Bound by Blood (Bound #1)(10)

Jace spun away and left the room.

He hurried down the hall and shoved open the front door. The afternoon sunlight hit him, bright and hot, the way it always was in Miami. The buzz of insects bled from the nearby swamp, droning on and on. When he jumped down the steps, his first in command, Louis, pushed away from his truck.

Jace had heard the other wolf drive up. He’d just taken his time about heading out.

“We got trouble,” Louis said, his Cajun accent rolling easily on the words. “No one seen any sign of Mike. Nothin’ except his blood in an alley.”

Jace’s brows snapped up. “Look, that * is just sleeping it off someplace, he’s—”

“That alley reeked of vamp, alpha.” Louis shook his head. “Not your pretty little vamp. Didn’t smell like sex and blood and flowers…”

Jace’s teeth snapped together. But, f*ck, yeah, that was how she smelled.

“More like hate, death, and…brimstone.”

Brimstone? “You saying demons were there, too?”

Louis’s shoulders rolled. “I’m sayin’ we got us a missin’ wolf. And blood and vamps where they damn sure don’t need to be.”

In wolf territory.

He glanced back at the house.

Gravel crunched beneath Louis’s feet. “You gave that cher your blood?”

“I had to.” It was part of the deal. The vamps wanted a power boost by taking wolf blood. “I gave her mine, and I took hers.” Jace glanced down at his hands. With barely a thought, he had his claws springing out. “It worked just like we thought. Her blood in me…”

The rush was still un-freaking-believable. “I can already feel the power.”

“You gonna get more?”

“I’ll get as much as I can take.” His gaze held the other wolf’s. Louis nodded. “Will it be enough?”

“It has to—”

The world exploded. The blast tossed Jace into the air, and he slammed into the front of Louis’s pickup.

It took him three seconds to realize it wasn’t the world that had actually erupted. No, that giant ball of flames had come from his house.

Morgan.

The fire ripped up at the sky, twisting and turning.

Blood dripped down the side of Louis’s face. “What the hell is—”

Jace ran for the house.

“Jace! No!” Louis’s footsteps pounded after him.

He ran faster. Morgan was in the house. A vampire’s skin couldn’t stand the fire. She’d die—

He grabbed the door handle and shoved. The door collapsed beneath his hand. “Morgan!”

He bellowed her name and rushed inside.

And he tripped over her. Morgan was on the floor, her arm stretched toward the door. Stretched f*cking toward him.

He grabbed her and hoisted her into his arms. The flames crackled and flared around him, licking out at his skin. He ignored the burn. Morgan’s head sagged against him, and her eyes didn’t open.

Jace held her tight and leapt back through that broken doorway. Smoke billowed out behind him.

She barely seemed to breathe. Ash and soot covered her, and Jace could see the angry red blisters that lined her perfect skin.

Hurt. On his watch.

Not ever again.

Windows shattered behind him, and Jace hunched his shoulders, curling his body in to protect her. Glass flew into the air, and shards sank into his flesh. Rage grew within him with each step that he took away from the inferno. Jace didn’t ease his hold on Morgan, not until he’d settled behind Louis’s truck. Then he carefully lowered her onto the ground. Her eyes still didn’t open.

“Oh, hell…” Louis’s drawl. “She’s not…” The shifter’s voice cracked. “The cher ain’t alive, is she now?”

Jace put his hand over her heart and didn’t feel it beat.





Chapter Four


Blood flowed into her mouth, hot and rich, and she drank greedily. The blood brought memories. His memories. Not of death and hell this time, but of a wild run through the woods. The thrill of the chase.

I’m hunting.

Morgan’s eyes cracked open. She wondered why she hurt. Every part of her body burned and ached and—

Oh, yes, she burned because she’d been on fire.

Jace pulled his wrist away from her mouth. “Don’t ever do that to me again, got it?”

She was on the ground. No, not on the ground, but sitting on Jace’s lap. His blood was already sliding through her veins, healing her even in sunlight. She wasn’t naked anymore. Because she’d had to run through that fire naked. She’d woken in his room only because the fire licked at her skin. She’d leapt through the flames even as she screamed his name.

Now she wore his shirt. It smelled of smoke and him. And her teeth were still sharp, and she was pissed.

In a flash, she twisted around and pinned him against the ground. “What did you do?”

His twisted grin flashed. “Glad you’re feeling better.”

She felt rather like burned shit right then. “You tried to kill me.” The bastard had left her to the flames.

That wiped the grin right off his face. “The hell I did.”

But he hadn’t been there. “You left me when you knew I was weak.” Her hands dug into his wrists. She was aware of the other wolf shifter walking cautiously around her. Smart wolf, he wasn’t coming too close, not yet. “You set me on fire.”