Companion Guide (Grave Danger)

by K.E. Rodgers

  Chapter 7-

  Kasa smiled to herself though she knew that it was not visible on her feline face. There was an edge of worry in the flesh-eaters eyes now. She knew he could easily side step her advances; he’d been successful so far. But most humans had never witnessed ‘the change’, the biological transformation from one earthly form to the other. From her own first experiences she knew that the sight was both frightening and enthralling to watch.

  This was the perfect tool to make this creature falter, giving her the advantage in this situation.

  Jackson watched the feline as she paced along the sidewalk, her tail swishing. If he didn’t know better he would have believed there was a tiny smile hovering over her cat lips. There was definitely an unusual gleam in her golden brown eyes.

  He didn’t want to hurt her, not really. Even if she was a dangerous predator the logic in his head told him that somewhere in that cat’s body was the mind and intelligence of a living woman. Jackson couldn’t bring himself to kill a living woman no matter how viciously she tried to attack him. Her cat saw him as an enemy and there was nothing he could do except put distance between them, leave her be until she moved on.

  “Are you trying to size me up,” he asked the cat, who made a chuffing noise as if she found his comment tiresome. “You might as well give up. I’m not exactly human and difficult to catch. It’ll be dawn soon and it wouldn’t be smart to be caught by the locals wandering their streets.” She made that chuffing sound again, tilting her head to the side to study him. “Seriously cat, go home so I can do the same.”

  Kasa put the picture in her cat’s mind of herself in her other form, detailing the color of her hair that resembled the thick golden fur on this body, the shape of her tanned limbs, the slopes of her breasts and torso. She felt the change of energy, the delicate whiskers on her face twitching as ‘the change’ began in the cells and tissue of her animal. It was a painful process, but then most of the beautiful creations of this world must come from a point of pain.

  Kasa closed her cat’s eyes as she concentrated solely on herself.

  Jackson could feel a sucking of energy around him. It felt almost like when Clarissa was near, her body absorbing the elemental compounds of the world around her. People liked to refer to it as magick, but then magick was the science that existed on the fringe of possible and improbable. All Jackson could do was watch as he witnessed the most awe inspiring thing of his young life.

  Kasa stretched her body, her legs and arms extending becoming longer, the joints shaping and reforming. Her animal never left her even in this other human-like form, she was always there within her conscience mind; a part of her forever. She arched her back and felt the pull of muscles through her torso, up her chest to her neck and head. Sometimes the process made her feel a bit nauseated, but not tonight.

  Jackson was immobile as he saw the woman emerge from the body of a cat. Her fur rippled along her body becoming smooth golden flesh. It was disturbing to watch. He physically felt the power emanating from her transformation. He was incapable of looking away.

  Kasa opened her eyes for a second, her lashes fluttering for a moment before closing them again. She was dizzy. Breathing deeply she acclimated herself back into this form, feeling the cool night wind on her bare flesh.

  Jackson was staring at Kasa standing completely at ease in her birthday suit, her eyes closed, breathing deeply. It wasn’t that he’d never seen a naked woman before. He’d just never seen one emerge from a panther form. And for some reason he couldn’t name yet, she took his breath away. No. She took every rational brain cell in his head and focused it on one basic elemental desire.

  God, she was beautiful. It was with that thought in his head that she opened her eyes. The eyes were the reflection of the inner self. In her eyes he saw the shadow of the beast, lurking there within the depths of her golden irises.

  Jackson was aware of their intent focus on him, the look of ancient predator on its prey. Hate radiated from her body and in those eyes, and in his confused state he felt his foot slip.

  As Jackson fell backwards he witnessed a look of surprised confusion cross the young woman’s face. His expression likely mirrored that of hers. One moment he’d been standing perfectly steady on the bridge railing, the next he was plummeting backwards into the river.

  This was the first Jackson had ever fallen for a woman.

  “No you don’t,” Kasa cried out as she witnessed the man falling into black nothingness, “You can’t get away from me that easily.”

  Something odd came over her in that moment, watching him as he plummeted into the dark waters below. A deep, evil pain pierced somewhere in the vicinity of her chest and a thought that he was leaving her collided with her rational brain.

  Something was wrong with her tonight.

  With her hands on the railing, Kasa hoisted herself up. Her feet grasped the smooth stone for a moment and then they were free, the air rushing up to meet her as she fell in after him.

  They hit the water hard, the dark depths folding in over their heads. Sinking down further away from the night sky above them, Kasa believed she saw a shadow within the watery space around her, its face both beautiful; chillingly cold as death.

  Something attached itself to her leg in a vice like grip, pulling her away from the beautiful vision. The cool, dark waters around her made her lethargic and slow witted. She had no choice but to give in to the power of the hold on her leg.

  Cold night air breathed on her damp face as she emerged on the surface of the river. Water lapped into her ears and up her nose. Kicking her feet she realized the grip on her leg remained, its twin attached to her arm.

  Kasa found those cornflower blue eyes staring in venomous heat at her, the man’s mouth set in an agitated frown. He pulled on her leg, bringing him closer to her. For several seconds she forgot who she was and what he was. The feeling of his extremely warm hands on her skin penetrated deep into her sensitive tissues, letting her lose herself for a moment.

  She regained herself quickly, though.

  Kasa slammed her free leg into his middle, hoping to slam her knee into something soft and vulnerable. She managed with a foot, at least. Small satisfaction touched her mouth when she heard a grunt from him, those blue eyes flashing like blue fire in his handsome face. But it didn’t last long.

  With reflexes as quick as her own he had her other leg, pulling it like its twin closer toward him. She found her head under water once again. Bending back, she flipped her body, going fully underwater and down into its depths.

  Kasa felt him tug her back up, but she was strong. He let go.

  She emerged again behind him, her arms locking around his neck. Kasa had never been this close to one of his kind. Her face near his neck, she smelled him, the scent of death. Yet under that perfume she smelled something different. It must have been his smell in life, an almost indescribable scent that reminded her of a crisp winter forest. Kasa had an overwhelming urge to lick his flesh, to take his scent onto her tongue and into her body.

  Jackson felt her soft, bare arms around his neck. Her warm panting breaths against his flesh engaged every male hormone in his body. If he wasn’t trying to save himself from her strangling grip he’d think this was a turn on. He grasped those cool arms, chilled from their dunk into the river, feeling the strength under them. Ducking under the water in one quickly executed motion, coming up behind her, he had her body pinned to his front, her arms down by her sides. She kicked her legs, trying to stay afloat, banging them into his shins and calves as she struggled to free herself.

  “Do you want to drown, you stupid girl?” Jackson yelled. His own legs beat against the water as he managed to keep himself above the surface. He yanked her wet hair, forcing her head back to face him. “Stop struggling. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Kasa laughed. “Hurt me?” she quoted back at him. “I’m going to hurt you, dead thing.” She kicked again, pushing her body into him with her movements.

&nbs
p; “Stop,” he growled, dunking her head under the water. He pulled her back up only to have his face spit on with a mouth full of river water.

  Jackson slapped her in the face. He’d never hit a woman, ever. It likely shocked him more than it did her. When he was human, violence was the furthest thing from his mind. It was just another stepping stone for him down the road to perdition. He really was becoming a monster.

  He was just as shocked, however, when she used her freed arm to land him a solid one back in his face. Then he felt himself being pulled under the water, dragged down by her strength.

  After struggling against her hold, he was able to extract himself from her clutches, swimming to the surface. But she was hot on his tail. They broke the surface together, gasping for air.

  He had never wanted to hurt her, a female, but it seemed she truly wanted him dead. There was no reasoning with her, no way to get her to let up. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to put her down. His only recourse was to remove himself from the situation.

  “Go home, pussy cat,” he called to her, seeing that she was still trying to catch her breath. “I’m done frolicking in the water.”

  Jackson started swimming to shore, taking long strokes through the water. His otherworldly strength allowed him to move rapidly through the pull of water. Yet as he was nearing the edge he could hear splashing not far behind him. He didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.

  Just as he dragged himself onto land Jackson felt a heavy force slam into his body. She was relentless.

  Kasa pulled him down on to the ground, taking his throat into her hands. Sprawled on top of him, naked as the day she emerged into this world, she looked down at this creature of death.

  “I will give you a quick death, dead thing, rip out your half beating heart and let you quietly bleed into oblivion.”

  Jackson gazed up at the beautiful, hate filled young woman sitting on top of him. She seemed completely unaware that she was naked, or her anger for him and his kind overrode her modesty. He must have swallowed too much river water, because some part of his brain found her sexy as hell sitting on top of him in that dominant position, naked as the day she was born, her hair plastered to her body. In another situation this could have turned fun. But she meant business, and the business she was dealing in wasn’t sex, it was death.

  Yet he knew how to play this. In a deadpan voice he said. “Can we at least have sex before we get to all the heart extraction, bleed to death stuff? I think I’d be more accommodating in a post sex stupor.”

  “What?” Kasa expelled the question, her hand on his neck releasing. It was then that he made his move.

  Rolling her over with a strength borne of his undead species, Kasa found herself pinned between his solid warm body and the solid earth below her naked human-like form.

  His large hot hand wrapped itself around her slim neck, pressing lightly on her jugular. “Are you done playing cat and mouse?” Jackson quipped. “‘Cause this mouse is getting tired and would like to go back to his hole in the ground and call it a day.”

  “You’re not the mouse, you’re the stinky cheese.” Kasa wrapped her hands around his wrist, trying to free herself from his light yet unyielding grip on her neck. “A cheese that needs to be disposed of,” she quipped back.

  Jackson was momentarily distracted by the moving geography of breasts, rising and falling with her agitated breathing. It reminded him of another time. In a shadow vision he saw himself poised like this over another woman, except her face had been full of fear and concern, Clarissa’s face. She’d stabbed him in the chest with her concealed dagger and he’d watched as his life’s blood and essence had leaked out in red rivers down his chest.

  “I am the cheese,” he said in a chilling voice, “and I stand alone.” Jackson touched an area along her cheek where her damp blonde hair clung. He pushed it aside, letting his fingers touch her slightly chilled skin. Moving his hand to her forehead he closed his eyes and concentrated.

  Kasa watched, almost enthralled by the deathly calm in this man’s expression. She watched as he closed those haunting cornflower blue eyes, his lips slightly parted as he exhaled. It was at the end of that action that she felt a strange weightlessness steal over her body. She blinked, trying to remain focused on his face.

  Franticly she pushed harder at the column of his arm over her chest, his hand still wrapped in a sure grip around her neck. He wasn’t putting any more pressure on it than before and yet she felt as if she were passing out. Her breathing escaladed as she began to panic. Her legs moving in sharp patterns in the dirt as she fought the urge to surrender to his power. Then she was swept under and was lost.

  Jackson breathed in deeply as he opened his eyes to find the woman beneath him sound asleep. He watched her in silent repose, her golden hate filled eyes closed for now. He’d not wanted to hurt her, yet she’d refused to cooperate.

  Messing with the brains functions was a tricky maneuver; one Jackson was reluctant to try on people. Forcing her brain to engage in sleep mode had been a last minute decision that he might not have attempted under different circumstances. But this spite-fire cat/woman had been asking for it.

  Jackson massaged his stomach as he recalled her small foot slamming into it. If she could pack such energy under water, imagine what she could do on land. Rolling off of her, he removed his soaked shirt. On his knees beside her, he lifted her head, pulling the shirt over it. Lifting the dead weight of her arms he stuck them through the sleeves. Pulling the shirt all the way down, over her breasts and thighs, he found the shirt came to just above her knees.

  She wasn’t very tall, he noted, her body curved and filled out in just the right places, yet compact inside a small delicate looking frame. At first glance she wouldn’t have looked menacing. And that, Jackson thought, was probably her best defense. The wild cat inside hid itself well inside the frail human looking body.

  “You’re going to have a killer headache when you wake up,” he said to the passed-out woman. If he had used too much force he could have fried her brain cells. As it was, because of the sudden jolt of change inside her brain, sometimes the side effect was dizziness or a more likely scenario, a terrible headache.

  Jackson got up off the ground, watching her despairingly as she lay there motionless. She looked young enough to be one of the college students. At the same time he couldn’t imagine the shape-shifters allowing one of their own to mix with the human population. He had heard that they preferred autonomy over culture assimilation with the singular formed beings.

  “I guess I can’t leave you here, can I?” He waited for a response he knew would not come. “Yeah, nice meeting you too,” he said as he bent down, lifting her and putting her over his shoulder like a sack of wheat, flour, or whatever the hell people put in sacks these days.