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  “I don’t think so, Kindred,” a soft, feminine voice purred in his ear. “You’re coming with me. You’re under arrest by orders of the Earth Protection Bureau.”

  Chapter Two

  He was a big son-of-a-bitch, but then all the Kindred were. Charlie wasn’t intimidated by his size in the least. The bigger they were and all that. She kept her gun jammed in his ribs as she reached for her reinforced cuffs—the ones made of titanium alloy and strong enough to hold an angry elephant—or an angry Kindred. And this one certainly didn’t seem to be happy.

  “You’re making a mistake,” he growled in a deeper-than-human voice that raised the hackles on the back of her neck.

  “I don’t think so. Hands behind your back—now,” Charlie barked. For a moment she thought the big warrior would balk but with a muffled curse, he finally complied with her command.

  Despite the fact that the cuffs were specially made for Kindred, it was still a tight squeeze. He had extremely muscular arms and the cuffs were made to fit around the wrists and forearms both, forming a double barrier against escape. The wrist parts went on fine but his forearms were going to bear some marks—not that Charlie cared.

  “I was not attacking that female,” he said, clearly thinking she had the wrong idea. “Another male was. I drove him off and tried to help her up.”

  “I know it. I saw what happened,” Charlie snapped. She had actually been following him for most of the night and had observed the entire scene around the back of Bad Decisions.

  “Then why are you restraining me?” He sounded thoroughly exasperated.

  “Because I saw what happened,” Charlie repeated, still keeping the gun on him. “If you’d actually been attacking that girl, I’d be calling a unit to scrape your brains off the pavement instead of cuffing you. I don’t tolerate rapists.” That had been true of her time on the Asheville PD and it was just as true now that she was in the EPB.

  “If you don’t tolerate rapists you ought to be hunting down the male who attacked her.” He nodded at the semi-hysterical girl who was still trying to get herself together.

  “That’s not my priority—you are. Kindred.”

  “The male might come back at any moment,” he said, turning his head to try and look at her.

  “After the way you ran him off? I don’t think so—eyes front!” Charlie jammed the gun against the side of his neck though she had to reach up to do it.

  “The female is very upset and in need of comfort,” he protested.

  “I’ll call for back-up and have them send someone to calm her down and chase after him,” Charlie snapped. Then she felt immediately irritated for explaining herself to the big warrior. “Come on now—move!” She thumped his wide back with her gun, nudging him forward. God, he was built like a tank! His shoulders were fully twice as broad as hers and he had to be six foot seven or eight if he was an inch.

  She couldn’t be sure but in the glow of the arc sodium lamps overhead, his hair, which he wore in a club at the back of his neck, looked to be dark auburn. Hmm, never seen a red headed Kindred before. She wondered if he was a special breed. He had tattoos too—thick black curving lines that started at the nape of his neck and crawled down into the collar of his shirt. When Charlie stared at them, trying to make them out, the pattern seemed to shift like snakes.

  “Where are you taking me?” he growled. He was moving in the right direction but not fast enough to suit her.

  “To my car for starters. That’s all you need to know for now.” She thumped him again. "Hurry up."

  He was silent but his shoulders were tight. She could tell by the tension in his big body he was thinking of running.

  “Don’t do it.” Charlie poked him in the ribs again with the muzzle of her Glock. “My daddy taught me to hunt when I was twelve. Used to take me out to spend the night in the deer blind, waiting for some buck to wander by. And let me tell you, buddy, you’re a hell of a lot bigger target than a lot of the game I brought down.”

  Some of the tension leaked out of the big form and the Kindred continued plodding towards her car.

  “Besides,” Charlie continued. “You’d never get those cuffs off by yourself. They’re pretty tight, aren’t they? No way to drive a car or a space ship with those on. And after a while, blood loss and nerve damage set in. Better stay with the person who has the key.” She patted her pocket with her free hand, making her keys jingle. “Right?”

  “You make a compelling argument,” he rumbled. “But I still do not see why you have to apprehend me. Despite the fact that our people are at war, I am not your enemy.”

  “Oh no? Then what were you doing skulking around at night like a skunk in the garden?” Charlie demanded. “Just out playing vigilante, making sure nobody got raped or stabbed behind the bar for the hell of it?”

  “I did not set out to interfere,” he protested. “But I couldn’t stand by while the female was attacked. I was actually trying to get—”

  “Trying to get where?” Charlie poked him again. “Go on—you can say it.

  You were trying to get to the HKR building and contact the Mother Ship, weren’t you?”

  “They have an urgent message for me,” he growled reluctantly. “If I could just speak to my superior—”

  “He’d what—give you instructions on where to plant a bomb or how to sabotage the local military base?”

  “Of course not.” He was sounding exasperated again. “Give my people some credit. We are not terrorists—we are honorable males. No Kindred would do such a thing.”

  “I don’t know what you’d do and I’m not about to give you a chance to find out.”

  They had reached the car at last and Charlie was grateful. She’d had about enough conversation with the big warrior. It was time to bring him in to the EPB headquarters—which was actually just a makeshift area inside the local precinct—for processing.

  She had to stand on tiptoes to get her fingers on the top of his head and fold him down into the back seat of her unmarked sedan. Folding was the right word, too—the big bastard was accordioned in like a piece of origami by the time she finally got him into the back but finally the deed was done and she was able to shut the door.

  Then, leaning against the side of the closed driver’s side door, she got out her cell and called her immediate superior, Agent Purvis. He answered on the tenth ring.

  “Damn it, Sayers, do you know what time it is?” he muttered sleepily into the phone.

  “One fifteen AM exactly,” Charlie answered crisply. “I wouldn’t bother you at this hour without a good reason, Sir. My suspicion that a Kindred was in hiding somewhere in the vicinity of

  Old Pevito Road was correct. I have caught and apprehended the suspect and he is currently in custody in the back of my car.” “What?” There was a flurry of sounds on the other side and Charlie pictured Agent Purvis sitting up suddenly in bed and knocking his balding head against the headboard. “You what?” he demanded.

  Charlie repeated herself.

  “By yourself?” Purvis demanded. “You went after a Kindred by yourself? Where’s Jenkins? He’d better be with you, Sayers!”

  Charlie cleared her throat. “Jenkins went home at the end of our shift. I wasn’t intending to apprehend the suspect on my own but when I saw him, I followed him. He wound up engaged in a fight outside of the bar Bad Decisions, off of Curlew and I had no choice but to take him down.”

  “He was in a fight? Great, just great!” Purvis snapped. “It’ll be all over the news by morning! Hell, it’ll be all over the news in an hour if the wrong person gets hold of it. And they’re going to twist it too—make it look like we were too late to stop him attacking ordinary citizens.”

  “How it looks in the news wasn’t my prime consideration when I arrested him, Sir,” Charlie said stolidly. Purvis with his constant attention to the media and concern about his personal image bugged the hell out of her. Sometimes it seemed he was more interested in preening for the cameras than doing his job. �