Page 14 of Crossing Between

"Heads up, Varon! Enjoy!" Quilith's voice came from the portal that had appeared above my head. I sighed in annoyance before hearing Zoey's scream.

That son of a bitch!

I stood and caught the brightly clothed Medium with a soft grunt when her elbow slammed into my stomach. I sat down when she suddenly gripped me around my neck looking around with wide eyes.

"What, how, why?" She shook in my arms slightly, making my monster flare with protective instincts that pushed to the surface.

"Quilith seems to have played a prank on you.

" I forced myself to speak softly and keep my hold on her gentle.

She felt soft and right in my arms. My monster purred low inside, enjoying it as much as I was while I tried to lie to myself.

She's an employee. I couldn't look at her that way.

Even if I loved her scent when she was aroused.

I had to focus on Zoey instead of mine and my monster's growing attraction to this curvy woman whom I'd not even known a week.

"I am going to kill them the next time I see them!" Zoey seethed as she stopped shaking. "They didn't even warn me! Just push and falling into darkness followed by ending up in my hot as sin boss's arms! Why did they do that?" She started ranting.

I was pretty sure she wasn't aware that she was saying all of this out loud. My lips curved in a smirk. So she thought I was hot. My chest puffed up slightly with my monster who preened.

"Ah!" Her sudden shout had me jumping to my feet in reaction, looking around for the threat.

"What?" I glanced down at her to see her whole body had turned that adorable bright red. All that delicious blood was just under the surface. My teeth began to grow in anticipation.

"Um. Captain, you're holding me. I have to be too heavy." She'd clutched her hands together in nerves.

I just stared at her for a brief silent moment.

"You are not heavy to me. I am an ancient vampire.

I have the strength of a hundred regular vampires.

Are you insinuating I couldn't carry you?

That I'm weak?" Her stuttered angry reply made me want to laugh but I shut that down.

It would only make her angrier and I didn't know if she'd stay mad.

"Captain, please set me down. Your point has been made."

Her voice had gone up an octave and her scent swirled around me like peonies and honeysuckle.

My thumb caressed her leg, under her knee, where I held her.

My fangs were almost long enough now that if she watched me talk, she'd see them in all their glory instead of the glimpses she may have caught the past few days.

I placed her on her feet gently before turning my back on her to go look out the window with my hands behind my back.

My hunger reared up, I could feel my eyes changing to black as my monster came forward but I fought him down as I didn't want to scare the little Medium.

It wasn't easy given her scent was on my clothes now.

"Why did Quilith toss you through their portal? They usually don't let anyone near it." Distracting her was the best option I had at the moment.

She cleared her throat. She was obviously upset, but if that was at Quilith or me for holding her for as long as I did, I wasn't sure.

"I was going to take the bus back to the station because Kenji and Elias, uh, had run into some problems that made it uncomfortable to ride in a car with them. That's when Quilith did the portal thing." Her voice cracked, like she was amused when she mentioned her two partners.

Now what trouble did those two get into this time? "I see." I flexed my fingers and turned around to face her after making sure I was in control. "Did you find anything out from our body?"

She shook her head but her scent spiked with nerves. "The soul was gone from this plane. I wasn't able to learn anything from them." Not a lie, but not the truth.

Another reason I couldn't even contemplate wanting to kiss her or do more. She was hiding something. I'd find out what it was eventually. I always did. It was why I was the homicide Captain.