Stealing Fire (Bad Boys Of The Underworld Book 5) by Mallory Crowe Page A

need to get some blood from you to have analyzed. It should only take a minute.”
    “A minute of you stabbing me with a needle,” she clarified.
    “This was the deal. I’m not going to need too much, but I do need to find out what makes you different.”
    “If I only need to do a couple tests for you every once in a while, why can’t I just stay home?”
    Lucian reached into his drawer for the supplies Dean had brought with him the previous night. “I need to keep you safe.”
    She let out a snort of laughter. “Right. The only one I’m really in danger from is you.”
    Lucian tightened his lips. “We have enemies. If they know we might be able to bear children again, they will try to kill you.”
    She raised a brow. “Really? Are these enemies monsters too? Or just plain old humans?”
    “You aren’t going to like the answer.”
    “I haven’t liked any so far.”
    “At the moment, the greatest threat is the vampires.”
    Silence hung thick in the air between them as she shook her head and looked away from him. “You’re so full of crap,” she muttered.
    “Believe what you want. Give me your arm.”
    Her eyes shot him daggers as she set her arm, palm up, on the wooden desk on her right. He tied the tourniquet around her bicep and turned for the rest of the kit.
    “So what did you do to piss off the vampires?”
    “Well, it’s not all vampires. Just some of them.” He pulled out the needle and Ella shuddered. Shit. She really was afraid of needles. He couldn’t make it painless, but he could talk her through it.
    “When the Earth was created, it was intended to be a magic-less realm. It was going great, but every once in a while some creature, or monster as you’d call it, would sneak in. The ‘powers that be’ would allow the occasional intruder, but the biggest threat was when a faction of the vampires forced their way in.”
    He pushed the needle into a vein with the last word. Ella hissed at the sting but stayed extra still. “Who are ‘the powers that be’?”
    “Angels. Silent beings of great power that watch over Earth. Very few have ever seen them, but one of the most powerful vampires just married a half angel, so we have learned a little more about their race.”
    Ella frowned. “Wait—a half angel married a vampire?”
    Lucian mentally grinned. He’d gotten her distracted, and the blood draw would be over in a few seconds. “It’s a long story. Anyway, the angels stopped the vampire invasion and agreed to let them stay, but they erased all memories of the vampires’ original homeland.
    “Well, now the vampire realm has opened another door to Earth and they are starting to invade. We are helping the original vampires who crossed over. It is the new ones who would wish us harm.” He pulled the needle out and held gauze over the crook of her elbow.
    She stared intently at the spot where his fingers touched her sensitive skin. He couldn’t tell whether he was hurting her or not. She was so warm, the simple touch seemed to heat his entire body.
    “Why would the vampires want your help?” she asked quietly.
    “We’re stronger than them, which is saying a lot. We can go anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye. And, when we want to, we can appear very intimidating.”
    A corner of her mouth lifted. “I believe that.”
    Lucian decided not to elaborate on just how correct she was. She had no idea how scary he could look if he really wanted to. He handed her a bandage. “Put this on and you can go back to playing your games with Dean.”
    She took the bandage and opened it. “No fun designs or neon colors? Shocking. And I wasn’t ‘playing games.’ I was practicing for when I shoot you.”
    “Well, you’re practicing wrong. Guns are not very effective when it comes to killing a myotis.”
    “Myotis? That’s what you are called? Isn’t that a type of bat?”
    He should’ve known she’d catch that, considering what her father did for a living. “The original