"He doesn't need to; he's…" She grimaced. "You've got feelings for him, obviously, and I'm sorry. I know what it's like to love one of these guys and face what they are. But I can't let Lucan kill Michael. I need you to stop him."

"She doesn't have any copper weapons, Alexandra," Lucan said from behind Sam. "No tranquilizer darts, no holy water to throw in my face." He caught Sam before she got to him and held her by the wrists. His expression as he looked down at her was merciless. "She's only a human. She can't stop anything."

"You son of a bitch," Sam whispered.

He smiled. "Exactly."

Sam didn't let him drag her out of the room without a fight. Dimly she could hear Alex in the background, yelling at Lucan to let her go, but she had to focus on trying to hurt him. He ignored her kicking feet until they were out in the hallway, where he snatched her up and flung her over his shoulder.

Sam kept fighting all the way down the stairs and through the walk-through. She almost managed to wriggle free in the maintenance room, but he clamped an arm over her legs and used his shoulder to open the access door. Someone had moved her car; it stood just outside.

He put her down on her feet and opened the driver's-side door. "Get in."

"Go fuck yourself," she replied.

He picked her up and tossed her into the car like a rag doll, sliding in behind her.

"Sit down." He turned the key in the ignition.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm taking you home," he said as he jerked her seat belt over her and started the engine.

"No, you're not." She grabbed the door handle, and then found herself pinned under his arm. She punched him in the face, cutting her knuckles on his teeth.

"If you try that again," he told her pleasantly as blood dripped from his mouth, "I will hit you back."

He would, too; she could see it in his eyes. "Do you like kidnapping women? When are you going to drown Alex? Am I next on the list?"

"I'm not going to kill Alex, and I didn't kill Lena. You, I am seriously considering. Shut up and hold on." He gunned the engine, making the tires squeal as they shot out of the alley.

He drove too fast, dodging slower cars and running red lights without hesitation. Any other night they'd have attracted the attention of a dozen cops, Sam thought, but as luck would have it, they didn't pass a single squad car on the way to her apartment.

Not that a cop would have stopped him. Humans meant no more to him than a cup of coffee did to her. The scent of jasmine grew thick, and Sam opened her window a crack to let in some fresh air. How could she have thought they might have a chance at some kind of relationship? He was an excellent actor; that was how. He'd made her think they would burn each other alive, when in reality that sex with her had probably been as exciting for him as boinking a cheeseburger.

As soon as Lucan pulled into the parking lot Sam went for her seat belt release, but his hand shot out and seized her wrist. "A gentleman always sees a lady to her door." He opened his door, released her clip, and pulled her across the seat after him.

"You're an assassin, not a gentleman," she snarled.

"Then it's a good thing that you're no lady." He took her arm, and when she tried to jerk it away, added, "We can walk up to your apartment calmly and quietly, and not draw the attention of any other humans, or you can create a scene and I will have a snack before I go home." He flashed his fangs before he picked up her scarred hand and pressed his bloodied mouth to it. "Your choice, dearest."

"How about I shoot you in the face?" she asked, drawing her weapon with her free hand. "That work for you?"

"If it makes you feel better, by all means, do." He seized the gun and shoved the muzzle under his chin. "If you can manage to sever my spine, you'll kill me. Miss it and you'll just make an ugly hole, but you're a fair shot, aren't you?"

Sam tried to pull the gun back but he wouldn't let her. Her scar burned under the blood on her hand, and jasmine and images began flooding her head. At first she thought it was something he was doing to her, because her thing only worked with dead people.

Until now.

Sam saw what was like a fast-motion silent movie running backward in her head. Lucan coming to Florida. Hunting in New Orleans. Crossing the Atlantic. Facing Richard for the last time. Carrying the wounded from their cells. Killing the sadistic inquisitors who had tortured them. Hunting for the Durands.

"Stop it," she whispered.

The movie rolled faster. Never staying in one city, one country. Reviled by his own kind. Capturing things like the snake-man and killing them. The human women he used, trying to forget Frances. The grave where she was buried. Years of defending the Kyn. Seeing Frances in Rome. Falling in love with Frances.

Frances, who could have been Sam's twin sister.

He smiled. "Don't hesitate now." He let go of the gun, but his metallic eyes never left hers. "You're an officer of the law, Samantha. Do your job."

She really should pull the trigger. What he did, what he was, all of his life was inside her now, and it was completely beyond her comprehension. Feelings, so new and foreign and terrifying, were welling up in her even now, demanding she put down the gun and beg him to explain everything she'd seen so that it would make some sense. She'd probably believe anything Lucan told her, too.

Sam slowly put her gun away and shuffled back. "No."

"I won't stop you. You'll save Alex and her lover. The Kyn will thank you for it." He spread his arms wide. "Shoot me."

"I can't." She turned away, and whispered the rest. "I think I'm in love with you."

Chapter 21

Sam walked blindly to the stairwell and climbed the three flights to her apartment. When she got to it she stared at the door she couldn't open. Lucan had her keys. He had everything.

Then he was there, reaching past her, crushing the knob as he forced the lock, his other velvet-gloved hand shoving her inside.

"Say that again." He backed her into the living room, his velvet grip on her throat as unyielding as the look on his face. Somewhere a glass shattered. "Say it to my face. Say it so I can hear you properly this time." He shook her, and Sam heard an ominous cracking. "Say it."

Why was he so angry? "I'm in love with you." Now he'd laugh, and stroll out of her life, and kill some more monsters, and she'd never understand what he was.

"In love." He released her and circled around her, looking at her from all angles as if deciding where best to bite first. "That's simply not possible, Samantha. You hunt human killers. You send them to prison. You take vengeance for their victims. You can't love death."

His scent changed, growing hot and almost smoky, as if someone had wrenched jasmine out of the ground and thrown it on a bonfire.

"You don't kill humans." She closed her eyes and willed him to go away, but when she opened them, he was still standing there. "Don't worry; I'm sure I'll get over it." In thirty or forty years, if she were lucky and found a good, patient therapist.

"Remember what I did to you last night. How I made you feel." Velvet fingertips trailed down her arm as his breath wanned her ear. "It was glorious, wasn't it?" When she nodded, he gripped her waist. "That's what you love. Not me."

The cracking sound grew louder.

"You can't tell me how I feel." She dragged in a quick breath as his gloves slid up to cup her breasts. "I can't do anything to you. I don't matter to you. What do you care?"

"I don't." Lucan spun her around, shoving her against the nearest wall. "Neither do you."

Sam shook her head, scraping her forehead against the dry-wall. She regretted her feelings for him, but she wasn't ashamed of them. "I'm in love with you, whatever you are."

"Poor Samantha." Lucan curled his hand over the back of her collar and tore off her jacket with a single motion. "You're right; you really have no idea what I am. What I can do to you."

He reached around her, jerking open her blouse so fast that buttons popped and fell like tiny coins around their feet.

She stared down at them. "I can guess."

"I think not. Shall we test the limits of this love of yours? My crimes haven't killed it yet. Neither has my indifference to your feelings. Perhaps something more personal will persuade it to give up its hold on your heart." He slid one hand over her breast, catching the nipple between two fingers and pinching it as he massaged her.

Sam squeezed her eyes shut. "Don't do this. Leave me alone, Lucan, for God's sake."

"I stopped serving the Almighty a very long time ago." He caught the lobe of her ear between his teeth, grazing it with the tips of his fangs. "Now I rule in hell. This is who you love, Detective Brown. Death."

Sam heard a popping sound like a bullet through a silencer, followed by muted tinkling, coming from her kitchen.

Lucan slid his hands up over her shoulders, where he ripped her blouse down the middle of her back. He peeled the sleeves away, gripping her wrists and stretching her bare arms out on either side of her, pressing her hips and breasts against the wall.

Sam discovered she was between two of her bookcases, and grabbed the side of each one, trying to brace herself. She felt his breath on the back of her neck, and then his tongue on the spot where he had used his fangs on her last night. She tensed, expecting another bite, and flinched as she felt his mouth grazing her back. His mouth branded her an inch at a time down the length of her spine as he pulled her trousers and panties down until they were a tangle around her ankles.

"No more pleas for mercy?" Velvet stroked the curve of her bottom. "I like hearing you beg, Samantha. It makes my cock hard. Ask me again to leave you alone and I'll fuck you until you scream."

Sam pulled one foot, then the other out of the puddle of clothes. With her legs free she could run. "I'm not afraid of you."