The Catalyst (18 page)

“Do you know where you’re going?” he asked as they
threaded between the trees, moving north.

“Of course I know where I’m going. The panther’s cave
is about a mile this way.”

“Do you think they’ll be awake this early?” Cole was
beginning to get antsy, anxiety prickling at the back of his mind
over what could go wrong. He wasn’t sure if it was instincts or
garden-variety paranoia. Being this close to the situation made it
impossible to tell.

“I’m not waiting any more to see my kid.”

***

Fiona woke to a sound in the cave and rolled over to
see Z shoot straight up, his eyes glowing yellow in the darkness of
the bedroom. Then he was out of the bed, shifting into his panther
form.

“What is it?” Had the magic users found them and come
back to finish them off?

Stay in here. Do not leave this room.
He
growled.

She nodded, but had no intention of listening. As
soon as he was out of the room, she slipped out of bed and shimmied
into some jeans and a T-shirt. As she dressed, she tried not to
worry about whether or not his arm had still been wrapped around
her when she’d first woken up. Now wasn’t the time to dissect her
first sexual encounter. And it wasn’t the time to moon over him
like he was a high school crush she was considering asking to the
Sadie Hawkins dance.

There was possibly an intruder in the house.
Possibly
because it could be a possum or a squirrel, but her
red flags were up.

Fiona moved into the hallway to listen. She heard
growling and answering growls, but no intelligible words. Whatever
was growling back at Z wasn’t a panther. They didn’t speak the same
language, so they weren’t bothering to use one. It was the
equivalent of caveman grunting. What she sensed from both
creatures, however, was protectiveness, not open hostility.

There was a woman’s voice. “Cole, that’s the panther
therian. Just shift so you two can talk like civilized beings. I
swear.”

Fiona peered around the corner in time to watch both
the wolf and the panther shift back into human form.
Oh my. Two
hot, naked males.

A growl came from the naked werewolf. “Jane, are you
checking him out?”

So Fiona hadn’t been the only one doing a double
take. Talk about double your pleasure. She blushed. Had a single
sexual encounter just opened some kind of horny Pandora’s box with
her?

“I’m a succubus. I can’t help it. He’s attractive and
male and the sexual energy is coming off him… wow. Some girl is
lucky.”

“That’s not helping,” Cole said. “If you don’t want
me to kill him, maybe you should keep those thoughts to
yourself.”

“I’d love to see you try to kill me.” That was Z,
sounding laid back and lethal as ever. Not that Fiona wanted to
watch them roll around on the floor fighting.

She came out from her hiding place before she started
to imagine inappropriate things. “M-maybe if everybody would put
clothes on, that would solve the problem.”

“I thought I told you to stay in the bedroom,” Z
said.

“Yeah, I heard the growls. But then I decided on a
different course of action.”

The succubus laughed. “I see you’ve got one of these,
too. You have to let them do their gruff, growly thing and indulge
them. I don’t know about yours, but Cole is sweet when you get to
know him.” Her hair fell back over her shoulder, revealing a bite
mark that looked like it must have hurt, but the woman was
unperturbed by it. As a demon, it probably hadn’t hurt her at all.
But why would a demon have a mating mark from a wolf?

“Jane! I’m not sweet,” the wolf grumbled.

“What?” she said. “This isn’t a battleground. Z wants
to get his freedom back. We want the pup. Easy trade. No body parts
lost.”

“How did you know my name?” Z said, suspicion coming
back into his eyes. By this point, Cole was putting on clothes,
though Z still stood without a stitch of clothing on, with no sense
of unease about it.

“Relax,” Jane said. “I’m the pup’s mother. I saw you
on a screen when I was in heaven.”

Z didn’t look like he was buying it, and Jane could
tell. “Nice try, but a demon and werewolf can’t make a pup. They
can make a vampire, but they sure as fuck can’t make a pup.”

“Oh, I was human when we made him. Why else would I
have been in heaven? Do you think demons get visitor passes?”

While she spoke, Jane did that hungry once-over on Z
again. It tripped Fiona’s territorial meter, though she knew she
had no claim on him. Before she could challenge the demon to a
fight she couldn’t win, she went back to the bedroom and grabbed
jeans and a T-shirt for Z. When she returned, she tossed them to
the panther.

He caught them mid-air without taking his eyes off
the two interlopers. He put the jeans on, but eyed the shirt like
it was infested with roaches. “I never wear T-shirts in the cave,”
he protested.

“Please.” She hoped he wouldn’t embarrass her in
front of the pup’s family by pointing out that she wasn’t his mate
and couldn’t make such demands. He stared at her for a few seconds,
then put the shirt on.

As he pulled it over his head, he said, “Pup’s not
here. He was taken by some magic users in the forest yesterday
afternoon. I don’t know who they are. I don’t know who they’re
working for. I don’t know why they took him. I don’t know how to
get him back. Thank you for visiting. Now I’d like to go back to
sleep if you don’t mind.”

Cole growled, glancing over at his mate. “This is
Cain’s fault. If he hadn’t felt like he had to teach you all your
fancy demon skills, we could have gotten to the pup first.” He
turned back to Z. “Why didn’t you go looking for him?”

And now the fangs were out. “Hey, crazy wolf. Did you
miss my monologue just now where I said I don’t know where the fuck
to look for your rug rat?”

“Z!” Fiona said. He’d promised he’d go look. She felt
so stupid. He’d never intended to look or form a plan. He’d just
wanted in her pants. Shutting her up about the pup had been the
necessary evil to serve that agenda. She couldn’t hide the betrayal
in her eyes. Z’s return expression was tense, but obviously not
looking forward to drama, because anything that inconvenienced him
and his glorious bachelor lifestyle was drama. And they couldn’t
have that.

Fiona felt bad for the werewolf. The light went out
of his eyes, replaced by a haunted look it seemed he’d gotten used
to wearing. That was how easily it fit on his face. The demon, on
the other hand was angry.

Her eyes glowed red. “Cole. We’ll find him. Wherever
he is, we will find him. Charlee knows that sorcerer guy.”

“We are not dealing with Dayne Wickham,” the wolf
said. “Besides, if magic users took him, they’ll have shields up.
They could want him for anything.” He paced in front of the
couch.

Jane went to the cage. “Which one of these toys has
the pup had the longest?”

Z pointed to a red ball in the corner. “That
one.”

She retrieved the ball and went to the kitchen,
sorting through a drawer like she owned the place. Nobody bothered
trying to stop her. She came back with a pen and paper and handed
it to Cole. “Write down your cell number. They can call us if they
hear anything, and I’m sure Dayne will be willing to do a spell to
try to track him.”

“Not after I cut him off from theriantype.com, he
won’t.”

“Wait,” Z said, “You own theriantype.com? That’s
hilarious. Nobody trusts werewolves, and they’re all doing business
with one. And a demon.” He gave Jane an appreciative once-over that
made Fiona feel insecure times thirty.

Jane and Cole both glared at Z as the wolf shoved the
paper into his hands. “You call me if you hear anything,” Cole
said. Then the two disappeared out of the cave without another
word.

“The manners of some people,” Z said, sinking back
onto the couch. He crumbled up the piece of paper and tossed it in
the corner.

“You had no intention of looking for the pup, did
you?”

“Fiona, I’m tired. I want to go back to sleep. Do we
have to do this now?”

Her voice was cold when she replied. “That’s all I
needed to know. Take me home right now.”

She was already packing up bags, putting her magic
book back into the duffel beside the fireplace.

“You know I can’t. It’s not safe out there. We don’t
know who they are. They could come back. And anyway, it’s
outside
” He used sarcastic finger quotes, putting emphasis
on the word to remind her of her phobia, as if it were some red
button he could push to control her. And ordinarily, it might have
been. But at the moment she was too pissed.

“Yeah, I know how agoraphobia works. It’s just that I
don’t care what happens to me right now because you lied to get me
in bed. Maybe you’re the thing the birds warned about. If you are,
the danger’s over so take me home.”

Z stood, his jaw clenched tight. “Oh my god. Virgins
are such drama. I did not lie to you to…”

Before he could finish the sentence, she slapped him.
She’d moved so fast that for a moment he forgot she was human. The
sharp snap of her fury echoed off the walls of the cave.

“Don’t you ever make me feel like some lesser being
just because I haven’t screwed everything breathing. You are not
the measuring stick of normal so get over yourself. Take. Me. Home.
You have no right to keep me prisoner here.”

“Fine. Fuck.”

Chapter Ten

Z had to get her out of his cave. If he didn’t, he’d
try to mount her again. The flushed anger in her face was much
sexier right now than he wanted to admit.

He didn’t say another word as he helped her get her
things together. He slung a few of the satchels over his shoulder
and loaded Fiona down with the others. He helped her down the side
of the rock, gave her his helmet, and took her back to her
place.

This is why I don’t sleep with virgins.
Of
course it would end like this. Sex was too big of a deal to them.
No matter what they said, they couldn’t just fuck and move on. It
had to be a big deal. It had to be romance and relationships and
confrontations.

What was he supposed to do about the pup? How was he
supposed to find him? Maybe he should have put some kind of tracker
on the little guy, but that was water under the bridge now.
Whatever he should have done had no bearing on what he
had
done or where they were now. All he wanted was to disentangle
himself from all of it and get back to being a normal panther.

He was relieved it was the family’s problem now,
instead of his. Z could sleep without guilt, without having to be
further involved in any of it. And that suited him just fine. Who
was more motivated and better equipped to find the missing pup? Him
with his unpracticed witch, or the parents, one of whom was a demon
and knew a powerful sorcerer?

And now that Fiona had gone nuclear, he didn’t have
to worry about what he was going to do with her, either.

He could get rid of that stupid cage and all the toys
from the bachelor cave. He could sleep through the damned night. He
could go out whenever he wanted and sleep with whomever he wanted
and go back to who he’d been before this domestic interruption.
Life was good again.

But it was hard to convince himself of that when he
could smell Fiona’s tears and feel the warmth from her body as she
held onto him on the back of the motorcycle. His protective urges
wouldn’t shut up around her. Didn’t she need him? No, that was
stalking, he was pretty sure. Yeah, he’d kidnapped her, but that
was a one-time event. Continuing to impose himself in her life was
a whole other level of psycho he wasn’t prepared to embody.

She’s drama. You’re better off without her.

When they stopped in front of the cottage, everything
looked secure. Stan had been by to fix the window like Z had
requested. Fiona hopped off the back of the motorcycle like her ass
was on fire and marched straight up to the house without looking
back. Z followed with the rest of her bags.

He put the bags down beside her front door and slunk
back toward his ride. She could keep the helmet. He didn’t need it
anyway, and the sooner he put space between them, the happier he’d
be.

Her voice stopped him cold. “You know, I might die
alone because of my fears, but so will you. Think about that when
you’ve run through the available female population.”

Ouch.
Some nasty part of him wanted to call
her a bitch, but she wasn’t a bitch. She was right. They would both
end up alone. But that didn’t mean he was good for her.

“Fiona…”

“What?” Her voice was guarded, as if she expected him
to say something vicious, and maybe that had been the plan before
he’d seen that stark look in her eyes. Now he couldn’t remember
what he’d been about to say.

The anger drained out of him. “You deserve somebody
better than me. There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re amazing. I’m
just… not that guy. I don’t know how to be that guy. I still don’t
feel good about leaving you alone here…”

You’re stalling.

“They got what they came for. They aren’t coming
back. Just go. Leave me alone so I can start forgetting I met
you.”

Z nodded. “Okay.”

When he got back to the cave, he couldn’t help
noticing how quiet it was. How had he lived in so much quiet
before?

The place still smelled like her. He’d been tired,
but now sleep was the last thing he wanted. A scrap of purple
fabric peeked out from under the bed. She’d left one of her
T-shirts. For a moment, he had the idea to go back to her cottage
on the pretext of returning the shirt, but he couldn’t bring
himself to. He wadded it up and threw it in the garbage can under
the kitchen sink.

He opened the cabinet and stared. Several coffee mugs
lined in a perfect row from largest to smallest stared back at him.
Z took the cups out one by one and hurled them across the cave to
smash against the mantle of the fireplace. The crash and shattering
of ceramic was cathartic until it was over. Then it was just a
mess.