The portal above his head opened to a new wash of violet and gold. A beam of white shot down his spine and branched out into Lupe and Jeremy. He heard their gasps mingled with his own, felt them all freeze in a millisecond of time. Then the light zinged from its path, yanking their climax with it.
Chapter Four
Jeremy stared into Cristían's eyes. Lupe lay between them, making a sound so much like a purr, it could be nothing else. His fingers were tangled in her hair as he cupped her head to his chest. God, Jeremy didn't want to let her go. His other hand rested on Cristían's knee. He didn't want to let Cristían go either, and Cristían didn't seem like he was in any hurry to leave.
They'd gone somewhere else besides orgasm heaven when they all climaxed. A place full of wonder and great knowledge. Some might call it the Akashic Field. Jeremy called it home. He'd reached out when a golden tendril had curled his way. But before he could link, it wrapped them all up in a shimmering bubble and gently returned them to the physical world. He'd never felt more loved or more disappointed.
“You saw it too.” Cristían combed his fingers down Lupe's hair as he eased away. She arched her back into the caress and tried to cuddle deeper into Jeremy's arms.
“I did.” Their gazes were still locked. Jeremy wondered if the mindspeak connection still worked when he wasn't in jaguar form.
Excitement sizzled through him. A jaguar! Damn…it worked! In ways Jeremy had never even imagined. Except joy didn't come with his success; only more confusion, another puzzle to solve. And a big secret that had to be covered up. Two big secrets. How were they going to explain Lupe?
“Did they give you anything?” Cristían asked.
Jeremy frowned. “They?”
Cristían pressed his lips together, as if afraid to speak. “Where we just were.”
He shook his head. “Did they give you anything?”
That's when Cristían broke their gaze. “Yes.” He sighed. “Too much. And then they took most of it away. I apparently get the information now when I guess they feel I can handle it.” He snorted. “Then it's up to me to sort out what it means.”
Jeremy started to sit up but hated to disturb Lupe's catnap, so he stayed where he was. “What kind of information?” He already knew the answer, no matter how improbable it sounded.
“Everything.” Cristían's voice came out the barest of whispers. “It feels like everything.”
“I don't know whether to be jealous or relieved.”
Cristían's small laugh held no humor. “Be relieved. What I've got now is all jumbled and hard to sort out. Images and flashes of insight that fog over as quickly as I see them. And…” He scratched the hint of whiskers on his throat and looked everywhere but at Jeremy.
“You and Lupe aren't the only ones who've changed,” he finally admitted. “I'm stronger, faster, and—” He waved his hand, and Jeremy felt a ripple of power course through him at the same time he heard the broken glass skitter farther away from them.
“Don't do that,” Lupe mumbled. “It hurts inside me.”
“Sorry, little one.” Cristían braced himself over them, peeled her hair away from her face, and kissed the slope of her shoulder.
She smiled and wiggled into Jeremy once more.
“Good God, what did I do?” He tightened a hug around her, burrowing his face in her long hair.
Cristían nudged his arm. “This isn't all on you. I was running an experiment as well.”
He pulled his head up, frowning. “You think the combination—”
Cristían shrugged, then shook his head. “I don't know what to think. Let's get cleaned up a little, and then we'll talk about it. Someone should be here any minute to check on us. We need to get ready for that.” At which point, all hell would probably break loose. “We can wash off in the emergency shower. We don't want to risk—”
Lupe jerked up, smacking her head on Cristían's chin.
“No! No water!” She twisted between them, fighting for freedom.
Jeremy braced himself, waiting for her claws to come out. Cristían might be immune to damage, but he sure as hell wasn't. When she didn't shift, he realized she either couldn't or didn't know how.
“Calm down.” Cristían pressed a firm hand against her shoulder.
Jeremy wrapped his arms around her to keep her still. “We have to wash off, Lupe. We don't want to risk contaminating anyone else.”
“I don't care about anyone else. I only care about me.” Spoken like the Lupe they both knew and loved.
Cristían patted her shoulder and looked like he fought back laughter. “I'll wet some paper towels and clean you that way. Just like always.”
Her tension eased, but suspicion still narrowed her green eyes. She peeled away from Jeremy when Cristían moved away. Cum blanketed her torso and Jeremy's. She glanced down, then tried to bend over, her tongue darting out to lick it away from her skin.
Confusion pulled her upright. “I can't reach. How can I clean myself? Oh…dear.” She twitched her nose.
Jeremy prayed Cristían didn't set her off again with more talk about showers. All he said in response was, “Indeed.”
She glared at him, then snorted when Cristían tapped her nose. Lupe batted at his hand. Laughing lightly, he dodged the blow and stretched to his feet, pulling up his jeans and briefs as he turned to leave.
Holy shit! “Stop!” Shards of glass protruded from Cristían's back.
“Wha—”
“Don't move.” Jeremy eased Lupe to the floor and jumped to his feet. “You have glass spikes in your back. Deep.”
Cristían craned his neck for a look.
“Easy!” He stilled Cristían with a hand on his hip and looked around. The lab was in shambles. Where the hell were those forceps? He picked his way over to the general area where his setup used to be and found the stainless-steel drawers dented but still intact.
He wrapped his hand around the handle and yanked. The drawer burst open, scattering the contents onto the floor.
Jeremy retrieved the forceps and returned to Cristían, wondering where the hell he should start first. “Be still. This might…” What? Hurt? Cristían seemed impervious to pain at the moment. He hadn't so much as blinked when Lupe whacked her head against his chin. “This might be tricky.” He clamped the forceps onto a two-inch-wide shard. “You know, it's not such a good thing to not feel pain. You could be seriously hurt and not know it.”
“I know,” Cristían quietly replied. “One thing at a time.” He heaved a big sigh. “Just get them out.”
Jeremy's hand trembled. Sweat trickled down his back. He dared a glance in Lupe's direction. She hugged her knees to her chest, giving them a great shot of her crotch as she watched them. He half expected a tail to be wrapped around her, tip flicking with interest. At the thought, he felt his spine shift and lengthen into a thick jaguar tail.
Focus, damn it. He left the new appendage where it was for now and honed all his attention on Cristían. Breath held, he pulled the glass straight out. And pulled. And pulled. Until a bloodied six-inch shard came out. Holy shit.
“You okay?” he asked.
Cristían turned his head. “Yeah. Why?”
Jeremy held up the glass. “Because your heart was next to the other end of this.”
Cristían's eyes widened when he saw the glass; then he looked away, fingers curling into fists at his sides. Lupe gasped and surged to her feet. Jeremy expected a pool of blood to well up now that the glass had been removed. But nothing happened. He placed the glass shard on the counter and moved on to the next one.
Images of mystical thorns from a ceiba tree nurtured in a darkened cenote slammed into his head. Of how there seemed to be no end to splinters when pulled from a person. Of roots sprouting from those thorns, slithering deep into blood veins, until the person was reborn as a host body for a skinwalker. The comparison to their present condition hit a little too close to those images. They had all been reborn, but for the better or for the worse?
/> Jeremy was down to the last shard. None were as lethal-looking as that first one. There were even slivers dangling from Cristían's T-shirt. He clamped onto the final projectile and pulled. It snapped under the force.
“Shit!”
“It's okay,” Cristían said. “We'll dig it out later.” He grabbed the hem of his T-shirt and pulled up.
Jeremy backed up so fast, his ass slammed the drawer shut. Where he expected to see blood dripping down Cristían's back when he removed his shirt, there was…nothing. No hint of injury, not even a scar. His back was as perfect as it had always been, even more so.
“There's nothing there.” The words came from Lupe. She stood beside them, her head canted to one side, while she studied Cristían's back. Then she reached for him.
Cristían sucked in a breath at the touch. Jeremy felt the caress too, as if she were doing it to him—down his backbone, over every muscle. His cock awakened, lifting its swollen head. He stared down and watched his prehensile jaguar tail flick around it. The sensation weakened his knees. He locked them in place and felt his vision blacken.
“What's this?”
Lupe's question pulled him back from the brink. Braced against the counter, Jeremy let his tail have its way with his cock and stared at what looked like a cyst growing on Cristían's back. Jeremy grabbed her hand before Lupe could poke at the lump again.
“What is it?” Cristían tried to look over his shoulder.
Before Jeremy could answer, the lump spit out the embedded glass, and then the wound disappeared, as if it had never existed. “Your body pushed out the glass. There's no wound.” He swallowed hard. “In fact, there's not a scar on you, old or new.”
“And what about the two of you?” Cristían faced them and scanned Jeremy.
Jeremy looked himself over too. Evidence of his impetuous and misspent youth glared back at him. He didn't want to waste valuable time cataloging the various scars. “Same scars as always. A couple of cuts and a few bruises, but those look like they're healing fast.” He knew that was a result of the shift. “The tail is new, though.”
Cristían grinned. “So I see.”
“I was thinking about Lupe's tail, and this happened.”
“Focus inward. You'll get the hang of it.”
Jeremy closed his eyes and took command. The tail retreated. His erection remained. “And what about this?” He pointed to his penis.
Cristían snickered. “Come on, Jer. When have you ever been able to control that? We're men. Doesn't matter whether we're human or shifter, it's as unpredictable as always. Suck it up.”
Lupe hugged Jeremy's side. “Do you need another blowjob?”
How had she managed to purr out the words? Jeremy's brain shut down.
Cristían eased her away. “Let's have a look at you first. I want to make sure you're not hurt.”
“I'm going to the shower,” Jeremy said. Maybe the cold water would shock his system back to normal. Failing that, he could always beat off. He stuffed his feet into his shoes and hurried off, his cock bobbing with every step.
It was a short walk. The explosion had pushed them more toward the wall than the stairs. That might make rescue a little tricky, since debris cluttered the way. What the hell…with Cristían's new abilities, he could clear a path with the wave of his arm. There were other exits from the basement too. The previous owners had built the place to make certain they could get out safely and undetected.
Jeremy shoved off his shoes and stepped into the open stall. It was designed for emergencies not comfort. The quicker a person could get in—clothes and all—the better. Jeremy stepped under the head and twisted on the cold water. It took his breath away, but not any more so than the sight of Cristían with Lupe. The shower was no more than twenty feet away, and he could see them clearly from his position.
Lupe topped out, he'd guess, at five feet, and that was being generous. Next to Cristían's muscular build, she looked like a fairy princess gone punk rock with her riot of hair colors. Her trim and petite build hid the body of a fighter. Muscles flexed with her every move, then disappeared under the facade. Her skin was smooth and unblemished, except for a smattering of small brown dots over her left side. The formation against her ribs was no larger than the width of his hand and would have looked like a birthmark on a human.
She is human, idiot.
Jeremy didn't need his conscience reminding him of that. He had eyes…and a cock that wanted back inside her tight pussy right now. Her muscles had clenched around him like she never wanted to let go.
He watched Cristían's hands mold over her. Calming her? Memorizing her new form for himself? Whichever it was, they looked beautiful together, sensuous. Lupe stretched into the touch, her eyes half-slitted. Jeremy knew that look so well. Contentment. He'd seen it thousands of times before on her, like when she curled between their legs or snuggled beside them. Or when she watched them from her perch in whatever piece of furniture had become her throne. When she warmed herself in a sunny window, monitoring the wildlife for possible kitty snacks.
But this? Beauty in its purest form. Judging from the ridge swelling Cristían's jeans, Jeremy knew he appreciated that too.
He saw Cristían grasp her fingers and tug Lupe forward, urging her to follow him. Wild eyes glanced back toward the shower, and she balked. He brushed his fingers down her hair, over her cheek, and down her shoulder. Her nipples pebbled, and she arched her neck for attention. Cristían nuzzled behind her ear, then worked his lips down the tendon.
Her lips parted on a gasp. She curled her arm up and around, fingers digging into his thick brown hair. Cristían cupped her crotch, parting her glistening folds with his forefinger. Jeremy's mouth watered for a taste. She writhed into Cristían's hand, lost in the joy of sex. Jeremy wrapped his fist around his erection and stroked in time with Cristían's movements.
Jeremy's balls clenched, despite the fact he'd already come twice in the last… How long had they been here? He and Cristían had started work before dawn, and it felt like Barry wasn't here long after that. Help should be here soon. They couldn't be found like this, fucking like sailors on shore leave. Hell, maybe they shouldn't be found at all. How would they explain his nudity or the fact that Cristían didn't have a mark on him? And what about Lupe? His erection softened. Then Lupe came, and all the blood rushed back in, swelling him to the breaking point.
Cristían lifted her into his arms when she sagged and carried her toward the sink. Once there, he placed her gently on her feet.
Ah. Now he understood. Cristían was trying to make Lupe more amenable to a bath. He saw Cristían wet Jeremy's ruined shirt and use it to wipe the semen from her torso. She pressed her breasts up for attention. Cristían paused, then slid the cotton over her nipples. They puckered. Cristían pressed his lips together. His erection had yet to subside, and Jeremy couldn't resist a silent chuckle. Their cocks really were the bosses of them.
Jeremy gripped his dick with an iron fist and beat it hard. Cristían looked his way, and Jeremy saw his nostrils flare. Then he turned that hungry look back at Lupe. Cristían tossed the shirt to the counter and released the beast in his jeans. One arm swept Lupe to him. Cradling her ass, Cristían impaled her.
Lupe's cry overrode the sound of the shower. She clutched her arms and legs around Cristían, taking every pounding thrust he slammed into her. Jeremy jerked off with the same intensity, mirroring Cristían's actions, remembering how damn tight she felt. His body merged with the jungle cat inside him. His escalating body heat turned the cold shower into steam. He was going to come. They all were. Together.
As it should be.
Jeremy braced his palm against the narrow stall and let go. Finally his balls loosened, and his penis subsided to a manageable level.
But he was far from sated. If he lived a thousand years, he knew he'd never get enough of them.
Chapter Five
Cristían dried off with a handful of paper towels. He'd used the shower after Jeremy as a prec
aution only, followed by rote to waylay physical damage in a lab accident or to prevent contaminating others. He knew it didn't matter. What had happened to them was inside them, part of their DNA, not on the outside, like a chemical spill or burn on their skin. After all, it was DNA experiments he and Jeremy had been working on. It'd take thorough analysis of all the data they'd accumulated to determine how those experiments had combined and mutated. He shuddered. All he wanted to do was destroy it all. Considering what lingered in his mind from the metaphysical download he'd been subjected to, that was probably for the best.
Then his analytical side intervened. That perhaps he'd been given the information to make a difference, to change events. That once he'd been told, that action had already changed the course of things to come, and that was why the connection had been severed and the bulk of the knowledge removed—because it was no longer relevant. Cristían's head ached from trying to sort through the jumble of information in his mind.
So much for not feeling pain.
Cristían winced and rubbed circles against his temples to alleviate the pain.
He needed to talk this out with Jeremy, but not here. Somehow they had to find a safe house. A place outside the realm of the jaguar and mountain lion clans. Safety protocols, however, made that impossible. Members of the dwindling jaguar clan possessed a microchip to track their location, to render aid, or retrieve their remains. His people could find him anywhere. Hacking the system to try to disarm it was possible—after all, Jeremy helped design it—but with everyone linked in, it might take days to integrate a surreptitious removal.
He looked around the blown-up lab. Some portions looked like they might be salvageable once the debris was cleared away.
By his estimation, they only had a few minutes left before the safety barricades were disengaged and someone came down to rescue them. Actually he was surprised Barry hadn't tried to call his cell to see if they were all right. That left him with the slim hope that Barry and Frieda hadn't heard the blast; or if they did, they'd passed off the shaking as a minor earthquake.
Into the Heart 3: Into the Wild Page 4