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The arm he’d looped around her neck tightened.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Todd. He was advancing on the man, on them, eyes narrowed, face hard with rage. He had his gun out.

Cara realized if she didn’t do something, fast, her day was about to go from bad to sheer hell.

Because she sure wasn’t just going to stand there, be strangled, threatened, and then watch her cop get hurt.

Not when she could so easily stop the jerk who held her.

Todd might not like the methods she was about to use, but there wasn’t much of an option.

Besides, perhaps it was time for him to see that she truly wasn’t the helpless damsel that he thought she was.

“I goin’ out of here, and I’m takin’ this bitch with me!” The guy snarled, spittle flying from his mouth.

Her hands lifted, yanked on the arm and freed her throat. “No,” she told him softly, “you’re not.” Breathing deeply, she dropped her control and let her pheromones fill the air.

The guy was so close to her that he got a direct hit. He spun her around to face him, eyes wide, mouth open.

She smiled at him. Pitched her voice low and poured on the compulsion as she said, “Kiss me.”

The gun hit the floor with a clatter as he locked his lips on hers.

The air pulsed with his sexual energy. It was an energy much darker than Todd’s. And weaker. So much weaker.

But energy was energy—and the little bastard had threatened her.

So she’d take a bit of his power for herself.

Asshole.

Her hand rose. Touched his chest, and, with her kiss and touch, she pulled the man’s lust and power right out of him.

The sweet rush heated her blood. Oh, but it had been so long since she’d just let herself go. Just let herself take and take and take.

His body trembled against hers. A strangled moan bubbled in his throat and the heart that thumped beneath her hand began to slow.

Then to skip beats.

She pulled her mouth from his. Watched his bleary green eyes drift closed.

And then man fell backward, landing on the floor with a thud.

Cara inhaled deeply and caught the power still floating in the air. A faint shine lit her skin.

Sweet, sweet power.

Her head turned. She saw the stares then. The slack expressions on many of the male officers’ faces. Her gaze darted past them, caught sight of—

Smith. The ME stood near the elevator, hands fisted, mouth open, and eyes wide with horror.

Just great.

And a few feet away from Smith stood—

Another woman. A redhead. She waited between two cops, just a little past Smith. She stared right back at Cara. Not with the horror that Smith had, but with a kind of stark curiosity on her face.

As she focused on the woman’s face, the flare of her hunger and rage began to fade, and reality slowly raised its head.

Hell.

But there was no going back now.

“What the fuck were you doing?” The roar came from Todd as he grabbed the gun, then secured the weapon. He caught her arms, pulling her close to him. “Cara?”

She blinked. Forced herself to meet his dark stare. Anger. No, fury. Jealousy.

Fear?

She could see it all. Swirling in those eyes.

She could feel the emotions beating at her.

“This is who I am.” Gyth was on the floor next to the still man, checking for a pulse. “I told you, I can take care of myself.” And punish those who threatened her.

Or those she cared for in this world.

“He’s alive,” Gyth said, jaw tight.

“Of course, he is!” She snapped. Did they think she had no control? “I wasn’t trying to kill him.” Jeez. If she had wanted the idiot dead, the guy would have been at hell’s gate. “I was just trying to stop him from hurting anyone.”

“Pull it back.” Todd’s whisper was laced with steel.

“I don’t—”

“The scent…” He swallowed. “Pull it back before I have to start beating sense into this pack.”

“I—it’s not that easy. It’ll take some time—”

“Then I’m getting you the hell out of here, baby.” He grabbed her wrist, yanked her through the crowd, and took her down a long, winding corridor.

Glancing back over her shoulder, the last person she saw was Gyth. He watched her with the sharp eyes of a shifter.

One predator, measuring another.

He pushed Cara into the old interrogation room, the one that hadn’t been used for anything but storage during the last six months. The door slammed closed behind them, then he pounced.

His hands locked around her upper arms as he held her against the mirrored glass on the left wall. “What the hell were you doing?” God, but the woman was beautiful. Skin seeming to fucking glow. Eyes sparkling. Mouth wet and red—

From another man’s mouth.

He growled, and, not giving her time to answer, he crushed his mouth to hers. Took her lips. Drove his tongue deep inside in an act of possession.

No one else. No one.

She moaned, the sound making his fully erect cock twitch with hunger.

His hands tightened on her arms, fingers digging into her flesh.

The woman was making him crazy.

His mouth lifted as he dragged in a desperate gulp of air. God, but her scent was everywhere. Driving him wild.

Pushing him to the absolute edge of his control. Not that he’d ever had much to begin with, not with her.

“Why?” A stark demand ripped from him. She hadn’t been forced to confront the perp. To use her powers. Damn it, why—

“I’m not weak. Not human.” She licked her lips, her tongue snaking out in a quick move. “I am…what you saw. You have to un-understand that.” Her voice was shook just a bit. Husky.

God but he wanted her naked.

The pheromones? Her magic?

Or just the woman?

“I know what you are.” No question in his mind.

“I’ve walked this earth a long time.” Her eyes faded to black. “Seen things, done things, that most wouldn’t accept.”

This was important, he realized. This moment. “I’m not most people.”

Her lips began to curl, but then the smile that would have been vanished almost instantly. “You kissed me. Knowing what I can do, after you saw—you kissed me.”

He kissed her again. Hard. Thrust his tongue past those perfect white teeth and savored the warmth of her mouth.

Not enough.

His hands dropped to her hips. She was wearing a dress. A slinky, sexy-as-hell black dress that fit her body like a second skin and skirted the top of her knees.

His mouth moved to her neck. He licked. Sucked. Bit. Whispered, “Hell, yeah, I still kissed you. You’re mine.” Time for them to both realize that fact.

“But you don’t know the real me, not—”

Her words had him pulling back, glaring down at her. “I know everything that matters. I know the demon. I know the woman. I fucking want them both.”

He grabbed the fabric of her dress, hiked it up to her waist. “And you want me.”

A nod.

“Don’t do it again, Cara. Don’t take another when I’m near—”

Her black eyes widened. “I would never take another while I’m with you. Never. Back there, that was a succubus fighting. That is our way. We fight, we kill, with just a kiss.”

Scary shit.

“I wanted you to see me,” she whispered the words as his hands caressed the warm flesh of her hips. “Not the woman you think I am, but what I’m like inside. What I can do.” She sucked in a sharp breath. “What I’ve done.”

“You are exactly who I think you are.” He was still furious as hell, but the rage was channeling fast into a white-hot need, a need that had been stirred in the bull pen, but ignited to a flash point once he’d gotten her alone and tasted her again.

“I’m not weak. Not some simple prey.” She whispered the words again.