Синтия Иден - Eternal Hunter

“I–I went back to the police station after I left your place. I needed to talk to Antonio and find out what the ME had to say about Burrows.” The words came out fast. “I was tired when I got back and didn’t even notice the smell until—” Her gaze darted to the left, to the white doors.

He crossed the room, body alert. His fingers curled over the old door knobs — two doors, French style. He wrenched them open, ready for any threat.

Sonofabitch.

The lights were on in the other room. Bright and stark. Shining perfectly on the bloody message that had been left on the far wall.

Missed you.

The blood had trickled down, blurring some of the letters a bit, but the message was clear.

What the fuck? His growl filled the room.

This shit was twisted. “You searched the house?” Sprawling places like this one had too many rooms and far too many places for someone to hide.

With his nose…no one would hide from him.

He spun around, ready to stalk from top to bottom and—

She caught his arm. “I told you, no one else is here.” Plump lips tightened. “The bastard delivered his message and ran.”

“Some message.” Not every day a woman got a love letter in blood.

Her fingers tightened around him. “I need your help.”

“You need the cops. What the hell? You’ve got some psycho ex-lover stalking you—” With freaking blood.

“Not my lover.” She shook her head. “Never that.”

“Call. The. Cops.”

“Some jobs aren’t meant for the cops.”

“And some are, sweetheart. You’re an ADA — you know this shit.” She should. But he’d worked with victims before, and he knew that even the professionals would forget the rules when the deadly games became personal. “Erin, when someone breaks into your house and leaves—”

“He’s Other. ”

He’d figured that. Well, either Other or seriously fucked up human.

Seriously fucked up Other.

“The cops can still track him.”

“No one can track him. The bastard’s too good at hiding.” She exhaled, and, for a moment, he thought he saw…calculation in her gaze.

He tensed.

Be careful with the ladies, Jude. You can’t always trust a pretty face.

His grandfather’s warning. Given right before his senior prom, the night Susie Jo Hill had left him on the dance floor to make out with the quarterback.

He’d pounded the quarterback and come away with the scar on his lip, courtesy of a big-ass class ring and a lucky punch. Then he’d left a furious Susie Jo shouting on her doorstep.

Erin was no Susie Jo. She was something much, much more dangerous.

Her hand fell away from him and damn if he didn’t miss her touch.

Not. Good.

“I’ve got a stalker, Jude. A guy who has been trailing me and making my life hell for the last year.” Her eyes held his.

A stab of pain in his palms made him realize that his claws were out. He unfisted his hands and the claws sprang to their full length.

Erin didn’t so much as blink.

“I came here to get away from him,” she said. Her shoulders were straight, her chin up, but she still looked vulnerable.

And that made him want to roar with fury.

“He scares me. I’ve caught his scent before. This isn’t the first time he’s come inside my home. He’s a shifter, I know that much.”

A shifter. Like me .

No wonder the lady hadn’t been so wild about gettin’ down and dirty with him.

“I–I don’t know where he got the blood.” She glanced over her shoulder at the painted wall and shuddered. “What if he hurt someone? What if…”

Oh, the odds were good that he had. “We’ve got to bring Antonio in on this.” That much blood, yeah, someone had been hurt . “It’s human blood.”

Her gaze darted back to his. “I know.” Whispered. And she looked like she was going to be sick right then. Her hand rose to her mouth and she paled.

“Erin…”

She shook her head, sending silky locks tossing back and forth. After a moment, her hand dropped. “He thinks he’s giving me a present, don’t you see? A gift. But I’m — I’m not like him.” You. Her eyes said it, even if her mouth didn’t. “The blood sickens me.”

A human reaction.

But he could have sworn she was a shifter.

No, no, dammit, he knew she was a shifter. The beast inside recognized her.

But shifters loved blood.

“I can’t stand the smell,” she whispered and stormed back into the parlor. “ I hate it .”

Pretty unusual shifter reaction.

He followed her, closing the doors with a quiet squeak. He needed to get a blood analyst in there, right away. Because he was getting a really dark, sick suspicion.

Human blood.

Who’d bled out so nicely less than twelve hours before?

Burrows.

Antonio had taken Jude back to the crime scene at the station, after Erin had hightailed it to the DA’s office.

He’d seen Burrows. Seen the pooled blood on the floor.

But maybe, just maybe, some of that dark blood had left the holding area.

Judging by the way the letters had dripped on the wall, the killer would have needed to come straight to Erin’s house after the murder. The blood must have been used when it was fresh.

The Slasher’s blood?

Possible.

Not likely, of course. Could be from some other poor bastard. Then they’d have two sick shifters on the loose.

But he couldn’t discount the connection. This whole mess was too screwed up. And it set his teeth on edge.

The stalker bastard had frightened Erin, had been frightening her. Not an acceptable situation.

The guy had broken into her house. He could have so easily gotten to her— hurt her.

Jude’s teeth began to burn and lengthen. The claws were already out, time for the fangs.

And time to rip a shifter asshole apart.

At least the police had come quietly. No screaming sirens. No flashing lights. Just two silent black vans. One patrol car. And Antonio, in a red sports car.

Flashy.

Figured.

Erin paced the length of her porch as she watched the crime scene team file into her house. The night was hot, humid as all hell, but goosebumps covered her arms.

Missed you.

Dammit. She’d flushed her old life down the toilet for some freedom, but he’d found her.

Now he was back to playing his sickass games with her.

“What the hell were you thinking?” A hard bark of fury.

She raised a brow and turned to find Antonio glaring at her, the lights of the porch shining behind him. His hands were crossed over his chest, his eyes narrowed. He shook his head. “You called in a civilian before you called the cops—”

“He’s the same civilian you called earlier, too,” she reminded him. There hadn’t been a lot of options for her. With the creep on her tail, there never were. Back when she’d lived in Lillian, there sure as hell hadn’t been a choice. As far as she’d known, the police hadn’t known about the Other .

So they certainly wouldn’t have been able to handle a supernatural who’d slipped over the line and gone straight psychotic.

“This is different! This is—”

“My life,” she fired back at him. “I know this isn’t protocol, okay, but this isn’t your average situation.” Her voice lowered to a hard whisper, “Not average at all.”

A grunt. “Trust me, blood on the walls is never average.”

True. Erin sucked in a breath and tried to push her fear and anger aside. Antonio was catching the brunt of her fury, but the guy had already done her a favor by pulling in his team so softly.