Chapter One
TRAPPED BETWEEN the spirit realm and the mortal world the black wolf cried out, howling into the twilight. His haunting plea for help, for freedom, echoed throughout the misty barrier that separated mortal from immortal, but he could not be heard. Not among his brethren. Not among the humans he could see so clearly. Only the lost souls on Spirit Wind Mountain heard him, spirits as imprisoned as he. He was a warrior bound by invisible chains, unable to answer the sworn call of his Blood Hunter's soul to protect Logos's Elan and the struggling mortals, unable to fight the great darkness unleashing itself upon the mortal ground. Present Day
Twilight, Tennessee
"I have to go to town, Em. I'm sheriff. Twilight's my responsibility." Sam Sheridan clenched his teeth, fists, stomach, and anything else he could clamp down on, wondering just how sharp an edge a man could walk before he split apart. It was worse than ironic that after everything he'd been through -- the military, imprisonment, torture, and years of personal hell -- that a pint- size bit of mystical fluff was going to do him in. Make that a nicely figured bit of mystical fluff with wet- dream jeans and a soft green shirt that hugged every curve he wanted to touch.
"You canna go. Not now," Emerald Linton said as she planted herself in the middle of the doorway to the one-room cabin he'd made into his office. "Leaving here would be a mistake. You'd be opening yourself up for an attack from Cinatas. And once you're away from the protective shield, the growing darkness I feel from the gathering Vladarians will feed the vampire infection inside you."
"It's been four days, Em." Closing his eyes, he fought for patience. She was determined to keep him at the old ranger camp they were holed up in, and he was fast approaching the point of no return -- the point where he'd start kissing her and never stop. A vampire's lust for blood couldn't be any stronger than his lust for her. He'd been trying to avoid her since he'd returned from Belize bitten and supposedly damned for eternity. So far nothing had happened in the ninety- six hours, forty- two minutes, and -- he glanced at his watch -- ten seconds since Luis Vasquez had sunk his teeth into Sam's neck. No fangs had developed. No bloodlust had overtaken him. He'd like to think it was because he'd killed the Vladarian Vampire seconds into the bite and not because Emerald's protective shield was holding any changes at bay.
Even if he wasn't infected, it wouldn't change his hands- off policy where she was concerned. They had no future together, never had a chance at one from the moment they'd met nine months ago. She was a woman with a child in tow and he'd been damaged goods from the start, never knowing when and where he'd have a PTSD flashback from the past. Or if he'd hurt someone in the dark hours of the night.
He did know without a doubt that the vampire bite had nothing to do with his visceral desire for Emerald. He'd been itching for her since he'd first seen her. His gaze raked up Emerald's body, managing to avoid her imploring, misty green eyes. Every time he looked into her eyes, he went a little crazy inside. Itching didn't come close to describing his need for her. Ravenous did.
More than once he'd considered giving in to his need, just having an all- night sex fest and getting her out of his system. But he didn't think he'd have the resolve to walk away the morning after, and she'd feel even more of a need, maybe even then would have the right, to "fix" him. And he was unfixable.
Drawing a deep breath, he tried to refocus on the reason she was in his face at the moment. "Have you had a vision about me, Em? About today? Is that what this is all about now?"
She didn't immediately answer and her hesitation jerked him to attention. He brought his narrowed gaze to hers, searching the liquid green depths that always left him drowning in her allure. He'd never known her not to be pigheadedly sure about her magic mumbo jumbo. After a long moment she shook her head then focused on his desk, fear and an odd vulnerability clouding her eyes. "No, no vision this time. I just feel something bad is going to happen. You canna go."
He had to go, for both their sakes. She'd be angry, but then that was a good thing. If she was ticked at him then the odds they'd end up in the bed behind him went way down, right? He'd been operating on that philosophy since he met her, but it was failing to do the trick these past few days.
He could feel her from all the way across the room. Her hot- blooded temper and wild sensuality dragged at him like a riptide, pulling him so far under her spell, he could barely breathe.
Sucking in another deep breath, he caught a whiff of her scent and cursed. The pure essence of Irish lavender mixed with a mysterious but irresistibly alluring aroma hit him hard. It was a heady aphrodisiac potent enough to wake the dead.
"Hello? Sam? Are you hearing me?" Emerald demanded, waving her delicate hands at him as she spoke. Even though her bracelets tinkled like heavenly bells, the effect of her siren- red nails was like a matador waving a red cape at a bull. Surely steam had to be rising off him.
"Yeah, Em, I'm feeling you," he said, his voice cutting through his throat like shards of glass. He heard her all right. He just didn't know what in the hell to do with her.
He knew backward and forward what he wanted to do with her.
He shot up from his seat. He had to get out of there fast and he had to put her out of his mind, even if it was just for a little while, or he was going to do something they'd both regret -- like make use of the bed shoved against the wall.
"I don't think you are, Sam," she said, her lilting voice imploring him. "Dark, powerful forces are gathering all around us."
Shamefully, the forces bearing down on him had nothing to do with evil and everything to do with sex. Yep, they were in a battle for their lives and for the lives of thousands if not millions of others. Yep, they barely had any privacy holed up in a small ranger camp with her daughter and seven others, including two elite warriors from the spirit realm called Blood Hunters. Yep, he should be thinking about a million other things besides her and him being hot and heavy, but he wasn't. And that was exactly why he had to leave. He had to do something to put his focus back on their situation. Making an appearance at the station house in Twilight and doing a little recon on the Falls Resort, Dr. Cinatas's stronghold on Hades Mountain, fit the bill.
Squeezing his eyes shut and searching for strength, he counted to five, then tried to reason with her one last time. "Em, feeling something bad might happen isn't good enough for me. There's something bad happening just about every split second all over the world. I can't toss aside my responsibilities just because you've got a 'feeling.'"
"This isn't a joke, Sam," she said. "You know it's more than just a feeling with me. You know that sometimes I just know things. The evil surrounding us is stronger than ever before. I sense it out there beyond the shield."
"None of that changes the fact that I'm the sheriff. I have to check on the town. The station has been getting dozens of calls from old man Hatterfield about the 'black cloud' over Hades Mountain, and 'goings- on' at the Falls Resort there. We both know it isn't his moonshine talking. Cinatas is up to something and I have to go. The citizens of Twilight pay me to keep them safe."
"You canna do anything for anybody if you're dead," she cried. "You're officially on vacation until next week, remember? We all agreed that until we had some idea of how Cinatas and the Vladarians would react to our attack in Belize it would be best to stay under the protective shield. They'll be wanting revenge." She held a finger up for each point. "You destroyed the Vladarians' blood supply and killed Luis Vasquez, one of their own. You, Jared, and Aragon wiped out their Belize stronghold. Because of Aragon, Pathos, their leader for hundreds of years, is gone forever. And none of that is counting what we did to Cinatas's Sno- Med operations here and in Manhattan. What part about they want us dead doona you understand?"
He had to bite back a grin at that question, realizing he'd probably said something similar to her during one of their many disagreements. She was right. Dr. Anthony Cinatas and his Vladarian bloodsuckers would come after everyone with both barrels blasting. But Sam just couldn't sit here any longer waiting for "it" to happen -- not if he could get a handle on what that "it" might be.
"Em, the protective shield is great -- a real miracle. But we can't cower here with our heads stuck in the sand. If we don't try and find out what they're up to, I can guarantee they're going to come up behind us and bite us in the ass." He gathered his keys, hoping the jangle would bring an end to the argument. "Jared, Aragon, and Nick agree."
She didn't say anything, but turned to look into the outer room, giving him the freedom to study her profile. Bad move. Sunlight spilling over her cast her into shades of gold, making him greedier than King Midas.
"When did you men have this conversation and why dinna you tell the rest of us?"
"Late last night, so there hasn't been time to talk yet," Sam explained. Though battle ready, the Blood Hunters -- Jared and Aragon -- hadn't been as antsy to act as Sam and his deputy, Nick. Four days to men who'd been alive for millennia amounted to less than an eye blink, but the former spirit warriors did agree that more information was needed. "With no vision, how do you know that what you're feeling is even connected to me or not?" he asked.
"Instincts? Intuition?" She threw her slender hands up into the air, clearly frustrated. "Whatever you call it doesn't matter. I just know something bad will happen."
Sam had figured out a long time ago that all women spoke two languages simultaneously. The word...
