Binds that Burn: A Werepanther Romance Suspense (Urban Dwellers Book 3) Read online

  He figured he might as well go to the club and have a couple of drinks, since it appeared his evening had opened up. He directed Cal, who didn't seem surprised about his decision to go to the club. It really was Eric's second home.

  As the car pulled up outside the Urban Dwellers, he heard cheering as well as booing as he got out of the car and people saw that it was him. Kyle was going to be pissed. It was the opposite of keeping a low profile, but he had tried within a reasonable measure.

  Eric heard people calling out his name, and it wasn't as if he was unaccustomed to the attention. Several of the voices were distinctly female in nature, yelling at him that the woman in question wanted to see him again. That was certainly a surprise, and Eric gave a dark chuckle. Even though he was being charged with murdering a woman, it seemed as if it only made him even more attractive to the opposite sex. No doubt the psycho ones.

  He attracted far more of those than he liked, and that streak had started with Jillian. Eric didn’t want to think about her anymore, but it proved to be difficult.

  Nina was entirely different from anyone he had ever dated before. Perhaps that was why he had been so reluctant to see it back then. She challenged him and forced him to see the world through her eyes. She had been fearless, and, in the end, he was the one who had been a coward. There was a part of him that had always thought that, at some point, she would break down and come back to him. But it appeared that Nina was just as stubborn as Eric. That didn’t bode well for any future relationship.

  As he moved through the room, he gave a short nod to the blonde woman working the bar. It had taken years, but he and Sophie had finally reached a kind of awkward yet workable professional relationship. When Kyle had taken over the alpha role for the Urban Dwellers, he had promoted Sophie to club manager, despite Eric’s reservations.

  She’d been at it for six months, and Eric had to admit that she was good at her job. She had revamped the drink menu, booked fresh talent for the music, and redesigned the format of the fight nights. Their profits had almost doubled.

  Eric wasn’t interested in being social, despite the fact that several women tried to grab his arm to dance with them. He shook them off with a neutral smile and shrug as he made his way up to their private booth in the VIP area. It was reserved strictly for him, Tony, and Kyle. He wasn't unsurprised when he reached the booth and discovered that it was empty.

  Eric felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him. Not all that long ago, the three of them would hang out at the club practically every night. Now Kyle was an old married man, and it appeared that Tony was following closely in his footsteps. Eric had always preferred life in the fast lane, riding solo when it came to relationships. Now, it seemed as if something had fundamentally shifted inside of him. He hated the fact that it was happening at the worst possible time. He should have known that something about that night eighteen years ago would eventually come back and bite him in the ass.

  Even though Tony had told him how it had come about that Jillian had returned their memories, he still didn't quite believe it. The supernatural realm was the furthest thing from his world, so he still needed time to process all of it. How Jillian could be nine hundred miles away and then dead in his bathroom moments later was impossible. What else could that be if not magic?

  Eric felt a twist in the pit of his stomach. Nina had left the alley and turned onto the street in front of the restaurant. He had watched her do it. So if Cal didn’t see her, then the only explanation was something impossible.

  Magic.

  He pulled out his phone again, and this time, he went ahead and dialed Nina's number. He was completely unsurprised when she didn't answer. But there was something going on, and Eric's sense of intuition was suddenly going haywire. The panther whined again. It knew as well.

  He had just decided that he was going to go to Nina’s apartment to check on her when suddenly, Sophie appeared in front of him. She put a bottle of scotch down in front of him as if giving him a peace offering.

  “I figured you could use it,” Sophie said. That was the understatement of the year.

  “Did you see me leave here the other night?” Eric knew that Tony and Kyle had already checked his story with her, but he wanted to hear it from her.

  “I was upstairs in the office doing the night’s receipts.”

  “But you checked the footage from the security tape, right?”

  “There must have been a short in the system,” Sophie said. “Nothing but static. I didn’t notice it until the next morning.”

  “But you saw me, right?”

  “I see you all the time,” Sophie said.

  “But was I with a girl?”

  “Eric, you’re always with girls,” Sophie said. “Honestly, there was nothing unusual about that night. You came in. You were up here drinking. Girls were coming and going. I had no way to tell which ones might have been coming in here and which ones were going to the other VIP booths.”

  “Then you are absolutely no help to me at all,” Eric said as he spun the top off the bottle and took a long swig. “I’m surprised you haven’t asked me yet if I did it.”

  "If you did or if you didn’t, it doesn't matter to me. My job is keeping this club running."

  “You are a cold bitch, Sophie,” Eric said. “Take it as a compliment. From one cold bastard to you.”

  “I’m nothing like you. God help me if anyone else ever draws that comparison,” Sophie said. She stood up. “Enjoy the drink.”

  She turned away, but Eric stopped her. “Do you remember how we met?”

  Sophie shifted her stance and then glanced back over her shoulder. “You mean when you hired me to make your girlfriend jealous?”

  It was an ugly truth. “I didn’t want to make her jealous. I hired you to show up at some events with me and make sure pictures were taken of it. It was to protect her from me. To keep her from getting hurt.”

  “Whatever helps you sleep at night, Eric.” Sophie sniffed and walked away.

  Eric was alone with his booze, which was usually exactly the way he liked it. He could stay there and try to drown his sorrows, or he could try to do something with what was left of his life.

  He’d check on Nina, and then he’d go home. He stood up and started to move out of the booth. He stopped and grabbed the bottle. If the night went the way he expected, he’d need it.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The encounter with Eric in the alley left Nina upset and emotional. She ran out of the alley and headed into the street. Blinded by her tears, she almost got hit by a taxi cab. She was completely discombobulated. She had gone into the evening with her armor on, and Eric had completely stripped it off as if it didn't even exist. The fact that she was barefoot was an ironic physical representation of that fact.

  Luckily, after the cab driver saw that she was in a state of distress and not trying to deliberately cause an accident, he bundled her into the back of his cab. He had kind chocolate brown eyes that reminded her of her grandfather’s.

  “Todo va a estar bien,” he said to her as he looked at her in the mirror and put the cab into gear.

  No, everything won’t be okay, she thought. Nina wasn’t sure if she’d ever be okay again.

  The ride home seemed to take forever. Nina didn’t live anywhere close to the Violet Lune. She couldn’t afford it. At least she was close to Mia and Carlos. She had thought for a while that she was going to be moving up town when she moved in with Eric. Of course, she had put the cart before the horse in that particular instance.

  She couldn’t believe that she let him get through her walls so easily. It was just that being around him had always felt so right and so natural. She was angry at herself for allowing her emotions to cloud her judgment. For her, it would never be just sex or a one-time thing. Eric would consume her. If she wasn’t careful, he would be her undoing. She had to find a way to forget about what had happened and stay away from him.

  Nina paid the driver and thanked him for his kindness. �
��Gracias,” she said. After ten years of living in Copper City, her Spanish was more than a little bit rusty, and it felt strange rolling off her tongue.

  “Cuidate,” the old man replied with a grim smile. As the taxi pulled away from the curb, Nina frowned. Be safe seemed like an odd parting, but if he had been referring to staying emotionally on guard, she had completely failed that evening. Nina started to dig in her purse for her keys.

  Because her thoughts were in such a whirlwind, she missed the signs that she was no longer alone on the sidewalk. A shadow fell across her, and she squinted at the person next to her who was enveloped by the glow of the streetlight behind them.

  "Ms. Rodriguez?" The voice held a note of chill that sent shivers down Nina’s spine. She would have backed away, but the voice was female and didn’t sound immediately threatening. Her fingers found her can of Mace in the side pocket.

  “Yes, I’m Ms. Rodriguez,” she said as she moved her head to try to see the woman’s features.

  When her eyes finally adjusted to the glare of the light, she was confronted by an image that she never expected to see. Perhaps that was why instead of pulling out her Mace and screaming, she stood there looking at the woman like a fish with her mouth hanging open. She forced herself to breathe and stay calm.

  The woman standing in front of her was Jillian Anderson.

  "You're dead," Nina finally said. The silent standoff needed to end.

  "You’d be surprised how often I get that," Jillian said. Although the words were joking, Nina felt no humor in them. It wasn’t the first time that Nina had ever been in the presence of a ghost, but Jillian looked… real. Alive. Definitely not dead.

  "What do you want?" Nina asked. It was as if her feet were glued to the sidewalk. As a couple walked by arm and arm, she noticed that they didn’t even glance in her and Jillian’s direction. A group of teenage boys whooped and hollered past them a moment later, but, again, didn’t even make a comment to them. It was as if people were moving around them like they weren’t even there.

  For all of her training, Nina had no idea what to do next. It was obvious that Jillian wanted something from her. But Nina had no idea why she would've attracted this particular ghost to her doorstep.

  "I can smell him on you," Jillian hissed.

  That was when the puzzle piece of ‘why’ fell into place for Nina. Of course, Eric would have had some romantic link to this woman. She had been found naked in his bathroom after all. Their relationship went back far further than what had been reported in the media. That was a detail that she had been able to glean from her insistent questioning of Maggie. Maggie had been entirely too close lipped on the whole situation, which bothered Nina because she thought it affected her ability to do her job. She was also starting to see why Maggie had insisted she take the case.

  "I think I'm going to go now," Nina said carefully. She didn’t want to engage Jillian until she understood what she was dealing with. Spirits could hurt the living, and it was never pretty when they did.

  "Where do you think you can go that I won’t find you?" Jillian's eyes flickered at the stairs leading up to Nina’s apartment.

  Nina had no idea if Jillian knew that her apartment was warded. It was a precaution that she always thought was silly, but was one her grandparents had always insisted on. When she moved into her own apartment, she had done it halfheartedly more to appease their spirits, because she sensed that they watched over her still. Now, that could be the thing that saved her.

  Nina already had her keys in her hand, and she thought she might be able to make it to the door before the woman in front of her caught her. It seemed obvious that Jillian was clearly unhinged, whether she was a ghost or something else entirely.

  "I'm not sure what you want, but I'm not playing this game," Nina said. Nina pulled out the Mace and stuck it in between them. “Stay back,” she warned. “This is laced with holy water.” That was a trick she had learned a few years ago from one of her internet buddies. So far, though, she never had to use it.

  Jillian threw back her head and laughed. It was an ugly sound. Then her eyes refocused on Nina, and as they opened fully, Nina saw they resembled orbs of orange flashing fire. Whatever Jillian was, she was beyond a simple, run of the mill ghost.

  "You cannot have him." Jillian hissed again. The features of her face morphed for a split second before resettling once again.

  Nina realized that Jillian must have been a shifter of some kind when she was alive. She should have recognized the first clue when she mentioned being able to smell Eric on her. That was definitely something that was related to shifterism. Once again, it appeared that her weakness when it came to Eric was going to screw her over.

  Nina waggled the can of Mace at Jillian again. She took a step backward; her mind furiously worked how many steps were left before she’d reach the steps, then reach the door. How much time it would take to unlock the door. Seconds would count if things went sideways. “I said stay back,” she reminded the other woman.

  Jillian's eyes grew brighter. She took three quick steps toward Nina, and that was when Nina’s mind told her to run. But even as she twisted to move, Jillian pounced on her and catapulted the two of them backward. Nina was flat on her stomach, staring at another group of people on the other side of the street. She yelled out to them, but there wasn’t even a hint of a reaction. Jillian’s body was heavy on her back, and even as Nina squirmed to grab hold of anything to help pull her up, Jillian shoved her back down to the ground.

  Didn't anyone see what was happening?

  “You are invisible. Invisible to everyone but me," Jillian hissed in her ear, answering her unspoken question. "And now, you will be mine as well,"

  Nina screamed in pain as she felt sharp teeth sink deep into the muscle of her shoulder. She felt nothing but agonizing pain and heard nothing but what sounded like a rattle of attack. She welcomed the darkness as it overtook her.

  Nina woke up in a cold sweat. She was on her back, staring at a ceiling. She looked around her frantically, but saw that she was in her bed in her own bedroom. She searched for any sign of Jillian, but she saw was alone.

  Maybe she had dreamed it. Maybe she had come home and passed out after what happened with Eric and had a terrible nightmare. She felt her breathing start to return to normal. She needed to stay calm.

  That was when Nina looked down at herself and saw that her shirt was splattered with blood. "Fuck," she said out loud.

  She twisted her shoulder and winced at the sharp pain that ricocheted up her neck and down her torso. That was when she knew that it hadn’t been a dream. The encounter with Jillian had been all too real.

  The pain took her breath away, and Nina slowly made her way into the bathroom. She flipped on the light switch and looked in the mirror. She gasped. The left side of her shirt hung in shreds, and the skin exposed underneath was entirely black and blue. She could clearly see two half inch holes on her collarbone where teeth had ripped into her skin. No, they were teeth marks.

  Nina moved closer to the mirror. Two perfect circles. These were the marks of fangs. She remembered Jillian’s hissed words and the sound of the rattle. Jillian was some kind of snake shifter. She was sure of it.

  Nina wasn't naive. After the declaration of the shifter independence, there had been many public service announcements about how to properly engage with shifters now that they were openly out in the world. The biggest risk to humans was around the dangers of a shifter bite. For awhile, it had caused a general state of panic that had taken years to educate everyone on.

  Now, eighteen years later, people were far more comfortable living around shifters than they ever had been. The education and awareness, led by shifters like Markus Kasper and Tony Atwood, taught everyone that, in general, shifters had no desire to bite humans. In the rare instances when it did happen, it was usually during some kind of aggressive act against them. It wasn’t something they were compelled to do.

  At the same time, everyone was st
ill very conscious of what an aggressive shifter bite meant for a human. When you were bitten by a shifter in that way, it meant that you became a shifter. Nina had watched the brutality of it play out first hand with her brother. Tomas had not been one of the ‘lucky’ ones. He had not survived the transition.

  Of course, that was something she had known when she was dating Eric. There was a strong preference in the shifter community to only co-mingle with other shifters. There were instances where humans agreed to be bitten and change to be with their intended mate. Nina had no desire to be anything other than what she was, and it was a discussion that had come up with Eric.

  Eric said he was completely fine with the idea of being in a relationship with a human, which at the time, she had been relieved about. Of course, it had come to light that Eric wasn't committed to any relationship at all, so that made sense. Even though she had known in the back of her mind that if Eric didn’t connect with her as his fated mate, he could find that person in the future, she had overlooked it.

  She had found out that the pretty blonde that she saw on Eric’s arm in the society pages of the newspaper right after their epic argument was a panther shifter, just like him. It felt as if the other shoe dropped. She closed the chapter on that part of her life, never intending to revisit it again. She wrote it off as temporary insanity.

  Now, she was confronted with a completely new reality. She had been bitten by a shifter. More than that, she'd been bitten by a deranged shifter that might or might not be dead. She had no idea the ramifications of that, but she knew that what lay ahead of her was a transition that would be the most painful thing she would ever have to endure.

  She couldn't go to the hospital. They wouldn’t know what to do with her. That meant that she had only one choice. There was only one person that was available to her that could help her.

  She had sworn to herself that she was never going to speak to Eric Carmichael again. She looked at her watch. She grimaced when she saw that she had been out for almost twelve hours. Every second counted. She didn't know who else to turn to. If there was anyone who might know if there was a way to escape this fate, it would be Eric.