“Something tells me Mitchell is just as powerful as Kish,” Winn murmured.
Mitchell snorted. “I’m not sure I agree, but I’ll do what I can.”
Chapter Sixty-Three
Vexx stayed in human form, knowing it would be harder to maneuver in cougar form with her injury. The first wave of fighters to burst through the trees were all jaguars, and Cruz immediately made his way to her, while Rafe rushed toward Winn. Winn had stripped out of her clothes and shifted as she launched herself at Rafe.
“You don’t have to make this so hard on yourself,” Cruz told Vexx as he stalked toward her slowly. “Just come to me, and I promise it will be easier for you.”
Vexx dropped into a fighting stance and glared at him. “Is this where you promise not to hurt me if I’m a good little girl?” she asked.
His grin looked evil, and she could almost see the dark images racing through his mind. “Why should I lie to you?” he asked. “I’m looking forward to hurting you. You’ll be punished for running. The question is how much I need to hurt you during the training process.”
Knowing how much he enjoyed the idea of hurting her, Vexx should have been prepared when he grabbed a fallen tree branch and struck her injured shoulder. She screamed, giving Cruz a chance to ram his body into hers, pressing her against a tree before sinking his teeth into her throat.
Vexx tried to scream, but the sound got lodged in her throat. All around, vampires and jaguars fought while she struggled to free herself from his hold. Cruz kept his teeth in her throat, gripping her hair tightly with one hand. His other arm moved around her back, and he lifted her from the ground.
Much to her horror, not only had Cruz marked her, he was dragging her away from the battle, away from any hope of being rescued. “No!” she screamed, just as a wave of Kish’s power slammed into her body, causing her to gasp and struggle to breathe.
Cruz’s teeth left her throat, and Vexx experienced an overwhelming sense of loss. Jase should have been the only one to mark her, and she’d ruined that chance for both of them.
“I own you,” Cruz taunted.
“You will never own me,” Vexx ground out.
Giving her hair a vicious tug, Cruz stopped when they were a short distance from the fighting. He pulled her head back, exposing the mark. She struggled to knee him in the balls, but her struggles only seemed to amuse him as he leaned in to lick her neck. Her left hand moved forward, and her fist made contact with his cheek in an awkward punch.
“You’re going to regret that, little cougar,” he snarled before sinking his teeth into her throat again.
“Let her go,” Jase growled.
Vexx felt only a moment of relief before shame washed over her. Even knowing she hadn’t asked Cruz to mark her, she felt like she’d failed Jase.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Chapter Sixty-Four
Jase was going to kill the bastard with his teeth in Vexx’s throat. He wanted to kill him for more than just marking her. Jase wanted to tear him limb from limb for making Vexx sound defeated, like she was at fault.
Rather than releasing Vexx, the jaguar pulled a knife and held it to the side of Vexx’s neck. His teeth slid out of her throat and he smirked. “She’s mine, lynx. It’s possible both bites will scar. Just leave us.”
The defiance that flashed in Vexx’s eyes came as a relief to Jase. Vexx might have sounded defeated for a moment, but she was a fighter.
“No,” Vexx argued. “Your mark means nothing. I will never be yours, you pathetic excuse for a male.”
When the jaguar pulled back and backhanded Vexx, Jase attacked. His fist made contact with the jaguar’s chin, pushing him further from Vexx just before she fell to the ground. Jase saw Vexx writhe on the ground, and he knew something else must be wrong with Vexx. He didn’t believe the blow from the jaguar had caused that much damage.
The jaguar lunged toward him with a knife, taking advantage of Jase’s distraction. He managed to dodge the knife strike and land a kick to the jaguar’s midsection. When the jaguar raised the knife again, Zane joined them, slamming his lynx form into the jaguar. Zane leapt back with a yelp when the knife slashed his side. Before Jase could react, a knife hit the jaguar in the chest. Jase rushed toward Vexx, but he was too slow. With the last of his strength, the jaguar lunged in Vexx’s direction and thrust his knife into her chest.
“We’ll always be together. Even in death, I’ll own you,” the jaguar wheezed out with his dying breath.
The world seemed to fade to nothing as Jase dropped to his knees beside Vexx. “No!” he screamed, cradling her in his arms.
“Arawn,” Zane breathed out.
Jase looked toward his brother and saw the Fae standing close by. He was tall and impossibly beautiful, with silvery hair and eyes. Jase had only seen eyes that color on one other person, Zane’s mate—this was Lexi’s father. His presence couldn’t mean anything good. Arawn was involved with the death Fae.
“Please don’t take her,” Jase barely whispered. He’d failed his mate. That was all he kept thinking. It had never occurred to him that they wouldn’t have years to work things out. “Don’t die, Vexx.” Even as he said the words, he knew she was gone, had felt her take her last breath.
With a disgusted shake of his head, Arawn regarded Jase. “Man up, little kitty. I might puke if I have to watch you cry anymore.”
“Fuck you,” Jase told him, his anger flaring at the bastard’s cold attitude. “You can’t take her.”
“I have no intention of taking the witch anywhere,” Arawn assured him. “She’s essential to my daughter’s future, so I need her to survive. That’s the only reason I’m involving myself in this situation.”
“You’re going to save my mate?” Jase asked, unable to believe a Fae with such a dark reputation would save Vexx. Then again, Zane had said Arawn’s feelings were complex when it came to Lexi.
For just a moment, Jase swore he saw pity in Arawn’s silver eyes. “Your mate is gone, having taken her last breath only moments ago. I can’t save her, but I can save the female in your arms.”
His words made no sense, but before Jase could ask for clarification, the Fae laid a hand on Vexx and a silvery mist filled her body. The skin on her chest knit together, and the mist swirled around the wound until there was no sign she’d ever been injured. Gasping, Vexx’s eyes opened, and she struggled out of Jase’s arms, reaching for her chest where the wound had been.
“Thank you,” Jase told Arawn, but when he looked up, the Fae was already gone.
“How did I heal so quickly?” Vexx asked, and Jase looked over at his mate, amazed she was still alive. When their gazes locked, he was sure his confusion matched hers.
Jase suddenly understood what the Fae had meant. The connection to his true mate was gone, and it felt much like his heart had been ripped from his chest. The pain was almost unbearable.
“We aren’t mates,” Vexx uttered. “I died, breaking our connection.”
Before Jase could speak, Vexx hissed. Still sitting on the ground, she leaned forward, placing her head between her knees, breathing heavily.
“What’s wrong?” Jase asked.
“The power,” Vexx said through her teeth. “It’s like a whip striking my body.”
“Try to hold it in, witch,” a strange woman shouted at Vexx.
The fight had moved closer, unbeknownst to Jase. For a short time, it had seemed they were insulated from it all.
“It hurts,” Vexx whimpered. “I can’t fight.”
“We’ll keep them from hurting you,” Jase assured her when Zane took his place at his side, ready to fight despite his injury. Jase did his best to ignore the pain of losing his mate and focus on saving the female who was curled up helplessly on the ground. She might no longer be his mate, but he would still protect her with his life.
Chapter Sixty-Five
Winn had trouble focusing on fighting while she was so concerned about Vexx. She’d lost sight of her shortly
after shifting and had no clue if her friend was okay. Caring about others weakened her in some ways, but she also found strength in her desire to protect those she loved.
Rafe was still fully clothed so he couldn’t shift, making it harder for him to fight her when she was in jaguar form.
Rafe’s booted foot made contact with her rib cage with enough force to send her stumbling back. “This is a nice surprise,” he mused with a smirk. “I’ve dreaded having you as a mate, figuring our cubs wouldn’t be able to shift. I guess you’re even more useful than I’d suspected.”
Winn snarled and lunged at him again, this time knocking him to the side.
An angry growl erupted from the back of his throat. “Who marked you?” he demanded when he noticed the mark on the back of her neck—not easy when she was in jaguar form. She was surprised he hadn’t noticed one of her two marks when she was in human form.
She moved to attack Rafe just as Kish’s power lashed out, causing Winn to stagger and nearly collapse to the ground.
Rafe kicked her again while she struggled against the pulsing power.
“Shift and tell me who marked you, or I will beat you black and blue,” Rafe snarled.
“That is my mark,” Cord growled. “And now, I’m going to kill you for daring to touch my mate.”
Winn looked across at Cord, thankful he was there, and terrified for him at the same time. While she believed Cord was normally the better fighter, the danger to his mate and daughter were a distraction. She had to find a way to control her reaction to Kish’s onslaught of magic or her mate could be killed.
The magic rained down on her fur, burning her with each lash until Winn could no longer hold her jaguar form.
Chapter Sixty-Six
Cord didn’t understand what was wrong with his mate, but he could tell she was in pain as she shifted to human form. It looked like she was fighting the change.
Using Cord’s distraction to his advantage, the jaguar attacked, knocking Cord to the ground.
“I’ll remedy this situation now, cougar,” the jaguar growled. “As soon as I kill you, I can mark and fuck my mate.”
Winn was whimpering on the ground, and Cord longed to go to her, but first, he had to deal with the jaguar threatening his mate.
There was fighting all around them, and he was relieved when a fresh batch of vampires on their side arrived. There was definitely something he was missing, something only affecting Winn, but he couldn’t ask her about it now. He needed to deal with the bastard who’d dared to strike his mate. Cord sprang at Rafe just as an arrow from a crossbow sliced through the air. A lynx knocked him to the side, and Cord was shocked to see the arrow hit the lynx shifter instead of him.
Growling low in his throat, Cord stalked toward the jaguar. “You are dead.”
The jaguar laughed. “Give up, cougar. You’re nothing compared to a jaguar.”
Since he was already naked, Cord launched himself at Rafe, shifting into cougar form, taking the arrogant jaguar to the ground.
The jaguar cursed as Cord’s teeth sank into his thigh. Cord ducked under Rafe’s punch. The jaguar leapt back, grabbing a fallen tree branch and swinging it at Cord. The branch barely grazed the top of his body as Cord slid under it to sink his teeth into Rafe’s calf.
In cougar form, the urge to kill was strong. The male had threatened his mate and tried to take her away from him. This was one of those times when both forms were in complete agreement. This jaguar had to die.
Rafe jerked away and dove at him with a knife. Cord dodged to the side and lunged at Rafe again, but the jaguar was too fast.
“Kish!” Rafe shouted at the female emerging from the trees. “Use the mage power to bring down lightning on our enemies.”
“You killed my only family!” Kish screamed, and Rafe’s eye’s narrowed.
When her power lashed out again, Winn screamed, and Cord’s attention shifted to his mate long enough to allow Rafe to stab him in the side. Cord struggled to maintain his cougar form, knowing he had a better chance of surviving that way, but he was unable to hold onto it.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Despite the pain from Kish’s power lashing out around them, Winn stood to face Rafe. Rage heated her blood and made her long to attack Rafe for stabbing her mate. With great effort, Winn pushed down her emotions and embraced the part of her that was Winter—the cold killer the situation required. Drawing on her mage energy, she pulled the cool wind around them. Enough of her power had returned for her to control the elements to some extent.
“You dare harm my mate?” Winn asked Rafe in a cold voice.
“I am your mate!” Rafe shouted, lunging toward her. He froze, startled by the crack of thunder as lightning struck the ground between them. That had been Kish’s doing, intentional or not. Rafe had good reason to look worried. While she hadn’t reacted, Winn was concerned Kish would end up killing someone. Controlling mage powers required a cool mind, and Kish’s composure was quickly unraveling.
“I’m really going to enjoy killing you,” Winn remarked pleasantly, her lips curling into a slight smile. “Lightning is too quick a death, but I really did enjoy watching you jump like a coward just now.”
“Kish!” Rafe yelled. “Protect me or your mother dies next.”
Kish’s laughter floated through the air. “My sister was the only thing I feared losing, and now, she’s gone. Richard was right. I don’t need you. If the mage doesn’t kill you, I will.”
Rafe’s angry glare landed on Richard. “You betrayed me! Does Kish know it was your idea to kill her sister to control her? She’s not even dead. The bastard has been playing games with us both. Don’t be a fool, Kish.”
“Liar!” Kish shouted, and lightning flashed. Power flowed through the air, gravitating toward Winn.
Winn welcomed the power into her body, fighting her instinct to reject her mage energy which was intertwined with Kish’s demon energy. The demon magic felt like acid seeping into her skin. Gasping, her focus slipped for a moment. Rafe lunged toward her with a knife.
Before Winn could react, Cord knocked Rafe to the ground, slamming a knife into Rafe’s heart. Rafe grasped the knife, trying to remove it.
“I’ll kill you,” Rafe hissed, releasing his hold on the knife still in his chest and dropping to the ground to retrieve the one he’d been holding. Cord was quicker and slammed the knife into Rafe’s throat.
Winn wanted to rush to Cord and wrap her arms around him, but they weren’t out of danger yet. The jaguars were all either dead or incapacitated, but many of Richard’s vampires were still fighting.
The demon, Mitchell, was fighting alongside the vampires on their side and shouted that he needed to get to Kish. Winn could tell he was also feeling the effects of the power pulsing through the air. She saw the way he flinched and gasped occasionally.
As a new group of vampires approached from behind Kish, Winn worried they were enemies until they started fighting Richard’s vampires. She wasn’t sure what the young demon could do, but the other demon seemed to think Mitchell could stop Kish. Since Winn didn’t have any better ideas, she figured it was worth a try.
“I need to get to the young demon,” she told Cord, thankful he didn’t ask for an explanation before falling in step beside her. Vexx joined them as they fought their way to Mitchell. Kish seemed far too volatile to control the mage power she’d drained, and it was only a matter of time before she killed someone, intentional or not. Winn focused on one thing, getting Mitchell to Kish.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
When Mitchell saw her emerge from the woods, he recognized Kishara immediately. She was standing beside a vampire who was whispering furiously in her ear. Whatever the vampire was saying, it was upsetting Kishara, and her power was lashing out uncontrollably. Legion had been right about him being a sponge. The power soaked into his body. He noticed that it did the same with Winter’s. The warm magic flowing into his body was soothing, and he had no trouble welcoming it. That warmth was mix
ed with something so cold it burned. It was a struggle to hold it in rather than send it back out in a rush like his instincts told him to do. The cold magic was foreign, and he wanted to reject it.
He’d been trying to get to Kishara, but the vampires with Richard kept blocking his path. Mitchell was surprised he could fight with the cold burning him from the inside out. He’d just killed a vampire when another rushed toward him. Ian took the vampire down with a throwing knife, catching Mitchell when he stumbled under the crushing weight of a power pulse from Kishara.
“Are you okay?” Ian shouted.
Four others joined them, surrounding him so he could gain his balance without being attacked.
“I need to get to the girl over there,” Mitchell explained, struggling to put one foot in front of the other as Kishara’s power rained down on his skin. The unstable power was starting to make him feel like he had weights on his ankles. Walking was a struggle. Mitchell was grateful when Ian didn’t question him, simply motioned for three other vampires to flank him as he trudged toward the demon.
“Do you need blood?” Ian asked, probably trying to understand why Mitchell was having so much trouble walking.
“It’s her power,” Mitchell ground out. “If I can get to her, I can stop her.”
“A knife to the heart will stop her,” Ian told him.
Mitchell panicked at the thought of her being harmed. “She’s my family. I have to save her.”
Looking around, he saw Legion trying to keep Serenity from being killed, so he couldn’t rely on Legion to get him to Kishara.
“We can help,” Winter said as she rushed toward him with Cord and a small woman with red hair. Later, he’d wonder how he knew she was a witch when he’d never met one. “Vexx, take his arm.”
The moment the women put their hands on his bare forearms, Mitchell breathed a sigh of relief as the crushing weight eased. The energy seemed to flow between the three of them until all he felt was the hot energy he suspected was demon magic. Next, he felt the soothing energy he instinctually recognized as Vexx’s witch power. It flowed around them, acting as a buffer between the icy mage power and his fiery demon magic. Everything wove together in an intricate knot.
Untamed Winter Page 30
