Shadow

by Laurann Dohner

  “Shit,” Breeze growled. “What is holding up the cabin?”

  He didn’t have an answer. Enough sunlight poured through all the holes that they might as well have been outside. The enemy had massive firepower and, in his estimation, the only thing that had saved them was the rock trim along the outside. It was low to the ground so it had probably kept them from being shot as they were driven to the floor every time the enemy opened fire.

  He could only pray Beauty was safe. It was an older cabin and he was sure the tub was made of cast iron. Bullets hopefully wouldn’t penetrate the sides of it. He glanced up but the ceiling had a few holes from ricochets.

  “You good?”

  Breeze hesitated. “I was hit but it’s not bad. Through and through to my side.”

  It was a wonder they were both still alive. Thousands of bullets must have been aimed at them since the attack had started. He was going to yell at Beauty when this was over. He’d heard her firing one of his handguns at the start of it but was sure she had retreated to the bathroom when he yelled at her. After that it had been impossible to tell where the gunfire had come from. His ears were still ringing.

  The break in active gunfire was disturbing. He tensed, waiting for return fire. Seconds passed and nothing happened. He frowned and glanced at Breeze. She was hunkered down near the fireplace, weapon in hand. She met his questioning gaze, a frown on her face as well.

  “Do you think they are going to rush us?” Her eyebrow arched in question.

  He fired another bullet to make sure the mercenaries knew they were still alive. That should keep them from entering the cabin. Breeze fired a bullet from the other side of the cabin, not looking out either. She’d almost had her face taken off by a bullet and had yelled a warning to him. They’d both stayed down ever since.

  No one fired back. More seconds ticked by. Breeze shrugged, one hand going to her waist to hold her wound. He spotted the blood soaking her shirt. It didn’t look too bad but he worried.

  Hope softened her features. “Maybe help has arrived and they took off. Maybe we should actually stop firing. I’d hate to hit one of ours by mistake.”

  He strained to hear but was still having difficulty because a slight ringing noise remained. The bad thing about having oversensitive hearing was loud noises hurt. Breeze made a keening noise.

  “What was that?”

  “A distress call. Our males will respond if they are nearby.”

  They both listened. Shadow watched Breeze. Her hearing might not be as disrupted as his. She shook her head, worry returning. Shit, she mouthed.

  He had to agree. A howl suddenly rent the air and both of them felt relief. Breeze lowered her gun and grinned. “We’ve got help.”

  He hesitated to rise from the floor, not sure if it was safe yet. Minutes passed before something crashed through the bullet-hole riddled door. The male was barely dressed in only a pair of cutoff shorts with a mass of hair that honestly reminded Shadow of a lion’s mane.

  “Leo.” Breeze grinned.

  The male glanced around and held Shadow’s gaze for a second before rushing to Breeze. He knelt, sniffing at her, and gently removed her hand from the wound. He threw back his head, roaring.

  Shadow winced. There was no doubt the male was part feline even without seeing his eyes and facial features. He recognized him as the male he’d seen at the river hunting a female lion. Shadow got to his feet and charged toward the stairs to check on Beauty.

  “Are the humans all dead?” Shadow hoped so.

  “They ran away. We were being shot at or could have reached you sooner.” Leo forced Breeze down to lay flat on her back, growling when she protested. “Stay still, female! You’re bleeding.”

  Another Species male rushed inside the room before Shadow could get upstairs. Blood ran down his neck. The sight stopped Shadow in his tracks. “Are you okay?”

  Torrent turned his head, shoving back his hair to show a bloody ear. “A sniper nearly took off my head. They had a few of them perched in the treetops that kept us pinned inside a ravine about a mile from here. Once they moved, we came this way and I sent a few of the males to get help.” He glanced at Breeze, concerned. “Are you okay?”

  “Through and through,” she responded. “Don’t touch my breast, Leo. The wound is down here.”

  “Just checking them,” the male countered and chuckled.

  Flesh smacking flesh sounded.

  “Stop molesting me.” Breeze growled.

  Shadow spun away and rushed up the stairs. “Beauty!”

  She didn’t answer. Panic hit that she’d been shot too. The bathtub was empty so he rushed into her room. Discarded weapons were on the floor, some still lined up as if they hadn’t been used. The window was shattered, curtains torn, and there were holes in the wall and ceiling above it. He spun and rushed toward his room. Torrent was in the hallway blocking his path. He just pushed the male out of the way.

  The sight of the window kicked out and a rope swaying in the open space made him snarl. He lunged forward, grabbed it and looked down. Beauty was gone. He threw back his head, howling. He was out the window before he even checked to make sure the rope could take his weight. Someone had stolen Beauty. That’s why they’d stopped attacking. The mercenaries had taken her from the cabin.

  He landed on his feet hard, pain shot up both legs but he swept the ground with his gaze, hunting for sign as he released the rope. Heavy footprints were easy to spot, two sets, one deeper than the other. No smaller tracks were visible. One of them had to be carrying Beauty. He barely registered the fact that Torrent dropped next to him, also using the rope to soften his landing.

  “They took her.”

  “I know,” Shadow snarled. “They won’t get far.”

  A gunshot cracked from the south. Shadow’s heart stopped. That single shot could mean a lot of bad things. One being that the mercenaries had been given orders to murder Beauty. They’d want to do it in person, perhaps video it for their client or take the head from her body as proof of assassination. The human who’d owned her might want her dead to prevent her from ever identifying him if he were brought to Justice.

  He sprinted in that direction, rage spurring him on. He didn’t care if the mercenaries outnumbered him or how heavily they were armed. He just needed to reach Beauty. Alive or dead, they weren’t taking any part of her near the human who’d abused her.

  Torrent followed. He heard the male’s harsh breathing as they lunged past trees, jumped over rocks, and sniffed the air, trying to pick up her scent. He caught it, barely, and kept going. The stench of fresh blood made him snarl as he rushed around a grouping of bushes.

  A mercenary lay on the ground, holding his thigh with both hands. Blood soaked his leg and the ground as the male groaned in pain. Shadow registered the wound and the missing gun from an empty holster, hope flaring instantly that Beauty had been the one to shoot the son of a bitch.

  He dropped to the ground near the guy, disarming him quickly, and just shoved aside the male’s hands. The mercenary’s expression, hazed with agony, met his. Rage burned brighter as Shadow gripped the wound, purposely using his thumb to dig into it. The male screamed.

  “Where is she?” Shadow snarled, ready to tear the male apart. He could smell her on the guy.

  The mercenary writhed on the ground but managed to point. Shadow was on his feet and moving in the next breath. “Kill the fucker if he moves,” he ordered Torrent over his shoulder.

  He spotted a broken stem where Beauty had fled. Heavy tracks marred the softer ones she’d made. Someone had chased her. He was close. Her terrified, sweet scent lingered in the air. He was grateful it wasn’t windy as he followed her more by scent than by the tracks on the ground.

  Beauty knew the man was gaining ground. His ragged breathing seemed right at her back. Her leg muscles burned and she was tiring fast. She spun, lifted the gun, and tried to aim. He was so close she actually hit him with it. She pulled the trigger, gasping, too out of breath to
scream.

  The loud shot missed him but he spun away, slamming into a bush, falling. She almost went down too but caught her balance. The river noises drew her, the only way to make sure she wasn’t running in circles. She broke from the trees and nearly fell into the moving water.

  She spun, looking for escape, but there was nowhere to go. Motion to her left made her whimper. Another man dressed in fatigues barreled at her. Something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. A third man rushed her way. She was trapped as they slowed, knowing they had her.

  “Put down the gun.” The one she’d almost shot trained a gun at her.

  “I can’t swim,” she warned them. “You shoot me and I fall in.” She aimed the gun, shifting it to point at each of them in turn, keeping the barrel moving. “Master wants me alive, doesn’t he? I’ll purposely stay under until I drown. I’d rather die than go back to him.”

  Uneasiness skidded across their features. They believed her and the drop into the water had to be eight feet. She stood at a curve in the river where the earth had eroded the bank. It looked deep too.

  “I’ll be gone once I hit the water. The current is strong. You blink, I’m gone.”

  They froze but two more of them pointed guns at her.

  “Drop the gun,” one of them demanded. “We’re not going to hurt you. Our boss wants you alive. Drowning is a horrible way to go.”

  She laughed bitterly. “And being returned to Master is better?” Her heart rate began to slow now that she wasn’t running for her life. “I’d rather die.”

  They glanced at each other, obviously not expecting that.

  “Do you not get paid if I’m dead?” She could guess money was the only reason they’d come after her. It would have to be a lot for them to enter NSO lands, beyond suicidal to attempt such a thing. Species weren’t known for being kind to trespassers. “Back away from me.”

  “She will struggle when she hits the water. It’s instinct,” one of them muttered. “She’ll surface and we’ll grab her.”

  Beauty twisted her wrist, pointing the gun at her chest. “Will I survive a bullet to the heart? One shot and it’s over. You’ll have done all of this for nothing. I’m not going back.” She hoped they believed her bluff. “Get away from me.”

  “Goddamn crazy bitch,” one of them swore. “You won’t shoot yourself.” He looked unsure though.

  “I was caged and chained, kept in the dark and only brought out when Master wanted to see me.” She raised her chin as she inched a little closer to the edge near the water, her gaze darting around for an escape. There wasn’t one. “They kept me weak from lack of food and water, bathed only when Master decided I should be clean when he put his hands on me.” Rage deepened her voice into a soft growl. “Do you think I won’t prefer to die before being sent back to him?” She paused. “A bullet is kinder and faster than suffering that fate.”

  A low branch kept drawing her attention. She kicked off her shoes and the men frowned.

  “What are you doing?” One of them stepped closer.

  She reacted by jerking the gun away from her chest and firing at him. It didn’t matter if she hit them or not. He dived out of the way but so did the other two, the way she’d hoped. She shoved the warm gun into her pants and jumped at the branch, her feet hitting the tree trunk. She was a primate and hoped instinct gave her a strong ability to climb.

  She scrambled faster than she’d thought possible, getting higher as her hands curled around the branches, moving as fast as she could. The bottoms of her feet burned a little from the rough bark but she didn’t care. She was in a tree!

  “Get down here,” one of them yelled. “Fuck! Climb after her, Bob.”

  “She moves fast,” he complained. “Damn, look how high she’s going.”

  “I don’t give a fuck,” the first one snapped. “Go after her!”

  “What is she? A monkey?”

  “She kinda looks like a chimp,” one of them stated. “Did you see her eyes and nose? She’s small for a woman too.”

  She kept climbing until she couldn’t get any higher without fear of the thinning branches snapping from her weight. The one she hugged swayed when the wind blew. A sick feeling gripped her stomach as she looked down. She had to be fifty or so feet in the air. All three men stared up at her.

  “Get down!” The one in charge pointed a finger at her. “Right now! We don’t have time for this.”

  “The chopper is incoming,” Bob announced. “It’s about to land.”

  She looked out to see if she could spot it but too many trees blocked her view even from that height. She listened and heard the noise then, probably too focused on the men to notice before. She turned her head and spotted it. It was flying low, just over the treetops, and coming closer.

  She climbed down the trunk slightly until she sat on a lower limb and hugged it tightly, fearful they would try to snatch her from above. She glanced down, instantly sorry. Bob had started climbing after her.

  She pulled out the gun, her belly aching from where she was sure she’d been burned from the warm barrel after firing it, and she aimed. He looked up and froze.

  “Stay away from me.”

  “How many bullets are left?” The one in charge spoke softly but she heard.

  “I don’t know, Dillon.” Bob answered. “She’s discharged three but that’s a Glock 9. I don’t know how many were fired off before she stole it and it might have big mag. Could be a lot left.”

  She frantically looked for an escape. The other trees were too far away to safely transfer. Some primates were known for jumping from branch to branch but she wasn’t willing to risk falling to her death. Her hand shook slightly as she aimed the gun at the man drawing closer.

  “I’ll shoot you. Stop!”

  He climbed to the other side of the wide trunk, out of sight. She shifted forward, trying to keep him in view. Thick branches protected him. She glanced around again, praying help would arrive.

  It was as if Shadow heard her silent plea. He suddenly rushed out of the foliage behind the two on the ground. She watched in utter amazement as he grabbed both mercenaries by the backs of their necks, lifted, and threw them. One hit the dirt under the three while the second one wasn’t so lucky. He slammed into the trunk. The enraged Species wasn’t done.

  He tore their weapons off them, flinging them into the river. The man in the dirt put up a struggle but one punch from Shadow kept him down. The one who’d hit the trunk recovered a lot slower. Shadow’s head snapped up and their gazes caught and held for an instant before he looked at the third one in the tree. He howled.

  Startled, Bob lost his hold on the tree and fell about ten feet into thick bushes. Shadow went after him, dragged the groaning man out by his boot and disarmed him. Guns and knives were tossed into the river. Beauty watched in rapt fascination as Shadow centered himself in the middle of the three mercenaries.

  “You thought you could take her from me? Fight me. You are cowards for going after a small female. Lie there whimpering as you die. I. Don’t. Care. I’ll attack either way.”

  Beauty kept silent despite being tempted to warn the humans that fighting an enraged Species would be stupid. Shadow clearly wanted to beat on them and they complied when they attacked. Of course he left them with no choice, his threat to kill them as loud as his snarled words. They probably thought their three-to-one odds boded well against Shadow but he’d made certain they could only fight with their bodies. She lowered the gun, afraid it would accidently discharge and hit Shadow.

  Her gaze ran over Shadow. He wasn’t bleeding much. His arms and face had scratches but nothing serious that she could spot from her high perch. He moved as if he were unharmed as he dodged a fist aimed at his face and threw his own. She picked up a slight crunching noise before Bob screamed, stumbling back as blood poured from his smashed nose and mouth, landing hard on his ass.

  Shadow’s foot shot out as the leader of the mercenaries tried to come at him. The scream that
came out of Dillon was horrifying when the heel slammed into his groin area. Beauty winced as the injured mercenary just dropped, rolling into a ball. Shadow wasn’t fighting nice but he was inflicting pain. He showed no sympathy for his opponents. They had tried to kill two Species and had come to return her to a hellish existence.

  The third man hesitated before he launched himself at Shadow’s back. Shadow must have sensed it though and dodged, bent a little, and the guy landed in the dirt instead. Shadow came down on his torso, knees first, probably breaking his ribs in the process. Fists pummeled the human as the Species nailed him. Beauty glanced away but then forced her attention back. She wasn’t weak stomached. Not anymore.

  Bob tried to crawl to the river, probably attempting to escape. Shadow rose from his bloodied opponent and stomped on the back of Bob’s leg. A snarl tore from his mouth as the fallen man screamed in agony, suffering a broken leg to match his nose. Shadow reached down, fisted his hair and said something she couldn’t hear. Bob sobbed, begging for his life, but Shadow just slammed his head down hard into the earth.

  “Beauty?” Shadow’s head snapped upward. “Are you hurt?”

  “I’m okay.” Her voice came out shaky.

  “Come down here. Can you do that or do you need me to climb to you?”

  “I can do it.” Her hands trembled slightly as she shoved the gun back into her waistband and began the descent. It was tougher than climbing up had been. It might have just seemed that way since blind panic no longer gripped her so she did it more slowly.

  Shadow held utterly still until she reached the lowest branch and then both his arms rose. She bent forward enough for him to grip her hips. She braced her arms on his shoulders and fell into him. She had absolute trust he’d catch her and he did.

  Strong arms wrapped around her waist, hugging her so tightly it was hard to breathe. She didn’t complain about that or him refusing to put her on her feet. They’d survived and he’d come after her. She’d been sure it wouldn’t end so well.

  “Look at me, love,” he rasped.

  She pulled her head back enough to see his face. Small cuts had left one cheek bloody, probably from flying glass inside the cabin when it had been torn apart by bullets. A gash was on his forehead was no longer bleeding, but blood smeared back into his hairline. One arm released her waist and his big hand gently touched her cheek.