Dark Passion Rising Read Online Free PDF Page B

taillights speed away.
    Tambra went to the corner apartment door on the far end of the
building and grabbed the key from under a loose chunk of concrete by her step. 
She froze just as she was placing the key into the lock, the hair at her nape
standing on end.  Someone was watching her.  She had gotten to know that
feeling all too well in her line of work.  It could be the only thing between
living and being on a coroner’s table with a toe tag.
    Turning, she scanned the area.  A yellowish ray of light
illuminated a spot of the parking lot, casting much of the area in dark
shadows.  A hint of movement caught her eye and she swore under her breath at
her lost gun.  It would have been handy if things got ugly, but, as it stood,
now she only had her self defense training as back up.
         The dark shape stepped into the light and Tambra nearly
crumpled with relief.  It was Cody.  The light caught the burnished copper of
his short hair as he came toward her.  His long legs ate up the distance
between them in seconds and she found herself swallowed up in his strong arms,
her face pressed to his chest.
    “Damn, cher, you scared the hell out of me.  Where have you been?
 The Captain is about to put an APB on your ass.” His Cajun accent was thick,
as it always was when he got fired up about something.
    “What about you?  Where were you the other night when we were
chasing that perp?” she demanded as she stepped back, pushing away from his
embrace.  “I tried you on the radio but got nothing but static.”
    Cody gave her one of his lopsided grins.  The ones that disarmed
most women and made them putty in his hands. 
    She snorted.  “Look, buddy, that don’t work on me.  You’re like a
brother to me.  I’m immune.  Let me get inside before I collapse, and then you will tell me what happened to you.”
    Cody raised his hands in surrender and followed her inside.  The
air was stale from being closed up for too long.
    The contrast between Marcus’s home and her small dwelling drew
her up short.  Instead of large landscape paintings she had a single picture on
a scuffed coffee table, showing her and her father at her graduation.  Instead
of black leather wing tip furniture she had a pale green couch.  Since she
spent most of her time working, she only really needed a place to put the few
things she had. 
    She wanted nothing more than to take a shower and sleep for a
week.  And then she would still have to think about everything Marcus had told
her.  
    Cody though, had other ideas as he took in her clothes, or lack
of them.
         “Tambra, where’s your gun?  And your clothes?”  He frowned
at her.
         She couldn’t tell him everything that had happened, he would
never believe it.  Marcus was right about that.  But she could give him an
edited version of what had happened.
    “Look, I don’t have the energy to explain everything right now. 
I ran into some trouble and was helped out by a Marcus Valerian.  Does that
name ring a bell?” At Cody’s blank look she continued, “Okay.  I need you to do
me a favor and run the name.  See what you come up with.  I need an address,
cell phone, anything.  I don’t care how inconsequential, I want to know it by
tomorrow night.  I was brought unconscious to his home.  He was watching over
me until I came around.”
     “What the hell did he do to you?” Cody growled, his face full of
dark fury as he sprang from his chair and strode toward her.
    Tambra blinked in surprise.  “Nothing, he saved my life.  I was
injured.”
     “Where, godammit?  You should be in a hospital, not walking the
streets by yourself.”
    Her hand went to where the Lycan had bitten her and she gasped in
shock as she found only smooth skin under her fingertips.  Whirling around, she
ran through her bedroom to the small bathroom with Cody hot on her heels. 
Shutting the door in his face, she faced her mirror and looked with disbelief
at the unmarred