by Dianna Love
As soon as the couple walked out of hearing range, Siofra finished her tirade. “I was dragged everywhere and made to live with nothing and no hope for ever having a life. They put me through hideous experiments without my consent then a guard came to rape me to get me pregnant. That is not a life or a home.”
Appearing to ignore Siofra, the bird kept walking around.
Had Mother Cadellus been thinking and needed to keep the bird moving while she was distracted?
Returning to its original spot, the pigeon said, “You will understand more later, but for now you must come back and help us locate Baatar.”
Siofra froze.
Rory asked, “Who?”
This sent the bird’s empty stare to Rory again. “Shut up until I give you instructions.”
“Dream on, birdie.”
Cocking its head to one side, then the other, the pigeon said, “You are clearly not human. What are you?”
Rory shrugged. “I don’t answer questions put to me by rodents on the ground or in the air.”
Oh, shit. Siofra didn’t want Mother Cadellus focusing on Rory. She had no idea what kind of power this woman wielded. Before he could open his mouth and make it worse, Siofra asked Mother Cadellus, “Why should I help you find Baatar? He didn’t deserve to be captured any more than I did?”
Turning back to her, the possessed bird said, “You are part of a large family that takes care of each other. Baatar is not of our family. He has a purpose and has caused our family tremendous grief by running away, just as you have. It is your responsibility to find him so that he may serve his purpose.”
Siofra had never held a conversation with a truly insane person, but she’d know crazy when she heard it even if the mouthpiece didn’t belong to a dead bird.
She would help no one capture or hurt Baatar.
Leaning forward, Siofra waited as a young guy and his dog jogged near them, but he took a turn that sent him running in the opposite direction. When he was far enough away, she spoke softly to the bird.
“I will not help you find him and I will not go back to be abused again.”
Making a clicking sound at the back of its throat, which would seem unnatural had the bird been alive, it said, “That is unfortunate. If you had done this the easy way, our people would have brought Baatar back and shown him how he could be of great value. He would have been treated well.”
Siofra recalled when Baatar told her to run, he claimed they would not hurt him. He was the greater prize.
Of course, anything would be a prize above her, but why was he so important? She asked, “What do you plan to do with him?”
“You are not at a level to know these things.”
Stupid twit. Siofra said, “Then you won’t find Baatar. He’s vanished by now and not even I can find him.”
“That is unfortunate. I will be forced to recover the investment we’ve made in him since he was a child another way.”
Baatar had been captured as a child, too? “Oh, really? How will you do that?” Siofra asked, equally curious and worried, but trying to sound unimpressed.
“There’s only one group who can locate Baatar quickly and that’s the Black River pack.”
Scoffing, Siofra said, “I just saw one of their divisions and they didn’t have a clue how to find him.”
“That’s because they don’t have my help. Once I negotiate a compensation for the money and time we’ve spent, I’ll make a deal to join forces with them to track down Baatar, but I would rather have him back in the fold on his own.”
Siofra’s heart drummed like a metronome wound too tightly. Could this bitch and that wolf pack find Baatar?
The woman’s cold voice poured from the dead pigeon once more. “Just remember that you are responsible for what happens to him. He would have been treated very well had he returned to us first. That wolf pack will not take such good care of him. And you will return to where you belong, but you will not enjoy life as much this time. Do not think this bodyguard can protect you.”
With that, the pigeon shuddered once and fell over, now a stiff corpse.
~*~*~
Rory had to lean on his training as a sniper to sit as still as possible while that bitch bird spewed vile garbage and threats at Siofra.
The minute the pigeon returned to its dead state, he let out a long breath. “Okay, we need to talk. So you know the person who manipulated that bird?”
“No, not exactly. I grew up hearing about Mother Cadellus using dead animals to do her bidding, but ... I thought it was folklore. I’ve never witnessed that before today. I thought she was more myth than anything.” Siofra grabbed her head. “This is awful. I have to find Baatar.”
An expected surge of fury rushed through him and Ferrell roared to get out.
What the hell was going on?
He could come up with only one explanation. Jealousy. He’d never reacted to a woman talking about another man. Still, neither he nor his animal wanted another man around Siofra.
He asked Ferrell to settle down so he could help Siofra and damn if his jaguar didn’t quiet immediately.
Turning her to meet his gaze, Rory held her face in his hands. “Who is Baatar?”
“Someone important to me. He was brought into my camp six months ago. He told me they’d captured him a long time ago, but he never said they’d taken him as a child, too.”
“What do you mean by important?” Rory asked, struggling not to growl and wanting to kick himself for having this reaction. He had never reacted this way to any woman.
That had clearly just changed and he didn’t like this feeling one bit.
Siofra stopped fidgeting with her hands and squinted her eyes, studying him. “Why are you asking me that?”
What was he supposed to do? Ask if this guy was someone she’d been involved with—or still was—and humiliate himself?
“Were you two an item?” popped out of his mouth all on its own. Evidently he had no trouble embarrassing himself when it came to Siofra.
“What?” She pulled back in horror. “No. Eww. Baatar is like a brother to me.”
“Good.” Rory released a breath, at peace over that answer.
Ferrell rumbled a peaceful purr.
Siofra sat up and crossed her arms. “Why?”
Shit, he did not want to get into this conversation. So he hijacked the topic. “What do you think they’ll do with Baatar?”
With just that little incentive, Siofra forgot about her last question. “If you mean the Cadells, I have no idea what they have in mind. He said they brought him here from China, but he does not look Asian or speak Chinese. He hasn’t told me his entire story yet. We avoided speaking much in the camps, keeping our conversation about escaping.”
She was clearly scared for her friend. Rory kept silent so she’d continue talking.
“Baatar has been my only true friend, someone I adopted as a brother. He’s watched over me like I’m his little sister. When he found me with the jackal shifter who tried to rape me, Baatar pushed me to run right then. I didn’t want to run without him, because we’d been talking about how we would escape together, but he said he’d keep the jackal shifters busy so I could get away. He believed they would not harm him or come after me because he was more important to the Cadells. That was the only reason I finally ran.”
Rory tried to put this all together. “Sounds odd for the Cadells to work with anyone to get a captive back.”
“Mother Cadellus said they spent a lot of money on Baatar and the Cadells probably don’t want to screw up their deal with the Black River pack.”
She was telling the truth. While she had her guard down, Rory wanted all he could get. “What makes Baatar a prize?”
“The Cadells can’t figure out Baatar.” She sighed heavily. “He’s a big guy with some kind of power, but he can’t make it manifest in any useful way. He’s just abnormally strong and fast.” She shook her head at some hidden thought. “He has bad moments where he walks around bangi
ng his head and chest, talking to himself. It’s getting worse. I watched his back in the camp and he watched mine. Now he has no one.”
Rory wasn’t seeing the prize aspect of this guy Baatar. Sounded like a nutcase, but in fairness to someone born with a power they had no clue how to manage or use, Baatar was okay in Rory’s book because he had protected Siofra. The Black River pack lived for getting their hands on shifters, but they would get really excited about someone with untapped power.
Wait until the Guardian heard about the dead critters and Mother Cadellus.
Hell, Rory had suspected it might be that witch when he’d seen the dead pigeon eyes, but he’d only heard snippets about the crazy witch who cursed the Gallize shifters. He’d been told to always be on the lookout for any strange situation with a dead animal. He’d never encountered any, which was why it had taken a moment to realize he’d been in the presence of true evil.
Then a new thought hit him. If Siofra knew so much about the Cadells, could she know about the Gallize?
He doubted it. When she asked about him having two human parents, she’d sounded sincerely dumbfounded and let the topic drop as soon as he brushed it off. Also, she hadn’t seemed particularly frightened or wary of the Gallize shifters, as a Cadell would be, just shifters in general.
She grabbed Rory’s hand. “Now you can understand why Baatar needs me. I’m begging you. Please let me go now. I have to find Baatar and help him before these people get their hands on him.”
Oh, hell no. She was not leaving his sight. “I can’t do that, Siofra. My boss allowed you a break from questioning, because he expects me to deliver you in the morning to talk to him.”
She snatched her hand back. “I’m worried about a man’s life and all that matters is me talking to your boss?”
“No, I want you to be safe first.”
“Then help me find Baatar.”
In that moment, he wanted to throw duty to the wind and be the man she needed, but he could just see the Guardian’s face if he agreed. Rory was already hanging by a thread and one more wrong move would break it.
His boss expected all of the Gallize to put duty first and Rory couldn’t face himself in the mirror if he let down the Guardian and his team.
He tried to reason with Siofra. “I understand what you’re saying, but I can’t just go off on my own.” Her disappointment hit him so hard it physically hurt. “Let me talk to my boss in the morning and see what we can do.” He intended to contact Justin tonight, who would decide if this called for an emergency meeting.
If Mother Cadellus was after one of the Gallize, Rory would drag everyone in, but this was just some guy Siofra knew. Once the boss talked to her tomorrow, Rory would lobby to help her find her brother even though it could push the Guardian over the edge. He’d do that for her.
Siofra jumped up. “That bitch and the wolf pack may have Baatar by tomorrow.”
Rory glanced around as he stood.
Two people who had been laughing as they strolled now paused to stare at them.
He cupped Siofra’s arm and pleaded, “Don’t do this here. Please. We need to go.”
She yanked her arm back. “I have done nothing to deserve being held against my will. In fact, I helped you with those bounty hunters, then saved your leg. I need you to let me go.”
This sucked so much. He did owe her and one thing he didn’t want to do was die owing anyone, not for something that important. He might be three years from facing death by mating curse, but his animal still didn’t feel right.
He might not have three more years.
Herding her to the curb, Rory hailed another cab.
The minute she got inside the car, she said, “Call your boss.”
That would be a double hell no until he ran this past Justin. The driver had some Middle Eastern music turned up and wouldn’t hear them, so Rory asked, “Why?”
“If he wants answers on the Cadells, he’ll have to meet me now to get them, or he gets nothing. This deal is good for one hour.”
He didn’t know if she had anything worth disturbing the Guardian for unnecessarily, but he could see no way around making that call.
Not when he couldn’t guarantee she’d answer anyone’s questions tomorrow.
He didn’t want to push her after all she’d been through and he doubted he could at this point. She was clearly terrified for Baatar, someone she considered a brother. Apparently her duty to him topped everything else in her world.
His animal wanted Siofra as their mate and Rory had crossed a line in the hotel. One he shouldn’t have crossed. Hell, he was fighting possessive thoughts that he had no right to think.
Rory had to do the right thing and hand Siofra off to someone else before he couldn’t walk away.
But he would allow only someone he trusted to take over guarding her, which had to be Justin or Cole. Neither of those two would make a move on her. They were happily mated.
Rory now understood the magnetic pull of a potential mate and the idea of not seeing her again hurt worse than any wound he’d suffered. Hurt as bad as losing his brother.
He couldn’t understand that, because he wasn’t trying to mate her, but he wanted her just the same.
Chapter 20
Cool air circulated through the conference room on the street level in their Spartanburg headquarters, but nothing matched the icy shoulder Siofra turned on Rory.
He could deal with being in deep shit with the boss and his team, but he hated having this gulf of silence between him and his nymph. He leaned against the wall to the side of where Siofra sat at the end of the table, stewing. That wasn’t as bad as the hurt filling her eyes.
He’d let her down, but he had no way around it. He couldn’t just turn her loose.
Twenty minutes ago, Rory had called the Guardian to share his Mother Cadellus encounter and explain that Siofra needed to speak with him immediately.
There had been a long silence before his boss said he was on the way. From where, Rory had no idea. Being a sea eagle who lived on the East Coast, up in Baltimore, the Guardian flew in his animal form at night.
Calling Justin had resulted in a loud earful of cursing, but Justin ran the team Rory had been assigned to, which meant he had to be kept in the loop. It wasn’t as if Justin wouldn’t drop everything to come to the aid of a team member, but he hadn’t understood the panic to meet now.
Rory didn’t blame him. They were all jumping out their collective asses for some guy named Baatar. The Mother Cadellus encounter could have been reported in the morning since it involved no one on their teams.
Justin stomped through the open doorway into the conference room with a cup of coffee and growled.
He cast a vicious look at Rory and pulled a chair out on the opposite side of the table from where Rory stood.
After Siofra made her initial demand, she’d stopped talking to Rory and hadn’t said a word since entering the building.
In the next moment, the Guardian entered and looked as put together as he had hours ago and any other time Rory met with the powerful shifter. His boss paused, then took a position to Siofra’s right, leaving Justin on the Guardian’s right.
Why hadn’t his boss gone to the power position at the head of the table? This seemed almost congenial.
“Hello again, Siofra,” the Guardian said in the cultured tone of a time gone by. Yet his dialogue often included current terms and phrases, showing how he morphed with each era he lived.
“Sir.” She swallowed and fidgeted with her hands. Where was the fierce woman from less than an hour ago?
The Guardian asked, “What happened tonight?”
Siofra explained about the rat and pigeon, and repeated that she’d never had that happen before. Her words would ring true to Justin and the Guardian even if Rory had not been standing nearby to naysay anything he heard as an outright lie.
Damn, he loved hearing her voice again. He was going to miss her, miss being with her.
And that right
there was why he had to back away.
He had to suck it up and let someone else on the team take his spot ... as long as it was Justin or Cole.
No one else was allowed near her.
Ferrell snarled, sending Rory an image of Siofra with a fence around her and the jaguar stalking the perimeter.
He groaned silently at his screwed-up thinking when it came to this woman. The minute he handed her off, he had no more say. He fell back on the mantra he’d been repeating to himself since her ultimatum in the cab.
Siofra was just a woman.
She would be gone after tonight.
If she stayed around, he’d end up in her bed.
The minute Rory had started that mental chant, Ferrell started sending him a volley of gory images of Siofra dying hideous deaths.
When Rory ignored him, Ferrell sent an image of Rory in a coffin.
“Rory?” the Guardian called out.
“Sir?” He stood away from the wall, wishing he’d been paying attention.
“I asked if you had anything else to add to what Siofra told us.”
“No, sir. I’ve obviously never met this Mother Cadellus before, but if all the stories we’ve heard are true then it fits that she used a dead pigeon to specifically contact Siofra.”
Siofra flashed Rory an annoyed glance.
That could be considered communicating, he mused silently.
Sitting back, the Guardian addressed Siofra. “As I understand it, you wish to answer our questions about the Cadells now, is that correct?”
“Not really,” she said with more confidence this time and sat back with her arms crossed.
Rory’s mouth dropped open, then he snapped, “Are you kidding me?”
Without looking at him, she turned a tired voice to him. “What?”
“You said this was what you wanted to do and the only way you’d share what you knew about the Cadells was if our boss came in tonight.”
She turned fully to face him and said, “No, that’s not correct. I said ‘If he wants answers on the Cadells, he’ll have to meet me now to get them.’”
“Same difference,” Rory argued.