Immortal Danger

Maya had a man, a human, shoved up against the wall. The fingers of her right hand were wrapped around his beefy throat. In her left hand, she held a broken beer bottle-and that bottle was currently pushed up against the guy's side.

"You don't touch me, you don't touch Rosie," Maya continued, her voice hard and mean. She hadn't so much as glanced over at the sound of the door shattering beneath his fists. "And you sure as hell never touch that kid, got it?" The jagged edges of the bottle cut into his stomach.

Rosie? Adam's gaze darted around the room. Found a thin woman with bright red hair and a face stained with bruises huddled in the corner. The woman's skirt fluttered, just a bit, and Adam saw the bright eye of a child peeking from behind her.

"You're gonna walk out of here-and you're gonna keep walking, Chuck. You're never gonna bother Rosie or her kid again-"

"Fucking whore!" He spat. "Just like you ." He tried to lunge forward, but Maya caught him and slammed him back against the wall.

Adam frowned. The guy was big, too big for her to be handling during the day. He stepped toward her, then caught a glimpse of fang.

"I'm not a whore," Maya murmured, bringing her face in close to the man's. "I'm something much, much worse." Her lips were parted. Her teeth bared.

Blood began to trickle from the guy's neck-where her claws had buried themselves deep in his flesh.

The guy whimpered.

Maya stood on her toes and licked away a rivulet of blood. "I've got your taste now, Chuck," she said, "so I can find you, anywhere, anytime." The beer bottle fell to the floor. "And I won't need glass to kill you if I come hunting." Her teeth snapped together. "I'll rip you apart with teeth and claws."

The guy, Chuck, had turned white. "You're some…kinda devil."

She laughed at that. "Yeah, and I've come to take you to hell."

He started to shake then.

Maya released him, but kept her eyes glued to his. "Get out before I kill you."

Adam didn't doubt that she would. There was something different about her at that moment. A rage was in her-one he hadn't seen before.

The human ran from the room, leaving drops of blood on the floor to mark his wake.

Maya turned to him then, finally acknowledging his presence. "Give me a minute, Slick." There were lines of tension around her mouth.

He nodded, prepared to watch and wait.

Slowly, Maya walked toward the woman and child. She studied the woman first, then said, "Where are you from, Rosie?"

"B-Barlow, A-Alabama." Rosie stared at the floor while big, fat teardrops rained down her cheeks.

Maya crouched in front of her and held out her hand. "And who are you?" she asked the black-

haired child who peered around his mama's skirt with big, wide eyes.

"Jake." A faint whisper.

But Adam heard it, and Maya's equally soft reply.

"It's good to meet you, Jake." She still held out her hand. After a minute, two, the little boy's fingers lifted to touch her.

Rosie gasped then and jerked the boy back. "Don't you be hurtin' him!"

Maya glanced up at her. "I won't."

Rosie swallowed. "You gonna…hurt me?"

From the looks of things, Adam thought the woman had been hurt enough.

Maya stood, swayed just the faintest bit. "Not if you do what I say."

Her eyes doubling in size, Rosie nodded.

"I want you to take Jake and get the hell out of town. I want you to go back home to Barlow."

The tears fell faster as Rosie's head bobbed in quick agreement.

"Good."

Maya moved toward him.

"I-I'm not a-a whore." Rosie's chin was lifted, her shoulders struggling to straighten.

Maya didn't glance back at her. "I know."

"You-you're not a devil, a monster, either-are you?"

Now she did look back and Adam wished that he could have seen her expression as she said, "Sorry, Rosie, but I'm both."

She didn't speak until they were back in room 204 and the door was firmly shut behind them.

Her shoulders sagged and her feet shuffled slowly across the floor.

"Hate assholes like that," she muttered heading for the bed. "Think they can do anything they want to a woman."

She turned toward him, her chin raised, and he caught sight of the faint blue bruise along her jaw.

The bastard had hit her.

He reached for her, but she was already turning away from him. "Had to watch jerks like that with my mom. So many fucking bruises."

Like the one she now wore? "Wasn't gonna let another woman die, not just gonna stand around and let it happen again."

She stood before the bed, hands clenched into fists at her sides.

"Another woman?"

Her back was stiff, her voice gruff as she said, "My mother."

Damn . No wonder she'd run to the other room when she heard old Chuck threatening the woman.

She climbed into the bed, fully dressed, and pulled the covers up to her chin. She met his stare with a glare. "I'm not talking about this, about her. Not now, not later."

Stubborn vampire. He bit back the questions that sprang to his lips and managed a nod.

A heavy sigh slipped past her lips. "I'm not like her," she whispered and her eyelids began to flicker. "Never was."

He sat on the edge of the bed and watched in silence until her breathing smoothed out and sleep claimed her again.

After a moment, he brushed the hair from her face. "You lied to me," he whispered, and realized that it shouldn't change anything. It shouldn't . "You helped that woman, that kid."

I'm not a helper, Slick.

Bullshit .

There was more to Maya than just the monster she carried. A hell of a lot more.

Just as there was more to him.

"You lied to me."

Tim Largent jerked awake at the angry snarl, blinking the sleep from his eyes and gazing around his office in dazed confusion.

He'd fallen asleep on the couch after a rather enjoyable, if tame, bout of sex with-Karen? Michelle? He just couldn't remember-

"I don't take well to liars."

Tim swallowed, rising slowly to his feet. He realized that Karen and Michelle didn't really matter right then.

The thing that mattered-it, he would be the giant wolf shifter standing in his doorway.

Lucas Simone snapped his fingers and four other men walked into the room. "Neither does my pack."

Fear began to ice Tim's veins. The packs-they were vicious. They'd been known to rip men and demons apart.

"I-I didn't lie to you," he managed, putting the heavy desk between them. Shit, where were his bodyguards when he needed them? One of Lucas's men dropped a small, dented, black box-like object onto the desk.

Tim got a really, really bad feeling in the pit of his gut. "What's that?" But he already knew.

GPS. The tracking box.

"Funny thing," Lucas murmured. "We found that car you told us about, but there was no sign of the vampire or her companion."

His mouth went desert dry. "She was going to Mexico, I told you-"

"The coyotes have been looking for her, guarding the border." Tim knew the coyote shifters had long since taken over Mexico. "But they haven't so much as caught a whiff of her scent."

The lying bitch. "Maya set me up." How had she known what he was planning? How? Lucas rubbed the tattered edge of his right ear. "Or you set us up." He jerked his thumb toward the door and a young, dark-haired shifter hurried to seal the room. "Something you should know about me," he said, and his fingernails began to lengthen into claws. "I get angry– real angry –when some asshole tries to play me for a fool." His claws raked across the desk, leaving deep grooves in the wood.

Tim was very much afraid those claws would soon be used on something softer than the wood.

He swallowed. "I'll give the money back." He didn't need it, not really, and he had the cash in the office, right there in his safe.

A smile curved the alpha's thin lips. "Oh, you'll most definitely give it back."

His hands slick with sweat, Tim turned to the wall safe, fumbled with the dial, and managed to open the lock. He tossed the still-bagged money to Lucas. "Take it, and get the hell out of here."

The shifter didn't look at the money as he caught the bag. His stare was on Tim, and his teeth were sharpening. "Not quite ready to leave yet."

Tim's gaze darted to the circle of wolf shifters closing in on him. "Wh-what do you want?"

The pack leader's eyes were colder than death as he said, "Our pound of flesh. Demon flesh."

The pack began to growl in hungry anticipation.

He woke her an hour before sunset. They didn't speak about the incident in room 206. Not then.

Before they left the room, Maya used one of the disposable cell phones she'd picked up to call L.A.-to check in on Sean again.

He was awake, but not making much sense. She promised to call and check in with him again later.

Adam drove the SUV, following her directions to Red Rock Canyon. The sun's rays looked like streaks of fire, blazing across the horizon.

Streaks of fire.

Or streaks of blood.

The vampires had long since claimed the canyon as part of their territory. Humans didn't realize it, but tunnels crisscrossed the canyon. Hidden deep in the ground and stone, the vampires had created a near-impenetrable lair.

Blood Rock, that's what they called it. Maya had heard whispers about the canyon before. She'd overheard tales in feeding rooms about the dark deeds committed beneath the heavy stones.

The caverns were said to be lined with skeletons.

The way Maya figured it, she was about to find out if all the gossip was true.

And, with any luck, find the girl.

They stopped a few miles from the canyon. Maya climbed from the SUV, her eyes squinting against the sun's fading rays.

"You all right?" Adam asked, moving almost soundlessly to her side.

The sun had already half-settled beneath the horizon. She managed a nod. "Getting better every minute." And she was. Her strength was returning. Her power. She hated the curse of the sun. She couldn't stand being so weak. So…human.

They started trekking through the desert, moving quickly, but quietly. She'd already warned Adam that the vamps could have human guards stationed in the area.

She wasn't the only one of her kind to use a day watcher.

As they traveled, the sun inched even farther below the horizon. Maya opened her senses fully, straining to hear every sound in the desert and to catch any unusual scent.

But so far, she didn't hear or smell anything out of the ordinary.

And that fact had her body tensing.

The twisted, thrusting sight of Red Rock Canyon soon greeted her. The Aztec sandstone gleamed a blood red in the light of the setting sun.

Blood Rock .

Her gaze scanned the area.

No sign of vamps. Or humans.

The hair at her nape began to tingle. "Something's off," she whispered. "There should be guards here." But the place looked completely deserted.

Maya drew her weapon, motioned for Adam to do the same. She wasn't going to take any chances. They'd find the entrance to the tunnels, grab the girl, and then run like hell.

That was her current plan, anyway.

She crept past a large outcropping of rocks. Burnished red. Weathered from time.

Adam eased behind her, but he stopped, his body stiffening. The sound of his accelerating heartbeat reached her ears.

She glanced back at him, found him staring at the rocks, a frown between his eyes. "Adam?"

He lifted his gun. Pointed it straight at the rocks. "I heard…something."

Was he crazy? His gaze flashed toward hers. "We're surrounded, Maya."

What was he talking about? Her gaze searched the area, found only the hard rocks. She still didn't smell anyone, didn't hear-

Adam fired his weapon, and the bullet plunged into…a man. A man as red as the rock-a man who seemed to appear from nowhere, a snarl on his face and his arms raised in fury.

Shit. Understanding dawned too late as a chorus of screams erupted from the rocks. Chameleons.

Beings who could change their skin and hair color and blend perfectly with their environments, even adapting their scents to match the-

Two red chameleons sprang at her. Maya fired fast with her gun, catching one in the shoulder, then delivering a hard kick to take the other one down.

"Hell, Adam, we…" Her words ended in a grunt as Maya was grabbed from behind by a pair of icy cold hands.

Not another one.

Just how many were out there? Dammit! These bastards were reputed to be so cold-blooded they could even nearly suppress their own heartbeats.

Even with enhanced senses, it was all but impossible to pick up a chameleon's presence.

Couldn't see them, couldn't smell them, and usually couldn't hear them.

She jabbed her elbow into the jerk's ribs. He grunted, and his hold on her tightened. Oh, hell, but he was strong.

Good thing she was a hell of a lot stronger. Maya twisted her body, spun around fast, and slashed her lengthening claws down his side. His blood spilled out-red, slightly darker than his flesh. He swiped at her with a fist, but she ducked the blow. Her hands shot out, caught him in an unbreakable grip, then, with a hard toss, she threw the chameleon against the rocks.

His head cracked against the stone with a sickening thud.

Maya whirled back around. The guy she'd just shot stared up at her with bulging red eyes. Then-