“Yeah, yeah.” He darted a look at her. “Back in the club, you touched me, and I felt like I’d just nailed a front double cork.”
“I figured you were a sports fanatic. So what’s a snowboarder doing in Atlanta when there’s still plenty of snow on the ground up north?”
“I like all kinds of action,” he told her. “Not just on snow.”
“Only extreme sports, or an adrenaline junkie too?”
“Both.” He spread his hands. “Among other things. What about you?”
“I’m not into sports beyond watching them, and I’m not an adrenaline junkie.”
“So what are you then?”
She slowed her steps. “Excuse me?”
He stopped, turned to face her. “Come on, Rinna. You go to the DMZ, a place that’s a little dicey most of the time. You say you’ve been in the Pit, a place that nobody but daredevils or drunks taking a dare would go into.”
He brushed his cheek along hers, sniffed. “And that perfume works better than anything else I’ve ever inhaled. I’m betting you’re not human.”
By Hetache’s flaming nostrils. Rinna knew the human male was unusual, but most of them, after discovering they weren’t at the top of the food chain, either tried to run or tried to kill. Or, in an effort to show how open and progressive they were, they asked way too many personal questions.
Cade just stood there, the carefree frat boy demeanour gone. “I know humans aren’t it,” he said, his voice even. “I’ve travelled a lot, seen a lot more. It’s cool with me if you’re not human. I just wanted to know what you are exactly.”
“You’re an unusual human,” she finally said. “As for me, I’m a banaranjan.”
“A banaranjan.” He nodded. “What sort of demon is that?”
“I’m not a demon, I’m a being born of this earth just as you are,” she insisted, barely refraining from rolling her eyes. Human prejudices lasted long past their short lifespan. “Banaranjans are a race of beings who need to sample a little adrenaline now and then.”
She didn’t really feel like sharing too much with the strange human. One just couldn’t predict what he’d do with the knowledge. She only knew the stories her crèche mother had told her, mainly horror stories to ensure her obedience. None of the tales involving humans and hybrids ended well, which was why most of the supernatural community preferred living in secret. Humans couldn’t even get along with other humans. Every hybrid knew what would happen if the general population discovered the truth. Humans craved knowledge, but given the chance to create or destroy, most of the time they’d destroy.
Eagerness lit Cade’s expression. “So you’re adrenaline feeders. Do you take it like vampires drink blood?”
The night was going south like a runaway freight train. Her need to feed dissipated on the warm night air. She stopped beneath the dark bare branches of a large oak, a couple of blocks from the club, in an area that quickly gave way to empty buildings and overgrown lots. She was unwilling to go any farther with the human. All she wanted now was to go home. Alone. “I don’t attack people, and I definitely don’t bite. I only take what’s freely given.”
He snorted. “Yeah. I bet the people you’re chomping on don’t see it that way. Doesn’t matter to me, though. I still think we can do this, don’t you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You and me. Hooking up.”
Rinna’s stomach knotted. “No. By the Dark Abyss, no.” She’d be better off with the male banaranjan.
“Why not?” He stepped closer to her. Even in the late night darkness, she could see that his features had tarnished into something bare and ugly. Even his adrenaline didn’t taste the same. “I like to feel adrenaline hitting my blood. You can make me feel that, you can feed off it. It’s the perfect symbiotic relationship.”
She backed up a step. If she had to defend herself, she’d need room. “Sorry, Cade. I’m not into fetish fulfilment. If you just wanted to get with a hybrid for bragging rights, you should have picked someone else.”
He looked crestfallen, sticking his hands deep into his pockets. “That’s a shame. Guess I’ll have to get my rush some other way.”
“I guess so.” Rinna backed away, wondering how she’d made such a screwed-up choice. Too focused on the hormone and not the human. “Good night.”
“It was nice dancing with you. See you around.” He turned, heading back towards the club.
Rinna watched him head off, then turned and resumed her walk to her car, angry with herself. She should have just sifted for epinephrine in the club, but no, she had to have a direct source. From now on, she’d attend a couple of sporting events when she needed to feed, and learn to like the taste of the synthesized stuff.
The blond’s adrenaline was strong though. So potent. It would have been nice to have a steady source like that. Then again, the guy was an admitted adrenaline junkie. No telling what extremes he’d go to just to—
She had just a split-second to react. She spun down in a crouch, hissing a warning, wings bursting from her shoulder blades.
He crashed into her before her wings could completely unfurl, sending them both rolling along the cracked sidewalk. Pain skittered along her nerves as something snapped in her left wing. Shock raced through her. It wasn’t the male banaranjan attacking her, but the human, Cade. What in the Abyss. .?
Sharper pain exploded in her left shoulder. She ignored it, concentrating all her energy on landing blows on her attacker, wishing she had super-hybrid or even super-human strength. They rolled into a deserted darkened lot, Cade wrapping his hands around her neck.
She got her legs between their bodies then pushed, jettisoning him. He landed with a hard, satisfying crunch.
Stumbling to her feet, she clawed at her shoulder, pulling a syringe free. He’d stabbed her! “What the hell is this, you bastard?”
He spat out a wad of blood and a tooth, then rolled to his feet. “Call it an equalizer.”
“For what?”
“Told you I was into extreme sports. Hunting demons is about as extreme a sport as you can get.”
She’d fallen into a trap. She’d been warned that something like this could happen, but she’d chalked it up to another wild story about dangerous humans. Now she knew better. “You’re a monster!”
He laughed. “And you’re a demon. Told you we were compatible.”
“Why you—!” Her vision swam, then shimmered yellow as her body fluctuated between her human and natural form. Shaking with rage and the drug he’d injected her with, she threw the syringe at Cade, hitting him square in the stomach.
He pulled the needle free with a pained grunt. “You’re gonna pay for that!”
He reached for something. She didn’t take the time to determine what. Instead, she launched herself at him, struggling with her disabled wing, every instinct screaming that she wrap her hand around his throat and mine his fight or flight response for very ounce of adrenaline his heart could pump out before it stopped.
A thick arm caught her about the waist in mid-strike. She howled in outrage, only to clam up swiftly as she caught the clove scent of male banaranjan.
“You play a most dangerous game, banring,” the male said, arms locked about her.
“Let me go!” she snarled. “I am not new from the crèche!”
“Could have fooled me,” another voice said. A female.
Rinna stared. The female was human, but the most unusual human she’d ever seen. Black braids hung past her shoulders. In the darkness Rinna couldn’t tell what shade the woman’s skin was, only that it was lighter than the dark vest she wore without benefit of a shirt beneath. Sinewy arms, lightly muscled, and grey cargo pants. The woman looked breakable, as if she was a dancer. But she held the human male on his knees with just one hand clamped to his forehead. A pale blue glow emanated from the woman, brightest at her hands, brighter still on the blade in her right hand. Even with her vision swimming in and out of focus, Rinna had no doubt as to the woman’s identity.