Max bolted out from underneath the table. “She was compromised,” he hissed, his tail poofing out like a damn feather duster. “I didn’t interfere. I saved her from that sea monster. More than I can say for you or any of those interlopers you sent to check on her.”
Shade crossed his arms, pointing at Max. But he addressed Sam. “So, their report was accurate. Kitty Boy did interfere with your assignment.”
Max rushed to Sam’s side, but he glared at Shade. “It’s true, vamp, and I’d do it again. In a heartbeat,” he growled. “Service document 789.2 of the HWB field manual states, if any supernatural is in harm’s way, every aid will come to them unobstructed afterward. I was well within my right to lend her aid. Where the hell were you when one of your best hunters was compromised?”
“Yeah, I got your latest text.” The vampire pulled back and glared at him.
“That’s right,” Max said. “Did you even read the damn manual?”
Sam gestured to him with an outstretched hand. “You’ve been texting him? From my phone?” she asked, her expression incredulous.
“What’s his problem?” Shade asked, shifting forward on the couch. “Has the furball shifted?”
Sam glanced down at him. “No, no, nothing like that. Max has become a little sensitive. Overprotective, maybe. I have no clue what’s going on, but I plan to schedule an appointment with the veterinarian.”
A smile twitched at the corner of Shade’s lips. Max caught it. Did he know? About the potential for him to shift into his true guardian form?
“Look. I know Max has been with you since you joined the HWB. If he’s ready to shift, I can help him. You know the drill. Hell, he knows more about what we do than some of our best hunters.”
“We don’t need your help. This is personal. It’s none of your concern,” Sam said. She paced the room, nervous, her movements jerky. Max stood his ground between her and Shade. Maybe she didn’t want him to shift.
“Oh, this is definitely my concern.” Shade got up, the chains on his leathers clinking. Max lowered his ears, crouched low, and snaked his tail around like a whip in a rhythmic motion.
“He’s one of Miss Daisy’s bastard offspring.”
“What would you know about it, Shade?” Sam said, her voice angry, and tense.
“I know plenty. Max is not the first shifter I’ve encountered. He was born in a witch’s house, right?”
With every word the vamp uttered, Max’s fury grew. He held it back, though. Shade could insult his parentage as much as he wanted, as long as he didn’t threaten Sam. With coiled muscles, and diamond-sharp claws halfway extended, he waited as Sam had asked him to.
Shade threw a hand in the air, gesturing at him. “He was probably even born the night of some damn full moon, right, Samantha? He’s what, about seven in human years? So that makes him about twenty-eight years old now, if he makes the move to the shift?”
Sam whipped around and glared at Shade, surprise glowing behind her blue eyes. “How’d you know that?”
Shade shrugged. “The virtue of immortality is you get to see a lot of strange shit along the way, baby. Let’s see if your little guardian can put some muscle where his whiny little growls are coming from.”
The bastard took a step toward Sam, and Max hissed, then wheeled around, ready to counter the vamp’s eerily fast moves. “Forgive me, Samantha. This is the only way I think I can force this situation out in the open,” Shade said.
Sam backed away from him, confusion clouding her eyes, but the vampire was on her in a blurred flash of motion.
Sam’s shriek blasted through Max, jolting his soul into guardian mode.
One second the vampire was all over Sam, wrapping her tight in his arms and stealing a full-mouthed kiss, and the next second, every fiber in Max’s body and mind willed the shift Miss Daisy had foretold.
Damn the consequences.
The transformation overtook him, and Max let it happen. His fur glimmered with fiery magic, and he twisted, and burned. He called on the power of his Egyptian ancestors, Ra, Isis, and Bast. Their magic crashed through his veins like a tsunami, and Max commanded the shift into his true guardian’s form.
Chapter 5
Sam
I POUNDED SHADE’S chest with my fists. He let me go, and we both turned to watch Max’s transformation.
“What the hell?” I gasped, stunned at the magic coalescing in the room. A whirlwind of pulsing, multicolored vibrations suspended my cat in midair, whipping my long hair all around me. Even Shade stood back and gawked in awe at the transformation. “Max! What’s wrong?” I screamed.
Max’s coat shimmered with an undulating glow, and he changed. His arms grew long, muscular, human-like, and his legs descended down to the hardwood floors until he stood upright.
Human feet and hands replaced Max’s paws. His head morphed from feline to pure human male, equipped with a square jaw, straight, perfect nose, and short, black hair that jutted up from his forehead, longer in the front, and shorter in the back. Whatever magic this was smelled odd, like the electricity heralding a thunderstorm.
His tufted cat ears disappeared. His whiskers dissolved into a dusting of a dark beard on the angles of his face. His neck, corded with muscle and effort, extended. His chest expanded into pure glorious honed human muscle leading down to a tight waist and hips. The shift looked painful, and his expression proved it. How the hell had this happened? “Max?”
His silky fur dissolved into a tight-fitting pair of black denim Levi’s leading down to the biggest, most perfect bare male feet I’d ever seen. As we watched, Max shifted fully into human form.
“No! This can’t be happening. I’m not ready for this!” I stumbled backward, disbelieving my own eyes.
Shade chuckled behind me. “Well, I’ll be damned. The little bastard’s got a pair of cajones after all.” He shoved me back behind him in a protective stance.
I tore away from Shade and blinked twice, my eyes burning from the supernatural energy of the transformation.
In my cat’s place stood a six-foot-seven perfect specimen of a human male, with the same blue-green eyes as the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Eyes I knew. Eyes I’d loved. Eyes I’d trusted for the past seven years. Eyes that had seen me naked at least a thousand times. My God, he was gorgeous.
My hands trembled. I edged around Shade to get a closer look. “Max . . .?”
Shade pulled me back, away from him, and restrained me. “Not so fast, Samantha. We don’t know what, or who we’re dealing with here. Some of his brothers went feral from the curse the first time they shifted. Let me go in first.”
Shade’s eye color went vamp-black, and he extended his fangs. He curled his hand toward Max. “Here kitty, kitty, kitty.”
“Touch her again, and you’re dead,” Max said, his deep human voice reverberating through the mansion. “She’s mine to protect.”
I lurched back out of their way, hearing his deep, human voice for the first time. His first words swore my protection, and the instinct to run to him engulfed me.
If I wasn’t so damn shocked, I might have swooned.
Shade looked Max up and down, and he shook his head. “Aww, hell, Kitty Boy. I expected you to be bigger, more menacing.”
Max flexed his right wrist, and three-inch claws burst forth through his fingertips. He blasted forward, and met Shade in the middle of the mansion’s living room. They engaged in a wrestle-hold, their arms locked together, then whipped into a fight sure to tear the billionaire’s house to shreds.
The two of them slung each other around the living room as if they were in a fight to the death. They landed on the coffee table, and it splintered into a zillion shards. Good God, they are gonna kill each other. “Stop,” I yelled, furious they were trying to hurt each other.
Neither listened.
&nb
sp; Whenever paranormal shit hits the proverbial fan, my left wrist tingled, and this testosterone-fest was definitely getting out of hand. In a burst of blue light, Atlantis leapt forward from my forearm, into my hands.
I clutched the seven-foot long crystal staff of the trident with the business end leveled directly at the two supernaturals. God, it was incredible watching them engage, and my pulse raced. It was like watching two rutting males fighting over a harem of females in a territorial display of manliness. Max had finally taken on the form I’d always wondered about, and secretly, I wanted him to win the fight.
When Shade caught him in a headlock, exposing his neck with its beating carotid to his sharp teeth, Max slashed open Shade’s forearm. The vampire scrunched his face in surprise. While Shade was bigger, and had more experience, Max could clearly hold his own. Hell yes, Max, kick his ass.
I lurched back, holding Atlantis’s power under control. Maybe I’d just let them fight this out. Not interfere. Get it out of their system. Shade couldn’t take it as a feral move—he’d called Max out to engage. Dear God, my familiar had just shifted into a strong, sexy man-thing.
Max slashed Shade’s thigh, destroying his leathers with those awesome claws, and Shade howled. He backed away from Max, who growled, “You’d best stay clear of what’s mine to guard, Fangman.”
How cool was that? I blanched, keeping out of their way, but circling to keep an open shot with my trident. Shade would heal, but I sure as hell wasn’t willing to give him the chance to add to Max’s supernatural abilities by changing him over to some freaky vampire-cat-guardian-shifter.
Max whipped up to standing, heaving in breaths, ready for Shade’s next advance.
Shade reared up to his full height, his eyes glowing deep violet. The change in his eyes usually meant one thing—he was going in for the kill. Would he kill Max? Was he surprised Max could injure him?
“Not on my watch, buddy.” I thrust Atlantis’s tines deep into Shade’s chest. It wasn’t a kill shot—I couldn’t do that to him, but there was no sense taking any chances. I resorted to a trick I’d used with vampires before, and willed Atlantis to manipulate the water molecules in the air to subdue him. Okay, so I iced his ass.
Three pulsing bolts of blue-light energy surged through Shade’s body, engulfing him in a crystalline, three-inch-thick coating of frost.
I called my trident, and Atlantis ricocheted back to me. I grasped Max’s bicep, and dragged him to the far side of the room, away from the vampire, away from danger.
Max
“LET ME GO!” Max jerked his arm away. He turned to face Shade, heaving in air, his body coiled tight, his fists clenched. “I don’t trust him.”
“Are you okay?” Sam asked, checking his neck for injuries, her voice frantic.
“I’m fine. I warned you about him. He’s dangerous. Not to be trusted.” Max clasped her hands and turned to gaze across the room at the pillar of vampire on ice. “How long will that last?”
“Not long. I’ve never seen him go off like that. I can’t exactly keep Shade frozen forever. Damn. I think he kissed me to force you to shift.”
“It worked. I’ll never tolerate another supernatural putting his hands on you.” He searched her eyes for an answer to some unasked question. She pulled her hands away. She backed up a few steps, staring at him in wonder. Or was that confusion?
Was he okay? He stretched his arms out, turned his hands over and stared at them. They looked normal—well, human normal, that was, except for the sharp metal claws. He stared down at his chest, his abdomen, and then down to his long legs and bare feet. He flexed his knees, then spread his legs in a wider stance. He wasn’t used to the view from way up here.
The black jeans felt confining against his brand-new skin. How did humans tolerate clothes?
Sam hovered in the periphery, staring at him, speechless. He glanced into her eyes. “Weird, huh?”
She bobbed her head, her expression startled. Atlantis fell to the floor with a ting.
He gestured to his body. “Am I tall?”
Again, she bobbed her head in affirmation. Tall was a good thing, a coveted human trait. She hadn’t spoken. What was wrong with her? And then he realized that, like Captain Tom from the charter boat, she was freaking out.
Satisfied Shade wasn’t moving anytime soon, Max took a step toward her. He retracted his three-inch claws, and clasped her face in his hands. With trembling fingertips, he searched over her body. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
She sucked in air deep into her lungs as he caressed her arms, and ran his hands down her shoulders, and across her hands. He checked her stomach, and then her legs. His touch pulsed with anticipation, and even though he knew her body well because they’d lived together so long, touching her with these new fingertips made his heart pound.
Finally she spoke. “No. I’m . . . I’m fine . . .”
She reached out and caressed his face. “Look at you. Oh, my God, Max, look at you. You’re beautiful.”
Beautiful was a nice compliment, but not exactly what he’d been hoping for. Not to be outdone by the vampire, he embraced her face with his hands, and tugged her in closer. All the years of pent-up unnerving attraction pushed him to act. He searched Sam’s blue eyes, and thought he saw a million questions running behind them, but he ignored them and crushed his lips down on hers.
Her lips were soft, and sweet, and even though he’d surprised her at first, she responded with a hunger that told him, on a primitive level, that nothing else would ever matter except this. This kiss. This perfect, amazing, soul-grazing kiss.
For one single second in time, his world was totally right, and he allowed himself to get lost in their first kiss.
Sam
MAX PULLED AWAY and we both stood there, forehead-to-forehead, clutching each other in a frantic embrace. My brain hadn’t had a chance to process what this change meant. Had my cat just kissed me? Awkward. But, wait a damn minute. He wasn’t a cat anymore.
I pulled away and stared up at him. He was big, with tightly honed muscles everywhere, and handsome as hell.
Sharp angled planes defined his face. With that strong jaw, he looked like an aristocrat. His skin was caramel, like he’d tanned himself under the desert sun. I was stunned at how beautiful he was.
The shock and afterglow of his kiss had fundamentally changed our relationship.
It was awkward, all right.
For a second, I forgot all about my fear of losing him to the HWB.
Maybe I needed to revisit my rule of never mixing with other supernaturals, because my damn heart raced when I saw raw hooded passion in his eyes, staring right back at me, tempting me to touch him. I traced his face with my fingers, my thumb hesitating as it brushed his bottom lip. I wanted those pouty lips back on mine, but there was no way in hell this was ever gonna work.
“Do you regret it?”
Was he talking about the kiss? Maybe . . .
“That I shifted?” he asked, narrowing his brows.
I sucked in a tight breath. This day had gone from bizarre to downright chaotic, and I wasn’t sure what I was feeling. “No. I don’t.”
A smile as wide as the Gulf of Mexico blazed across his face.
I swallowed hard, though. “The last thing I want is to lose you.” Now that he’d shifted, could either of us stave off the inevitable? Was there any truth to Max’s family curse? We would be separated, one way or another, but I couldn’t let my possessiveness ruin this for him. “If this is the path you’ve chosen, then no, I don’t regret it.”
Relief blasted through his eyes, and Max pulled me back into a fierce hug. “No matter what the future holds, we’ll find a way through. Together.”
But will this shift ruin our friendship? I shuddered, suddenly wanting to go backward in time to the way my life looked fift
een minutes ago.
A crack in the frost split the silence, like an ice cube popping in a tray. Max growled, low and deep, and turned to face the vampire.
I picked Atlantis up, and said, “It probably won’t take him long to get out of that ice. Stay the hell away from him until I figure out what we’re supposed to do next.”
In the chaos, my cellphone rang. I frowned at the ring tone: Witchy Woman by the Eagles. I rushed across the destruction of the room to pick up the call. “What the hell? My sister never calls me. Something must be wrong with my Mom.”
Chapter 6
Sam
I ANSWERED THE phone, forcing my voice steady. “Hello?” I couldn’t believe my sister would actually call unless the news was really bad. Had someone stolen Cynthia’s phone and gotten my number? I glanced around at the splintered furniture of the destroyed living room of the rented mansion. Someone was gonna have their hands full cleaning this mess up. “Cyn?”
“What the fuck, Sam?”
“Excuse me?” It was Cyn all right. Sharp-edged as ever, my sister never failed to surprise me. I gripped Atlantis and targeted the tines toward the frosty vampire, just in case he had some weird vampy heating skills. How much crazier could this day possibly get?
“I see Mom called you earlier this afternoon.”
Was that really just a few hours ago? “Yeah. She did. She called to tell me how much you missed me.”
“I don’t have time to field your insecurities.”
No matter how old I got, my big sister’s condescension hit me in the gut like a wrecking ball. “You got some good reason for calling me, Cyn?”
“Yeah. I do.” There was a long pause on the other end of the line.
“Don’t hurt yourself articulating.” I regretted the bitterness in my words as soon as they came out, but she had a way of pushing my buttons. Big time. Still, I should be nicer. I eyed the frozen vampire who was slowly coming back to life in my living room along with the cat shifter who stood guard while we talked. “I’m sorry, but I’m kind of having a messed-up day here. Can you get on with it? Why did you call?”
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