Which meant she would sift them there, he was certain.
Telling himself to be patient, that it would be over soon and he would be able to find Nuala and Maeve, he closed his eyes and let himself drift. More images floated through his mind.
What looked like a wolf heading into a mist-shrouded forest…
A human wielding a spear relinquishing his weapon…
The wolf and human joining to become one…
“Done,” Vadoma said, breaking the visions. “You will now heal more quickly than you used to.”
Anxiety riding him, he stood and pulled on his shirt. Her handiwork still stung, but his adrenaline had kicked in and he was ready for anything. Weirdly enough, he still felt like himself, although maybe on steroids. He hoped to hell the damn tattoo would work when he needed it.
“It will work,” Vadoma said. “And do not worry, you will learn to control your thoughts and keep them to yourself.”
Exactly what he’d been thinking about, of course. “How do I pay for this?”
She shook her head. “No money.”
“Then what?”
“Perhaps I will seek your help in the future.”
Wondering what kind of help, Ethan had no objections to whatever she wanted. Anything to save Nuala. “Thank you.”
Isabeau hugged Vadoma and kissed the older woman’s cheek, then turned to Ethan. “Let’s get to your Nuala. I have someplace else I need to be.”
“You’re not seeing this through with me?”
“I’m sorry. I can’t do that.”
Before he could question her further, Isabeau took Ethan’s hand.
Knowing what was coming, he steeled himself as they blinked out.
*
At least an hour had passed since she’d started yelling for Haider to do something before a bundle of baby clothes and diapers and a bag of related items magically appeared in the middle of the bed. Things Nuala needed for Maeve. Enough for several days. No doubt Haider didn’t want to hear her screaming at him again. On the one hand, she was grateful. On the other, worried. Obviously the bastard intended to keep them here indefinitely.
The baby was crying again.
Nuala spread a towel over the bed and placed the baby on it. “I’m so sorry, my little sweetheart. But I’ll get you changed and you’ll be comfortable again in no time.”
As she worked, she listened to the pulse of the house. Despite Haider’s spell and Maeve’s wailing, she perceived the beating of four hearts. Hers, Maeve’s, Haider’s… and who else? Stopping for a moment, she concentrated, tried to get a sense of the other person. Kindred or human? She couldn’t tell. She kept working on it while she finished up the diaper change. Then she lifted the baby to her breast, and even before Maeve latched onto her, she felt a shift in her consciousness and was able to discern things about that fourth heartbeat. Male. Somewhere far below. Oh, no, it just couldn’t be…
Ethan? Is that you?
Nuala… outside Haider’s place waiting for Luc and Nik.
Ethan, you have to get out of here. Let my brothers handle this!
I’m not going anywhere. Where did Haider stash you?
Hoping that no harm would come to him because of her, knowing that he wouldn’t give up, she gave in. Second floor bedroom. Containment spell. Can’t get out.
Hold on a little longer.
She couldn’t help but wonder how she was able to connect with Ethan. This room was tightly sealed against her abilities. She hadn’t even been able to sense the pulse of the house until she’d had her daughter against her breast. Then it hit her. Though Maeve was only a baby, she was both Kindred and Powers, and they were now connected flesh to flesh. Had she gotten through to Ethan by somehow employing Maeve’s abilities added to her own?
If so… maybe there was a way out for them, after all…
*
Ethan was getting agitated waiting in the dark when Nuala’s brothers finally blinked in. “About time you got here. Haider has Nuala and Maeve trapped in there. Some kind of containment spell.”
“How do you know that?” Nik demanded, appearing as fierce and angry as Ethan had ever seen him. “Did you speak to Nuala?”
“Not in person, no. And Haider is inside.”
Luc said, “You know you can’t arrest Haider.”
“I’m not looking to arrest him.” Truthfully, he had no idea of what he could do with the surge of energy the tattoo had activated.
“What then?” Luc asked.
“Whatever it takes to get Nuala and Maeve out of the bastard’s clutches.”
“He’ll kill you first,” Nik predicted, not sounding at all troubled by the idea.
“Not if I can help it.”
“You’d better stay out of the way while Luc and I get our sister and niece out of there.”
Not knowing what abilities the tattoo might have given him, Ethan grabbed Luc’s arm a second before they sifted into the house’s near empty interior. He immediately felt something like a heartbeat. Rather, more than one. He concentrated and searched for Nuala’s and Maeve’s location. He sensed they were directly overhead and saw the giant winding staircase on the far side of the dining room.
When Nik realized Ethan had hitched a ride inside, he shook his head. “I’m here to rescue family, not to babysit you.”
“No one asked you to.”
“No one is getting rescued” came a booming voice from the far shadows.
Haider stepped into the dim light, his speculative expression turning into a grin as he began shifting. His visage hardened, his jaw stretched, his nose lengthened. His arms turned into legs even as his back shortened.
Ethan’s heart began to pump a foreign rhythm. He couldn’t shift and he didn’t have a clue about what he could or could not do against a dangerous shifter who no doubt wanted him dead. A quick look at Nik and Luc assured him they were shifting, as well.
Keeping his eyes on the living area, he backpedaled toward the stairs, saying, “You take care of him and I’ll find Nuala.”
Haider’s lion leaped on Nik’s panther. When Luc’s panther leaped on the lion’s back, Ethan turned and fled up the stairs to find the woman he loved.
*
Nuala needed her arms free, so she folded a sheet and slung it across her upper body and around Maeve who still nestled there against her flesh. The baby had miraculously fallen asleep while suckling. She could hear the noise of a shifter fight below. New heartbeats. Her brothers. She had to get down there before Haider inflicted life-threatening wounds. An even bigger fear was what he might do to Ethan, who had no way of protecting himself.
Concentrating on the doorknob, Nuala wrapped her hand around it and muttered, “Open for me now.” In her mind’s eye, it turned and the door swung free. A click and she opened her eyes as the door opened in fact. But when she tried to leave the room, Nuala felt as if she’d walked into a wall. She was still fenced in by the containment spell.
Suddenly Ethan was there at the top of the stairs, heading her way.
Elated and fearful for him, Nuala hugged Maeve awake. The baby cried for a brief moment before rooting for more milk as Ethan tried to come to them and smashed into the other side of the invisible barrier.
Nuala concentrated, spread her hands and set her palms and fingertips against the roadblock Haider had created to contain her. “C’mon, sweetheart, help me.”
She might be talking to the baby, but Ethan obviously thought she was asking him for help, because he placed his hands in line with hers. She was wondering what he thought he could accomplish, when she realized there was something different about him. Something beyond what she knew of him. Before she could analyze what had changed, her hands felt electrified. Fiery particles suddenly began flying off their hands in every direction.
Grabbing onto whatever sorcery this was, she focused on changing and shifting reality the way she had in the habitat. “Remove the impediments to my leaving this house.” The electrical charge increased between t
hem until sparks zapped back and forth through the supernatural shield. The containment weakened. Going inward, she tapped into her most powerful center, where she created lightning from her fingertips. The electrical strikes drove through the spell, dissipating it enough that Ethan was able to reach in, gather her in his arms and pull her and Maeve through to the hall.
“How did you do that?” she asked.
“Magic.” He pulled her along the hallway. “Let’s get out of here.”
Nuala gladly went with him to the staircase, but halfway down, she realized her brothers weren’t faring well against Haider. Luc’s panther was down, on his side, while Nik’s panther and Haider’s lion were locked together, rolling across the floor, leaving fresh blood. Nik’s.
Her heart nearly stopped when Haider went in for the kill. He barely missed Nik’s neck when her brother slammed a paw into the lion shifter’s head. “I have to help them.”
Ethan grabbed her arms and made her face him. “You need to get Maeve out of here. Now.”
The urge to shift rippled through her. If the baby weren’t tied to her… She shook her head and started removing her daughter from the sling. “You have to take Maeve for me so I can help.”
“No!”
His refusal shocked her. He knew how much she loved her brothers. “Ethan, please. He’ll kill them if they don’t get help.”
“Then I’ll help. Sift back to The Ark and alert Cezar while I buy your brothers some time.”
About to tell him that he would get himself killed, she lost the chance when he jumped over the rail into the fray.
Picturing Pop’s office in her mind, she prayed she would find him before she lost the man who’d just won her heart.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ethan acted before he had time to think. Adrenaline fueled him as he landed on top of the two big cats still locked in battle. Haider’s lion whipped around, attempting to attack him, but fighting a rising sense of panic, Ethan wrapped his legs around the lion’s neck and held on to his mane. Nik’s panther scrambled out from under them. A quick look told Ethan that Nik was wounded and trying to recoup. Luc still wasn’t moving.
And under him, a nightmare. Haider’s lion was starting to shift. He felt muscles change shape and length as the villain took on human form. Before he could regroup, Ethan was thrown from Haider’s back. He crashed into the banister of the staircase face first. He literally saw stars. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. He swore his nose was broken. Angled to one side. Steeling himself, he straightened it. Nothing he could do to diminish the pain.
“Impressive, human!” Haider boomed. “But annoying as a fly!”
Ethan whipped around just as Haider’s hand sparked, quickly triggering a jagged bolt of light. With a laugh, he sent it straight for Ethan, who ducked his head and held out an arm in front of his face, as if that could protect him. The bolt stopped before searing his flesh and flew back at Haider, splintering into electric shards and hitting him hard.
Just as if he’d been holding a shield, Ethan realized.
An electrical storm now surrounding Haider kept him from retaliating. Then it dawned on Ethan that Vadoma’s spellcasting had really given him the weapons she’d tattooed on his back—shield, chain, spear. Not that he wanted to test them. Maybe he could get them all out of there and back to The Ark and wouldn’t have to chance using any magic again.
Nik’s panther was shifting back to human form. The first thing out of his mouth. “How the hell did you do that?”
“Blood connection.” He checked on Luc, who had come to and was also shifting. “Used by a spellbinder to tattoo me.” He then helped Luc to his feet. Both brothers were bleeding. Who knew how badly they’d been wounded? “We need to get out of here now. Nuala and the baby are safe back at The Ark and she’s going to—”
“No one is safe,” Nik growled. “Not Kindred, not human, not any living thing.”
“Not while Haider is alive,” Luc added. “We’re not leaving until he’s dead.”
The breath caught in Ethan’s throat. Luc was the more conservative Kindred brother.
The electrical field keeping Haider helpless was dying off, and he looked stronger and meaner than ever. Ethan couldn’t leave Nuala’s brothers to face the bastard without him as backup. Nuala would never forgive him if something happened to one of them. He would never forgive himself. How was he going to fight an immortal in a combat to the death? He only hoped the weapons Vadoma had given him would be enough.
Being something else was his new reality. He’d chosen it so he could save the woman he loved.
Now he would have to live by it.
Or die.
But not if he could help it.
*
Pop wasn’t in his office. A moment of panic nearly undid Nuala, but when she ran out into the corridor, she spotted Lily heading for the habitat.
“Lily, wait! Have you seen Pop?”
“No, and if I don’t hurry, I’ll be late for my shift,” the honey badger worried. “The boss won’t like—”
“Forget work for a minute.” She freed the baby from the sling. “I need you to take Maeve to the surgical suite. If I don’t get help, Max Haider may kill my brothers.” And Ethan.
“Oh, no!” Lily paled and took the baby from her. “I’ll get her to Nurse Leah right away.”
“Thank you!”
Nuala was already running down the hall. If she couldn’t find Pop, she would bring the whole security staff with her. But as she entered the casino and looked around, she stopped when she heard voices coming from the corridor that ran behind the habitat.
“I’ve warned you before, Morel. You went off half-cocked as usual!”
“You gotta believe me, boss, it wasn’t my fault! I was just trying to do my job!”
Her heart hammering against her ribs, Nuala drew closer and was about to interrupt when Pop growled, “Punching a customer so hard he went flying over the bar? Now he may sue!”
“Not if you use your influence on him.”
“You’ll work for free until you prove you can handle any situation without putting us in jeopardy.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure, boss.”
Morel wore a familiar panic as he raced out of the corridor past Nuala, who was ready to panic herself.
Then Pop stepped out. One look at her face and he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Haider kidnapped me and Maeve. Nik and Luc came to the rescue, but Haider is too powerful for them,” she said all in a gush.
“Where?”
She held out her hand in answer, and seconds later they were back on the staircase she’d left a few moments ago.
In the room below, Haider stood with his back to the windows, a shimmery veil seeming to protect him from Nik who came at him from the left, Luc from the right. Both brothers were now in blood-soaked human form, and a banged up Ethan advanced between them.
“What the hell is the cop doing here?”
“He came for me, Pop. Maeve and I owe him our lives.”
“I’ll have to thank him. If he doesn’t get himself killed.”
Ethan couldn’t die. Not another man she cared about. She said, “Do something, Pop.”
Nik whirled and sent a knockout punch toward Haider. The shimmer sucked in his arm and kept him where he stood. Pop swore. Let Nik go or die.
Haider looked up toward the staircase and laughed. It’s them who will die. You, as well, Cezar.
*
With Haider distracted, his heart beating double time, Ethan concentrated on the chain tattooed to his back. He visualized holding it in his hand, felt its weight as he gripped it tight, whirled it around his head and then flung it straight for Haider, who jerked and made a horrible sound that echoed through the empty room. His hands went to his throat.
The spell Haider had created to protect himself weakened and Nik freed his arm.
“What just happened?” came a male voice from above and behind him.
Ethan realized
Nuala had found Cezar. Rather than let himself be distracted, he kept his focus on Haider as Luc went for the bastard. Haider had enough power left in him to toss the already wounded shifter. Nik tried again and ended up in a heap with Luc.
His fingers digging between the supernatural chain and his neck, Haider turned his attention on Ethan. Prepare to die, human!
“Pop, do something!” Nuala cried. “Ethan, get out of there before he kills you!”
Ethan ignored her. A force from behind swept over him, but Haider put out his free hand and stopped whatever Cezar had sent his way. Ethan’s mouth went dry. Ready for whatever came, he visualized the spear in his hand. He’d never killed before. He’d never even fired his gun at a suspect. But as Haider began chanting something low and foul sounding, using his free hand to build some kind of spell against him, Ethan had no choice. He pulled back his arm and focused on Haider’s chest, then whipped his hand forward and released the ghostly spear.
Haider tried but failed to stop it before it sliced straight through his chest.
Having seen dead Kindred before—even when killed in animal form, they returned to human—Ethan expected Haider to fall where he stood and bleed out.
Instead, Haider grasped the spear and tried to pull it free. It didn’t budge but blood poured from the wound. His mane of hair stood straight out from his head and his blood began sweeping around him as if forced by a wild current of air. He threw back his head and roared. The sound reverberated through Ethan’s skull. It grew louder and louder, filling every corner, then abruptly stopped.
Haider’s body wavered as his flesh blackened and flaked and turned to dust motes that floated off and gradually disappeared. He was gone, no sign of him, as if he’d never existed.
Then Nuala was there. She hugged her brothers, both bloody and wounded, but both still upright. And then she launched herself at Ethan, threw her arms around his middle so tightly he could hardly breathe. He kissed her anyway. One long, sweet acknowledgment of his love for her. Not that he could tell her so in front of the men in her family.
As Nuala pulled her head back, her eyes swam with unshed tears. “You look awful, but you’re alive and still standing. I’m so thankful you’re all right!”
Animal Attraction Page 18