Wanted: Undead or Alive

A Truly Exhausting Game

I took a step back from the .

Nick took a step toward me.

I took another.

He did the same and pushed the door shut behind him.

"Take them off," I whispered. I didn't really mean to whisper, but that's all I could muster up at that moment. Desire that burned away everything else with the power of a flame thrower scorched me from the inside out.

Without a word, holding my gaze, he unclipped the first and his phone began chiming. He froze for a beat and silenced it. "I'll take care of it later."

The Scooby Doo theme song began playing from my phone. I glanced back at where it lay on the table. "That's Scoob."

With a groan, he re-clipped the shackle and pulled his own phone from his pocket. "Me, too."

"If she's calling us both, it's probably bad." My voice definitely did not crack as if I were on the verge of tears. Probably. But the last time somebody from work called me it was Mx. Landry, telling me Nick had been arrested for murder. "I'm just.. Uhm... Going to..."

He held out a hand toward my phone. "Yeah. Go on, then."

I scurried over and hit the green button just as the song clip began to play through for the second time. "Hey, Scoob, what's up?"

Nick wandered into my little kitchen area and helped himself to a few paper towels which he used to mop his wet face, neck and arms.

"I got a call from an old friend from my Seattle days," Scoob said. "He's on the tail of a rakshasa heading up a crime--"

"Hold on. Nick's here with me. I'll put you on speaker." I swiped the button and laid the phone on the counter.

While she repeated what she'd already said, he tossed the paper towels in the trash and moved around the counter to stand directly in front of me--close enough that I could smell the scent of his aftershave, mixed with the clean aroma of the rain-soaked fabric of his shirt.

I stared up into his eyes, mesmerized by the deep play of cobalt atop navy.

Scoob rushed on. "He's heading up a trafficking ring. They supply human children to supes for food and slaves."

Nick reached forward and laced his fingers through mine. "The worst kind of scum."

"Right. Also, the most well connected," Scoob said as I fought for breath against the frantic thumping of my heart. "He's got people everywhere who have a vested interest in keeping him in business."

Nick's free hand slid around my waist, beneath the hem of my sweatshirt. He pulled me closer to him, so close the dampness of his pants pressed against my bare thighs. Something more interesting pressed against my belly. "Constantly fighting for control is a truly exhausting game." His hand slid upward over my ribcage.

"It's one he's good at, though," Scoob said.

Nick bent and nuzzled his nose into my neck, drawing goosebumps across every part of me. His hand roamed over the bare skin of my back.

"My friend's been tracking him across the whole damn continent for weeks. They're close, but they're requesting backup."

I slid the fingers of my right hand through the thickness of Nick's hair. "Nick's been out for five minutes, Scoob. Can't he have a day?"

Nick drew his tongue the length of my neck and my knees nearly buckled.

"I know. The timing sucks, Nick, and I'm glad you're out, but they're making their move tonight and they're asking for a debriefing at twenty hundred hours so we can all go in together. I know that's cutting it close, but we have to move right now."