Shadow Shifters: Shifter's Claim Part 19

Without another thought he did just that, leaning forward and sinking his sharp teeth into the nape of her neck. She let out a scream, simultaneously clenching her thighs around him as her release ripped through her fiercely. The increase of that foreign scent, her tightening around him, her scream, the deepness of his thrust, all of the above pushed Bas right over the brink and he let loose what had to be the most powerful release of all his life.

"Sweet," she whispered after they'd been still but for their racing hearts for a couple of minutes.

Bas had pulled out of her, moving back to his seat near the window, watching as she did the same. "Excuse me?" he asked when he realized she'd spoken.

She stopped b.u.t.toning her dress to look over at him. "It smells so sweet in here. Maybe we're at the bakery or the mall has a Cinnabon shop." She groaned. "I love Cinnabon."

If Bas thought it was strange that she was talking about Cinnabons after a very intense and possibly game-changing round of s.e.x, he didn't say it, because something else had grabbed his attention.

The moment he'd climbed into the truck he'd activated the privacy window that blocked the front seat from seeing or hearing anything that was going on in the back, another enhancement which was actually in all the FL vehicles. So Kaz had no idea what they'd been doing back here for the last ... how long had it been?

Yet the s.h.i.+fter had continued to drive.

Lifting his arm, Bas looked down at his watch. They should have been in town ten minutes ago. The truck should have been parked and Kaz should have either called him through the com link or knocked on the back door to get them out.

Instead, the truck was still moving.

"I need you to be very quiet," Bas told Priya after he'd adjusted his clothes. Reaching forward, he opened a compartment just beneath the privacy window. There was a small plastic packet in there and he retrieved it, holding it up so she could see it. "Clean yourself up and do not get out of this truck."

The calm that was in her eyes just seconds before was replaced by the slight edge of panic and Bas felt ready to kill. Instead he shook his head, returning to the seat and reaching out to touch her. "No. Nothing is going to happen to you. Nothing at all. I just need you to stay here until I come back for you. Do you understand?"

She nodded her head and Bas released his grip on her. She immediately took the packet of wipes from his hand and he moved across the seat to the window where he'd been before. Reaching beneath that seat Bas retrieved his gun, removed the safety, and spoke into his com link.

"Kaz, what's our ETA?"

There was no response.

"I said, what's our ETA?" Bas repeated.

A few seconds later there was still no response.

Bas cursed just as the truck swerved, jerking both him and Priya around on the backseat.

Chapter 25.

"Press pound three and say code blue," Priya whispered to herself as she held Bas's cell phone in her hands like it was her lifeline. He'd thrust the phone into her hands just before opening the door and leaving her in the back of the truck by herself. She pressed a b.u.t.ton on the phone and watched it light up. If he wasn't back in seven and a half minutes, she was to call that number and hopefully help would come.

In the meantime, she thought with fear snaking along her spine, she'd just wait here, like a sitting duck. Looking out the window she saw immediate darkness and what looked like it could be streetlights in the distance. She pressed the b.u.t.ton she'd watched Bas press when they climbed into the car and waited while the privacy part.i.tion was lowered.

"Dammit!"

The driver was gone. It hadn't been the same driver she'd seen the first night, the one she now knew from Jewel was Bas's best friend. This was a younger guy who had stared at her b.r.e.a.s.t.s much longer than was polite and gave a salacious smile when he'd held the door as she climbed inside. He'd had a creepy look about him but Priya was used to that. She hadn't come from the best neighborhood in D.C. so she was used to dealing with sc.u.mbags and jerk-offs, only she hadn't thought she would be faced with them in Bas's quaint little resort town.

It was deathly quiet now. The word "deathly" echoing in her mind as soon as she'd thought it and her heart hammered in her chest.

Why was she sitting here waiting for something bad to happen? Wasn't she more of a proactive than a reactive woman?

Nothing is going to happen to you. Nothing at all.

That's what Bas had said.

I just need you to stay here until I come back for you.

Yeah, or wait until somebody or something else comes back for her. To h.e.l.l with that!

Priya reached for the door handle just as it was pulled from the other side. She stumbled a bit, keeping a grip on the cell phone and looking up into the deadliest eyes she'd ever seen.

Bas chased Kaz down the stretch of road before he turned off into a copse of trees. He could have shot him, could have just shot that b.a.s.t.a.r.d traitor in the back but they weren't in a private location.

Kaz had stopped the truck about a quarter mile away from a cul-de-sac town house development. If he fired his gun the neighbors would surely hear and call the cops. Cursing, he stopped running and turned back toward the truck. Priya was there alone. He had to get back to her and call Jacques to tell him what was going on. He had to ...

The scream ricocheted off the trees, cutting through Bas like a heated blade. Inside his cat roared, his human feet picked up, and he ran full-on toward the truck only to come up short when he saw Priya ... and the two full-grown male jaguars standing on either side of her. From behind the truck came a man that possibly matched Bas in height and weight; the glow of his eyes and the foul stench that rested heavily against the dry air branded him a s.h.i.+fter, a rogue s.h.i.+fter.

One of the cats knocked its head against the back of Priya's legs and she fell to her knees. Bas moved in and the one still in human form stepped in front of him.

"We meet again, Sebastian," Palermo Greer said, a wicked gleam in his cat's eyes. "This time you have something that belongs to me and I have something that belongs to you. You wanna trade?"

The last was said as if the words tasted like a dead fowl on his lips and were followed by a laugh that echoed in the night. Bas didn't flinch and he didn't give a d.a.m.n what he had that Palermo thought belonged to him, Priya was not a part of this, not now and not ever.

"Let her go and I won't kill your sorry a.s.s," was his response.

The rogue tossed back his head and laughed again, showing the tattoos on his long, dark, orange skin-toned neck.

"Like you did all those years ago when we were in the forest? Oh, wait, you didn't do anything that time and look what happened." Both cats, already s.h.i.+fted and standing just behind Palermo, replied with open-mouthed growls that echoed off the mountaintops.

Bas wanted to s.h.i.+ft and break Palermo's spine with his bare teeth. He wanted to rip the b.a.s.t.a.r.d s.h.i.+fter apart the same way he'd watched him and his cohorts kill Mariah. But this wasn't Mariah. She was dead. This was Priya and his chest ached with the possibility that she could suffer the same fate, because of him.

"I'm not that man anymore," Bas told him steadily.

"You're not a man at all, are you? Or maybe you didn't tell your lovely little human mate about your true nature?" Palermo continued.

Oh but he had, Bas thought fleetingly. "This is not going to end the way you want it to, Greer. I'm not giving you back the blood."

There was an endless second of silence while Bas's words were digested. "Then I'll just have to take hers," Palermo finally spat, his teeth elongating, head tilting as he leaned in closer to Priya's head.

Bas's gaze rested on Priya, who had only made a slight gasp as Palermo pulled her up around the waist, pus.h.i.+ng her head forward. He would go for the back of her neck, paralyzing her before he actually killed her, just like he'd done with Mariah. But Priya was different-a fact Bas had already discovered-she wasn't crying even though fear engulfed her ... no wait, anger was mixed with that fear. And as Bas looked even closer, he saw what she held in her hand, his cell phone and the screen was lit indicating she'd made a call.

Unfortunately, having Jacques on his way wasn't going to get that mangy rogue's hands off her and for Bas that was priority number one.

Returning his gaze to Greer, Bas moved slightly, aimed, and fired, hitting the filthy rogue in the shoulder. The sound of the gunshot brought the cats behind Greer into full action and they both lunged past Priya toward him. Bas had maybe two seconds to decide whether he was going to use all his bullets trying to shoot the cats down then take out their leader, or simply s.h.i.+ft and kill all the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. s.h.i.+fting would mean exposure, but Priya had already seen him and right about now he didn't give a flying f.u.c.k who saw him. She was the priority, saving her was all he cared about. A repeat of fourteen years ago with him burying a dead human body so that no one would ever find it was not going to happen, not this time.

He s.h.i.+fted, falling to his haunches instantly and the second the first cat approached, Bas jumped upward and bit deep into its skull. The second one attacked him from behind, but he twisted with the animal, pounding at it with his paws.

Priya moved quickly the second she heard the gunshot. The man holding her had faltered and she'd fallen to the ground once more, almost on her face. Not hesitating, she rolled over and came to a standing position, calling on her year of self-defense and kickboxing training at the Y. The man fell against the truck holding his shoulder and she went at him instantly. Fists balled, arms raised, she stepped toward him, angled her body, then put all her weight on her left leg, swinging her right leg into the air. The heel of her foot caught the man on his chin. His head jerked back and she moved in closer, punching him in the throat and taking away whatever air he had left.

He crumpled to his knees and she stepped away, looking over to where the cats were battling. The sounds were horrendous, the pounding against their ma.s.sive bodies, the growls and roars. It all played in horrific stereo that only amplified the sight before her. These were vicious animals fighting possibly to the death and Bas, the man she'd been sleeping with these past couple of days, was one of them.

With her heart beating way too fast to be normal, Priya ran toward the cats, falling to her knees just a few feet away from the truck where Bas had dropped his gun. Once she had the cool metal in her hands, she fumbled through her mind to figure out how to use it. She'd taken self-defense cla.s.ses, not cla.s.ses at the gun range. But Malik had never been a stranger to guns or how to use them, so this wasn't the first time she'd held one in her hands. It was, however, the first time she held one with the intention of actually shooting someone.

Later she would wonder how she heard him, how she knew he was coming for her again but right now Priya turned quickly, gun raised, and pulled the trigger. The huge black cat that had been lunging for her hit the ground with a horrendous thump. Kickback from the gun pushed at her until she fell on her a.s.s and in the next instant she was staring up into the face of one angry-a.s.s big cat, teeth bared and ready to strike.

Chapter 26.

Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.

Agent Dorian Wilson was nowhere to be found. Nivea had gone to his apartment once more, she'd waited hours for him to leave, but he hadn't. Sure, because of Bas's call she'd been an hour late getting to his apartment near the D.C. and northern Virginia border, but he wasn't due into work for another forty-five minutes, so she'd thought she still had time. Now, at almost ten o'clock in the morning, she knew something was wrong. A search of the parking garage where he held a monthly pa.s.s, proved her point. Wilson's car wasn't there.

Cursing to herself as she drove out onto the street once more, she reached for her cell phone, which was based on the dashboard and pressed for a stored number to be dialed. Before the number could be connected and she could speak through her Bluetooth, reporting her location and current situation to the guards at Havenway, she received an incoming text that read: Search complete. IP location: 90912 29th street NW.

With the call back to base completely disregarded, Nivea punched the address into her GPS and drove with every intention of finding out who was holding Malik Drake hostage and threatening the s.h.i.+fters at the same time.

Forty minutes later she parked her car directly in front of a brownstone that displayed the same address as the one in her phone. Grabbing her phone off the dash, sticking it in her back pocket, and checking the weapon under her right pants leg, she climbed out of the car and headed up the steps. Three presses to the doorbell but there was no answer. Two st.u.r.dy knocks and even an attempted yell through the door that she was with the utility company, and still no answer, but there was a scent.

Closing her eyes, Nivea pressed her forehead to the door and took a deep inhale. Cars drove by on the street behind her, somewhere in the distance a dog barked, and above the sun shone like a beacon. Nivea, however, remained perfectly still as she focused totally on the scent tickling her nose.

It was a human, a bleeding human and it was coming from inside this house. She didn't think beyond that, couldn't really, as her adrenaline kicked immediately into action. Pulling a pin from her ponytail she went to work on the lock, disengaging it about ten seconds after she'd first touched it. The k.n.o.b turned at her command and in the next instant Nivea was inside the house. The scent instantly intensified and she stopped only long enough to pull her gun from its holster before fully moving in. Letting her senses guide her, Nivea moved through what looked like a very well-to-do person's house with its crystal-and-gold chandelier gleaming from above, plush carpets, and lavish furniture. She ignored all that in pursuit of the aroma, pa.s.sing the living and dining rooms, coming to a pause at a door. With no one there to stop her, Nivea opened that door and hurried down the steps only to be welcomed by the ring of gunshots.

Ducking quickly behind an old armoire she extended her arm and returned the fire, seeing two men standing in front of a third man tied to a chair-the bleeding human.

A hail of bullets rained down at that moment and Nivea didn't dare peek out from behind the armoire again. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest as she finally cursed herself for not making the call to Havenway, for not asking for backup before entering this d.a.m.ned house. Now she was trapped with dismal chances of getting herself, let alone the bleeding human out of here alive.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty," a male voice taunted when the shooting subsided. "Come out and play with us."

Dammit, a rogue.

Why hadn't she smelled them first? Why had she only scented the human? It didn't matter now, they weren't shooting so now was her chance. With her back to the armoire she gripped her gun and got low, coming around the side aiming and shooting the one rogue right in the b.a.l.l.s. The other received a shot between his eyes and another squarely in the center of his chest. But those shots hadn't come from her. Whirling around she saw immediately who had fired.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing here?" she asked.

"Saving your simple a.s.s," was Eli Preston's quick retort.

"Wait a G.o.dd.a.m.ned-" Nivea had started, only to be cut off by Eli and that c.o.c.ky-a.s.s swagger of his walking right past her as if he had heard all he wanted to hear.

"Save it," he told her as he continued to move across the room. "Let's get him out of here before the owners of this house are notified we're here by the alarm you set off when you broke in."

There hadn't been an alarm. Had there? Nivea stood, holding her gun down as she walked over to where Eli was. He clicked the safety on his gun, tucking it into his back waistband and pulling a knife from his front pocket. Kneeling down, he went to work on the ropes binding the human. The very b.l.o.o.d.y and unconscious, but still alive, human that Nivea was almost positive was Malik Drake. Next, and as if she weren't even standing there, Eli lifted the man over his shoulder and headed for the back door.

"Text your boyfriend Bas that we're taking his human to George Was.h.i.+ngton Hospital and don't forget to tell him he owes me one for saving your a.s.s."

Gritting her teeth, Nivea had no choice but to follow him out. If she had triggered an alarm, the company had no doubt already contacted the police and the owners. They had to move fast. Faster than it would take for her to cuss Eli Preston out for following her and then to begrudgingly thank him for, yes, saving her a.s.s.

Sedona, Arizona Bas covered her body with his to s.h.i.+eld her from any more of the fighting. Even though he'd taken out the two cats on his side, Palermo had s.h.i.+fted before she got off her shot and could possibly get up again. Or not. He had no idea where the cat had been shot, or if the bullet had hit the animal at all. And right at this moment it didn't matter. What mattered was getting Priya to safety. Palermo's words, his threats to do to Priya what he had done to Mariah, still echoed in Bas's head, spurring on a rage that ran so deep he'd come to believe it was an intricate part of the man and the cat.

He'd been outnumbered just as he was that night in the Gungi and at one point they'd had Priya surrounded. She could be dead right at this moment. The thought roared through his mind like a hurricane and his cat bared its teeth, yelling into the night once again. Then there was movement and he looked down into her face, saw that she was breathing rapidly, her eyes so wide they'd completely bulge out any minute now.

In the next moments Bas s.h.i.+fted, returning to his human form. He moved off of her but stayed close, helping her into a sitting position.

"Are you okay?" he asked, raking his eyes over every part of Priya's body to be sure she wasn't hurt in any way.

"F-fine," she mumbled, brus.h.i.+ng off the front of her dress and standing up. "I'm okay but you need to get dressed."

She was right. It was night but the altercation had been noisy. As Bas stood and looked around for his clothes he noticed the carca.s.ses of the two cats he'd taken out and the one that Priya had shot. Looking back to where she'd been lying, he retrieved his gun and moved closer to the lead cat. It wasn't moving.

"Grab my phone," Bas instructed Priya while he went back into the truck to pull out the duffle bag stored in the trunk for occasions just as this. After pulling on jeans and a T-s.h.i.+rt, he circled back around to find his shoes.

It was then that he heard the other vehicles approaching and instantly went on alert once again. The scene was a mess, a questionable mess for any human. Bas was just about to run for his shoes and to get Priya when his heart stopped completely. Later tonight, he would think of how everything from that second on moved in slow motion, how his heart that had once beat rhythmically in his chest had stuttered to a slow, staggered beat, and how everything he'd ever worked for, every goal he'd reached, every moment he'd hated the collapse of his parents' marriage and the disappointment of the two most important people in his life, all paled in comparison to watching that d.a.m.ned cat rise from the ground, s.h.i.+ft into human form, and reach out to grab Priya as she stood with her back to it.

"Nooo!" he yelled, charging forward.

Palermo turned at the sound of Bas's voice, his b.l.o.o.d.y arm around Priya's neck, a gun at her temple.

Bas's feet skidded to a stop as glinting eyes stared back at him, mouth twisted in an angry smirk.

"Like I said before, you got my stash and I got your mate, now we're even!" he taunted Bas.

"Let. Her. Go," Bas said, sounding like a man in complete control of his emotions. In all actuality his cat was ready to burst free once more, killing the only action on its agenda.

"Not a f.u.c.kin' chance! You can kiss her sweet a.s.s good-bye unless you're ready to make an exchange."

"Bas," Priya yelled.

The sound of her voice, the fear in her eyes, the stench of dead cats on the humid night's air, had Bas seeing red. Rage and every other dark emotion he'd kept stored inside him came rus.h.i.+ng to the surface. He took one step, and then another, and when the man's eyes glittered once more, his arm lifting higher as he aimed that gun at Priya's temple, Bas fell to the ground, grabbing the gun from the back waistband of the jeans he'd just slipped on. He aimed and fired.

Priya screamed just as light flooded the area while Bas's heart beat so frantically he thought it might rip right through his chest. He stood, quickly moving to where he'd last seen her being held at gunpoint. She'd fallen down on her knees while Palermo had fallen flat on his back. Bas pulled her into his arms. He sat with his knees on the dirt road with Priya cradled tightly in his arms, rocking her as she wept.

An hour later there was a flurry of activity at Perryville Resorts. News about some type of altercation just outside the resort had spread like wildfire and the guests were understandably nervous. The media had set up like they planned to tailgate in the parking lot and the staff answered inquiries from guests as calmly as they possibly could. Two police cars were parked at the front entrance as officers waited to speak to anyone who might have possibly been witness to what happened.

Upstairs, on the second floor in the largest conference room at the far west end, a room full of s.h.i.+fters sat pondering what their next move would be.

"Three rogues, and one of them, the one Bas capped right between the eyes, was Palermo Greer," Syfon reported, his face a mask of pure rage and fury. The s.h.i.+fter's broad shoulders were still bunched as if he were ready to s.h.i.+ft and kill at any moment. At his side a Glock was holstered, beneath his right pants leg was another gun, and beneath the left was a knife that would cut through flesh as cleanly and quickly as if it were b.u.t.ter.