Wild Cat

by Jennifer Ashley

  He had little memory of how he made it to the ground, but as soon as he touched it, he was off and running. His car door was open, Cassidy gone.

  “Xav!”

  Xavier ran up to him, breathing hard, looking grim. “Gone before I could get here. Scream came from that way.” He pointed.

  A wildcat—a big snow leopard—was already sprinting to the edge of the parking lot. Eric.

  Diego grabbed a flashlight from his car and ran after him. Not far down the row of cars he found blood, black on the pavement. A few smears here and a few farther on. Diego’s heartbeat thundered in his ears, and he ran faster. He would kill whoever had done this.

  The parking lot ended at a chain-link fence, which had been kicked down in one place. Beyond was a huge vacant lot, where builders dumped whatever they’d dug up on other sites. Diego and Xavier climbed over the flattened fence, Diego’s flashlight finding bloody spots on the ground.

  Diego heard Cassidy cry out behind a mound of dirt mixed with stones, followed by Eric’s wildcat snarl. Diego sprinted around the mound, Xavier right behind him.

  Cassidy lay on her stomach, her white dress torn and streaked with dirt and blood. Sparks lit the darkness, an arc of blue white electricity crackling around her neck. Eric stood over her, but when he saw Diego and Xavier, he turned away and took off into the darkness.

  Diego fell to his knees beside Cassidy and gently turned her over. Cassidy’s eyes were open, the light green of her wildcat, and she breathed in shuddering gasps. As Diego cupped her cheek, the sparks on the Collar slowed and winked out.

  Xavier moved past them, following Eric, his pistol out. Diego ran competent hands over Cassidy’s limbs, something tight in him loosening when he found her whole and uncut. “Did he hurt you, mi ja? I can call the paramedics.”

  “No.” Cassidy’s hand closed on his, weaker than usual but still strong. “The blood’s his, not mine. I tried to take down the son of a bitch.”

  Her eyes flashed to Shifter again, and her claws came out. Her Collar sparked, and she groaned.

  “Easy.” Diego stroked her hair. “What happened, sweet-heart?”

  “I woke up to find a Fae dragging me out of the parking lot. I clawed him, but the tranquilizer made me groggy. I’m only sorry my Collar went off before I could gut him.” She sounded furious, not afraid.

  “I’ll find him, Cass, whoever and whatever he is. When I do, he’ll be sorry he ever touched you.”

  Cassidy tried to sit up. “No, he’ll kill you. Fae are dangerous.”

  “I’m dangerous, amorcita. And I told you, I don’t believe in fairies.”

  “It doesn’t matter. He obviously believes in you.”

  Diego helped her to stand. Cassidy swayed on her bare feet, and he put his arm around her waist. “How about if I drive you to a hospital?”

  “No, don’t. I don’t want human doctors poking at me. I just need to rest.”

  Xavier materialized out of the darkness. “Saw no one,” he said. “Footprints out the ass, but people use this field as a shortcut to everywhere.”

  Cassidy’s laugh was weak. “You can’t track a Fae. Not without being able to scent him. But that was him, Diego. The one that shot at us out where Donovan got killed. Damn.”

  She muttered the last word as her legs buckled. Diego swept her into his arms, having no intention of letting her walk across the glass- and rebar-strewn lot in her bare feet.

  “Where’s Eric?” Diego asked Xav as he strode back to the parking lot.

  “Still searching.”

  Diego hoped Eric took care, but right now he was more worried about Cassidy.

  He strode through the parking lot, Xavier right behind him. At the car, he settled Cassidy inside while Xavier stayed alert.

  “Xav,” Diego said. “He dropped his tranq rifle on the roof. Get it, will you? And then make sure all the Shifters in the club are all right and accounted for. This guy seems to be after Cassidy in particular, but he might go for any Shifter, who knows? I’ll get Cassidy home.”

  “Sure thing,” Xavier said. However much Diego and Xavier had fought as kids—especially when Xavier started messing around in gangs—they’d grown into a team, each instinctively knowing what the other needed. Xavier would save questions and explanations for later.

  Xavier patted Cassidy on her shoulder, told her to take care of herself, and strode back to the club. Diego wasted no more time getting in and starting the car. He wanted Cassidy out of there.

  Cassidy didn’t speak much as they drove up Boulder Highway toward the freeway.

  “You sure you’re all right?” Diego asked her.

  “I didn’t give him the chance to hurt me.” Cassidy moved over in the seat until her head rested on Diego’s shoulder. “My Collar going off always makes me woozy.”

  She snaked her hand across his abdomen, sinking into him. Diego put his arm around her, cuddling her close as he drove.

  Her snuggling against him made him more determined than ever to find the hunter trying to kill her. Fae or no, the guy would be damn sorry he ever messed with Cassidy Warden.

  “You’re sure it’s him?” Cassidy sat in the front seat of Diego’s car again the next day, looking fully recovered from her ordeal but still mad as hell. Diego had asked her to come with him tonight—she’d be able to recognize her attacker, if not by sight, then by scent.

  “The tranq gun was checked out to one Lieutenant Reid,” Diego said. “I didn’t connect him with you saying I smelled like I’d been near a Fae, because I haven’t talked to Reid in a couple of days. But I’ve been carrying his files around with me, and when I took them back down to Shifter Division yesterday, Reid was there. He doesn’t look anything like how you describe the Fae, though. Not to mention the fact that he uses steel handcuffs and a Glock.”

  “If he isn’t Fae himself, maybe he’s working for one,” Cassidy said. “Or he’s half Fae, no matter what Eric says. They can use iron.”

  “Well, we’ll ask him when he comes home,” Diego said.

  He looked across the busy street at an apartment complex that looked no different than the two- and three-story complexes that dotted Las Vegas. He’d driven here after he’d picked up Cassidy, wanting the confrontation with Reid to occur far from the LVPD building.

  Cassidy waited beside him, restless. Her cropped white top showed off the stud in her navel, and her jeans rode low on her hips. She’d pulled her pale hair into a ponytail, which made the Collar around her neck more visible.

  Diego had taken her home last night and left her in the capable hands of Nell, who’d come over in worry when she’d seen them arrive. Diego had wanted to stay, but Nell shooed him away, and Diego conceded that Cassidy needed to rest.

  He’d gone back to the club to talk to Eric, who’d returned without finding anything. Diego fetched the tranq rifle Xavier had recovered, went home, and spent a restless night. This morning, Diego had investigated who’d checked out the tranq rifle and easily found the answer.

  Stuart Reid, Lt., Shifter Division. He’d signed it out without hiding the fact.

  Reid came to work as usual, but Diego deliberately hadn’t confronted him, wanting to corner the man alone. What he wanted to do to Reid wasn’t exactly regulation. Reid had neither sought Diego today nor avoided him—he’d simply gone about his business. Diego knew there was a chance he was wrong about Reid. If so, he’d apologize and leave the guy alone. If not…

  Reid pulled up in an unassuming Chevy and got out, his hands full of grocery bags. It was dark now, and streetlights blared. Reid didn’t close his blinds when he went inside, so Diego and Cassidy could watch him putting away his groceries like an ordinary man with nothing else to do on a Friday night.

  Diego and Cassidy got out of the car and crossed the busy street. Diego led the way up to Reid’s second-floor apartment. Second floors didn’t bother Diego, as long as there were solid stairs under him. Ladders, roofs, thirty-story balconies—different story.

  Cassidy came
behind him, moving so silently Diego could barely tell that she was there. But she was. He sensed her anger but also her watchfulness. She had his back.

  Reid answered Diego’s knock without hesitation. “Escobar?” he asked, surprised. “What do you want?” He looked past Diego at Cassidy standing behind him. “I see you’ve brought your pet Shifter.”

  Diego pushed his way inside. Cassidy came in after him and closed the door. Diego followed Reid into the kitchen, walked up to the man, and smacked him lightly on the stomach. Reid flinched and grunted in unmistakable pain.

  Diego had him pinned against the counter before he could recover and yanked up the man’s shirt. Four deep, red gashes slashed across Reid’s abdomen, the skin around them dark with bruises.

  “Thought so,” Diego said. He pulled his gun from its holster and pressed it to Reid’s chin.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Reid’s hand flashed to Diego’s unnaturally fast, and beyond-human strength crushed Diego’s wrist.

  Diego gritted his teeth but didn’t move. “Let go or I’ll pull this trigger, I swear to God.”

  Reid stopped the pressure but didn’t release him. “Stay the hell out of my business, Escobar.”

  “Fuck that. You tell me why you shot at Cassidy and tried to drag her away last night. Tell me exactly who you are and why you want her.”

  “I need the blood of a Shifter.”

  Diego heard Cassidy’s faint gasp behind him, and he ground the pistol barrel into Reid’s jaw. “That was the wrong answer.”

  Reid’s eyes flashed black with rage. “You can’t understand, human. You stink like them, the bloody beasts of burden. You were all over her—it’s like kissing a cow.”

  Diego’s fury rose, the one that had had him tearing IV needles out of himself when he’d been in the hospital after being shot. “You tell me why you want Shifter blood, or maybe I’ll just shoot you for the sick and twisted bastard you are.”

  “I need the blood for the ritual. So I can get back.”

  “Get back where?”

  “To Faerie.”

  “What?” Cassidy was right next to him. “What are you talking about?”

  Diego glared at Reid. “How the hell did the psych testers miss you?”

  “You can’t ever understand,” Reid said. “I have to leave this place. I want to see my home again, no matter what it takes.”

  “You’ll die if you touch Cassidy—or any of the Shifters. In fact, how about I arrest you for attempted murder right now?”

  “I wasn’t going to murder her, until she sliced me.” Reid glared at Cassidy. “Now I want to bathe in her blood.”

  “Wait, Diego.” Cassidy stepped up to Reid. “What do you mean? You need blood to get back to Faerie?”

  “I’m locked out, aren’t I? I searched for years for a spell, hunting down every true Wiccan coven I could, looking for the ones who’d saved the ancient Fae lore. After scouring Ireland and Scotland for decades, I found the spell here, in Las Vegas, of all places. An old woman of Irish descent had a grimoire that had been handed down through her family for centuries. That grimoire contained some rites of the ancient Fae, and had a lot to say about Shifters. They certainly hated you. The grimoire has a spell to get me back through the gates, but I need Shifter blood to work it. Lots of blood. I never got to use your mate’s.”

  Diego felt Cassidy’s rage at the same time her hands came up, fingers changing to claws. “You killed Donovan?”

  “I never touched him,” Reid said, but Cassidy was already shifting.

  Her limbs became strong cat’s limbs, her shirt tearing, her face contorting to the cross between Shifter and wildcat. Diego grabbed her and tried to hold her back, but she was too strong. Cassidy ripped herself out of Diego’s grasp and lunged at Reid, claws and teeth poised for the kill. Sparks danced along her Collar, and she snarled in pain, but she didn’t stop.

  Sudden light flared, whiter and hotter than the Las Vegas sun. Cassidy fell back, and Diego shielded his eyes with his arm.

  The light vanished. Diego lowered his arm to see Cassidy standing there, still in her half-shifted form, Collar sparking, staring at the place Reid had been. The only thing missing was Reid.

  The front door was still closed, but Reid wasn’t in the apartment. Diego checked it, room by room, gun ready, but there was no sign of Reid. He’d simply vanished.

  When he came back to the kitchen, he found Cassidy, human again, sitting in one of Reid’s ordinary kitchen chairs, the man’s groceries spilling over the table. Her Collar had stopped sparking, but her hands were over her face, and she was weeping.

  Diego holstered his Sig and crouched next to her. To see this beautiful, brave, strong woman crying wrenched his heart. “Cass. Shh.” He stroked her hair.

  “He killed Donovan,” she said brokenly.

  Reid had claimed not to have touched him, but Diego knew what Cassidy meant. Whether Reid pulled the trigger himself or had someone else do it was irrelevant. Reid knew about the death, had been involved.

  Diego kissed Cassidy’s cheek. Her green eyes were wet with tears, and Diego nuzzled her. “I’ll get him for that, Cass. I promise you.”

  She looked up, the anger in her like fire. “I’ll get him. I’m going to find out exactly what he did and who helped him, and I’m going to gut them all.”

  Diego said nothing. He kept on stroking her hair, trying to soothe her, while she wept in rage and grief. He knew damn well that if Cassidy touched Reid, or anyone else, she’d be dead, possibly her whole family with her. He couldn’t let her hunt him.

  On the other hand, Diego could round up these people and show her Reid’s body on a platter. He had the power to make that happen, and he would. He’d do anything, he thought, anything at all, to ease the hurt and grief he now saw in Cassidy Warden’s beautiful eyes.

  The Shifters were getting used to Diego’s T-Bird moving through the streets of Shiftertown. Several waved as Diego drove by, and Diego knew enough by now to make sure he lifted a hand in greeting back.

  Nell, on her front porch, watched Diego and Cassidy emerge from the car, Cassidy’s shirt torn from her sudden shifting, and came alert. “Everything all right, Cass? You need me?”

  Cassidy shook her head and went on into the house.

  “She’s all right,” Diego said. Nell watched in suspicion, but she stayed on her porch.

  The door to the Warden house stood open, the screen door letting in cool spring air. It was a beautiful evening, a reminder that they had only a month or two to enjoy the fine weather before triple-digit temperatures struck.

  Cassidy walked right through the living room, heading for her bedroom, ignoring the tangle of two leopards that lay on the floor, dozing together like house cats.

  The smaller of the wildcats—probably Jace—lifted his head and yawned, red mouth and long white teeth flashing in the dusk. He rose, still in cat form, and wandered down the back hall after Cassidy.

  The larger cat rose, stretched, and became Eric. “Diego,” he said. “Sit. I’ll get you a beer.”

  Weird to watch a man saunter toward the kitchen, unworried about his naked ass.

  Cassidy came out of the back again, but not as her human self. She was her wildcat, the beautiful snow leopard she’d been out in the mountains. Except that now she looked sad, so sad. When Diego sat on the sofa, she climbed up next to him, settled down, and draped her front paws over Diego’s legs.

  Diego thought about how she’d cried in Reid’s apartment and how she’d been last night after she’d fought Reid and her Collar had gone off. She’d been tired, hurt, broken. Diego stroked her, trying to comfort her.

  Her coat was soft, studded with little black dots, which were almost lost in creamy white fur. Cassidy sighed a little, her eyes drifting closed.

  Eric plunked a beer on the table at Diego’s elbow. A swift glance showed Diego that Eric had pulled on a pair of sweatpants, and Eric didn’t hide his amusement that Diego had checked.

  “She
all right?” Eric said, looking at Cassidy. “Was he the guy?”

  Diego rubbed Cassidy’s throat. “We found him, yes. She tried to attack him, her Collar went off, and he vanished. Into thin air.”

  Eric paused a second, then half fell into a chair and put his feet on the coffee table. Cassidy looked up at him, but she stayed cat.

  “Tell me,” Eric said.

  “He’s a cop in Shifter Division,” Diego said. “Stuart Reid. He’d been assigned to watch you and your family. I had to talk to him sometimes about this case, which is why you smelled him on me.”

  “A cop?” Eric stared. “Can’t be. We’re after a Fae.”

  “We cornered him tonight in his apartment, and he had wounds that Cassidy gave him last night. He admitted he attacked her and said something about needing Shifter blood for a ritual. Claimed he was trying to return to fairyland.”

  “Faerie,” Eric said softly. “Shit.”

  Jace came out of the back, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. “If he’s a cop at the police station, why didn’t Cassidy smell him when she was there? Why didn’t you, Dad? Or me?”

  “I never took Cassidy anywhere near Shifter Division,” Diego said. “We were in the interrogation rooms I always use, which are on a different floor. I hadn’t talked to Reid at all before then. Most of us never have much to do with Shifter Division.”

  Jace put his feet on the table in a manner identical to his father’s. “There’s still no way a Fae could live here and be a police officer. Iron makes them sick, kills them with enough exposure. That’s why they retreated to Faerie centuries ago and now avoid most interaction with the human world.”

  “Half Fae can, Jace.” Eric’s voice was quiet. “There’s enough immunity in their non-Fae halves to allow them to tolerate iron. That’s why they’re so dangerous.” He took a sip of beer. “I need to talk to this cop.”

  “He vanished.” Diego said. “Disappeared with a burst of light. Is that a Fae thing?”

  Eric shook his head. “I haven’t heard of half Fae being able to appear and disappear at will, but who knows? I don’t know a lot about Fae magic.”