My Warrior Fae

My Warrior Fae

Aaron’s Kiss Series

Kathi S. Barton

World Castle Publishing

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

World Castle Publishing

Pensacola, Florida

Copyright © Kathi S. Barton 2012

ISBN: 9781938961120

First Edition World Castle Publishing July 15, 2012

http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

Licensing Notes

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.

Cover: Karen Fuller

Photos: Shutterstock.com

Editor: Brieanna Robertson

~Chapter 1~

“So, let me get this straight. I can borrow five hundred dollars to use toward a car that costs a grand as long as I have collateral. I can use the six hundred dollars that I currently have in the bank as that, but I can’t touch it until the loan is paid back. And I can’t borrow a grand because I don’t have enough collateral. You know, that doesn’t really make any sense. If I could leave my money in the bank, I would. But you see, I need to have a car. Without a car, I can’t work; without work, the six hundred is going to be gone in no time anyway.” Tess stared at the woman behind the desk and waited—for what? She wasn’t sure, maybe divine intervention or a bundle of money to fall into her lap. But she really did not think either was going to happen.

She had the money, she supposed, enough money to buy several cars if she wanted. But she had never touched the money from her first job and she had no intention of doing so now. As far as she was concerned, it was blood money. She was getting along just fine with her bartending money and she would continue, thank you very much.

A tingle at the back of her neck had her turn her head slightly. She pretended to rub her chin on her shoulder as she looked around the bank. Nothing seemed out of place, but something was not quite right. Opening herself up, she lightly touched each person in the bank.

There were ten people milling about the counters on the bank side, three of them were

shape-shifters, werewolves. The two tellers behind the glass screen were both human and the one at the desk back there was fae. The other four were humans as well.

Tess could see that of the eight people in line, two were unknown to her, meaning they could be lesser witches or some other creatures, but not human. Of the others there was one fairy, another fae, and a shape-shifter, this one a panther. The woman Tess was sitting with and the other bank assistant were both wolves.

Turning back to the assistant, Tess decided that Tansy Wolff was not going to change her mind about the money and started to rise. When she did, the tingle started again. This time Tess moved deeper and, closing her eyes, found what she was looking for. Opening her eyes, she looked at her “personal banker.”

“Call the cops. There is a robbery going to happen right now. The two men standing by your guard over in the front are carrying weapons that are loaded with silver. They are expecting six more any moment now.”

Tess was sure that Tansy was going to balk or try something incredibly stupid like demand proof, but she simply nodded and picked up her phone. As she laid it back in the cradle she was shaking her head.

“Phone is dead. I can’t make any calls. But I can reach my…boss and tell him, but it may take a while for him to get here.”

“Boss? I take it you don’t mean the one here. Your alpha, you mean? We don’t have much of a choice unless you know some other way to contact someone.” When she didn’t answer, Tess stood up and stuck out her hand. “Take my hand and it will open a pathway for us. It won’t hurt you, but I need to have a set of eyes where you will be taken.”

“What about you? Where will you be taken?” Tansy took her hand and Tess felt the

immediate connection.

“I won’t.” And she shimmered from the room. “The other men have just pulled up outside.

Keep the others that are with you from panicking. And call to me if you have any problems.”

The door burst open and five men entered the bank and opened fire. Their automatic

weapons tore large holes in the ceiling and walls and it rained down on the customers. Every person in the place dropped to the floor and put their hands over their heads. Tellers behind the glass hit the alarm buttons, but to no avail. The power had been cut to those as well as all the security cameras.

“I want everyone to stay where you are. If you think to be a hero, you’ll be a dead one. I have no problem shooting every last one of you to get what I want,” the man who came in after the guns went off stated as he sauntered into the room.

Brian Manchester did not wear a mask, nor did he carry a gun. He felt that there was no reason for either. The muscle he had with him would do as he said, or he would kill them as well.

Tess knew this; she had seen it in his mind. He was ruthless, vicious, and he had done this several times before, killing everyone in the other banks just as he had planned to do here. Well, she thought, not on her watch.

Brian made his way to the manager’s office and only took one man that he brought with

him. Two were left by the door, two more started empting the cash drawers behind the glass, and the last two started gathering the employees and customers together to take them to the back offices. Tansy was a part of this group, hidden from them but able to keep up with the robbers too.

Tess kept herself shadowed in the dark corners as she walked up behind the first two men who were just finishing the cash drawers. One of them was human, the other a shifter. Killing the human would be quicker, but the shifter would be stronger and would definitely fight back.

Taking a long, silver blade from her boot, she appeared between them and struck. She slit the wolf’s throat open and then stabbed the human in the heart, killing him instantly. Catching both men as they fell, she laid them as quietly as she could on the floor. Taking out a silver chain, she laid it across the open wound of the wolf and stepped over him. With the silver there he would not be able to shift to heal, and before his friends found him later and removed the silver he would have bled out.

Fading out again, she moved toward the vault where she knew there were three other men.

The bank manager was with Brian and a human robber. Before she moved forward she paused to listen to them.

“This will make us even, Mr. Manchester, right? The fifty million I owe you will be wiped off the books, right?” Nervousness colored the manager’s voice, making it squeaky and high.

Fifty million was a lot to owe to just one person and she wondered what the bank manager was into so deep. She then realized that it didn’t matter how he got to this point. It was how he was getting himself out that put these people into danger.

“Of course it will, Tommy. Isn’t that what we agreed on? You make sure the vault is open for me and I make sure you don’t owe me another penny. You don’t sound very trusting right now.” Brian sounded bored and condescending. Tess did not believe for a moment that he was going to let Tommy’s debt be paid.

“No! No, that’s not it. I just…you know with the audit coming on and all, I don’t want to lose my job over that missing money is all. I have to keep up appearances and all, you know.”

His grin looked sad and scared even to Tess, but she didn’t waste much sympathy on him.

“Of course. Of course. This is going to work out just fine, just fine indeed.”

Tess watched as Tommy finished opening the vault. When the door swung open Brian

pulled a gun from the man next to him and shot Tommy in the head. Just that quick, Tommy’s debt was paid and he was dead.

She watched as the two robbers stepped over Tommy’s body and went into the vault. It was then that Tansy spoke to Tess.

“Hello, Miss Knight, I have a problem. Can you come here? Like right fucking now?”

Leaving the men inside, Tess moved to where Tansy was, the urgency in her voice making Tess move quickly.

One of the men had decided to have a little fun with one of the customers. Tansy was trying to fight him, but she was limited in her abilities because of the humans in the room. She could not shift and she could not use her superior strength to subdue without causing problems for her and the pack in which she belonged to. Tess, however, had no such problems.

Stepping out of the room to become solid, she moved back in and grabbed the man who was trying to rape one of the women and tossed him out into the hall; the other man did not move. He either didn’t care or, more than likely, he thought that his partner would kill her. Now, without prying eyes, Tess pulled out her knife and began fighting the man.

He was strong, and as a wolf he would be, but he was also quick and high on something. He was on his feet again before she could move and had slammed her against the wall in seconds.

Stabbing him in his shoulder was all she could manage with the quickness of the fight, and the small wound only seemed to make him madder. He wrapped his hand around her throat and, as he began to squeeze, he ripped at her clothes. When he had exposed her bra he grabbed at her breast and twisted. Pain shot through her and she kicked out, knocking him away briefly. When he came at her this time she was more prepared and caught him in the nose with her fist, breaking it and her hand.

She had meant to shove the little bones into his brain, killing him, but he was taller than her and her aim was a little off because of the pain in her breast. But it did knock him back again.

This time, while he was stunned, she kicked him hard in the balls. She managed to kick him again and again before he fell to the floor holding himself. When he bent his head over she pulled her belt free of the loops and wrapped it around his massive neck. The silver studs and the leather tightened into his skin as he tried to struggle out of the hold. When he began to black out, Tess pulled out her knife again and rammed it into his heart from behind. He dropped like the dead weight he was. She knew she would have to leave the blade there and mourned the loss of one of her favorite knives.

Hearing a noise behind her, she turned and nearly hit the woman who had come up behind her. Tansy had the good sense to back up and blush.

“My alpha is here. He and the pack are outside. He wants to know how many are left. He also said to tell you to sit tight that he will be inside soon. He thinks he needs to be the big brother and save my ass and the others.” Tansy’s grin told Tess that she either was used to his intervention or aggravated by it—probably both.

Tess snorted, leaned against the wall, and tried to repair her shirt. Her boob hurt and she thought she had a broken rib or two. Looking down at her hand, she knew it was probably sprained and not broken like she had thought, but was otherwise all right.