The custom was for regulars, who liked human women warming their beds once in a while. Toms bar was a short distance from Little Creek, home to SEAL Team 21s elite Phoenix Force in Virginia. When in town, the secret force of paranormal SEALs crowded the seats.
Dale ignored the chatter around him. He sipped his beer, waited for his burger.
Scar tissue pulled and stretched uncomfortably, reminding him of a body no woman wanted to see naked. While in the hospital, his sometime girlfriend had visited. Melissa had taken one look at the blood and bandages and left.
No Mage female wanted him. No human, either, even if she didnt sense he was a powerful Primary Elemental Mage who could fry her to ashes with a single flick of his finger.
Dale knew he was better off alone.
You okay, Commander?
Tom always called him by his title. Dale nodded. It had been the ultimate bitch of a day, back at work only ten days after two long months of mandatory medical leave. Paperwork piled to his nose, submerged in long meetings, most of his team deployed to dispatch a last-minute threat overseas. Only Ensign Grant Sully Sullivan remained at base. Chief Petty Officer Sam Shay Shaymore was in North Carolina, training in close-quarters combat with SEAL normshuman navy SEALs. Hed taken his new wife with him.
Dale relaxed into a smile as he thought of the much younger Shay. Last month the SEAL had married his girlfriend. Dale had proudly escorted the fatherless Kelly down the aisle. A wedding hed never forget, as he was glad to see the two Mages declare their love in a lifelong bond. Those two had rescued him from the dark, dank basement where he had only memories of pain and blood.
And the scent of a woman...he could never forget.
Across the bar, Sully flirted with a pretty, slightly tipsy blonde. The woman rested her hand on the SEALs arm, giving him a suggestive look. Someone was getting something-something tonight.
Dale hoped Sully remembered to glove before love. A half-human bastard faced a lot of hardship in the real world.
Children. Setting down his beer, he closed his eyes. One regret hed had in his eleven-year marriage. Kathy hadnt wanted any. The Mage had used one excuse after another and finally, she just left, but not before admitting shed been sleeping in another mans bed.
Youre a good man, Dale. But youre never around, not when I really need you.
Deep inside, he still craved a home life, a wife and a family. But what woman would want him now, his body looking like a road map to hell?
Someday, maybe, hed find someone else. But first, hed find the demon wolf responsible for scarring his body and when he did, that shape-shifter would pay. Such evil must be eradicated before innocents got hurt. Dale would do so gladly, sending the SOB straight to hell.
Tom slid a steaming burger, with fries piled high, before him. Here you go, Commander. My treat.
Thanks, Tom, Dale said, surprised.
No, thank you, sir. If not for you... Emotion shadowed the mans face. What you did to free those kids, sacrificing yourself, hell, were all grateful to you. Ive got five kids and the thought of them enduring what you did...
The cougar shifters spine stiffened. Im proud to call you a friend. Youre more than a SEAL. Youre a damn fine officer and gentleman.
Holy hellfire, the man actually saluted him. Uncomfortable with the praise, Dale nodded. No thanks necessary.
A few of the bars regulars studied him like a moth pinned to a corkboard. Damn, all he wanted was a burger, not this scrutiny. Dale began to eat.
The brunette next to him spoke. Come here often?
Once in a while, against the ladies room wall, pushing deep and hard, a womans long legs wrapped around his thrusting hips. Dale nodded.
She gave a sultry smile, red lips moist and pursed. The tight blue dress clung to a body that had caught quite a few glances from the bars male occupants.
Youre a SEAL.
Wonderful. Human frog hog. He swallowed a bite, shrugged.
My second cousins best friend is a navy SEAL. Now she slid over, her long red nails on his forearm. I adore you guys. I cant thank you enough for what you do for our country, to keep us safe. Youre so brave and strong, and Id love to demonstrate my appreciation.
Hollow words, spoken by a woman who just wanted to bang a SEAL. Maybe one time hed accept her offer, follow her home and show her the alternative meaning of hooyah. Not tonight. Tonight he felt every single one of his 420 years.
The womans nose wrinkled as she studied his right arm. Dale automatically moved to hide the jagged gash. Thats a nasty scar. Did you get it in combat?
No, I got it, and a rash of others, when I was tied up in a basement and tortured by a wolfs claws. Care to know more?
Appetite turned to dust, Dale slid his plate back. Thanks, Tom.
Clear disappointment showed on the womans face as he pushed back his stool. She turned to her right, engaged a member of ST 21s support staff, the vampire enthralled with the womans long neck.
Nice night for a quick bite, Dale thought in sour amusement. Like every human here, she would recall only a pleasurable buzz the next day, assume it was alcohol-induced.
As he went to leave, a familiar scent hit him. Not the floral perfume of the human women, nor the heavy cologne of the males pursuing them. Something deeper, richer, more fragrant.
It reminded him of crushed autumn leaves, the burning richness of smoke on a hearth, the musky scent of pure...sex.
Dale whipped his head up, a memory pinging.
Her.
There, across the bar. An ebony-haired woman, a wineglass before her. Eyes blazing with fire and life glanced up. His gaze fell to her right hand.
Each finger was a sharp black talon.
Shock slammed into him. And pain. Distant memories...knives over raw flesh, biting back the screams that rose in his throat. Salt water dripping onto the fresh gouges, searing his skin with her tears.
Hed been tortured and left for dead, and recalled only flashes of memory. But that scent, it wound around him in an erotic ribbon, and pulled tight. His body hardened, blood pulsing to his groin.
Bleeding from a thousand cuts, the pain so deep he couldnt breathe, and that scent filtering through the agony, turning his cock to steel. Forgetting the pain, wanting nothing more than to roll her beneath him, spread her wide and drive hard into her soft, wet flesh.
He hadnt been merely tortured, but humiliated and debased, getting turned on, and then feeling something raking cold claws over his warm flesh....
This woman had something to do with those long, dark hours in the basement.
Dale went preternaturally still. The woman stared at him, wide red mouth parted in apparent shock. Then she slipped off the stool and fled.
Not so fast, he thought grimly. Dale raced after her. In the parking lot, against a parked SUV he caught her. Dale grabbed her arms, pinned her against the vehicle. The scent faded, leaving only the exotic smell of expensive perfume. But he hadnt imagined it. Wasnt going crazy.
Who the hell are you? he roughly demanded.
Fear clouded her gaze. Not hurt, not hurt, she whimpered.
Gentling his voice, he loosened his grip. Who are you? I remember only darkness, pain and your scent.
The woman wriggled away, lifted a hand to his face. The velvet of her voice stroked across his senses. Sexual energy jumped between them at the mere brush of her fingers. Strong and courageous is your heart, yet lonely and hurting...so much pain.
Gentling his voice, he loosened his grip. Who are you? I remember only darkness, pain and your scent.
The woman wriggled away, lifted a hand to his face. The velvet of her voice stroked across his senses. Sexual energy jumped between them at the mere brush of her fingers. Strong and courageous is your heart, yet lonely and hurting...so much pain.
Dale lost all sense. He lowered his head and did what hed lusted to do all those long, anguished hours in the dark after hed been turned into a pitiful, whimpering shell of a man.
Crushing her against him, he fisted a hand into her hair and kissed her hard. She responded back with a moan, her tongue tangling with his in a fury of erotic heat.
And then she began to struggle and nipped him on his lip, hard enough to draw blood. Dale jerked away in shock. Son of a...
His mind fogged. Closing his eyes, he fell into a dizzying vortex, where memory was once more a clouded dream. When he opened his eyes, he was alone.
The woman, if there had been a woman, vanished into the shadows. Just like before, he could not recall her, making him wonder if she were a dream.
Or his worst nightmare.
Chapter 2
The moon hung like a silver nickel in the sky.
Hovering in the woods, Keira waited for Dale to arrive home the next night.
Other houses on the street showed signs of life. Lights flicked on. Children ran around their backyards, and then ran inside as their mothers called them in for supper.
Or their mothers threatened to zap them inside. It was a paranormal neighborhood, after all.
Hiding in the shadows, she felt a pinch of deep melancholy. Shed adjusted to loneliness during the infrequent intervals when the demons gave her brief freedom so she could find new men for them to torture. Keira had beaten the demons. Shed refused to associate with anyone, refused to give them new victims, but stalled them by promising them new ones.
They found one on their own. This last time had sliced off a piece of her heart. Dale Curtis had taken her spirit and turned it inside out. Shed almost killed him. And then, a miracle happened.
The commanders friend had arrived in the house where Curtis was being held prisoner and chanted a cleansing spell to vanquish evil. The spell had sent the demons temporarily to the netherworld and freed her, as well. But in a few weeks, as they always did, the Centurions would use their bolt-hole to this world and break back in.
Then the real fun would start. They would find her, find Curtis and force her to torture the SEAL once more, maybe until he died. The demons would steal all his strength and courage and become solid entities, able to taste the pleasures of the flesh once more.
Keira touched the valise containing the silver armband, which enslaved her to the Centurions. When the demons had vanished unexpectedly, the bracelet unlocked, freeing her from their spell. Only by enslaving herself to another could she escape them.
And Lt. Commander Dale Curtis was the only living person with enough power and courage to destroy the Centurions. She had to overcome her personal fear of seeing him again if she wanted to achieve her goal.
For twenty-three years shed lived under the demons control. No more. Emotion clogged her throat. Dale Curtis looked thin and haggard. The demons had sapped his strength, his vitality. If she didnt help him recover soon hed weaken and die.
She needed him strong, needed his resources to find and destroy the demons bolt-hole and imprison them forever in the netherworld.
Crouching down, Keira watched the commanders house. Beneath the light of the nearly full moon, she waited hopefully, and wondered if this brave man would be the one to kill her captors and finally set her free.
* * *
Another day of keeping the world free of paranormal terrors. At least free of the terror of paperwork.
Hell, he was so tired, he could barely function. Dale looked forward to a cold beer, a quick sandwich, a little light reading and then crashing. It was a lonely life, but right now, he preferred it that way. No complications or interference.
Yet as he drove home from the ST 21 compound on the base, Dale imagined a loving woman greeting him at the days end. Someone who rushed to the door, eyes lighting up as he walked inside, the good smell of a delicious dinner cooking in the oven.
Instead of always coming home to an empty, silent house.
Dale snorted. He cherished his privacy. He didnt need a woman in his home, rearranging his life, turning things upside down.
Especially now, he needed to be alone to recharge and recover.
As he turned onto his street, he saw a white Lincoln parked in his driveway. He parked next to it, cut the trucks engine. His front door was locked. Once inside, he tossed his keys into the antique candy dish on the hallway table and relocked the door.
Someone was home to greet him, after all.
A light glowed down the hall. Mage instincts went on alert. He narrowed his eyes, took a deep breath and headed into his study.
Nice of you to break in, he told the gray-haired man sitting in shadow.
Youre late.
Vice Admiral Keegan Byrne, pillar of support for SEAL Team 21 and a powerful Primary Mage, toasted him with a whiskey glass filled with amber liquid. Dale glanced at the built-in wood bar against the wall. The bottle of twenty-year-old smooth Scotch malt had been full until tonight.
Had to finish up paperwork. Im not asking how you gained access to my home without permission.
You need a better security system, Dale. An infant could bypass that alarm.
An infant armed with electromagnetic current. Did you fry the panel again?
Byrne grinned. Dale sighed. Another visit from the electrician.
Help yourself to more Scotch. Just dont take my beer.
Running upstairs in a light jog, he headed to his bedroom, removed the trident, the fruit salad and the insignias from his khaki shirt. Then he stripped and tossed the uniform and undershirt into a white wicker hamper. As he walked toward the closet, the dresser mirror showed the image hed tried to avoid.
Dale approached, staring at his body for the first time in two months.
Reddened scar tissue raked over his chest, muscled torso, arms and long legs. Razor-sharp claw marks began just below his throat, continued down his belly, ending at his groin, and dwindled out at his thighs and calves.
A remembrance of white-hot pain surged through him. Dale braced his hands on the dresser, hissing through his teeth.
Jerking open a drawer, he sorted through folded shirts and found an old, frayed Virginia Tech T-shirt. Another drawer held gray fleece pants.
When he returned to the study, Byrne remained motionless, the glass of Scotch untouched. He steeled himself. If the old man wasnt here to socialize, it meant one thing. But hed let the admiral set the pace.
Dale fished a beer from the minifridge, tossed the cap into the trash and took a seat in front of the fireplace. He knew Byrne would take his time.
Finally Dale gave him a pointed look. Why are you here?
Have you used your powers since leaving the hospital?
Stretching out a hand, he summoned the current simmering inside. Dale flung it at the fireplace, igniting the logs. Happy now?
Understanding and something deeper, and wiser, filled Byrnes gaze. I wasnt talking about toasting marshmallows, Dale. I meant on assignment.