LITMIR.BIZ

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her.”

      The vampire’s eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared as he caught Ty’s scent. That’s right. Werewolf here, ready to chew your ass.

      Any normal vampire would have realized going one-on-one with a Werewolf was a bad deal, but this vampire was hungry and stupid. In a blur of movement, he wrapped his hands around Ty’s throat, squeezing hard enough to make a burst of white sparks shoot across his vision.

      Oh, it’s on. Ty’s reaction was just as swift, just as strong. He growled and kneed the vamp hard enough to drop a linebacker, then punched him with a powerful uppercut. The vamp dropped back, stunned at his attack, a smudge of black vampire ichor staining the edge of his lips like licorice candy.

      The vamp growled, dropped his head and charged. Ty sidestepped at the last moment, letting the vampire careen into the bar and put a head-size hole in the wood. It would’ve knocked out any normy. But this guy was a monster just like him. So were his two buddies, who showed up to get in on the action.

      The two vampires still standing took opposite sides of Ty so he could keep his eyes on only one of them at a time. A rocket of red-hot pain shot up Ty’s spine as one of them kicked the base of his back where the nerve bundle on a Were was most vulnerable. He grunted and fell to one knee, sucking up pain. Without going wolf, beating back this many vampires on his own was going to hurt. From the startled gasps and outraged cries, Ty knew this had already happened too fast for the onlookers to track. Their movements were probably no more than a blur. He needed to end it before any of the normies got hurt, or worse, died. That was the last kind of attention he needed as the new guy in town.

      “Fight!” someone yelled.

      The atmosphere inside the bar thickened with anticipation and excitement as people glanced at the commotion and automatically moved toward it, attracted to the action like gawkers to a car accident. He straightened and tried to bite back the pain as the lead vampire pulled his head out of the bar and shook off the splinters. Ty didn’t wait. Why fight fair when the odds weren’t in your favor anyway?

      He kicked back without warning, catching vampire number two behind him in the chest. It spun backward over a pool table to land in a heap on a table, amid shrieks and toppled beer spraying everywhere. Son of a bitch deserved that and worse after it’d tap-danced on his spine. Payback was a bitch.

      The third vampire melted into the crowd as Ty and the leader were instantly surrounded by the crowd pressing in around them with cries of encouragement and money changing hands.

      Ty glanced up at the myriad faces, looking for just one—Jess. He wanted to make sure that the third vampire hadn’t taken her while he’d been distracted.

      Her blue eyes were wide as she squeezed past the edge of the crowd. He wasn’t taking any chances. He grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her close, putting her behind him. “Stay here. I’ll be back in a minute.”

      “But I—”

      Ty didn’t have time to listen. The vampire in the duster came at him once again, fake brown eyes glittering with malice. He swung at Ty, and Ty blocked the blows. They kept coming, fast, hard. Sweat beaded on his skin, trickling into his eyes and making his hair damp. His muscles were growing tired in his human form, slowing his reaction time. One blow evaded his block, cuffing him hard enough in the side of the head to make his ears ring and his vision blur for a moment. The drunken crowd cheered.

      Ty shook his head to clear it. He and the vampire circled one another, the superior sneer on the vampire’s face making him more irritated by the moment. Then he glimpsed Jess’s frightened face and a whole new rush of energy filled him from his scalp to his toes. He could do anything, be anything, to protect her.

      The vampire lunged forward. Ty thrust the heel of his hand up hard against the vampire’s beak of a nose. The distinctive crunch of bones breaking was followed by a hard grunt as the vampire bent forward and Ty brought his elbow down hard against the vampire’s neck, knocking him out. If there weren’t all these people around, he would have carved the vampire’s fangs out of his mouth as battle trophies, the way his pack had done for centuries. But this wasn’t the time and place for the old ways and sooner rather than later, that vampire and his buddy would wake up. Probably call in reinforcements.

      He was alone. No pack, no friends in the town.

      There was a slap of high fives and the clink of beer bottles, along with cheers from the crowd. It had all just been another night’s entertainment to them. He stepped over the vampire to get to Jess. Her face was pale.

      “Want to get out of here?”

      She nodded. Ty wrapped her small hand in his and together they skirted around the prone vampire and headed for the door, keeping a vigilant eye out for vampire number three.

      The air was clean and cold outside. Ty’s head cleared, his senses grew sharper. The cool evening breeze, heavy with the salty scent of nearby Puget Sound, ruffled Jess’s hair, sticking honey-colored wisps to her full, rosy lips.

      “You okay?” he asked as he gently tucked the strands back behind her ear.

      Jess blinked, and stared up at him, a mixture of curiosity and disbelief in her eyes. “What just happened in there?”

      He tried to give her a lopsided grin, but it turned into a wince when he found his jaw was tender from the hits the vampire had landed. He rubbed the soreness. The night air chilled the dribble of blood from the cut on his cheek, making it wet and cold, but there was no scent of vampire. The third one must have been smart enough to ditch his buddies. His body ached from the fight, but it would heal fast enough. “A bar fight with strangers.”

      “You didn’t know those guys?” she asked, looking around her nervously. “They seemed pretty intent on messing with you.” She grazed the corner of his mouth with her fingertips. “You’re hurt.”

      The light touch was enough to send a powerful surge of awareness pounding through him that wiped away any of the ache that remained. Damn. There was no doubt in his mind there was a strong Mesmer forming with this woman.

      He gently moved her fingers away from his mouth, keeping them folded in his. Her hands were fine-boned and slender and feminine. “No big deal.”

      Her full lips tipped up into a soft smile, making him crave to kiss her. “Tough guy, huh?” She pulled a car remote from her pocket and pushed it, making the lights flash on a silver pickup on the edge of the dirt-and-gravel parking area beside the bar.

      “Sounds like you’ve been around a few.”

      She opened the driver’s door to the pickup and turned, standing in the gap, staring at him, her head tilted. “A few. But they’re nothing like you.”

      Ty closed the gap between them, putting one hand on the door frame, shielding her from view of the parking lot but maintaining space between them. He knew better than to get close enough to be swamped by temptation. The Mesmer might be working on him, but that didn’t mean she’d understand if he came on too strong. Especially not after the fight.

      “If you want to head home, I understand. I’ll stay here awhile and make sure those guys don’t follow you home.”

      She reached out and grabbed fistfuls of his T-shirt near his collarbones, pulling him close until he was chest to chest with her. The soft swells of her breasts pressed against him, and the minty scent of her hair and the hint of lilac on her skin teased his sensitive sense of smell. Everything within him went silent and still, fixated on the lush curve of her mouth so damn close to his he could feel the warmth of her breath.

      “What I want is for you to come home with me.” Jess stood on her tiptoes and looked up into his face, the dark fringe of lashes around her eyes making the blue luminous. Her rapid pulse beat against his chest, taking over the rhythm until his matched the pace she set. For a second the world tilted sideways.

      Ty’s gaze dropped to the silky, damp edge of her lips and he was lost. He dipped down and kissed her. Her lips were soft and willing, tasting of peppermint. She tasted so damn sweet,

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