Read Sarah McCarty for Free Online

and heaven knows how many of them.”
    “But I’m making you a promise.”
    He closed the door. She watched as he walked around the front of the car, every move graceful—the way a predator was graceful—the flex of muscle a smooth transition to power. He turned and caught her looking at him. She blushed. He winked and slid into the driver’s seat. With a flip of the key, the engine roared to life with an incredible pulse of power. “Is the engine altered?”
    “I’m good with mechanical things.”
    She glanced in the rearview mirror, the hairs on the back of her neck rising as shadows flickered. “Are you as good with mechanical things as you are with energy?”
    “Fair enough.”
    “Do you think you could step on the gas pedal before the rest of those things get here?”
    He cut her a glance that could have meant anything. “No problem.”
    The car rumbled out of the garage and into the night. No moon broke the blackness around them. Just empty spaces in which any number of things could hide. Leaning over, she glanced in the rearview mirror again.
    “Can’t they hear the engine?”
    Slade shook his head. “I’ve got a shield on the energy and an illusion over the car.”
    “An illusion?” The only thing standing between them and those monsters was an illusion? “Our safety net is an illusion?”
    His smile was a quirk of the corner of his mouth that made her wonder how it would feel to touch her tongue to the slight dimple. Dear God, was she losing her mind?
    “Sometimes an illusion beats the heck out of reality.”
    “Like when?”
    He cut her a glance. “Like when you thought I was human.”
    He had her there. Unzipping the pack, she ran her fingers over her laptop. There were no dents in it, no broken edges on the first two corners, but the third hadn’t fared so well. “Damn.”
    “What?”
    “I think those bastards killed my laptop.”
    “Their boss won’t be too happy to hear that.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “They want you, and they want the information, sweetness. Can’t interpret one without the other.”
    “Well, they can’t have either.”
    “On that we agree.”
    He was a very strange man. “What are you going to do about it?”
    Reaching forward, he turned on the radio. “Kidnap you myself.” The sound of soft blues music filled the car. Her heart skipped a beat.
    “Kidnap?” This was a kidnap?
    “Best way I know to keep you safe.”
    As if she should believe the man with those fangs and that still slightly morphed face. She put her laptop back in the case and zipped it. “What makes you so qualified for the job?”
    He smiled, the man superseding the monster in the blink of an eye. With a jerk of his chin, he indicated the lab rapidly being left behind. “Because I’m the badass vampire who can kick Sanctuary’s butt.”

3
     
    “ A RE we going anywhere specific, or are we just going to prowl the night in this gas hog?”
    Slade glanced over at Jane. She satin the passenger seat, clutching that laptop like a security blanket, staring out the window as if the scenery beyond was particularly enthralling rather than just deserted streets with a touch of winter lingering upon them. The edge to her question was echoed in the set of her mouth. She had a pretty mouth. Wide, neither thin nor full, but made for smiling. Right now it was set in a straight line.
    He wished he had an answer for her. Something concrete. Something to soothe her nerves, but in reality, it wasn’t up to him where they went.
    “I guess that depends on you.”
    She didn’t look at him. Somewhere between the concussion and now, she’d developed an attitude. “You mean I have a say in all this?”
    He swerved to avoid a pothole and bit back a smile. “Since you are the only one who knows where you’ve hidden your research, I’d say that makes you queen of the day.”
    He had to give her credit. Not by a twitch did she betray surprise at the statement.
    “What research?”
    He glanced in the