Nine Lives of an Urban Panther

by Amanda Arista

  His Aegean blue eyes rose to mine and a smile flicked across his lips. “Pleasure to meet you, Prima Jordan.”

  I felt like the air had been sucked out of the room for a moment before my Legacy seemed to fill the void between us.

  “You as well. Please take a seat.”

  His cool hand slid from mine and I watched Inez’s entire body tense as he walked past her and took the last table across the room.

  The last but not the least to arrive was Waylon, with Lexie in tow. I met them at the door.

  I made sure to hug Lexie before I scolded her father. “Why did you bring her here? She can’t be here.”

  “You’re the only babysitter I know.”

  “She’s twelve. She can stay home by herself.”

  “That’s what I said.” Lexie rolled her eyes.

  I put my arms around her small shoulders and gave her a tight squeeze.

  “Not tonight.” Waylon frowned.

  There was something in the way he said it that made my spine feel like hollow bones rattling. I looked down at Lexie. “Do you feel comfortable staying with Nash and Kandice?”

  “Yeah. I bet I can make him do my homework.”

  I looked back at Waylon and handed him my phone. “Call Nash.”

  I shut the door of the coffee shop and turned toward my guests.

  “Shall we begin?”

  My heels knocked across the wooden floor as I took a seat next to Chaz. “You all have introduced yourselves.”

  I placed my nervous hands on the table before me. I’d even wiped the tabletops down. Who’s the stress cleaner now?

  “I hope Mr. Delmont explained I am not trying any sort of political power play. I simply want to know that we can work together.”

  “Because of Haverty,” Valiance said.

  “Because of the ghouls?” Inez asked.

  “Because of the rednecks?” Willowbourne asked.

  I sighed. It was nice to be not once but three times reminded that I am not made of awesome. “Yes,” I answered simply. “It does seem there are new sorts of chaos abounding in Dallas.”

  “Then maybe someone does need to step up to the plate,” Andrin said.

  “Says the man whose been Clade Seat, for what, an hour?” Inez shot back.

  I looked over at Inez and watched Sensei put his hand on her arm.

  I licked my lips and realized the utter relief and the time that it gave me to think. “I believe at this critical junction all of us are passionate about keeping our people safe and would be willing to do anything to keep them that way. Personally, I’m good with a pack right now, but we can’t isolate ourselves.”

  “Why not?” Willowbourne asked. “Seems to work in other cities.”

  “But it doesn’t,” Chaz said. “Every city has their own way of doing things. Mostly, it means there is a dominant breed and the others just scurry about scared.”

  The others seemed to take Chaz’s words into consideration. I wanted to beam like a proud dance mom, but I just nudged him with my foot before I went on. “I’m simply proposing we share what we know about common foes.”

  “Going with the enemy of my enemy approach?” Andrin’s black eyebrow arched over his ice blue eyes.

  “The logic seems sound.”

  I looked around the room and decided that leading by example might also be a good approach. “I’ll go first. The Shades that have attacked a few of us can be killed by letting them feed, and then you can chop their heads off. And with a little electricity, they ash just like those . . .”

  Chaz reached under the table and squeezed my knee and I shut up. Probably shouldn’t talk about the fictional death of vampires when there were actual vampires in the room. Good save Chaz.

  “We were attacked as well,” Willowbourne said. “Prima Jordan’s information saved our lives.”

  “And Willowbourne’s memory spell kept me from having to bury some rednecks off the highway.”

  “Seems you all are getting very cozy but I still don’t see anything to tempt me to share,” Andrin said. “And frankly it appears to me you are the epicenter of all the violence in the city, Miss Jordan.”

  My jaw would have dropped in shock if it wasn’t clenched tight with the accusation. I met his eyes but years of script writing didn’t give me any fodder for a rebuttal.

  Peter rescued me. “The violence was here, embedded in the lives of those who didn’t have a choice but Haverty. And yes, she does have to fight. She puts herself out there so we can be safe.”

  “She doesn’t hide away in some hole and let her lackeys do all the work.”

  My head snapped toward Inez. There was that bitterness, that deep-seated anger I knew was in her. I couldn’t blame her for it. Was that the story behind the scars on her neck?

  “I think Andrin just needs to learn how we do things in Dallas,” I said calmly as my eyes stayed on Inez.

  “We fight to protect our family,” Willowbourne said.

  “We protect what we have built.” Inez sat up straighter in her chair. “At all costs.”

  “And we will face what’s coming, together.” Waylon finally spoke.

  I looked over at Andrin and let my green gaze sink into his. “And I’d like to think some day we will fight to protect each other. But again, not mandating it be today.”

  Andrin was the one who shifted as he looked away and I couldn’t help but see a curl to Valiance’s lips.

  I wanted to smile. A part of me wanted to jump up and squeal with joy that finally something was working out and it was going to be amazing. We were here. Sitting together with some knowledge of calm settling around me.

  “Great. Now that’s out of the way . . .”

  And then the front wall of the coffee shop exploded.

  The force lifted me up and threw me across the café. I landed hard on a table in the back, and slid off onto my side. Splinters and glass rained down and I curled my head into my arm and waited for it to stop.

  When I heard boot steps on the broken glass, I shook off the rubble and stood, but stumbled, thrown off balance by the ringing in my ears.

  A blast of icy air picked me up and tossed me into the corner where I usually took my meetings. My head cracked against the wall and I broke every picture frame on my way down to the ground.

  The only thought that slipped through my concussed brain was who would be stupid enough to attack the most powerful Wanderers in the city.

  An acidic aroma filled the room and my skin tightened around my bones as my power flared. Spencer.

  I pushed myself to my feet and my power reached out for Jessa, Tucker, and Peter while my eyes searched out Waylon and Chaz.

  Slowly, the others rose from the wreckage, shaking off pieces from the explosion. Chaz looked beyond pissed as he wiped blood from his lip.

  Inez stood calmly in the middle of a fire facing me. The fire seemed like an upside-down cape that started at her boots and flicked up around her shoulders.

  “Seriously?” I asked as I stepped over what was left of my table. A cool trickle of blood slipped down the back of my head and neck. It was going to ruin that pretty green top Jessa had suggested.

  I dropped my shields and let the Legacy stretch as far as I could. It spread through the coffee shop and out onto the street. The power echoed back the information that I needed. There were eight elementals surrounding the place. When they felt my study, five appeared in the broken front window of the shop. “Eight against eight, exactly a fair fight.”

  “Seven against nine, Prima Jordan,” Sensei said as he pushed himself up from the rubbish. “I pledged myself to you before this girl.”

  I turned to Inez. “You’ve got one hell of a story to tell if you want to make it out of this walking.”

  “I’m not doing anything that you wouldn’t do.”

  She didn’t have to speak. I knew. I knew because I would do anything to protect my people. She thought she’d chosen the more powerful side.

  “Did Spencer at least
throw in a set of kitchen knives with the deal he offered?”

  A line of fire ran around the floor, encircling the nine of us. The curtains caught fire and Jessa jumped as it circled too close to her. Tucker quickly stepped between her and the flames.

  And the two manly vampires jumped onto the black counter of the coffee bar. Apparently vampires really don’t like fire.

  My eyes went back to Inez and the whiff of Spencer’s influence made my anger flare. “What was it?” I yelled.

  “My people are safe. It’s what we all want. What he offered all of us.”

  I gasped. My eyes darted from Andrin to Willowbourne to Waylon.

  “I had a dream,” Waylon said as he held his hand to his eyebrow to keep the blood from his forehead gash from running into his eye. “He knew about Lexie, talked about how I needed more people to protect her, more than just her aunt.”

  “And if you worked for him, she would be safe?”

  Waylon nodded. “With the implied consequences if I didn’t.”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “I woke up and I fixed Lexie breakfast and I took her to school.”

  I smiled. He really was related to me, with his ability to be calm in the face of danger.

  “Seems none of us were without temptation.” Willowbourne pulled her cape closer around her. There was a sharp snap of ozone in the air and rain began to softly pitter-pat around us.

  Inez laughed. “Rain, really?”

  The flames burned brighter around us, forcing the nine of us closer together.

  “And what comes with rain?” Willowbourne asked.

  A white streak of lightning shot out of Willowbourne’s hand and struck Inez in the chest. Her body flew back into the street.

  That’s when the others attacked. Six against nine. I figured I had a second to reorganize the troops. I rushed over to Waylon. “You need to get out. Now.”

  “No, Violet, I . . .”

  I grabbed his face and forced his eyes to mine. “I will not be responsible for making Lexie another orphan, Waylon Jordan.”

  Waylon simply nodded and he did something he hadn’t done in fifteen years. He kissed my forehead. “I love you, kitten.”

  Waylon ran. He jumped over the rubble and ran like a man with his pants on fire.

  I smiled. He was going to be okay. He was going to be okay and I was about to grind Inez’s face into the concrete with these lovely yet comfortable boots that Jessa helped me pick out.

  I stepped over pieces of my favorite couch and the magazine rack from beside the door. “Tucker, how long until the police come?”

  Tucker looked up from where he was pummeling either Cheech or Chong. “Four minutes.”

  “Not going to need that long.”

  I walked out through the window, my long legs clearing the frame easily. Inez was on her back on the sidewalk.

  I walked toward her slowly. “I just don’t understand. Why him? Hell, I could have taken better care of you than him. At least I’m in the same zip code.”

  Inez looked up at me, the fire’s light burning in her eyes. There was a charred mark on her shirt and if she had been human, she wouldn’t have been breathing.

  “He’s more powerful than you know.”

  “I don’t care how powerful he is. He won’t win.”

  Inez pushed herself up to her feet and I let her. It would be more fun to knock her down again.

  “It was Spencer who took the ghouls. All of mine with the mark. He was strong enough to rip them right from my fingers.”

  “But that’s Jovan’s mark.”

  Inez shook her head and smiled. “Guess you don’t have everything figured out.”

  I fought a ball of fear weighing heavily in my stomach. If it wasn’t Jovan taking the power, then it had to be Jovan letting him take the power. Right? I hardened my stomach and pushed the question aside. “I know the important parts. You’ve betrayed your people.”

  “He will protect them.”

  “Aww. Did he promise you champagne wishes and caviar dreams? It’s crap, Inez. Everything he says is crap. I should know.”

  “You don’t know, Violet.” Inez rolled up the sleeve of her jacket and I saw a freshly carved mark on her forearm. The Demon Lock.

  My Legacy flared around me, fueled by the anger at this vat of stupidity before me. She’d bonded herself to Spencer. “He’s been in my head for the past year, in my dreams. I know him. I know his ambition and exactly what he’s capable of. He will not protect you. He certainly can’t protect you from me.”

  The magic of my panther ran down my spine, eased by the frustration at such a powerful woman being seduced by him. I shifted down into my panther form just as she threw a fireball where my head had been. The smell of singed hair was sharp as it filled my nose.

  I leapt at her and she put up a wall of fire. I flew through it and we tumbled to the ground as I hit her straight in the chest. She fell back with me on top, claws digging into her jacket as I fell with her.

  She landed on the ground and I looked down into her fiery eyes. Her magic filled her and fire spread from her fingers down her arms and covered her entire body.

  I sprung from her chest and landed a few feet away, the hair on my legs still smoldering. I defaulted to the only fire prevention I knew. I rolled on the ground until I was sure that I wasn’t smoking anymore.

  Only to have to leap over another fireball, and then another.

  This was a little harder than a wind elemental with a death wish. This felt like she was playing with me. Little fireballs. I’d seen this woman burn down a warehouse and walk away unharmed.

  This was a distraction. We were dancing around something bigger.

  I shifted on the other side of my car in its rock-star parking spot right out front like I’d asked for. From the smell of completely melted leather seats, it looked like my car had been the source of the explosion, and it still smoldered. Poor Miata.

  “What are you keeping me from, Inez?” I asked stretched my neck, kneeling behind the car. My jacket was singed down the arms and my jeans were covered in ash. This was my favorite jacket. It was my power jacket and these jeans made my ass look amazing. Now I was pissed.

  I rose just as she pushed the fire at me. It seemed to start at her shoulders, burn down her arms, and extended out through her hand as she aimed at me.

  I stayed still and just put up my borders. Rock hard, a foot thick and cool as a cucumber, my power wrapped around me and I felt the heat from the fire as it flew around me but didn’t touch me.

  Then I smiled. Peter said that I could do it. That was a new trick for the books.

  When the blast was over, I used the door of my desecrated Miata to leap over the car and land before her. Surprise filled her eyes before I wrapped my power around the two of us.

  I let the Legacy swirl around us, and as much as she pulled for her power, it couldn’t reach her through mine. Still a foot thick, I let it close around us and the sounds of the fire and the brawl faded away.

  While my power suppressed hers, I let my words break her. “We could have been amazing, Inez. Two angry orphans protecting their families. Now I’m going to have to protect your people because you couldn’t.”

  I curled my hand behind her neck and landed a balled fist into her solar plexus. Inez crumpled. And with a throat chop to her scarred neck, Inez fell to my feet, unconscious.

  As I looked down at her, I dropped the swirling wall of power around us. It was harsh. I knew it. But she had made her choice. She’d ended up on the wrong side of my line in the sand. There was a sickening thought and it churned my stomach. It really was my way or the highway.

  No. It was my way or Spencer’s way. I looked up at the others who had their elementals pinned or down for the count. I was wrong again. It was our way, or the highway.

  Sensei walked up to me. He had a smudge of ash down his forehead and a twinkle in his dark eyes. “That was an excellent execution.”

  “Not the bes
t word choice right now.”

  “She will be fine, Prima Jordan.”

  “As long as it’s not today.” I started toward the rest of my pack.

  They were all fine. Bruised but better for it. There was a fire in their eyes and it had nothing to do with the still smoldering coffee shop.

  “We’ve got about forty-five seconds before we get company,” Tucker said.

  I was just about to suggest that we regroup when pain filled Jessa’s eyes and she reached out for me. I barely had time to catch her before she hit the ground. The moment I took her hand I knew what had happened.

  The words Jessa forced out hurt as she dug her fingers into my arm as she gasped for breath. I felt it too, like a dagger dragged through my gut. And I actually know what that feels like.

  “There’s been another sacrifice to the Veil.”

  “Why does it hurt so much?” I whispered to her.

  “The more powerful you get, the more powerful I get. I’ve told you this like a million times.”

  I smiled. If she was dogging on me about this, she was going to be fine.

  Jessa was the one who moved to stand. I helped where I could but did not interfere when she reached out to Tucker to keep her standing.

  I looked around at the others. This semicircle of mismatched creatures, flushed from the fight, eyes still burning with their power.

  “It does seem that trouble follows you,” Andrin said as he ran his fingers through his long black hair, creating that still perfection again. Like he hadn’t just been dodging fireballs with the rest of us.

  “Well, now you know that I didn’t lie about anything.”

  I heard sirens coming down the street. I pointed to the other side of a fence. And remarkably enough, everyone followed.

  “I’ll give us a bubble,” Willowbourne said. “They won’t be able to see us.”

  As she worked, I turned to the rest of the group. “This is your moment. I’m going in. I can’t let Spencer get free. He’s too powerful. Even if it’s not Spencer, it’s big.”

  “Do enjoy your evening, Miss Jordan.” Andrin turned and walked down the street with a swagger that could have made any girl drool. If that girl didn’t think he was a complete coward.