Death’s Sweet Embrace

by Tracey O’Hara

  He took a breath and held it, not wanting to pull the knife out but knowing that leaving it in was poisoning her. He flexed his fingers on the handle then yanked it out. She screamed, filling the cavern with echoes, then passed out. Blood spurted from the wound—so much blood. And because the knife was silver, the wound didn’t heal as quickly as it should and would leave a scar.

  He pressed his hands against the gash, blood flowing through his fingers. And it kept coming.

  “Oberon, your shirt,” Cal ordered as she kneeled beside Kitt.

  In that moment Raven could see she was truly Kitt’s daughter.

  “What do you want me to do,” Seph asked, a little more unsure than her sister.

  “Take Oberon’s shirt and press it against the wound,” Cal said. “We must stop the bleeding long enough to give her a chance to heal.”

  Oberon removed his shirt and hung back, slinging his jacket over his shoulder.

  Cal pointed at it. “Now ball that up and use it to elevate her feet. Raven, lay her head on the ground.”

  Everyone did as she said. Her tone commanded confidence and her actions were sure. She picked up the knife, careful not to touch the blade, and examined it. “The tip’s broken off inside—that’s why it’s not healing. I need a knife. ”

  Oberon pulled a Swiss army knife out of his pocket. “Will this do?”

  “Perfect,” she said, taking it from him.

  Raven’s hands shook and he couldn’t stop them. For all his training, for all his experience of war, it meant nothing when it came to seeing the woman he loved on the edge of death.

  “Now what do you want me to do?” he asked.

  “We need to keep her still. Oberon, take her feet. Seph, hold up that flashlight.” His daughter didn’t need him—she was definitely her mother’s daughter, but then she looked at Raven. “Can you take her shoulders?”

  He nodded.

  Seph wore the same helpless expression he was sure he did. The flashlight shook in her hands.

  A low snarling hiss broke through his single-minded focus on Kitt’s condition. Two black panthers faced off in a furious ball of teeth and fur. The Tiger Twins stood nearby, frozen in indecisiveness.

  Since Nathan was a snow leopard, the other panther had to be the killer. But where was Nathan?

  The panthers broke apart, ears pinned as they hissed and growled at each other. They were identical in every way. There was no telling them apart.

  “Which is Tyrone?” Raven asked Tyrone’s men.

  “We’re still trying to work that out ourselves,” one of them said. “We don’t know who to help.”

  The big black cats continued to circle each other—hissing, snarling, and growling. The echoes of their aggressive vocal exchange reverberated off the rock cave walls, amplifying the volume. Raven flexed his hand against Kitt’s cool skin. He wanted to tear something apart, to strike out, but he remained near, helpless and afraid as his woman lay dying.

  “Okay,” Cal said. “I’m going in.”

  His daughter closed her eyes and took a deep, shaky breath. The knife shook slightly as it was poised above the still bleeding wound. Then she steeled herself and cut. More blood flowed in rivulets over Kitt’s skin and pooled on the cave floor. His stomach sank and his heart with it. Seph gave him an uneasy smile. He’d never felt so helpless, and couldn’t bear to keep looking, to see her in pain a moment longer. He lifted his head to watch what was going on around him.

  Oberon met his eyes with a long, slow blink. The bear’s fear was also visible on his shaken features. Joshua and Jericho’s worried expressions shifted back and forth from the ongoing battle between the large black cats and the drama surrounding Kitt.

  Leon stood a short ways off also watching the battle. As if he could feel the force of Raven’s stare, he turned. A slow smirk spread across the lion’s face.

  You are so dead.

  As if he could read Raven’s thoughts, he looked around at his brothers and cocked a bring-it-on eyebrow, confident his brothers would protect him from anything Raven had to dish out.

  Raven’s temper burned. As much as he wanted to fly over and rip out the cat’s throat, he had to think about the safety of his Family. Jericho glanced at Leon, and then locked eyes with Raven for a moment. The tiger male’s lips tightened. Maybe Leon wasn’t as safe as he thought he was.

  The two panthers continued to fight furiously while the others looked on. It wasn’t wise to try to get between two fighting Animalians if you wanted to live. All they could do was hang back and wait for an opening to present itself. Raven shifted his grip on Kitt’s shoulders as she moaned.

  “Maybe if you tried to pull them apart, they may change back to human,” Leon suggested.

  The Tiger Twins turned to him with an identical are-you-insane tilt to the head.

  The lion shrugged. “Just a suggestion.”

  Raven returned his attention to Kitt as Cal made another cut.

  Kitt jolted and groaned, her unconscious features screwed up in pain. Cal’s jaw set in a determined jut. He’d never been more proud as he watched her working, her brow knotted in concentration.

  If a trace of silver entered Kitt’s heart or brain, it could mean instant death. If left in the wound, the surrounding tissue would degrade into a major infection.

  Cal felt around, her hands covered in her mother’s blood up to her wrists.

  She looked up. “It’s dangerously close to her heart. I’ll have to be careful not to push it into the muscle wall.”

  How could she look calm about it all when his heart thudded heavily in his mouth? She wasn’t. He noticed the tightness around the mouth and the worried cast to her eyes.

  “I have faith in you,” Raven said to his daughter.

  But it was Seph who sniffed and wiped away the tears. He took her by the hand and pulled her down beside him.

  “Got it,” Cal yelled, her face vibrant in triumph, and held up two bloody fingers with a bloody triangle of metal. She dropped it on the ground and wiped her fingers on the shirt used to stem the blood flow. He’d had never been so pleased to see such a tiny piece of poisonous metal. Seph held the flashlight up while Cal matched the broken tip against the knife on the ground.

  “It’s intact,” Cal said with a light, relieved smile.

  Kitt’s breath exploded from her mouth, then her head rose from the ground and her eyes flew open.

  “Shhh-sh-sh,” Cal said. “You’re going to be okay.”

  She’s going to be okay. Raven carefully kissed Kitt’s lips and smiled at his daughter, who began to shake, shock setting in now her work was done.

  Kitt felt as if her chest had been wrenched open and all her insides scooped out. She tried to rise but Cal pushed her down.

  “Stay there,” her makeshift surgeon said. “You’ve lost a lot of blood.”

  “Cal got out the broken piece,” Seph said as she took Kitt’s head into her lap.

  Raven looked at their daughters, pride burning in his eyes. “She was amazing.”

  Kitt shifted aside the crumpled blood-soaked cloth. The flesh beneath was knitting together nicely. Cal had done an excellent job.

  A squealing roar set the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. She raised her head just enough to see two black panthers, torn and bloody. She realized Gideon was also a panther.

  How astonishing he was, such a magnificent anomaly. But if an animal and a person could share the same body, why not two people? The Pride’s backward mentality toward anything different had caused this tragedy. If not for them, maybe Nathan and Gideon could have been relatively normal and healthy. Maybe Gideon wouldn’t have gone insane. And maybe Nathan wouldn’t have ended up so bitter.

  A roaring crash reverberated around the cavern and the two big cats vanished in a cloud of dust.

  “TYRONE!” Kitt screamed, struggling to her feet.

  She pushed Raven’s hands away as he tried to hold her down. The pain in her stomach was nothing compared with the
horrible sinking dread that her father might be dead.

  Oberon and her father’s men raced to the edge. Raven left Kitt in the hands of Seph and Cal and joined the men. The dust cleared, and neither her father nor her brother was anywhere to be seen.

  “They’re still there hanging on the edge—both of them,” Oberon said. “Help me.”

  Kitt struggled to her feet, creeping as close as she dared to the edge and peered over the side. Her father hung by one arm on a large rock jutting out from the almost smooth wall of the abyss, about ten or twelve feet down. With the other hand, he gripped Gideon’s wrist.

  “We have no rope. How are we going to get them up?” one of the twins asked.

  “Seph, take off your jeans,” Oberon said, unbuttoning the fly on his leather pants.

  Now he was completely naked and, as usual, wore no Abeolite underneath.

  The rock shifted under the weight. Nathan’s features replaced Gideon’s and twisted in terror as he glanced over his shoulder at the blackness below. Then the rock shifted again.

  “It’s not going to hold much longer,” Raven said. “We have to get them up now.”

  “SAVE ME,” Nathan screamed, trying to scrabble over Tyrone. “HURRY, SAVE ME!”

  “I don’t think this material will support the weight of two.” Oberon tugged at the knot he’d made by tying the pants and the jeans together. It gave way. The material was too thick to form a solid connection.

  Again the rock moved. Nathan looked up at Kitt, hate filling his eyes. They stared at each other for those few microseconds. And then Gideon’s darker features replaced Nathan’s hate-filled ones. He didn’t look afraid or insane and gave her a single, solid nod. She knew what he was going to do before he reached up and gripped their father’s hand, prying loose his fingers one at a time.

  “No!” Tyrone cried.

  “I’m sorry, Father.” It was the last thing Gideon and Nathan would ever say. With that, Tyrone’s final grip was broken and they fell away, still looking at Kitt.

  Just before the body disappeared from sight, Nathan reappeared. It was his arms and legs flailing, and his scream tearing from the open mouth.

  With the weight gone, Tyrone gripped the rock with both hands and pulled himself onto the jutting ledge and closer to the top. Oberon and the tiger brothers formed a chain—feet to hands, lying flat on the ground as they lowered the leather pants which were now long enough to reach and hauled Tyrone up over the edge. When her father was once again safe on terra firma, Kitt collapsed into Raven’s arms, stunned and numb. She couldn’t feel anything at all. Nathan and Gideon were gone and she felt nothing.

  Raven kissed the top of her head. She turned in his arms and looked up at him with a smile. Then the smile slid away, his expression hardening.

  “I have something I need to do,” he said. “Seph, help your mother.”

  Tyrone stood surrounded by his men, but looked over at Kitt. His usual stony mask melted into fatherly concern. He was her father again, her daddy. His features blurred as her eyes filled with tears.

  As Raven closed in on the group, Leon stepped out to meet him with a sneer. Without breaking his stride, Raven’s hand shot out, struck him in the neck, then he continued toward her father.

  The lion’s face rounded in surprise as three jagged parallel wounds yawned across his throat. His hands ineffectually tried to stem the blood pumping onto the cave floor from the carotid artery. He dropped to his knees. The blood continued to spurt from the wound, flowing over his chest and down his torso, until he toppled sideways.

  Chapter 39 - Terror Finales

  Kitt’s knees buckled, the prickling sensation of the blood draining from her face threatened her consciousness as she struggled to comprehend what she’d just seen. Only Seph and Cal’s hold on her stopped her from collapsing altogether. It’d happened so fast. She could hardly believe it. Leon was dead and Raven did it. Elation, vengeance, and horror—each emotion flashed one after the other, but mostly she felt relief quickly followed by fear. Fear of what her father would now do to Raven for killing one of his men.

  Jericho and Joshua moved forward as Raven got closer, but Tyrone held up his hand to stop them. Their usual stoic expressions didn’t change as they turned to watch their brother’s blood pool onto the ground, turning the dirt and rubble to reddish black mud.

  Kitt was shocked at the quick violence of it all. Cal and Seph had stiffened beside her but continued to support her weight. Oberon’s face dropped, the Tiger Twins tensed, but Tyrone never moved.

  Raven dropped the misshapen clawed hand to his side and it returned to human form, still covered with blood. He stopped in front of Tyrone and glanced back at Kitt before turning again to her father. “I’m taking back what’s mine.” He glanced at Kitt and his daughters over his shoulder. “All of them.”

  “You ask a lot for someone who just killed another of my men before my very eyes, Matokwe,” Tyrone said quietly.

  “You know he deserved it,” Raven said. “And they’re mine.”

  Her father sighed and dropped his head. “Maybe you’re right, but how are you going to protect them?”

  “I did before and I will again,” Raven hissed, getting up in Tyrone’s face.

  The tiger brothers started moving forward again, but Tyrone stopped them for the second time, knowing Raven wouldn’t hurt him; Kitt could see the certainty in her father’s eyes.

  Raven stepped back. “Do whatever you need to—double the price on my head if you want, but I am taking them.”

  “And why would I do that?” Tyrone crossed his arms and exchanged a glance with the Tiger Twins. “After all, you discovered the serial killer’s identity, clearing your own name in the process, and helped to bring him down.” His eyes flicked to Leon’s body lying a few feet away.

  Kitt’s breath stilled. What’s he up to now?

  She wasn’t the only one confused. Oberon’s head shot around and nailed Tyrone with a piercing glare. “You mean Nathan or Gideon, or whatever he called himself.”

  “No . . . Nathan was unfortunately killed by the campus killer while trying to save his niece from a horrible death,” Tyrone said, catching Kitt’s gaze and holding it. “He died a hero.”

  Kitt suddenly understood. It would kill her mother if she found out what Nathan had done. Plus, this way Tyrone could give Nathan the honor in death he couldn’t in life.

  “I also think Calliope and Persephone may be unsuited for Pride life. They’ve been tainted too much by human ways. Maybe it would be best if they left,” the Alpha said. “And I’m afraid I will have to deny your petition to rejoin the Pride, my daughter.”

  “Hang on a minute,” Oberon said. “Won’t people be able to alibi Leon at the time of the murders?” Oberon asked.

  The Alpha smiled. “It’s well known he’s a violent male, and we will make sure there is enough evidence to pin it on him and no alibis exist.”

  Kitt turned to the tigers. “But he’s your brother.”

  “We’ve known for years how unstable he had become and did everything we could to save him,” Jericho said. “But after what he did to Rainbow . . .”

  Joshua nodded in agreement.

  “So, it’s agreed, then?” Tyrone asked Oberon who stood stony-faced.

  The Tiger Twins carried their brother’s body by his arms and legs and tossed Leon into the abyss.

  The ursian nodded.

  “Train your daughters well, wolf,” Tyrone said as the Tiger Twins joined him. “And take good care of my little girl.”

  After dropping the girls off at the apartment, Kitt made Raven bring her to the office. The silver may have been inside too long, the danger of sepsis increasing the longer it had stayed in her body. While both Oberon and Raven insisted they could get what she needed, it was easier to get it herself than try to explain what she needed.

  Raven parked the SUV in front of NYAPS and Oberon pulled his motorcycle up a short way off. A crowd had gathered on the front steps, surrounding
the smiling head of VCU.

  “Looks like Agent Roberts is in fine form,” she said as Raven helped her out of the passenger seat. She’d almost fully healed, but didn’t really feel up to facing the gauntlet of the reporters pressing microphones at the smug agent.

  Neil Roberts looked over the heads of the gathered reporters, his conceited smile growing even wider as Oberon climbed off the Harley. “This investigation has been handled with incompetence and I have successfully petitioned the Department for the VCU to resume charge of the case—and I’m confident my efforts will meet with favorable consideration.”

  “I’ve had enough of this crap,” the ursian said and snapped the front of his leather jacket into place.

  Cody Shields appeared from the side to intercept him.

  “Don’t worry,” Oberon said with a grin and clapped a big hand on the Incubus’s shoulder. “I’m about to wipe the smile off that asshole’s face.”

  Cody stepped aside. Oberon stalked across the lawn, his leather coat flaring in the morning breeze as he pushed his way through the crowd.

  “Excuse me,” he said as he approached the top step. “There’s been a recent development in this case that you should all know about.”

  Cody joined Kitt and Raven and leaned against the front of the SUV to watch the show. “I can’t believe he’s so calm.”

  “I can’t believe he said excuse me,” she said.

  Both males laughed.

  “You guys look like shit.” It came out sounding more like shet with Cody’s accent, but she was getting used to it now, which was just as well since the twins spoke the same way. “What have you been up to?”

  Raven jabbed his chin in the direction of the cameras and microphones turned on Oberon. “I think you’re about to be enlightened.”

  “Last night, while Agent Roberts was playing politics, we were looking into the death of yet another victim of the campus killer. The male NYAPS student was found dead in an alley. One difference in this case was the abduction of the young man’s date, who we were able to track safely. We retrieved the girl. However, in the course of trying to apprehend the campus killer, he met with a fatal accident.”