Passion's Prey: The Shadow Shifters (16 page)

Her voice sounded distant even though she was right there with him, holding him so close he could feel her heartbeat as if it were his own. X rested his elbows on his knees as he sat on the side of the bed. Just when he was about to turn around to tell her he was fine and make a graceful exit to the other room to get his shit together, she spoke again.

“I have dreams,” she said quietly. “I have them all the time. Sometimes they’re fine and I don’t remember them.” She took a deep breath. “And sometimes … sometimes, I just can’t forget.”

A part of X wanted to acknowledge he had the same experience, that they were two of a kind. But that wasn’t going to happen. It couldn’t. He remained silent and still.

She continued, “I can’t forget and remembering hurts. It hurts too much.”

Her voice hitched like she might be crying and X shot up off the bed, breaking their contact.

“I’m going to the kitchen to get a drink. You want something?” he asked, the coarse, bitter sound of his voice echoing in the darkness.

He didn’t turn, didn’t want to see her sitting vulnerably on the bed looking up at him. He just didn’t.

After a few silent moments she said in the barest whisper, “No. I’m fine.”

“Good,” he bit out. “So am I.”

But as he stalked out of the bedroom X knew that wasn’t true. They were both liars and cowards.

They were two of a kind.

Chapter 15

X had just checked the clock on the microwave, wincing only slightly to learn it was just a little after one in the morning. The roaring sounded a second before there was a light knock at the door. His instincts were momentarily torn. The roaring was coming from outside. There was a cat out there, a big, hungry cat from the sound of its cry.

Caprise was still in the bedroom and someone was at the door. With a curse a he moved to the door, pulling it open, ready to cut loose on whoever the fool was on the other side at this hour of the night.

“You hear it, too?” Bas asked the moment he saw X.

X nodded. “What the fuck is it and how long’s it been out there?”

“Just before you arrived,” Bas said. “It’s a cat no doubt.”

“You’ve never had cats out here before?”

“No,” Bas replied as they both headed to the patio. They looked out into the dark, heard the roar again, and knew it was calling for them. This was no ordinary cat; it was a shifter.

“Let’s go get the bastard,” X said.

“My thoughts exactly,” Bas replied.

“I’m coming,” Caprise put in.

X spun around at the sound of her voice. “No the hell you’re not.”

“You don’t control me, Xavier,” she said with quiet authority. “I can go wherever I want.”

“You two are tiring me out,” Bas said with a light laugh. “This is serious, Caprise. You could be hurt.”

“Or I could help. Now are we going or are we chatting? That cat out there sounds like he’s ready to play,” she snapped.

Bas shrugged. “She’s a
Topètenia
all right,” he said, moving past Caprise and back into the living room. “I’ve got a small group of guards downstairs. If you’re coming, let’s go.”

X looked at her again. Her eyes were already the melted honey orbs of her cat, thin black slits against an almost luminescent background. She’d slipped on some pants and a tank top, hardened nipples pressing through the material. Her sharp teeth were visible when she spoke, clawed fingers at her side.

“Let’s go,” he said finally and moved past her out the door.

*   *   *

“These buttes drop off dramatically in some spots,” Bas said from the head of the group.

X was traveling directly behind him, with Caprise only about two feet to the rear. That’s exactly where he wanted her to remain. Close enough for him to protect her at all times. If anything happened to her out here …

“The cat’s this way,” X said, more to refocus his thoughts than to add to the conversation.

“Right” was Bas’s reply. “There’s two guards ahead of us a couple feet. The minute he’s spotted we’ll know.”

“What the hell’s he doing out here is what I want to know,” X stated.

“He’s a Rogue. What do you think he’s doing out here?” Caprise retorted.

X didn’t bother to turn back and look at her. She was a shifter, she would know a Rogue when she scented one. He just wondered if she realized how easily she was slipping into their lifestyle, despite her reservations about it.

“We haven’t had Rogues in Perryville,” Bas said, his anger apparent. “They’ve been doing some trafficking in New Mexico, but no sightings here.”

“Until now,” Caprise added once more.

A loud roar, followed by a human scream, stopped their words. Bas shifted first without preamble. He was a golden cat, from his dusky gray eyes that had transformed to look as sparkly as a red-gold coin and his fur that was picture-perfect yellow-gold with the most perfect black-and-brown rosettes. But that was the end of the picturesque jaguar. When he opened his mouth, roaring a message to all in hearing distance, there was no mistaking his lethalness.

X didn’t hesitate another second but ripped through his own clothes with a shift that cracked bones and stretched muscle until his six-foot-long almost black cat was running up the rocky terrain behind Bas. His rosettes were black, blending in with his coat without close inspection. His eyes were a muted green, his night vision excellent, instincts on point as he ran the unfamiliar terrain.

Rogues were near, there was no doubt, and blood had been drawn. All bets were officially off.

Caprise watched the two cats in front of her. She witnessed the seamless shift from human to beast and felt a tugging deep in her stomach. All around she sensed activity. From behind there were more guards still traveling in human form, running as fast as they could to catch up to them. Beyond there was Bas and X, sleek jaguars using their clawed paws to grip the hardened red rock that formed the buttes they traveled between. It wasn’t easy; this wasn’t the jaguars’ natural terrain. Then again they weren’t natural jaguars.

She continued on foot, feeling the movement inside her but ignoring it. One of the guards had slipped her a gun as they’d left the shelter of Bas’s resort. He had no idea if she knew how to use it or not; nobody did really. But Caprise had trained extensively during her time away. She held an eighth dan black belt in tae kwon do, had mastered shooting on an open and enclosed range in her first year’s training, and had taken boxing classes for almost a year before returning to her love of dance. She was as limber and detail-oriented on the dance floor as she was agile and deadly in the fighting ring.

This gun was a little heavy in her hands. It was a Sig, and she preferred the lovely Glock 19 she owned and stored in her room at Havenway. If she’d known this trip would be a violent one she would have brought it with her. Instead she was risking twisting her ankle as she ran up and down these rocks with only her brown Coach Bonney Sneakers—even in combat she had the cutest shoes—instead of a pair of sturdy boots.

They were ahead of her by a couple of feet, cats moving much faster than her human legs, but she kept her night vision trained on them, watching their every move. And that’s when she saw it, before either of them did.

They were moving along the Boynton Canyon hiking trail. Caprise knew this because she’d spent her day reading the travel brochures in their room. Along the trails was packed dirt with trees splattered here and there, red rock jutting upward as if to break free of the flatland. Bas and X had just circled a butte when another roar sounded. The sound was different than what they’d heard before. Another cat probably. And it had come from behind the guys, just a few feet in front of Caprise.

It was a cat, a large one with teeth and flanks as long and muscular as Bas’s and X’s. This was a trap. While Bas and X chased the cats ahead, this cat would corner them. Caprise raised her arm, aimed the gun to shoot, but the cat darted down from the rock. She began to run, cursing as she went. She’d never catch it on foot.

The shift took her completely by surprise. Her human mind was thinking of another plan, her fingers wrapped securely around the gun in her right hand. As she took her next breath the gun hit the ground; so did her arms that were now strong front paws, her legs pulling up the back of her own sleek yellow cat. The chuffing sound came next, a clearing of her throat just before she roared so loud she thought the canyon itself was shaking around her.

Her padded paws hit the dirt, kicking up dust as she went. Strength and training had her going up the side of a butte to where she’d spotted the lone cat. When she saw him he’d stopped again, standing at the very edge of the butte, most likely looking down at Bas and X. Caprise had never battled with a cat before, never had any reason to, until now. Her body moved seamlessly through the night air as she charged the cat, opening her mouth to bite at its back just as she landed on top of it.

The element of surprise propelled them both over the edge of the butte, but Caprise held on, her teeth piercing through the thick fur and tough underlying skin. She tasted blood but would not let go, even when they thumped to the ground. Her flanks ached, jaws were locked as they rolled over, the other cat trying to get a grip on her.

Then it was pulled away, her teeth free of its prey. She growled in protest as two other cats battled the one she’d taken down. It was Bas and X, she knew, and she paced with the anger steadily brewing inside her. When the Rogue cat was still and dead as the night, X turned to look at her, his green gaze piercing and reprimanding through the night’s darkness.

Caprise did all she could do at the moment: She growled again, lifting a front paw and swiping it in his direction. His cat lunged forward, stopping directly in front of her, his own teeth bared, a disgusted chuff coming from his mouth. She roared back, then decided he wasn’t even worth the time. Her cat turned, running into the canyon without looking back.

Washington, DC

Seth left Athena’s at a little after four in the morning. He’d been a part of the last guard shift watching the place for Rogues. Of course they were there, selling their drugs and conducting a strip joint business just as they’d suspected. He, along with a good portion of the guards, wanted to go in and kill, walk out and be done. But the FL had given other orders. They were only to watch, not touch. Something about too much attention swirling around them right now.

That entire statement had struck Seth as BS. They were Shadow Shifters; they moved in the shadows in this city just as they did in the Gungi. Nobody knew of their existence, and nobody ever would. He hated that the FL was tying his hands. Hands that at this very moment itched to shift, his cat all but begging to be let loose to run.

He also missed Caprise. She’d only been gone for two days and he felt like he hadn’t seen her in an eternity. That was crazy since she was the commanding officer’s sister and as cordial as a Rogue on coke. But she was fine as hell, an older woman that Seth had fallen for the moment he’d laid eyes on her. His hope was to guard her body so well she’d one day want to share it and the rest of her life with him. Others would call him a fool for thinking along those lines; that’s why he’d kept those thoughts to himself. However, secrecy didn’t make them less relevant.

She was across the country with X, another badass commanding officer whom Seth didn’t want to cross in any way. That’s why he’d taken Caprise to meet him when she asked. His two goals in life were to move up the ranks in the newly formed Stateside Assembly and to one day become an FL of his own Zone. That goal could be fast-tracked if he and Caprise mated. Or vice versa, he thought with a smug smile as he walked to his jeep.

He was about two steps away when he heard the chuffing sound. Stopping instantly, Seth tuned in to all his senses. There was a cat in this alley with him, a big, strong-ass cat with blood on its mind.

“Its showtime, baby,” Seth mumbled with excitement. He’d just grabbed the hem of his shirt, about to rip it over his head so he could shift, when he was knocked down.

His body and face hit the ground with a painful thump. Defenses kicking in, he rolled over instantly to face his assailant but was in no way prepared for what he would see.

This cat was huge, easily weighing more than 250 pounds and probably longer than seven feet, even though he couldn’t see beyond the big-ass head full of white fur and crystalline blue eyes glaring down at him. No, the teeth definitely took precedence: All of them were more than two inches long, dripping with spittle down onto him.

Seth’s cat reacted instantly, his own teeth elongating, claws emerging from his fingers, body ruffling with fur … then the first bite came to his left shoulder. He yelled as pain rippled through his body. The next bite was to his side, and Seth’s cat struggled at the halfway point with his human screaming and writhing in pain. Whatever happened after that was a total loss since the world Seth had once known, the dream of becoming FL and mating Caprise Delgado, faded into an abyss of darkness.

Chapter 16

Sedona

“You can slow down now,” X said from about three feet behind Caprise.

She was perfectly naked as they moved through the canyons, which made him thankful for the night. Before he’d followed her, Bas had shifted, handing him some extra sweats one of his guards had been carrying. So at least his bottom was covered. He held the top for Caprise, if she’d stop to accept it.

She’d been on the move since leaving the group about twenty minutes ago, and he’d been right behind her. For the first ten minutes he’d decided she needed to come down from the adrenaline rush of shifting. If Caprise didn’t want to be lumped in with their shifter community it stood to reason she hadn’t taken her shifter form in a while—and most likely she’d never been involved in a battle with another shifter. Yet tonight, she’d done both. Her emotions were liable to be all over the place right now. And even though he was the last person to be on emotion-control duty, X was determined to be the one to see her through this.

The innately sexual look in Bas’s eyes as he’d seen her cat in action said the FL was definitely interested in what he saw. A female was fair game until she was mated, and while X and Caprise had enjoyed each other sexually, neither one of them was even considering the mating part. Hell, X didn’t even know all the details to shifter mating and all that ceremonial BS Rome and Nick had gone through. And he wasn’t rushing to sign up for any type of Shadow Shifter mating class to learn.