Summon Toren (Archangels Creed #3) (10 page)

Jo
e barely glanced over his shoulder and didn't reply. Jonas, the youngest of the full hands, barely staying upright from the looks of it, turned to her, ignoring a nasty glance from Joe.

"I came out to feed and saw the mare had dropped her foal. I watched and it ain't movin
’. Called Mr. Josephus and he tried to get a look, but the ole girl kicked at ‘im. I got a little better look then. It's breathing but too slow. And it's real little."

The third man turned and Sam nearly sighed with relief. "Doc, what brings you this way? I know you didn't come out for a couple of old women whining over a foal."

Doc Jansen, the vet the ranch used when necessary, grinned, fully aware of the animosity between Sam and Joe. "Hey, Sammy. Nah, I was here checking on the mare I brought to your cutting stud. Came out when I heard the commotion." He nodded toward Sam's mare, weathered face serious. "That foal needs looking at, but the mare's done put your men back over the fence."

Finally,
Joe turned to her. "I just brought my rifle out. Going to settle it once and for all. Like I should have to begin with." He worked the bolt and sent a round into the chamber.

Fury shot through Sam. "What do you think you're doing?"

Joe turned to face her fully and allowed the muzzle of the rifle to drift in her direction. "I'm putting that damn rogue down. The bitch is dangerous and is going to hurt somebody. I won't stand by and let that happen."

If she didn't know better, she'd have sworn
Joe’s eyes glowed blood red in the shadow of his hat. Then his words sank in. Her heart slammed into her throat. He wouldn't dare. "That animal is worth tens of thousands of dollars. You kill her, you'll pay back every cent. The financial stability of this ranch lies in her bloodlines since you talked my father into mortgaging the place to the hilt with that harebrained mining scheme of yours."

"Hey, man, get out of there!" Jonas didn't yell, but he amplified his voice to carry, and it caught Sam's attention.

She turned to see who he was talking to. Her blood froze in her veins as the mare trumpeted and pawed the earth. Toren was inside the pen! She wanted to scream for him to get out but couldn't take the chance of spooking the mare any further.

She held her breath and watched. Toren sidled in a slow circle around the mare, keeping his distance, hands out at his sides. The mare switched her tail and rolled her eyes, but she kept her attention on him, circling to face him.

Doc Jansen nodded to his assistant, the other man in the group. "Get over there by the fence. When he gets the mare's full attention, you get in there and drag that foal out."

The young man nodded and shed his coat and hat, careful to avoid alerting the mare. In just a moment, he'd found a place to crouch beside the fence as close to the infant horse as possible, ready to dive through.

Toren circled within a dozen feet of the mare, still moving slow and crooning soft words.

"This is bullshit!"
Joe snatched off his own hat and threw it to the ground. "That bastard is going to get himself killed."

The mare threw her head up and trumpeted her warning again, stamping the ground.

Toren froze but continued to talk to the enraged mother.

Jo
e suddenly moved closer to the fence and shouldered the rifle. "Get out of there, you idiot! Damn thing will kill you!" He waved one hand wildly and whistled, drawing the mare's full attention.

She reared and screamed then leapt forward to deal with the threat
Joe presented.

Toren stood directly between the furious beast and her target. He dove to the side but her shoulder still hit him with tremendous force, throwing him through the air to land hard on his back.

The mare screamed again, rearing and pawing the air while sweat and lather dripped from her glistening hide.

Toren lay on the ground, the breath obviously knocked from him
, leaving him helpless.

The mare dove at him and rose in a short rear.
Sam's heart stopped.

The mare's iron-hard hooves drove down to strike Toren's chest with incredible force. His body jerked off the ground with the impact.

"Shoot! Kill her Joe!" The words leapt from her throat in panic, but Sam wouldn't take them back. Suddenly Toren meant more to her than the ranch's future. Another blow like the first would kill any man and she couldn’t lose him. No matter if he did end up shattering her heart and soul. One moment with him was worth far more than any horse or piece of land.

Moving in slow motion,
Joe took aim and the mare reared again, bellowing her anger.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sam absently noted the vet's assistant darting toward the foal. He dropped to his knees at its side.

Joe's finger finally tightened on the trigger as the mare started her downward plunge.

"SHOOT!"

"NO!" Toren exploded from under the mare's hooves and flew at her head. Using his momentum and the mare's position, he spun her off her feet and bore her to the ground. He crouched with his knee on the horse's jaw, keeping her pinned.

The vet's assistant grabbed the foal's hind feet and dragged it to the fence where the vet took over and pulled the little thing under the bottom rail. "Clear!"

"Toren, get out!"

Faced with the dilemma of letting go of the tiger's tail, Toren stayed still for a long moment. Then he visibly gathered himself, muscles rippling under the muddy mixture of dirt, sweat and snow that coved his
naked back. With inhuman speed, he leaped off the mare's head and moved back.

He continued to face the horse as she lunged to her feet.

Why didn't he run? He'd had a few seconds to get outside the fence.

Instead he stood like a statue, hands out, murmuring those soft words again.

The mare snorted and tossed her mane, but stood.

Toren took a step toward her. And still she stood. Another step. She stretched her muzzle out, nostrils quivering.

Toren took another step and the mare allowed his fingers to touch her nose, then creep up to her head, tickling and scratching. Amazingly, the powerful creature lowered her head and relaxed her ears.

Toren stepped up to touch her neck.

"You want a rope, man?" Jonas' low voice carried across the pen.

Toren shook his head and took hold of a handful of mane and tugged. The mare took a step, apparently willing to follow where he led.

"Get the hell out of my way, you bastard!" Joe’s voice broke and he screeched the command as he drew the rifle's hammer back.

Toren turned a little, still keeping his hand on the mare. His low voice carried so there could be no mistake what he said. "Back the fuck off. You aren't hurting this horse."

Unable to shoot without hitting Toren, Joe darted around the pen, trying for a clear line of sight of the mare. "That thing's insane." At the same time, near the barn, the foal responded to the vet's efforts with a plaintive whinny.

The mare suddenly reared again.

Joe’s face tightened with his determination to finally pull the trigger and he took deliberate aim.

Sam launched herself at him with superhuman effort and reached him in the split second before the firing pin fell. She hit hard, knocking his arm up and over to send the bullet harmlessly into the air.

The mare wheeled toward her foal and one forehoof struck Toren in the side of the head. He went suddenly boneless and started a slo-mo slump to the dirt while the mare leapt over him.

Sam started toward Toren but a heavy weight crashed into her before she could reach the fence. Going to her knees from the impact, she realized
Joe had tackled her. His fist came out of nowhere to land a glancing blow to her jaw.

Toren struck the ground, limp, as Sam's vision blurred. Fear for Toren drove her to fight unconsciousness. She had to help him…

** ** **

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

Skylar let her head fall back against the headrest of her truck seat. God, she was so sick of running. If anyone had told her a year ago that she'd actually miss the rodeo circuit, she'd have laughed. All her life, every single day had been filled with competing or preparing to compete. And when she wasn't working her ass off to get to national level rodeo queen pageant competition, she was studying to earn her first Bachelors of Science at seventeen.

And none of it mattered any longer. Life had changed drastically when her mother remarried just eleven months after her father's death in a car accident, but it didn't get bad until her mother died from a freak case of food poisoning. A bit over a month later, her stepfather had insisted she wear the sexy revealing new gown he gave her and go to dinner with him. Except it wasn't dinner. An exclusive club had been closed for the night for a special event. The evening culminated in a silent auction. Skylar and two other young women were up for sale.

Refusing to sit and brood any longer, she climbed out of the truck and headed into the little diner. The sign said they had computers and internet access. Maybe she could find a job to tide her over a little while before she had to hit the road again. Before her stepfather's goons gained too much ground on her and closed in.

** ** **

Kassern stood with his hip propped against the counter watching the woman he loved devour her breakfast with uncharacteristic aggression. He knew it was time to bring her in, that all her symptoms said it was the right thing, the safe thing. He’d wanted to ask her about how she truly felt but had no appetite for it. She'd grown especially moody since he first mentioned having her tested. Yesterday, she'd made Devyn cry, bitching at her for not making a fresh pot of coffee. Something was definitely going on with her, and the endless possibilities terrified him.

A bleary-eyed Troy wandered into the kitchen searching for the cup of strong coffee that seemed to help wake the human in him. Barely aware of where he was going, he bumped into Karly's chair and stumbled to the other side, over balanced and stubbed his toe.

Karly leaped to her feet. "Watch where you're going, asshole!" She drew one fist back and, before Kassern could stop her, punched Troy in the solar plexus.

Troy's breath exploded out in a
whuump!
as he bent double in reaction.

Kassern grabbed Karly's other arm and jerked her back.

"Let me go, you bastard." She wrenched her arm away from Kassern and stomped out the door.

Kassern tracked her footsteps to their room feeling like the twenty-two foot distance spanned eternity. "You okay, man?"

Troy grunted with a few gasps of shaky air. "Who pissed in her cereal?" He rubbed at his abdomen, slightly bent over still. "Yeah, I'm okay. Question is, is she okay?”

The voiced
concern coupled with the sensation of her presence leaving their hide-out sent Kassern on a turbo-powered flash after her. His panic doubled when he realized she'd not only left their safe location, she'd left the shielded area he and Dorn had so carefully prepared to mask their presence from the demons. She might as well have sent up a flare announcing their presence, since she should have known he would flash after her, using angelic power.

He really didn't want to fight with her again, but there didn't seem anything else he could do about it. Alerting Dorn and his quad of their compromised position, he proceeded with extreme caution and appeared directly in her path grabbing hold of both her upper arms, prepared to use force. "Baby? You’re not okay, I’m taking you to the Grotto of Aesculapius.”

Karly halted and glared up at him. "What? Because I sucker punched the Bible-thumping fag? Really?" She shook her head and tried to free herself only to curse under her breath and bare her teeth at him.

"You know I love you, right? I’m not going to let anything happen to you but this isn't like you." He grabbed her hands and held fast.

"Let go of me." She jerked again, her angry glare and growl growing more intense. She pulled harder, determined to break his hold.

Thanks to the angelic power she’d inherited, he didn't see the toe of her shoe coming until it collided with his shin. He grunted but didn’t let go. "Enough, Karly." He fought the temptation to shake a little sense into her. "You've already drawn the demons a map right to us. What the hell is going on?"

Tears filled her eyes and her fury gave way to confusion. "Kassern? What happened?"

Terror pumped into Kassern at her sudden confusion. Not a good sign. "There's no time to talk about it now." His demon radar was screeching warnings and he glanced around, looking for the threat. "Come on, we have to get out of here before a—"
He staggered into Karly when something big hit the center of his back, hard.

The switch flipped in her eyes again and she went from his sweet, confused wife, to the angry mean
banshee. Her palm met his jaw with a resounding
thwack
that rocked him back on his heels just as another blow from behind rattled every bone in his body.