by Jae
Jorie's gaze landed on a fist-sized stone on the ground to her left. Two quick steps, maybe three, and she could grab it.
"No! Don't," Griffin said. Her foot shot out and kicked the stone under a car. "Don't be stupid."
"I was stupid when I let you into my life and thought you were my friend." Jorie couldn't stop the bitter words. It was better than giving in to her fear and running in blind panic.
The whiskey-colored eyes darkened with what might have been guilt or regret. "I'm the closest thing to a friend you've got right now," Griffin said.
"Friend?" Griffin had the audacity to call herself a friend? "You lied to me, tried to kill me, and chased me halfway across the state. Why should I trust you?" Trusting someone had never been an easy thing for Jorie. She had trusted Griffin, though, and it had blown up into her face.
"Because you have no other choice if you want to live," Griffin answered.
Footsteps echoed through the darkness.
Griffin's head flew around. Her glowing eyes pierced the darkness.
She's a predator on the hunt... or on the run, Jorie realized. She tried to make out whatever Griffin was seeing. Were there more shape-shifters out there?
Sticking around to find out was a bad idea. Jorie ran.
A large hand grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her to a stop after just one step. The collar of her shirt pulled tight around her neck. Panic rushed through her. For a second, she couldn't breathe.
Then Griffin loosened her grip and smoothed a palm over Jorie's collar, straightening it. "Stop running away from me," Griffin said in a low voice. "I can't protect you if you're running away."
A stranger stepped out of the darkness and into the dim light of a streetlamp. Though she wasn't quite as tall or as bulky as Griffin, there was something dangerous about her that made Jorie recoil. Her eyes widened when the stranger took a threatening stance in front of Griffin.
Is she going to help me? Jorie held her breath, ready to escape should a fight break out.
"What are you doing with her, Griffin?" the stranger asked and pointed an accusing finger at Jorie. Something about the way she moved was oddly familiar.
Oh, no. The way she moves... and she knew Griffin's name. She's one of them. The stranger wasn't here to help her. It looked more as if Griffin and the stranger where fighting over prey. Jorie took advantage of the stare-down between them to back away inch by inch.
"That's none of your business." Griffin snarled.
"Bullshit!" The other shape-shifter growled at Griffin. "You know that's not true. The dads sent me after you to —"
"Run!" Griffin shouted and gave Jorie a shove to get her moving. She tackled the other shape-shifter, who crashed against the car with an audible thump.
Jorie, already charged with adrenaline, ran. A large hand wrapped around her arm and dragged her along. She fought to break free, but Griffin's grip around her arm was like an iron shackle. "I thought you said don't run?" Jorie wheezed, struggling to keep up.
"Don't run unless I tell you," Griffin shouted back. "Now shut up and run!"
Better the devil you know than the devil you don't, Jorie decided and ran. After a few steps, she threw a glance back over her shoulder.
The other shifter was coming after them in a loose-limbed run, quickly catching up. A frightening fire burned in her eyes.
Griffin's half-supporting, half-dragging hand disappeared from around her arm. Jorie almost fell. Panic flared. She could already see the predator pounce at her fallen body. But it didn't happen. Not yet. After two stumbling steps, she caught herself and continued to run.
Snarling and hissing from behind her drowned out Jorie's gasping breath. She risked a quick glance back over her shoulder to see what was going on.
The woman who had chased them was now writhing on the ground. Griffin had defeated her quickly and effectively.
One down, one to go. Jorie didn't stop running, now away from Griffin. She dashed between two parked cars and out onto the street. Her gaze darted left and right, searching for an escape route or a hiding place.
Another shadowy figure emerged from the darkness.
Jorie froze. Then she took a second glance. Her eyes widened. Isn't that...? She took in the blond hair and friendly face. The librarian!
Relief weakened Jorie's knees. She stumbled toward the woman, who was leaning against a van. "Help!" she shouted.
Before she could reach the woman, strong fingers grabbed her arm and pulled her back against a solid body.
Griffin!
"Let go!" Jorie kicked out, but Griffin evaded all her attempts to get away.
"Are you crazy?" the librarian hissed at Griffin. She stepped fearlessly up to the bigger woman.
"No! Get away!" Jorie shouted. No matter what would happen to her, she didn't want to put another person in danger.
The librarian ignored her, though, focusing on Griffin. "You and Leigh are acting like the stubborn brats you were fifteen years ago — only this time, there are humans around and the Saru are chasing you. What in the Great Hunter's name are you doing?"
Griffin lifted the hand that wasn't wrapped around Jorie's arm. A small object was almost hidden in Griffin's large palm.
"Don't you dare use that catnip shit on me, Griffin Westmore!" The librarian snarled.
Within a second, Jorie realized two things: the librarian was one of the shape-shifters, and Griffin hadn't hurt the tall woman who was still lying on the ground. She wasn't writhing in pain. She rolled around on the ground, then junped up and raced around in a circle. A weird rumbling sound rose up her chest. I think she's purring. She's drunk on catnip. But why didn't the catnip affect Griffin too when she sprayed it on the... cat woman? Is Griffin a different kind of shifter?
Jorie hadn't stayed around to see into what kind of animal Griffin had shifted in her bedroom.
"Your fathers sent us to make sure you're okay, so why are you acting as if we're your enemies?" the librarian asked Griffin.
Fathers, plural? Jorie wanted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. This is just too weird.
"Because one of you betrayed me to the Saru!" Griffin hissed.
The librarian urgently shook her head. "No, Griffin, we didn't betray you. A saru intercepted Patrick's phone call. There was nothing we could do."
More footsteps interrupted Griffin's skeptical silence.
Griffin's grip on Jorie's arm tightened. Jorie felt Griffin's body vibrate with power as she prepared to run.
Was there another predator from whom Griffin was running? Someone even more dangerous? Fear choked Jorie. She sucked in a lungful of air.
"Wait!" the librarian whispered. She rolled back the sliding door of the van next to them. "Get in!"
Griffin lifted Jorie and shoved her into the van's cargo area. A warm, heavy body landed on top of Jorie, pressing the air from her lungs for a moment.
"Sorry," Griffin whispered. Her weight disappeared from Jorie's back.
The sliding door snapped closed. Jorie was trapped.
* * *
Griffin lay still. Next to her, she felt Jorie's body tremble. Her shoulders were moving up and down in a quick rhythm. Is she crying or just gasping for breath? Griffin couldn't tell. The sting of the catnip and the chaotic swirl of emotions that emanated from the catnip-drunk Leigh rendered her nose useless.
At least she hoped that it would do the same to the two saru who were now talking to Rhonda outside the van. It might throw them off for a while, but it wouldn't work for long. Rhonda needed to get rid of them quickly.
Jorie rolled around. Her chest expanded, and her mouth opened.
Griffin surged forward. Her hand clamped over Jorie's mouth before she could scream.
Instantly, Jorie struggled and tried to bite her.
"Jorie, Jorie! Stop," Griffin said right into her ear, keeping her voice low. "Stop fighting me. I know you're scared, and while it might not look that way, I'm here to save your life. There are much worse predato
rs out there than in here, so stay quiet."
The decision with which she had struggled for so long had been made. Griffin had passed the point of no return. She would try to save Jorie's life even if it meant fighting her fellow saru.
Still pressing her hand against Jorie's mouth, careful not to cover her nose too, she wrapped her other arm around the struggling Jorie and made soft shushing sounds. She kept contact with Jorie's wide-eyed gaze, hoping Jorie could read the truth of her words in her eyes.
One single tear escaped from the corner of Jorie's eye.
Guilt lanced through Griffin. She almost let go of Jorie before she got her emotions back under control. With the hand that wasn't pressed to Jorie's mouth, she wiped away the tear. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. Causing Jorie pain, making her fear for her life had never been what she wanted.
Finally, Jorie lay still next to her. Her heart was still hammering. They were pressed so close together that Griffin could hardly tell whether it was Jorie's heart or her own.
She lay quietly, listening to the interrogation going on outside.
"What's going on with her?" one of the saru asked.
Leigh was still purring. The scraping of clothes against clothes told Griffin that she was rubbing against Rhonda like an overgrown cat.
"We're on our honeymoon," Rhonda said happily. "She was a little nervous about it, and somehow, she got her paws on a little bit of catnip, just to take the edge off."
One of the saru growled. While some cat-shifters used catnip as a recreational drug, it wasn't commonly accepted. "You better stop acting so conspicuously in public," the saru warned. "Purring and kneading is not exactly human behavior, so if you don't want me to report you for breaking the First Law..."
"We're already gone," Rhonda said. Shuffling steps told Griffin that she was trying to drag Leigh to the van.
"Stop. Wait a minute," the other saru said.
Griffin held her breath. Had he become suspicious?
Footsteps came closer.
"Have you seen a human woman?" the saru asked. "She's about five foot seven, with Asian features and black hair."
"Another woman?" Rhonda giggled as if she, too, had gotten a whiff of the catnip. "I can hardly handle one, what would I want with another?"
Their steps came closer and circled the van.
Griffin squeezed her eyes shut in helpless frustration.
If they glanced through the single window in the cargo area of the van...
"Hey!" a loud shout came from outside.
Patrick! Griffin realized. What is he doing here? Is this his van?
"Help, help!" Patrick yelled. "A woman just stole my car!"
"Shit," one of the saru said. "That's gotta be her. She got away!" Cursing, the two saru ran off.
Griffin loosened her grip on Jorie. She rolled onto her back and stared at the van's ceiling. That was close. Much too close.
* * *
Her shock was wearing off. It was a double-edged sword. While it allowed Jorie to think more clearly, it also made her aware of all the burning scrapes and throbbing bruises on her body. Testing how much freedom of movement her hurting body and Griffin would allow, she rolled to her knees.
Griffin made no move to stop her, so Jorie looked around.
Outside, the lights of Detroit were flashing by. They were driving as fast as the speed limit allowed.
Where are they taking me? The street signs provided no answers, so Jorie focused on the conversation between her kidnappers — or at least between two of them.
The woman sprawled in the passenger seat was still purring. One of her arms was draped over her smaller companion's lap. She snuggled up to her, one of her hands pressing rhythmically against the leg of the woman in the driver's seat as if she were a small, harmless kitten and not a six-foot woman.
Jorie stared, fascinated and scared in equal parts. She had Quinn, the tiger-shifter in her novel, do the same thing while she had kissed her partner for the first time. Jorie's head was spinning. It was as if the shifters from her novel had come to life or as if she were trapped in one of her bizarre dreams.
The painful pounding of her arm, where Griffin had grabbed her, told her it wasn't a dream. If this were a scene from my novel, one good-looking shifter would declare her never-ending love for me and serve me breakfast in bed, not try to kill me and eat me for breakfast.
Fewer and fewer neon lights flickered outside. They're taking me out of the city. Her knees started to shake. Jorie sat back down.
The woman in the passenger seat sat up. Dazed, she stared out the window for a few moments, then rubbed her face. "What happened?" she asked groggily.
"Let's just say that you spent the last few minutes as one happy cat," Griffin said with a slight smirk.
"Griffin used catnip on you," the smaller woman said.
"I thought you'd like it better than me trying to stop you with a bullet," Griffin said.
The cat woman pounded her fist against the dashboard.
Jorie's eyes widened when she saw the fist-sized dent.
"Damn you." The woman snarled at Griffin. "You didn't need to stop me at all. We're not here on Saru orders."
Saru? Is that what the shape-shifters are called?
"Shut up," Griffin ordered. "Not in front of her." She jerked her thumb at Jorie.
Jorie had enough. Enough of being talked about as if she were a child or as if she were not even present. Enough of being betrayed, threatened, almost killed, kidnapped, and dragged around. Enough of not knowing why this was happening to her. "Stop the car!"
"What?" Even the woman in the driver's seat looked away from the road for a moment to stare at Jorie.
"Stop the car," Jorie said. "I'm not going anywhere until I know what's going on."
The former catnip victim laughed sarcastically. "Not like you have a choice, human."
"Shut up, Leigh," Griffin said again.
Leigh? She's Griffin's sister? Instead of getting some answers, more questions rushed through Jorie's mind. "At least tell me where we're going," she pleaded, trying to appeal to any decency or feelings of guilt Griffin might have.
"We need a place where we can hide for a while until we've sorted this whole mess out," Griffin said. She glanced at the woman in the driver's seat. "I was thinking your place might be the perfect hideaway, Rhonda."
"Are you crazy?" Leigh and Jorie shouted at the same time.
They looked at each other. A frown made Leigh's face appear even grimmer. "You want us to hide her? I say we hand her over to the Saru."
"No," Griffin said with finality.
"You're risking your life for a human. You should at least try to get away, not head back into disaster," Leigh said. "Every Wrasa in the UP is looking for you. Osgrove and all the towns in the vicinity are crawling with saru, and if they find you..."
Shivers raced up and down Jorie's spine. Whoever the Saru were, they wanted her dead. They were hunting her with everything they had. Jorie still didn't understand why this was happening.
"Going back to the UP is the safest option," Griffin said. "By the time we make it back, they'll have finished searching the area and will focus on Detroit. No one will expect us to double back. We can hide with the pride for a while."
The pride? Griffin expected her to willingly leave the city and surround herself with more of the shape-shifting predators? At least here in the city, she had a chance to escape and hide in the anonymity. She could survive on her own. In the more rural area surrounding Osgrove, Griffin had the upper hand. Jorie would have to depend on her to keep her safe. After everything that had happened, she wasn't ready to place that much trust in Griffin. "Do you really think I'll follow you willingly into the lion's den?"
"And do you really think the 'lions' would willingly take a human and a rogue saru into their den?" Leigh asked, talking only to Griffin and ignoring Jorie.
Jorie forced down a fresh wave of fear and tried to think clearly and observe everything she could. So they rea
lly are lions... or did she just repeat what I said?
"Jorie, listen." Griffin turned and touched Jorie's arm, then withdrew her hand when Jorie flinched. "I know you're scared. I know you don't trust me and don't want to put your life into my hands. But this is our only chance. You might think you're safer in the city, but you're not. You'll never make it on your own. By now, they have cut off all the escape routes — airports, bus terminals, train stations, and car rental companies. Once the two saru call it in and report that they think you're in Detroit, they will watch all the major routes out of the city. They'll show your photo around in motels and gas stations. It's only a matter of time until they find you here."
Hopelessness washed through Jorie. She wasn't safe anywhere. "They?" she repeated. "You act as if you're not a part of that 'they.'" She didn't bother to hide the silent accusation in her words.
Silence filled the van.
Jorie was used to silence. She normally liked silence, but now she felt as if the walls of the van were closing in on her.
"I'm risking a lot by trying to save your life," Griffin said.
"Yes," Leigh said. "You're risking our fathers' careers and the safety of the whole pride. I shouldn't let you do that."
Griffin leaned forward to make eye contact with her sister. "Rhonda said you're here because my fathers were worried about me," she said. "Now they can prove how much they care about my well-being. I never asked anything of them, never wanted anything — now I'm asking for a little help."
The sudden silence in the van told Jorie how unusual Griffin asking for help was. Is she really seen as a rogue now because she failed to kill me? Is she really trying to help me? Or is this all just a trick? Jorie wasn't sure. Since she had woken with Griffin bent over her, ready to kill her, she wasn't sure about anything anymore.
* * *
Griffin's hand remained wrapped around Jorie's upper arm as she helped her out of the van. She felt the slight trembling under her hand. Outwardly, Jorie appeared calm, resigned to her fate, but Griffin knew that was far from the truth. "Take her inside," she ordered. "Make sure no one comes near her." Her last sentence was directed at Rhonda because she wasn't sure whether Leigh would lift a paw to help protect a human.