Briar, Seth and Vixen joined him in racing full bore toward the house.

Topaz leapt the gate, then raced up the drive and hit the hacienda's huge double doors so hard that one of them split as they crashed open. She crouched just inside the door, looked left and right, sensed for Jack's essence and was speeding closer to him again, all in the s.p.a.ce of a single heartbeat. Every door that blocked her way was demolished. Every piece of furniture that stood in her path was obliterated. She was a fury, and nothing was going to stop her.

When she reached the bas.e.m.e.nt room and saw him, bound to a chair that lay c.o.c.keyed on the floor with two of its legs broken off, his face so swollen she wouldn't have recognized him if she couldn't feel him, she went still for no more than an instant.

But that instant was enough. She was jolted with enough electricity to put her on her knees. A stun gun.

One agent cuffed her hands behind her back, even as the second returned to his spot behind the door with that stun gun, awaiting the others, whose thundering feet were within Topaz's earshot even then. But not within earshot of the mortals. She thought wildly toward them, Stop! Wait! It's a trap!

She sensed their retreat instantly and sighed in relief, then lifted her head as the agent grabbed her by her arms and plunked her down in a chair, applying shackles before she regained enough strength to fight him off.

"I should have known it was a trap. You didn't seal off the house the way you did the hotel room. You wanted me to hear Jack's pain. You knew I would come for him."

"We wanted Reaper to come for him. We thought we'd left you safe and sound in our suite. What happened? You decide to check out early?"

"You're the one who's going to check out. Permanently." She nodded at the stun gun. "What happened? You run out of tranquilizer darts?"

"Not at all. We just wanted you conscious for a while. Torture isn't very effective when the subject is unconscious."

She shot a look at Jack. He was in anguish. "Doesn't look like it's very effective on conscious subjects, either, or you would already know everything you could possibly want to."

"Oh, h.e.l.l, he doesn't give a s.h.i.t about his own suffering. But yours-I think that'll be a whole different matter."

"Bring it on, b.a.s.t.a.r.d," she said.

"No."

Jack's voice was strained, weak. Her heart broke on hearing it. She could barely stand to look at him, to see him so badly beaten. And yet, even when she wasn't looking at him, she could feel his pain.

"Don't...hurt her. I'll tell you everything."

"Like you were supposed to be doing all along, right, pal? Instead of feeding us useless crumbs? Now you see what you get when you try to double-cross the CIA."

Reaper. Topaz sent the message urgently. We're in a bas.e.m.e.nt room. One way in and out. Two men here. One is waiting just inside the door with a stun gun.

"Go throw the switch, activate the silent-zone around this room," the lead agent ordered the other. "And turn on the electricity."

The other walked to the far side of the room, toward a large metallic box, with several switches and levers attached.

They're about to activate that force field, Reaper, Topaz thought rapidly. We'll be unable to communicate soon. And they're electrifying the doors. If you touch them- Got it. You should know that I knew what Jack was doing the whole time, Topaz. He was playing them, not us, to get information on your mother for you.

Topaz couldn't believe it. She gasped and then stared at Jack, and her heart broke for the pain he was in. The agent threw one switch, then another.

Why the h.e.l.l didn't he tell me? Topaz thought toward Reaper.

Nothing. Dead silence. Like speaking into an empty room. The subordinate agent returned to his position, and Topaz asked Jack, Why didn't you tell me?

He met her eyes, though she doubted he could see her through the puffy purple grapes that were his own. Didn't think you'd believe me. Didn't want to lose you.

He bent forward as far as he could, and started to cough and choke, not stopping until he threw up blood.

Topaz loved him with her entire being. She would have died just then, to give him the tiniest bit of relief. Lifting her head, she said, "Let Jack go. I'll tell you what you want if you'll just let him go."

"Don't...bother," Jack managed. He did his best to wipe his chin on his shirtfront. "I won't leave her."

The head agent rolled his eyes. The underling had to avert his. "I'm not letting anyone go, and I don't have any sympathy for your star-crossed love story. Either Reaper turns himself in within the hour, or you both die. It's that simple." He picked up a tranq gun from a table and handed it to his partner. "If they move, tranq them." Then he eyed the two vampires once again. "Be aware, my friends, that the dosages in that gun are enough to kill you this time." He focused on Jack. "And yes, it's been tested."

"There will be no need for that," Reaper said softly. His voice came from just beyond the closed, locked and electrified door to the room where they were being held. Mental voices wouldn't penetrate, but normal spoken words did.

"You've got me, Magnarelli. Let them go."

The lead agent, the one Reaper had identified as Magnarelli, went warily to the door. "You'd better come in alone, Rivera. We've got our tranq guns loaded with enough of that s.h.i.t to kill the strongest vampire known. And we will use it-on these two if you pull anything, and on anyone else who tries to enter with you."

"Understood," Reaper replied.

Magnarelli nodded to his cohort. Topaz noticed it was the one she'd thought had some semblance of a conscience, the one with the deep blue eyes. "Cut the power," Magnarelli told him. "Be ready to turn it right back on the second I tell you."

Blue Eyes returned to the breaker box and lowered a lever. Magnarelli watched him, and as soon as it was done, he unlocked and opened the door, glancing past Reaper nervously before ushering him quickly inside and slamming the door closed behind him. "Reactivate the power," he ordered.

The other one threw the switch again.

"Now get over here and cuff him!" Magnarelli shouted. As the younger one rushed to obey, Reaper turned, obedient and nonthreatening. He put his hands behind him and allowed himself to be handcuffed.

"These cuffs are not vampire tested," Magnarelli said. "They won't hold you."

"You think?" Reaper asked.

"I know. But if you try to break free, we'll kill your friends. And we have a contingent of agents, heavily armed, highly trained, on their way here to transport you back to the States. There won't be any more of your nonsense, Reaper." "I wasn't planning any," he said, and he took a seat, as if he planned to sit there calmly for however long it took to await his transportation home. "Why don't you just tranquilize me now so you can quit worrying about what I might do?"

"I will if I have to," Magnarelli promised. "But I was asked to keep you conscious until you could be questioned."

"By whom?" Reaper asked.

"You'll find out when he gets here."

"Has to be Dwyer. My former boss. Well, it'll be great to catch up," Reaper said.

Topaz noticed something moving inside his shirt, though, and frowned, wondering, What the h.e.l.l?

Get their attention off me for a second, Reaper thought.

Topaz stared at him but didn't bother questioning him. The big guy was up to something, and she didn't much care what it was, as long as it would get them out of this mess and get Jack some relief, and soon. She wasn't sure how much longer he could last in this much anguish.

She rose, picking up her chair with her and, shrieking like the proverbial banshee, she charged the wall, smashing the chair against it, then backing up and preparing to do it again, her attention focused on Reaper the entire time.

The two agents rushed her, as she'd hoped they would do instead of shooting a lethal dose of tranquilizer into her, seeing as she was only hurting herself, not going after them. And even as they tackled her to the floor, she saw the small red fox squeeze up out of Reaper's shirt, leap lightly to the floor and race across the bas.e.m.e.nt room to where the breaker box was. Neither of the agents had seen it. The fox curled up on itself and lay still, tail curling over its tiny brown nose.

Vixen. And she was going to shift back at any moment. They would spot her fast, but it wouldn't take long. Even now, the others must be gathering beyond this door. Waiting.

Topaz drew her eyes from the little fox, who was beginning to squirm and writhe now, to the men who'd taken her to the floor.

They were threatening violence if she didn't calm down. She decided to go for hysteria. She cried, she screamed, she shouted the walls down. "You have to let us go! You said you would. I can't be in here any longer! I can't. Let me out, let me out, let me ouuuuut!"

One backhand to the jaw silenced her, but even as her head snapped back, she saw Vixen shifting. She couldn't give up her act, not yet.

"There's no need to strike her!" Reaper shouted.

"Don't," Jack muttered. He was oblivious to what was up with Vixen, his attention only on her. "Please, baby, don't give them...a reason..."

But she kept on screaming and crying, thrashing and twisting in their arms, until one of them pointed the tranq gun at her.

"It's enough to kill. You want to die?"

She looked at Jack. "If you don't get him some help, he will die, you idiots! And if he does, yeah, that's exactly what I want. But not until I can take the two of you with me."

Vixen rose from the floor, stark naked and utterly beautiful, and threw the switch.

"Now!" Reaper shouted at the top of his voice. Instantly the door burst open, and vampires swarmed inside, an imposing and unfamiliar vampiress leading the way. The agent with the tranq gun turned to fire at her, and Topaz sprang, hitting his arm with her head as hard as she could. The dart went wide, and then the woman was on him, and Briar was on the other one. The two vampiresses met each other's eyes, and almost as one, snapped the necks of the men they held. Seth was running toward Vixen, while Mirabella rushed to Topaz, bending over and trying to release her from the cuffs, but she was too weak from everything she'd been through to snap them on her own.

"The older one has the keys," Topaz said. "Hurry."

Briar dug in a pocket, found the keys and handed them to Crisa before letting the man's limp body sink to the floor. Crisa ran the keys back over to Bella, who freed Topaz. "Are you all right, darling?"

"Yeah. Fine." Topaz turned, ran to Jack and fell to her knees close to him. Carefully she moved him just enough so that she could unfasten the cuffs that held him. Then she bent close to him, sliced her own arm and pressed it to his lips.

He drank only a little before pulling away. "Don't. You need it."

"Not as badly as you do."

He shook his head, then looked into her eyes.

"I meant it this time, Topaz. I meant it. I'd have died for you."

"You nearly did, Jack. You very nearly did."

"I love you, Topaz. I think I have all along, only I just didn't know it. Didn't believe in it, so I didn't see it as even the most remote possibility. But I couldn't keep your money. I regretted taking it. I've missed you and ached for you every minute that we were apart. And I swear, I'll never lie to you again. I love you."

"You're d.a.m.n right you'll never lie to me again," she said, but she said it through rivers of tears that were streaming down her face.

"That's not what I'm waiting to hear," he told her weakly.

She smiled through her tears. "I love you, too, Jack. I always have. Always will."

She kissed him very gently.

"We need to move," Reaper said. He'd been going through the dead agents' pockets and had extracted several items. "They have a goon squad on the way to pick me up. Besides, we need to get our con man here to someplace where Roxy can patch him up and see to it he survives until dawn."

"Nothing could do me in, Reaper," Jack said. "Not now." And his eyes were on Topaz.

Those eyes. Those eyes of his that had told her all she needed to know right from the start. She could see the same thing in them now that she'd seen before. She'd thought it was part of the con, but now she knew better. His eyes had been saying "I love you"

from the day they'd first kissed.

And she had a feeling they would keep on saying it for a long, long time.

ISBN: 978-1-4268-1577-5.

LOVER'S BITE.

imageCopyright 2008 by Margaret Benson.

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