Hunted by a Jaguar

by Felicity Heaton

  Iolanthe looked down at him.

  The black-haired man returned his gaze to her, raking it down her body with dark possession in his eyes. Kyter growled again, warning the male in the only way he could, his anger rising and growing stronger, pushing his pain to the back of his mind.

  The darkness in him began to curl through his veins. If he tapped into that demonic side of himself, could he overcome the pain of his ankle, the male’s control over the wound, and the spell that held him?

  The male wetted his lips and Kyter had the gut-turning feeling that shit could go badly south at any moment, and if it did, if the male so much as looked as if he was going to lay his hands on Iolanthe to violate her, Kyter was taking the bastard down one way or another.

  She stood with her head high, undaunted, but he knew her now and he could read the feelings she refused to show in her eyes in the subtle, almost imperceptible change in her scent.

  She was masking it, but she was rattled beneath her calm exterior. Afraid. It made him burn with a need to reach her and shield her from the males around her, and burn with anger when he realised he couldn’t fulfil that need. If he tried to stand, either the sorcerer would take him down, or the male would, and he had caught the look in Iolanthe’s eyes when she had glanced at him.

  She didn’t want him to fight these males.

  She feared for him.

  “Report. We know the male behind me killed the fourth under my command. Our master is not pleased by this turn of events,” the dark-haired male said in the demon tongue.

  Master? Iolanthe’s client was their master?

  “We are close… but I require the jaguar male to assist me.”

  The male slid Kyter a dark look and curled his lip. “I did not know you had a partner. There was no information regarding one when we selected you for this job.”

  “He was away for many decades but I required his skills on this job, so I contacted him.”

  The male didn’t look as if he believed her. He stared at Kyter for almost a full minute, something dark and sinister brewing in his pale eyes, before turning back to her.

  “Very well. There have been some alterations to the job.”

  Iolanthe paled. “Changes?”

  “Yes. Since you have a partner, you will not require as much time to find the item. Master Fernandez has brought delivery forwards. You have four days, Iolanthe. Either you deliver the item he desires, or it is your head he places on his mantelpiece.” The male leaned closer and brushed his lips across her cheek as he spoke. “It is such a pretty head… Master Fernandez has been kind. Before you lose it, I will get one night with you.”

  Kyter roared and wrestled against his bonds, the muscles of his shoulders and chest burning as they strained to break his arms free from behind him so he could wrap his hands around the bastard’s scrawny neck. The spell didn’t give. He snarled and kept fighting, determined to break free and tear the male’s head off for daring to lay his lips on Iolanthe and talk of bedding her.

  “And Iolanthe?” The male stroked her cheek, unbothered by Kyter’s outburst, which only made him fight harder to get the son of a bitch’s attention. “Since he is your partner… he will share the reward… and the penalty for failure.”

  Penalty?

  That word and Iolanthe’s reaction stopped him cold. A sharp burst of fear swept over him, a tangible wave that emanated from her, lasting only a split second before she regained control and it turned to fury, but long enough that he sensed it.

  “No,” she snapped, her eyes wild. “That was not part of the deal. I will get the item. Leave him out of this.”

  “It is a nice try, but we have been watching you, Iolanthe. I am always watching you. I know what he is… and I will make him watch while I make you mine… and then I will kill him.”

  The male smiled coldly.

  Kyter opened his mouth to roar at the bastard but ended up screaming as pain ripped up his leg again. He fell onto his side, breathing hard through gritted teeth as he fought the fresh waves of agony burning through him, threatening to render him unconscious. He couldn’t leave Iolanthe alone to face these men. He had to protect her. His heart laboured and his head swam as he fought the pain, battling through it, determined to remain with his mate. She needed him.

  When it had subsided enough for his senses to come back online, he opened his eyes and sought the men, fearing they would have hurt Iolanthe while he had been fighting for consciousness.

  They were gone.

  He was free of his bonds too.

  He panted hard, struggling to tamp down the throbbing in his ankle and gain control over his emotions. They were too powerful, colliding and fusing together inside him, a mixture of fury and fear. His jaguar side stirred and prowled beneath his skin, caged by his injury, raw with rage. He wouldn’t let the dark-haired male or his master anywhere near Iolanthe.

  He wouldn’t let her fail.

  Now he understood why she hadn’t wanted to talk about her client. The one they had referred to as Fernandez was the master of powerful and dangerous men, and that meant he was even more powerful and dangerous than they were. Now he understood why this wasn’t a game to her either.

  If she failed to find the artefact, her life was forfeit, and he had the impression that her death wouldn’t be swift. It would be torturous and she would be begging for death by the time the fiends were done with her.

  The thought of Iolanthe suffering at the hands of the dark-haired male, the thought of her dying, almost did him in. He had just found her, but his need to protect her was fierce, driving him forwards and giving him the strength he needed to face his enemies.

  If they failed to locate the item that could summon Barafnir, Kyter would find a way to protect her from her client and his twisted goons. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

  She stood firm before him, steady and unwavering, her eyes fixed straight ahead.

  His brave female.

  The colour drained from her face, turning her skin the colour of moonlight, and she collapsed to her knees, pressing one hand into the stone flags.

  Kyter instantly shoved onto his feet and limped to her, hesitating only long enough to consider that he was asking for her to lash out at him before deciding that he would take the blows she needed to deal if he could give her just a sliver of comfort and hope. He kneeled, gritting his teeth against the pain, and pulled her into his arms.

  She trembled against his bare chest, her breathing ragged and fast, her fear flowing over him. Strong now. He could easily sense it in her. She had bottled it up and concealed it, and she had done her best to face the monsters her client had sent after her, but now it was flowing out of her, and it made him want to growl. He wanted to hold her close and never let her go. He wanted to make everything better somehow.

  She nuzzled his chest, her short nails pressing into his bare flesh, her trembling growing worse.

  Thunder rolled in the distance and the sky grew dark. The scent of rain filled the air. The temperature dropped.

  Iolanthe remained pressed against him.

  Kyter stayed where he was, holding her as the rain began to fall, hammering against his bare back and the dusty ground, mixing his blood with the dirt. The wind picked up and the swaying of the trees and the pounding rain covered the sound of her breaths as they grew rougher.

  The rain was cold against his shoulders and scalp.

  Her tears were hot against his chest.

  He clutched her closer to him, a tidal wave of emotions rocking him, threatening to rip him apart inside. Desire to hunt down her client and the male who had dared to lay his hands on her was strong, compelling him to rise to his feet and demand that she tell him where they were so he could take them down. Desire to comfort her kept him where he was though, his instincts commanding him to shelter her in his arms and hold her, to give her what she needed.

  He ached as she trembled against him, such a contrast to the steady, strong and fearless woman he had come to kn
ow.

  He slowly grew aware of their location as the storm closed in and how vulnerable they were out in the open. He needed to get her back to his villa and dried off, and then see to his wound. After that, they could find the item she needed. They knew where to go now. She still had time to find it and get it to her client.

  As much as he wanted to avenge his mother and make his father pay, he wouldn’t do it at the cost of his mate’s life. She was more important to him.

  “We should move. You’ll get cold,” he whispered.

  Her shoulders stilled and then she was out of his arms, faster than he could track. She stood at the altar with her back to him. The rain glistened on her black armour and dripped from the end of the silver spike that held her dark hair twirled at the back of her head.

  She inhaled deeply and thunder rolled overhead, the lightning striking nearby.

  Iolanthe turned cold eyes on him.

  “Leave,” she said and he frowned at her, sure that he had heard her wrong. “Leave.”

  Fear was an acrid note in her normally soothing scent and it flickered in the depths of her eyes too.

  He shook his head. “I can’t do that.”

  Pain briefly danced in her eyes and echoed in his heart. He knew what she was doing, but he wouldn’t let her do it. She snarled and hissed at him, baring her fangs as her black blade reappeared in her hand. She pointed it at him and the tip wavered.

  His beautiful female.

  She was hurting herself.

  “The deal is off.” She straightened her arm but it didn’t stop her blade from shaking. “If you try to locate the artefact… if you come after me… you will leave me no choice. I will kill you.”

  Her purple eyes turned wild and she looked more like a feral beast than he ever had. She was cornered and dangerous.

  She was hurting.

  She feared for her life, and she feared for his too.

  Kyter grimaced and grunted as he slowly got onto his feet, keeping his weight off his right leg as much as possible. White-hot fire streaked down the back of it but he ignored it and continued. He rose to his full height and looked her straight in the eye.

  “I know… but I still can’t do it, Iolanthe.”

  He knew that she couldn’t do it either. She wanted to protect him and now he could see that she had been trying to protect him from the very beginning. She had kept trying to drive him away by threatening him. She had been desperate to keep him away from the group who were watching her, a dangerous band of males, and he had been too stubborn to notice that she was trying to protect him.

  Kyter held his hand out to her. “We have four days. We know where to look. We can find the item, Iolanthe.”

  Tears lined her black lashes as she stared at him, her violet eyes overflowing with pain and fear that he wanted to ease.

  He hopped a step towards her.

  She shook her head.

  “We can do this… together.” He stretched for her, desperate for her to take his hand.

  She bit out something vicious-sounding in her elf tongue.

  “I cannot.” She backed off a step and shook her head again, causing tears to spill down her cheeks and mingle with the rain on them. “I… I am sorry, Kyter.”

  Green-purple light flashed over her body.

  Kyter launched himself at her, screaming as his leg gave out and pain burned through him. He pushed through it and reached for her arm, determined to catch it before she teleported.

  She disappeared, leaving him flailing at thin air.

  He landed face down on the cold wet stones, rolled onto his back and arched off the slabs as he roared, unleashing every drop of his fury and all of his fear in a feral noise that rivalled the thunder.

  He couldn’t do as she asked.

  He couldn’t let her go alone.

  There was no point in saving himself if it meant losing her.

  He collapsed against the wet flagstones, closed his eyes, bared his clenched fangs and pulled down a deep breath, drawing it over his teeth. Her scent lingered among the smells of the earth and the rain. He could track her, but only if he could find out where she had gone.

  He hauled himself onto his hands and knees and looked across the inner temple to the scattered coins and medallions. The one she had studied was there, laying on the wet mud with the others.

  His next clue.

  His only hope of saving her.

  He crawled over to it, picked up the medallion and rubbed his thumb across the dirty wet surface, revealing the jagged peaks she had said were near the Devil’s domain.

  He was going to need a little help from a friend.

  He needed someone familiar with Hell.

  He had just the guy for the job.

  CHAPTER 19

  Iolanthe landed in a remote region of Hell, at the border with the Devil’s domain, a short distance from her destination. She stood on a plateau across the black valley from the mountains, her heart on fire in her chest, burning with a need to return to Kyter and with the pain of leaving him behind.

  She’d had to do it.

  She knew she had hurt him by leaving him, but it was the only way of protecting him and she needed to protect him. Her life was already on the line. She refused to put his on the line too.

  She could do this alone, and perhaps she could save both of them.

  He would be coming for her though. His wound would slow him down. Even if he bound it, he would need at least half a day to a day to heal it enough for him to move from his current location. Once he was on the move, he would need to find a way of entering Hell. It would take him time to find that pathway, and even longer to locate her.

  She had time. She could put an end to this before Kyter could reach her. All she had to do was locate the artefact.

  It was waiting for her just a brief teleport away.

  The black mountains were dangerous, but she had discovered a route into them during her first job as a treasure hunter. Deep within one there was a cavern that had contained countless treasures. She had only taken the item she had been tasked to find. The rest were possibly still there.

  She could get the artefact and hand it over to Fernandez, and then his guild of assassins would leave Kyter alone.

  But Kyter wouldn’t get his revenge.

  She looked up at the jagged black peaks that towered ahead of her, a formidable sight against the dark sky beyond them.

  Kyter needed his revenge.

  It was more than important to him. It was vital.

  The hunger to avenge his mother and his kin, and make the demon who had fathered him pay, consumed him and drove him, a relentless urge that he wouldn’t be able to extinguish. If he didn’t get this chance, he would probably go after the artefact. He would go after the assassins.

  Those assassins would kill him.

  She gritted her teeth and glared at the mountains.

  There had to be a way for everyone to get what they wanted. Kyter had wanted to use the artefact to summon his father before handing it over to the assassins. Could she still do that? She could summon Barafnir and uncover the location of his home in the Devil’s domain, and then hand the artefact over to Fernandez. Afterwards, she could return to Kyter and tell him where to find his father.

  Surely all parties would be satisfied then?

  Kyter would have to be satisfied with it, and with her accompanying him into the Devil’s domain. The demons there were more than powerful. They made the assassins that had come after her tonight look like kittens. There was no way she would allow him to go alone. He would try to stop her but she would fight him on it, because he would need strong people at his side to survive long enough in that realm to find his father.

  Iolanthe focused on a point close to six hundred metres below the peak of the tallest mountain, in the middle of the range. Light traced over her body and she disappeared into the dark, reappearing on a broad deep ledge at the mouth of a crack in the black rock. The crack was barely half a metre at its wide
st point near the base, but she could easily squeeze through it. She couldn’t teleport until she was on the other side, able to see whether any changes had taken place to the interior of the mountain. She couldn’t risk teleporting to the cavern where the treasure was either. If it had caved in, she would reappear within the rock.

  It would kill her.

  She crouched and then shifted onto her hands and knees, and crawled through the widest part of the crack. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness but not enough for her to see clearly. The crack narrowed and she turned onto her side and reached ahead of her, grasping the rocks to pull herself through and sliding along the rough ground.

  The air grew thick and stale as she left the outside world behind. She grimaced at the stench. Something had crawled into the hole at some point and had evidently failed to make it out. She pushed onwards, not wanting to think about what she would find when she made it past the crack and into the tunnel.

  The end finally appeared in sight and she hauled herself towards it. The hole grew wider again, allowing her to move back onto her hands and knees and crawl. The rocks beneath her stabbed into her palms and knees through her armour. It protected her from being cut, but it didn’t stop her from being jabbed by things. It just meant she ended up bruised rather than bleeding.

  Iolanthe crawled out into the tunnel, sat back on her knees, and teleported a battery-operated lantern to her. She fumbled with it, found the switch, and flinched as it powered up. Light chased the shadows from the wide tunnel that had been cut out of the rock. Deep grooves slashed down the black walls in places, always four of them in line with each other. They were as thick as her wrists, spaced around half a metre apart.

  They had long since moved on from this part of Hell, but one had made this place many centuries before she had come here, carving a home out of the black rock.

  She had met dragons before.

  One had captured her when she had tried to sneak through their village, looking for a dragon egg made of gold. Two had then fought over her, desiring her as their mate. She had used the pandemonium caused by their battle to escape.