Page 29 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

She stopped thinking when she felt the familiar caress of his fingertips running over her jaw before making their way down her throat as his lips left her forehead and brushed against one cheek and then the other before they were lightly brushing against her lips in an achingly sweet kiss. “Trust me,” came the soft whisper as his lips left hers and found her chin before kissing a path down to her throat as his arms wrapped around her. She felt the tips of his fangs press against her throat seconds before they were pushing through her skin.

There was a small pinch, and then…

A soft moan was torn from her lips as pleasure tore through her body. This felt so good, Jill thought, dropping her head back as her hands fisted in his shirt and he pulled her closer, moaning against her neck and-

“One week,” Logan bit out, struggling to catch his breath as he suddenly released her and stumbled back, his silver eyes locking on her as he grabbed his phone off the bed before abruptly turning around and headed for the door, leaving her standing there trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

CHAPTER 16

Maplewood Cove, New Hampshire

One Week Later…

“Start talking,” Logan said, absently rolling the small remote that had taken him a week and two favors to find as his gaze flickered from his laptop to the demon that better have answers.

“There’s no sign of Pierce,” Tomas said, leaning over to pick up the chair that Logan used to break open a shifter’s head only to rethink the move when the chair fell apart.

“There never is,” Logan drawled as he scrolled through the job postings, absently noting that there were three bounties on his head, one from a demon he pissed off a century ago, one from a Pack determined to make him pay for his role in stopping the attack on the Williams’ mansion, and the last one was from Magnus.

“He’s offering twenty-five million dollars for your capture,” Tomas said as he took in the containment facility where Magnus originally held the children.

“Thirty million now,” Logan murmured absently as he scrolled down the page until he came to the bounty that had his jaw clenching.

“You really can’t blame him,” Tomas said, kicking the remains of a metal table out of the way so that he could grab a chair and pull it closer.

“What did you find out?” Logan asked, grinding his jaw at he took in the bounty on Property 302: male shifter, 14 years of age, Property 340: male shifter, 6 years of age, and Property 341: 6 years of age, female shifter.

“About the children or about that other thing that you don’t want to talk about since I told you that you could safely consume her blood?” Tomas asked as he set the chair down next to him and dropped down on it with a heartfelt sigh.

“The children,” Logan bit out as he logged into the forum.

“I sent everything to your email, but from what I saw, it was what we’d expected,” Tomas said as Logan clicked on the page to place a new bounty.

“Were there other children?” Logan asked after a slight hesitation.

“The last one was sold two years ago,” Tomas said as Logan typed in “Magnus” for the target.

“Did the transfusion work?” Logan asked, setting the bounty for twenty million dollars.

“Yes, the bloodline has a proven track record of working,” Tomas said as Logan set the status of the bounty to “Dead.”

“How many children?” Logan asked, throwing the demon a questioning look.

“Fifty-nine children,” Tomas said hollowly.

Absently nodding, Logan scrolled back to the status of the bounty and changed it to “Alive” before he changed the bounty from twenty million to fifty million dollars. “I want him broughtto me,” Logan said, filling out the rest of the form and hit publish.

“I figured you would,” Tomas murmured, gesturing to the wounds that healed within minutes of the shifter clawing his chest open. “Are you ready to talk about that other thing yet?”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Logan said, even as he found himself swiping to the next window and felt something inside of him relax when he spotted his angel curled up in her closet with another book.

Over the past week, he’d thought about that night in his cell, telling himself that he’d fed from her the same way that he’d fed from thousands of humans over the years before her, but…

He knew that wasn’t true.

He’d never seen humans as anything more than a meal or a means to an end, using a few seductively whispered words in their ears before he took what he wanted, but with Jill…

He wanted to savor the moment.

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