Free Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh Page A

after I finish up today. Anyplace safe from prying eyes and ears?”
    â€œJoe’s Bar.” Isolated near the edge of DarkRiver territory and frequented exclusively by cats, wolves, and their invited guests, it was close to airtight. “You know where it is?” At Max’s nod, he said, “Leave the recorder at home.”
    â€œFunny that. I have a reputation for losing my recorder.” A deadpan statement. “I’ll see you around eight. Talin—you need me, you call.”
    â€œShe won’t be needing you.” Clay felt his arm tighten, sensed her panic, but couldn’t control the primitive animal impulse. “We’ll see you at the bar.”

    Talin waited until Max had driven away before tugging at Clay’s arm. “Let me go.”
    He leaned down until his lips brushed her ear. “I told you to stop flinching.” And then he bit her. A slow, painless nip but there were definitely teeth involved.
    Shocked, she couldn’t speak for almost a minute, during which he hustled her across the road and into his large all-terrain vehicle. Its street name was the Tank, though it was far sleeker and faster than the outmoded war vehicle.
    She finally found her voice after he dumped her bag in back and slid into the driver’s seat. “You bit me!”
    He threw her a scowling look. “I gave you plenty of warning. Put on your belt.”
    She was already doing it—out of habit, not because of his order. “You can’t go around biting people!”
    He maneuvered the car out into the street. It didn’t surprise her in the least when he stuck to the manual controls, despite the fact that they were on a road embedded with the computronic chips that allowed automatic navigation. But he did engage the hover-drive, retracting the wheels so they skimmed soundlessly over the fog-shrouded streets.
    â€œClay?” she said when he seemed to be ignoring her.
    â€œHow did they get into your apartment?”
    The shift in topic didn’t surprise her in the least, not when she knew how protective he was. “I don’t know. The building’s about average in terms of security, but I put in a top-of-the-line system on my door.” Even then, she rarely slept all the way through the night.
    â€œOnly on the door?”
    â€œYes. Why—Oh, the windows. I figured being on the eighth floor was enough.”
    â€œNot against Psy telekinetics.”
    â€œPsy?” She laughed. “Far as I know, teleporting is a major ability. I can’t see the Psy wasting that kind of a resource on terrorizing an ordinary human.”
    â€œHardly ordinary,” he muttered. “But there are other ways to enter through a window. Any changeling with climbing abilities, or wings, could have done it.”
    She hadn’t considered that and now it appeared a glaring oversight. “The blood hadn’t stopped dripping when I arrived.” Shivering, she hugged her arms around herself.
    â€œWas it warm?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œThe blood.”
    She almost threw up. “What the hell kind of question is that?”
    â€œIf they used fresh—”
    â€œStop!” she interrupted. “Stop the car!”
    He came to a rocking halt.
    Sliding back the door, she leaned out and retched. Since the only thing she’d eaten over the past twenty-four hours was that burger with Clay, there was nothing much to throw up. But her stomach didn’t know that. It cramped for what felt like hours, flooding her mouth with the ugly taste of bile and tearing her insides apart.
    When it stopped at last, she found Clay by her side, one hand in her hair, the other holding a bottle of water. “Drink.”
    With her throat feeling like someone had taken a hacksaw to it, there was no way she was going to refuse. The water proved ice-cold. “Where?” she rasped.
    He understood. “Iced bottles. All of us carry