Eternal Hunter (Night Watch #1)(29)
Author: Cynthia Eden

No, that didn’t make any sense. Sure, sometimes humans could smell like prey to a hunter, especially to one as screwed-ass up as Mickey. But Erin had shifter blood. The hyena should have recognized her true scent.

He caught sight of a patrol car outside. The car slammed to a stop. The cops jumped out, fast and ready for action.

Then they hesitated outside of the bar. They looked to the left, to the right, and Jude saw them begin to step away from the bar.

Erin grabbed the arm of the taller guy and yanked him toward the entrance. She shoved open the door. “In there!” he heard her say.

The cop blinked and gave a small shake of his head.

Humans.

The spell had ’em confused. Jude sighed and pushed the shifter toward the door. “My collar.” So he’d be the one to take him out. He’d be earning a couple grand from Mickey’s case. But, unfortunately, he hadn’t learned what he’d wanted from the shifter.

The humid air hit him the minute he stepped outside Delaney’s. The color had come back to Erin’s cheeks, giving her skin a warm glow. Her eyes were warm, scorching as she eyed him with her hands fisted at her sides.

He helped load the prisoner. Jude fought the urge to give the guy an ass-kicking, and in moments, the cops pulled away with their prisoner.

Jude turned to her, his hands on his hips. Zane hadn’t followed him outside. Had to give the demon credit on that one.

Staying inside was definitely the best plan for him.

He stalked to her slowly. The woman didn’t back up even a single step. Jude raised a brow and asked the question that was driving him crazy. “Why didn’t Mickey sense you?”

She blinked.

“The hyena shifter—you recognized him, why the hell didn’t he recognize you?” Her scent had been off that first day. A mix that had tempted and teased, but he’d known right away that she wasn’t human. Not completely, anyway. But, Mickey had only thought of her as prey. Didn’t make a bit of sense. Like to like. The other shifter should have been able to recognize her, too.

“You just can’t keep a low profile, can you?” she grated, craning her neck to the left then the right as she searched the street. “How in the world you’ve kept your tiger hidden—”

“No one’s around.” Thanks to Catalina. He pinned her with his gaze. “Why didn’t he know, sweetheart?” The words were easy, but the demand underlying them was steel hard.

Her delicate nostrils widened. “Most don’t.” A shrug. “Your senses must be stronger than the average shifter’s—or you wouldn’t have known about me at first, either.”

Yeah, they were stronger. Came from being a white tiger. Rare breed, stronger shifter talents.

But if her scent couldn’t be detected by the others…shit. The woman had some serious camouflage going on. “So you’ve been just slipping right by your kind haven’t you? Walking right past the shifters your whole life.”

“Not my kind,” she interrupted, voice rising.

His turn to blink. “Yeah, we are.” A slow anger began to burn in his gut.

She swallowed. “I-I’m not going to do this with you, not now. You don’t understand.”

Because she hasn’t told me a damn thing. The lady kept telling him, “not now.” Well, when? He stared her down. “Try me.”

“Shifters…” Her shoulders straightened. “That’s not my world. When I didn’t change at puberty, the shifter world kicked my ass out and left me in the cold.”

Her mom abandoned her, dropped her off on her father’s doorstep when she was fifteen.

“I’ve lived as a human since then. I don’t transform. For all intents, I am human, and that’s the only world I know.”

No, last night, she’d found another world, with him. He’d felt her beast, raging just below the smooth, controlled surface she presented.

Erin turned away and began walking toward her waiting car.

Stop her. “Shifters don’t play by the same rules as humans.” She knew that. He shouldn’t have to shout it at her. Shouting.

He winced. Good thing that spell of Catalina’s was keeping the humans away. “Sometimes we have to play rough.” Like when he’d dug his claws into Mickey the ass**le.

Erin glanced back at him, black hair sliding over her shoulders. “I know how shifters play.” Anger. Fear?

“I’m trying to find the bastard after you, and believe me, I’ll play by any rules that I have to. I’ll break any rules I have to, in order to find that bastard.” Find him, stop him, put him in a shallow grave.

He’d marked her.

The killer wasn’t gonna play nice and easy. And Jude had never been that dumb nice-and-stupidly-easy type.

Their eyes held. When Erin spoke, her voice was soft but it carried easily to him as she said, “My job is about protecting the rules of the human world. Following the law.”

Sometimes, you had to bend that law.

And maybe even break it in order to stop the bad-asses. “Human laws and human jails don’t do much for our kind.” Oh, yeah, maybe he’d put too much emphasis on the our, but screw it. She was just like him beneath the skin.

Animal to animal.

Night Watch brought down criminals and sometimes, bringing down the supernatural scum meant putting a power-mad demon, a blood-sucking vamp, or even a rabid shifter out of his misery.

No, human jails couldn’t hold a strong supernatural for long. Hell, a level ten demon could blow the walls out of a jail with barely a thought. And if a guard got too close to a vamp…

Some monsters couldn’t be stopped by the normal means.

That was the reason Night Watch had been formed.

Night Watch’s mission was to bring down the supernatural criminals—one way or another.

When Mickey got to the jail, his ass would be tossed in a cage. Just where he belonged. And he’d stay in the pen, doing his time, kicking the crap out of any human foolish enough to cross him.

But someone stronger than low-life Mickey…hell, no, a prison would never work.

“Accept it,” Jude said. “Your laws just don’t work for everyone.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“Like that bastard after you. Do you really think a cage will hold him?”

She swallowed and he saw the hard movement of her throat. His hands clenched when she said, “I know it won’t. Why do you think I’ve been running?”

“Erin—”