Marked By The Vampire (Purgatory #2)(12)
Author: Cynthia Eden

His face went slack with shock, and, surprisingly, he did.

She took that opportunity, and Olivia ran past the guard as fast as she could. I won’t be locked up like the prisoners.

Because she wasn’t one of them.

***

Shane’s head whipped up. His heart drummed even faster in his chest. He could hear the sound of frantic footsteps coming his way. He inhaled, catching the scents around him—

Just as the footsteps turned and started running in the opposite direction.

“Olivia.” Her name escaped from him as a growl. He grabbed for the cell door, and he yanked the thing right off its hinges.

The vamps in the cells around him began to yell.

“Get me out, man!”

“Break my f**king door!”

“He’s out, he’s out!”

He ran past them, following the sounds of those fleeing footsteps. The steps weren’t heading toward the vamp wing any longer. They were rushing toward the part of the facility that housed the werewolves.

He sped faster after her—and it was Olivia he was pursuing. He’d taken her blood, and now…hell, now he could track her any place. Any time.

She’d never escape him.

He rounded the corner and saw her just before she could disappear into a long corridor.

Shane snagged her wrist, and his fingers slid over the white bandage that covered her wound. She spun around, her hands tight, little fists, and one of those fists drove straight into his jaw.

Work on that hook, doc. Work on it.

“It’s me,” he whispered. Video cameras had to be watching, and he had pretty much screwed his cover to hell and back, but maybe he could still make this work…maybe…if he played things just right.

He pinned her against the nearest wall. Caged her with his body.

“What are you doing?” Olivia demanded, her voice high and sharp.

His body pressed to hers. Desire surged through him when he felt her curves against him. And when she twisted, rubbing her soft body against him…a groan broke from Shane’s lips.

“I need your help!” Olivia said. “I need—”

He kissed her. For two reasons. Reason one…because he had to stop her from talking before the woman shredded his cover by saying the wrong thing.

Reason two…he f**king wanted her mouth.

Her lips were open, and he liked that—oh, but it made things easier. His tongue slipped over the edge of her lips, slipped right inside her mouth, and she gasped.

His body pressed ever closer to hers. Her hands were against the wall, held captive by his grip, and her mouth—she was kissing him back.

The desire he felt surged ever stronger within him. Her mouth opened more for him, and her soft lips moved lightly against his own.

He would have f**king kissed her forever…if he wasn’t sure they were about to be in some serious danger. So, hating it, Shane pulled his mouth from hers. But then he kissed her jaw. Her stubborn and damn adorable jaw, and then, with his mouth close to the shell of her ear, he whispered, “Surveillance—audio and video. Watch what you say.”

He could hear the thunder of her heartbeat.

“Dragon…” He barely breathed that word, but he knew she needed the reassurance it would give her. He’d tried to clue her in yesterday, but, this time, he needed her to fully know that she could count on him.

Her body trembled against his. “I knew…last night…”

He licked her ear. Just for the hell of it. The ear was there, he liked the delicate shell, so he licked it—and she trembled again.

His c**k stiffened even more. And her pulse was so close. Racing. If he just bent down and kissed her neck that frantic pulse beat would be beneath his mouth.

“Something is wrong here…my…my silver remote didn’t work yesterday. And it took the guards too long…to help me.”

He pulled back, just a bit, to study her. In the distance, he could hear the sound of metal doors clanging. Security was coming. But they’d been too slow about it. The guards must have seen them on the video camera, and they’d just left Olivia alone in the hallway with a monster.

“I think they wanted me vulnerable. And—and Case is trying to keep me locked up.” Fear flashed in her eyes. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I don’t understand—”

“Why the hell do you keep going after her?”

Shane had known the warden was leading the march toward him. Instead of answering the warden, he leaned down and pressed a hard, hot kiss to Olivia’s lips.

The guards grabbed him and hauled Shane back. He broke free of them, and squared off against the warden. “Why? Because I f**king like the way she tastes.” And he still hadn’t recognized her taste. He’d never encountered it before.

She’s half human. Has to be. She smells like a human.

What was her other half?

Case’s eyes blazed with fury. “Tranq him until he can’t move.”

“No!” Olivia cried out as she leapt in front of Shane. “Don’t do that, he’s—”

Shane caught her shoulders and yanked her around to face him. He made sure his fangs were out as he drove his head toward her throat.

The tranqs hit him. Thuds in his back. His sides. He lost count of how many hit him.

He could feel the drug coursing through his blood.

“Don’t…tell…” he managed to whisper. He hadn’t been going to bite her. Not there. Not with her fear in the air around them. When he bit her, she’d ask for his bite. Beg for it. His attack had been faked so that he could get close enough to whisper to her.

His knees hit the floor, and his hands locked around her h*ps as he stared up at Olivia’s face.

Don’t tell.

She gave an almost imperceptible nod.

And more f**king tranqs hit him.

“Drain him,” he heard Case order as Shane’s eyelids sagged closed. “Let’s see how strong he is once most of his blood is gone…”

Idiot. Shane would still be strong. Just as strong and damn hungry.

***

“Sooner or later, the Paras here learn that we’re stronger than they are.” Case’s voice was smooth. Calm.

But he was pacing around his narrow office, and his pacing was sure the sign of a nervous man.

Olivia watched him from her seat. “You drain vampires… regularly?” That was torture to her mind.

He whirled toward her. “What the hell else do you want me to do? I use sunlight on them when I can, and that keeps most of them weak, but then we get the alphas in here. Alphas like your friend, Shane, and when they’re ripping the freaking doors off the cells, we have to use any means that we can in order to control them.” His breath heaved out. “So don’t sit there and judge what we do. My men do the best they can, in a situation that no man should ever be facing.”