She grabbed hold of his arm, as much to steady herself as to hold him in control. She placed the nose of the pistol in her hand into the back of his neck and concentrated strongly on keeping on her feet in the here and now. It was so hard. Especially when her mind wanted to float away and care about nothing.

She remembered her training, what it had felt like to face men who were inherently stronger than she was, but it had never been like this. This man was a vampire. His strength was superhuman. Self-defense tricks could help for only so long.

“Stop!” she commanded him.

He turned sharply even as she said it, ruining whatever aim she had at the back of his neck. He fearlessly grabbed for her gun hand. Of course he was fearless! Without a hit to the back of the neck he was invincible. She had lost her moment. But she had wanted power over him, not his death. Power over him was the only way she could get his minions to stop attacking Rafe.

Killean rolled with her, pinning her gun hand to the floor, looming up over her. Everything was spinning around her, but she forced herself to work through the high. She reached up with her free hand and raked her nails across his face. But rather than cause him debilitation it made him eject a sound of glee.

“Ah! Aha! I love it hard and nasty, bitch.” He had her completely pinned a moment later, his weight crushing down on her chest. He wrenched the gun from the weak fingers of her right hand, though she didn’t let go without a fight. She squeezed the handle and trigger hard as she tried to hold on to it, ejecting a bullet from the gun.

It was useless. He pulled the gun from her nerveless fingers and was suddenly armed, changing the dynamics of their situation fluidly. How many times had she been warned? How many times had she warned gun owners of how easy it was to find themselves on the bad end of their own guns? But this shouldn’t be happening to her. She was a cop. She was trained. This shouldn’t happen to her.

It wouldn’t happen to her.

Because he was holding her down with only one hand, the other trying to get better hold of the weapon he’d just taken from her, it gave her the advantage of having better leverage than him. She bucked her body, throwing him off her, even as she rolled and reached for the one universal weakness of both vampires and humans.

His dick. She grabbed on to him through his soft slacks and squeezed with all of her remaining strength. She yanked and twisted, holding on for dear life as he bellowed and fell onto his back on the floor, the gun flying out of his hand and skittering across the floor. He was no longer trying to keep hold of her, his only desire at that point was to get her off him. He kicked at her, bucked hard, and shoved her until she was rolling across the floor away from him.

She rolled in the direction her weapon had gone. Killean had curled up, protecting his abused privates, holding a hand between his legs and groaning. It wasn’t any wonder. She had held nothing back. She had ripped at him savagely. She had to have herniated something or torn something delicate.

The warehouse doors burst open right then and Danton and his crew of intimidating authoritarians came flooding in. No one had spoken the code, but the sounds of fighting over the mic had been obvious and clear, no doubt…not to mention the ejection of bullets. Renee knew the best thing she could do was get out of reach of anyone who might try to hold her hostage, stopping the authoritarians in their tracks. That desire and a need to figure out where Rafe was propelled her to her feet. She tried to look around, but it was impossible. Rafe reached her just as she swayed and weakened. She collapsed into his arms. She was so glad he was there. She was so relieved to know he was in one piece, that he had somehow made it through, tears rushed through her. She had acted so impulsively, so rashly, giving him so little notice in the face of such excruciating odds.

All in all, however, the struggle had taken only a couple of minutes…although it had felt like forever to her panicked and drugged mind. Everything had moved so slowly. She had moved so slowly. But it was over and it had ended well. There was no reason why it should have, but thankfully it had.

Halo came over to them and took Killean into custody, slapping a pair of silver metal cuffs on him before dragging him up and away.

Renee felt the world spinning away from her and she had the distinct impression she was drooling. The last coherent thought she had was of Rafe bent over her, his voice soothing her.

“It’s all right. I’ve got you,” he said softly.

She was glad somebody did. For the first time in a long time she knew what it meant to not be able to care for herself. And even as her mind went soaring to other places, she knew this was something she never wanted to feel again.

But she could easily see why some people would want this. Would want this escape. As she floated she found herself holding on to the anchor in her life. Rafe. He had become a solid point in her existence. He had become a fixed point that she kept returning to. She realized then how much she had needed someone like that in her life. Oh, she had Jimmy and Emily and her sisters, but it was different with them. Different with Rafe…

She tried to tell him how she felt, but she couldn’t speak. So she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Rafe hated to see her like this. Hated knowing she was weak and defenseless. He could and would take care of her of course, but this helplessness felt wrong on her. And he knew she would hate it. When she came to later on, she would hate having been so vulnerable in front of so many others.

To that end he protected her from the curious gazes of the other vampires. He picked her up and carried her out of the warehouse. He brought her out to one of the staging vehicles and sat on the tailgate with her in his arms and lap. He let the others do the cleanup of Killean and his crew. He had done his part. He had gotten the information they needed. Killean had been acting on his own. That didn’t mean that Draz wasn’t still a threat, but the more immediate threat, Killean, was now neutralized. They could go about the business of signing this treaty and advancing the cause of lawful vampires in the fight against sycophants. Harmony between different factions of the nation would take time and patience and understanding, but the treaty would be a very important step to that end.

And they had one very special human woman to thank for it.

“Is she all right?”

Rafe looked up at Halo and lifted a brow at the gruff, hard man’s display of concern.

“What?” Halo demanded when he saw the look. “I’m just impressed by her. She’s tough. Skilled. I like her. Plus she has a mighty fine ass.”