Burns Like Fire (Dangerous Creatures #1) (6 page)

Chapter Eight

Jamie turned off his phone immediately after checking for messages. He wasn't ready to ditch it just yet, but it was tempting to take the SIM card out and just squash the thing so he couldn't be traced.

She must have been picked up. She didn't show up last night and she wasn’t answering his calls, or the emails he was sending to her private account. He didn't expect her to just blindly text him either. They had little codes for each other that they used in every message, to prove they were who they said they were, and that no one was coercing them into writing or saying anything.

Jamie was really hoping this was just a mistake, that her phone was lost or dead and that she was just inexplicably unable to contact him, not because of hunters, but that was so damned unlikely that he felt like yanking his hair out.

She was caught. The hunters had caught up with her and she'd probably been hauled off to a compound somewhere for study hours ago.

The thought of the collectors being rough with her, and handlers grabbing at her, taking her clothes away and pushing her every which way they wanted her to go before a scientist stuck her with needles, made it difficult for him to breathe.

He could feel his temperature rising and he could barely see or hear the people who were walking past him on the sidewalk. He needed to get away from them. He felt eyes on him from all angles and it itched him all over in a way he couldn't scratch.

Jamie inhaled deeply. He did it again, and then again. It got easier when he focused. He was going to be hauled in, too, if he didn't cut it out and calm down. He'd already sucked the power out of an entire city block when he checked his phone for the fourteenth time since waking up early that morning. Now he was buzzing with electricity, and it would be too easy for him to lose control and draw even more unwanted attention.

It couldn't be helped. He'd just been too pissed. His best friend was gone, and there was nothing he could do about it.

All the electricity that had been coursing through air conditioners, televisions, and even the phones and iPods from people walking around on the streets, had been tapped. It flowed right into his body as if it had nowhere else to go. Jamie was still jumpy and jittery, like he was on a sugar high. Tiny blue sparks danced out from his fingers. He probably had another white patch in his hair. Thank god he was such a pale blond, almost platinum, that it was hard to notice, but the way his hair stuck up was more noticeable.

He'd gotten out of Dodge when he realized what was happening, as everyone around him yelled and searched around for the source of the disruption.

Running helped. Physical exercise always succeeded in working some of the energy out. The rest he'd need to put back into the ground, once he found a safe place.

On the other hand, taking off like a bat out of hell probably hadn't been such a great idea. Nothing screamed “pay attention to me!” like someone running away from the scene when something weird was happening.

Hunters had probably been called already, which meant he needed to get his ass home
now
so he could hide out.

But if Cindy
had
been picked up, and they tortured information out of her, he was going to have to move out of the city before she spoke and the roads shut down. He had to do it before the sun set today. He trusted Cindy, but there was no telling what would happen to her if she didn't comply in the labs.

"Jamie? What are you doing here?"

He jumped at the voice, but then he sighed as he turned around, glad for someone he knew. "Ethan, hey, I was just—" Jamie stopped abruptly.

Ethan stared at him, patiently waiting for an answer, his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket.

Jamie could hardly look at him. The second his eyes noticed the light that glimmered off of the gold badge at his hip, not a cop's badge either, the one that had a hawk in flight, Jamie stepped back.

"I didn't know you were a hunter," he said.

"Yeah, I was going to mention it eventually, I guess," Ethan said, rubbing his hand over his trimmed beard. His dark eyes moved back up to Jamie's face, glinting with suspicion. "What are you doing here?"

"Just hanging out."

"In an alley?"

"What?" Jamie looked around. There were bricks and trash and dumpsters lining the space he found himself in. Fuck. He was in an alley.

"Yeah, in an alley. What are you doing here?" Jamie asked. "This isn't exactly a place to be social."

Ethan stared at him hard for a good solid minute, and then took a step toward him. "Are you selling something?"

"What? No," Jamie said. Hunters weren't cops, but in most cases, they had more power than cops did. Ethan could easily fuck up Jamie's day even more if he suspected Jamie was dealing something.

"Are you buying something?" Ethan asked, his voice level, but still suspicious..

"No!"

Jamie snapped his mouth shut. Fuck. It might've been better if he'd just admitted to wanting to buy something. Wanting to get high by drinking the blood of paranormals, or smoking some of their hairs, would've been a hell of a lot easier for Jamie to deal with than having Ethan looking at him like he was now, regardless of the questions he'd have to answer.

Shit, what if Ethan was in the area because of the power outage Jamie had caused? Ethan could be hunting Jamie and not even be aware of it.

Adrenaline surged through Jamie's blood, and his whole body visibly trembled with the struggle to hold everything back. He crossed his arms, damn near sticking his hands under his armpits just to hide the little bolts of blue electricity. He needed to make an excuse and get the hell out of here, right now.

It was too late. Ethan's eyes were locked on. He knew he was here for Jamie, and he was getting ready to spring.

Jamie's heart ached. He bit his lips as he stared at the man in front of him. "Why did you have to be a hunter?"

He didn't give Ethan the chance to respond. Jamie launched a blue rocket of electricity and didn't wait to see if he hit his target or not. He didn't want to see that. All he heard was Ethan's pained, and very angry, shout.

"I'm sorry!" Jamie yelled behind him, and he ran for his damned life.

*****

Jack's leg was twitching with antsy energy as he waited for Cindy to finish. He'd been suspicious when the ten minute mark passed, but he didn't just want to barge in on a woman in the bathroom.

Even when they were dating, they hadn't done the married couple thing where he would be on the toilet while she was in the shower.

For that reason, he had no idea why he was so shocked when she finally came out of the bathroom. The little dress she was still wearing from the night before was hiked up higher on her amazing thighs, her hair just a little neater, and perfect heart shaped lips almost looked puckered. Her eyes were half-lidded, and was he wrong, or did that have that “come and get it” sort of look he'd seen on her before… back when they were together and she wanted to be playful.

"What are you—"

"I'm still starving. Do you have anything to eat up here?" Cindy asked. She stretched her body just enough to make her breasts stick out, and her stomach appear firmer and slimmer. Not that she needed any help with that

She rubbed her hands up and down her hips and sides, then scratched her nails through her hair, which made her look like she'd just finished rolling around in bed.

The
I just had sex and enjoyed it
look was so fucking sexy on a woman. The fact that Cindy was wearing last night's dress helped her to pull it off even more, but he knew she hadn't had sex last night because he certainly hadn't touched her.

Her thighs were so incredibly creamy. They appeared smooth to the touch, and his fingers itched to move forward and feel for himself. Cindy cocked her hip as he put most of her weight on one leg.

"Jack?"

"I...what?" Jack asked. He moved his eyes away from her body, but he had trouble keeping them on her face.

"You said you would get me some more food. Since you didn't leave me much before?"

Cindy's mouth and eyes might've been telling him to throw her down on the nearest surface and fuck her, but that sentence right there was spoken with perfect clarity.

In fact, when he blinked and looked up at her again, it was like he'd dreamed up his last image of her because, aside from her skirt being hiked up, she was giving him an odd stare.

"Jack?" she asked.

He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. He needed to think, to get clear-headed. "Yeah, here, I'll take you into the kitchen. There should be some Chinese leftovers from last night."

"Did you get my favorite on purpose or did you just not have time to cook because you picked me up?"

The fact that she had a playful smile on her lips told him something. Were they darker than before? Her mouth was swollen, like she'd just been thoroughly kissed. "Something like that. Not having time, I mean. Let's go," he said.

Jack led her down the hall. His house wasn't exactly big. It was only a bungalow, and he'd added the basement himself.

It was a perfect set up for someone who lived alone, without many visitors.

But the narrow halls and chain between them made it incredibly easy to see the gentle sway in Cindy's hips. Just the thing she used to do when she wanted to his attention. He just wanted to keep his eyes on her, and now he could barely look away from her ass.

When he looked up again and realized she'd caught him staring, his entire body tensed up. He'd thought she would shake her head and be disgusted, but instead her kissable lips pulled up in a tiny, flirtatious smile.

Holy shit. She was trying to seduce him. She was actually trying to make him lose his cool.

Son of a bitch.

He opened the fridge, grabbed the Chinese and put the containers and boxes on the counter; the chain linking their two bodies clinked just a little as he moved around. The kitchen was a small space, but he was still able to get to the drawers and grab a fork.

Jack stopped himself before he could lift it out. He stared at it, along with the many knives that were in there. He looked over his shoulder to see what Cindy was doing. She was leaning on her elbows on the island counter, back stretched and leaning on one leg in a way that made the swell of her ass stick out.

She was pretending not to notice what she was doing as she stared down at the take out boxes, waiting for him to get her a utensil. Then her purple eyes turned toward him, as if she'd sensed his eyes on her. There was so much curly red hair framing her face, and her lips looked kissably swollen, and red.

Fuck, she was too damned sexy. Jack's blood warmed and moved down to fill his cock. Why was this working? He knew what she was doing so there was no logical reason for his body to react this way.

"What?" she asked.

Jack cleared his throat. He was the worst. After all this time, and after what she'd done, he couldn't stop imagining just grabbing her by the hips, tossing all the food off of the counter and throwing her down on it so that he could spread her legs, settle between them, and put his mouth on her wet folds. Would she taste the same as she used to? Would she moan and keen and grab at his hair when he put his cock inside of her?

It made him angry just thinking about it.

His cock was already hard, and he turned back around, breaking eye contact with her, and grabbed a spoon. Please God, don't let her notice that her actions were working.

He handed her the spoon before standing on the side of the counter island, using it to hide the lower half of his body without being too obvious about it.

She held up the spoon and gave him a quizzical look.

"I'm not about to give you something you can stab me with," he said.

He expected some snarky response, but instead she shrugged and opened up the boxes. "Can you plate any of this? Do you have a microwave?"

"Just eat what's in front of you or don't eat anything at all." He was already angry enough at himself for wanting her. The way she was leaning now meant he could perfectly see the swell of her supple breasts. They were practically popping out of the dress.

He shouldn't stare, that was making it worse, but he couldn't look away either.

Cindy turned away from him and shrugged again, like she didn't care if he made her eat off the floor.

"That's fine," she said as she opened some more of the containers, pulling out red sauce and dribbling it over her rice and those chicken ball things.

Even though the food was cold, when the first spoonful was inside of her mouth, her eyes closed and she moaned.

She did the same thing on her next bite. Each time the spoon went beyond her red lips, he wanted to lean in and touch them, or any part of her.

Every time she moaned and smiled, Jack imagined himself behind her, or beneath her, kissing and teasing her most intimate places. Would she spread her legs if he prompted her to? Would she moan just like that as she gave him better access to her clit? She clearly wanted this.