you.”

“You're damn right you'll never lie to me again,” she said, but she said it through rivers of tears that were streaming down her face.

“That's not what I'm waiting to hear,” he told her weakly.

She smiled through her tears. “I love you, too, Jack. I always have. Always will.”

She kissed him very gently.

“We need to move,” Reaper said. He'd been going through the dead agents' pockets and had extracted several items. “They have a goon squad on the way to pick me up. Besides, we need to get our con man here to someplace where Roxy can patch him up and see to it he survives until dawn.”

“Nothing could do me in, Reaper,” Jack said. “Not now.” And his eyes were on Topaz.

Those eyes. Those eyes of his that had told her all she needed to know right from the start. She could see the same thing in them now that she'd seen before. She'd thought it was part of the con, but now she knew better. His eyes had been saying “I love you” from the day they'd first kissed.

And she had a feeling they would keep on saying it for a long, long time.