Destined for Harmony (14 page)

A nickname?
This was getting far too personal. “Talia? We’re on a nickname basis now. Good to know,
dog
.”

“Careful, Talia,” he warned. “I’m a patient man but I’ll only tolerate so much from a prisoner. Best tread lightly.”

Actually, best tread on out of here.
Time for the most important part of an escape plan. The actual escape. Her gaze rested on Cristian’s pile of weapons. Using her gift she extended her senses, searching for the one thing she needed to escape. But there were no swords, no daggers, not even a switch blade. A bow and quiver of arrows rested against a tree. Next to that was a whip. She sighed. Of course she would get caught by the one man in North America who doesn’t use metal weapons.

“A whip?” she asked. Maybe she’d pegged him for Robin Hood too early.

“Also homemade.”

“It’s not a very useful weapon you know.”

“You’d be surprised. But, yes, mostly it’s for intimidation.”

She snorted.
As if a werewolf could scare her.

“I see you are immune.
Which means you are either very old and experienced or very young and stupid.”

A soft gaze landed on her, heating her more than the fire only a few feet away.

“Which is it, Natalia?” He was using that seductive voice again. “How old are you?”

Ignoring him, she put her feelers out again, searching for her own weapons. On average she had at least a dozen weapons on her at one time.
All metal. It was her essence. She had the unique ability to manipulate it. That was what made her deadly. Well, that and combat skills that rivaled the Navy Seals.

“Where are my weapons?”

“At the bottom of the river.”

“Bastard,” she hissed, letting her emotions get the best of her for a moment.

Cristian grinned.

She used all her power this time as she reached out around her. Usually metal was easy to find. It was everywhere. Clothing, shoes, hair clips, jewelry, wallets,
phones, almost everything contained metal of some sort. Surprisingly, the area she was currently bound in was almost void of it. Almost.

Picking up the essence on
Cristian’s belt buckle she smiled inside. Normally, she wasn’t one to gloat overly much. She preferred to just get the job done. But she couldn’t deny a certain satisfaction in escaping Cristian’s handmade bonds.

She started with a little tug and his belt buckle began to change shape. The corner of her mouth twisted up into a smug smirk. With a big mental yank, the buckle pulled away from his pants and molded into a
shiv. It took exactly three seconds to make it to slice through her bonds and free her arms. One rip with her claws and her legs were free too.

Oh yeah, metal was her bitch.

She shed the ropes and jumped up from the ground, facing her captor. He grabbed his whip while she put out a hand and her makeshift knife flew into it.

“
Wanna see why the bond is so high?” she asked, circling Cristian in a defensive crouch.

“I can see how you’ve managed to evade them for so long. But I wonder
, how long would you last without your special…gift?”

She’d seen that trick before. He was trying to bait her for a fair fight. “Too bad we’ll never know.”

She threw the knife but he dodged it easily and it
thunked
into the tree behind him. With an arrogant smirk he flicked his wrist and the whip lashed menacingly towards her. He was playing. And that was his first mistake.

Natalia always “missed” the first shot. A simple thought and the knife unloaded from the tree and stabbed into
Cristian’s back, cutting through muscle and lodging into his spine. She struck him in the stomach with the heel of her boot. When he lurched forward she grabbed his head and twisted. A snapped neck would put a werewolf out for just long enough to get a good head start. The only thing that would kill him would be to sever his head from his body.

While he was unconscious, Natalia studied him. His scraggly blonde hair was just long enough to touch the tops of his shoulders. It matched the scruffiness of his unshaven face. He had a wild look about him that made her heart flutter.

Her hand reached for her knife, but she stopped. With a long drawn out sigh, she slid it into her boot instead. Maybe it would be the biggest mistake of her life, but she didn’t kill him. She’d left him a clear message not to mess with her – one he would heed if he had any common sense. But she doubted very much that he did.

She chuckled and brushed back a piece of hair from his face.
“Cristian the werewolf.”