He did know if he could have smiled he would have. Rissa was changing them all. The more she was around them, the more they had hope that they wouldn’t be the forgotten or the one’s left behind.
“I think I can stand now.” They got on either side of him to help.
He was still a little dizzy, but it was passing, and his stomach wasn’t rolling as much.
“I need to go to the cabin, and then I’ll be ready.” He waved them off and began the slow trek to the house. He listed to one side but at least he was walking.
Memories of his time with Rissa hit him like an avalanche, but he couldn’t let them overwhelm him. He went into the bathroom where he threw up every bit of water Ben gave him followed by something thick and black. The last of the poison. Whoever tranqued him intended for him to die.
“I’m coming for you love.” He staggered out the house and poured himself into the back seat of the Jeep.
*~*~*~*
Awareness came slowly it crept around the edges of her mind with a promise of sanity if she woke, but she knew better and ignored it. Facing defeat, it slid further into her mind to see the images replaying over like a worn video.
There were images of her and Dev in the lake. She was swimming away from him while he dove under the water and captured her leg tugging on her. She was laughing so hard she couldn’t get away. Her awareness smiled that had been a good day. The images changed to her and Dev running in animal form exploring the area they claimed. She was crouched in a tree waiting for him when he ran past in bear form, then she pounced on him. He hit the ground and chuffed. She knew it was bear laughter and joined in with him.
Her awareness wanted to let her retreat into her memories, but memories wouldn’t keep them safe. They needed to be up to defend themselves. She tried to retreat deeper, but her awareness stopped her by whispering the promise Dev made to her. She needed to be awake when he came, and he would come.
Her mind snapped into place, but she didn’t move. Her breathing didn’t change. This was an old game, but she still remembered the rules. One sign that she was awake was enough for him to abuse her.
She was naked, she could feel the heat stroking over bare skin. That meant they were inside probably another motel room. Hotel, motel, holiday… this wasn’t the time for old song lyrics. She was beginning to hate motels and hotels. She wanted a house or a cabin with her own bed and kitchen. Even if it had dirty dishes in it.
She couldn’t pretend to be asleep forever Roger wasn’t the patient kind. The smell of food assaulted her senses making her hungry. Cautiously she opened an eye.
“Finally, you’re up. I’m eating dinner, I’d offer you some, but bad girls don’t get to eat.”
She was used to starving before Dev found her, food was the last of her concerns.
“I expect a Yes Sir out of you!”
She just stared at him watching as he rose from his chair and then plopped back down.
“I forgot, it’s hard to talk when your mouth is stuffed full of my bandana. You’re forgiven.” He picked up his burger and took a big bite. It was rare something that always turned her stomach before. Now it looked good.
She still didn’t like her meat rare, but her lion was as picky as she was.
“I wonder how you feel after being dragged all that way? I would have picked you up, but you deserved to be dragged. Do you know how I looked for you? I mourned you thinking you were dead. I felt like my life ended when you ran away.”
It really was all about him and how he felt. What he wanted. Why hadn’t she seen that in the beginning before he trapped her?
“Now that we’re back together everything will go back to normal. We’ll work on those children we always talked about a little boy and girl. I can see us now spending time with my friends until your pregnant. There will be no times with my friends after that.”
Her eyes narrowed, she was in more trouble than she thought. Something had driven Roger over the edge, he no longer had a grip on reality. He had gone from being dangerous to being deadly. Her chances of survival were dwindling quickly.
He stood up. She wanted to run with her cracked ribs and the pain she could still feel in her legs. Her wrists were chained to the bed post, and her legs were chained to each other.
“You left me.” His voice was deceiving in its softness. “You hurt me. You made me the laughing stock of my friends who still tease me that I couldn’t hold onto one little female.”
He was standing over her now, and his eyes blazed with the unholy fervor of the insane. This was going to hurt. She refused to tense up even when he balled his fist up and punched her in her jaw. He grinned at her before he pulled out the bandana.
“I wonder if your pregnant with that dog’s child.”
“He’s a panther or a bear, not a dog.”
The second punch hit her in her stomach. He hit her repeatedly. She screamed she couldn’t stop the pain from pouring out her mouth.
“In case you’re wondering, there was so much poison in that dart that he’s dead.”
Agony bubble through her body. For the first time since meeting Dev, she wanted to die.
*~*~*~*
He screamed as agony and wounds turned up on his body. Ben pulled off the side of the road they watched Dev jerk like he was being pounded on. When he stopped moving there was blood coming out of his mouth.
“What the hell is happening!”
“Rissa.” He couldn’t say anything else.
“What he means is Roger beat Rissa. It should have killed her, but her mate took her injuries into his body to save her life.”
“How’s that possible?”
“You’d have to ask my mate she has a theory.” He reached his hands out to Dev one more time spreading a white light over his body. Soon he sighed and slouched down in the back seat.
“Let him sleep when he wakes he’ll be whole.”
“What about Rissa?” Ben looked at him then back to Dev.
“She passed out with any luck she’ll make it through the night.”
“I know you’re some big shot in the shifter world. I get it. I served long enough in the military to know who’s in charge and who thinks they’re in charge. Why are you helping us and why can’t you give us real help?”
Talon turned to examine Lore. He respected him like he respected all six of the shifters he had encountered and their mates not that he would be telling them that.
“I have studied your military and have concluded that the ones who make it work go through hell but are determined to come out on the other side. I won’t take that privilege from your friend, and I won’t take it from either of you.”
He disappeared leaving them silent.
Chapter Twenty-three
“We’re going in the wrong direction.”
Ben did a U-turn on the highway to plenty of tires screeching as they came to sudden stops. The truckers called him everything except what his mother named him and plenty of middle fingers were thrown up. He never even noticed as they raced in the opposite direction.
“He tried to kill her.”
“I guess we can assume that the government doesn’t have her.”
“Roger has her, the man she called the devil.”
The fear in her voice, the absolute conviction that if he ever found her, he would kill her played through Dev’s mind. She was right, and he didn’t think she had much time left.
“How do you know it’s him?”
“I can feel her.” He looked up at Lore who turned around in his seat watching him. “It doesn’t make any sense, and I hope after all I’ve encountered, I think I can even say I pray that the two of you meet your mates. I can’t explain it you have to experience it, but I can feel her. I should be able to talk to her, but she’s protecting me.”
“She thinks she’s going to die.” He choked up. It would be easy to show them what he was feeling, but he didn’t want to, it felt like a betrayal to Rissa if he doubted for even a moment that he wouldn
’t reach her in time.
“She’s protecting me because she’s so fucking strong. Even faced with death, I’m the one she’s worried about.”
“Why is it so easy to forget how strong women can be?”
Lore turned to look at Ben. “Because some of us grew up watching our mothers and sisters and even our friend’s mothers suffer under the domination of men. We were taught we were strong and everyone else was weak compared to us. Because we bench pressed three hundred when she could only do one hundred. We were taught to believe that strong meant physically. Dev took that beating with Rissa and it almost killed him, killed her and they are both alive. That’s strength we’ve been taught to ignore. The mother in the bad situation who still gets it done. Strength.”
“Get off at the next exit.”
“Can you feel how she is?”
“She’s dying. She has what feels like three broken ribs. She was shot in each leg, her animal is trying to repair the damage, but the bullets didn’t come out. She can’t shift, it hurts her to breathe.”
“Can you save her?”
He closed his eyes so he wouldn’t be forced to answer that question.
“Rissa, love please talk to me.”
*~*~*~*
The smack across her face woke her up. It was an oldy but goody, and he loved using it on her.
“You’re alive imagine my surprise. I forget how weak you were when I was chastising you.”
“I was sure you wanted me dead.” Her throat was tight, had he choked her? It sure felt that way. “I have to go to the bathroom.”
It was surprising she hadn’t gone yet. Would he carry her because she didn’t think she could walk? He moved to the bed and unchained her wrist.
“Go outside like all the other animals and you better not go on that bed.”
She wouldn’t survive another beating. The gleam in his eyes said he was waiting for the opportunity. Dev wondered why she wasn’t really freaked out about the fact that she had been kidnapped and abused by the military. No one knew evil the way Roger knew it. He had grown up with it. Watched his father torture his mother. She truly believed he was a spawn of Satan.
If she were smart she would force him to kill her now, put her out of her misery. Instead, she still believed that Dev would come for her. If he didn’t, he was dead, and she would meet him on the other side.
Those were the only reasons she fought the pain and rolled off the bed. When she saw her mate, she wanted him to know she fought to the very last minute. Her legs were useless there was a good chance if she survived she would never walk again. She used her arms to slowly drag herself to the door before she rolled down the steps.
They weren’t in a motel. He had brought her to a shack in the middle of nowhere that had been abandoned. No one would find her here. She went as far as she could until her strength left her. Laying on the ground, she relieved herself. She couldn’t even move she laid in her own waste.
“Rissa, love please talk to me.”
She couldn’t how could she tell him how low she had gone. What would he think if he could see her now?
“Rissa, please.”
“I can’t talk to you. I’m not worthy.” She sent him a picture of where she was, what she had done.”
She wouldn’t cry because soon she would be out of her misery. All she could do was pray for happiness on the other side.
“Rissa, I love you. What you see as shameful I see as my mate, my strong female surviving until I can get to her.”
“I don’t know if I want to survive.”
“Let me know love. If you choose the next life, we’ll walk into it together.”
“What are you doing lying there? Bring your ass back here.” She looked up to see a belt wrapped around his hand.”
“I have to go.”
“Rissa, I need you to look around. Show me what you are seeing.”
She described everything she saw and tried to send him pictures of it.
“I’ll be here love, reach out if you need me. I will find you soon.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
She concentrated on getting back to the shack even though she knew he was going to beat her. The only thing that was on her mind was staying strong for Dev, he would find her soon.
There was no way she was going to make it up those steps. She heard the heavy tread of his boots as he stomped down them. There was the long stride of his legs as he moved over the hard compacted dirt that didn’t have any give in it.
She watched as he bent down and picked her up tossing her over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes without any feeling. There was nothing to concentrate on except his feet as he carried her back to the shack. He tossed her on the bed before he brought his hand up and then the belt came down on her. She placed her arms over her face and quietly endured the pain.
“I feel good. You always knew how to make me feel that way. I have some news for you. Several of my friends are on their way here. We’re going to have a party tonight. I remember how you used to love those.”
Tonight, he planned to kill her, and she couldn’t find it within herself to beg for her life.
*~*~*~*
Zayro lunged for Roger, but Talon caught her around the waist. She kicked, screamed, and fought, but Talon wouldn’t let her go.
“What are you doing. She’s one of ours. Talon she is one of ours.” She said the words slowly and loudly in case he had hearing problems.
“I know who she is. I know what she is and what she could become. Should I interfere and risk her future?”
“If she’s dead there won’t be a future, then what?”
He took her far away from where Rissa was being held to an old chamber deep underground. His hand waved over the entrance sealing it shut.
“I’m sorry love, but we can’t interfere in what’s about to happen. She has to live or die on her own it’s her choice, and we don’t get to take it away from her.”
“No one should have to live through that.”
“I agree but it happens, and we can’t stop it even though we want to.”
“I like her, did you see her protect that little girl.”
“I did.”
“Is this what it felt like when you watched me go through?”
“Yes, but for me, it was worse.”
He finally set her down so she could explore the cave.
“What is this for?”
“Many of our people would come here to hide when our race was young as time passed this became a cave of history. In here we can trace our beginnings to the dawn of time.”
“What’s on this wall?”
“It’s supposed to be our future. Moments in time that will define who we are.”
“Talon?”
“Yes, I know it exists, and still there is nothing we can do but wait and watch.”
“Being a supreme being sucks.”
“Supreme beings don’t say suck.”
“This one does, speaking of sucking…”
*~*~*~*
“We’re getting close I can feel her, she’s nearer.”
“There’s nothing out here.”
He looked out the window. They left the main road several miles ago. Now they were traveling over what looked like a backwoods area. They weren’t even sure what state they were in anymore. What made it harder was that they were traveling through trees there wasn’t even a dirt road here, and there may never be one here, not that it mattered.
“Rissa is out here, and that’s what important.”
“We’ll do everything we can to save her.”
“I know. Roger invited some of his friends out.”
“Why?”
“To party.”
“To party…oh hell no.”
“I don’t want one of them to escape. Kill them all.”
“Consider them dead.”
Ben pulled the Jeep behind a huge tree and pointed out his side window. They were so far away they had to use the enhanced vision
of their animals to see them.
“Do you think they’re looking for us?”
“No, you did an excellent job spotting them.”
“Finding us would be an unexpectant bonus.”
“Dev’s right we walk from here.”
They silently climbed out the Jeep. If the military patrol heard the jeep, they would come after them. Leaving Rissa behind while they ran or fought for their lives was unacceptable.
They moved away from the patrol staying well hidden within the trees after every sign of them had disappeared. When they came to the edge of the trees the shack that Rissa was being held in was sitting in the waning sunlight.
“That’s where she is.”
“Are we going in?”
“Not yet.”
“Rissa, love are you still with me?”
“I’m here the first friend is here.”
“I saw him get out of his car. I want them all but not at your expense.”
“He won’t touch me until his best friend gets here.”
“You scream when it happens.”
“I will, I love you Dev.”
“I love you, Rissa. You hold on for me I’m getting you out of there.”
They stayed buried in the trees when the second and third car pulled up.
“He’s sick,” Ben whispered, they barely heard him.
“There are worse,” Lore replied.
“That’s him, it has to be.”
The fourth man to get out the car was tall and slender and reminded him a lot of Roger.
“He’s here.” Her voice echoed in his head.
“So are we love.”
“Let’s move out.”
Chapter Twenty-four
He watched as Ben and Lore swiftly ran around the side of the shack. The panthers crouched waiting for the men who were going to run. He took a deep breath before striding up to the door. He knocked before opening it and walking in.
“There was a party, and no one invited me? Hi love, I missed you.”
She grinned at him through the pain.
“Who the hell are you?” One of the men reached for a gun until he heard Dev cock the one he had strapped to his back.
Dev's Mate (Shifters on the run Book 2) Page 14