by A. C. Arthur
“You think he raped her?” Ary asked.
Kalina shrugged. “If she’s a stripper, he might not have had to.”
“She was a good girl,” X said, his voice sounding more than a little agitated.
“In a very bad place and at a very bad time,” Kalina told him as they lowered the body again. “Maybe she did know about the new drug. Maybe she knew Sabar and this is what she got from having that knowledge.”
Ary was shaking her head even as X reached down and began zipping the body bag closed.
“Sabar wouldn’t infect himself. He has to remain in control at all times,” she said.
They took a step back as X closed the drawer with a solid click. He hadn’t told them to watch out or even that he was putting the body away. But both of them were wise enough not to question him.
“He has to rule,” Kalina began. “So he would want everyone who worked with him to be under his complete control.”
“Owning their soul would be equivalent to having complete control,” Ary said.
Kalina shrugged as she followed behind X, who was already moving toward the doors. “You’re right.”
Ary followed, walking besides Kalina. “I wish I wasn’t.”
* * *
“Why aren’t you eating?” Nick asked Caprise when they were all seated around Rome’s mahogany dining room table.
Custom-made blinds were closed tight at each window, drapes closed. The FL didn’t want to risk anyone seeing what went on in his house. Especially since it was now filled with shifters.
“I don’t eat meat,” Caprise said, her facial expression conveying her discomfort at being here.
“That’s why you’re so bitchy all the time,” X grumbled.
Nick shot him a warning glance to which he only shrugged.
“You,” Carpise said, using her fork to point at X. “Are a pain in the ass!”
He dropped his fork and glared at her. “Let me tell you—”
Rome cleared his throat loudly. “Children, please. We’re having dinner.”
Kalina chuckled. Ary simply shook her head. It did feel like they were having a family dinner, and at such siblings did usually bicker. Younger siblings, that is; X and Caprise were too damn old for this. But anytime the two were near each other they were ready to bare claws and go at it.
“I’m not hungry,” she said, pushing her plate away.
“You’re too skinny,” X replied.
Caprise’s gaze shot straight at him again, glowing with the tawny glow of her cat’s eyes.
“So we went to the morgue today,” Ary put in.
Nick smiled at her in thanks.
Kalina joined right in. “The latest body wasn’t killed by the drug.”
“What happened to her?” Rome asked.
“A cat killed her,” Ary said. “Half her face was ripped off, and there are scratches all over her body. He just tore her to shreds.”
“Like he was super pissed off,” Kalina said before taking a sip of her wine.
“So you think he took the drug first?” Nick asked Ary.
She shook her head. “No. I think he was infected with the ayahuasca.”
“Why do you keep saying that?” X asked. “Shifters don’t need a reason to kill.”
“Let her talk,” Rome interjected.
Nick looked at X, who didn’t look like himself at all. Yes, his friend was usually a mean SOB, even more so than Nick most days, but when he was with them—meaning him and Rome—X was usually a little more laid back. Tonight he was edgy. And that had Nick concerned, because dealing with an edgy X was like walking into the middle of the jungle with blinders on. There was no telling what would happen next.
“There’s a distinct difference between the drug and the ayahuasca itself. If it’s mixed with the damiana and the cocaine, its effects are out of control. Alone, the ayahuasca takes a more dominant role. A shifter with his soul altered and controlled by someone else—it’s like having a terrorist for a neighbor. You know something bad’s going to happen, you just don’t know when, where, or why.”
“Sabar could build one hell of an army with shifters like that,” Nick said.
“Exactly what I’m thinking,” Ary added.
“So the drug is what? A distraction?” X asked.
At the far end of the table where it had been quiet for the last few minutes came a loud sigh. “It secures him a spot in the human world as a dominator. He has to lead from both sides, remember? Baxter told you this already. If he controls shifters, that makes him a leader among the cat people. Cornering the drug market gives him street cred to rival any power that politicians or cops could ever garner,” Carpise said shooting an evil glare at X.
Before X could reply, Rome spoke up. “She’s right.”
“So playing both sides, he figures he’s a winner either way,” Ary said.
“He’s counting on us not interfering at all,” Nick said. “Evil bastard.”
“But when I find him I’m sticking both my feet up his ass then snapping his punk-ass neck!” X said with vehemence.
“Bad kitty,” Caprise cooed.
Nick sighed. These two were going to give him a fucking headache.
“Let’s head to Havenway. There’s something I want to show you two,” Rome said, standing and dropping his napkin onto his cleaned plate. Bending over, he kissed Kalina and whispered something to her that had the female smiling broadly.
Nick pushed his chair back from the table and looked to Ary, who was already staring up at him. Expectantly, he thought. He mimicked Rome’s actions, only his kiss was longer, deeper, as he couldn’t seem to touch Ary’s lips in a quick motion. He had to taste and enjoy every time. “I want you naked when I get back,” he whispered to her and was rewarded with a pretty blush on her cheeks and a nod of her head. Who said this mating game had different rules?
* * *
“They’re alone,” the muffled voice said into the cell phone.
In the background Darel could hear cars and other outside noise. He figured the shifter had to come out of the mansion to make the call. “You’re sure?” he asked. If they walked into an ambush Sabar was going to be royally pissed off—and the little shifter friend who’d happily delivered the information was as good as dead.
“Positive. FL and his two shadows just rolled out in the Tahoe with four other shifters. Three females are in the mansion with only the old man in there watching them.”
“Three? We’re only looking for two,” Darel said, now a little more hesitant.
“Then you’re getting a prize. She’s fucking hot as hell with her long legs and big boobs. I’d like to lick her all over,” he said with a sigh and a hand to his growing erection.
“Don’t blow your cover, idiot! Keep your dick in your pants, we’ll be there soon.”
“Sure. Right,” he said, clicking off the phone then heading back into the house to get another look at the one they called Caprise. If he couldn’t touch her, he could certainly get his look on while she showered and got ready for bed. He’d been doing that the last few nights and felt like he was falling in love.
Chapter 32
“I hate them all!” Caprise said with vehemence, dropping with a plop onto the chocolate-brown leather couch in Rome’s den.
Across the room Kalina sat in one of those chairs that Ary refused to ever park her behind in again. She prayed that whatever she’d been experiencing the first night she’d been in this den that kept her from getting comfortable was over and done with, but didn’t want to chance it. She sat on the love seat folding her legs up beneath and cuddling a pillow.
The scene was contented—a normal evening among friends. But there was a buzz in the air, a little sizzle of something she couldn’t name. It wasn’t grief, because she only grieved for people she loved. Davi was not one of them. And it wasn’t fear. They were protected here, and as soon as Nick returned she’d feel even safer. No, something was in the air, Ary just couldn’t figure out what it w
as.
“Who do you hate now, Caprise?” Kalina asked as if she were already bored with the conversation.
Caprise slapped a palm on the arm of the chair. “Men! They’re all a bunch of high-handed bastards with nothing better to do than boss females around. I’m sick of it!”
Ary nodded. “I can relate to that sometimes,” she agreed, remembering how much Nick had ticked her off when she’d first arrived here.
Kalina looked at Caprise in shock. “They’re just trying to protect you.”
“Protect me from what? I’m not the one who pissed off this Sabar character. Hell, I don’t even know who he is,” Caprise argued.
“He’s a bad-ass shifter who grew up in the Gungi, then was taken away to some godforsaken place by an evil bastard and royally messed up. Now he’s set his sights on the stateside shifters. He wants us all dead. Me especially, because I wouldn’t help him create a new drug to sell on the streets,” Ary reported.
Kalina was shaking her head and drinking from a cup of piping-hot coffee that Baxter had delivered to them minutes ago. “No. I think I’m probably tops on his list since I’ve thwarted him and his goons three times now.”
“See,” Caprise said, lifting a hand in the air to flail it around then drop into her lap. “This has nothing to do with me. I haven’t pissed this guy off.”
“But you’re one of us, Caprise. Whether you like it or not,” Ary told her. She’d gotten the impression that Caprise did not want to be a shifter at all. Not that Nick had told her anything about his sister.
When she’d asked about Caprise, he’d told her they used to be close; then their parents were killed and Caprise took off. He wanted to protect his sister, that was clear, but he certainly wasn’t being up front about what he was trying to protect her from. Spending time with Caprise today gave Ary a sense that his sister wasn’t telling Nick what was really going on with her. Ary wondered why.
Ary leaned forward to pick up her cup of coffee but was baffled to see a glass of orange juice instead. She looked around to the other ladies; they had coffee. It wasn’t like Baxter to make such a mistake, she thought. Before she could think to call for him, Caprise was talking again.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m a woman. This shape-shifting thing is not for me. I’ve never liked it and can’t think of a reason why I’d start now,” she was saying.
Kalina looked startled. “It’s your heritage,” she said.
Ary felt sorry for Kalina at this moment. Since they’d been spending a lot of time together, Ary had learned of Kalina’s lonesome upbringing with human parents. She’d only learned she was a shifter a couple of months ago. So to her, this was the chance to be a part of a family. On some level, it was the same for Ary. Even though she’d lived with the tribe all her life, this family—the stateside shifters she’d met so far—had proved much more caring and loving than the ones she’d had before. For that reason, Caprise’s words perplexed her, too.
“How could you not want to be what you are?” she asked her.
“Because it’s not normal,” Caprise said, pulling her black hair back and lifting it off her neck. “There are two groups on this earth, human and animals. Being part of each is an abomination.”
“Talking like that is a slap in the face!” Kalina yelled, rising from her chair.
Caprise rolled her eyes. “You asked a question and I answered.” Then she sighed and sat up, letting her elbows rest on her knees. “Look, I’m not here to make anyone uncomfortable. In fact, I don’t even want to be here. I have my reasons for feeling the way I do. So I don’t expect you to understand.”
But Ary thought she might understand, just a little.
“Sometimes I wish I were one or the other, too. I used to think my life would be better if I weren’t two halves of a whole.”
“Exactly,” Caprise said, swallowing from her cup of coffee.
Ary ran her finger around the rim of her glass of juice. Still not sure why she’d received something different, she picked it up and took a sip.
“We are what we are,” Kalina said glibly.
She’d settled back in her chair and cradled her mug in her hand. “I’m happy I met Rome and happy to have found out where I came from.”
“Then I’m happy for you.” Caprise gave Kalina a salute. “For me, I’ll stick to my guard.”
And Ary figured she would. There was something Caprise was hiding, something that made her change her mind about the way she was born. The Delgado siblings were a pair of mysteries.
“It is getting late,” Baxter said, coming into the room on quiet feet again.
“I’d like some coffee,” Ary said quickly before he’d even come near the end table where she’d set her glass.
Baxter stopped, looked at her long and hard, then moved closer to her. He put his palm to her forehead, then traced a finger down her neck. Ary jerked at his touch and settled when he didn’t move but smiled down at her instead.
“Just as I thought. Drink the juice, Ms. Aryiola,” he said in his totally neutral, all-knowing voice. “Here, I’ll take it up to your room for you.”
Ary opened her mouth to argue, then thought better of it. She’d just go to her room, wait, then come back down and get her own damn coffee.
“You take care of everyone around here, don’t you?” Caprise asked Baxter when she stood and stretched.
“That is my duty. We all have a duty we must live up to.”
Caprise was shaking her head. Kalina had already stood, giving her a look that said, Let it go. Ary only hoped Caprise took the hint. She did. And the three of them took to the stairs.
When she was alone in the room she and Nick were sharing, Ary looked out the window to the night sky. She thought about Nick, wanting him here with her desperately. While she wasn’t feeling that suffocating heat anymore and her body had ceased its twitching and whatever else it had been doing, she still felt anxious.
After a warm shower, she slipped between the satin sheets, her naked body loving the cool softness against her skin. Her eyes closed and thoughts of dead bodies and bad drugs ran rapid through her mind. She saw flashes of the cat in the trees, lying on the ground, dying. His blood still smelled fresh; her chest heaved with the exertion of running that day. In a blink her thoughts shifted to days in the forest, studying with Yuri, the scent of incense replacing the acrid stench of blood and death.
A chill ran down her spine and she shivered as she slipped out of bed and grabbed her robe. Wrapping her arms around herself, she sat back down on the edge of the bed, her gaze instantly falling on the doors that opened to the balcony. And in that moment everything changed. All thoughts fled from her mind but one.
Rogues.
* * *
The window broke and sirens blared, stinging Ary’s eardrum with the sound. But she was immediately on her feet bracing herself for unwelcome guests.
Two of them came through the glass, tall, dressed in all black, teeth bared. As if they followed her scent, their heads turned and they headed straight for the bed. After a moment’s hesitation Ary jumped up on the bed, reaching overhead for the canopy pole on the side and swinging on it as if she were on a tree branch in the forest. Her feet caught the first Rogue square in the chest, and he tumbled backward. The second reached over his head for her as she sailed through the air, landing on her feet just behind him.
When he turned she was ready, punching him in the gut and when he bent over landing a duo of punches to his face. A face that by the way was not human. She’d noticed that when the two headed for her, their faces were in cat form, eerie green eyes, flat noses, muzzled mouths, whiskers—totally cat, but with human bodies.
During her assessment the Rogue swiped an arm out, catching Ary’s shoulder, and she screamed with the pain of its claws ripping her flesh. Locking her legs, she watched it charge her again then jumped off the floor, extended one leg, and let her foot connect with its face. It roared and stumbled back.
The other Rogue was co
ming at her again when Leo broke through the door, his cat big and vicious as it charged past her and jumped on the Rogue’s chest. In a flash there was another cat taking down the second Rogue.
“Let’s go.” Kalina came in, grabbing Ary by the arm. She held a gun in her other hand and was limping as they headed for the door.
“Wait, you’re hurt,” Ary said, stopping so Kalina would have no choice but to stop with her.
“It’s fine. We have to get downstairs to the tunnel,” Kalina said, trying to remain steady and breathe.
“Here, lean on me,” Ary told her. She wrapped her arm around Kalina’s waist to support her weight. “That leg looks bad.”
“We just need to go.”
“Yeah, we’re going. Where’s Caprise?”
There was a scream from the direction of her room and they both headed down that way. Kalina pushed Ary out of the way and extended her arm. Aiming right at the doorknob, she shot it off. Ary pushed through the door to see one of the Rogues with a hand wrapped around Caprise’s neck. As Ary charged him Caprise raised her knee, slamming it into the human groin. The Rogue roared, released her, and bent forward. Ary extended her arm for a chop across his back and watched as he fell to his knees. Then Kalina came up from behind and shot him in the back of his head.
“Go!” they heard a male shout and turned to see Jax coming through the broken window, a Rogue on his tail. “Get downstairs now!”
Seeing that Kalina was injured, Caprise mimicked Ary’s movements and they both supported the First Female as they headed out of the room. Baxter was in the hallway, where it seemed chaos had entered and made itself at home.
“This way!” he yelled to them.
Ary was only minutely surprised to see a flap in the wall open. Kalina wasn’t surprised at all and went through first. Caprise followed, and Ary went next. She thought Baxter would be right behind them but he wasn’t; the panel closed and they were in the dark.
It only took a second for their nocturnal vision to kick in. Kalina limped through what felt like the longest tunnel in the world. There was a decline and Ary figured it was a hill in place of the steps they would have traveled down in the house. Then there was a burst of light as Kalina’s shoulder rammed a door. She fell through, Caprise and Ary right behind her.