CHAPTER ONE

 

 

“THAT WAS ABOUT as much fun as going to the dentist.”

Sergeant First Class Travis Dempsey snorted at his soon-to-be brother-in-law, Craig Copeland’s comment as they stepped outside the restaurant. He couldn’t disagree. Hell, he’d rather fight a dozen terrorists at the same time with his bare hands than have dinner with his parents again. Maybe that seemed harsh but after the past two hours plus of torture he’d endured, he didn’t care. If he didn’t love his little sister, Gwen, so much, he would have been mad as hell he’d burned up leave-time from the Army for this. But it wasn’t every day she graduated from college with an engineering degree. Besides, his Special Forces unit deployed so much he had more than enough vacation time saved up.

Travis glanced at his dark-haired sister, expecting her to be pissed at Craig, but instead, she simply looked frustrated.

“Why the hell can’t Mom and Dad be in the same room without trying to kill each other?” she demanded, her dark eyes a mix of hurt and anger. “I thought having dinner with both of them to celebrate my graduation would be good practice for the wedding, but I guess not.”

“Maybe we should elope,” Craig suggested, a hopeful expression on his face.

Travis could have told Craig that wasn’t going to happen even before Gwen shot her fiancé a glare.

“You guys have a while until the wedding,” Travis pointed out, coming to a stop a few dozen feet away from the restaurant. The place was right off the beach and the sidewalk was packed with tourists looking to chill after a day in the sun. “By then, Mom and Dad will have forgotten the other is currently dating someone half their age just to annoy the hell out of them.”

The look Travis’s sister gave him suggested she didn’t believe that any more than he did. More likely, their mother would have traded in her semi-pro golfer boyfriend for someone wealthier while their father moved on to a woman even younger than the twenty-four-year-old he’d shown up with tonight.

“You’re still staying through the weekend, right?” Gwen asked.

Travis nodded. “I’m on leave until Monday.”

His sister smiled. “Good. Because I don’t start my new job until then. Which means we can hang out.”

He returned her grin. “Sounds good.”

“Drive safe,” Gwen said, giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “And thanks for putting up with Mom and Dad for me.”

“Anytime.”

Giving Craig a nod and a fist bump, Travis turned and headed down the sidewalk, merging into the crowd. By the time he’d gotten to the restaurant, the lot was full, so he had to park half a dozen blocks away. He didn’t mind the trek. Norfolk was a beautiful city. And while he couldn’t quite see the ocean from there, he could still hear the waves above the hum of noise around him. There was something relaxing about the rhythmic sound.

He’d just walked past the busier part of town when he heard a dull thud coming from the alley to his right. It was quickly followed up by a choking cough. He’d been in enough barroom brawls to recognize that combination meant someone had gotten punched in the gut.

Travis didn’t stop to think before he ran toward the scuffle. Because that’s what soldiers did. They figured out where trouble was and headed there.

He hadn’t gotten more than twenty feet down the dark alley when he heard raised voices and another thud, then a grunt of pain. He quickly darted around the Dumpster in his path and found not one, but two poor saps dressed in suits getting their asses kicked by five big guys in jeans and T-shirts. Two of the bad guys were holding up Suit Number One so the third could punch him again. Suit Number Two was on his knees while the fourth bad guy—this one a hell of a lot bigger than the others—leaned over and said something to him in a low whisper. Travis wasn’t sure what Big Guy was saying, but whatever it was, it must have freaked out Suit Number Two because he frantically shook his head and mumbled something Travis couldn’t hear. It must have pissed Big Guy off because he grabbed Suit Number Two by the lapels, hauling him to his feet.

Travis muttered a curse. This might have started as a simple mugging, but, now, it had all the makings of a situation that was going to end up with Suits One and Two in the hospital—or the morgue.

He stepped from the darkness into the dim light filtering through the back door of the closest business—a seafood restaurant named the Bluefin Bar and Grill.

“You assholes ever think of picking on someone your own size?” he demanded.

Hoping the five bad guys would run off was asking too much, especially since there were way more of them than there were of him. But he hadn’t expected four of them to pull guns on him. And from the casual, fluid way they reached behind their backs and came out with the pistols, they did it frequently.

Travis leaped behind the Dumpster to avoid getting his ass shot off as bullets zipped past him. The moment he hit the ground, he rolled over to the wall then quickly scrabbled around in the darkness for something he could use as a weapon. Boots stomped toward the Dumpster. He had two seconds, tops.

His right hand found something hard on the ground, and he snatched it up without thinking. A broken dinner plate. It wasn’t much, but it was heavy, and it was sharp.

He spun around, staying low as he hugged the corner of the Dumpster and waited for the first guy to come closer. The moment boots left the paved road and crunched on gravel, Travis was up and swinging his makeshift weapon.

Bad Guy Number One clearly hadn’t expected Travis to be armed. His eyes went wide as Travis scraped the ragged edge of the plate along his bicep, slicing deep enough to hit bone. The guy stumbled backward with a strangled grunt, tangling with Bad Guy Number Two before he could get a shot off at Travis. Thanking Heaven for small favors, Travis dropped the plate and charged both of them.

Travis had to give Bad Guy Number One credit. Despite the laceration to the arm—which Travis knew from experience hurt like hell—the dude backpedaled, trying to get his weapon pointed at Travis. But it was too late for that. Travis slammed the heel of his hand into Bad Guy Number One’s nose. The man went down with a cry of pain, cradling his broken face like a baby.

Travis quickly sidestepped him to get to Bad Guy Number Two, but the lowlifes holding Suit Number One dropped him and headed his way, guns pointed in his direction.

Shit.

Suits One and Two might not be the only ones ending up in the morgue tonight.

Travis was about to dive for cover behind the Dumpster again when the back door of the restaurant burst open and a dark-haired woman in a blue dress ran out so fast it looked like she’d been shot out of a cannon.

What the hell?

Travis moved to grab her, but wasn’t fast enough. He stared in amazement as she jumped up and kicked one of the men who’d been about to waste him, the heel of her bare foot striking the would-be shooter in the temple. The guy didn’t even have time to grunt. He simply went down—hard.

The woman touched down on the pavement light as a feather, her bare feet barely making a sound. Damn, she was beautiful—both in the classical sense and in the chicks-who-can-fight-are-hot kind of way. That was probably a wildly inappropriate thought to be having right then, but Travis refused to be held responsible for what his id had to say on the subject.

For a few long heartbeats, the bad guys and suits froze. Then Ninja Girl spun around to face Big Guy and growled. Seriously. She frigging growled!

And that was kind of hot, too.

Big Guy immediately charged her. Ninja Girl met him halfway, launching herself in a spinning back kick that probably shouldn’t have been possible in the knee length dress she wore. Crap, she was lightning fast. And as aggressive a fighter as any special ops warrior he’d ever worked with. But Big Guy was just as fast, which was crazy considering he had to be at least two hundred and forty pounds. And yet, he easily sidestepped her kick.

Travis was about to give her some help when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. While the bad guy Ninja Girl had kicked in the face seemed to be out cold, and the one Travis had put down with a broken nose was still on the pavement, the same couldn’t be said of the other two. They’d moved down the alley a few feet, their weapons trained on the woman. While she was locked in hand-to-hand with Big Guy, his friends were going to put a bullet in her head.

Travis didn’t even try to warn her. Instead, he took two running steps and tackled Ninja Girl from behind when the men opened fire. Half a dozen rounds bounced off the back of the restaurant as he took the long-haired spitfire to the ground. He used his body weight to spin them while they fell so he landed on his back with her on his chest. He cradled her body against his, rolling a few more times when another set of bullets thudded into the pavement around them. They slid to a stop at the same time the shooting ceased, and Travis heard pounding feet as the three bad guys hauled ass down the alley.

Ninja Girl uncoiled herself from his chest with more grace than he’d ever possessed in his life and was over checking on Suits One and Two before Travis could even get to his feet. Figuring she had that covered, Travis hesitated only long enough to reach down and pick up the handgun that belonged to Bad Guy Number One then raced down the alley after the three shitheads who were trying to get away. They had a hell of a head start on him, so he doubted he’d catch them, but maybe he could get a look at their vehicle or license plate number.

He checked the gun as he ran, dropping the magazine into the palm of his other hand to make sure it was full. He’d be screwed if he caught up with the bad guys only to find out the weapon was empty. Not only would that be embarrassing, but painful, too. Luckily, it was loaded.

He slammed the magazine back in, lifting his head in time to catch sight of the three men a hundred yards in front of him. They slipped in and out of the dim lights coming from the various restaurants and businesses lining the alley. Clearly, they hadn’t expected anyone to follow them because they weren’t moving very fast. He might catch up to them after all.

Hand tightening around the pistol’s grip, he sped up, his boots echoing in the alley as he raced down it at warp speed. At least it seemed like warp speed until Ninja Girl ran past him like he was standing still. Holy crap, she was fast. Speed like that might have left a guy with less self-esteem with a few inferiority issues, but, fortunately, lack of self-esteem had never been a problem for him.

Up ahead, Big Guy suddenly stopped and spun around to face them. Travis swore and ran faster. Ninja Girl was closing in on Big Guy at breakneck speed. She was going to get shot for sure.

But Big Guy didn’t pull out a gun. Instead, he spread his arms and legs wide like he was daring Ninja Girl to bring it. Then he roared.

The sound was so animalistic and primal, it made the hair on the back of Travis’s neck stand on end. Any sane person probably would have turned and run the other way, but not Travis. Then again, he always thought he had to have a couple screws loose to be a Special Forces soldier.

That’s when things got really weird.

At first, Travis thought it was the near darkness in the alley playing tricks on him because he could have sworn Big Guy’s eyes were glowing gold and his teeth were suddenly frigging huge. But as Travis got closer, he realized he wasn’t seeing things. Big Guy really did have a mouth full of enormous teeth that hadn’t been there before, including two fangs protruding almost an inch past his lower lip. And if that wasn’t completely freaky beyond all possible definitions of the word, the guy’s fingertips now ended in long straight claws that looked like something out of a horror movie.

Travis expected Ninja Girl to slam on the brakes, whirl around, and run screaming. He lifted his pistol and aimed it at Big Guy, ready to cover her escape, but she never even slowed down. Instead, she let out a high-pitched growl of her own and went in swinging, spinning, and kicking.

Big Guy wasn’t the only one with fangs and claws. Ninja Girl had a matching set, except hers were sharper and more curved. And, oh yeah, her eyes were glowing green instead of yellow.

Well, shit.

There were two people with fangs, claws, and glowing eyes fighting like animals right in front of him, so slowing down would probably have been the intelligent thing to do. But there was a woman fighting a man who outweighed her by more than a hundred pounds. Ninja Girl might have more speed than a Ferrari, but Big Guy didn’t seem fazed by her speed, not even when her curved claws slashed through his T-shirt to scratch his chest. He simply kept raking at her with his claws. Something told Travis that if Big Guy landed one of his blows, Ninja Girl wasn’t going to be able to shake it off quite as easily.

Travis stopped and aimed his gun at Big Guy, but he and Ninja Girl were moving too fast to get a clear shot.

The hell with it.

Taking a deep breath, he ran toward them at a flat-out sprint.

“Incoming!” he shouted, praying Ninja Girl got out of the way. If she didn’t, he was going to end up hitting her for sure.

She spun to the side just as Travis lowered his shoulder and slammed it into Big Guy’s chest. The move caught the freaky guy with the glowing yellow eyes completely by surprise, and he flew backward, landing on his ass. Travis immediately jumped to his feet and leveled his gun at Big Guy’s head.

Travis might have gloated a little if not for the distinctive metal-on-metal clack as familiar to him as a baby’s cry to its mother. That was the sound of the bolt closing on an M16 and loading a round into the chamber.

Travis lifted his head to see the two remaining bad guys standing ten feet away, matching assault rifles in their hands.

Double shit.

Travis spun around to get Ninja Girl to safety, but she was already running for cover of the nearest building. Two weapons on full automatic chewed up the ground around them as Travis wrapped his arms protectively around her and got them both out of the line of fire. They hit the ground hard, rolling once to reach safety. A hail of bullets smashed into the wall above them and Travis yanked her closer to his chest as fragments of brick rained down on them. He’d been shot at enough times in battle to know better than to poke his head out for a look-see. That would only get it shot off.

Even after tires squealed on asphalt and he knew the bad guys had left, he stayed where he was, hugging Ninja Girl close to his body. Not because he thought they were in danger any longer, but because she felt exceedingly nice there. If she wasn’t going to complain, neither was he. Hell, he’d be fine with her staying there all night.

After a few moments, she stirred on his chest, twisting around to look at him. Her fangs were still out and her eyes had that amazing green-thing going on, but, a second later, both slowly disappeared. Bummer. He’d never seen a woman with fangs before, but he had to admit they looked good on her.

Travis was still gazing into her now blue eyes—which were just as devastating, even without the glow—when she arched a brow and gave him a questioning look.

“So, do you tackle all the girls you meet, or am I special?” she asked in the sexiest voice he’d ever heard.

Oh, you’re special all right, he mused to himself as she gracefully got to her feet and looked down the alley in the direction the heavily armed men had vanished.

Very special.