“I might say the same to you,” she rejoined.

He chuckled. “So it is. We are both honored to be in the presence of the other. We are off to a great start.”

She laughed.

“After all of that, have you decided on a dessert?” he asked.

“I think I will have to wait until I know how much room I will have in my stomach,” she said.

“We can easily split something if you like. I am open to anything.”

“I will keep that in mind,” she said, just as their first course arrived. They had both chosen bowls of fresh tomato and basil soup. “This is absolutely delicious,” she said after a few minutes. “I would love the recipe. Soup is one of those things I am able to cook. It’s hard to mess up and I can do other things while it is cooking down. Also, I can make a very large batch and freeze whatever is left.”

“Would you like me to get the recipe for you?”

“Most restaurants won’t give out their recipes.”

“All they need is the right inducements.”

“That’s all right. You can keep your inducements to yourself.”

“For now,” he volleyed back. “There are some inducements I plan to take out later this evening.”

“To use against me?” she asked.

“That would be telling,” he said with a wink.

The rest of the meal went down a similar path. They flirted with each other, discussed current events, let time slip by unnoticed. Eventually they were splitting a dessert and the meal was coming to a close. Renee couldn’t remember when she had last had such a nice time. And the night wasn’t even over yet.

Chapter 8

At the end of the meal he pulled out her chair for her and held up her coat so she could slip into it. She picked up her clutch and let him lead her out into the cold. The snow was still falling hard and rushed in gusts of icy wind around her bare legs. They hurried toward the gallery. But just as they were passing an alleyway around the corner from the gallery, some sort of electrical explosion struck them both, bowling them over.

When she had gone through the academy, they had all been required to learn what it felt like to have a stun gun deployed into them—so they might have empathy, she supposed. This sensation of electricity bolting through her body was exactly like that—only this was stronger. She found herself sprawled on the ground in the snow, trying to shake off the stunning effect of the blast. As a matter of instinct she looked for her gun. She scrambled toward her clutch and withdrew her weapon just as her vision cleared.

She saw Rafe in the alleyway, fighting with three men. Bursts of electricity lit up the dark alley as she drew a bead on the first perpetrator and staggered to her feet.

“Freeze! NYPD!” she croaked out as loud as she could.

They ignored her completely. She watched with no little awe as Rafe moved like lightning, dodging first one blow and then connecting with his own. One of the muggers took a swing at Rafe’s head and Rafe caught his fist in his hand. Sparks flew when they connected and she watched, stunned, as it looked as though a burst of something exploded out of him and into the attacker, sending him sprawling into the snow and muck of the alleyway.

While that one was stunned, he turned his attention to the two others. He fought them hard and then, as she watched, he went for a knife strapped to his ankle and came up just in time to stab the wicked-looking blade deep into one man’s chest. Renee ran into the alley to face down the man Rafe had stunned earlier, pointing her weapon in his face, her hands shaking with a combination of shock and jangled nerves.

“Stay right where you are, dirtbag!” she yelled.

The man grinned up at her.

“Well, aren’t you a delicious little piece,” he said, slowly moving into a crouch. That was when she got a good look at him. He was pale—ghostly pale—and gaunt, as if he were starving in the streets. But he wasn’t dressed like a street person. He was dressed cleanly in slacks and a button-down shirt and a warm gray winter coat that was finely stitched. He rose up from his crouch and lunged for Renee. She didn’t think twice. She fired her weapon into his chest; the impact of the bullets flung him back against the alley wall. She continued to hear Rafe scuffling with the other two behind her and she stepped forward to check on the man she had shot.

“Renee, don’t get too close!” Rafe shouted.

The warning came too late. The man on the ground kicked out, sweeping Renee’s legs out from under her, sending her down onto her back hard. It knocked the breath out of her and she gasped to get it back. Then the man was on her, scrabbling over her body and grabbing for her weapon as though he hadn’t been shot at all. Panic infused Renee, but she fought it off. This guy must be on some killer drugs, she thought. How else could he shake off being shot like that? She knew he couldn’t hold on much longer. After all, she had given him a double tap in the chest. His heart was bound to give out any second.

But he wasn’t weakening. If anything he was getting stronger. The man snarled above her and she saw the flash of fangs, upper and lower canines extended, matching the extraordinary bite marks she had seen on her victim yesterday. He lunged for her neck, his jaw snapping shut just shy of it when she jerked her head away in the nick of time. Her weapon went off again and his body jerked, but still he struggled with her. He was strong. Damn strong. And he was about to wrench her weapon free. Then he would be crazed and armed and she knew that would mean the end of her life.

“Shoot him through the back of the neck!” Rafe shouted out to her.

“What?”

“The back of the neck! Just do it!”

She didn’t have any better options, so she struggled to aim her gun at his throat and pulled the trigger twice.

Like a marionette whose strings had been cut, he collapsed against her, all of his weight dropping over her and crushing her into the ground. She struggled to get out from under him as a static shock ripped through his body. He jerked and she cried out as the current went through her. She was momentarily stunned, but she struggled to shake it off. To shake him off. She was just thinking she was never going to be free of his weight when suddenly it was gone—gone in a crackle of electricity, as though he had never existed at all.

Renee lay there panting, her heart racing. There was another electrical explosion and she turned her head in time to see Rafe pulling his blade free of one of his attackers. The blade had been in the back of his neck, transecting his spine at the base of his skull. Rafe had no time to regard his kill. Just as the body was disappearing, the final attacker leapt up and with a flashing snarl of fangs he latched onto the back of Rafe’s neck. Electricity crackled, enveloping Rafe’s hands as he reached back and boxed the attacker’s ears, sending the jolt of electricity through him. Stunned, the attacker disengaged from Rafe’s neck and Rafe shrugged him off his back. Rafe threw the man a good distance away, allowing Renee to safely aim her weapon without being afraid of hitting Rafe. She shot at her target, but hitting a moving target in the neck from the ground was nearly impossible. Still, she tried.