Rise of the Fallen by Donya Lynne Page B

parking lot.
    "Apparently not too weak," she said, lifting her
gaze to range his very strong, very virile body before meeting his eyes as he
stepped in front of her.
    "I won't hurt you."
    It was the way he said it, almost as if he were a chivalrous
knight – her own Sir Lancelot – as if he were speaking to Queen Guinevere
herself. Before she could stop herself, she took his outstretched hand and let
him help her into the car.
    "What am I doing?" she said to herself as he went
around the front of the car.
    He opened the driver's side door and got behind the wheel.
    "Wait," she said. "The keys are inside, with
my things."
    "Don't worry, I've got this." He winked at her.
    She watched him hotwire her car like a natural-born thief.
    "Of course," she said, waving her hand and
glancing out the window. "Of course you can hotwire my car." Just
what was she getting herself into with Micah?
     

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    "Let me get this straight. You had her but she got
away?" John Apostle stood beside his unmarked Dodge Charger in an alley
behind a row of local businesses, rubbing his shoulder. Thing still hurt like a
mother fucker, but at least the bullet hole had healed.
    Tormin and Janus looked at each other.
    "What part of 'do not touch her' did you two fuckheads
not understand? I specifically remember telling you not to touch her."
    "Micah showed up, so we had to alter the plans."
    "Micah? What did he want?"
    Janus shifted uneasily as if standing was a chore. Probably
was by the looks of him. Micah hadn't been picky about where to hit the guy.
"I think he wanted the girl, too."
    "Oh?"
    "Yes, and if I'm not mistaken, she's his mate."
    "His mate?" Now, this was interesting. "What
makes you think so?"
    "Just the way he reacted. He reacted like a mated
vampire when we went after her."
    Apostle rubbed his chin, thinking. "Intriguing. He
certainly didn't act like a mated vampire when he asked me to kill him."
    The three exchanged glances, then Apostle said, "Give
me her information."
    "Apostle," Tormin said, "You can't go after a
vampire's mate. That's war, and you know it."
    "He started the war, not me." Apostle didn't like
being teased, and being told he was going to kill a vampire only to have his
intentions thwarted was a tease. Micah had wanted to die the other night. Well,
Apostle was going to give him what he wanted, one way or another. If it took
killing his mate to kill him, then that was what he would do. He would keep his
end of the deal.
    "Apostle—" Tormin said.
    Apostle backhanded him so hard he stumbled to the side
before righting himself, holding his already-bruised face. "I will have
her, Tormin. Now, give me that bitch's information."
    With a reluctant nod, Tormin pulled a slip of paper from his
pocket with two addresses written on it. One for her home and one for work.
    "Good, now go home. I'll get someone to cover your
shifts for a few days until your faces heal."
    Tormin and Janus turned and exited the alley. Apostle
reviewed the information on the piece of paper then folded it and tucked it
into his uniform pocket before getting back into his car and slipping out of
the alley on the other side. Looked like he had a new beat to patrol.
    Radioing in a fake call to dispatch about a suspect he was
tailing, he put Sam's home address into his GPS. If he was lucky he would catch
the bitch at her home if that fuckhead Micah hadn't already rushed her off to
safety.
    * * *
    Severin finished his shift and decided to stop by Four Alarm
for a beer before going home. With the Micah crisis averted, at least for the
moment, everyone could relax. Or maybe not, given how Micah had been behaving
since returning to AKM, going off like a loose cannon and shirking his orders.
Sev had only been with AKM a month, but it was clear Micah was an asshole who
got under everyone's skin. The guy couldn't be controlled.
    His thoughts shot to walking in on Micah roughing up Arion
earlier. Even now, Sev felt the urge to break the guy's face for touching