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“Neither do I.” But she smiled. Because Jude made her feel...aw, hell, he just made herfeel.
A burly bouncer blocked the bar’s door. “Twenty bucks.” He didn’t look up from his comic book.
Jude tossed him the cash and sauntered inside.
As soon as she crossed the threshold, the smoke got five times thicker. It flooded her nostrils, seeming to burn her nasal passages. Whatwasthat? Not cigarettes. This was stronger. Almost like incense but?—
“Got us someone smart in here,” Jude whispered, reaching for her hand and pulling her close as he surveyed the crowd. “Bastard’s filling the air with kymine.”
“What? Ky-kymine? What’s?—”
“A scent that fucks up a shifter’s nose, that’s what.” His eyes swept the crowd again. “Vamps in the west came up with it a few years back. They use it to even up the hunting field.”
Erin felt like she had to sneeze. She rubbed her nose, trying to stop the itch.
“Won’t do you any good.” He glanced up at the air vents. “Bet they’re pumping it in from there.”
Great. “So…they knew we were coming?” Not a good thought. Hell, she didn’t even know who “they” were.
She inched a bit closer to Jude and felt the sting of her claws as they began to stretch beneath her skin. If they were in for a fight, she wanted to be ready. “You think the vamp sold us out?”
“Could be.” He didn’t sound particularly concerned. “Or maybe this isn’t for us.”
The wolf.
“If the bastard has been hunting here, the kymine could be for him.” A man in an oversized cowboy hat and his giggling girlfriend staggered past them. “It’d explain how the vamp knew he was here.”
Yes, it would. Erin breathed slowly through her mouth. If she didn’t use her nose, didn’t move it at all, she’d be fine. Maybe. “So what do we do next?”
“Well...” He steered her away from the door.So much for not moving.Jude didn’t stop advancing until his back was against the wall and he had a good view of the crowd. “We can march up to the bar and announce that we’re here for the wolf.”
She eyed the bar. It was surrounded by men with thick stomachs and big arms, and the women with them—short skirts and give-em-hell grins.
How would that conversation go?Hi. We’re looking for a werewolf.Um, no. “What else can we do?”
He turned to her. Winked. “Got a little voyeur in you?”
“What?”
“I can’t hunt in here, and neither can he. But outside...that’s fair game.” He pointed to an exit in the back. A rounded ceiling led the way to darkness. A couple, kissing, groping, headed for the thick door.
Voyeur.“Watching’s not so much my thing.” But she had a feeling choice wasn’t going to be a big option right then. “I’m more for doing.”
His teeth were a brilliant white flash. “I’ll remember that.”
Then he stalked toward the back exit.
Dammit.
And she followed him.
No choice.
* * *
The kymine was driving him crazy. Jude shoved open the back door and sucked in a sharp breath of clean air.
Vampires. One day, he’d pay them back for the kymine. That crap was being sent all over the U.S., funneled by the undead freaks.
