When she reached the alley, she had the
distinct feeling she was too late. She raced down the darkened back street in
the direction of Justice. She had never felt anyone so clearly in her life. She
couldn’t breathe through her fear. It may already be too late.
He would kill her partner. And she would
be too late.
She realized she had no more secrets to
hide. She had to keep Justice from killing her partner. In a flash, she
transformed and was racing at lightning speed. When she came around the corner,
it was to find her partner backed against the wall—and a large, male jaguar
snarling and pacing in front of him. She could clearly see her partner was more
terrified than she had ever seen him before. In fact, she’d never seen him show
any fear before.
And he didn’t look too happy to see a
second jaguar, albeit a smaller one, coming from the alley.
Justice turned and, upon seeing her, he
was too shocked not to transform back to his human form. “What the hell?” he
snarled.
She transformed too. Brushing herself
off, she strode toward the naked man, as naked as he was, completely aware of
that fact, and too angry to care.
“It’s one thing,” she snarled at him,
“to think you are the ancient one, to think you are actually supposed to kill—murderer.” She waved her arm wildly and pointed at
her partner, who was white as chalk. “But what explanation do you have for
trying to kill a cop?”
Justice only stared at her. He was
staring at her, staring at her fully
naked form, taking her all in, and made no bones about it, which only enraged
her further. “Are you going to stand there ogling me, or are you going to
explain yourself!”
He actually grinned. “Well, I’m too
surprised to actually see… you again. Then, to see you, my mate—in the form of
our people, and now—beautifully naked… so I think, for now, I’ll stick to ogling:
it makes more sense, somehow.”
She was standing directly in front of
him now. And as angry as she was, it was a dangerous place to be, but she still
couldn’t have been more surprised by the power between them. It shocked her
into silence. The power that had been between them as children—which had grown
stronger as teens, as they reached puberty—was now amplified a hundredfold.
For a long moment she looked into the
eyes of a killer—and what she felt was anything but disgust—or even fear. She began to tremble. She fought back at
what she felt, and failed. She turned to look at her partner. He was staring at
the two of them like he’d just seen a UFO or something—and was now staring at a
pair of aliens.
“Oh, come on,” she growled. “Of all the
times for you not to keep your usual, stoic behavior—now is not the time.”
She looked back at Justice, who had
turned away. “Where do you think you’re going? You’re not going anywhere!”
He had reached a car and opened the
door. He turned back and grinned at her still-naked form. The vision of
him—gloriously naked and proud—would be forever branded into her head. She
wanted to hide her eyes—but she could only stare.
“What are you going to do? Stop me?” He
gestured at her naked form. “With what? Your pistol—or your handcuffs?”
Jes flushed. She would feel mortified
later if only she could fight down what she was really feeling right now. She
knew she would be mortified
later—when she was home—safe in her bed—remembering her partner was watching
the two of them—naked—arguing.
And she couldn’t even arrest the killer!
As if she could ever arrest him. What on earth had made her think she could ever
arrest him? Did she think she was stronger—more powerful? It was obvious he was
too powerful for her to handle alone.
And who exactly did she think she was going to call in to help her?
Her partner?
She nearly snorted out loud—staring at
Justice.
He gave her a mock salute and got in his
car. She heard the quiet purr of the engine a second later, and he drove
away—just like that.
She stared after him.
Then tore her gaze away and looked back
at her partner.
It was going to be a long night.