by Nina Bangs
There was one comment she felt safe making. “Rushing in to save those people in the car took guts.”
Ty threw her a puzzled look. “I wasn’t trying to save anyone.”
Uh-oh. Maybe she didn’t want to hear this. But she couldn’t drive with her hands over her ears.
“I was there for the hunt. Too bad you interrupted.” He smiled again. “I could like Texas. A lot.”
His smile sent icy worms slithering and wiggling down her spine. Okay, small talk done for the night. They didn’t exchange any more conversation for the rest of the trip. He seemed fascinated with Houston, and she didn’t try to distract him.
By the time she turned off Memorial Drive and stopped at the front entrance to Fin’s high-rise condo, her muscles ached from tension. She nodded toward the door, where someone was already headed their way. “That man will make sure you get up to Fin’s condo.” She watched Ty climb from the car, then turn to stare back at her. “I’ll wait for you.”
Tonight as she lay in bed, she’d have to come to terms with her feelings. She couldn’t let phantom fears derail her plans to get her degree. And the sexual thing that was totally not her? That was a curiosity she needed to lay to rest.
She worked up a real smile for him. “I’ll see you in a few hours.” She’d end this on a light note. He wouldn’t want someone around him who radiated fear every time he looked at her. “And I’ll be ready to drive you to hell and back if you need me.”
His expression gave nothing away. “Remember that promise.” And then he strode away.
When would this freaky night be over? She’d park the car in the underground garage, take the elevator up to the condo’s lounge, where she could get some caffeine in her system, and wait until he needed her.
A short time later, she settled onto a leather couch with her cup of coffee and one of the books strewn around the lounge. A serial-killer mystery. Good. She needed something simple and ordinary to calm her down.
Chapter Two
Ty closed his eyes as he leaned against the elevator wall. He’d spent too much time in confined spaces during the last few million years. Fin had done his mental show-and-tell act to explain planes, cars, and elevators, but knowing something was a long way from living it.
On top of that, he could feel his aggression level punching through the roof. He wanted to kill something. Fin had warned him about this. Ty would never be able to stay close to Fin for any length of time without snapping that slender thread holding him to the human world. Something about Fin fed the animal in him. Good in a fight. Bad when he was trying to fit into this time, this place.
Could he make it work? Ramp up the need to hunt, the need for mindless savagery, the need for sex, and what you had was a walking disaster ready to blow.
The sex thing could be an immediate problem. Maybe Fin should get a male driver for him. If he hadn’t jumped from the car in search of prey, Kelly Maloy might’ve had a first night on the job she’d never forget. He allowed himself a smile born of all his deprived hungers rolled into one baring of the teeth. No, forget the male driver. He’d keep the small blonde with the big brown eyes and hot body.
The elevator doors slid open, stopping all conjecture about sexy drivers. He scanned the open area for danger before stepping out. Empty. No place for another predator to hide.
The pale walls, absence of windows, and white tile floor made him uneasy. It was alien, enclosed, and as the elevator doors slid shut, felt like a trap. The building’s strangeness made him want to roar and tear holes in things. He tightened his control, but still his need to strike out strangled him, made his breaths come in hard gasps.
There was only one door in the opposite wall. He took the seven strides necessary to reach it, then waited. Fin knew he was there.
The door opened.
There were three of them. A few inches shorter than he with lean, muscled bodies created for speed. They all looked the same—short spiky blond hair, bright blue eyes, and hard faces.
Nothing like him except for one thing. They all watched him from predators’ eyes that gleamed with challenge. They smiled.
Ty returned the smile, making sure they understood he was the biggest badass in this particular cave. “Three of you to take me down? Not impressed.” Go ahead, push me so I can kill you.
Two of them stopped smiling. The third laughed and stepped forward. “Nah. One to take you down and two to watch.” Behind his grin and cold eyes, the man assessed Ty. Any weakness would be noted and stored away to be exploited later.
This guy was fighting the same battle as Ty. His need to destroy lived in his eyes. He controlled it, though. Barely. Too bad.
As for weaknesses, he wouldn’t find any. But Ty would make sure he kept all three of them in front of him anyway. A hunting pack could do plenty of damage. “Want to move aside so I can come in.” It wasn’t a question.
Tension thrummed between them. Ty let it hum and build, enjoying the feel of it singing through his blood. He wanted a fight, needed it. And when the other man finally nodded and stepped aside, Ty felt bone-deep disappointment.
“I’m Utah.” The guy didn’t offer his hand. “These are my brothers.” He didn’t introduce them. “You’re the last one.”
Ty said nothing. He waited for the three brothers to go into the room ahead of him. Let another predator get behind you often enough and you ended up missing body parts.
Respect touched Utah’s eyes for the first time. Glancing at his brothers, he did some silent communicating. They led Ty inside.
Ty ignored the marble staircase along with everything else meant to distract as he scanned his surroundings for danger or prey. Only when Utah and his silent brothers led him into a large room did he stop his search. He’d found the danger.
All the info Fin had crammed into his brain had given him a serious case of mental indigestion. But now his thinker burped out an immediate ID—dining room, entire wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, barrel ceiling covered with some kind of shiny metal, dim lighting coming from somewhere he couldn’t see, and stained-glass double doors probably leading to the kitchen. The walls were one giant mural—lots of trees, grassy fields, and glimpses of prey in the shadows. Color. Home.
He forced his gaze away from the mural and thoughts of home. Houston was his home now. The men sitting around a long table near the windows claimed his unblinking attention. Utah and his brothers took their places, and then everyone returned his stare.
Ten plus him. The Eleven. Together. In one room. It had never happened. Ever. In the past, Fin had kept them far apart from one another, from him. Fin’s psychic link had been their only connection. Ty didn’t know the faces or the men behind them. He took the last seat, between a guy in a suit and one wearing a black duster with his hair in a long braid that almost slapped his ass. Beneath the table, Ty curled his hands into claws. Control.
Then Ty watched everyone watch one another.
Silent aggression filled the room. Ty gathered himself in response to the unspoken threats bouncing back and forth. As the violence potential ratcheted up another notch with each passing second, he made his plans. He’d take out the guy with the duster first. After he grabbed that braid, he’d yank the man’s head back and slit his throat.
He hesitated. Problem. No sharp knife, just a dull-edged, useless piece of crap lying next to his spoon. Hell.
“No.”
The voice was soft, compelling, familiar. Not a voice he’d ever ignore. Everyone jerked his attention to the man at the head of the table.
Fin.
“I did not almost kill myself putting your sorry asses in the ground sixty-five million years ago for this. I did not monitor your safety for sixty-five million years for this. I did not drain myself yanking your aforementioned sorry asses out of the ground after sixty-five million years for this. You will respect one another.”
Fin’s voice was a weapon, each “not” a psychic punch to the side of Ty’s head. The final “will” was a
kick in the gut that almost doubled him over. Good thing Fin wasn’t seriously angry. Ty leaned back in his chair and gasped for air.
He cut his gaze to his neighbors to find they were doing the same thing. Ty closed his eyes and shoveled earth on his need for violence. Okay, fire banked for the time being. He opened his eyes.
“Where’d you get our bodies?” The guy asking the question was bigger than Ty, with a need-to-kill gleam in his eyes.
Ty smiled. He’d always hunted alone, but if Fin ordered them to team up, he wouldn’t mind partnering with this dude.
Fin scanned the table before answering. Probably checking to make sure lots of respecting was going on. “I rose last year. Then I searched for big male bodies.” His pause left the suggestion out there that maybe he should’ve looked for small female bodies.
Everyone sucked in a breath.
“I claimed the bodies right after their human souls turned out the lights, locked the doors, and went on permanent vacation.” Fin’s smile made even Ty shudder. “I’m good at breaking and entering.” He shrugged. “After that it was just a case of some minor tweaking. I gave you faces women would lust after so none of you could bitch about not getting laid. Every body’s in prime condition. Keep it that way.”
Fin stopped smiling. “Because here are the hard facts. If someone destroys your bright and shiny new human body, you’re down for the duration. Sure, your body can heal from most injuries, but you can’t grow a new head. So don’t lose it. Yes, I can yank your soul out of your body if it dies, but my power’s pretty much tied up right now. I’d have to tuck your soul away for safekeeping somewhere. Not the way you want to end up.”
Ty intended to hang on to his body. No way was he taking any more extended naps.
He looked around again. Yeah, Fin had gotten it right. He’d seen a lot of human males on his trip from Ireland, and the men around him were definite upgrades. Ty glanced back at Fin. “Man, you’re going to stand out in a crowd. Why’d you make yourself look like that?”
For just a moment, Fin lost his supreme-leader expression. He grinned. “Because I could.”
It wasn’t a case of could but should. All the others except Fin had hard faces, dangerous in a way that would make people think twice about fucking with them.
Fin’s look said, Come to me. Stay with me. Be awed and amazed by me.
His long silver hair fell over his shoulders and down his back. Not gray, but silver. Each strand sparkled in the dim light. His eyes were metallic silver rimmed in black with a hint of purple when you looked at them just right. Their cold brilliance was freaking weird if you asked Ty. Women would think his face was beautiful. Fin’s image promised that he was a benign god who never grew angry, never harmed. What a crock.
“You just hurt my feelings, Ty.” Fin’s eyes gleamed with wicked amusement.
“Yeah, well the guys we’re hunting won’t have any trouble finding you. They can just follow the glow in the sky.” Ty had stopped worrying about Fin rooting around in his thoughts a long time ago.
Fin smiled, a smile that turned all that beauty into something really terrifying. “Think of me as a big, shiny spider sitting in the middle of my superglue web. You guys are out there at the end of the web waving your arms and giving out invites to visit me.” His smile widened. “I eat visitors.”
Okay, that made Ty feel better. Fin was…Fin. He’d always drawn people to him, made them forget what he really was. But he took care of his own. Ty didn’t know how he knew this. He couldn’t remember ever seeing Fin’s physical body before, but somewhere he knew he had. When…?
“Don’t think about it, Ty. Keep focused on the enemy.” Fin wasn’t smiling anymore.
“How about filling us in on this enemy? We need details.” The guy with black hair across from Ty sounded like he thought all this talk was a bunch of crap. His expression said, Let’s get on with the good stuff.
Ty added his personal vote to that thought. He liked the man’s attitude. Ty took a moment to wonder what he’d been before. Not that it mattered. Now was what mattered.
“And why didn’t you warn us before you did your disconnect thing with our souls? I was in the middle of—”
Fin turned his gaze on the guy, and he shut up. “Dinner’s ready. I’ll answer questions while we eat.”
On cue, the double doors opened and a small man rolling a cart filled with food came through. Ty, along with all the others at the table, eyed the covered dishes and then the man, trying to decide which was dinner.
The man met their gazes and growled. Predator. Ty lost interest.
Fin narrowed his eyes. “This is getting old fast. You’re human. Act it. Get over the predator-prey thing. Here it’s all about friends or enemies. Greer is my chef. He’s otherkin. His soul’s other. Like us.” His mental message was, Not exactly.
Greer nodded, but his expression said he’d never turn his back to any of them. Smart man.
Ty watched as Greer put the uncovered dishes on the table. He forced himself to remember the how-to-eat-like-a-human lessons Fin had poured into his head along with everything else. He wanted to pounce on the steaks, drag them all onto his plate, and devour them before any of the others could try to take them away. He only took two. Ty ignored the potatoes and vegetables. Maybe he’d try them at another meal, but for now he wanted meat.
While Ty resisted the urge to abandon his knife and fork in favor of his fingers, he eyed the chef. “Great food. What are you, Greer?”
The chef almost smiled. “My soul is tiger.” His eyes said the men at the table might scare him witless, but a tiger didn’t cringe.
Ty nodded his approval.
Fin watched the chef return to the kitchen. “Ty’s experience tonight is worth mentioning.”
What experience? Ty paused in his eating.
“Houston isn’t a hotbed of otherkin, but from now on I’ll make sure any of them that come in contact with you guys have predator souls.” Fin glanced at Ty. “Steve won’t be coming back to work. By now he’s probably in Dallas. You were broadcasting your need to kill and get laid so loud, I almost reached for my earplugs. Oh, and right now Kelly is trying to figure out why you sent her into a panic and what her sudden craving for sex was all about.”
The other men at the table grinned. Fin didn’t. His stare wiped the smiles from their faces. “Here’s where everyone pays really close attention. Ty went hunting tonight.”
Everyone except Fin looked envious.
“When he found his prey, he got excited. His soul form bled through and scared the shit out of his intended prey. Luckily for everyone, Ty’s driver showed up and distracted him.” The glance he sent Ty wasn’t condemning. It just said, Don’t do this again.
“I don’t care how hard it is—start blending. You’re human. You’ll never be anything else again. I’ve done the last nifty body exchange I’ll do for a long time. So learn to fit in.” He left the or else unsaid.
Ty looked down the length of the table, met every man’s eyes. “Hell, all of you would’ve done the same thing.” Satisfied, he watched their gazes slide away from him.
“So would I.” Fin’s murmur silenced the table. No one moved; no one breathed.
Ty’s imagination couldn’t begin to wrap itself around what it would mean if Fin ever lost control. Death and destruction like the earth had never known. He’d seen it happen once. The thought took root and refused to budge. His memory was wrong, though. He’d never seen Fin before tonight. Then what…?
Fin fixed him with an unblinking stare. “Forget it.” Fin never raised his voice. He didn’t have to.
Ty frowned as the thought faded. It hadn’t made any sense anyway.
“We need to know what we’re facing.” The guy in the suit sitting next to Ty spoke up for the first time.
“Once I woke you, I had to decide what to tell you first. I chose to fill you in on the nitty-gritty day-to-day stuff.” Fin studied all of them. “I thought I’d have time to explain everything
else to you tonight. But it’s not going to happen. You’d tear each other apart long before I finished. I underestimated what being close to me would do to you.” He pushed his chair away from the table, rose, and strode to the wall of windows. Standing, he was about six eight.
Ty and the others joined him. Far below, the lights of Houston looked like some giant connect-the-dots picture. From Fin’s expression, Ty figured he wouldn’t like what the finished shape revealed. Fin’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “That’s your jungle down there, all the dark alleys and deserted streets. The hunting will be good.”
“And who’ll be hunting us?” Someone behind Ty voiced the question they all wanted to ask.
“The same beings that wiped us out sixty-five million years ago. Nine powerful immortals plus their leader, the granddaddy of them all.” Fin’s expression didn’t change, but his eyes gleamed cold and hard.
“Why?” the voice behind Ty asked for all of them.
“Because no one has ever said no to them. Until now. They’ve worked the absolute-power-corrupts-absolutely truth since the beginning of time. They foment destruction and chaos. It puts them in their happy place.” He curled his lips back from his teeth. “I’d like to put them in their dead place.”
“How do they make it happen?” Ty figured what had worked millions of years ago might not work now.
“They only target the dominant life form of the planet. They encourage evil, and if Earth isn’t harboring any intelligent evil at the time, they work up a few cataclysms. Sixty-five million years ago, it was an asteroid strike.”
“Why wait millions of years if they get such a kick out of it?” Ty raked his fingers through his hair. If he didn’t get action soon, he’d explode.
“They don’t have a choice. Earth’s life is measured in time periods. At the end of each period, a cosmic door opens and the bastards can return for a short time until the new period begins. They’re here now. And this time they plan to take out the whole human race.”