by Dannika Dark
“I don’t think you can handle a woman like me,” she said with an arch of her brow.
He stroked those large hands up and down her naked body and she relaxed against him. “I think I can handle you just fine, baby girl.”
Chapter 12
Ethan dipped out of the stream of headlights and skidded on a patch of wet grass, holding a tranquilizer gun with a long, skinny barrel. It didn’t look real, but the deadly intent in his eyes told me otherwise. Nate backed up until they were side by side.
“We can do this the easy way, or we can do this our way,” he said to Logan. “Hand over the Mage, or get tranked.”
Why didn’t they fight him? A Mage could throw power into another Breed, knocking them out. Why resort to weapons when Logan was outnumbered? I turned up my nose at their cowardice.
Ethan and Nate made a slow approach while simultaneously creating distance between each other. Logan’s head panned back and forth between them, but Ethan was the imminent threat.
“Here kitty, kitty,” Ethan taunted, aiming his gun with a steady hand.
Without Logan’s watchful eye, I bent forward, pulling at the laces until I was able to wiggle my arms past my hips and step through the loop. I used my teeth to undo the tight knot.
Nate flicked his eyes in my direction and Logan glanced over his shoulder. I was free, and considered running or fighting. Logan stood up straight and turned his attention to Nate.
A deep sound, like distant thunder, rumbled from his chest. He locked the Mage in like a target, tracking every movement.
Ethan lifted the gun higher and my heart kicked up a beat.
I spoke in a quiet voice. “I’ll knock the gun out of his hands while you take the second Mage. If I keep you alive, then you let me go. Deal?”
Logan exploded into action, lunging at Nate with impossible speed. The sound of wet, ripping noises snapped me out of my daze.
I reached out—summoning a gift I rarely used—and pulled the gun from Ethan’s hand.
The gun went off. I surged forward and we rolled across the grass. I struggled with him as he held my arms and pressed a knee firmly against my chest until I heard a crack. Logan slammed into him and I gasped, rolling to my side as I watched him bury his face in Ethan’s neck.
I turned my head and saw Nate in an awkward position, eyes wide open and glassy.
Ethan sputtered out words I couldn’t understand—choking and incoherent as his legs twitched. I rose to my feet, feeling the sudden quiet that enveloped us. Logan turned around and a cold terror chilled me to the marrow. Striking a deal with a man like him was foolish, and I realized how naïve I truly was.
Those weren’t incisors; they were weapons of mass destruction. Two dead Mage at my feet punctuated that fact.
I paced backwards with fear on my heels as Logan’s penetrating eyes hunted me through the dark. They were black as midnight.
He lifted the bottom of his shirt, exposing his stomach as he wiped the blood from his face.
I had no choice. I ran.
Spinning on my heel, I flashed to the car door and came to a hard stop. Logan was already there, leaning on one arm.
“I won’t bite, little bird.”
He tilted his head, lulling me with that sweet way of speaking—like poisonous nectar. The eyes were no longer obsidian, but bright amber.
“Isn’t that what the cat said to the canary?”
He inhaled deeply and cocked a brow.
“How did you kill them? I don’t feel their energy.” I was unable to breathe. I knew I needed to level down, but something felt very wrong. “What are you?”
“I am a Chitah. Are you afraid?” He reached out and plucked a metal dart from my shoulder. “Your kind keeps their distance for a reason. Why don’t you tell me what you are?” he said, narrowing his eyes. “That’s a nifty trick you have.”
He flicked the dart into the grass and pulled in his lower lip, sucking off blood as he bent over and spit it out. “I am your worst nightmare come true; I am more dangerous to you than your own kind.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“I don’t understand how it’s possible.” My legs wobbled.
I glanced at the two dead men lying in the gulley. Monsters did exist, and I couldn’t outrun this one. He crawled right out from beneath my bed and decided to say hello.
“Our bite contains venom we can secrete at will that is poisonous to a Mage.”
I was stupid to have gotten that close with a kiss, what was I thinking? All my senses were shutting down as I slipped into a void of darkness. With everything I had left, I reached out to throw my power into him when his eyes widened. He made no motion to stop me, or push my hands away. He took the full force of the energy, even though it was only a minor shock. My knees buckled, and he caught me with a firm hold, shaking his head.
“Foolish Mage. What am I to do with you?”
My eyes rolled back, and my blood ran cold like an arctic wave. I didn’t want to go to the benefactor, and I was angry that my body could no longer fight.
His soft voice against my ear was the last thing I heard down a long hallway of nothingness.
“To succumb to death, the bite must be with all four incisors—otherwise it only paralyzes our victim. You are so eager to play with fire, but are you ready to get burned?”
Something sharp lightly touched my ear.
Chapter 13
I pretended to be asleep for several minutes, observing my surroundings. My fingers traced along smooth rock overhead. A warm light flickered to my left, throwing shadows on walls made of ancient rocks. I was in a cavern, tucked in a crevice in the wall. The ceiling sloped down at a sharp angle, and tiny sparkles shimmered in the dirt. I threw my legs over the ledge, and dropped to the ground a few feet below, landing hard on my knees.
Someone had dressed me in a brown knit sweater with a wide turtleneck pulled over my nose. I rolled the collar down and the cool, damp air touched my skin. It was his sweater. It smelled like him, and the sleeves hung past my hands.
A small fire blocked a narrow passageway, and smoke drifted between the rocks as if the ceiling were breathing it in. To my right was the dark mouth of a cave, ready to swallow any willing victim.
“Come to the fire if you’re cold.”
“How long was I knocked out?”
“Hmm,” his voice rolled out warmly. “However long a Mage sleeps from the energy problem you have. Has anyone solved that energy crisis?” he laughed.
“I was drugged,” I said, rubbing my shoulder.
“What they use on a Chitah would have little effect on you.”
He was probably right. I hadn’t leveled down after the kiss, kills, and adrenaline. The drug triggered a shutdown sooner than I would have liked. I sat back against the wall and dusted off my hands.
Logan was no longer wearing a bloody shirt; in fact, he was wearing none at all. I pressed my back against the uneven wall, and took a seat in the dirt. He leaned against the opposite wall, watching me with detached interest as he wiped a hand over his bare chest.
“Did you bite me?” I asked, remembering the sharp touch on my ear.
He shook his head, staring at the ground.
The fire cracked and I jumped. I debated whether throwing my power into him was a good idea, but I was apprehensive about the risk of getting unnecessarily close. Logan took me off guard because he was fast, deadly, and unpredictable.
“I guess you don’t get cable out here?”
“Home away from home,” he said. “Material things mean little to me.”
Could I reason with him? “You promised to release me, and I’ve done you two favors. I gave you what you asked, and protected you from getting shot.”
“For that, I am in your debt.” By the disgusted curl of his lip, he was not pleased about it.
“Consider it paid if you release me.”
“To be hunted by the man who hired me to find you?”
“What do you care?”
“I’ve never cared for your kind,” he confessed.
“Then it shouldn’t be so hard to let me go. I’m not asking you to drop me off at the door, Mr. Cross. Just turn your head and give me back my life.” When he didn’t answer, I looked at my surroundings. “Why are we here?”
“Gives me time to think.”
“About what?”
“I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with you,” he said, tapping a small stick on the ground.
Logan’s eyes glimmered in the firelight, like amber and tiger’s eye melted together. The color was striking because the irises were encircled by dark rims. I reached back and twisted my hair, tucking it into the sweater.
“I could throw my light into you,” I threatened.
A broad smile exposed his fangs, and I dropped my eyes to the floor.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” he apologized, continuing to tap the stick.
“I think that’s exactly what you meant to do.”
The man provoked me. His mannerisms were so polished they were impossible to read. I sighed, looking up at the wet walls. Water dribbled down one of the rocks, reminding me of something.
“I need to powder my nose.”
Logan stood up and walked to the mouth of the cave. “Follow me and stay close.”
The tunnel was narrow, dark, and branched out in several places. He swiped one of the sticks from the fire and used it as a torch. I ducked beneath a low rock and saw a small stream running through an open room.
“Stay here,” he said. “Don’t make me chase you.”
Logan tossed the stick on a rock and left the room.
In captivity, I learned one thing: dark caverns are not awe-inspiring when you’re crouched with your pants around your ankles. Humans know that monsters aren’t really lurking in the shadows, because things like that don’t exist. But I knew better, and those irrational fears weren’t so irrational anymore.
Hiking up my pants, I tiptoed down a dark passageway, running my hands along the wall in the blinding dark. I stopped and heard nothing but silence. I envisioned myself getting lost in the tunnels for all eternity, starving to a point where I remained in darkness forever, withering to bones. This was a monumentally stupid idea.
I spun around and lost my sense of direction. The wall was no longer in reach, and I searched for something to hold.
A hand captured my wrist and squeezed.
“I told you not to run from me.”
“I was just looking around.”
He jerked me forward and I winced, stumbling over my feet as I followed at a slow pace. I wondered if he could see in the dark like those nocturnal animals. It made sense by his confident stride.
Logan looked over his shoulder and stopped. I couldn’t make out his face, only the outline of his body from the soft firelight in the distance.
“Are you hurt?”
He stepped forward and pointed where I was holding my side.
“Cramps,” I offered with a smirk.
A female Mage doesn’t have a cycle. If he knew anything about my kind, then he knew it was a lie. That’s why it took me several minutes to get myself together when I woke up; I felt a broken rib. Simon taught me never to expose my weaknesses, and it was fine until he jerked my arm.
I pushed past him, but didn’t make it three steps when he lifted me off the ground.
“Put me down!” I protested. “I’m perfectly capable of walking.”
“Stubborn female,” he muttered, walking swiftly back to the room.
Logan set me down beside the fire and squatted on the tips of his shoes to get a better look at me. I scooted as far from him as possible.
“You needn’t fear me, Mage.”
The light struck his features like a match, setting off his broad shoulders and ferocious stare. His stringy, long hair outlined his face, where shadows played with the grooves of his cheekbones, brightening those eyes to a point where I couldn’t look at them.
“I’ll remember that the next time you chew up one of my kind.”
Logan dropped to his knees, crawling towards me with a curious expression.
“Do you have a broken wing, little bird?”
“I’m fine,” I said softly, biting my lip.
“No, you are not. I know the scent of suffering. Let me—” He touched my knee and I slapped his hand.
“Don’t touch me.”
Logan scratched his throat, studying me as if I were a stain on his conscience.
I concentrated on the fire, the way it moved, the sound it made as the wood hissed—scorched by the heat. I could feel him looking at me and I didn’t like it.
“Anyone ever tell you it’s not polite to stare?” I scolded.
“Tell me where your hurt and I will stop looking.”
“Why? Are you going to take me to a hospital?”
Logan startled me when his rough hand gripped the back of my neck and he searched my eyes. “Perhaps I should toss you where I found you, in the dark. Do you realize that you were only two steps away from a thirty-foot drop? Would you like that?”
I lifted my chin. “Go on and do it, then!”
I cried out when he grabbed my arm. Logan immediately let go, and blew out a long, angered breath.
“Enough of these games; show me your pain.”
His face was inches from mine. He was a persistent man; I’d give him that.
“It’s only a small fracture.”
He snatched my hand and placed it against his bare chest. “Heal yourself.”
“Are you kidding?” I laughed, pulling away. When I looked up, his eyes fell to the floor and he arched his brow, anticipating my answer.
“I’d rather endure it,” I gritted through my teeth. “I’m tougher than you think I am.”
“That I can see, but as you know I’m twice in your debt. I’m offering this as a way to clear that favor owed. Don’t ask if I’ll release you. The answer is no.”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
His eyes flicked to mine. “Tell me how it works if this is not the way.”
“Look, I don’t know what you’re expecting. We can do this among our own kind, but I don’t know if I can take healing light from a Chitah.”
“I will be distressed if you cannot. A cut I can mend, but I can’t heal bones,” he said, rubbing his chin.
“You heal?” I asked in astonishment.
“Superficial wounds.”
“How do you do it?”
Logan tilted his head to the side. “With my tongue.”
“Is that all you can do?”
“Hmm,” he pondered. “As a Chitah, or do you mean with my tongue?”
I almost blushed, but Logan was all business as his incisors punched out. “Don’t get any ideas,” he said, placing his hand over my sweater. “I’m very aware of what you’re capable of.”
“Skin,” I said. “I’m not removing my clothes, and if you so much as touch me in the wrong place, I’m cutting off that hand.”
“On my word,” he murmured, hand disappearing beneath the sweater. His warm fingers touched that tender spot and I winced. Logan’s eyes flashed to mine, waiting for something to happen.
Justus never said I couldn’t take from Breed, only that I shouldn’t. At least, that’s what I remembered during those fuzzy training sessions. I gripped his large hand and focused on the energy. His power was a tightly wound coil that wouldn’t give. Pulling healing energy required concentration. Sweat beaded on my forehead, and I began to have second thoughts as I stared at his incisors just inches away. What if he attacked when he felt his energy slip?
“Don’t pull away, Mage. I won’t harm you.”
“No offense, but I don’t believe you.”
“I am a Chitah, and my word is my bond. How is the word of a Mage these days?”
A tingling sensation prickled my skin. Warmth spread between our hands, burning through his fingertips against my skin. I glanced up, and he turned his head away as if catching a scent. The noise he made was a deep purr, so low it was more felt than heard.
“Why do you make those sounds?” I wondered aloud, removing his hand.
“Our body reacts. It can’t be controlled. I suppose that I’m calm,” he said, flexing his fingers.
Logan made a similar noise while terrorizing me in Justus’s bedroom. His version of calm wasn’t even in the same ballpark as mine.
“Could you put away your fangs? It makes me feel like a rib eye steak.”
He retracted them and stood up, putting distance between us. While it was only a small fraction of his energy given over, he looked weary as he sat down with his arms lazily draped over his knees.
“That was an interesting display back there with the gun,” he said. “The gifts your kind conceal are remarkable.”
“You don’t really work in a hospital, do you?”
Logan shook his head. “I had to gain your trust to get inside. People do trust a doctor, don’t they?” He laughed richly. “You wouldn’t have let me in if I just shown up in a pair of jeans. I scented the change in your comfort level when I removed my coat. A new Mage is easy to deceive; you still hold on to those human qualities of disbelief that someone could mean you harm.”
“You could have pushed your way in and saved me the trouble of making you dinner.”
He looked agitated. “I have no need to resort to violence to get what I want. Would you have preferred I be ruthless?”
“No, but I think your tactics were drawn out and unnecessary.”
“The enchiladas were worth it,” he grinned.
“How many have you killed?”
Logan wasn’t shocked by my question; even more disturbing was how quickly he answered.
“I lost count.”
“Why aren’t we extinct if all of your kind hunts us down?”
“We don’t. For obvious reasons we aren’t allies, but we abide by our laws, just as you do. I hunt alone, and it’s personal.”
That didn’t settle well on my palate. “Are you telling me that you’re an assassin? Do you do it for pay, or for sport?”
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