by Amelia Elias
It was time for action. “Enough lying around,” she told herself sternly, glancing back at the window. “Time to blow this joint.” She had no idea what was outside this bedroom, but the window was a perfect, unguarded exit and she fully intended to use it.
She threw back the covers and strode to the window, but it resisted all her efforts to shove it open. She narrowed her eyes and tried once more, but no matter how hard she strained it didn’t budge a millimeter. She crossed to the door and tried the handle, but it was locked. She would’ve been surprised to find it otherwise, and even if it hadn’t been she still would’ve had to find her way through the house and sneak past anyone in it to get to freedom. There was no way out there.
No, it had to be the window.
Sian glared at the stubborn window for a moment, considering her next move. Her eye fell on the heavy, decorative curtain rod and she smiled. “All right, if that’s the way you’re going to be…”
A blaring alarm shattered the air as she punched out the first pane with the heavy iron rod but Sian didn’t let it stop her from going to work on the others with grim enthusiasm. Undoubtedly someone would be in here any second and she didn’t dare waste an instant.
The door flew open no sooner than she’d feared but quicker than she’d hoped. Sian spun, the curtain rod held in both hands, ready for whatever was coming. When a young man ran inside, she swung with all the strength in her arms.
He stopped so suddenly it looked like he’d hit an invisible wall and the sharp finial at the end of the rod missed him by an inch.
“Jesus!” he cried, stumbling back with his hands held out in front of him. “Back off!”
She sized him up warily. Six feet tall and broad shouldered, he looked more than capable of subduing her should she give him the slightest opportunity. She had no intention of doing so. Despite his sharp hazel eyes and imposing physical presence, her instincts assessed him as no threat, but for once she didn’t dare trust them. Her instincts had also told her she’d lost the sedan.
Sian advanced on him with her makeshift weapon at the ready. “Who are you? Where am I?” He gaped at her and she swiped at him again, deliberately missing but making her point. “What did you do with my purse? Where are my clothes?”
He held up his hands to ward her off. “Lady, I don’t know anything about your purse or your clothes, and will you quit swinging that thing around?”
“Give me a reason to and I’ll think about it,” she growled. “Better yet, show me the door and we’ll forget the whole thing.”
He looked decidedly uncomfortable. “Sorry, lady, can’t do that,” he said, inching back. “Boss man wants you to stay, though it’s clearly not for your sunny disposition.”
She opened her mouth to demand answers again when he lunged without warning, grabbing the curtain rod, and she cursed her no-threat assessment for being dead wrong. Sian wrestled with him for a moment before giving up. Strong as she was, he was stronger, but she had a much better idea.
Letting go of the rod altogether, she hauled back and punched him in the jaw, following with an elbow to the back when he staggered.
He crumpled quite satisfactorily and Sian jerked the rod out of his hands. “Tell your boss man I have a prior engagement,” she said sweetly to the back of his blond head, then stepped over him and walked out the door.
* * *
Diego woke with the sunset and leapt out of bed at the shrieking alarm. “James!” he shouted, running out of his room and tearing down the hall, every sense alert and winging through the dark house, searching for danger. “James, damn it, boy, answer me!”
He heard a groan and chased the sound. He found James sitting on the floor in one of the spare rooms, holding his head while rain blew in through a half-shattered window. “What happened? Are you hurt?”
James winced. “Is that in my head or is the alarm still going off?”
Diego shut it off with a thought and dropped to his knees beside James. “What happened?” he demanded again, grabbing his Steward’s shoulders.
“Your freaky girlfriend happened!” James quit rubbing his head and met Diego’s furious glare with one of his own. “You need to work on your taste in women, Diego, ‘cause that chick is psycho. I come in here and she’s busting out the window, and when I try to stop her, she tries to take off my head with a curtain rod!”
Diego’s mind churned with a mixture of emotions too volatile to contain for long. “She attacked you?” he growled, his fangs coming out. James was his friend, the closest thing he had left to family. The Steward was under his protection and no one attacked him without Diego extracting a pound of their flesh in payment.
But damn it all, this was his mate who’d taken James down. A reluctant admiration tried to grow in his chest but Diego squashed it ruthlessly. She was supposed to be here, waiting for him, not running off in the rain wearing nothing but his shirt!
And with that thought, heart-freezing fear wiped every other emotion from his mind. His bondmate was gone, alone in the night with no concept at all of the beasts who would hone in on her now she was marked as his.
Diego swore viciously under his breath and pulled James to his feet. “How long ago did this happen?”
James shook his head and winced. “Maybe an hour,” he said uncertainly, glancing at his watch. “It was a little before sunset, you’d know what time that was better than I do.”
An hour. Diego swore again. In an hour she could’ve gone a long way. “Do you need a doctor or are you all right?” Diego scanned his Steward’s face critically as he steadied him with a hand on his arm.
James shook Diego’s hand off and ran his fingers through his hair. “Get off me, I’m fine,” he snapped, his eyes flashing. “Just because a girl kicked my ass doesn’t mean I need coddling.”
“Can you drive?”
He shrugged, then winced as the motion jarred his bruised back. “Of course I can drive,” he said irritably. “Didn’t I say I’m fine?”
“Good. Get in the car and start looking for her. We’ve got to find her.”
James looked at him like he was insane. “Diego, get real! She’s obviously all healed up and I say good riddance. Give me one good reason why I’d want to help you bring that hellion back!”
Diego shoved his sleeve roughly out of the way and held up his arm, exposing his new bondmark. James stared at it in complete shock before closing his eyes, his expression one of utter horror.
“Oh, please tell me that’s not what I think it is,” he groaned. “Diego, I can’t live with a woman who kicked my butt. You can’t be serious!”
“It’s exactly what you think it is, and I don’t like it any more than you do,” Diego snapped. “Thanks to Eli neither of us got a choice. Now I’ll ask you again. Sian’s running around the city right now with my mark on her arm and no idea what she’s gotten into, and despite how neatly she tied you up in knots she’s no match for an Outcast. Are you going to help me find my bondmate or not?”
James sighed heavily. “I’ll get my keys.”
* * *
Chapter Three
Sian ran through the huge house, wincing every time the alarm wailed, expecting to see big burly men bursting through every door she passed, ready to tackle her and prevent her escape. Her memories of the night before were horribly clear now. She reached the end of the corridor and raced down the stairs, pausing only a moment in the huge foyer at the bottom to try and guess the best way out. Finally she made a decision and ran. The iron curtain rod grew heavy in her hands and the drapes dragged behind her like a weird train, but she didn’t dare to drop it. Awkward as it was, right now it was the only weapon she had.
Five minutes and two dead-ends later, she was growing desperate. So far she hadn’t seen anyone, but the alarm still blared and she knew there had to be more than one person here. The young man she’d knocked out had mentioned someone else he called “boss man,” and surely there were guards or something around here. The Santonyo family wer
e nothing if not thorough.
Letting her live the first time was the only mistake they’d ever made. Surely after hunting her for three years they wouldn’t let her get away unscathed now that they’d found her.
Sian threw open another door and found herself in a cavernous garage. She skidded to a stop, jaw dropping at the gleaming cars parked there—she wasn’t a car fanatic, but she didn’t need to be one to know there was an insane amount of money represented here. She started pulling on door handles, cursing under her breath to find them all locked—who locked a car in a garage, anyway? She looked around, hoping to see a key rack or something, but there was nothing. No chance of stealing one of these for her getaway.
Well, at least there was a door to the outside here. Sian hit the garage door opener and waited impatiently as the door slowly rose. When it was halfway up she had a sudden inspiration and, wrapping the long curtains around her hands, stabbed the box hard with her curtain rod. The sharp finial pierced the metal housing easily and drove deep into the circuitry beneath. She yelped and jumped back as electricity arced through the rod and burned her palms despite the curtain padding, but there was no time to waste trying to bandage them. She turned and ducked under the now-jammed garage door and ran down the drive as though the hounds of hell were at her heels.
If she couldn’t drive off in one of those cars, at least she’d made darn sure no one else could, either.
She ignored the gravel biting into her bare feet and the pain in her burned hands, too glad to be out of captivity to care about her discomfort. Still, the ease of her escape bothered her. It made no sense. Enrique Santonyo had been hunting for her for three years, yet no one had come when the alarm went off. The huge house was definitely his style—big and lavish and filled with every creature comfort—but she hadn’t seen one single personal portrait in her flight through the halls. Her feet slowed and she held the stitch in her side but she didn’t stop.
There hadn’t been a blue sedan in the garage.
She frowned, suddenly wondering if she’d jumped to the wrong conclusions. Last night was a blur, nightmares blending with strange images she thought were real, and she couldn’t be sure which of her memories were dreams and which were real. She remembered a man telling her he’d brought her there and taken care of her when she’d been injured, but she also remembered fighting to get away from him. An image of a dark face with green cat-eyes and fangs tickled her memory but she pushed that image aside. That, at least, had to be a nightmare.
She groaned. Which memory was true? The dark man who’d held her captive, or the one who’d tried to help her?
Sian didn’t dare believe the latter. She had only herself to depend on, and even if she’d escaped from a Good Samaritan it was for his own good. She didn’t want to bring Santonyo’s wrath down on anyone else.
The minutes stretched and still she hurried. The gravel drive seemed to have no end. Her feet ached and her hands throbbed. When it began to rain after sunset she shivered, utterly miserable, but didn’t dare stop. There had to be an end to the driveway somewhere and a road she could follow afterward. She had to get out of this place and somehow find Baby so she could make her escape from San Francisco.
She was soaked to the skin by the time she made it to the end of the drive. A huge wrought-iron gate blocked her path and she swore in frustration. With her burned hands there was no chance of climbing the straight iron bars, and even if she had been able to do it, the spikes at the top looked anything but decorative. She looked for an easier escape route, but the thought of climbing the thick stone walls was just as daunting.
But she’d be damned if she gave up. Sian set her jaw and started walking again, following the stone wall. Surely it gave way to fencing somewhere—no one surrounded a place this big with a wall like that. Shivering, her hands aching, her feet protesting with every step, Sian walked the property line and hoped.
* * *
Diego left James after being assured one more time that his Steward was all right. He ran for the front door, too worried about Sian to even think about taking a car to search for her. He could cover more ground faster without one anyway.
He threw open the front door and stood for a moment, closing his eyes and breathing deeply of the night air, sending all his heightened senses searching for her and wishing he’d taken her blood while she’d slept. It would’ve been dangerous—he’d been almost feral from hunger and pain—and it would have been against all his principles to take her blood without her consent, but the bond it created would’ve been extremely helpful now. As it was he had no link with her whatsoever, no way to track her down or know if she was hurt.
He was jolted from his concentration by the sound of James cursing. Diego frowned, turning toward the sound, and saw James scowling as he ducked under the half-open garage door. “Your psycho girlfriend fried our garage door opener,” he complained, glaring at Diego as though it were his fault. “It’s totally fubared, Diego. You’re on your own, man. I can’t get the damn thing open to get a car out!”
Diego narrowed his eyes at James. “Watch your mouth, boy,” he growled. “She might not be your favorite person in the world right now, but she is my mate and you will show some respect. Understood?”
James jammed his hands in his pockets and made a visible effort to wipe the fury off his face. Jaw clenched, he nodded curtly. Diego turned and sent his senses out again, his anxiety tightening unbearably. She had to be on foot, which meant she was probably still on the property—his estate was huge and almost totally wild, but at least it was safe. Still, at this point he wouldn’t put anything past Sian. His fists clenched at the nightmarish thought of her walking down the highway wearing little more than his shirt and his bondmark. Dios.
At last he felt her, a bright surge of life near the gate. His eyes flew open and he leapt into the air, shape-shifting into a large hawk and soaring toward her.
His heart stuttered with relief when he found her pushing through the overgrowth and cursing softly. He circled down before landing silently a few yards from her and shifting back to his normal form behind a stand of trees—after she’d fainted at the mere sight of his fangs, he didn’t think she was ready to see any of his spookier tricks yet. He stayed still and let her approach him, and when she got within arm’s reach he snagged her around the waist. She was trapped against his chest with her arms pinned at her sides before she could so much as gasp.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” he demanded.
Sian didn’t scream though Diego saw the sudden surge of panic in her clear eyes as she tried desperately to break away from him. She was strong but he was prepared this time and she didn’t stand a chance.
That didn’t mean she didn’t fight. She kicked his shins with her bare feet and twisted in his arms. “Let me go!”
“Not a chance,” he growled, hardly noticing her struggles. Relief at having her safe in his arms surged through him, that he’d found her before his enemies did, and his rioting emotions screamed for an outlet.
And he had the perfect one right here. He dipped his head and kissed her, needing this too much to allow her time to protest.
Sian saw his intention too late to turn away. She gasped as his hard mouth came down on hers, momentarily too stunned to fight, and a moment was all he needed to breach her defenses. His free hand came up and tangled in her hair, holding her captive, and her head reeled from the sheer heat of his skilled mouth taking hers. Sweet heaven, the man knew how to kiss!
He groaned against her lips and suddenly she came back to her senses. Sian tried to pull away but he didn’t let her. Panic swamped her, killing the fire he’d started, and she bit his lower lip hard.
He growled and broke the kiss as his arms clenched around her. She shivered at the animalistic sound, but only when he pressed his open mouth to her ear did she realize his growl had been arousal, not aggression.
“Querida,” he whispered, his breath hot and his lips caressing her ear, “where I
come from, that’s foreplay. Shall I return the favor?” His teeth nipped at her earlobe.
Sian shoved hard at his shoulders, desperate to get away, and cried out at the sudden pain from the burns she’d forgotten.
Diego’s tone changed at once. “You’re hurt. Why didn’t you tell me?” He moved back just enough to sweep his gaze over her. “Let me see, Sian. Where are you injured?”
She glared at him and closed her fists, hiding her palms. “Let go of me,” she said through gritted teeth.
He sighed. “Why must you make this so difficult?” He reached up and captured her wrist while still holding her effortlessly against him with one arm. She tried to pull her hand away and couldn’t. He gave her a quelling look. “Open your hand, querida,” he said. “It’ll hurt you if I do it.”
She refused to relax her fist. “That’s not my name.”
His green eyes glinted with a hint of amusement. “I know your name, Sian,” he said dryly. “Querida is an endearment, woman, though why I use it on you is beyond me. Now quit stalling and let me see your hands.”
She raised her chin stubbornly. “And if I don’t?”
He leaned closer. “You’re looking extremely kissable,” he murmured, his warm breath caressing her lips. “And you can bite me again if you like, I certainly don’t mind. Either show me your hands or pucker up, baby.”
Sian hated the surge of heat that rushed through her at his words. “You’re insufferable!”
“Then we’re perfectly matched,” he shot back. “Now what’s it going to be?”
Sian glared at him for a moment longer before reluctantly opening her hand. Diego sighed. “Great. My mate thinks my kiss is a threat,” he muttered under his breath, but she heard him.
“Your what?”
He gently turned her hand over in his, ignoring her question and swearing softly at the blisters on her palm. “What did you do to yourself?” he asked in exasperation. She tried to pull her hand away as he bent closer but he didn’t allow it. “Be still.”
