Free Hard Days Night (The Firsts Book 8) by C.L. Quinn

“You’re seriously injured, and it’s my job to take care of you.   It’s just, this situation is way off my usual radar.”
    “I understand.  You’re quite surprised to see me alive.  That is a perfectly normal reaction.”
    Mal laughed.  “ Yeah, I’ll say. But you need to listen to me.  I don’t know how the bullet didn’t kill you, but you could arrest at any time.  Please let me have my phone so I can call for help.”
    Suddenly he stepped forward and cupped Mal’s cheek with the palm of his right hand.  “I do need help.  But all I need is you.”
    That statement sounded odd, and Mal looked back up into his face.  Was that…was the bullet hole in his forehead…did it look…smaller?  Shallower?  Like it was already healing?
    Her eyes met his , the questions apparent.  She heard him say, “Sleep,” and felt the white-hot heat again, her vision fuzzed out and she lost consciousness.
     
     
    Ahmose caught the gorgeous police woman in his arms and used air displacement to move her back into the beach house within split seconds.   Very carefully, he put her on the bed in an upstairs room, and sat down on the bed.  The movement had exhausted him when under normal circumstances, he could have carried her several miles if necessary without breathing hard.
    His body needed time to heal from dying.  Although a gunshot would not kill him, the act of dying shut down all the major body functions and they needed time to heal and reset.  Ahmose looked at the sleeping beauty.
    He would need her and at least a day to be well enough to protect himself and get to safety.
    Standing, he rotated 360 degrees, then dropped back onto the bed.  That would take care of protection.  He had used his first blood magics to spell the house so that no one would know it was here.  The talent was inherent in all first blood vampires, used rarely, except in the case where his village was hidden from the world using a form of the talent on a much more massive scale.
    Masked now, no matter who came looking for him, unless it was a first blood vampire, they would not even know the house existed, and would automatically avoid the spelled area. 
    Ahmose went back downstairs and poured himself a final glass of wine, upended the glass and swallowed it quickly, then returned to the upstairs room.
    Once again sitting on the bed, he rolled the woman over so that he could look at her face.
    “Outstandingly lovely,” he said as he ran a fingertip over her lips.  They would be delicious, he knew that.
    “An officer of t he law.  A soldier for good.  I am sorry to take you from your life for even a short time, but I have a great need and you are a fortunate surprise.  Still, forgive me.”  He lifted her into his arms and held her close as he said, “Waken.”
     
     
    Mal felt the heat again, but this time, it was nice, like sunshine on cool skin.  She groaned and turned towards the heat.
    “Waken,” she heard, a voice near her ear, deep, sexy, and oddly familiar.
    “Weird dream,” she whispered as she opened her eyes and expected to see her cracked bedroom ceiling.  Instead, she saw him, a man she had been dreaming about just before she woke.
    Was she still asleep?
    “Awaken fully and talk with me,” he said, and she felt the leaden sleepiness wane immediately.  Memory returned as if a light switch had been thrown.
    “What the hell is…where am I?” she said rudely as she looked around a room of soft blue and white.
    A second later she realized that the naked dead Adonis had her in his arms, and shoved herself back away from him.
    “How did we get here?” she asked, worried some, but mostly pissed.  “And we need to find you some clothes!”
    Scrambling off the opposite side of the bed, Mal put some distance between him. Had she really been lying on a bed with the naked dead man?  Aw, Luka was going to have a field-day with this tale.
    Being forcibly sent on vacation by the Captain had already sent her