Jared

THE scent of fear came to him on the wind. A woman’s
fear. Sharp and acrid, it fouled the night around him. Jared slid his rifle off
his shoulder, adrenaline coursing through his system, feeding the restless
anger that seemed to be always with him these days. The cold metal slid into
his palm. He closed his fingers around the stock in a gesture so familiar, it
was more reflex than planned. Immortality had done nothing to dull his survival
instincts and 249 years of vampirism had done noting to touch his code of
honor. And in his world, men did not stand aside while a woman was being
harassed.

The scent came again, this time mixed with the stench
of vampire lust. He backtracked the wind, slipping into the shadows, shielding
his energy as he scanned for the intruders. This was Renegade land. The people
within this section were his responsibility. And if some son of a bitch thought
he was going to terrorize a woman under his protection, he had another think
coming.

A trace of the woman’s energy whispered across his
senses. Intensely feminine. Intriguing, but alarmingly weak. She was shielding
herself but without any degree of skill, which meant she was either newly
converted or untrained. More than likely the former. In the last six months,
all known vampire women had either been gathered up by the Renegades for
protection or fallen victim to the Sanctuary for experimentation.

The Sanctuary’s belief that only a certain type of
vampire should survive into the future had launched the immortals into a civil
war. If the situation wasn’t brought under control soon, it was going to
imperil the mortal world, and that could be catastrophic for everyone.
Especially since his sister-in-law’s pregnancy had opened a whole new world of
possibilities to the Sanctuary leaders: that of improving their numbers through
the specific breeding of immortals, which up until Allie’s pregnancy had been
believed impossible.

He shook his head at the idiocy of it all. The laws of
nature were there for a reason. They created harmony and tampering with them
was not going to work out the way the Sanctuary wanted. Especially if they
started messing with the mortals, and word was that was happening now. Vampires
were part of the food chain, and when a food source was killed off through
disease and manipulation, no one was going to survive. Not that a Sanctuary
fanatic could be convinced of that. They were a bit set in their belief that
their supremacy justified whatever they did. Unfortunately for them, the
Renegades weren’t so convinced of the Sanctuary’s superiority. Renegades
believed in choice.

A faint cry came from the other side of the meadow.
Slipping into the shadows of the trees, Jared probed the area with his mind.
One hundred yards ahead and slightly to the right, three vampires—two male and
one female—were standing close together. The men radiated no energy at all, but
the woman was emitting frantic signals bordering on panic.

Jared closed the distance carefully, slipping into the
shadow of a tree, donning the illusion of the next, blending his energy with
the plant energy, hiding behind a mirror image of the tree. As the scene came
into view, it was evident why the woman was radiating panic. The two male vamps
were playing a game of cat and mouse with her, feinting in to lure her out from
the scant protection of the group of trees she had at her back, building her
fear, probably getting off on it as she bared her fangs.

Jared’s free hand clenched and unclenched in a habit
left over from his outlaw days. Though he fought with talons, mental energy,
and specialized weapons now, the small ritual of limbering up his fingers still
centered his focus. Some things just stuck with a man even into immortality. He
slipped deeper into the shadows surrounding the clearing where the two male
vamps had the little female cornered. She had her back against a tree and was
talking fast, but he didn’t think threats and blackmail were going to hold
those two off for long. They were hungry and horny. Never a good combination in
a vampire.

A worse combination in members of the Sanctuary. That
group tended to think they were entitled to indulge their baser instincts. And
those guys were definitely Sanctuary. He didn’t even need to see the telltale
insignia on their shirts, glowing white in his night vision, to know that. The
fact that they thought their urges entitled them to corner a woman on Renegade
land, this close to a D’Nally werewolf stronghold, said all that needed to be
said. They were not only arrogant, they were stupid. And their kind of stupid
deserved to die.

One of the men grabbed for the woman’s arm. Blood
sprayed as she slashed with her talons. The man’s curse almost overshadowed the
woman’s threat.

“Touch me again, and I’ll hurt you.”

Though he seriously doubted the woman had the muscle
to back the threat, the fact that she was throwing threats rather than screams
impressed the hell out of Jared. Sanctuary scum were known for their
single-minded pursuit of their goals rather than their compassion. He’d had
only a glimpse of her before the men had moved in. His two biggest impressions
were a wealth of tawny hair and slenderness. Too slender, which made their
ganging up on the woman more despicable and made them more in need of learning
a lesson.

He cast his senses out into the scene, probing deeper
into the male energy, finding the flickers at the edges of the one the woman
had swiped that indicated weakness. Jared smiled as he glided closer. That’s
what he wanted. Just a little opening. A touch of opportunity. The moon slipped
free of a cloud, bathing the scene in soft white light. He let his mind wander
along the beams, a hiss of energy, invisible to all. They shouldn’t have felt
him, none of them should have felt him, but the woman looked up and her big
eyes turned unerringly in his direction before looking away.

Stay away.

The whisper in his mind was soft and sweet, lightly
accented, stunningly feminine, like nothing he’d ever sensed before, tuned
specifically to his brain pattern. He followed the intriguingly unique path
back to its source, sending calm with it.

Stay still.

She didn’t respond to his order, just slashed at her
attackers, going for their throats with a desperation that vibrated outward
along with her order.

Run!

Again the intrusion into his mind. She was covering
for him. Jared smiled at the generous, misguided effort and set his gun aside.
It’d be a cold day in hell before a Johnson walked away from a fight,
especially against two little pissants like this. It would be an even colder
day in hell before he left a woman helpless and alone to fight as best she
could with his mind on saving his own ass.

He broke out of the shadows in a burst of energy,
spinning the other vampires around with a mental thrust. Weak. No challenge at
all. He slit their throats with ruthless efficiency, holding them enthralled
while he went for their hearts.

Oh, don’t make them watch their own deaths.

The feminine entreaty broke through his barricades
again, laden with the compassion he’d long since abandoned. He glanced over his
shoulder. The woman was staring at him, her face creased with horror and
disgust. With a mental command he turned her away. She fought, but she wasn’t
as strong as she would like. With her back to him she whispered, “I’ll still
know.”

He didn’t want to be hindered by a five-foot-nothing
conscience. Dammit to hell, he wouldn’t be, but the horror and acceptance in
the woman’s thought wouldn’t go away, and in the next split second, he blocked
the vamps’ knowledge and delivered the killing blows. The bodies hit the ground
with discordant thumps. The woman jumped. He took her gloved hand and pulled
her away from the tree. “They were going to rape you.”

The statement came out harsher than he intended,
fueled by the illogic of her position. The men didn’t deserve her mercy.

“I know, but there’s no need for cruelty.” Her voice
had the same softness as her thoughts. It was completely out of place amidst
the residual violence and the cold reality moonlight cast on the bloody scene.
Annoyance built along with frustration as the woman stumbled when he pulled too
hard. He didn’t need this complication, didn’t need to be reminded he had a
conscience. For the last hundred years he’d been quite content to focus on
right and wrong, and leave the sorting out of the repercussions to others.

“Sorry.” The fact he felt compelled to apologize
ticked him off further.

“It’s all right.” She hopped over a raised bush, her
booted feet sinking into the snow. He frowned. She should have glided over the
snow’s surface. He’d never met a vampire who couldn’t levitate as easily as he
breathed. He checked her energy again and got the same reading as before. Weak.

He shifted his grip to her upper arm, supporting her
as she struggled with her balance. It’d been a long time since he’d touched
anything besides other male vamps or weres. And then mostly in battle. The
delicacy of the woman’s build slid through his consciousness, reminding him of
other times, other lives.

He gentled his grip, all of his upbringing slamming to
the fore. Women were delicate, gentle, and were to be protected from the
harshness of life whenever possible. Though that mind-set had moved out of
popularity since his day, this woman brought it back with a vengeance. Another
thing he didn’t appreciate. Especially since, if he mentioned it, she’d
probably bite his head off.

Keeping his body between her and the corpses, Jared
steered the woman back the few feet to where he’d left his gun. When she would
have glanced over her shoulder, he pushed her ahead, giving her nothing to look
at.

“They’re dead?” she asked as he grabbed his gun.

“As doornails.”

There was a little hesitation and then, “Thank you.”

He straightened, keeping her within his grip because
he got the sense she’d flee if he didn’t. “You’re awful particular about the
way you’re rescued.”

“There was no need to be cruel.”

He looked at her then, raising his brow. “They weren’t
exactly inviting you to a tea party.”

“You didn’t like them being cruel to me.”

She spoke with an accent he couldn’t quite place. “You
got that right.”

“Because I was smaller and had no defense.”

“And you’re a woman.”

She brushed that point aside. “They were no match for
you.”

He shook his head, easily seeing where she was
heading. “I hardly think it’s the same.”

“It is the same.” With a twitch of her lips, which he
supposed was a smile to placate him, she tugged her arm free. “Thank you for
sparing them that last moment.”

The shape of her arm left an imprint of energy in his
grasp. He curled his fingers around it. “You’re welcome.”

The moon tucked behind a cloud. His vision switched
over. Even in the starkness of black and white, she was a stunning woman, with
high cheekbones, a high forehead, a narrow nose, and full lips. Very full, very
kissable lips. But she was thin. Too thin, and that thinness accentuated the Slavic
cast to her features, which went with the slight accent to her voice. “You’re
not from around here.”

“Not originally.”

He raised a brow. “You’re awfully tight-lipped for a
woman who’s just been rescued.”

She looked toward the men. She rubbed her palm over
her jean-clad thigh. “I must be in shock.”

He got a feeling it would take a lot more than what
had happened to shock the pretty little vamp. However, the sight of the dead
men upset her. Her unease radiated off her in waves. “If you wouldn’t keep looking
at them, your stomach wouldn’t revolt so hard.”

“I’m not looking at them. I’m looking past them.” She
waved with her hand. “My pack is over there.”

“Uh-huh.” He spotted the brown leather backpack just
on the other side of the tree. “Stay put, and I’ll get it.”

He had made it halfway to the pack when she took off.
She was trying to mask her energy but not her footfalls. He grabbed up the pack
and threw it over his shoulder, frowning. The most basic of vampire skills was
skimming over the earth. There shouldn’t be any footfalls. He headed after her,
closing the distance easily. The harsh rasp of her breath punctuated every
frantic step. His frown grew deeper. His little vampire was unnaturally weak.
And, he let his senses flare out, company was coming. Catching up with her was
not difficult, grabbing her up and tucking her under his arm no hardship,
though her shriek did about split his eardrums.