Animal Instincts (Entangled Ignite)

by Patricia Rosemoor

  Though his mother hid it well, Luc knew her pulse was racing, and she was having trouble breathing.

  “That’s enough, Connelly,” Luc said. “Time for you to leave. My mother needs her rest.”

  “Is that right?” Connelly looked directly to her for an answer.

  “I’m not feeling myself yet.” But she somehow forced out another smile. “But I will call if I remember anything.”

  Connelly got to his feet. “I’m hoping that’ll be sooner rather than later.” He shot another look at Luc, and his tone darkened when he muttered, “Lazare,” before heading for the door.

  How much did he remember? Though Luc had done his damnedest to wipe the man’s memory, Connelly was one of those anomalies who didn’t conform to the usual casino customer, and Luc couldn’t be sure if his work held on the man. Right now, the cop was nearly impossible to read. He put up some kind of mental barrier, undoubtedly the reason he’d been so successfully resistant.

  Luc wondered if that made Connelly something else, too, only he couldn’t figure out what that might be.

  “Oh, dear. Thank goodness he’s gone.”

  “Mom, maybe you should go upstairs and rest.”

  “I don’t need to rest. I need answers. I fear for you and your father.”

  Just like her to worry about everyone else. “You know I can take care of myself.” And as she well knew, Pop could take care of anyone who got out of line even more efficiently than he could. “And I’m going to find out who is responsible.”

  “With the sister?”

  “With her.”

  “Are you certain that’s not a mistake?”

  “Not certain at all.” Considering the way Skye affected him every time she was near him, Luc knew he should stay away from her for both their sakes. “But she may know something that’ll help me. Besides, if I don’t rein her in, she’ll get herself into even more trouble.”

  “You like her.”

  “I owe her.”

  His mother shook her head. “It’s more than that. I know my son.”

  Did she? Luc doubted it. Mom would always think the best of him. Even when he didn’t deserve it. She had no true idea of what had gone on during his time in Iraq—the monster he’d become to survive when his team had been caught in an ambush and the others had been brutally killed. He’d nearly lost his mind then and had used every bit of his Kindred inheritance to reciprocate. And he had always regretted his loss of control.

  The security guard he’d called from the casino arrived via the rear door. Luc nodded to him before he hugged his mother.

  “I need to get going. You’ll be well protected with Franco watching over you.”

  His mother hugged him back, one-armed, holding on to him longer than usual. “Don’t take any foolish chances.”

  He kissed the top of her head. “Of course not,” he lied. He would do anything, put himself in any harm’s way, to protect her.

  Just as he now would protect Skye with his own life.

  Leaving the house, he climbed into his black Jaguar and eased it around the circular drive and out onto the street.

  He did like Skye Cross. He hadn’t wanted to admit as much, but it wasn’t only sexual. She was fierce and soft and tenacious and brave, unexpected nuances he admired. That was the problem. He shouldn’t like her. She was human. Well, mostly, anyway, and the other part that she was discovering about herself was the antithesis to everything that was his father’s heritage. Plus, she couldn’t possibly understand what he’d been through. She hadn’t been raised with questions and choices bombarding her every time she turned around. She’d at least thought she’d known what she was about. Until now.

  Now she knew she was something else, he thought. What was she going to do about it?

  What was he going to do about his own situation?

  Though he had passed puberty half a lifetime ago, though he’d been tested beyond endurance during the war, he still hadn’t chosen which world he truly belonged to, his very lack of decision keeping the Kindred at bay. The others treated him with respect because of Pop, and because instinctively they knew he could be more dangerous than they ever thought to be. But other than Pop and Nuala—and Jez, before she’d been so brutally slaughtered—they didn’t welcome him into their world. Not even his own brother. Nik probably wouldn’t waste a thought for him if he simply disappeared and never came back. It hadn’t always been that way, but Luc wasn’t foolish enough to think that he and Nik could go back in time and be friends again. Once Luc had wanted to do everything Nik did, wanted to be everything Nik was. But they weren’t children anymore.

  Truthfully, Nik worried him. He’d asked his brother outright if he was running the shifter fights and Nik had avoided answering. Because he’d wanted to make Luc sweat or because he was guilty?

  Luc still couldn’t believe Jez had been forced to fight to the death. Sweet, caring Jez, who had been his only childhood friend and staunch ally growing up in his father’s world. She’d been an anomaly, too, if in the other direction from a human predator like Connelly. She hadn’t deserved what she’d been put through.

  It all had to be connected. The shifter fights. Jez. Shade. His mother.

  His biggest fear was that it all led back to him somehow.

  And that he wouldn’t be able to stop the next death.

  …

  Luc had told me it would be a couple of hours before he’d pick me up, but I was so anxious to get started that I was on my last nerve by the time he arrived. I’d changed out of that damn dress into beige cargo pants and a high-necked T-shirt that he couldn’t make a big deal over. He didn’t ring the bell or honk the horn. I simply knew he was on the street waiting for me.

  Shade/Boomer pressed up against me as I looked out the window. I’m not liking this.

  “Which part?” I returned, as I stuffed my cell phone in one pocket, wallet in the other. Not knowing what exactly we would be doing, I wasn’t about to encumber myself with some kind of bag I had to keep track of.

  You going off with him. Alone.

  I crouched down and gave him a big hug. “I know you want to protect me because you’ve been doing it all our lives. It’s my turn now.”

  He gave me a doggy grunt in return. I kissed his head and stood, grabbed my keys, and made for the door where Phantom, Peach, and Dreamer were lined up watching me with sad faces. They’d gotten so little of my attention in the past days that they didn’t want to let me out of their sight.

  Patting each of the cats, I turned to Shade. “Do me a favor and keep the cats company, would you?”

  Sure.

  A minute later I was on the street and climbing into the black Jaguar, while trying to keep Luc from having any effect on me.

  Like that was going to work. One look from those silver-gray eyes had me forcing myself to breathe normally. One look shattered every nerve. My hand shook slightly as I futzed with the seat belt. The moment I buckled in, Luc took off and sped around a couple of corners.

  I asked, “Do you really think someone at the casino will talk?”

  “Maybe. To you.”

  “Why would one of your people tell me anything?”

  “Because you tried to save his life a few nights ago.”

  Frowning, I was about to ask him to explain when it came to me. “The coyote?”

  “His name is Hank. He’s in the habitat and should be fully recovered by now.”

  Okay, a weird chill shot straight up my spine. A coyote named Hank. And Luc thought he would talk to me. Literally?

  “Why haven’t you spoken to him?” I asked.

  “Maybe he wouldn’t tell me anything.”

  “Why not?”

  “Good question.”

  One he apparently wasn’t going to answer. But it set up a whole bunch more questions in my mind about Luc and his relationship to the people—or creatures—that were part of his father’s world. Perhaps Luc wasn’t as much a part of that world as I had previously thought.


  “So, if he hadn’t made it,” I said, “what would have happened to Hank?”

  “He would have died.”

  “Then someone would have found a dead coyote on the street?” Or would it have been the body of yet another person torn up by a wild animal?

  Again, he didn’t answer. And I realized he’d never answered the question I’d put to his mother either, about him and Cezar being shape-shifters. He’d told me to ask him, but the conversation had taken a different turn and I never had. Being taken away from my familiar world, now I feared the answer.

  I was still ruminating on it a short while later, though, when we entered the casino and made our way down to the tunnel and past the security guard stationed at the entrance to the private area. As we entered, several employees spoke to Luc or nodded politely, but with my bullshit antenna up, I realized it was all surface. As if no one authentically cared about what Luc thought or felt other than for their own purposes.

  He led me past the slot machines and along the habitat glass walls to a back corridor. “We get inside this way.”

  Following him, I tried to breathe normally, but instinct made my pulse kick up and my stomach swirl. How could I forget the aftermath of that first fight, surrounded by predators who’d thought I looked like I’d make a nice snack?

  “Don’t worry, they wouldn’t dare touch you.”

  Great. Luc was reading me again. I made a note to self: be careful what I thought around him. “So the predators that threatened me are here, too.”

  “I don’t keep a log of who is on what shift, but yeah, chances are they’re around.”

  And no matter what they thought of Luc, they took orders from him. They’d backed off the moment he’d ordered them to. That should make me feel better.

  We were now in a corridor with glass pane walls, behind which were areas with different terrains. Luc stopped in front of what looked like a high desert area with sandy earth, rocky hills, and lots of dark-green plants. Movement immediately caught my eye when a large rattlesnake slithered over a rock and disappeared. And unless I was imaging things, a bobcat lay atop a small mesa looking down on us.

  Shivering despite the heat, I asked, “How big is this place?”

  “How big do you want it to be?”

  “I can make it change size?”

  “Size. Shape. Appearance. You can create your own reality in here.”

  “How does that work exactly?”

  “You’d have to ask my father.”

  If I was lucky, I wouldn’t have to so much as meet his father and certainly not be obligated to ask him anything. Though I had to admit to a good deal of curiosity about Luc’s not-exactly-human parent, I could do without Cezar Lazare making my life more difficult, which I was certain he would do.

  Luc indicated the area before him. “Hank’s in here.”

  I didn’t see a door. Luc edged forward into the glass that shimmered around him as he stepped through to the other side. My pulse rushed, sending an electrical charge through me. I couldn’t make myself move until Luc turned and gave me a look as if asking me what I was waiting for. Holding my breath and ignoring my fears, I followed. The glass seemed to swim around me like water. And then I was inside, and I could breathe again.

  Luc didn’t seem to notice that I was a little wonky from the experience. Every moment in the casino was a new experience. He was already headed across the desert floor, weaving through creosote and mesquite and cactus toward the sound of high-pitched yips and yelps. Not wanting to be left behind, I scurried to catch up to him.

  “What now?” I asked. “Where are we headed?”

  He pointed to what looked like a small woodland of piñon and juniper trees in the distance. How big was this place? If it could be as big as I wanted, could it also be as small? I closed the distance in my mind and we were suddenly at the wood’s edge.

  Hank, where are you?

  If Luc called the coyote with his mind, then that’s probably how we would have to communicate.

  “Not necessarily,” Luc said aloud. Hank, you have a visitor.

  Visitor? Me?

  I saw a bit of tawny-colored fur move from behind a piñon tree.

  “C’mon out,” I said. The coyote should recognize my voice from the shifter fight the other night. “I won’t hurt you.”

  He sidled out, long forelegs gangly, and gave me a sideways look out of leery golden eyes. Probably about Boomer’s size, I thought, though much scrawnier.

  You remember the woman who tried to help you when you were hurt the other night.

  Um, yeah.

  She wants to talk to you.

  Hank didn’t respond and I got the idea he was considering his options. And that he wasn’t open to Luc. A frisson of something weird and uncomfortable filled the space between them. Almost as if Hank didn’t trust Luc for some reason.

  Finally, I heard, A minute, after which the coyote slid back into the forest, his black dorsal stripe quickly blending with the shadows.

  “What’s going on?” I asked Luc.

  “He’s preparing himself.”

  Whatever that meant. A minute turned into two and then into three. Luc stood so silent and still it was as if I were there alone. Almost.

  Then from behind the curtain of trees stepped a tawny-haired, scrawny man dressed in khakis and a matching T-shirt.

  “Hank?” I gasped past whatever was lodged in my throat.

  He nodded.

  So I’d been correct. They were shape-shifters.

  Even though I’d known it on some level, it was enough to knock the stuffing out of me. Again, I was speechless. I could only be glad that I hadn’t had to watch. As it was, it took everything I had to get past the fact and concentrate on my reason for being here.

  We sized up each other for a moment. I swallowed hard, then gave Luc a quick glance and was startled when I realized he’d silently moved several yards away. To give us privacy? Or because Hank wouldn’t talk with him so close? Either way, it was up to me, then. “Um, thanks for what you did, okay?” Hank mumbled.

  “Okay,” I said cautiously.

  “I would’ve bled out.”

  “I didn’t exactly do anything—”

  “You got the vet. You tried to see that I was okay and got yourself into trouble.”

  So he’d known, even though he’d disappeared into the night. “It was the least I could do. I can’t stand seeing an animal hurt.” Frowning, I wondered if he’d take exception at being called an animal, but he didn’t comment, so I asked, “Who hurt you?”

  “Ramon. The wild dog.”

  “That’s not what I meant. It wasn’t Ramon’s fault. He didn’t want to fight you. He wasn’t responsible for the fight. Who was?”

  “Don’t know.”

  Wishing Luc would cue me as Shade had done when interrogating Elizabeth Reyes that afternoon, I reached for something to say. “What do you know?”

  Silence.

  I took a big breath. This was my moment. If I passed it up, I might never get another chance, so I went for it. “Look, this is of utmost importance to me. And to you and others like you. My brother was murdered because he was trying to stop the shifter fights.”

  Hank’s attention snapped back on me. “Stop them how?”

  “The way he knew how. Legally. Shade was a cop. You’re lucky you weren’t killed like others were. Three we know of so far.”

  Jez.

  I flicked a look in Luc’s direction. I’d gotten the distinct feeling he’d meant to stay out of this, but apparently one of the victims meant enough to him that he couldn’t help himself.

  “Jez,” Hank murmured aloud. “No reason to kill her. She was no threat.”

  “No threat to whom?” Was Hank a threat? “To what?”

  “No one. Nothing. Look, I don’t know who’s running these things. I was drugged, so I have no idea of who took me or set me up. They gave me something to make me fight, but then everything happened so fast, I don’t remember an
ything but trying not to get ripped apart.” He put a hand to his side where he’d almost bled out. “And you trying to help me.”

  He might not have names to give me, but he knew something. I sensed it in the way his body altered slightly, his limbs tightening, his head drooping lower. Tension racked him and he was trying not to show it. He was disappearing inside himself, probably where he was most comfortable. Not exactly what I’d been expecting from one of his kind.

  “Please.” I caught his gaze and held it. “If you want the shifter fights to stop, you have to help me now. Believe that I’ll do everything in my power to try to get them stopped permanently.”

  Hank stared at me for a moment before I felt him attempting to slide inside my head the way Luc kept trying to do. Knowing it was the only way he would truly know and trust me, I allowed it. I quieted my mind and waited for him to make a full sweep, kept telling myself not to freak out as he checked all the corners in fits and starts. Then suddenly he was out, and the force of his exit left me swaying.

  I was rediscovering my center when Hank said, “I believe you.”

  A good start. I pulled myself together. “Then tell me what you know, Hank. Anything.”

  He glanced at Luc, and his jaw tightened for a moment as if he was trying to decide whether to trust him before saying, “I know where the next fight is going to be staged.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Having almost been killed had made Hank into one wily coyote. Determined to be a survivor, he’d called in favors all over the complex until he’d gotten that one kernel of information: the next shifter fight was to be held that night in a west side building that had been abandoned for years.

  I didn’t know what Hank had planned to do with that intel, but it was now Luc’s and my destination.

  Twilight had settled over the lakefront, and the wind picked up as we beat a path to Luc’s Jaguar. The sky overhead swarmed with dark clouds and rumbled with what seemed to be some heinous message.

  Of what? Approaching danger?

  No shit.

  Or maybe it was going to rain despite the meteorologists’ predictions for a perfect evening. I saw what was coming as anything but.