a stake, which Derek caught in one hand. With one final burst of energy, he stuck that wooden stake deep into the vamp’s chest, in the spot where its heart had once beat.
Go in peace, vampire.
The creature exploded as if it hadn’t been actually composed of flesh and bone at all, but merely a bunch of musty pieces that had been glued together. Seconds later, a rain of nasty, odorous gray ash swirled through the area like a twister.
A second explosion rocked the area moments after that. Amid a flurry of ash that was temporarily blinding, Derek turned his head to see Dale smiling back at him.
“Mission accomplished,” Derek messaged to his packmate. Or so he thought before the soft, muffled sound of a human in trouble reached him from the street beyond.
Across the filthy, ash-strewn alley’s crackled asphalt, above the musty gray dust that had quickly settled to the ground, Dale’s eyes again met his.
Riley was no weakling, but the guy was extraordinarily strong and fast, using his other hand to spin her around. He now had her by the waist with a hand clamped over her mouth.
Despite her rocketing pulse, she got one good kick in before he pulled her into the shadows so fast, it happened between one blink of her eyes and the next. Still, she wasn’t going to play dead or be reduced to a teary mess, and managed to connect with the guy’s shin with a second kick. When his hand fell away from her mouth, Riley shouted for help.
The fight she put up had surprised her attacker. His hold on her waist loosened enough for her to pull back and spin sideways. They were near the entrance to an underground restaurant and yet no one had seen this happen because the asshole’s timing had been impeccable.
She heard her phone hit the sidewalk and didn’t have the opportunity to retrieve it. Hands came at her again as if the guy was half octopus, and as if he had more at stake here than she did. He clasped her throat to choke off a call for help.
“Bastard!” she shouted.
A filmy blur of movement danced around her, reminiscent of a storm system moving in. The whirlwind was so strong, she flew backward, stumbled and almost lost her footing. The jolt of hitting a wall knocked her senseless. Her head snapped back. Stars danced in her vision and her stomach turned over.
That’s when things really got fuzzy.
Did the ass who had manhandled her have accomplices? There were now three moving blurs of speed in the area. Mere streaks of movement. Nothing defined. And she had a concussion. Either that or these new guys were larger than any humans she had ever seen. The sounds they made were fierce, threatening, and similar to sounds animals made in the wild. Each grunt and growl added to the pressure in her skull.
It occurred to her that she had been dropped into the middle of one of those horror movies she had been thinking about. Strange sounds under a full moon reinforced the thought.
Looking up made her dizziness worse. Her knees started to buckle. Her vision narrowed as a hovering net of blackness slowly descended. Riley dug deep for more courage. She could get away while no one was looking, find the phone she had dropped and call for help.
Another arm closed around her before she had completed the plan. Although she struggled to get free, she could hardly breathe past the pain in her head, let alone rally for another attack.
Uttering a string of curses, she tried to focus her eyes and found nothing in front of her but a wide expanse of someone’s bare chest.
“Damn it.”
She whispered more curses as she was lifted up and swept off her feet. The only way to stop the unusual sensation of having the ground ripped from beneath her was to close her eyes.
Another sound ricocheted inside her head, seeming to echo noises she had heard before. Though she couldn’t have been colder, a new round of chills arrived when she recognized what that sound was.
With her heart rate nearing critical mass, Riley slowly opened her eyes and took a breath before having to face whatever her fate was to be.
Nothing happened immediately. Cool wind on her face soothed the icy shame of having put herself in harm’s way. But she was in somebody’s arms, and moving away from the street. For some reason, she didn’t sense harm here, though.
Her inner defiance sparked and anger burned like a beacon.
“Put me down. Let me catch my breath.”
The arms holding her loosened considerably. Riley again felt the hard support of a wall behind her as the man did as she asked and set her down.
In her vision, this guy’s body continued to move as if he had the ability to fluidly alter his shape. Yet she knew that couldn’t be right, and after a tense moment of silence, he spoke.
“Can you stand?”
The husky, overtly masculine voice cut through the pain behind her eyes.
“You’ll be all right in a minute. We’ve called this in and someone will come to get you,” he said.
Hell, had she just been rescued? Was that what all the commotion was about?
Shaking off the last vestiges of dizziness, Riley focused all her attention on the person who had spoken to her, grateful that someone had heard her shout for help. Her attacker had been thwarted and she was going to live, after all.
Her rescuer leaned closer to her, his bare chest wide and bronzed. Her gaze traveled slowly over that broad expanse of flesh before she worked her way upward. The thanks she had meant to offer was delayed by a question that took precedence over anything else she might have said.
“Why are you half-naked?”
“You’re welcome,” the shirtless man returned after a beat.
He hadn’t stepped back to leave her. Instead, her rescuer seemed to be waiting to make sure she actually could stand up.
His physique was rock-solid. Since he towered over her, there was no way to see his face without again banging her head against the wall behind her. One concussion per night was all she could manage.
“I’m sorry.” Riley’s voice wasn’t as steady as she would have liked. “Thank you for helping me.”
The guy didn’t respond verbally. His hard, muscled body pinned her in place for a few more seconds, as if body language had its own form of communication. Riley hadn’t noticed how much she had been shivering until she felt the warmth of the man’s closeness. Through the loose weave of her sweater, her rescuer’s heat was welcome.
She sighed.
He leaned closer.
“Not an invitation,” Riley warned, turning her head to the side.
“Didn’t think it was,” he replied.
His voice was gruff, as if he
