“Quinn?” Mira questioned tentatively.
“Quinn Evans,” the man in the driver’s seat replied. “He’s a black panther. He’s without a clan, but he’s a supporter of Tabitha’s…in his own way.”
With the GPS updated, Theodore turned in his seat to look at her. “Don’t mind him, he just doesn’t like Quinn’s style of doing things.”
“Let’s just say there’s bad blood between us.” He never met her gaze in the rearview mirror like he had every other time he’d spoken. Was there something more to this tension between him and the Marshal? She wasn’t sure, but it was just one more thing she would have to ask him later.
“Bad blood.” Theodore let out a deep laugh. “You can’t even be in the same room with him and not clash. We’re all on the same side, but you two act like you could kill each other.”
“Not all of us are on the same side,” he snapped, as the last of the city lights faded behind them. “Don’t doubt for one minute that Quinn wouldn’t turn one of us in if it meant making his career. Unlike the rest of us, who are fighting for the lives of our entire species, he’s all about himself.”
They pulled to a stop next to a private plane a short while later, and Theodore opened his door. “I’ll get the plane started.”
“We’ll keep watch while you get us ready,” he told the bear shifter as he climbed out.
Since she couldn’t hide in the SUV permanently, she followed suit. The cool winter air hit her with full force, and a few snow flurries danced on the air like flakes of glitter scattered through the darkness. The few lights around the small private airport served to make the flakes glisten. She had been entertained briefly by the magic of it, and it wasn’t until the man beside her pushed his door shut that she even noticed Theodore had disappeared into the plane, leaving them alone. “You never told me who you are.”
“There’s a purpose for everything.”
Even after she stepped in front of him, he refused to meet her gaze. “You’re hiding something.”
“Everything I do has a reason. We should go. Garth and Red have arrived at their plane and will be ready to take off shortly.” He nodded toward the only other plane on the runway. It was a little farther down, but she could still make out the lights of the truck they had been driving.
“Tell me your name or I’m not going.” If he didn’t want her to know something as simple as his name, it only made her question what else he was hiding from her.
“Once you know that bit of information, you’ll still claim you won’t be going.”
“Claim?” She didn’t like how he stressed the word, as if he had already considered other ways of getting her on the plane.
“My word is one thing everyone knows I don’t trifle with. If I say I’m going to do something, then consider it done, because the only thing that would stop me is my death. So unless you plan to kill me, you will be on that plane and headed to safety because I vowed to my Elders you would be.”
Fear crept up her spine, drying her mouth, and making her palms sweat. She didn’t like where this was going, but she was going to follow it to the bitter end regardless of the consequences. “I’ll ask you again. What is your name?”
“Styx.”
Her legs went limp. If not for his quick reflexes, she’d have been a puddle on the tarmac. “Styx.” His name emerged in a rough whisper. The assassin.
Chapter Four
Mira was still trying to wrap her head around who he was when he threw her over his shoulder and started toward the plane. Why hadn’t she seen it? He was the most respected—and the most feared—assassin of their kind. Frank’s words echoed in her mind: If he comes for you there is no way around your death. If you’re lucky he may kill you quickly, but if you anger him he’ll drawl it out until you’re begging for death. He’s a killer through and through. Never doubt that I’ll send him after anyone who betrays me.
“Put me down!” She pounded on his back. “If you’re going to kill me, then I demand you look at me while you do it.”
“So, we’re back to me killing you. That didn’t take long.” His disgust was clear in his words. “Seems like I never move past that with some people.”
“That’s why you’re here. He warned me, but I didn’t listen. I don’t know how you intercepted the message, or how you knew I was a supporter of Tabitha, but it doesn’t matter now. Just get it over with. I don’t like the idea of torture, so could you make it quick?” she snapped, though her voice was beginning to tremble. “I bet Frank is paying you extra to make sure I suffer so he can show the clan what happens to those who betray him.”
Inside the plane, he dropped her on the table close to the door so he could keep a grip on her while pulling the steps up and the door shut. “Now, listen to me. I don’t know what other lies your Alpha brainwashed you with, but I’m not here to kill you. My past might be bloodier than some, but I mean you no harm.”
“How am I supposed to believe that?” If she had been a more powerful shifter, she could have smelled the truth on him, but she wasn’t. No one from her clan was powerful that way, and if they were they kept it to themselves because Frank would have killed anyone who showed signs of being stronger than him.
“I’ll prove it if you promise not to open the door. Theodore is preparing the plane for takeoff. If you try to leave, you’d be walking straight into trouble.”
“Or I could already be in trouble.”
“If I wanted to take you somewhere else to kill you, I’d have bound you so you couldn’t escape or knocked you unconscious. I haven’t done anything like that, so give me some credit.”
She didn’t like the sound of it, but she acquiesced. If he meant her harm, he had plenty of time. After he pulled the steps in completely, she watched her last route of escape close. Her stomach roiled. If he tried to kill her, she would have nowhere to go, especially not once they were in the air. Please don’t let this be a mistake.
“Will you stop fretting? You’re making the air thick with your fear.” He tossed his bag on the table beside her and pulled back the flap.
“What are you going to do?” She watched the bag, expecting him to pull out a gun or a torture device.
“My phone screen isn’t as big as some of the new ones, so I’m grabbing my laptop. It will give you a much better view, and then you won’t suspect I’ve prerecorded the message or whatever else you could come up with to doubt this.” He slid the laptop out of his bag and opened the screen. It flashed to life, awaiting his passcode.
“What would I need to see? What message?” She didn’t understand how he was going to prove to her that he wasn’t there to kill her, and that only served to make her more nervous. She wanted to hop off the table and pace the interior of the plane.
His long fingers slid over the keyboard with finesse. He wasn’t the average assassin who was only familiar with weapons and ways to kill. Computer skills and knowledge of codes wasn’t something she would’ve expected from him. “I’m calling my Elders.”
“What? Wouldn’t someone be able to trace that? My Alpha—”
“We’ve got a secure video conferencing line so we can communicate with our allies as needed.” He brought up the screen, and the ringing of a phone echoed out of the laptop’s speakers.
“Hello.” A man with long black hair stared back at them.
“Mira, this is Raja, the Lieutenant of the Alaskan Tigers. Raja, meet Mira.” He gave a quick introduction but didn’t give them time to formally say hello. Instead, he continued to the point of the call. “Does Tabitha or Ty have a moment?”
“Little woman giving you trouble?” Raja smirked. “Good for you, girl.”
“We could do with less of that, and more of you calling for them,” Styx reasoned, as Theodore powered up the engines. “We’re on a limited time frame here.”
“You interrupted a meeting, so it better be important.” Raja handed what appeared to be an e-tablet over to someone else. A moment later, a woman and a man filled t
he screen.
The woman’s strawberry blonde hair was unmistakable, leaving no doubt of her identity. It was as if she’d just stepped out of one of Mira’s visions. “You must be the woman who sent the message,” Tabitha intoned.
“I’m Mira. It’s a pleasure to…um, meet you.” That was an understatement. Knowing what Tabitha had done for their kind, and what she intended to do in the future, left her sitting in awe before the Queen of the Tigers. Everything would be vastly different one day. That was a world Mira wanted to live in, so she supported Tabitha in her quest. That was what landed her in this mess in the first place. Things would change for the better one day, and Mira would be a part of it.
“What’s this about, Styx?” the man beside Tabitha inquired. “If you’ve found her, you should be on your way to Jinx.”
“Ty,” Styx began, his tone bitter. “It would appear Frank has used me to scare his people, threatening to send me after them if they disobey. I assumed my name would instill fear in her, like it does with everyone, so I held off on disclosing my identity until she demanded it. Now that she knows who I am, she believes her Alpha has sent me to torture and kill her.”
“What would you like us to do?” Tabitha asked.
“Confirm my status within your clan, and please let her know I’m here on your behalf. I thought this would be the best way to convince her.” Styx glanced at Mira, and then back at the screen.
“I could have done that,” Raja hollered from somewhere off-screen.
“It wouldn’t have been the same.” Tabitha adjusted in her seat, and the tablet wobbled some as she leaned back against the sofa. “Mira, I appreciate you being a supporter, though I have to say I apologize it has come at the cost of your clan and home. When we received notification that you were on the run, we sent Styx to find you. He’s the best there is.”
Mira’s eyebrow shot up at Tabitha’s choice of words. She had no doubt that he was the best at what he did, but the question was, what did he do now? Was he still the assassin history claimed him to be, or was he using his skills as a way to protect those who were making things better for their kind?
Tabitha caught her sudden suspicion. “He’s the best at what he does,” she continued. “And by that, I am not just referring to his methods of protecting people. He’s no longer an assassin. Does he still kill people? Yes, but only when there are no other options. He does it to keep us safe, so we can do what needs to be done to ensure our survival.”
Ty wrapped his arm around Tabitha’s shoulders, slipping back into view. “You might be wondering why we sent him over someone else. Since you decided to go to D.C., we couldn’t send a whole team in for you. Limited manpower meant we had to have the best. That’s Styx. We knew he’d get you out of the city alive, and hopefully without too much of an issue.”
“Only two dead,” Styx chimed in. “I’d say that’s an achievement considering the circumstances.”
“Ignore him.” Tabitha shook his head. “He can go without killing anyone, so there must have been danger to you or someone else.”
She thought about the roof and what had happened there. As crazy as it sounded, she didn’t count those deaths against him. He had saved her life, and possibly saved her from a fate worse than death.
“Styx is an amazing warrior, one we’re glad to have on our side. He would not be one of the Elder guards if we doubted for a minute his true nature.” Tabitha glanced at Styx before back to Mira. “His history is his to tell, one that I promise you is both bloody and enlightening. Know this: there’s more to the man beside you than his skills or his past. Trust him. He’ll keep you safe.”
“Satisfied?” Styx questioned.
She turned away from the laptop, looked up at him, and smiled. “Thank you.” She hopped off the table and let him wrap up the conversation. The plane was full of wood furniture that appeared to be hand-carved, with amazing details. Strolling down the aisle, she ran her hand over the smooth wood. Whoever had spent the time to crave such detail must have a lot of patience.
A few moments later, Styx closed the laptop. “Theodore, we’re ready whenever you are.”
“Then sit down and buckle up,” he called from the cockpit.
Styx nodded to the single row of seats on the plane. “You might want the window so you can see the lights of the city as we take off.”
“If I never see D.C. again, I won’t be missing anything. You can have it.” She sat down in the middle, leaving both the aisle and the window seat available for him to choose.
He took the aisle seat without a word and snapped his seatbelt on.
“How long will the flight to Alaska be?” she asked.
“We’re not going to Alaska right away.”
“What?”
“Theodore was on his way to the West Virginia Tigers’ compound when your message came through. That’s why he was the likely choice for back-up. As a pilot, he could act as both. Now he has to deliver this furniture to Jinx and Summer. Garth and Red will meet us there as well, but that’s their home so they won’t continue on with us wherever we go next.”
“What do you mean wherever we go next? Won’t we go to Alaska?”
“I will return there, but we still need to see where the best place is for you. You’re still connected to the Connecticut Alpha, so until you’ve committed yourself to another Alpha, or he has been eliminated, you could be a potential threat to the Elders. It’s my responsibility to keep them safe.”
“I would not betray—”
“That is not what I meant.” Styx stopped her before she could continue. “You have no connections to anyone in the clan. No one to know your true motives. It’s only a precaution.”
“No connections, huh?” She took his hand in hers, and the heat and tingling returned. “What about this?”
His eyes sparkled with shock before he blinked it away. “That’s different.”
“I saw the surprise in your eyes. Did you think I didn’t feel it? Even with all that was going on, how could I have missed the mating connection?”
“If you felt it, how could you think I was sent to kill you? Or worse, that I would torture you?” His eyes closed as Theodore sped the plane down the runway, beginning their takeoff.
“Flying makes you nervous.” All her fears and anger slipped away, as she watched him pale before her eyes. She laid her hand over his and squeezed it lightly.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I’m…” She paused and decided it was best to be truthful. “I’m terrified. There’s no other way to put it. My mind is jumping from one thing to another. From what I know is true, to what I’ve seen, to what I’ve been told. Fear will do crazy things to a person, but when you’ve witnessed some of the things I have, you know that even a mating doesn’t stop evil or wrongdoing.”
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
“I believe that now.” She glanced down. “If you don’t ease off that armrest, you’re going to do some major damage.” When he pried his hand away, she laced their fingers together. “Come on, big bad tiger. Just relax. Flying isn’t so awful.”
He gave her a grunt and didn’t comment. “Once we reach the right altitude, and settle out, I can forget we’re thousands of feet in the air. It’s only during takeoff and our descent that I can’t pretend I’m still on the ground and everything is normal.”
“I’ve heard stories of what you’ve done,” she said, changing the subject. “Maybe some of them have been lies, but not all of them. I saw how the Washington D.C. Tigers looked at you on the roof. They’d have pissed themselves if they had the chance.”
“What’s your point?” It came out as more of a growl than she had expected, and she almost pulled away.
“I was getting to that. You’re the monster under the bed, the proverbial boogieman. Stories about you make everyone look over their shoulders, and listen to their Alphas, otherwise you’ll come for them. Yet, you’re scared of flying. This fear of yours makes you seem…I don�
��t know, I guess normal is the best word. I wouldn’t have expected you to be afraid of anything.”
“Everyone is afraid of something. Being thousands of feet in the air in a metal box is my fear, because there’s nothing I can do if we go down. If I’m going to die, I want a fighting chance.” As the plane settled in flight, he opened his eyes and glanced at her. “Trusting my life or the lives of the ones I love to someone else has never turned out well for me.”
In his tone she caught a hint that there was more of a story behind his words, but to ask him about it wouldn’t ease his tension. “You’d rather be in control.” She smirked. “Why am I not surprised at that? But there’s something that does surprise me.”
“What’s that?”
“If you like to be in control, why don’t you command your own clan?”
He let out a deep sigh before shaking his head. “You remember your reaction when you heard my name. It’s always the same. No matter where I go, the reaction is always the same. There’s even some among the Alaskan Tigers who still question my loyalty. It’s better now, but I know there’s some who look at me and see my past or the rumors they’ve heard. I can never get past it. Who would want me to lead them?”
“You’d be an Alpha who could protect them. I’d give anything to have an Alpha to protect me instead of the one I got saddled with.”
“The fear would be there, and some people would question why anyone would follow me.” He leaned his head back. “Anyway, I’m happy with my position with Tabitha and Ty.”
“Happy doesn’t mean it’s all you want.”
“Now’s not the time.”
She wasn’t sure if he was referring to becoming an Alpha, or the conversation itself. She might have pressed harder, but Theodore interrupted them.
“It should be a quick flight, but if you need to get up, go ahead.”
“We’re fine. Just want to be there.” Styx rolled his shoulders. “All of us are exhausted, so we’ll spend the night there and start west after we’ve slept. I’ll speak to Jinx to make arrangements.”
Tiger Tracks (Alaskan Tigers Book 9) Page 4