by A. C. Arthur
Ary opened her mouth to speak then closed it as his lips crashed down on hers. “Don’t say a word,” he told her, pulling back and staring into her face. “Just get in the car.”
“Where are you going?” she asked when she was being pushed toward the back passenger-side door.
“I’m going to do what I should have done in the fucking forest!” he told her without looking back.
Ary did not like the sound of that.
Chapter 29
They tracked the Rogues to an underground parking lot across the street from the museum. Ezra had locked on their scent and was leading the pack toward them.
Four shifters stood near a white Hummer. All Rogues. They’d just closed the back passenger door so Nick knew someone was inside. And that someone was Davi Serino. When Ezra reported that Leo swore one of the men Ary was talking to was Serino, Nick had cursed until his eyes almost crossed. Something about that too-neat battle in the forest had been nagging at him since they’d returned, but knowing everyone was growing tired of his battle-armor attitude he had kept it to himself. Besides, the last thing he’d wanted to do was upset Ary with talk of her parents still being alive. Now he felt like an ass because he should have acted on his instinct, as usual.
Now he wasn’t going to be dissuaded. Serino and whoever else was with him were going to die. That was all there was to it.
Nick charged forward, passing Ezra and the other shifters, growling as he approached the Hummer. The Rogues turned and bared teeth and claws, ready to fight back. He didn’t give a shit. Beneath him he felt his shirt ripping, his body shifting, the cat taking charge.
The six-foot-long, 250-pound jaguar that lived inside Nick lunged through the air, landing with its underbody smacking against a Rogue smaller than him by maybe 50 pounds and darker than him in color. Dispatch was quick and lethal as Nick’s teeth sank deep into the Rogue’s neck.
When the body fell to the cement floor the cat, now irritated and pushed closer to the brink, charged the Hummer, jumping up on its roof and dropping down to break the entire front windshield. Shattered glass spread everywhere as heavy paws hit the driver’s and passenger seats, plowing past them to get to the back. Both passengers cowered, hands reaching for the door handles, eyes wide with fear.
Nick moved to Davi first, giving the man a vicious growl that probably should have ripped his head off. Instead it only startled, then pricked the cat inside Davi until his claws bared and reached to swipe at Nick’s cat. Big mistake. Nick swiped back with such fierceness Davi’s body fell right out of the back door and hit the ground with a sickening thump. Nick jumped down on top of him. He roared once more, then let his teeth sink into the back of Davi’s neck, lifting the body slightly off the ground and holding on until all movement stopped.
Before Nick could enjoy the kill, there was noise coming from behind him. It was chanting. He let the dead body drop to the ground and remained still, trying to place the sound. Some weird smoke drifted through his nostrils. It permeated his senses, making his cat growl and roar louder. Turning to look over its shoulder, his cat spotted Yuri, the shaman, arms lifted, smoke emanating from his mouth. The cat shrank back and the man reached out a long arm, grabbing Yuri by the throat squeezing so hard he began to wheeze.
“What the fuck are you doing here? Who brought you here?” Nick yelled in the shaman’s face.
Ezra had just shifted back himself, running over to where Nick stood with Yuri. “Dead or alive?” he asked Nick, glaring down at Davi’s dead body and looking back to the shaman.
Yuri didn’t speak; he couldn’t, since Nick was probably crushing his larynx. The smoke had stopped dripping from his mouth and his eyes were watery, probably with the effort. Nick wanted to kill him, too, the healer Ary had called a friend. But that wouldn’t get the answers they needed.
“Take him with us. Bind him, and don’t let him out of your sight. And put a muzzle on this one, he has a tendency to leak,” he added, tossing Yuri’s slim body onto the ground. Another guard quickly stepped up, grabbing the shaman.
Out of the trunk of Ezra’s SUV, Nick and his guard slipped into extra jeans and T-shirts. Even though shifting in public was against their laws, one of Rome’s obsessions was to always be prepared. As they climbed in the front seats, Nick’s blood pulsed.
“Why was he still alive?” he asked the minute Ezra started the truck. “He was supposed to have died, yet he’s here in DC trying to get at Ary. And that shaman, he’s a fucking liar.”
“You know money rules here,” Ezra said as they pulled out of the garage. “Maybe it’s starting to rule the jungle as well.”
Nick pulled out his cell, growling as he punched each number. “What’s your location?” he asked Leo the minute the guard answered. “Good. I’ll meet you there. She’s not to move a muscle until I get there.”
Tossing the phone to the floor, he let his head fall into his hands. And for the first time since Ezra had come into the room to tell him about the Rogues at the museum, Nick breathed a sigh of relief that Ary was safe. Then he vowed to get to the bottom of this mess with her father and Sabar before it got her killed.
* * *
Ary wanted to scream. Then she wanted to cry. Her heart beat so fast she thought it would burst from her chest and then she’d die. Clenching her fists at her sides she cursed the rapidly changing emotions and the tears welling up in her eyes. She absolutely hated crying!
But the moment Nick walked through the door of the bedroom they shared and closed it behind him, she’d done just that. Turning to face him, she saw his furrowed brow and angry cat’s eyes. She scented the anger and frustration pouring from him. And she noticed the scratches on his arms and neck, which indicated he’d been in a fight.
“I didn’t know,” she began. “I thought he was dead.” The damning tears fell the minute she spoke, lining her cheek with moisture and making her feel a few millimeters shy of a weakling.
He didn’t speak, just walked to her. When he pulled her into his arms and hugged her so tight, she thought he’d break her ribs, Ary’s tears turned into full-out sobs.
“He’s dead now,” he whispered into her ear, still holding her safely in his arms.
Ary’s crying increased, her chest throbbing with the effort. She cried for so much in those few minutes—for the betrayal she thought her father had committed, for the shifters in the Gungi who’d also trusted him, for her mother, for the future of the curanderos and the shifters as a whole, and lastly for being a total fool about Yuri.
“You killed him,” she said through quivering lips.
She felt him stiffen against her but did not release her hold.
“I won’t say I’m sorry for killing him, because I’m not. I am sorry for how this situation continues to hurt you,” he told her.
“Everybody I trusted was lying to me,” she said when Nick finally pulled back a bit and she wiped her face with the back of her hand. “I thought we were doing good for the tribes. I thought he was teaching me because he believed in me.”
“And they lied. But that’s not your fault,” Nick told her. “They’re the assholes here, not you. And believe me, all of them will pay for their treachery.”
“Davi already did,” she said brokenly.
“It had to be done,” he said with a sigh then sat down on the bed.
He reached out to grab her hand, pulling her down beside him. “I know you think I have a kill-now, think-later mentality. I won’t deny that. But I also will not allow anyone to hurt you, not ever again,” he said adamantly.
She didn’t respond. Couldn’t really, because there was a part of her that had already accepted Davi’s death. Another part was still processing that the man she was in love with had been the one to kill her father. It should cause her more pain, that hideous fact, but it didn’t. She couldn’t allow it to. Davi betrayed the tribe; Nick was a protector of the tribe. He was also her mate. That was all she needed to know.
“Ezra took Yuri out to the gues
t house to lock him down while Rome figured out what to do with him.”
“Do you think he’ll kill him?” If so, that would be another death she’d have to come to terms with. Another person she’d allowed into her life whom she shouldn’t have trusted.
Nick kept her hand tightly in his. “There might not be any other choice. If he’s determined to help Sabar, we can’t let him live.”
She nodded, sniffling. “I don’t understand how Yuri’s involved,” she told Nick.
“I don’t, either, but he was spitting some foul-smelling smoke into the air until I started choking his ass.”
Ary looked up quickly. “A foul-smelling smoke? Coming from his mouth?”
Nick nodded. “Yeah, I could smell it, but then I was so pissed off I just grabbed him. I wanted to strangle him right there.”
She was nodding her head, too, everything making perfect sense to her now. “It’s ayahuasca. That’s the other element in the drug Sabar’s making. Ayahuasca.”
“What are you talking about?”
Ary turned on the bed, still keeping her hand in Nick’s and looking him directly in the eye. “Ayahuasca is an infusion. It’s a psychoactive infusion from the banisteriopsis, a vine found in the jungle. They call it the Spirit Vine because it’s said to give shamans the ability to speak to a person’s spirit directly.”
He looked like he was concentrating deeply on every word she spoke. “And that’s what was coming from Yuri’s mouth?”
She nodded. “And that’s what I think Sabar is adding to that drug. Without the ayahuasca ceremony, which can only be performed by a shaman, the vine can be used in a tea form. It opens up the soul, but doesn’t give it any direction. The unpurified damiana adds its negative energy, and that’s why anyone who takes the drug goes crazy.”
“Damn, I don’t know why but that makes sense. So Yuri was giving him the ayahuasca?” Nick asked, his cat’s eyes subsiding as Ary continued to rub her fingers over the back of his hand.
He’d been so wound up when he came in. For that matter, so had she. They’d had a tumultuous last couple of hours. But now he seemed to be coming down; his brow wasn’t as furrowed, either. She liked him so much better this way.
“Why else would he be with Davi and Sabar?”
Nick shook his head. “I can’t think of another reason. I guess money is starting to rule even in the jungle. Ezra said that earlier but I was having a hard time believing a shaman would be attracted to money. Guess I was wrong.”
There was a knock at the door and Ary jumped. Nick dropped her hand and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer.
“Come in,” he said when she looked up at him with relief.
“Hey man, you okay?” X said entering the room.
Nick nodded. “Yeah. I’m cool.”
“How about you, Ary? You didn’t get injured, did you?”
Ary almost smiled. She really was starting to feel like a part of this family. “I’m cool, too,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady like Nick’s.
“Heard you had some impressive moves in the museum,” X said to her.
She shrugged. “I can defend myself.”
Folding his beefy arms over his chest, X nodded. “That’s good to know. Because I’ve got some bad news.”
Nick sighed. “What now?”
“Rogues, what else?” X began. “Local news is broadcasting a robbery at Rigory National.”
“So they’re through selling drugs, now they’re robbing banks?” Ary asked, not sure she believed the connection.
X frowned. “Looks like it. Every human in the bank is dead, necks snapped, blood all over. Close to two million gone.”
Nick cursed. “Dammit! He’s doing whatever he wants and we’re just sitting back with our heads up our ass.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” X started. “It was definitely a setup, though. How did you know to go to the museum, Ary?”
She inhaled and sighed shakily. Nick wasn’t going to like what she was getting ready to say. “I got a call on my cell phone.”
“The one I just gave you that nobody besides us should have the number to?” Nick questioned.
She shook her head. “I don’t know how he got the number. All I know is the call came through. I answered and he asked me to meet him. I couldn’t believe it at first because I thought Davi was dead. But I’d know his voice anywhere. So I had to go and see for myself. Leo was with me the entire time.”
“It’s a good thing,” X said. “I think they had Davi call you because they knew we’d all come to rescue you again. They were diverting our attention.”
“Sonofabitch,” Nick murmured, standing to pace the floor.
It was starting again, Ary noted. He was keeping a tight rein on his temper, and for Nick, she knew that was an effort. For that she was proud. For the fact that he was going through this at all—she hated that it was because of her.
“That’s not all,” X continued. “There was a witness at the bank. In her car parked out front. She told the police about two black Hummers that pulled up. Four got out of the first one and went into the bank. Minutes later they were out again.”
“Okay, at least that’s something to go on, right?” Ary asked.
“That’s not all she said. She told them they didn’t look like men. She thought maybe they were wearing Halloween masks on their face and gloves with claws on their hands.”
“Can this get any worse?” Ary asked.
“Shit yeah! If we don’t get a handle on these Rogues, it’s going to get much worse” was Nick’s retort.
X didn’t look happy about the assessment, but he couldn’t argue it, either. “I think this time you might be right. Rome’s talking with the Assembly tonight. Get some rest, we’re meeting with him at the club first thing in the morning.”
Nick nodded as X left the room. Closing the door, he let his forehead tap against the door. Thoughts of Ary being captured, tortured, killed, of all those innocent people in the bank, of the shifter he’d killed and the shaman he had locked away on this property, all bounced around in his head. He wanted to scream with rage, to rake his nails down the door, splintering the wood until he felt some sort of relief. Instead he could only remain still.
Her touch was like a salve, small hands moving up his back, spreading warmth that wasn’t so much arousing as it was comforting. When she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her front against his back, Nick wanted to sigh with relief, he wanted to lose himself in the simple feeling of her holding him. But he couldn’t.
There was too much going on, too much at stake. And for all the years he’d lived with the rage against his parents and the anger against the shifters who refused to accept that they were different, Nick felt fury that made him shake. He wanted to kill again. Pure and simple he wanted to kill the next person who walked up to him, or who looked at Ary wrong. It didn’t really matter who it was. And that was what scared him most.
“We’ll come up with a way to fight them,” Ary said from behind him. “We won’t let them win.”
He heard her words, wanted to swallow them up like two Tylenols and a glass of water, in hopes they’d cure this fury rippling through him. But he didn’t think that was going to happen.
“I want him dead.” He spoke slowly, quietly. “I want the shaman as dead as your father. Is that normal?”
He asked the question and turned, pressing his back against the door and watching her take a half step away from him. “Is it normal to believe that killing is the answer?”
She hesitated a moment, then licked her lips nervously. “If you’re asking me if you’re normal, Nick, the answer is yes. You are what you have been bred to be, a man and a cat. Reactions of both will come to you all your life, and that’s normal.”
“How could I kill your father? How can I hurt you like that?” Even though he knew he’d do it again in a heartbeat, a small part of him wondered what kind of man that made him.
Ary touched her palms to his
cheeks. “How could he hurt me the way he did? I don’t have that deep desire to kill, Nick, but I don’t have any love lost for him, either.”
He closed his eyes, tried like hell to rein in what he was feeling because at this moment Nick didn’t really know what it was. Anger and rage he recognized and embraced eagerly. This foreign entity was new, surfacing only with the sound of Ary’s voice, the touch of her hands.
There was something swirling around inside him, something that almost—but not quite—conquered all the dark and evil. It was soft and light and just hovered over the surface of his being. With a lift of his arms he was touching her, squeezing her shoulders, and whispering her name.
“I need you, Ary. I need you so bad.”
She touched a finger to his lips to quiet him. “Let me take care of you,” she said, her hands slipping down his torso, pushing the T-shirt he wore up and over his head.
Light kisses peppered his chest and Nick let his head fall back, rapping against the door. Her touch was so soft and yet so damn hot. When her tongue circled one of his nipples, Nick’s fingers clenched at his sides. Teeth raked over the skin she’d just kissed as she bit down on the nipple lightly at first, then hard enough that he sucked in a deep breath. Her tongue licked the area once more and his cock strained against the zipper of his pants.
As if she’d read his mind, her nimble fingers moved over the button of his jeans and slid the zipper down. Pressing her breasts close to his chest, she breathed heavily as she used both her hands to push his boxers and his jeans down at once. They were at his ankles and Nick wanted to curse because his boots wouldn’t let him simply kick them off. He felt trapped here, but the moment Ary’s warm hand wrapped around his turgid length, he thought here wasn’t such a bad place to be.
Every touch was soft, with the gentlest of care, as if she were worshiping him even as he basked in the feel of her. He couldn’t resist touching a hand to the top of her head, smoothing down her silky hair. She sighed with his action and he continued, moving so that both his hands were in her hair, his fingers wrapping the long strands around and around. She’d lowered herself to her knees, her hand still wrapped around his erection as she rubbed her cheek along his length, touching the tip to her skin then whispering her warm breath over it.