Ivory (The Manhattan Ten Series Book 1)

by Lola Dodge

  Wasn’t I just a terrible daughter?

  “I don’t want it.” I didn’t need to see my shame laid bare. Nothing could make me regret my decision now.

  “Please.” Kevan bowed deep. “She prays for your return. It is not what you think.”

  At one time, I would’ve thought it dishonorable to ask, but I’d spent too many years among humans. “It’s not a heart?”

  “Of course not.” Passion seeped into Kevan’s voice. “She has absolved you of any dishonor. You were wise to journey among the humans and learn the ways of the southlands. We’ll need your knowledge to survive these troubled times.”

  “She said all of that?” My mother’s world began and ended on ice. She’d almost beaten me to death for asking about a ship, and suddenly I was wise?

  I couldn’t believe it. Not my mother. Not the queen.

  “I would not lie to you, my lady.” Kevan thrust the box out, as if he could will me to reach for it. “She says the world has changed. The ice shrinks and there is little left to hunt. We were to find you and bring you back to share your knowledge, learning the humans’ ways as we searched.”

  “And you found me.” Until my run-in with the M-10, I’d been cautious about exposing myself to the media, but I’d never, never expected to bump into my tribe like this.

  “It was fated.” The bliss in Kevan’s smile made my skin crawl. “You slew the man we were to meet in Los Angeles, and we saw your picture in the news, on the television. We flew to New York, and discovered you were to attend a party.”

  “You were meeting that horrible man?” Goddess, this was worse than I’d imagined.

  “Ah.” Kevan shrugged. “He hated our people, but not as much as the other creatures called supers. His organization arranged hunting grounds and was to provide us with a longer list of worthy prey. The first made for exciting hunts. Did you obtain the names from him?” At the last, Kevan leaned forward in excitement, his arms drooping with the chest they still held out to me.

  “Let me see that.” I should’ve taken the whole bundle and thrown it into a fire, but I had to see what my mother deigned to send her disgraced daughter.

  Then, justice.

  As I reached for the box, Kevan averted his eyes. Out of respect? Fear?

  The box was heavier than expected. My fingers didn’t quite tremble, but I felt very much the girl who’d never live up to her mother’s expectations as I untied the length of blood-red ribbon.

  The lid fell away and a bluish white glow expanded. As it touched my skin, it sank into the depths of my soul.

  So beautiful. Like the heart of a glacier.

  A bright, frigid sphere of elemental ice. A true snow globe. Not like the humans’ chintzy treasures. It was pure energy, and as soon as my gaze touched its surface, I was lost to its spell.

  This was my home.

  This was who I was at my deepest core.

  And my mother was as much a bitch as ever.

  It was my last coherent thought before my consciousness slipped into a well of power so deep it could hold me captive forever.

  Jag

  My neck stung like a mother and my head ached like the morning after a night in Tijuana, but I was coming back to life. Ivory needed me, and I was going to kill the icy bastards who’d done this. Claws extended from my paws—

  Paws? When did I...

  I jerked fully awake. My head throbbed and a chain pulled against the collar around my neck. I fell back on four legs. Maybe I hadn’t signed off on beasting out, but it was all the better to get with the flesh-tearing.

  Except for the collar.

  The chain ran to an iron link in the floor of some dank sub-basement.

  I was alone. Where was Ivory?

  This was not happening. I threw myself, but the chain wrenched me back hard. No dice.

  Had to go human. The shredded remnants of my clothes were balled on the other side of my makeshift prison. My cell phone better be there. We needed the cavalry. And I wouldn’t say no to a flamethrower.

  I started to shift. My muscles rippled and fur smoothed into skin, but right as my body moved from cat-shaped to humanoid, a massive jolt of electricity tore through my body.

  The fire circled my neck and corded out my muscles. I fell to the ground in a twitching pile.

  Fuck, that hurt.

  As the electricity faded, my body bled from the doughy half-form back to full jaguar. When I stopped twitching enough, I touched the collar with the pad of my paw.

  The thing was solid and hot. Collars were always about dominance, and I’d worn my share of spiked, tie-me-up, bondage chokers under better circumstances, but this was fucking cruel.

  And who the hell had a jungle-cat sized shock collar ready to go?

  I needed to get to Ivory. But no shifting, no phone, and the Alcatraz treatment left me with jaguar mojo and not much else.

  One deep breath, and I worked a few thousand scents through my enhanced nose. Mold dominated the basement, but an icy-sweet scent wafted down from above. A group of icemen.

  Their scents were so similar I couldn’t tell how many there were, but it had to be more than three by the amount of particles in the air.

  Ivory’s scent was distinct. It started with the same notes but had some smoke and heat to it, where the others were just cold.

  I smelled stale coffee. Febreze. No blood.

  If Ivory was doing fine, she was welcome to rescue me any time.

  I’d play the damsel, no problem.

  But she didn’t come, and whatever was going on with us, I was pretty sure she wouldn’t have wanted me chained to a wall. That meant she was captive too. Hopefully in nicer digs.

  If they so much as scratched her...

  I forced down visions of evisceration and made myself focus. The rumble of low conversation drifted through the floorboards.

  “...her creature? This is overstepping—”

  “He’s a beast.” The answer lifted my hackles. It was ice boy the banquet waiter. “She would’ve hunted with us gladly.”

  “We go without her?” Another voice. All of them sounded the same to me, with the same high, tinny tones to their voices, and only the little bit of authority distinguished the waiter from the other ice-douches.

  “We cannot tarry. The queen wants her heir back with urgency.”

  Queen, eh?

  So my Ivory was a princess. It explained the bowing. Hopefully royal blood was enough to keep her unharmed.

  “The hunting ground is prepared.” Another voice. That made at least four. “We need only wait for nightfall and the arrival of our transport.”

  The group must’ve broken up after that, because all I could catch were footsteps and creaking floorboards. The tiny window was still frosted over, but by the light that seeped through, it wasn’t much past mid-day.

  What was happening at nightfall? Transport meant someone was going somewhere...but who? Would they put Ivory on a plane straight for home and leave me chained in their basement? Or did they think I’d play good kitty and follow along? Shock collar or not, screw that.

  By the talk of hunting, I had an inkling who was going to be the main event in their safari.

  Good. They’d have to come get me.

  I paced as much as far as the chain allowed, working the last of the tranqs out of my system.

  I could already taste their cold blood on my fangs.

  Nine

  JAG

  They came just before nightfall. The cellar door creaked open and five icemen tromped downstairs.

  If they’d ever had street clothes, they weren’t wearing them now. Instead they sported a macabre spread of skins and furs, a few with heads still attached.

  I hit them with a growl, but they didn’t flinch.

  Fuckers.

  Banquet waiter’s tux had been replaced by a few polar bears, and a limp snow fox wrapped his shoulders. He lifted a black plastic rectangle. I might’ve guessed remote car starter if not for the ring around my rosy.


  “You will cooperate.”

  I gave another growl. Without vocal cords, my repertoire was limited.

  “We will bring you upstairs and you will get into the van that’s waiting outside.”

  Like hell I would.

  He dangled the device. “I will not hesitate to use this. But if you don’t make me, you may ride in the van with Lady Valdís.”

  My growl cut. Shit.

  “I see we’re in agreement.” He slipped around me and bent to unlock the chain. His eyes shifted to focus and I had to give it a try.

  I pounced.

  Wham.

  Current sizzled through my neck. My vision blanked and the scent of singed fur curled into my nose.

  Hurt worse than when I’d tried to shift.

  “No more warnings.” The chain jingled and slid loose. I would’ve kept snapping, but instead four of the icemen dragged me upstairs. My paws wouldn’t move in a line. I stumbled and cracked my nose against the doorframe. Didn’t help me see any straighter.

  It was the same apartment I’d glimpsed before they knocked me out, so at least I still knew where we were. They hauled me out a different entrance, where a U-Haul backed up as close as it could get to the door.

  The thing was rigged out for big game, with a massive industrial strength cage crowding the back. Ivory sat on the other side of that thick wire mesh.

  So I hopped in. Like a good kitty.

  “Good cat.” The guy threw a series of bolts and slid down the grate, but I could eat his face off later.

  I threw myself at the other side of the cage. Ivory was strapped into a modified bucket seat and a pool of brilliant blue light flowed from her hands. Was she hurt?

  I roared. Nothing. She didn’t flinch. I hurled myself again and again, but no matter how hard I jangled the metal, she wouldn’t look my way.

  Whatever held her attention, it was too bright for my jaguar eyes. It swirled and flickered, coating her fingers in blue ice.

  She was totally enthralled, and not because she wanted to be. Ivory would never volunteer to give up her control, and by the slack look on her face, her system was frozen.

  Unfortunately, the van was mobile. We kicked into motion. It was stop and go through Manhattan, but we must’ve hit a bridge, because we picked up speed and started booking toward somewhere.

  Long Island? Jersey? Where did they think they were going with a comatose ice princess and a super-sized jaguar?

  I flopped down but kept my eyes on Ivory. Whatever was controlling her, she’d fight. No doubt of that.

  When we got somewhere, I’d have to do the same. I was a patient predator, and I’d be ready to pounce at the first opening.

  IVORY

  All was cold. Frigid.

  The world that spread in front of me swirled in flakes of white, an expanse of snow that stretched to the horizon. Hints of blue glittered at the edge of my vision. Ice sheets drifting across the sea.

  I wanted to run. To chase and hunt the creatures that carved their lives out of this icescape.

  This was home. Nothing else existed. Nothing else mattered.

  Nothing?

  Something clanged outside my hearing. There had been something...once.

  Someone? A long time ago.

  He was...

  An ice fox darted past and the thought slipped away. The hunt was everything.

  A spear flowed from my fingers and I sprinted through dunes of snow.

  This was my home.

  This was where I belonged.

  JAG

  It might’ve been an hour up the highway. No more than two, so we weren’t that far from the city. The grate rattled up.

  “Welcome to the Catskills.”

  Farmland. Or woodland. We parked at the edge of a dirt road. A little town glittered in the distance. Could I make it there?

  No one unlocked my cage yet, but as soon as they did, I was making a break for it. Ice boy rapped the steel. “We are going to hunt you.”

  Oh. That was all?

  “Behave as you would in the wild. If you can slay us, then slay.”

  Slay them? Sign me up.

  “The hunting ground is wired for your collar and you’ll be shocked if you try to escape. That is the only rule.” He whipped out an ice spear and the other four echoed the motion.

  Maybe they were batshit, but if it was going to work for me...

  I just couldn’t leave Ivory. She hadn’t shifted during the ride. She sat, frozen, still lost in the shifting light in her hands.

  One of the minions glanced at the leader. “It will not be a long hunt if he does not leave the vehicle.”

  “Go, cat.” Ice boy jerked his head. “Or I will use the device.”

  I hesitated.

  Separating from Ivory wasn’t a good idea. Not that I planned on getting dead, but she’d be at their mercy as soon as I was out of the area. I needed her to stay where I could make sure she was safe. They wouldn’t hurt their princess, but Ivory would’ve preferred physical pain to a mental prison.

  Zzzzt.

  A smaller zap, but it still popped sparks behind my eyes, and that made my decision. I leaped from the van and broke for the edge of the wood, stumbling a little. Once I was bounding, the juice stopped working its way through my system.

  I’d come back for Ivory as soon as I eviscerated these assholes.

  IVORY

  The fox danced across snow and ice, leading a valiant chase, but the hunt ended with its blood on my spear.

  Red screamed against so much white.

  Smearing the creature’s blood along my lower lip, I gave thanks. Its meat would go to my family’s pots and its skin across my shoulders.

  As I bent to the carcass, a rabbit bounded in the distance. My next prey.

  There would always be another hunt, and another after that. Forever, I would seek, and kill, and seek again.

  It was my destiny.

  But there was no joy in it. With the iron tang of blood on my lips and the thrill of another imminent chase, I should’ve been coursing with energy.

  I was tired.

  Was there nothing else but this?

  JAG

  Upstate New York was no jungle.

  Dry air chilled my nose and pine needles crunched under my paws, but trees were trees. Even if the landscape wasn’t what I was built for, I could make it work.

  Better than being hunted through Manhattan.

  I didn’t pick up any ice-scent, so the bastards were giving me a head start. Rookie move.

  If they wanted a real hunt, I’d make it happen.

  Part of me wanted to give in to the jaguar’s darker instincts and go on a blood-lusty bender, but that wasn’t going to get me out of this. Nothing hunted jaguars. They were deadly predators, but they lacked the instincts that kept smaller creatures alive.

  Lucky my human side was big on self- preservation. I followed the tang of metal and fresh dirt. I just needed to find...

  Bingo.

  The device looked like a blinking golf ball that was jammed onto a pole. This was the perimeter.

  I padded as close as I dared. I needed to investigate, but a big enough shock and I’d be fried like Original Recipe.

  The earth smelled newly disturbed. The death fence couldn’t have been in place more than a week.

  A week ago, I’d been in Auckland, trailing Mr. Heroes Suck. So why was there a scary high-tech hunting ground in the Catskills?

  They hadn’t known Ivory and I would come to New York. Ivory couldn’t have been on their radar until she killed my mark and stumbled into the national spotlight. And they hadn’t rush-ordered the shock collar.

  Everything had already been in place.

  My hackles rose.

  Greater New York had one of the highest populations of supers in the world. If you wanted to hunt them, this was the perfect place. Close enough for convenience, but isolated enough that no one could hear the screams.

  The icemen couldn’t have set it up
on their own. No way. From what little Ivory had said about home, her people didn’t care about technology, money or anything else they’d need to swing this. They were being fed the resources and handed the dirty work.

  Which they happened to enjoy.

  But this was big. If we could track it back to the anti-super faction—

  A twig snapped.

  Shit.

  I dodged and the ice spear meant for my ribs shattered against the ground. The guy cursed. His crew wasn’t behind him.

  A second spear shot through the night, but I was already bounding. I expected him at least to hesitate as a few tons of jaguar barreled toward him, but he gave a piercing war whoop and drew out another spear.

  He met me halfway. We crashed, but I was faster and heavier. He bounced back and my fangs found his throat. The spray of blood was cold instead of hot, but no less satisfying.

  The killing high didn’t last. As soon as he was definitely dead, I felt the slice of pain across my flank. The ice spear jutted over my hind leg.

  A chorus of hunting cries echoed through the trees. With blood in the air, the others would be here fast.

  Without hands, my first-aid options were limited. I didn’t want the spear out. It was already bleeding too much and unplugging the hole would make it worse.

  But the wound screwed my chances of hiding my trail.

  I closed my jaws and bounded for a convenient pine tree. The angle was just right. Impact jarred and the spear snapped. I couldn’t stop a low whine as the rest of the ice-barb jabbed deeper, but it had to be done.

  The hunting calls circled closer. This was as good as it was getting until I was human again.

  Keeping the blinky electro-golf balls in the corner of my eye, I bounded the perimeter. Definitely didn’t want to run into one of those by accident.

  Wind blew their scent my way. The icy sweetness twisted my nostrils like hot garbage. So similar to Ivory, but so totally different.