KILLER

CHAPTER ONE

Kelly’s hand tightened on the phone at the first note of Nathan’s voice in her ear. His image filled her mind and sent the words she’d rehearsed right out of it. Waves of excitement and apprehension washed over her in equal measure.

Little Lisa stared up at her and Kelly forced a smile for her benefit. “Yes, it’s me,” she answered, becoming as self-conscious and shy as the four-year-old clinging to her leg. “I called to see if you were one of the agents injured in the raid last week?”

“Why pretend you don’t know? You were there.”

“Why would I be at some warehouse in New York City?” She didn’t have time for their usual verbal sparring. She needed to find out the extent of his injuries and get off the phone. Borrowing a phone in the crowded food court had been easy enough, but she’d like to slip it back on the stranger’s table before the other woman finished her lunch and went back to work. “Were you one of the agents hit by debris when a warehouse exploded?” The news hadn’t given names, just that two agents were seriously injured and two others had moderate injuries. “Is that why you weren’t in your office the first two times I called?”

She’d tried to get information from other V.E.N. agents, but all anyone with the Network cared about was no humans had died as a direct result of their actions to wipe out a lair of vampires.

“What about your injuries, Kelly? I’m told you appeared to be unconscious and were carried from the scene?”

It was time to hang up. Obviously, he wasn’t going to give her a simple, straightforward answer. As always, he wanted information from her without imparting any himself. "Never mind, you sound okay, so I’m happy for you. I gotta go—"

"No! Wait, don't hang up!" Nathan said. "I’m glad you called. I wondered about you, too.”

"This was a mistake, I just wanted—” What? To torture myself with the sound of his deep, sexy voice?

Lisa squeezed between Kelly and the wall. "Scary men."

Movement off to the left caught her eye, and she paused with the phone still in her hand. Several mall security guards motioned for people to get up and leave their tables in the food court area. "Something’s happening here, I have to go.” The frenzied activity grabbed her attention, and she forgot about ending the call.

She’d picked a very visible spot along one wall next to a popular fast-food chain restaurant, to stand and wait for Lisa’s mom to respond to Kelly’s page.

"Kelly!" Nathan shouted loud enough she could still hear him.

“What's going on?" Kelly called out. If there was some sort of emergency situation, why wasn't the mall using the P.A. system to announce it?

"Wait!" Nathan yelled. "Stay on the line with me!"

Suspicion washed over her, and she pressed the phone back to her ear. Why did he sound breathless? "Are you running Nathan?" Her gaze darted around the room. Policemen were now joining the mall security guards, hustling everyone out of the area. Several had their guns drawn, but at least they weren't pointing them at her with Lisa clinging to her leg.

"You ingrate! My team hauled your sorry ass out of danger and you-—" Oops, he wouldn’t have any memory of what happened in the maze of tunnels under Hernandez’s warehouses. He didn’t even realize the Vampire Eradication Network had been responsible for ridding the city of a dangerous swarm of parasites.

"Let the little girl go, Kelly,” Nathan urged. “No one has to get hurt here." She heard him issuing orders into a radio or another phone. "Stand down. Just secure the area and wait for me to get there."

"I'm not holding her hostage, you idiot. I reported her lost and had her mother paged. These men are scaring her," she protested.

Several policemen tipped over nearby tables and took cover behind them.

"Are you armed?" Nathan asked.

"Kiss my as—" she bit off the last word remembering Lisa’s little ears. She stabbed the END button on the phone then let it fall to the floor so she could pat Lisa's back. "Where's her mother? Has she shown up yet?" she called out to the policemen.

"Release the child," someone called back from behind a table.

"Kelly!" Nathan shouted as he came striding through the doors from the parking lot, his long legs quickly eating up the distance between them. His straight blond hair stuck out all over as if he’d repeatedly run his hand through it.

"Nathan, where's her mom?” She didn’t meet his gaze. In their past encounters, she’d felt he saw too much in her eyes. “All these men with guns are scaring her. You've got to make them back off and bring her mom in here."

While he was preoccupied issuing orders, she looked him over. She’d fretted over his possible injuries for days, but there was no visual sign of any, and he gestured and walked with his usual fluid movements.

“Are you armed, Kelly?” He asked again, coming closer. Within striking distance, she realized.

“Stop right there, Nathan. You’re scaring Lisa.” Should she tell him the truth? If they tackled her in front of Lisa, the poor child might be further traumatized. “Let Lisa leave with her mom before you do anything to me.” She strove for a calm, reasonable tone while her body was all a jitter with the urge to flee. She could feel Lisa’s trembling. He was close enough now there was no reason to raise her voice. She hoped the low tones would help ease some of Lisa’s fear. She looked him straight in the eye to convey her sincerity. “I know the routine. I’ll cooperate, just get Lisa to her mom first.”

“Lisa,” Nathan spoke calmly from a mere ten feet away. “Let go of the lady and come towards me, then one of these nice policemen will take you to your mom.”

The little girl shook her head and tightened her grip on Kelly’s leg. “Momma said never go with men. Some men are bad.”

“But these men are policemen. Surely your mom told you it was okay to trust policemen?”

“Policemen took my uncle Jerry away, and now he doesn’t bring me candy no more.”

“What about just bringing her mother to some point where she can see her and walk straight to her?” Kelly suggested.

Lisa jumped at the same time she registered the vibration of her cell phone against her hip, a second before the ringtone sounded. Several policemen jumped as well and pointed their guns at her.

“Stand down!” Nathan ordered with a warning glare at the policemen closest to Kelly and the child. “Everybody calm down,” he bit out.

“You expect her to trust them? You’ve got to make them back off and bring her mom in here.” She moved her hand very slowly and deliberately toward her hip.

“Freeze!”

“I’m just going to answer it, so it’ll stop ringing,” she said.

“No, do not reach in your pocket!”

The holder was clipped on the waistband of her jeans. “Are they going to shoot me in front of a child for answering my phone?” Kelly’s mom always said start with kindness and reason delivered with a big smile, if that fails, carry a big stick and surprise them with it. She’d taken her advice very much to heart. Unfortunately, she hadn’t brought her big stick to the mall with her so now she had to improvise. “Gee, I wonder how that will affect little Lisa and play out on the 5 o’clock news?”

Nathan glared at the nearest policemen. “Fall back.”

“Sir—”

“Fall back,” he said again and stepped in front of them. He edged closer as she slowly retrieved her phone and brought it to her ear.

“Killer, tell me you are not at the Galleria Mall,” her best friend, Kachina Raven said without introduction.

“Hey, girlfriend,” she mumbled a quiver of pain and embarrassment leaking into her voice.

“Our people monitoring the police channels called and said the description of a petite blonde haired, blue eyed woman in her early to mid-twenties, holding a child hostage sounds like Kelly Sira,” Raven continued. “I told them, no way, Killer would never leave her sick bed to go to the mall.”

“This isn’t a good time for us to chat. Don’t call me back. I’ll get a hold of you when I can.” She watched guns being withdrawn and the nearest policemen falling back to positions farther away.

“Don’t let him get me,” Lisa screeched.

Nathan stopped inching forward.

“In other words, the police will have your phone in a minute?”

“Yes, I think that’s a safe bet.”

“Can you stall them? I’m at VEN headquarters so I can be there in a few minutes, and I have some friends with me.”

Raven was in town, at the Vampire Eradication Network building. Hope that she might not end up in jail fluttered in Kelly’s chest.

“Put the phone away so we can finish this,” Nathan ordered.

“Is that Nathan?” Raven asked. “How’d he get there so fast?”

Heat crept over Kelly’s face. Man, she’d been such an idiot calling his office not once, but three times in the past two days. A gas station attendant had let her use his cell phone yesterday, and twice today she’d used other people’s phones to call from this mall.

“Kelly, hang it up now!” Nathan ordered.

Raven chuckled in her ear. “Does he really think ordering you around is going to get him what he wants?” Her voice was muffled for a moment while she relayed information to whoever she was with. “Activate the special feature so I can listen in as well as track you even if they think they’ve turned your phone off. Hopefully, Nathan will be the one to take your phone from you. We may not be able to get to you at the mall so really play up your injuries. Convince him you need medical attention, so he'll take you to a hospital before the police station.”

“Sounds hopeful.” She pressed the special key sequence then smiled at Nathan. “Okay, I’m putting the phone away.” She pushed it back in the holder.

“Put your hands up so these guys will relax a little, and we can end this thing,” Nathan said. “Someone bring Lisa’s mother in here where she can see her and walk to her.”

Kelly grimaced as the constant ache of pain in her arm and torso exploded into a full-on assault when she raised her hands, even though she stopped at shoulder height and kept her elbows tucked close to her body. “I’m afraid that’s the best I can do.”

Kelly drew in a deep breath and noticed Nathan doing the same as a policeman spoke into his radio and asked for Lisa’s mom to be brought to the food court.

“Nathan, please don’t let them tackle me. I have a bunch of stitches on my arm and side, and I’m already in a lot of pain.” She moved one hand real slow and with just her thumb and finger caught the fabric of her shirt. “I’m just going to show you I’m not lying.” She raised it just enough to show the bottom part of the bandage on her torso, careful to keep her movements slow so as not to frighten any of the policemen into taking a shot at her.

“If you don’t want to be tackled, then do exactly what I say.” His expression and tone were that of a deadly serious lawman.

She gave him a nod of understanding.

“Lock your fingers behind your head, then go down on your knees with your ankles crossed.”

She eased her hands up into the position he wanted them, unable to hold back a shudder at the increased pain. She didn’t fight the tears pooling in her eyes. Raven was the best reconnaissance agent the vampire eradication network had, so if she said to play up her injuries that was exactly what Kelly was going to do. She also reminded herself Raven had escaped custody several times in the past.

She blinked, and tears escaped to slide down her cheeks. “This really hurts.”

“Kelly?” Nathan frowned.

All her hard work training to be tough physically, to master self-defense and fencing, and here she was using tears to buy herself some time. So much for the illusion of toughness, her nickname Killer provided.

Lisa wasn’t letting go of her, and Kelly was having trouble getting on her knees with the little girl clinging to her thigh. “Let go, honey, so I can do what he wants.”

Instead, Lisa let go of Kelly’s leg only to wrap little arms around her waist. Pain exploded through her torso. A gasp broke from her lips, and she dropped to her knees, hoping to disguise it.

“You’re making her cry!” Lisa accused Nathan.

“It’s okay, Lisa. Your mom will be here any second.”

“Why are you being mean to her? She’s nice. She bought me a cookie.”

“It’s okay, sweetie, he’s only doing his job,” Kelly whispered.

“Lisa!” A woman rushed forward, but a policeman stopped her about twenty feet away.

“Mommy,” Lisa let go of Kelly and ran straight into her mother’s arms.

Kelly took a deep breath and braced herself. Any second now several policemen would slam her to the floor or if she was lucky maybe only Nathan.

“Wait!” Nathan ordered. “Just cover her while I secure her.”

Nathan’s hand settled over her clasped hands and a jolt of electricity arced between them. She turned her head to look at him. Her face was even with his crotch, and she turned away and dropped her face forward while her cheeks burned with embarrassment.

This is ridiculous, she told her pounding heart as he locked a handcuff on one of her wrists. He moved the cuffed hand out then down to the middle of her back, and a gasp of fresh pain escaped her lips.

Nathan paused. “Your arm is injured, too?”

She nodded. “I know it’s not standard operating procedure but could you please cuff my hands in the front instead of the back?” she whispered. Asking for special treatment nicked her pride. Yes, she was in pain, but she could have handled it. Because she was short and thin with a small frame a lot of people treated her as if she was helpless and needed to be coddled. She swallowed a little more pride and hoped it didn’t stick in her throat and choke her.

“This better not be some kind of trick,” Nathan whispered. He kept a tight hold on her other wrist while pulling her light jacket off her shoulder and down her arm to reveal the bandage covering her from her elbow to her wrist. “Damn it, Kelly, what have you and Raven been up to now? Did this happen to you at the Hernandez warehouses?”

Already feeling the heat of his intent gaze burning on her face, she avoided direct eye contact with him. He shouldn’t have any memory of the warehouse, so he must be guessing.

He eased her jacket all the way off, then squatted in front of her and raised up her shirt to expose the large bandage on her torso. “Shit.” He took hold of her upper arm. “I’m going to help you back up to your feet.”

This time she didn’t even try to stifle the gasps of pain as she moved. Nathan cuffed her hands in the front. He walked her over to a waist-high wall which separated a walkway from the eating area. “Do we have a female officer to pat her down?” He called out as he nudged her foot with his own. “Feet apart.”

“You can do the search. I don’t care.” Kelly said. Her grimace of pain made her voice sound gravelly, and the quiver was all too real. He might be gentler about it than a strange policewoman. The heat of embarrassment spread over her face and suffused her whole body as he took her at her word and ran his hands over her in a thorough search for hidden weapons.

He took her cell phone from the holder, but only gave it a cursory glance before shoving it in his own jacket pocket.

“There’s fresh blood on this bandage,” Nathan said.

“It’s a pretty fresh wound,” Kelly replied.

“Like five days ago?” he asked. “The day you and Raven, along with some other unidentified people, broke into a property in New York City where various criminal activities were taking place?”

“Five days ago when I had an unfortunate accident.”

“Ray,” Nathan called out to another Homeland Security agent. “Get me the local cop in charge, we’re going to have to have her checked out at a hospital, and I want extra security in place.”

Kelly kept her head slightly bowed and her gaze on the floor as the local police officer told Nathan the name and location of the nearest hospital. She bit the inside of her lip to keep from smiling as the men discussed the quickest route and the security measures they would take at the hospital. Raven would be getting an ear full. She didn’t doubt for a moment her friend would find a way to get her out of the hospital. After all, Raven had escaped custody several times in the past without knowing ahead of time exactly what measures would be in place.

“Are you in a lot of pain?” Nathan asked, bringing her back to the present.

She bit back the automatic urge to say she could handle it and instead just gave a little nod. “What right do you even have to take me into custody? You can’t really think I was holding Lisa hostage. She was lost, and I had her mother paged to the food court area.”

“You were at a crime scene. You’re considered a material witness, at least, and possibly an accomplice.”

“Oh, so you’re planning to hold me the maximum amount of time and question me again while you pressure me to squeal on Raven?” He’d taken her in for questioning twice before, and apparently, this was still all about Raven.

Nathan didn’t respond to her. Instead, he told the officers around them, “Let’s move out.”

****

“Shit!” Nathan gasped and moved closer to the hospital gurney. The doctor had just peeled away the old bandage on her side, exposing a long slash and several puncture wounds. The stitches were still intact, but fresh blood seeped out in a couple of spots.

“What kind of wound is it?” Nathan asked the doctor.

“A very large, very sharp knife or a—”

“It was a sword,” Kelly said, interrupting the doctor.

“A sword?” Nathan said.

“Yes, it could definitely be a sword,” the doctor concurred. “See how the edges are smooth. Someone did a good job of stitching her up.”

“But it’s bleeding?”

“Drainage is actually normal with this type of wound, but we’ll need to make sure she didn’t re-injure herself. It doesn’t look too bad.”

“This is why you were carried out of the warehouse along with my agents and me? I thought it might be because you’d been shot with the same sedative and amnesiac we were.”

“Where did you have this treated before?” the doctor asked. “I’ll have them fax your records.”

Kelly stared up at the ceiling. “There are no medical records.”

“If you don’t tell me, I’ll have no choice but to put you through a bunch of tests all over again. I have to know the extent of the internal damage so I can give you proper treatment.”

“Kelly, tell him where you were treated,” Nathan ordered. “This isn’t going to help you. You’re staying handcuffed to the gurney at all times, and I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“I’m really hurting and tired.” She closed her eyes. “I don’t feel up to our usual questioning marathon, so I hope you won’t think me rude if I nap off and on.”

“Do you want to change your mind about the pain medication the doctor offered?”

She hesitated. It was tempting, but she better keep a clear head for whatever Raven came up with. “No.”

“As for the questions, I can forego those if you want to just tell me why you went to Hernandez’s company and what was in those tunnels under his warehouses.”

“Why ask me? Didn’t you search the tunnels?”

“I’m sure you know the whole place was rigged to cave in.”

“Actually, I didn’t.” No one had mentioned it to her. Probably because she’d had a long surgery to repair the internal sword damage and been pretty well out of it for a couple of days afterward. “So, are you saying the explosion mentioned on TV was actually from the tunnels under the warehouses, not the warehouses themselves? When did it cave in?”

“Not long after my agents and I were carried unconscious up out of there. The officers guarding the perimeter said some man wearing a kilt was carrying you.” He paused as if to give her a chance to offer information.

Raven’s lover Kael had followed them to the warehouses even though he wasn’t a part of VEN, and it had been Kael’s brother Jackson, who had carried her out after she was wounded.

Nathan let out a heavy sigh and continued, “It took days to dig through the debris without learning much of anything. Did Raven leave by the other entrance, is that why she wasn’t seen coming out with the rest of your group?”

She kept her eyes closed and commanded herself to relax and conserve her energy.

“Damn it, Kelly. Look at the hole in your side. You could have been killed.” He paused, but she remained silent.

“What were you guys doing down there in those tunnels?”

Kelly opened her eyes to study his stern face. What would his reaction be if she blurted out they’d been sword fighting with a bunch of vampires? She could really freak him out by telling him they’d been winning until he and his special agent buddies had crashed the party. Then all of them had to be saved by some good vampires, or at least some less evil ones, under the control of Raven’s vampire brother, Palin.

If she told him Raven actually stood for reconnaissance agent of the vampire eradication network and Sira stood for special information recovery agent, would his eyes pop right out of his head? Would his chin hit his chest when his mouth dropped open? Would his head explode?

She closed her eyes again rather than endure Nathan’s penetrating blue gaze. The bandage on her arm was removed, and the cut examined.

“This arm wound seems to be healing nicely already,” the doctor said. “We can just apply medicine and re-bandage it.

Kelly pretended to be dozing as the medical staff worked on her and after a few minutes Nathan moved away to talk to the other agent in the room.

“Ray, have you recovered any memories from the warehouse?” Nathan asked him.

The man made a derisive sound. “Not a damn thing!” He shook his head. “I’ve heard a copy of our verbal reports as we searched the warehouse and even when we found the stairs to the tunnels but after we went down, we lost contact. When they found us back on ground level, we were all unconscious.”

Good, the networks tranquilizer and amnesiac drug had worked perfectly. So far, the only time it was known to have failed to permanently erase someone’s memory was when Raven used it on Kael.

She kept her mind occupied dwelling on the possible reasons for that to distract her from thinking about Nathan and the pain ravaging her body.

The doctor insisted on x-rays to see if anything important had been nicked by the sword. Kelly already knew the answer because the Network doctor had done a battery of tests, but the longer she was here at the hospital, the better chance she had of escaping.

“I’m sorry, sir, you’ll have to wait out here while we do the x-ray,” the male voice caught Kelly’s attention.

Jackson? Kael’s brother was a younger, less intense version of him, six feet tall with a muscular build, a handsome face, and dark brown hair. Where Kael’s brown eyes were more the color of whiskey, Jackson’s were milk chocolate. He must have been with Kael and Raven when she’d called a little bit ago. “Believe me, you don’t want to risk the exposure.”

“I’ll wear one of those things to shield me.”

“I’m sorry. I really can’t allow it, hospital policy.”

“Then I’ll check out the room first.” Nathan stepped in. “Ray there’s another exit from this room. Go cover it, please.”

“On it.”

“What’s the room in there?”

“That’s where the techs stand while they’re actually shooting the x-ray,” Jackson said.

The large window revealed a dark-haired woman standing in the small cubical. Her back was to them. Lying on the gurney less than a foot away, Kelly felt Nathan’s body tense.

“You in there, come on out slowly,” he ordered as his hand moved to rest on the handle of his holstered gun.

Her bed drifted away from Nathan. She glanced down to the end of it. Jackson was easing it slowly back through the doors to the hall.

Nathan’s attention was focused on the woman in the cubical. Surely it wasn’t really Raven; she wouldn’t have cornered herself, would she?

“I said come out of that room!”

“What?” the woman responded and turned around with a questioning expression.

Kelly’s bed was back in the hall, and Jackson shoved the doors shut just as Nathan turned back to look for her. Jackson whipped out a chain and got it wrapped around the handles a second before Nathan’s body slammed into them.

“Ray!” Nathan yelled orders as Jackson launched the gurney down the hall.

“Let me off this thing,” Kelly shouted. She had visions of crashing into something and flying through the air.

“When we’re inside the elevator. Just hang on.”

She didn’t need the advice. She had white-knuckled grips on the metal rails at her sides. “Get out of the way!” she warned a nurse who came out of a room down the hall.

The woman backed up against the wall, but Kelly felt the gurney shift as they ran over the woman’s toes. “Sorry,” she said and then gulped in a worried breath. They were almost out of hallway. “Jackson?”

“Hold tight.”

The gurney twisted and tipped. Kelly threw her weight up toward the raised side, ignoring the pain as she tried to keep herself from tumbling out. Around the corner now, the gurney crashed back down on all wheels. They whizzed past an enormous rolling shelf full of linens and a man in scrubs standing at the end of it.

Kael?

The man swung the cart around to block the bulk of the hall, then slid a cleaning cart up beside it to fill in the gap. There were two elevators side by side up ahead. The doors of one were open. The bed beneath her came to a jerking halt, but her body continued the forward motion.

A scream broke from her throat as her fingers ripped loose from the rails.

“I’ve got you,” a familiar voice came from a tall woman standing inside with unfamiliar red hair.

Raven caught her before she hit the wall or floor, but the impact with her body robbed her breath. The cuff bit into the flesh at her wrist. A moment later, Kael was there with a key to free her. Jackson shoved the gurney out and joined them in the elevator.

Kelly leaned back against the wall. As the doors were sliding closed, she saw Nathan climbing up onto the cleaning cart. He was good, but he wouldn’t make it in time to stop them.

“We need to get you changed,” Raven said as she held a pair of blue scrub pants low in front of her to step into. Kael and Jackson were paying no attention to her as Kael bent one leg and Jackson stepped on it so he could reach the ceiling.

Raven ripped the ties holding the hospital gown closed. Before Kelly could protest, she pulled a matching scrub shirt over her head. Getting her injured arm through the sleeve had her wishing she’d taken the medication the doctor had offered.

Both men had climbed up through the hatch and were waiting on top of the elevator for them. Raven gave her a boost, and Jackson caught her under the arms to pull her through the opening.

Pain screamed through her body, blurring her thoughts. Jackson steadied her as the elevator came to a stop.

“Nathan will be looking for us on the wrong floor,” he said by way of explanation.

Kael pried open the doors on the wall above them, and again, they did a sort of leapfrog maneuver to get them all up and out quickly. Kelly expected they’d head for a street exit, but instead they went to another bank of elevators and Raven pushed the button for the top floor.

Kelly was lost in a haze of pain and happy to be guided along instead of having to think for herself at the moment. They went up some stairs, then through a door and came out on the rooftop. A helicopter was sitting down as they came out into the open. She roused herself enough to ask, “How’d you arrange for a helicopter so fast?”

Kael and Raven both grinned at her. “We didn’t, we just hijacked it from the Galleria Mall.”

“It’s Nathan’s?”

Raven nodded with a laugh and helped her aboard.

“Good to see you again, Killer,” the pilot said as he turned sideways in the seat to look back at her. It was Quentin. She’d met the tall, muscular man with dark brown skin and short black hair once when she’d gone with Raven to Kael’s isolated home up in the Catskills.

Kael’s family and friends were becoming invaluable to the VEN. She hoped it turned out to be a beneficial thing for them too, but at the moment she couldn’t imagine what they had to offer, given Kael’s apparent level of skills and resources.

She lost track of time for a bit in the haze of pain, then roused herself when she sensed the helicopter was sitting down.

“The chopper is dropping Kael and me off at this private airport so we can meet up with team three and John Taven. We’re raiding Genghis’ lair tomorrow,” Raven said. “I’m sorry you’re in so much pain. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until you’re back at VEN headquarters to get anything for it.”

“It’s okay.” She tried hard not to let her agony show. She was sweating profusely despite the wind whipping through the aircraft.

“Jackson will make sure you make it back there safely. Are you okay with that? You can trust him.”

Kelly really looked at Raven’s face for the first time and saw the lines of worry. Raven understood how hard it was for her to trust men, even though she did a decent job of pretending to most of the time now. “If you trust him, it’s good enough for me. I wish I could be with you on this Genghis thing. I know how bad you want and need him to die permanently.”

Raven had so many things going on in her own life right now, what with the reappearance of her older brother, Palin. Unfortunately, he was a vampire. Despite the fact he had a huge lair of followers, he claimed not to prey on humans and had helped save them all in Hernandez’s lair, but Raven still hadn’t found the time to thoroughly investigate his life and lair.

“No more trips to the mall.”

Kelly gave her a shaky smile. “I promise.”

Raven and Kael hopped out and ran to a small plane. She turned in the doorway to give Kelly another wave then Kael was sliding his arms around her waist and drawing her backward. She turned in his arms and their mouths locked together.

Kelly let out a sigh. “They’re so in love.”

“I’ve never seen Kael happier,” Jackson said, reminding her she wasn’t alone.

She looked over at him. “Do you think they can really make it work, despite the constant threat from the vampires and law?”

“I hope so.” His smile looked sincere.

She closed her eyes and let her head rest back against the seat. The noise and motion of the chopper combined with the haze of pain to lull her into an unconscious state.

She came back to awareness to find her head resting against a broad, muscular shoulder and her body snug against a firm chest.

Her chest and throat were already tightening with panic when she managed to find her voice. “Jackson?”

“Almost there,” his deep voice whispered. Kelly ordered herself to relax against him but was relieved to see they were in the high-rise building VEN owned. He took her straight to her apartment and laid her gently on her own bed.

“The doctor is going to take a quick look at you to make sure you haven’t opened stitches or anything, then he’ll give you something for the pain, and you can rest.”

There were definite perks to working for an organization large enough to have a doctor on staff who routinely did house calls.

“I don’t know how I can ever thank you for all your help today.”

“Just give me another of those Killer smiles,” Jackson murmured.

Kelly stared up into the handsome face and her lips curved into a smile. As the doctor came forward, Jackson moved back and disappeared from the room.