Page 41 of Newly Undead in Dark River

A little spear of guilt spiked my chest, first that I was using Judge like that, and secondly because I was thinking about it when it was Walker who had gotten me worked up into this state.

“I want a kiss.” Walker’s words felt like a caress.

“Just a kiss? Where’s your imagination?” I teased.

He hummed low in his throat. “I didn’t say where.” His voice was a low, seductive promise.

A thrill ran through me, and every part of me wanted to jump him there and then, except one little, annoying part of my brain that said that perhaps we should make him work for it. Oddly enough, that thrilled the new vampiric part of me too.

“Well then, Sheriff,” I said, stealthily slipping off my heels. “I guess you’ll have to catch me first?”

I laughed and took off down the darkened road, hearing his deep belly laugh, followed by the steady thump of his feet as he chased after me. I kind of expected the road to tear up my feet, but it felt so natural running barefoot down the road, the rocks no longer pricking my soft human flesh.

“Better run faster, little vamp, because I’m hot on your delicious ass,” Walker said, and he sounded so happy that I just laughed and pushed myself faster. My eyes saw the darkness around us, in the same way, I saw the daytime as a human, with perfect clarity. I saw the nocturnal animals scatter as we ran past, not seeing us but sensing the real and present danger.

We went around all the smaller towns, skirting the edges of civilization until we were jumping rivers and rocky outcroppings. My dress caught and snagged on all sorts of things, and I sent up a silent apology to Ella. I was going to owe her big for this. Hopefully, Dark River had a dry cleaner I’d never noticed.

Finally, a sign that would be forever etched into my brain came into view.

Welcome to Dark River.

The population number had long ago been scratched out. Population 0. The irony wasn’t lost on me. No one there was really alive anyway, no matter how we went on living.

When I rolled to a stop underneath the sign, I bent over and put my hands on my knees, panting like I’d run a marathon.

Walker stopped right behind me, and when I looked over my shoulder, once I could draw breath again, I caught him staring at my ass.

“Are you looking up my dress, Sheriff? I’m going to have to call the authorities.”

He strolled over like he had all the time in the world, and ran a hand down the curve of my spine and over my ass. “You should definitely call the authorities,” he murmured.

He bit his lip, the points of his fangs dragging at the slightly pale flesh, reminding me that I’d fed from him and then made him drag me across the Canadian wilderness like a packhorse. Or a donkey. But he did have one fine ass.

I reached out and twined my fingers in his, and we strolled back into the town. Everyone was just winding down for the day, and the darkness was thick around us, heralding the dawn. “I think you should take me back to your place,” I said into the silence with a nonchalance I didn’t feel.

His fingers tightened around mine. “I want to, but I think it is a bad idea right now.”

I resisted the urge to stomp my foot like a child. What was it about Walker that made me want to pout like a baby. “And why not?”

He pulled me closer as if to soften the blow. Or to ensure I couldn’t run away.

“You are just lonely without Judge and Brody. They’ll be back soon enough, and you’ll have more than enough man problems.”

I turned and punched him in the arm. “Are you serious? You think I want to fuck you because I’m bored without my playthings?”

He frowned, grimacing a little. “No. I know it’s not that.”

“Then?”

He didn’t look at me as he sighed again. I seemed to make him sigh a lot. “I like you, Raine. A lot. You’ve overcome a difficult situation and flourished. And I want you so badly that sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night as hard as a fucking rock for the first time since I was a human teenage boy a long, long time ago.” He shook his head at himself. “While there is this big black cloud threatening your safety, I feel like I’d be failing you somehow if I fell into bed with you right now and just got so caught up that perhaps I would let your maker have his way. Just let it go because it would mean you were safe and could stay with me. Because there is very little, I wouldn’t do to make you happy.”

Huh. I wanted to argue. I wanted to say that he would never do that, that his morals and conviction about the ideals of Dark River were what made him such a good Sheriff. But then I remembered telling him to drop it, and I knew how easy it would be to just let sleeping dogs lie and move on with my life. I also knew that Walker would hate that, and eventually, he’d hate me for making him give up his code of ethics just to keep me happy.

At least, I thought that’s what he was getting at. Walker confused me sometimes.

We walked up the back steps of the Immortal Cupcake and came to a stop outside my door.

“After this is all over, and you’ve got the guy and exacted whatever shotgun justice passes for law out here, then we can see where this could go?”

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