He cut the lights and parked the Porsche down the street from the building they'd be staking out. A breeze kicked up, sending a smatter of leaves and city dust skating across the hood of the vehicle. When it had passed, Dante slid the window down and let the coolness come inside. He took a deep breath, dragging in a lungful of the crisp, late-autumn air.
Something spicy-sweet tickled his nostrils, sending every cell in his body into instant alert. The scent was distant and elusive, nothing manufactured by man, Breed, or any of their collective sciences. It was dusky warm, like cinnamon and vanilla, although to call it such only captured the smallest fraction of its mystique. The scent was something exquisite and singular.
Dante knew it at once. It belonged to the female he'd fed from--the Breedmate he'd so carelessly claimed as his less than twenty-four hours ago.
Tess.
Dante opened the car door and got out.
"What are we doing?"
"You're staying here," he instructed Chase, drawn inexorably toward her, his feet already moving on the pavement.
"What is it?" The agent drew his gun and started to get out of the Porsche like he meant to tail Dante on foot. "Tell me what's happening, damn it. Do you see something out there?"
"Stay in the f**king car, Harvard. And keep your eyes and ears on that building. I've got to check something out."
Dante didn't think anything was going to go down at their posted location in the next few minutes, but if it did, at that moment he didn't really care. All he knew was the scent of that perfume on the night wind and the realization that the female was near.
His female, came the dark reminder from somewhere inside him.
Dante tracked her like a predator. Like all of the Breed, he was gifted with heightened senses, super speed, and animal agility. When they wanted, vampires could move among humans undetected, nothing more than a cool breeze on the back of their necks as they passed them by. Dante used that preternatural skill now, navigating the clogged streets and back alleys, his senses trained on his quarry.
He rounded a corner onto the busy main street, and there she was, across the width of the pavement, on the other side.
Dante went still where he stood, watching as Tess shopped in a lighted open-air market, carefully selecting fresh greens and vegetables. She dropped a yellow squash into her canvas shopping bag, then perused a bin of fruit, stopping to lift a pale cantaloupe to her nose and test its ripeness.
Thinking back on the moment he first saw her in her clinic, even through the haze of his injuries, Dante had recognized that she was beautiful. But tonight, under the strand of small white lights illuminating the produce bins, she looked radiant. Her cheeks were flushed pink, her blue-green eyes sparkling as she smiled over at the old proprietess and complimented her on the quality of the stand's offerings.
Dante moved up his side of the street, keeping to the shadows, unable to take his eyes off her. This close, the scent of her was inebriating and lush. He breathed in through his mouth, letting the spicy sweetness of her sift through his teeth, relishing the way it played across his tongue.
God, but he wanted to taste her again.
He wanted to drink of her.
He wanted to take her. Before he knew what he was doing, Dante stepped down off the curb and into the street. He could have been at her side in half a second, but something strange caught his eye.
He wasn't the only male watching Tess with evident interest.
A human stood in the shelter of a building entrance just a few doors down, peering around the casement at the market in an attempt to not be seen as he observed Tess finishing up her shopping. He didn't fit the stalker mold, with his tall, lean frame and college-boy good looks. Then again, neither had Ted Bundy.
Tess paid for her groceries and wished the old woman a good night. The instant she started to step away from the lighted awnings of the produce stand, the human carefully came out of his hiding place.
Dante seethed at the idea that Tess might meet with harm. He crossed the street in a blink, coming up on the human from behind and stalking within a few yards, ready to tear the man's arms off if he so much as breathed on her.
"Hey, Doc," the man called out, familiarity in his voice. "What's up?"
Tess spun around, gave him a surprised little smile. "Ben, hi! What are you doing here?"
She knew him. Dante pulled back at once, easing off into the flow of pedestrians milling about the shops and restaurants.
"Didn't you get my message at your place? I had business up here, and I thought maybe we could have dinner or something."
Dante watched as the human went up and hugged her, then leaned down to give her a fond kiss on the cheek. The man's adoration was obvious. More than adoration; Dante detected the sharp tang of possessiveness radiating off the human male.
"Are we still on for the dinner exhibit at the museum tomorrow night?" the man asked her.
"Yeah, sure." Tess nodded, surrendering her tote when he reached to take the burden from her. "So, what should I wear to this thing, anyway?"
"Whatever you want. I know you'll be gorgeous, Doc."
Of course. Dante understood it now. This was the boyfriend Tess had called at the clinic last night. The one she had turned to out of terror for what Dante had done to her.
Jealousy curdled in his gut--jealousy he had no true right to feel.
But his blood said different. His veins were alive and burning. The part of him that was not human at all urged him to plow through the crowd and tell the female that she was his, and his alone. Whether she knew it or not. Whether or not either of them willed it.
But a saner part of him lashed a collar around that beast and dragged it back.