Temptation's Heat Read Online Free PDF Page B

held SUVs, the other contained sedans and sports cars, and the third was all motorcycles.
    He stepped toward the vehicles, running his hand along the hood of the black Audi R8, lurking at the front of the line like a sleeping beast.
    “Unbelievable.” Rowen lifted his gaze, peering into the recesses of the carriage house. “How big is this place anyway?”
    “Bigger than it looks,” Scarlet said. She walked to a lock box on the wall and took the keys to the R8. She tossed them to him. “Let’s go.”

Thirteen
    The morgue was in the basement of Clifton General, a nondescript building constructed of beige brick back when there was still some hope that Clifton would become more than a defunct railroad town.
    Rowen’s heart was still racing, the blood pumping erratically through his veins, when he pulled the car to a stop in the hospital parking lot. He didn’t know if his state of excitement was due to the sleek car in his hands or Scarlet sitting beside him, legs long and lean in tight jeans, her gorgeous green eyes hidden by a pair of oversized shades.
    They locked the car and headed inside, descending to the basement in a dingy elevator that had seen better days. They were greeted by a bored attendant with thinning hair and a forehead the size of Texas.
    “You know where you’re going, right?” he asked Scarlet after he’d signed them in.
    “Yep, I’m good,” she said.
    Rowen followed her to a room at the end of the hallway where a small, brown-skinned man was bent over a microscope at a steel table against the wall.
    Scarlet approached him carefully. “Dipak?” she said softly.
    He jerked up at the sound of her voice. His arm flew out, sending a tray of silver instruments crashing to the floor.
    “Oh!” She got down on the floor to pick up the lost items. “I’m sorry. I tried to be quiet. I know how you get when you work.”
    Rowen hurried to help her, trying to ignore the fact that her face was just inches from his, her mouth close enough to kiss.
    They stood, handing over the glinting medical items.
    “I was analyzing the sample taken from the revenant’s body,” Dipak said, depositing the instruments back on the tray.
    Rowen raised his eyebrows. It wasn’t often he came across a civilian who knew about the workings of their world.
    “Dipak’s mother was a descendant,” Scarlet explained when Rowen’s eyebrows arched in surprise. “He gives us information when we need it.”
    “Here,” the man gestured at the telescope. “Take a look.”
    Scarlet moved closer and peered into the instrument.
    “Give your eyes time to adjust,” Dipak instructed.
    “Damn …” She stepped back, gesturing for Rowen to look.
    At first, all he could see was a shock of white with a smudge in the middle. He let his eyes rest on the image, waiting for it to coalesce into something that made sense. He saw it a moment later; the “V” of the sickle, intersected by the blade of the glaive, both against the backdrop of the flower of life.
    It was a symbol of the Shadowguard.
    He straightened; dread sinking like a stone in his stomach. “Shit.”
    Dipak handed them both gloves. He reached under the microscope while they pulled the powdery latex over their hands and dropped something into Scarlet’s open palm.
    “I don’t believe this.” She studied the object before handing it to Rowen.
    The piece of metal was definitely a spear from a glaive. Not the big one at the end, but one of the smaller ones that emerged on impact, each of them engraved with the Guard’s symbol.
    Rowen looked at her. “Mikhail?”
    Her nod was reluctant. “Has to be. Everyone else’s weapons have checked out. No one’s missing a piece, and nothing new has been requisitioned from the armory.”
    “Fuck.” It was only his second day on the job, and so far he’d exposed himself in front of the boss’s daughter, almost killed one of his brothers-in-arms, and landed an assignment that might end the Treaty that kept peace between