Gambling on Her Bear (Shifters in Vegas) (2 page)

She clutched the bundle of clothes in one claw, shuffled closer to the edge, and started a countdown.

Five…four…

Man, it was a long way down.

…three…

God, her sister was right. She really was crazy.

…two…

She leaned forward and stretched her wings wide.

…one!

She gulped and launched herself into thin air.

For one startling second, Karen thought she would plummet to the ground like a stone. A very naked stone that would shatter on the sidewalk and feature in front-page news. She could already see the headlines:
Crazed twenty-nine-year-old dies in attempted “dragon” flight!

She gritted her teeth, stiffened her wings, and miracle of miracles, caught enough of an updraft from the heated sidewalks below to glide. She lurched right, dipped left, then banked and steadied out.

I can fly! I can fly!
her soul sang in glee.
I can do it!

The wind tickled the smooth undersides of her wings and cooled her scaled belly.

See? You just have to believe,
her dragon said, sounding smug.

She chastised herself for having been too scared to try for so long. Her sister Kaya was right. There was nothing to it. Now that she’d caught the wind, it all seemed so easy. So natural and effortless she was even tempted to flap her wings and try flying for real. Maybe if she practiced more often, she could actually do it. Maybe she wasn’t totally useless as a dragon, after all.

You have to believe,
her grandfather used to tell her.
Whatever you believe in, you can do.

A thousand heady images filled her mind as she soared over the blinking lights and fountains that seemed placed there soley to cheer her on. Once she pulled off her plan, she just might head to the Pacific Coast. Better yet, the East Coast — to some long, soft beach not too far from Kitty Hawk, where she’d fly and fly and fly. Like the Wright brothers once had, she’d start with low, short flights and work her way up — literally. She’d whip herself into flying shape. That’s what she’d do. She’d learn all the moves her sister made look so easy and—

The light desert breeze wavered, and she dipped right, losing altitude.

“Shit!”

The roof of the next building was no longer below her, but above. And crap, she was making a beeline for the windows of the penthouse. The idea had been to sneak in and out with her prize, not to shatter hundreds of square feet of glass in the world’s most botched attempt at a burglary. She’d have security on her in no time—

Her skin heated at the double entendre. Security…on her… If it was a certain ursine member of security, then having him on her wasn’t a bad image at all.

Jesus, Karen!
she yelled at herself.
Get your mind out of the gutter and concentrate on flying!

Gliding,
her dragon sniffed.

Whatever,
she retorted, straining every muscle as the building loomed closer. Closer…

God, she was going to crash.

Just concentrate, already!

She squinted at the metal siding of the top edge. Just a little higher… A little closer…

She could see right into the opulently furnished living room of the penthouse suite — and shit, if she didn’t watch it, she’d crash-land on that huge marble coffee table instead of the wine-red couch overflowing with pillows of the same rich color. She’d send the crystal vases of flowers flying — black flowers, because vampires only decorated in black and red. Knowing her luck, she’d end up wedged between the faux Greek statue standing in a corner and the ceiling-high speakers taking up most of one wall. Security would come rushing in, followed by the vampires, and she’d be taken captive. Again.

Her lips curled back as she battled for another millimeter of height.

Whatever you believe in…
Her grandfather’s voice echoed through her mind.

She hurtled onward, having a really, really hard time believing in anything but what a bad idea this had been. Her sister was right, calling her headstrong and impulsive and naïve.

Her long dragon ears lay flat along her scalp as she fought for every inch of airspace.

Come on. Come on…

Closer…

She folded her claws flat against her belly, straining for a more streamlined shape, and her angle on the penthouse changed slightly.

She was gaining altitude! She was doing it!

The building loomed closer, just a few yards away now, but God, it would be tight. Would she splat against the side or careen to safety on the flat rooftop?

Fly! Fly! Fly!
she half cheered, half prayed.

Technically, this is only gliding,
her dragon’s laconic voice commented, completely unimpressed with the severity of the situation.

So glide, damn it!
she screamed back.
Glide!

She thrust her nose forward and sucked in her belly. Her scales just about scraped the edge of the building, but she cleared it, and suddenly, the ground wasn’t thirty stories down any more. It was just a few inches away.

Too low to the roof to make a proper landing, she tumbled head over heels and crashed to a stop against an air duct.

She lay still, panting wildly, listening for alarms. Looking up at the stars, wondering why she’d ever thought this was a good idea. A good thing none of her relatives had been there to see her land like a clumsy albatross and not a mighty dragon. And damn, did the truth hurt — more than the cuts and scrapes on her body. She couldn’t fly. She could barely even glide. What did she think she was doing here?

Um, revenge?
her dragon tried.

She sighed and dusted herself off. Right. Revenge.

Lifting her dragon snout, she puffed stubbornly into the night and shifted back into human form. The sharp edges of her claws rounded and became fingers. Scales retreated beneath skin, and her hair flowed in the light breeze. The horizon dimmed slightly as her vision switched over, too, and her shoulders throbbed with the exertion of holding out her wings.

She looked back to the rooftop she’d started from, and it seemed a long, long way away. A wave of exhilaration swept through her. She’d done it!

Hurrying with fresh determination, she retrieved the bundle of clothes that had tumbled away in her sloppy landing, yanked them on, and strode toward the service door on the roof, giving herself a pep talk as she went.

Flying in was the hardest part. The rest will be a piece of cake.

The door was locked, of course, but not for long. She grinned, remembering the time her cousin Rudy had taught her that handy lock-opening trick. She pulled the door open and peered down into a dark stairwell, stiffening at the ammonia scent that reached for her from inside. Vampires had no scent, except for that faint ammonia odor that gave them away.

Easy,
she lied to herself, advancing slowly.

The night breeze sneered as it slammed the door shut, plunging her into darkness.

“So, so easy,” she whispered to herself. She’d be in and out in no time. Right?

Tanner thumped his glass down on the bar and glanced at the ceiling because some vague sensation called to him from above. He tugged at his collar. Damn, it was hot inside the casino. Not to mention noisy, stuffy, and much too bright.

I hate Vegas,
his inner bear grumbled.

No kidding. The place just wasn’t natural. If it weren’t for the motorcycle that allowed him to escape into the surrounding wilds from time to time, he would have gone nuts. But his clan had sent him down to Vegas for a reason, so he had to to get the job done — then hightail it back home and never leave again. Bear shifters belonged in the woods of the Bitterroot Mountains, not squeezed into suits and ties.

A thin hand slinked over his shoulder and fondled his collar as a sultry voice whispered in his ear. “Hey, Tanner.”

He eased away and cleared his throat. “Hi, Amber.”

“Hey, baby.” The showgirl grinned and leaned in for a kiss.

Tanner turned just in time for her to hit his cheek, not his lips. With one hand, he held her arm, keeping her just far enough away to avoid feeling those fake boobs brush up against his chest. With the other hand, he pushed away the ostrich feather tickling his head. Amber’s headdress was full of them, sticking up like a gaudy crown. All of them XXL, unlike the tiny scraps of fabric barely covering her private parts.

“Hi,” he said, keeping his voice flat.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Amber. He just didn’t like her
that
way. Like a lot of the girls in the Scarlet Palace Revue, she was down on her luck, desperate for any way to get ahead. She had a kid to take care of, too. From what he heard, she sent most of her money to Oklahoma to pay for the child she couldn’t take care of herself.

The thought made his heart weep. Kids belonged with their moms. Families belonged together. And fathers sure as hell needed to stick around to care for their own.

He looked around the bar and shook his head. Humans could learn a thing or two from bears.

Of course, not everyone in sight was human. Two of the waitresses — the ones with long legs, short skirts, and bouncing strides — were gazelle shifters, and the balding cashier with the beady eyes was a hyena. They remained in human form at work, but he could tell by the scent. The gay bartender sporting a pirate look today was a unicorn shifter, and the big one with curly hair was a bison.

Tanner sighed. He’d seen just about every kind of shifter in the two months he’d been in Vegas, and while every one of them had a story, none of them was his kind. Yes, there were a few bears here and there, but none from Idaho, and none ever stopped to consider how crazy Las Vegas was.

Especially this place. Scarlet Palace. What the hell was he doing, working for a casino run by vampires?

He shook his head at himself, remembering why. He was helping his bear clan, that’s what. It had been all planned out — an inside job to get the money they so desperately needed to protect their homelands from vampires — and he’d been the one entrusted to see it through.

Amber sidled closer, and he stiffened — and not in the good way. If only she’d understand that he kept an eye out for her for her own sake, not because he wanted the only reward she had available to give.

“How about you and me—” she cooed in his ear.

How to tell a woman you weren’t interested without hurting her? How to tell her you loved somebody else?

“Look, Amber—” He shut his mouth abruptly. Whoa. Had he just told himself he loved someone? He couldn’t be in love with the woman he couldn’t get out of his mind. Just because he’d had the greatest night of his life two weeks ago…

One week, five days, and ten hours,
his bear sighed.

Tanner shook his head. The bear was mixing up lust with love. He barely even knew that woman.

Love my mate,
his bear sighed dreamily. The beast was half hibernating, shutting himself away from the glamour and glitz of Vegas. Unlike that time two weeks ago when the beast had come roaring to the surface, insisting the woman he’d just met was his mate.

It was ridiculous how quickly his bear had been convinced she was the one.

The way she smiles at us. The way her heart speeds up then slows down. The way her eyes shine… She’s our mate.

Not our mate,
he insisted.
And besides, she would only have jeopardized our plan. It’s for the best that she left.

Even though he was just thinking the words, not saying them, it was hard to keep his inner voice from cracking. The same way it had been damn near impossible to stand her up on their second date. For her own safety, he had to keep away from her.

Safe.
His bear nodded.
She’s someplace safe now. But when we’re done with this job—

He made a face. Sometimes it felt like he’d never finish this job.

—when we’re done with this job, we’ll find her and make her ours.

If only it were that simple. The job he’d been sent to do involved stealing nearly a million dollars back from the vampires of Scarlet Palace, which would be hard enough. And to find the woman he craved afterward would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. She could be anywhere…