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softened when he said, “But now you know.”

    I sniffed. “Know what?”

    “Where you belong—where you’ve always belonged.”

    A smile rose to my face at the truth of those words and leaned forward, but before I met his mouth, said, “Yes, I know.” After a slow endearing kiss, I backed away to see that Kellen looked pleased and content. I laughed and sniffed away the rest of my shame.

    “You happy to finally hear that?”

    His smile vanished as he nodded firmly. “Let me make this clear, I gave you leave once so you could discover this in your own time.” He grasped my face with an equal firmness. “I will not allow it again.”

    I gulped deeply at the pain in his eyes. It cost him a lot to allow me to do this. He wasn’t lying.
    One thing about Kellen was that his word was honorable. He never wavered away from it, and right now, I wanted nothing more than to be locked in his arms forever.

    Here was where my heart belonged.

    I kissed his lips once more deeply just so I could confirm to him that I knew my place—to show him my sorrow for the pain I’d caused him. Then, I slowly backed away and needed to remind him I was here to do a job.

    “We have to get back.” My team would be waiting to get into the case and they’d be annoyed that we were taking our sweet-ass time. Even more than that, I could only imagine what Chase was thinking.

    Chase.

    I sighed and willed the tears to stay away. What a jumbled emotional mess I was in.

    A state I’d never been in and one I could live without.

    Kellen laughed as he placed me on my seat. “Yes, we have a serial killer to have a little chat with.”

    I reached down, grabbed my bra and clipped it into place. As I reached for my shirt, I gave him a speculative glance. “You find that funny?”

    Kellen nodded without hesitation. “Quite. You have the ability to kill a human, but instead, you’re saving their lives.” He winked. “It’s amusing.”

    Finishing up with the last button on my shirt, I snorted. “Feels a hell of a lot better to save someone than see them destroyed.” It was hard to believe how much vampires had evolved.

    Two hundred years ago, they killed for the pleasure of it. Now, they lived peacefully among the mortals. Considering the act of feeding on them gave the mortal enhanced pleasure during sex, they came willingly. Times had changed and I was glad for it. The killing never did sit right with me, even if I was a natural born killer.

    I picked up my jacket and swore softly. I never went without my coat on the job and the implication would be obvious. Chase would know what happened. Not that I’d keep the truth from him, he’d been lied to enough. If he asked me outright, I’d tell him what happened here. I threw the shreds that were once my jacket into the backseat and grabbed my pants from the floor of the car. Lifting my hips, I pulled them on and zipped them up.

    “So tell me, what you have been doing over the years?”

    “Watching you.”

    My hands steadied on the button as I turned my speculative glare on Kellen.

    “Watching me?”

    “I have stayed with you the entire time,” he answered, completely unashamed. “You think I would have left you alone?”

    Why I suspected otherwise was just stupid on my part. Instead of voice that, I moved along. “So you have been living in Washington then?”

    Kellen nodded, then started the car. “I have been working for Slade.” When he saw my next question rise on my face, he continued. “A shield.”

    It took a moment to process what he had just said. Maybe because I couldn’t believe it. “You’ve joined the Mistresses?”

    In vampire society, Mistresses’ vampires had many who worked beneath them. It was far more serious than what I did with the mortal governments and it wasn’t a job that appealed to me in any regard. You did a bad job or fucked up—you died.

    Kellen had finished buttoning up his shirt, then started the car and began to drive out