Tarnished Read online

  “He knows how to fight.”

  “That’s okay, it just makes it more fun, right?”

  “Oh yeah, a blast.”

  He slashed at Nic and their swords met. Nic swung. The vamp blocked. Nic upped the intensity of his attack as he hammered the vampire with swing after swing. It was all the undead thing could do to keep its sword up.

  Nic advanced. The vamp backed away until it hit one of the tables. Unable to go any farther, it charged, yelling what sounded like an old Spanish battle cry. Nic had to fall back for more room.

  Their swords clashed, and the ringing of steel echoed. They parted, circling each other.

  The bastard was strong, but not strong enough. Focusing on his adversary’s face, Nic watched its eyes.

  The creature attacked again. Swords met, steel screaming against steel. Parted and met again as the fighters circled. Swinging in tight arcs and rapid rhythms. Separating. Advancing to meet each other. Their swords locked. Both leaned in, straining to overpower the other.

  Nic stepped back and let his opponent’s sword slide down his, dropping the tip of his sword to the left. The vamp’s sword slid along it, unbalancing him. Nic stepped to the side and, putting his shoulders into it, pushed the vampire’s sword away. His opponent staggered out of reach but regained its footing.

  “Who sent you?” The vampire circled, looking for an opportunity to strike.

  “The last vampire I killed. He said to tell you he’d see you in hell.” Nic laughed, feinted, and drew the vamp’s arm out in a swing that missed. Nic stepped to the inside. The point of his sword found its chest. The vampire didn’t disappear, but hung on the tip of the sword. Nic, teeth gritted, inched forward, pushing the blade deeper.

  Holding his sword with both hands at chest height, Nic tightened his grip as the vampire slid toward him on the blade of the sword. Deadly, white fangs neared. Powerful hands reached for him, and black eyes blazed with hatred.

  The vampire disappeared. Its weapon clattered to the ground.

  Sheathing the great sword, Nic turned and faced the woman.

  Putting her hands on her hips, she tilted her head to the side in question. “Some rescue. What took you so long?”

  “Crosstown traffic’s a bear this time of night.” Nic gave her a shrug. Damn, she was only about five feet five, but every inch was packed with sexy female energy.

  “Right. Hope you don’t mind, but I had to start without you.” She waved her hand at the room.

  “That’s all right, as long as we finish together.” He couldn’t take his eyes off her.

  “Well…” She raised an eyebrow. “Was it good for you?”

  “Hell, I don’t smoke, but I think I need a cigarette,” he drawled.

  “Kiss her, Nic, or I will.”

  “Shut up, Cho, and let me handle this.”

  Fiona turned her back on him and went over to the girls. “Party’s over. Get dressed, girls.”

  Nic looked at her and frowned.

  “When did she take over this operation?”

  “When she was kicking vampire ass, is my guess.”

  After leading the girls back to the pile of clothing, she put down the sword. Sifting through the heap, she pulled out jeans and a T-shirt, and then she held up shreds of what might have once been underwear. She tossed them to the side with a disgusted sigh.

  Nic watched, biting back his moan as she slipped the jeans over her firm ass, hiding it from his sight.

  “Nic. Hey, Nic. Snap out of it, Nic.”

  She paused, her head tilted as if she’d heard something.

  She shook her head and then helped one of the girls get her clothes on. Once dressed, the girl gave her a hug. The others waited for their turn. Seemed they all needed a hug right about then. Sniffling, they looked at her with gratitude and admiration. Like she was some sort of hero.

  “Let’s go home, girls.” She herded them across the room to the stairs where Nic leaned against the wall.

  Cho reclaimed his place on Nic’s shoulder and returned to his natural green color. Nic watched the girls go up the stairs, still in a tight huddle.

  The woman of his dreams moved to his side and looked up into Nic’s eyes as he towered above her. Reaching out her hand as if to touch his face, she dropped it to pet the lizard riding on his broad shoulder.

  “Cute lizard.” She smirked and headed up the steps.

  “Ha. Ha. Ha. She said I was cute!”

  “Shut up, Cho.”

  Chasing Dreams by Kelli Evans

  Coming August 1, 2013

  Chapter One

  The day was warm and getting increasingly warmer. The weather was amazing. Usually, winter clutched on with its cold, clammy hands for much longer. Meteorologists had called for an early summer, and because of that, tourist shops opened up earlier than usual. Selina LeClézio had started working again for the boat tours of The Falls much sooner than in years past.

  She enjoyed it. She loved The Falls, and she loved her job. Most people who came to Niagara Falls took a boat tour, and Selina got paid to take it daily. Granted, some days weren’t as luxurious as others, but it pretty much beat working at her sister’s bait shop. Selina worked with Angeline at Bait & Tackle in the winter and during the off months from the tour.

  Selina loved her sister but found working with her at the bait shop boring, and she didn’t really like going home smelling like worms. Selina and Angeline shared a house, and the months they worked together dragged on and became unbearable. They were as close as sisters got, but they each had their limitations, and all day, every day, with each other was too much.

  Working for the boat tours recharged Selina. She loved the sound of The Falls, the wind, and the spray. The unusually warm days had made Selina feel flirty. She’d traded out the uniform’s heavy, insulated wind breaker for a tour-issued blue vest instead. She even decided to wear a skirt today in place of her usual jeans. No matter how windy it was or how the mist tried to prickle her skin, the sun felt warm on her face. She closed her eyes to it, soaking it all in.

  She really did love this. The rocking of the boat, the rhythmic pat-pat of the water against the hull, and of course, the rushing of those falls. Selina breathed in deeply and smiled at the laughter of children on the deck. She opened her eyes to watch a young brother and sister chase each other, winding around their mother’s legs.

  Most of the passengers aboard were older people or young families. Kids never seemed to appreciate The Falls in quite the same way as the adults, but they were fun to have around. It involved a little more work for Selina, but she didn’t mind. She would need to dig out a pair of life jackets for the two of them.

  She loved hearing them laugh. She was watching the young pair of siblings giggling and teasing each other when a shiver traveled up her spine. Someone was watching her. She looked around and shook off the feeling. Of course someone was watching her; she was on a boat full of passengers. Then the hairs prickled at the nape of her neck, and chills raced across her skin. Even her nipples had grown taut.

  She was hyperaware of something. She looked around again, taking a closer look this time. The only people she spotted now that she hadn’t seen before were three college kids hanging out on the right side of the deck.

  She knew they were college kids because college guys had a certain look about them, an easiness in their shoulders, a twinkle in their eye … their fraternity shirts helped to tip her off too. She smiled at the three of them laughing with each other. They seemed close. She didn’t know why she found them amusing because usually by the end of the season she couldn’t stand college kids. Today, however, she couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off these three.

  They were each different heights, and all of them had a different hair color and body build. Each of them appeared to be attractive in his own way. But the one in the middle was different. He stood taller, darker, and hotter than the other two. He was fit and athletic; every move he made seemed effortless and powerful.

 
Selina had a thing for dark-haired men with chiseled jaws. Then he glanced up and she caught sight of those startlingly green eyes. She nearly gasped at the sight. A wave of awareness fell over her, and the chills were back as he caught her looking. Embarrassed, she should have averted her gaze, but she couldn’t. Those eyes of his were so bewitching that they held her in place.

  •

  Nathan Lawson watched the girl across the deck from him. She wore a blue vest with a name tag pinned to it but was too far away for him to read it. Nathan had originally glanced up because he’d gotten that feeling at the base of his neck and a niggling in the pit of his stomach, a telltale sign that someone had been watching him.

  When he looked up, she’d instantly caught his eyes. It felt like a kick to the solar plexus. Sounds awful, but the breathless feeling he got from just seeing her was euphoric. She was beautiful. He didn’t know if he’d ever seen anyone in real life that was this beautiful. He’d had girlfriends who were attractive, who were cute, sexy—pretty, even—but this girl who stared at him from across the way was strikingly beautiful.

  Tendrils from her pulled-back, black hair had found their way loose and framed her face and long elegant neck. Her skin was tinted a natural olive color. Her bone structure seemed delicate, her jaw smooth and slim, her face soft and feminine. She had full, pouty, pink lips, wide, almond-brown eyes edged by shapely brows, and high-structured cheekbones.

  Even her body was dainty. She looked wispy, but there was strength to the way she held herself. Strength that was in direct contrast to the long, slender, piano-player fingers and the delicate, almost fragile features of her face and shoulders.

  “Jesus, Nate.” His shorter, auburn, curly-haired friend, Charlie O’Connell, backhanded him in the gut, knocking all the remaining air from his lungs.

  “What?” Nathan broke eye contact with the girl across the deck for the first time in a long, breathless moment.

  “Wipe your chin. You’re drooling.” He laughed.

  Nathan knew Charlie had to be joking, but he found himself running the back side of his hand under his bottom lip in case he wasn’t.

  Nathan looked back up, and the beautiful girl he’d shared a glance with was standing right in front of him now. Her eyes widened when he looked at her, almost as if he’d startled her. She was close enough now that he could read her name tag, Selina. It seemed to fit her somehow.

  “I need in there.” She pointed, and he followed her gaze to his crotch.

  His face instantly felt warm. If all Niagara Falls’ women were this straightforward, this trip was going to be awesome. “Uh…” he stammered. He didn’t know what he was supposed to follow that with.

  “Stand up,” she ordered him. The cadence in her voice hinted at an accent.

  “Here?”

  His friends snickered beside him as Nathan followed her instructions. He looked around at the people on the boat. The boat itself was just now pulling away from the dock.

  “There are children around,” he said pointedly.

  “I know, which is why I need into the seat you were sitting on.” She stepped around him and pulled up on the bench lid. It popped open to reveal a chest full of life jackets.

  Nathan closed his eyes and bit back a self-loathing moan as he realized his mistake. “Oh,” he heard himself utter before Charlie and Dylan started to bark with unrestrained laughter. Thankfully, it seemed as if Selina didn’t know what they were laughing at, but she did look just as uncomfortable about it as he felt.

  The kid-sized life jacket slipped out of her hand and onto the deck of the ship. Nathan quickly bent to pick it up. “Let me help you.”

  He hadn’t been as quick as she was. He was still bending over as she was standing up. Their heads met in an excruciating crack. The back of her head smacked hard against his face.

  Nathan pinched the bridge of his nose together before blood ran out everywhere. Selina let out a string of what could only be French curse words, and Nathan was sure they were prettier sounding than their meanings.

  Holding the back of her head, Selina finally stood up and rubbed the spot where they’d collided. “Oh my! I am so sorry.” She gasped at what he assumed was the image of him holding his head back and pinching the bridge of his nose. “Sit down.”

  She closed the lid on the bench he’d been sitting on originally. He sat. She took off.

  It was probably for the best. He’d made an ass of himself, and he was now nursing a bloody nose. It was a great first impression.

  “I guess that’s what you get for thinking she meant she needed to get in your pants.” Charlie laughed with Dylan Miller, his other friend, the blond one.

  Nathan moaned in protest. He didn’t want to deal with their ribbing right now. His brain throbbed along with his wounded pride. Before he’d head-butted her, he’d thought about asking her to come out with them later this evening. Now, what kind of beautiful woman like that would want to go out with a guy she gave a bloody nose to? He was definitely not winning any Alpha of The Year awards with this one.

  He felt like such a wimp. He had a feeling the whole deck had caught the scene. He could feel their eyes on him. Then the captain came over the speakers and started to explain The Falls as mist began hitting their ponchos.

  Nathan regretted now not having put his on earlier. He couldn’t tell yet if he’d made a mess of his clothes or not because his head was still tipped back and his eyes were shut tightly. Bleeding onto a rain slicker would have been a hell of a lot less messy.

  “Here we go.”

  He heard Selina’s soft, accented voice, and he pried one eye open to catch sight of her smile. He shut it again as he realized she was opening a tin box and digging through it to find first aid supplies she could use on him. “Let’s fix you up, eh?”

  She began by brushing his hand away. “There’s some water in the cooler at the back of the boat,” she said to the snickering Dylan and Charlie, which caused their laughter to subside.

  Nathan peeled his eyes open again and watched her jerk her head in that direction. “Go get him some.”

  Both the guys must have realized she meant business, so they headed off the open deck to the enclosed structure at the rear of the boat. She watched them walk away as she held some gauze up to Nathan’s nose.

  “Some friends, eh? Laugh when you get hurt?”

  He found the sound of her voice so fascinating he didn’t want her to quit talking. “I’d probably laugh too if I were standing where they are.”

  “Honesty.” She moved the gauze away from his nose to look at his face. “Refreshing.” She inched closer to him to get a better look at his injury.

  Although Nathan’s brain knew that her incredibly close proximity was completely innocent, his heart pounded loudly in his ears. She was so close, and the tilt of her head was inviting. It left her neck stretching, open and available. Her skin would be soft, he was sure of it. She smelled sweet and delicate, like clean laundry and flowers.

  “Well, sir—”

  “Nathan.”

  He watched the slow smile spread across her face. “Well, Nathan, I don’t think it’s broken.”

  Nathan didn’t want her pulling away yet, and he didn’t want her soft fingers to stop touching his face. “I think it is.” His response came too quickly.

  Selina grinned down at him as she ran her finger over the impossibly straight bridge of his nose. The action was to determine if there was a break in it, but the brush of her finger against his skin ignited a slow, crawling fire to spread throughout his whole body.

  Nathan watched her eyes follow her finger. The Falls were so loud they matched the pounding heartbeat in his ears. A heavy mist splattered their skin and their clothes, cloaking them in a strange, magical intimacy.

  •

  “I think you’re going to be just fine,” Selina managed to say over the hum of The Falls. As she pulled the gauze away, she noticed that he had stopped bleeding.

  “What’s going on over here?
” Her manager, Sheila Ridgegate, came across the wet deck. She was barrel-chested and had her graying, brown hair cut short and tight to her head. If there had ever been a time when she was attractive, it was impossible to imagine now. Selina might have been able to appreciate something in her if she wasn’t such a nasty, conniving, demon of a boss.

  Selina was glad that they rarely worked the same shifts. She preferred to work under Pat Guster; he was a short, round, black man with a peppering of silver in his hair and goatee. He was relaxed and gave Selina lots of space. Whereas Sheila hovered and wrote Selina up for every infraction she could find, even if she had to dig for one.

  Selina felt herself stiffen with the presence of this woman before them. She realized she was about to get in trouble for something. While the bloody nose may have been her fault, it was nowhere near intentional. All Selina had been trying to do was her job.

  “It was my mistake.” Nathan spoke up, which startled Selina. She caught his gaze with her surprised, brown eyes.

  “Do we need him to file an accident report?”

  Selina’s hand was full of wadded-up, bloody gauze. The large woman gave Nathan a once-over, debating about what to do.

  “It’s just a nose bleed.” Nathan laughed it off. “Really, I’m fine.” Sheila still didn’t look appeased. “Selina came over here…”

  Selina’s head nearly spun around in shock. She hadn’t realized this dark-haired, green-eyed stranger knew her name. “She needed these life jackets for one of the kids over there, and I got a nose bleed.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. “She saved me.” Nathan grinned in a most charming way.

  “Is that what happened, Miss LeClézio?” Selina looked between Nathan and Sheila, trying to decide if she should lie or not. Sheila widened her eyes expectantly, and the delicious stranger gave her a slow, confident, reassuring nod. Selina found herself nodding in agreement.

  “Yes, precisely.”

  Sheila eyed her incredulously but bent at the waist. Her stomach folded in half by the straining waist line of her pants. She picked up one life jacket, took the other from Selina’s hand, and walked across the deck to take it to the parents of the kids Selina had motioned to.