Jaguars' Reward [Impulse 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (19 page)

“Sorry to disappoint you, asshole, but actually I did.”

“Bullshit!”

“Who’s winning this little wrestling match?”

“Temporarily.”

Vadim wanted to scoff at what Wilson had said, but his attitude gave him pause. He knew Wilson was almost as desperate as Vadim himself was to restore his powers through mating. He’d figured that was why he’d attacked Impulse now, aware that he still had the edge on Vadim. The crazy thing was, ever since making love with Talia, Vadim had felt stronger.

Much stronger.

Could Wilson’s crazy story actually be true? He glanced at his buddies, who would be tuned in to their pheromone conversation, and saw the confusion on their faces. He’d been too distracted to pay much attention to his physical state since fucking Talia, but now that he thought about it, his senses were sharper, his energy was at full capacity, and his mind was quicker than it had been for months.

Wilson, presumably sensing Vadim’s preoccupation and the lessening of pressure on his tail, gave it a mighty yank and pulled it free of Vadim’s jaws, leaving a chunk of skin and hair behind.

“Shit!”

Wilson made for the ocean, cleverly leveling up the playing field. Wolves and jaguars were both strong swimmers, but there were no trees in the Gulf to help Vadim out. Vadim followed him into the warm water and they locked in deadly combat. They twisted and lunged, sending the water into a frothy maelstrom around them that would make it hard for the spectators to see who was winning. Wilson had clearly given upon trying to catch Vadim’s flank and was going for his throat. Vadim ducked beneath the water just in time and surfaced to Wilson’s left. Rather than make a move to kill, he snatched at Wilson’s ear, biting half of it off. When Wilson howled, more in frustration than pain, Vadim could tell that his ploy was working.
Weaken your foe with sharp forays, in and out quick, leaving minimum time for exposure, and wait for the right moment to strike the killer blow.

A massive paw ripped at Vadim’s flank.
Fuck it, how did that happen?
With his acute vision he could see the water turning red around him. Although he was too fired up to feel much pain, he guessed he’d been hurt badly. But Wilson was weak, too, so Vadim had to finish this now. He dove under the water, taking Wilson by surprise. His enemy clearly thought he was too badly injured to risk doing something so crazy, much less counterattacking. Before Wilson could regroup, Vadim surfaced beneath him and ripped into his belly with strong teeth, clenching them closed and not letting go. Wilson thrashed about, using his hind legs to try and dislodge Vadim, who somehow managed to hold on.

Vadim could feel his lungs about to explode. He needed to surface soon, and they both knew it. He thought of Talia, found a final reserve of strength, and held on. If what Wilson told him was really true, he and Zayd could mate with her
and
stay in Impulse. Never had a shifter had greater motivation to win a fight.

Wilson’s struggles became weaker and, just when Vadim thought he really would have to let go, his enemy’s body went limp. Vadim could sense that the life had drained out of it and let go. He surfaced and drew desperate mouthfuls of oxygen into his burning lungs. He then floated on his back for several minutes, hurting in places where he didn’t know he had places, unsure if he had the strength to swim back to shore.

In any event, it was unnecessary. Several pairs of strong hands pulled him ashore and Zayd’s face came into his blurred view.

“You okay, buddy?”
he pheromoned anxiously.

“I’ve been better
.
”
Vadim closed his eyes, totally wiped out.
“Fuck it, he’s strong! Did I get him?”

“Yeah,”
Rafe answered.
“You got him, but you’re injured.”

“Let me have a look.”

Mikael crouched beside him and examined the wounds on his shoulder and in his belly.

“Carry him back to the Institute,”
he said curtly.

Talia hovered over him, her hand gently caressing his ears. “What was all that about mating with quarter-shifters?”

Vadim and Zayd shared an incredulous glance. “
She
can understand our pheromones?”
Vadim asked.

Talia blinked. “Is that what I just did? I have no idea how it happened. Perhaps Wilson letting go of my head altogether made it happen. But it’s a good thing, right?”

Zayd smiled at her. “We’ll figure it out later, babe. But yeah, I’d say it was a very good thing.”

“I didn’t know that I actually could,” Talia explained, walking beside Vadim as he was stretchered back to the Institute. “But I figured something was going on back there that I ought to know about. I also didn’t trust you guys to tell me it straight, so I concentrated really hard and obviously got the gist of it.”

“I’m not sure how you acquired that skill,” Zayd said, “but I can probably guess.”

“I’ll know what you’re all plotting now,” she said, eliciting a low growl of frustration from Vadim. “No more secrets.”

“Babe, we’re just big pussycats without a secret in the world,” Zayd told her.

“Of course you are.” She offered him a sweetly sarcastic smile. “I seem to be able to breathe the air better as well.”

“Fucking hell!” Zayd scratched his head. “This is weird, even by Impulse standards.”

“Doesn’t it prove that what Wilson just said is true?”

“I’m not sure what it means right now,” Zayd admitted.

Talia glanced at Vadim and gasped. “I think he’s lost consciousness,” she said to Mikael. “You need to help him.”

“Almost there,” Mikael replied in the smoothly reassuring tone doctors were obviously taught at medical school.

“Don’t worry.” Zayd squeezed her hand, looking worried as hell himself. “Mikael can work wonders.”

Mikael examined Vadim, still in jaguar mode, when he was loaded onto a table in the Institute. He straightened up, looking grim.

“He’s lost a lot of blood. Do we have any of his stored?”

Philo, Mikael’s partner, nodded. “Yeah, but probably not enough.”

“Then you need to shift, Zayd. We’ll take some from you.” Mikael turned to Talia, probably sensing her confusion. “Zayd’s blood when he’s in human mode isn’t any good. We need the jaguar variety.”

“I see,” she said.

But she didn’t, not really. She could only hope that Mikael was as good as everyone said he was. Even if he was a miracle worker, quite how he’d fix the gaping wound in Vadim’s belly, she couldn’t begin to imagine. Surely it was too late for him? Her heart plummeted at the thought. Life sure had a way of kicking her in the teeth. She’d spent twenty-six years on this earth drifting, not feeling like she really belonged anywhere. Always the outsider, never quite fitting in. Now she’d found Vadim and Zayd and felt strongly that she’d met her destiny right in the two of them. She’d been marking time up until now but had always been supposed to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps. Mating with shifters was quite literally in her blood.

But now that future was being snatched from before her eyes. It was so fucking unfair that she wanted to scream with frustration, rail against whichever gods had decided to use her heart for target practice, pick up the nearest object, and hurl it through the window.

She did none of those things, watching instead as Zayd shifted into a beautiful spotted jaguar. He leapt onto the next exam table and Philo stuck a needle in his front leg. When it was done Zayd leapt down again and sat beside Talia, rubbing his huge jaguar head against her thigh. Talia stroked his ears, eliciting a strong, rattling purr from Zayd as they looked on anxiously while Vadim was treated. A drip fed fresh blood into his body while Philo boiled up some vile-smelling herbs and brought them over to Mikael.

“Ready?” Mikael asked.

Vadim nodded weakly. “
Do your worst, you fucking butcher
.”

Philo held the rent in Vadim’s belly together with forceps while Mikael piled the boiling herbs directly onto it. Vadim’s body elevated from the table and he roared loud enough to raise the rafters. Talia was horrified.

“What sort of medicine is this?” she demanded, jumping to her feet.

Zayd, still in jaguar mode, rubbed his head against her leg.
“Sit down and watch,”
he pheromoned.

She did so reluctantly, wondering why Zayd wasn’t more concerned at this barbaric treatment which would surely finish Vadim off. She soon discovered the answer. Vadim’s wound was now smoking, but as the vapor cleared she was astonished to discover that it was already starting to close up like it had never existed.

“How…what did you do?” she asked Mikael, her mouth hanging open in astonishment.

“The powerful effects of Impulse,” Mikael said wryly. “Now perhaps you’ll understand why this little piece of land is so hotly disputed.”

“Yes, I guess so.” She touched Vadim’s ears and shook her head. “If I hadn’t seen that with my own eyes, I would never have believed it.”

Philo chuckled. “That’s what we rely on to keep people away.”

Mikael checked Vadim’s blood pressure. “He’s stable,” he said. “But he needs to shift back now.”

“Why?” Talia asked.

“I’ve healed his feline wounds, but I need to see if his human side is injured. Besides, none of us like to shift for too long. It takes too much power.” Mikael winked at her. “I’m guessing you’ve already started restoring Vadim’s powers, but even so.”

Had she? Was that what she’d done? She felt hugely encouraged that it might even be possible. Perhaps she’d given him the edge that saved his life.

“Come on, buddy.”
Zayd placed a massive paw on Vadim’s uninjured shoulder.
“I’ll support you, but you have to shift first.”

“Leave me alone. I need to sleep.”

“Nah, you don’t. Look who’s waiting here for you.”

Vadim’s gaze fell upon Talia and she noticed his whiskers twitch. Damn it, she could understand their pheromones but didn’t know how to send one. Didn’t know how to tell him that he’d frightened the shit out of her, but she was so damned proud of him that it hurt.

“Aw, don’t go telling him things like that,”
Zayd pheromoned.
“His head’ll get too big for his damned body.”

Okay, so that was how to do it. But how did she have thoughts of her own that they couldn’t interpret? Talia shook her head. What was the matter with her? One thing at a time, and right now nothing was more important than getting Vadim fit.

“Whiskers are one of a cat’s most sensitive erogenous zones,”
Vadim pheromoned weakly.

“Come on, big guy, stop prevaricating. Doctor’s orders.”

“Oh shit, you’re so bossy.”

Talia watched in fascination as Zayd increased the pressure on Vadim’s shoulder and Vadim’s fur gradually receded. His human form took shape amidst silent swearing and complaining that Talia easily heard and understood. His whiskers were the last thing to recede and, in spite of Vadim’s obvious pain, he twitched them at her before they disappeared. Zayd shifted back in a quarter of the time it took Vadim to manage it, grinning at Talia as he settled into the chair beside her, not bothering to reclaim his clothes.

Talia braced herself to see the angry scars that were bound to mar Vadim’s hunky beauty. To her astonishment there was merely a thin white line down his stomach and another in the area of his wounded shoulder.

“What…I don’t understand,” she said, pointing in confusion.

“Welcome to Impulse,” Mikael said, checking Vadim’s human vital signs. “How do you feel?”

“Woozy.”

“A good night’s sleep here will see you good as new.”

“The hell with that. I’m going home.”

Mikael sighed. “How did I know you were gonna say that?”

“It’s more comfortable there.”

“Is he always this stubborn?” Talia asked no one in particular.

“Always,” said Zayd, Mikael, and Philo together.

“That’s why you all love me.”

“He does so enjoy his little fantasies,” Philo said, winking at Talia.

“Okay, I guess I can’t stop you leaving,” Mikael said. “But at least ride a golf cart home
and
absolutely no sex. That wound needs twelve hours to heal on the inside.”

“Not even if I do all the work?” Zayd asked, pulling a doomed face that made them all laugh.

“Especially not then.”

* * * *

Zayd, hiding the fear he’d felt at Vadim’s condition by joking about it, drove him and Talia back to their house in a golf cart. Vadim, dosed up with Philo’s healing herbs, fell asleep the moment Zayd carried him inside and laid him on the bed. Zayd brushed the hair away from his lover’s brow and kissed him tenderly. He was conscious of Talia, standing in the doorway, watching.

“Will he be all right?” she asked.

“Babe, by tomorrow morning he’ll be as good as new. Mikael wouldn’t have let him leave the Institute if there was even the slightest possibility of complications.”