"Cyn!" The warehouse echoed with the force of Raphael's call. She could hear his hard footfalls as he approached the office, could feel his power riding before him, buffeting the thin walls of the office, sucking the breath from her lungs. The man behind her stiffened as he felt the power wash over his skin. His arm tightened around her spasmodically and his heartbeat thudded against her back.

Raphael came through the door like a child's nightmare, his eyes glowing an almost solid silver with wrath, his gleaming fangs fully extended, blood painting his mouth a brilliant red, dripping from his chin to shine wetly against the tattered remains of his black shirt. His huge chest was heaving with the fury of his breath, and his hands curled into claws as his gaze found her and he growled a warning. "Release her, human."

"Who are you?" the man rasped, fear taking away his breath, coa.r.s.ening his voice.

"Release her."

The man tightened his grip. "Come closer and she dies."

Raphael's mouth widened in a terrifying smile. "You think to bargain with me?" His eyes shifted to take in the blood oozing down Cyn's arm and running freely from the gash on her forehead. "Cyn?" There was a tenderness in his voice when he said her name. She licked swollen lips, tasting her own blood, and nodded to him.

Raphael's gaze returned to Kolinsky. "You are not dead yet, human. But you will soon wish you were."

He was not even a blur of movement. One moment, she was gripped against Kolinsky's burly chest, the gun hard in her back, and the next she was being smothered by Raphael's big body, his broad shoulders shielding her completely as he backed her against the wall. Kolinsky lay on the floor whimpering piteously, one arm gushing blood as shredded sinew strained to hold it to his shoulder. An animal-like whine escaped his lips as he raised himself on his one good arm and crawled away, scrabbling at the floor in desperation.

Raphael pressed against her suddenly, his low growl drawing her eyes away from the terrified man crawling out the door to the furious, and fully aroused, vampire holding her in place. He lowered his head to lick her face, and she heard him hiss with pleasure at the taste of her blood. Her heart was pounding with excitement, the adrenaline rush of the fight still coursing through her system. Raphael's mouth found hers and she reacted without thinking, twisting her hands in his short hair, crushing her lips against his. She wanted this, wanted him. She registered the slamming of a door, and somewhere in her head, her brain was telling her to stop, but her body refused to listen. Desire flooded her senses, overwhelming thought.

Raphael felt the surge of Cyn's hunger as if it was his own. His erection throbbed against her as she shifted, cupping its hard length in the burning triangle between her thighs. His fangs nicked her tongue and he groaned as her warm blood flowed between their lips.

"Sweet Cyn," he murmured, sliding his hand beneath her sweater to tear her bra aside impatiently, then cupping the heavy weight of a bare breast, rubbing the nipple to hardness and beyond until the pain made her cry out with need. Unable to restrain himself, he snarled as he ripped her jeans open like the flimsiest silk and shoved his hand between her legs to find her slick and hot and ready for him. While his mouth continued to taste every inch of her face, her mouth, her neck, he yanked his own zipper open and stroked his hard shaft against the naked skin of her belly. He lifted her to meet him, her legs opening to wrap around his waist.

Cyn's eyes seemed to clear with the sudden realization of what was about to happen, but he didn't give her the chance to protest. He raised her with both hands, crushing her against the wall. "Mine," he growled and buried his entire hard length inside her with a single powerful thrust, swallowing her scream.

He groaned with pleasure at the feel of her. She was wet, so wet and so hot he thought she'd burn his flesh. Her tight walls gripped him, squeezing as he forced his way deeper yet. Her cries of surprise turned to moans of need, and he felt her begin to ripple around him as the first o.r.g.a.s.m took her, arching her back, pulsing along his c.o.c.k, hard within her. Wave after wave followed as she screamed into his mouth, until the spasms faded into shudders. Her eyes opened, blurry with desire, until a fire lit and they burned with a pa.s.sion that equaled his own. Long legs wrapped more tightly around his waist, pulling him against her, holding him captive. The wall behind them quaked with the force of his pounding, and still she demanded more, her blunt human teeth biting his shoulder where it was bared by his wounds, sending tremors of incredible ecstasy shuddering through his body, tightening his c.o.c.k to an unbearable hardness as her warm tongue licked the blood from his skin. He felt his own release building and lifted her higher, ramming himself into her until she climbed to a second climax, her sheath caressing him, seducing him, surrounding him with a volcanic heat until he roared in o.r.g.a.s.m and filled her with a wet heat of his own.

"More," she whispered hoa.r.s.ely and began moving against him once again, rousing him to meet her demand.

Chapter Twenty-nine.

Cynthia woke slowly, jarred from an almost drugged sleep by pain. She rolled over and gasped, swallowing a groan as every muscle complained. What the h.e.l.l? She opened her eyes, blinking at the unfamiliar surroundings. And then she remembered. The warehouse. Kolinsky. Oh my G.o.d, Raphael! She rolled over in a panic, thankful to discover she was alone. She closed her eyes in a different kind of pain, and tears found their way down her cheeks. You are such a fool, Cyn.

She groped to the side of the bed and stood. Spying a bathroom across the room, she made her way over to it, turned on the light and stepped in front of the mirror, almost afraid of what she'd see. The gash on her forehead where Kolinsky had hit her was closed, scabbed over in a neat line above her right eyebrow and surrounded by bruises that were already beginning to yellow with age. Twisting to one side, she frowned at the grazing bullet wound on her arm from early in the fight. A stab of pain answered her probing, but nothing more than an angry red scar marred her pale flesh. She wrapped her arms around herself uneasily. Had she been out that long? Long enough for wounds to heal or ... She flashed back to the small office in the warehouse, Raphael's eyes gleaming as he licked her wounds, her own mouth filling with...

She spun around and dropped to the toilet, vomiting uncontrollably, gagging in horror when she saw the black of regurgitated blood, like coffee crystals floating in the artificially blue water. Had she actually drunk some of Raphael's blood? And what did that mean? She only knew rumors about how vampires were changed, reborn, whatever the h.e.l.l they called it. Was she a vampire now? Gripping the sink for support, she pulled herself to her feet and staggered back to the elegant bedroom. Heavy drapes covered the window, but she could see a line of light around the edges and hear the steady hiss of the waves. She walked slowly over to the gla.s.s and, cursing herself for an idiot, hesitantly slipped the fingers of one hand into the hot sunlight. Nothing. Okay. So she wasn't a vampire.

She yanked the drapes fully open. The sun was dropping fast. Which meant she had to get out of here now.

A frantic search of the bedroom turned up the remnants of her clothing. She tugged them on, snarling in frustration to find the zipper on her jeans torn beyond recovery. Her sweater was more or less intact, enough for modesty anyway, but it wasn't long enough to cover the gap at her waist. She opened the closet and found Raphael's long, leather coat hanging there, dark and stiff with blood and ... other things. A vague memory surfaced of the big vampire wrapping her in its warm depths before carrying her out to the cars where Duncan waited. Duncan and the other vampires. Waiting while she and Raphael had s.e.x, for G.o.d's sake, in the middle of a fire fight. What the h.e.l.l was wrong with her?

Her face hot with belated embarra.s.sment, she dragged the heavy coat from its hanger and pulled it on. It would have to do for now. Her boots sat next to the bed, splattered with blood like everything else, but undamaged. It felt good to tug them on her feet, to have something solid, something of her own. A quick glance around the room sent her rushing over to a table near the door where her weapons lay waiting for her. Both had been cleaned and reloaded, one tucked into her shoulder rig. She took off the coat long enough to don the holster, then drew it back on quickly, sliding the other weapon into a pocket. That was it. No keys. Where was her car?

She stood next to the door, listening, but heard no sound from the other side. She twisted the k.n.o.b slowly, then pulled the door open and peered into the hallway. No one. Orienting herself by the view from the window, she figured she was on the second floor, not far from Raphael's office. Probably where he stashed his blood donor du jour for easy access, she thought nastily. Reaching the first floor, she hesitated, edging down the hall and into the s.p.a.cious entry.

There were guards here. Human guards. Looking past them, she could see her car parked outside, exactly the same spot as last time. So maybe the keys were in it again? Was she a prisoner? If she simply walked out like she knew where she was going, would they try to stop her?

Cyn straightened, tugging the heavy coat closed, and slipping her right hand into her pocket, feeling her spare Glock's rea.s.suring weight. With a confident nod and a smile for the surprised guards, she strolled toward the gla.s.s doors and was out the door and into her car before they'd really registered her presence. The keys sat in the ignition; she twisted them quickly, and the Land Rover responded with its usual heavy rumble. The pressure rolled off her chest as she drove away from the house, then tightened again as she thought about the guards at the gate. Maybe that's why the house guards hadn't bothered to stop her. There was no need.

She slowed down as the guard stepped out of the gatehouse and approached the side of her car. "Ms. Leighton, I didn't know you'd be leaving."

"Going home to change clothes." She wrinkled her face meaningfully. "You know how that is."

The guard looked uncomfortable, but nodded. "I guess I do, but I don't-"

"I'm not a prisoner, am I?" she asked, feigning confusion.

"Of course not, but-"

"Well, then, I want to go home and change clothes. It's only five minutes from here."

"Uh, okay. I guess. You'll be coming back?"

"Of course." Eventually. Someday.

The guard frowned, but signaled his buddy and the gate rolled open. In only minutes, Cyn was breezing down the highway toward her own place.

Her garage door stood open, so she rolled inside and opened the car door. She was moving slowly now, the high of her easy escape beginning to wear off as sore muscles a.s.serted their unhappiness. She wanted nothing more than a long soak in a hot bath, and maybe a nice, deep tissue ma.s.sage. She almost groaned out loud at the very thought of how good it would feel.

"Ms. Leighton?"

Cyn jerked in surprise, her hand going to the gun in her pocket before she recognized one of Raphael's human guards standing in her garage. "What?" she said irritably.

"Are you supposed to be here, ma'am? I mean, I was told to watch the place because you'd be staying up at the estate for a few days."

"Really? And who the h.e.l.l told you that?"

"Lord Raphael, ma'am."

"Figures. This is my house." She peered at his name tag. "Tony. So as for whether I'm supposed to be here. I think that's up to me."

"I don't know, ma'am. I better check in." He lifted his cell phone ... so Cynthia shot him in the leg. He fell to the hard concrete with a cry of pain.

"I'm sorry, Tony," she apologized, rushing over. "Really, I am. It's nothing personal. I'm sure you're a nice guy trying to do your job. But I can't have you bringing down the house on me. I need a little air. You can understand that, can't you, Tony?" Cyn was babbling, almost as shocked by the turn of events as poor Tony, who could only moan in response.

"I'm sorry," she repeated. She grabbed the small pillow she kept in her back seat and shoved it under his head. A quick check of the bullet wound verified that she hadn't hit anything vital, but there was still some bleeding. Ignoring his fretful attempts to stop her, she stripped off his belt and slipped it around his upper thigh in a tourniquet of sorts, grimacing at the position of his leg. The bullet might have hit bone, but she couldn't do anything about that right now.

Next, she jumped up, ran over and hit the b.u.t.ton to close the door so her neighbors wouldn't see a b.l.o.o.d.y man lying in her garage. Bad enough they might have heard the shot, but most of them should be gone on a workday afternoon, and people really didn't pay attention to what went on outside their own little worlds anyway.

After confiscating Tony's cell phone and gun, she hurried into the condo, yanking blankets and more pillows from the downstairs closet and dumping them on the floor near the stairs. Upstairs, she snagged a couple bottles of water and some nice Percocet the oral surgeon had prescribed after pulling her wisdom teeth. As drugs went, it had been major overkill, which was why she'd never taken any, but it had made her wonder what kind of wimps he usually dealt with. On the other hand, it was perfect for poor Tony, who was going to be feeling a world of hurt very soon. She ran back to the garage. Tony glared at her with pain-fogged eyes as she was making him a nice little nest to rest in.

"You shot me," he moaned in disbelief.

"I know. I said I'm sorry."

"I can't believe you shot me."

She just looked at him. Maybe it was shock. "Come on," she said, tugging him up onto his one good leg. He cried out and Cyn winced in sympathy as she helped him over to the pile of blankets she'd arranged. "I'd put you in the house, but you're really better off out here, especially if it's vamps that come to rescue you. They won't be able to get into the house, you know, and even you guys," she meant the human guards, "would have some trouble. I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to security. If they did manage to break in, the alarm would go off and the security company would come and ... well, I think Raphael would be pretty unhappy about that, don't you?"

"You shot me," he mumbled.

"Yeah," she said shortly. "Look, take this nice pill." She put the pill in his mouth and held the water bottle up, forcing him to drink. "This will all seem like a dream soon." She gave Tony a quick pat and dashed back up the stairs, racing through the rooms like a mad woman. She tore off what was left of her bloodstained clothes and put on fresh jeans and a t-shirt, along with her own heavy leather jacket. Raphael's long coat she hung in her closet, remembering with a pang how perfectly it had draped the vampire's powerful body.

Focus, Cyn! Yanking off her b.l.o.o.d.y s.h.i.tkickers, she drew on her most comfortable Zanotti western boots. She grabbed whatever else she thought she might need, threw it into a duffel bag and was back in the garage in fifteen minutes. A fast check of Tony found him dozing happily, his color good, the bleeding all but stopped. All good. She nudged him awake.

"How often do you check in, Tony?"

"Not gonna tell you."

"Sure you are. Come on, how often?"

"Every hour," he mumbled. Wonderful pills, truly.

Cyn glanced at her watch. Twenty minutes after three. So had he checked in at three? Or was he due to check in soon? She had no way of knowing, but let's a.s.sume the worst.

Standing on the back b.u.mper of her truck, she could barely see out the long narrow window at the top of the door. No one around. With the engine running, she hit the opener, backed out, then closed the door again as soon as her hood cleared the threshold. She didn't know where she was going, but she wanted to be long gone before Tony woke up and found out she really wasn't a bad person. After all, she'd left him his cell phone.

Chapter Thirty.

Cyn drove south on Pacific Coast Highway with no destination in mind. She'd considered and dismissed the idea of stopping at her office. If Raphael had thought to put a man on her condo, the next place he'd look for her would be the office. On the other hand, she really needed a shower and some rest. She picked up her phone to call the local hotels, then noticed she had two messages, both from her friend Benita. She played back the first message.

"Hey, chica. I'm calling you back."

Cyn paged forward to the next message. "Lemme esplain," her friend said in an exaggerated Ricky Ricardo accent, "You called. I called you back. Then you call me back."

Cyn was still laughing when she hit the 10 freeway on her way to Benita's.

Benita Carballo lived in a small fifties era bungalow west of downtown L.A. The house was one of hundreds, if not thousands, built after World War II to accommodate the workers flooding into Southern California's burgeoning military-industrial complex. They were small, usually two bedroom structures, with a single bath and modest yard. The original construction had been wood siding, although many of them had been upgraded to stucco over the years. Benita's was one of those. Her house was neat and well-cared for, pale yellow with white trim. When Cyn pulled up at the curb, all the shades were drawn and the morning paper still sat on the front step. Her friend's car was parked in the short driveway, in front of a detached garage which Cyn happened to know was used as storage s.p.a.ce by a variety of friends and family.

Cynthia picked up her cell phone and punched in Benita's number. It rang several times before the machine picked up.

"Benita, it's Cyn," she said loudly. "Pick up, pick up, pick up."

Someone picked up the phone, then dropped it with a loud thunk. Cynthia jerked her ear away, then back in time to hear Benita's sleep-roughened voice say, "Chica, you better have a very good reason for waking me up."

"Hey, this is me calling back. Besides, it's almost rush hour ... and I mean afternoon rush hour."

Benita snorted. "It's rush hour twenty-four hours a day in this town. What's up?"

"I can't call to say "hi" to an old friend? I've gotta have an up?"

"Tell it to the rich boys, baby. I know you better."

Cyn sighed dramatically. "Eckhoff told me you might have answers to some questions."

"Eckhoff? Did you know that old man's pounding Jennifer down in records?"

"No s.h.i.t? He told me he had someone; I thought he meant his dog."

Benita coughed a surprised laugh. "That's the Cyn I know. So where are you?"

"Right in front of your house. See what a polite person I am? Did I ring the doorbell? No. I called first."

"Dios mio. Come on in. I'll make coffee."

By the time Cyn reached the door, Benita had opened it and disappeared again. Cyn scooped up the paper and opened the old-fashioned, wood-framed screen door, letting herself in. The house was neat and tidy, with shiny wooden floors. Nothing was out of place, not even a magazine or a book. It barely looking lived in. She figured Benita had a cleaning service, because the girl Cyn remembered was not that neat. She could hear her friend puttering around the kitchen and made her way in that direction.

Benita glanced over her shoulder when Cynthia entered the tiny kitchen, arching one eyebrow as she took in Cyn's battered and bruised face. "I see we've got some catching up to do." She pulled a couple of mugs from the cupboard and set them on the tiled counter. "I've been gone a few days, so the best I can offer is coffee and a reheated bolillo from the freezer. You want anything else, you're going to the store."

"Coffee's fine. What're you working on for the department these days?"

She shrugged off the question. "The usual," she said.

Cyn covered her surprise by walking over and sitting on one of two bar stools that stood against the wall. It wasn't like Benita to be coy. Even after Cyn had left the department, Benita had always been eager to share pretty much everything about her a.s.signments. "Eckhoff says you're working the Russians."

Benita turned sharply, her dark eyes suspicious. "Why'd he tell you that?"

"Jesus, Benita, what's the problem? I asked him a few questions, and he said you could probably answer them better than he could."

"What questions?"

"I'm looking for a Russian. All I have is a name. Kolinsky." She was watching the other woman closely, and so she caught the slight tightening of her expression at the name.

"Sure," Benita said with forced ease. "Kolinsky's local, but you might be too late. He got hit pretty hard last night. What's this about?"

"Who hit him?" Cyn asked, wondering how much had gotten out about their raid. She didn't know for sure, couldn't remember anything after the fire fight, but she thought they'd taken Kolinsky alive, and maybe a couple of others, as well.

"I don't know any details yet, but if he's who you're looking for, you may have to look somewhere else. What's your interest anyway?"

"I think he kidnapped someone close to my client. And my client wants that someone back."

"Kidnapping? Not your usual bag, chica."

"So Eckhoff has told me. What about somebody named Pushkin? Eckhoff never heard of the guy, and my source was a little shaky."