by Cynthia Eden
The shift started, spurred on by the weakness of his body. His paws vanished and his hands gripped the snow, fisting around it as he tossed back his head. One shift wouldn’t do the trick. He’d need to transform again and again in order to get the bullets out of him. Silver…that shit was a real weakness for his kind. Not just some Hollywood bull.
He was on his second shift when he heard the scream—her scream.
“Rayce!”
His head whipped up. He was caught somewhere between a man and a wolf, and his claws scraped over the snow. The shift burned over him and he lurched up, rising as a man.
Rayce bounded through the woods, barely feeling the cold snow against his feet and legs. Lila was what mattered. He had to get to her.
He heard her rushing toward him, her breaths heaving, her steps stumbling, then she broke from the trees and nearly fell into his arms. He grabbed her and held her close.
“You weren’t there,” she whispered, her hands locking around him. “He was. And there was so much blood…”
“We have to get out of here.” Because he still had silver in his body, and he was still fucking weak. He needed to transform again—maybe twice more before he healed completely. His hands moved to curl around her back.
She hissed out a cry of pain.
“Lila?” She’d told him the metal in the SUV had cut her but—
“He used his knife on me. He…he was trying to cut my wings away.”
The world went red for a moment. Absolutely blood fucking red. “Who?”
“He was there when you were gone,” she continued, her voice breaking a bit. “He used the knife…he knew what I was. He said…said I was his.”
“Who the hell was he?” Rayce wanted to know who would be getting a very brutal death.
She looked up at him, and he could see the tears that had dried on her cheeks. “He said his name was Kale.”
Kale. The name was familiar but damn if Rayce could place it, not then. “We’re getting out of here.” He’d killed the last human, but they were in the open so that meant they were vulnerable and—
Scents hit him. More humans. Coming their way. He could hear the slosh of their steps through the snow. “Company,” he gritted out from between clenched teeth. “Come on.” They had to make it back to the cabin. If they got back there, he’d make sure the paranormal safeguards held to keep those bastards out.
But it’s humans hunting us. Who the fuck sent the humans after Lila?
He lifted her into his arms and moved as fast as he could.
“No, Rayce, you’re hurt, too—”
She didn’t get it. Those humans were armed, and he knew they’d be firing as soon as they had a shot. He wasn’t going to let those bullets hit her. The bullets would have to go through him—literally—first.
“I’m faster,” he rasped. Half-truth, half-lie. He wasn’t moving at his maximum speed because of the silver, but he was still rushing far faster than a human could. He kept to the trees as best he could. Kept his body over hers even as he heard the humans running after them and then—
Bam!
The first bullet sank into a nearby tree. The bullet had missed his face by inches. Rayce just ducked his head and kept going.
“Rayce?” Fear hitched in Lila’s voice. He hated for her to be afraid. Dammit, he’d led her into an ambush. Those humans had been waiting on the mountain, waiting for their perfect moment to strike.
Who the hell is Kale?
The second bullet caught him in the shoulder. He didn’t stop. He had to get her to the cabin. If they just crossed the paranormal barrier that encircled the cabin…
I’ll be safe. She’ll be safe. No one else will be able to get close.
Another bullet hit him, this time in the back of his left leg. He stumbled but held tight to her. But even as he kept going, he could feel something happening in his body. His veins seemed to heat as weakness spread through him.
“Rayce, put me down! You’re too hurt!”
Another bullet—it slammed into his right leg and he fell, going down with her but making sure to shield her body. The silver had made him too weak. He needed to shift but…
More bullets hit him. One after the other and he curled his body around hers. “I’m…sorry,” Rayce whispered. He hadn’t wanted things to end this way.
He’d wanted an escape—for her.
“Rayce? Rayce?”
But the bullets were still flying and these humans, they knew his weakness too well.
***
“Stop!” Kale barked when he saw the werewolf fall. The bastard went down with Lila still in his arms, he curled his body around hers. Protective…even in fucking death.
There is a bond between them. He’d be sure to sever that bond. After all, if Lila was going to be his, then she could have no other ties. She had to be his alone.
“You worried the bullets hit her?” Wayne demanded. “I told you we shouldn’t fire—”
“I don’t care if the bullets hit her. Silver will hurt her, but it won’t kill her.” His head cocked and his eyes narrowed. “I just wanted to watch him die.” He was sure it would be quite the sight to see. And I need to make sure that bond is cut.
Wayne was staring at him. Gaping.
“Tell your men to close in…and you go, too,” Kale ordered with a wave of his hand. “Put your gun to his heart and pull the trigger.” Only then would the wolf be good and dead.
Only then…will Lila be mine.
Chapter Seven
Rayce’s body had fallen on top of hers. The snow was beneath her, he was on top of her, and Lila could hear the approach of more men. “They’re coming fast, Rayce.” She pushed against him.
He didn’t move. But his blood…it soaked her fingers. “Rayce!” She twisted and shimmied and managed to slide from beneath his body. She looked to the left and saw the armed men running toward them. Their weapons were out. She knew they’d fire again at any moment.
Her hand curled around Rayce. How many times had he been hit? She could smell silver and blood and when she looked at his wounds…
Some of them were bleeding silver. How was that possible? She touched the liquid, and it felt hot on her fingertips. Had they shot him with some kind of liquid silver? The better for the poison to slide through his body?
“Lila…”
Her heart jerked.
“Go…” Rayce rasped.
She shook her head. If she left him, he was dead. She knew that with one hundred percent certainty.
He may already be dead. His wounds were so bad. Lila didn’t quite understand how he was still alive.
“Get…cabin…safety…”
And she remembered when she’d slammed into that invisible wall. The wall had kept her from leaving. He’d said it was some kind of paranormal safeguard. If she could get them back to the cabin, would they both be safe? Could they get through the wall and be protected from Kale and his men?
“Get away from him!” A man’s voice blasted. “Or we’ll shoot through you to get him.”
She shook off her coat. It was wet and hardening with her blood. The minute it fell to the snow, her wings spread behind her.
She heard gasps from the men approaching. Lila turned back to look at them. They were all wearing black—black clothes, black ski hats, black scarves and gloves. “Stay away!”
“He’s dead. I’ve got orders,” one of the men snapped. “I’m putting a silver bullet in his heart.”
No. She wouldn’t let that happen. “Stay away!” Lila yelled and she lifted her hands toward them. Her body pulsed with fear and pain and that blue, icy light shot from her fingers again. It flew right at the men, and they screamed as they fell onto the snow.
She locked her arms around Rayce and held him tight. Her wings began to flap. Her broken, bloody wings. How much strength did she have? How long could she keep them in the air? Could she even get them back to the cabin?
“Stop it!” Kale had appeared in the middle of the
fallen men in black. He was glaring at her. “Let the werewolf go! Come back to me!”
She was about ten feet in the air, struggling to stay up and struggling to hold Rayce’s dead weight.
“If you don’t come back, they’ll shoot you until you fall,” Kale snarled at her.
Who was this man? And why did he want to hurt her so much? She tightened her grip on Rayce.
The men in black were rising from the snow. They were taking aim at her.
“Drop the werewolf!” Kale yelled.
She didn’t. She held him tighter. Then Lila turned, spreading her wings wide behind her as she used all of her energy to fly away.
“Fire at her! Knock her out of the sky!”
The bullets exploded, one right after the other. They hit her, again and again, but she kept flying. Kept flying and holding on to Rayce. She was screaming as she flew, crying, hurting, but she didn’t stop. She kept going and going…
Until she saw the cabin. But…where was the wall? Was it there? She didn’t hit it—there was no impact. Maybe the safeguard was gone. Maybe she’d flown there for nothing…
But Rayce told me to come here. He said…safety…
They fell out of the sky. They sank straight down and hit the snow. Rayce finally slipped from her grasp and her wings—they were useless then.
The sound of her ragged breathing filled the air. She needed to check Rayce and see if he still lived. She needed to get the silver out of him…and the bullets—she thought some were still in her, too. She needed to move…
And she would. Soon. As soon as she got her strength back.
The snow was so cold. It surrounded her. Her hand was reaching toward Rayce. She could almost touch him…
The snow was so cold.
Her eyes closed.
***
“Seriously? You don’t have enough sense to come in from the fuckin’ cold, mate?”
Rayce cracked open one eyelid. Then another. He was being dragged through the snow and that familiar voice—with its British accent—was filling his head.
“Got to save your sorry hide, again,” the voice complained. “I hope you know just how much you owe me. Ah, here we go. The cabin waits.”
Rayce was pulled inside. His head rapped into the side of the door and he groaned.
“Maybe that will knock some sense into you,” the grating voice told him. “Doubtful but…a guy can hope.”
Then he was released. His eyes sagged shut.
A moment later, he was punched in the face.
“Shift, dammit!” Now the voice held worry. Maybe even a touch of fear. “You’re bleeding silver, and I don’t know how long you’ve been out. I found you and you were ice cold—your skin is fuckin’ blue. Shift…and then we need to see about the angel.”
The angel.
Lila.
Rayce’s hand flew up and curled around the arm of his rescuer. He couldn’t see the guy clearly, but he’d know that voice anywhere. “Julian?” Julian Craig, panther shifter, trouble maker, and assassin. Also…one of the few individuals on earth that Rayce actually considered to be a friend.
“Yeah, wolf, it’s me. Luke sent me over—said you needed back-up, and I found you dying in the snow.” His voice was clipped, a sure sign of his fury. “Shift, you hear me? Shift until this silver poison is out of you.”
“Lila…”
“I’ll see to her. You take care of you own fool self, hear me?”
Rayce tried to nod but his wolf was clawing at him. The shift was slower than ever, grueling, and so painful because he had so much silver filling him. His breath heaved. His heart sputtered, but he became the wolf…and then the wolf fell back into the form of a man.
“Again,” Julian’s voice blasted. “Do it again.”
Rayce’s fingers scraped over the floor. His fingernails became claws, and they scraped into the floor. Another shift, this time, a bit faster.
“Again.” Julian kept repeating his order and Rayce kept shifting. He wasn’t even sure how many times. He just knew that every shift burned through his whole body. He could feel the silver pouring out of him. The fuckers used liquid silver bullets on me at the end, designed to explode on impact. They’d wanted him to suffer before he died.
But he hadn’t died. He’d gotten back to the cabin. How?
His body shuddered. Sweat covered him and then he was back in the form of a man. Julian wasn’t snarling for him to shift again, and Rayce’s body, though weak, didn’t feel as if it were burning from the inside out.
His hands pressed to the wood as he pushed himself up. It took a bit of time, but Rayce actually got to his feet. His gaze swung around the cabin, and he found Julian, crouched near the fireplace.
He’s leaning over Lila.
Rayce staggered toward them, and then he realized that Lila wasn’t moving. Her face held a bluish tint, her lips were dark, and her eyes were closed. Her wings were behind her, but they were torn and jagged. For an instant, he thought she was dead.
And his heart stopped. Everything—stopped. His focus centered just on her and he couldn’t even breathe.
Get her. Save her. Help her.
“Lila?” Her name came from him as a desperate rasp. He fell to his knees beside her.
But at his voice, her eyelids flickered—and then opened. The blue was dull, tired, but her gaze found his. She even tried to smile. “Got us…out,” she whispered.
She’d gotten them out? His hand lifted and stroked over her broken wing. Were those bullet holes in her wings?
“I think the angel saved your ass,” Julian murmured.
“Now we save her,” Rayce said. He couldn’t take his eyes off Lila.
“I…hurt.” Lila had tears in her gaze.
He hated her pain. “I’ll make it stop.”
“P-promise?”
“Yes.” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her cold lips. Lila shouldn’t be cold. She shouldn’t be hurt. This should never happen to her.
I have humans to kill. And they will suffer before I let death take them.
He eased back and saw that her lashes had closed again. “Lila?”
She didn’t stir.
He stroked her face. Ice cold. “Lila, you have to fight, understand?”
Nothing.
“I’m not so sure she does understand.” Julian spoke haltingly. “She…she can’t heal herself, not the way you did.”
Shifters had some of the strongest healing capabilities of any paranormal. Rayce knew jackshit about an angel’s ability to heal. But… He grabbed Julian by his shirt front. “Where the fuck is Luke?”
Julian looked down at Rayce’s hand. “Your claws are out, buddy.”
“She’s colder than ice. Her wings are torn apart. She needs help, right the hell now. So…” Each word was biting with fury as he demanded, “Where. Is. Luke?”
The door flew open behind him, as if right on fucking cue. Rayce leapt to his feet and whirled to face the new threat—or rather, whirled to face Luke Thorne. The infamous Lord of the Dark.
Luke smiled. “Did someone say my name?”
***
She’d escaped.
Kale stared at the cabin, one that was just out of his reach because of some kind of supernatural shield. He’d trailed Lila as she’d flown away, desperately carrying the unconscious werewolf in her grasp. He’d ordered his men to keep firing until they shot her out of the sky. The bullets had hit her, again and again, but she hadn’t dropped the werewolf.
And then…then his men had hit an invisible wall. The bullets hadn’t penetrated. Lila had just flown right past the wall—Lila and the werewolf. They’d flown past it while Kale watched helplessly, and then…
She’d hit the ground. She’d sunk into the snow. She hadn’t moved, not for hours. He knew because he’d watched her that whole time.
He’d still been watching when the asshole on the motorcycle had rushed through the invisible wall. Who the hell rode a motorcycle in that kind of weather? But th
e jerk had gone right through the shield, as if he had some kind of power that let him pass, and then the biker had hauled Rayce inside the cabin.
Rayce and Lila.
“Who the fuck is that?” Wayne asked as he peered through binoculars. “Someone else just joined the party, and damn if I know how the guy arrived. I swear, I blinked, and he was just…standing in the doorway.”
Kale yanked the binoculars from him. They’d moved back to the shelter of the trees while Kale tried to figure out how to get his angel back. He peered through the binoculars and caught a glimpse of a man with a broad back, jet black hair and—
The new player slammed the door shut behind him.
Kale shattered the binoculars in his grasp.
“What are our orders, sir?” Wayne asked, always the fucking soldier. He was even standing at attention.
Kale rolled back his shoulders. He knew what was coming. Lila would be changing soon. He’d wanted to be there when she took her first breath in her new life. But fate had other plans.
“You and a team stay here.” He wasn’t ready to face the man he’d seen through the binoculars. Not yet. He needed to plan. “When they leave the cabin, call me.” Kale turned away.
“You…aren’t worried she’ll fly away again?”
Kale laughed. “She can’t fly.” Not anymore.
“But she can run. Those men—they can help her.”
Kale looked back at him. “When her change is complete, she’ll start looking for me.” It would be a compulsion for her. “She won’t be able to help herself. She’ll choose me.”
“Then why do you want a team—”
Seriously. The shit he had to put up with on a daily basis. “I want the team to kill the bastards with her. Get a group to stay here and pick them off one by one when they leave.”
Was that not easy enough to understand?
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Call me the minute they leave.” That was step one. “Then shoot every bastard with her. Shoot until they don’t move.”
The bullets wouldn’t work on all the men in that cabin, but maybe Wayne and his men could at least take out the werewolf. Because I don’t think he’s dead yet. When the dust cleared, then Kale would strike again.