But Leanna knew that, too.
Which meant she would have another plan. And there was only one other plan. There was only one way to make sure that Ryan couldn’t perform the ritual that would expel Leanna from existence.
She had to kill Angela. If she rid herself of Angela before they could rid Angela of her, then Ryan wouldn’t be able to touch Leanna. She would have to start over, yes, but she would still be able to.
Leanna was going to kill Angela, and there was nothing that he could do to stop her with a knife sticking out of his back and his lungs struggling to fill with air.
The woman that he was falling in love with was in mortal danger, and once again …he couldn’t act. This time it wasn’t fear that froze him, as it had been with James. It was the fact that he had let his guard down with Angela, and he hadn’t been watchful enough. He should have seen that Leanna had returned to Angela’s body, but he had put Angela’s odd behavior down to her own nerves and fear.
But she hadn’t spoken, because her accent was her dead giveaway.
He should have known. He should have stopped this before it happened. He should never have let Leanna get so close that she could stab him.
Ryan felt dizzy, the blood loss affecting him even though he had more natural resistance to injury than the average human. Sinking to the ground fully, Ryan groaned with agony as he reached his hand around to his back and managed to wrap his fingers around the handle of the knife. When he did, he realized it wasn’t a knife at all. It was a letter opener sticking out of his spine.
She had taken it from his own office, where she had waited while he got all of the things they needed and packed them in his satchel.
Ryan gripped the letter opener, squeezing his eyes shut and forcing himself to take several long, slow breaths.
Then he yanked the weapon out of himself, screaming out in pain as his vision went temporarily dark. He let out a string of curse words, collapsing into the marsh as the pain peaked. The moment the pain began to recede, though, he was up on all fours again. Then he was on his feet. Then he was able to lift his head up and take a step forward.
His steps were staggered, and his body protested each one, but he was able to move forward sluggishly. Then a little more quickly. Then with slightly more ease. Every moment sent pain shooting up and down his spine, but he didn’t stop.
He wasn’t going to freeze this time. He wasn’t going to be controlled by some paralyzing force that prevented him from getting to the person he cared about in time to save them. He just wouldn’t let it happen again. Not with Angela’s life on the line.
There was nothing more precious than that, and whatever the cost was to get to her in time, he would pay it without complaint. Because she was his, and he …he was very much hers.
Chapter 35
Leanna
Her time was limited, and she knew it. This was her only chance. If she could kill Angela before either of the two dragon shifters could stop her, then she would be able to continue existing within the in-between realm until she could find another host to allow her to carry out her revenge on Gary. If they didn’t have Angela, they couldn’t do the ritual, and she would be safe.
She couldn’t let them expel her, either. The very thought of becoming nothing was enough to send her into a full panic, and she would do whatever she had to do to keep that from happening.
Leanna had a place in mind, too. There was an area of the marsh that she knew was particularly deep. She was only a few hundred feet from it now, running as fast as she could. She would throw herself into the marsh and find a way to keep herself under water long enough to drown. Leanna knew that she would feel the panic and the pain of drowning just as though it really was her own lungs suffocating from want of air. Drowning had always been a personal fear for her, and she knew that it was going to be misery to force herself to stay under the water. But drowning was the only way to live.
There were heavy footsteps behind her, growing closer by the second. The dragon shifters were swift, and they were strong, and there was no way that Leanna could outrun them for any length of time. They would also be able to pull her out of the marsh, which meant that she had to make sure that they didn’t see her dive into it.
Putting on a burst of speed, she grudgingly appreciated Angela’s long legs and slim frame. If Leanna had to run in her own body, she would never have made it this far.
She saw her destination up ahead, and she drew on every bit of energy that Angela had, speeding towards it and diving below. The swampy water swallowed her up immediately, her heavy clothes dragging her down to the bottom. Every instinct she had begged her to fight and thrash her way to the top again. She hadn’t even remembered to take a deep breath before going below the water, so already her lungs were burning, deprived of oxygen from the long run.
Maybe that meant she would be put out of her misery sooner.
Leanna had to move, so she forced herself to kick downward, going lower and lower until she reached the bottom of the pool she had jumped into. Her lungs were burning, and her heart was pounding. Every muscle screamed in protest.
This is how you live, she told herself over and over. This is how you live. This is how you live. This is how you live.
The repetitive chant helped keep her focused, but it eased none of the fear and pain she felt. That stayed in the forefront of her mind—at least, it did until something slid up against her body.
Leanna went cold, her heart stopping in her chest. It wasn’t a dragon shifter who had touched her. It wasn’t a human at all. It was a reptile, and from the feel of it brushing alongside her, it was an enormous one. She shouldn’t be surprised—she was in the Louisiana bayou. But she was surprised nonetheless. In all of her planning, she had focused solely on drowning herself in the marsh. She had entirely forgotten to take into account the fact that deadly creatures lived below these waters.
She reacted instinctively, flailing away from the brush of the reptilian body. The logical part of her brain that had decided that death for Angela was the only option shut down completely, and all Leanna could think was that she had to get as far away from this creature as possible. After all, she was the one who had to experience Angela’s death, and she didn’t—she couldn’t—do it this way.
Leanna kicked hard for the surface, her panic so strong that she could hardly move. She was flailing in the water, inefficient and slow because of her fear.
And then she felt the brush against her again. She wanted to scream. Her hand broke the surface of the water, reaching out for something to grab onto. But there was nothing there. No branch. No bank. No dragon shifter waiting to pull her out.
Leanna screamed internally, and then she felt the first stabbing pain shoot through her leg. There were teeth embedded in the muscle of Angela’s calf and her body was being dragged down, further and further. The creature’s strong jaws shook her back and forth under the water, pulling her down to her death, and there was nothing Leanna could do about it.
And then she realized—she could leave. Angela would return to her own body but there was nothing she could do to save herself now. She couldn’t fight off an alligator beneath the water.
Leanna could escape now, Angela would die, the ritual would not be performed, and Leanna’s mission would be accomplished.
She almost laughed aloud, despite the horror of the situation. The pain and fear faded away from her, and once again, Leanna voluntarily left Angela’s body with the purpose of returning Angela to an impossible situation.
Chapter 36
Ryan
He could see Jordan ahead of him. She was moving like the wind, and he was struggling behind her, in pain but holding his own. He had ordered his body to work, regardless of the stab wound in his back, and it was doing an admiral job of it. But he couldn’t catch up to Jordan, who was racing through the trees as though her life depended on it.
Ryan was grateful for her, and he wished that they were in dragon form so he could tell her so. But t
hen Jordan abruptly stopped, coming to a standstill so quickly that she almost fell backward. She lifted her head in the air, then turned back to Ryan, calling to him. “Her scent stops here.”
He kept running towards her as fast as he could, looking around to see what might have happened. Only then did he realize that they were now in the exact spot where James had been killed so many years ago. Instinctively, his gaze centered on the deep marsh where the alligator had appeared, snapping James between its jaws.
“She’s going to kill Angela,” he said, breathing hard as he too came to a stop, now beside Jordan. “She’s in the marsh. She’s going to drown her.” He shuddered at the thought. “Or worse.”
Jordan grabbed his shoulders and spun him around, laying her hands on his back. “Shit, you’re a mess back here. How did she get you this bad?”
“Letter opener. She stabbed it in and jerked it around.” Ryan said as he felt Jordan’s healing powers begin to take effect. Her healing powers were not as strong as they would be if she was a true healer or a witch with a potion, but they were helpful. They could patch him up enough that he would be able to move a little easier. But there was no time to really let her powers take hold. He moved away from her. “She’s drowning,” he said, sure he was right. “We have to go in after her, Jordan.” He pointed at the marsh that he had avoided for almost twenty years. “This place has come back to haunt me all over again.”
As Jordan turned to look at the pool, a hand shot up out of it. Ryan bolted forward, recognizing Angela’s hand immediately. He ran as fast as he could towards the bank, but the hand was out in the middle of the water, and he couldn’t reach it without going in. Before he could slide into the water, the hand disappeared.
“Shit!” Ryan shouted, shoving off his boots, his legs screaming with agony as he moved them, disregarding the injury to his back. “Shit! Angela!”
“Wait,” Jordan said, pulling her top off, and shoving her pants off next. “Shift,” she told him. “Can you? There’s no telling what’s in that water. If we both go in to get her, we might get ourselves in trouble.”
As she spoke, the water began to move as though something below was thrashing. Ryan didn’t waste any more time. He pulled off his pants, but ignored his shirt, jumping up into the air and shifting into his dragon form, his black wings spanning twenty-four feet. Flying up into the air, he dove into the water, his yellow eyes opening beneath the surface.
What he saw made his blood run cold. Angela, eyes closed and mouth slack, was caught in the jaws of an enormous alligator that was shaking her back and forth with its giant head. Ryan knocked the alligator with one wing, sending it tumbling back through the water with the force of the blow. But it took Angela with it, and Ryan was afraid to grab her and pull her from the alligator’s jaws, in case he worsened her injuries.
There wasn’t enough room for him to move easily beneath the water, but he rushed towards the alligator anyway, his wings serving as fins. When he got to the beast again, he headbutted the side of its head, causing its jaws to open. It snapped at him, and, now that Angela was free from the alligator’s grasp, Ryan grabbed it with his talons and broke the twelve-foot monster in half with little effort.
There was little comfort to killing the alligator. The water was filled with Angela’s blood, and her body floated limply towards the surface. Ryan positioned himself beneath her, then rose up as quickly as he could, pushing her up out of the water on his back and carrying her to the bank.
Jordan was there, waiting, and she pulled Angela off Ryan as soon as she could reach her. Still in her underwear, having not transitioned after all, Jordan knelt beside Angela’s cold, mangled body, and she placed her hands on her chest, pressing firmly.
Shifting, Ryan knelt beside Angela. “She has a heartbeat. Right? Jordan—tell me she has a heartbeat.”
“I’m working on it,” Jordan said, looking up at him briefly. “I can’t tell you anything right now. It might just be faint.”
Jordan’s touch was healing, but it couldn’t bring Angela’s heartbeat back if it was gone. Ryan grabbed his pants from the bank and pulled them on, not bothering to button them as he walked around to Jordan’s side. “Let me have her,” Ryan said, motioning Jordan away. “I can do CPR. My training is more recent than yours. Focus on her legs.”
Without arguing, Jordan moved away and let Ryan have access to Angela’s chest. He knelt over her, aching at the paleness of her skin and the limpness of her body. Pressing his ear to her chest, he heard nothing at all, and it made him want to scream with grief. But he controlled that emotion, and he controlled his pain, pressing his hands on her chest and beginning to administer CPR, which he had trained for years ago when he had been a counselor for a few summers at a boys’ camp upstate.
It had been a long time since he’d done the CPR training, and he’d never actually had to use it before, but he had no choice but to do it right. Angela couldn’t die. She just couldn’t. He wouldn’t let her. He pressed in a steady rhythm, knowing that he was bruising her chest, but unable to help that. Bending over her, he held her nose and covered her mouth with his, breathing air into her lungs before backing off and beginning to push again.
He repeated the same actions over and over, pressing his hands against her chest, then breathing into her mouth. He repositioned her head so that her airway would be as clear as possible, and he watched her face every second for any sign of life as he compressed her chest again and again.
“Ryan,” Jordan said softly, down by Angela’s legs. “She’s gone.”
“No, she’s not,” Ryan insisted, not letting up. “She can’t be. She’s not gone.”
“I’m sorry,” Jordan said with sympathy that was rare for her. “I know you care about her. But she’s gone.”
“No!” Ryan jerked his head around at Jordan, his own chest heaving with pain, and effort, and grief. “She’s not.”
Jordan said nothing more, and Ryan returned to Angela, continuing to administer CPR, but also talking to her now. “Please! Come back. Please come back. I can’t lose you. I didn’t even know I was missing you until I found you, and now I don’t know what to do without you. I know you’re not ready to go. You have to fight, Angela. Please.” His voice cracked and he bowed his head over her as he pressed against her chest once more. “Please.”
A slight cough made Ryan’s head jerk up again. He looked at Angela’s face, but her eyes were still closed and her skin was still deadly pale. “Did you—was that?” He looked over at Jordan, unable to finish his question.
Eyes wide with surprise, Jordan nodded. “That was her.”
Ryan redoubled his efforts, compressing her chest, and then breathing air into her. When he lifted his mouth from hers, Angela spat up water, coughing in earnest. And when he pressed his hand to her chest again, he felt a faint heartbeat. “Oh my God,” he whispered, leaning over Angela and brushing her hair back from her face. “You beautiful woman,” he said, tears gathering in his eyes. “You did it. Oh my God. Angela.”
Her eyes fluttered open, and she groaned in pain.
“She’s going to be in agony,” Jordan said. “Her calf is badly torn.”
“Do what you can for her,” Ryan said, gathering Angela’s head onto his lap and holding her close, stroking her hair. “I’m here, honey.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “You’re all right. I’m here. You’re going to be okay.”
Angela stared up at him, her eyes rimmed with red and her full lips, usually so sensual, pale and cracked. “Ryan …”
“It’s all right,” he said, even though nothing really was all right. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”
“I’m never going to be free of her,” Angela whispered. And then she fainted in his arms.
Ryan panicked at first, but he could still feel her heartbeat in her chest. He looked down at Jordan, really seeing Angela’s leg for the first time. The damage to it was almost sickening, and he had to look away.
“She fainted from the pain,”
Jordan said, her hands wrapped around Angela’s leg. “I’m doing what I can, but it’s slow. Ryan—we have to get rid of Leanna now. If she takes Angela’s body over again, she may not make it back. Angela is so weakened right now that Leanna could take over permanently.”
“I know,” Ryan said, looking down at Angela and stroking the pale, cold skin of her cheek. “But can she handle the ritual right now?”
“I’ll get her as strong as I can,” Jordan said, not answering directly. “Then we have no choice but to find out. Leanna is a murderous bitch. She’ll kill her if she can.”
Ryan nodded. Lifting his head, he looked out over the part of the marsh that had brought him so much pain and fear. James had died here. Angela would have died in this same spot. This time, though, he had saved the person he cared about. It did nothing to change what had happened to James, but he hoped that even though James had passed over to the next side, he still somehow knew that Ryan had learned from what had happened that night. He would never fail anyone he cared about again.
“There’s some improvement,” Jordan said, breaking into Ryan’s thoughts. “She’s beginning to heal just a bit. She needs medical attention though. I can’t fix this.”
“We’ll get her to a hospital as soon as we know we’re rid of Leanna,” Ryan said, though he didn’t know what they would find when they got back into the city. There might already be a warrant out for her arrest.
Slowly, painfully, Ryan got to his feet, with Angela in his arms.
“Let me carry her,” Jordan said.
“She’s bigger than you are.”
“I’m stronger than ten of her,” Jordan said.
That was true, but Ryan didn’t care. “I need to keep her with me,” Ryan said, shifting Angela in his arms and feeling the wound in his back protest. “I’m not letting go of her again.”
Rockwell Agency: Boxset Page 22