Unleashed

by Katie MacAlister

  “Normally I’d say about four hours, but you came out of it much faster than that, so who knows?” I dug in my heels and refused to budge. “Look, the potential relationship question aside—”

  “There is no potential about it. We are what we are.”

  “Thank you, Popeye the Vampire Jaguar Man. As I was saying, that aside, what do you think you’re doing? I don’t want to go back to the motel.”

  “I don’t blame you. It’s a repulsive spot. Why did you dump me there?”

  “Because I had no idea where you were staying, and it seemed wiser to let you sleep off the tranquilizer in comfort, rather than crammed into the cab of my truck. How did you find me, anyway?” I asked, that question having tickled my brain long enough that I had to ask.

  “Your scent,” he said, trying to tug me forward.

  My eyes widened in horror. “I do not smell! I took a shower just a couple of hours ago!”

  “You smell to me.”

  Mortified, I felt tears spring to my eyes, but before I could tell him just how obnoxious I thought he was, he pulled me into an embrace, holding me tight against his chest, his chin brushing my forehead as he spoke. “You do not stink. You smell wonderful, as a matter of fact. Like . . . like a summer day, full of warm earth and flowers and green leaves and sunshine. But even before that bastard Baum turned me into a panther—”

  “Melanistic jaguar,” I murmured into his collarbone, allowing myself to sag against him, my hands gently stroking his back even as I breathed in the woodsy, masculine scent of him.

  “I would have known your scent. Now that my senses are somewhat heightened, it wasn’t difficult for me to follow your trail. And just in time—I’ll kill that bastard Dieter for daring to attack you.”

  “No, you won’t,” I said, managing to push myself away from him, telling my mind to stop indulging in entirely unseemly fantasies about him.

  He grinned.

  “I am not responsible for what my mind thinks about you!” I told him primly as I straightened the shirt and jacket of my uniform. “So you can just stop looking smug about that bit with the warmed chocolate and pastry brush.”

  “All right, but only because I much prefer the one where you’re tied spread-eagle—”

  I clapped a hand over his mouth and glared at him. His eyes danced with laughter. “You will not kill Dieter because I don’t hold with that sort of thing. And stop thinking the phrase ‘culling the herd’ at me, because it’s not applicable here. Besides, his father would be pissed, I’m sure, and he’s going to be difficult enough to deal with as is without his finding out you killed his oldest son.”

  “You aren’t going with me to confront Baum,” he said in one of those definitive, stern, masculine voices supposed to cow women into agreeing.

  “Like hell I’m not.”

  “It’s too dangerous. If he could do this to me, he could do it to you. And besides . . .” His voice and thoughts trailed away uncomfortably.

  “Besides what?” I asked, curious about what he was suddenly hiding.

  His jaw tightened.

  I prodded at his arm, but he said nothing. With eyes narrowed in concentration, I thought hard at him. Besides what?

  It doesn’t matter. You can’t go with me.

  “You’re trying to protect me from something,” I said slowly, catching the faintest whisper in his mind. “You feel all paternal about me.”

  His lips twisted. “Trust me, Jacintha, what I feel for you is anything but paternal.”

  “You know what I mean—you’ve gone into protection mode. Why? I’ve dealt with Albert Baum before, you know. He’s not a threat to me. In fact, just the opposite—we get along pretty well, despite our different beliefs. He knows I value animal life as highly as he does, and although we’ve clashed over his methodology once or twice, our relations have been amicable.” I glanced at the still-sleeping wolf. “At least my relationship with him is amicable.”

  Avery’s shoulders sagged for a moment. “You’re not going to do as I ask, are you?”

  “No.” I examined his face curiously. “Did you honestly think I would?”

  “Not really. I just kind of hoped it would work, but after watching Paen try to deal with Sam—”

  “Did I hear my name taken in vain?”

  We both turned to see a man and woman striding toward us across the small clearing.

  “Oh no,” Avery groaned, rubbing a hand over his eyes.

  Chapter 5

  “How did you find us?” Avery asked the couple.

  The man smiled. He wore a long duster and matching suede fedora. Something about his eyes was familiar. . . . “You’ve never been able to hide from me. All I had to do was focus on you, and I knew where you were.”

  “Damn,” Avery swore, his lips thinned. “I’ve always hated that.”

  Who are they?

  “My brother and his Beloved. Hello, Sam, Paen.”

  Your brother’s name is Pain?

  Paen. It’s a long story.

  I bet. What are they doing here?

  I have no idea. “What are you doing here?” Avery asked them as the tall, black-haired man stopped in front of us, his handsome gray eyes narrowing first on the wolf at our feet, then at me. He sniffed the air delicately, then, with raised eyebrows, gave his brother an odd look.

  “You didn’t check in with us last night, and since I had a new lead, I convinced Paen that we should leave the girls with my parents and make sure all was right with you. I see it is. Hi, I’m Samantha Scott, but please call me Sam. This is my husband, Paen.”

  The woman who held out her hand to me was on the short side, somewhat stockier in build than I, but with warm eyes and a genuine smile.

  “Jacintha Ferreira,” I said, shaking her hand. “I’m not . . . um . . . with him or anything, if that’s what you’re thinking,” I added, gesturing toward Avery.

  “The hell you’re not,” he said placidly.

  “You’re not?” Sam asked at the same time, and made an almost imperceptible sniffing noise, just as her husband had done.

  “Don’t tell me you two are jaguars, too? I swear to the saints, I’m getting a bit paranoid about everyone’s smelling me!” I crossed my arms, my hands in my armpits, as if that would help.

  “Jaguars?” Sam looked at Avery with confusion.

  “It’s a long story,” Avery said somewhat wearily. He wrapped an arm around my waist and hauled me up against his side, much to my surprise and secret delight. “Yes, your nose doesn’t lie—she’s my Beloved. The man you sent me to investigate turned me into a therion. How, I don’t know yet, but I was about to go find out. Jas here found me in black panther form.”

  “Beloved? But you’re not—oh, the kind that goes with a Moravian, not a Dark One. Avery, I’m so happy for you!” Sam said.

  “You were a jaguar,” I told the annoying man at my side, digging an elbow into his ribs. “Which you full well know, and if you don’t unhand me right this second, I’ll shoot you. Again.”

  Paen looked at me with interest as I pushed myself away from Avery. Sam beamed with delight. “You shot him?” Paen asked.

  “Not really. My sister did. It was my gun, though.” I glared at Avery as he frowned at me. Stop being possessive. You have nothing to be possessive about.

  Yes, I do. I explained it to you already.

  And it doesn’t make the slightest difference. Stop pretending we’re a couple.

  “Jacintha is having some difficulty accepting the situation,” Avery told them, which just infuriated me all the more.

  “Right. That’s more than I can bear.” I pulled my tranq gun from the holster and leveled it at him. “Say good night, Gracie.”

  You wouldn’t dare.

  Try me, Dracula.
/>   Avery sighed and made a low, sweeping bow to me. “Very well, I will withhold my claim upon you until we have dealt with the situation at hand. Does that satisfy your need for denial?”

  My finger twitched on the trigger, and for a moment, I contemplated the peace I’d have if he was laid out beside the wolfish Dieter, but I thought perhaps that wouldn’t go over so well with the large vampire standing within biting distance, so I slipped the safety back on and put the gun away.

  Paen wouldn’t bite you. Once a Dark One has Joined and drunk from his Beloved, all other blood is poison to him.

  I glanced at him, startled. That seems rather extreme. What if we were meant to be together, and I got run over by a bus or something?

  He gave a mental shrug. Beloveds, both those of Dark Ones and Moravians, are immortal once the Joining is completed. But Moravians can survive if their Beloved is lost to them—only the Dark Ones can’t drink others’ blood once they are Joined.

  Then I guess it’s a good thing you have your soul, I said, feeling somewhat peevish for some bizarre reason.

  Extremely so, he agreed with maddening complacency.

  I wanted to hit him.

  “If you are finished?” Paen asked, glancing from me to his brother, obviously aware we’d been talking to each other. “Perhaps you’d like to explain about the jaguar?”

  “I have to admit, I’m rather curious about that, too,” Sam said, eyeing the wolf.

  “I’ve never heard of a Moravian being turned into a were,” Paen continued, looking over his brother. “But it’s obvious the effect wasn’t permanent.”

  “Not a were—a therion,” Avery corrected. “As to just how he did it, I don’t know. That’s what I was going to find out.”

  “We were going to find out, because unlike your irritating brother, I have a very good relationship with Albert.”

  Sam laughed. “I like you already. I can’t tell you how happy I am that you’re going to take Avery in hand. He’s been much too wild the last few years, flitting from woman to woman, never staying with one for more than a couple of days before he tired of her.”

  “Oh, really,” I said, giving the object of the conversation a raised eyebrow.

  Avery looked uncomfortable. “Sam exaggerates.”

  “No, she doesn’t,” Paen said cheerfully, smiling broadly at his brother. “I’m surprised you bothered to wear trousers; you had them off so much of the time.”

  You dawg! I thought at him with unreasonable fury.

  Jaguar, not a dog, he corrected me. Don’t listen to them. Paen’s just paying me back for the years of teasing he got when he found Sam.

  “None of that is important.” Avery waved away the subject of his promiscuous ways. “What is important is that I’m close to getting the proof of the man behind the animal smuggling.”

  “I think perhaps you’d better wait until you hear what Sam found out, and then we can make plans accordingly.”

  Avery slid a look toward me.

  “Don’t even think of excluding me. I may not be a vampire or a jaguar, but I’m involved in this now, and I’m responsible for what Albert does to the wildlife in this area.”

  “Ah, that’s why you’re wearing that outfit,” Sam said, her gaze drifting over my uniform.

  I explained my job and waited while she exchanged a glance with her husband, the air humming strangely.

  Can they talk to each other like we can?

  Yes. Sam is a half elf, not that it makes any difference in that regard, but she’s also a Beloved. He thought for a moment. And now a Moravian, too.

  Huh?

  She was attacked, and Paen had to turn her to save her life. It stripped her of her soul, but he got it back for her.

  You guys really can turn people into vampires?

  Moravians, yes. It doesn’t happen often, because the Moravian Council frowns heavily on it, but once in a while there is a need to turn someone.

  Cold, clammy fingers crawled over my skin at the thought of being changed into a vampire.

  Avery put his arm around me again, pulling me against the warmth of his body, and this time, I didn’t resist. Don’t worry, love. I won’t let anyone turn you.

  “I think perhaps we need to have a little talk,” Sam said, obviously having finished her discussion with her husband. She looked at the sleeping wolf. “Somewhere a little less likely to be discovered.”

  “There’s Avery’s motel room. It’s not too long a walk from here.”

  “I thought you were staying with the Leshies?” Sam asked Avery.

  “I was. Jacintha put me into a squalid little motel when her sister shot me.”

  “This sounds a lot like a story I want to hear,” Sam said, threading her arm through mine as we turned to walk back the way we came. “You can tell me all about it, and I’ll tell you about Paen and me, so you don’t think you’re alone with arrogant, bossy vampires. Let me see, where should I start? We have the two most adorable girls. Jenna is four, and Laurie is just about to turn two, and we live in Paen’s castle in Scotland. My cousin Claire is a fairy, and she’s married to another brother, Finn. Has Avery told you about all the brothers? And their parents? You’ll like them; they’re very nice, although they prefer to spend most of the year in the most primitive areas of the world, studying indigenous peoples. . . .”

  I glanced back over my shoulder at Avery. What about Dieter?

  He’ll be fine where he is. I took the dart from his shoulder, so even if old man Baum finds him, he’ll have no proof of who sedated his maniac son.

  It’s not his father I’m concerned about. “I’m sorry,” I said, coming to a halt. “I can’t leave.”

  “You can’t?” Sam’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Why not?”

  “Dieter is sedated. Look at him. He’s completely vulnerable should a bear or cougar come upon him. I just can’t leave him unprotected like that.”

  Avery sighed a heavily martyred sigh. “I never thought I’d regret being born Moravian, but I’m starting to think it may happen.”

  Paen laughed so hard his wife punched him in the arm. “You have no idea what hell is in store for you,” Paen said as the two men hoisted the sedated Dieter.

  The walk back to the motel was much longer than the one out. I gathered up Dieter’s clothing, which evidently fell off his body when he shifted into wolf form, and trailed behind the two men as they complained their way back to the dingy, dank motel. By the time they deposited Dieter in the bathtub, Avery’s expression was black and Paen had adopted a martyred air.

  “So, what exactly is this important news that you couldn’t relate in a call or text to me?” Avery asked, slumping on the bed with a groan. I was about to take one of the two chairs when he snagged my wrist and pulled me down onto the edge of the bed. I glared at him but figured he was due a little slack since he had just hauled a heavy wolf two miles through the woods.

  “We did call you, but you didn’t answer. And Sam didn’t want to text just in case you were found out and your text messages could be read,” Paen answered, gingerly seating himself in one of the two rickety chairs that were at least twenty years older than I.

  “Finn was poking around on the Leshy server and found an archived e-mail that leads us to believe someone else is involved with the smuggling,” Sam said, glancing at her husband.

  “Poking around?” I asked, my eyes narrowing. “You mean your brother-in-law hacked the Leshy Web site?”

  Her gaze skittered away from me. “Er . . . something like that. Normally, I wouldn’t condone illegal actions, but we felt this situation warranted a little . . . er . . . irregularity concerning privacy laws.”

  I gawked at her for a minute. “I admit that smuggling animals into another country is not at all good, but honestly, what you’re doing is highl
y illegal, and immoral to boot!”

  Sam’s gaze swiveled to Avery. “You didn’t tell her?”

  “Not all of it. Jas,” Avery said, suddenly sounding weary. I turned to look at him, lying on the bed, his eyes glittering sapphires in the gloomy light of the room. Hunger rolled off him.

  You’re hungry again?

  I’m afraid so. The shape-shifting and healing are somewhat energy-intensive, he answered, apology in his voice.

  Instantly, I was contrite. I’m sorry, I didn’t think. Of course that would wear you out. Er . . . did you wish to dine with the others here?

  Amusement and something warm and smoky entered his eyes. Decidedly not. We’ll wait until we are alone.

  It was clear he was expecting to do more than drink a little blood, and although I had no intention of allowing him to have his wicked way—at least, not without knowing him better—I decided to let that point pass and move on to those issues that were claiming all our attention.

  “What is it you’re not telling me?” I asked Avery.

  He looked surprised for a moment, a vision lovingly held in his mind of our naked selves twined about each other in an act so erotic, my entire body blushed.

  “Not that,” I snapped. “That’s all you’ve been thinking about for the last ten minutes, and you can just stop because it’s not going to happen. And that. I’m allergic to cherries, anyway. Now, that one is just underhanded. Avery! Stop thinking smutty things at me! I can’t concentrate when you . . . Hoo, mama! Is that . . . No. I’m not listening to you anymore.”

  Paen laughed aloud, and Sam looked like she was fighting to keep from joining him.

  I poked Avery in the ribs. “What I was trying to ask before you went off to the land of whipped cream and love swings is what you were keeping from me about the Leshies. What haven’t you told me?”

  He sighed and pulled himself up to a sitting position, leaning against the headboard. “What do you know about the Leshies?”

  “Not a whole lot,” I admitted. “Albert Baum is the leader. There are five other members in the group for this area, including Albert’s two sons and a daughter.”