Bailey blinked. "How? Why?" She took a deep breath trying to comprehend. "You're dead."
"I am. But my life force is not. I live on in the portal. Our bloodline always goes back to the portal in death. My essence is the magic that provides Khimairans the ability to move in and out safely, to use the portal, to have a sanctuary. You are blessed with not only our bloodline’s magic, but the gift of portent. The gods, Typhon and Echidna, have blessed you. But you are very powerful also. Use your powers. You can help them."
"How?"
"Go to the portal, it will come to you. The portal, your ancestors know you, and they will help you in dire circumstances as this. All you have to do is feel and trust in your instincts." Nadia kissed her cheek and vanished.
Bailey’s vision turned completely black again and silence filled the space of evil laughing and gurgling death. She questioned why again in her mind.
The echoing voices of the gods replied, "If the alpha leaves with the Bellers, this will come to pass. Do not let him go."
Bailey shot up off the ground. The forest came back into view. Sadie was pale as a ghost sitting in front of her, clutching at her chest. Smokey flapped his little wings wildly at Bailey’s sudden movements then landed on Bailey’s shoulder.
Her urgent need to stop Dante from following through had her running from the tree and straight for the group, for the portal. They were just outside the cave leading to the portal. Five Bellers, a lion, and Trevon all looked up as she slid to a stop in the middle of everything. Sadie was right beside her. Bailey could feel the portal's waves, warmer now, not urgent, more like an angry energy. It flowed into her as if the portal itself was upset by these Bellers coming through her.
"He will not go with you." Bailey let the portal energy flow, her body moving of its own accord as if she had done this all before. She followed Nadia’s advice and let her instincts take over. Her hands clapped together with a loud smack. Dante had shifted into a lion and roared at Tony. Bailey's appearance cut into the lion's concentration. He was a magnificent beast, all browns and yellows. His mane had rich tones of mahogany. He glanced at her with those beautiful golden eyes, but she wasn't sure he recognized her.
Bellers tried to run. The energy inside her encouraged her to move down quickly and she followed. Bailey slammed her hands to the ground and they were rooted, quite literally in place. She took a moment to look at the scene. Dante’s claws were out, and Trevon bled on the ground.
Sadie rushed to Trevon. The healer would help him. Bailey needed to concentrate on helping Dante. Her heart pounded in disbelief. She was actually causing this magic to happen. The energy inside her balled into her heart, hot and powerful. Her chest tightened, it was as if she might suffocate if she didn't let out all this coiled up access.
"You! I should have killed you in the shop. If I would have known you were part of the Khimairan’s help." Within seconds Tony had wrapped up a strange blade he had pointed at the lion, probably the blade everyone had spoken of, the one that hurt Dante, and the whole thing flashed, disappearing.
The lion roared when Tony stepped toward Bailey, menace in his slitted eyes.
It happened so fast, Bailey barely understood what was happening.
Warm blood splattered her face. Dante's claws had ripped through Tony’s neck. Dante pushed the Beller down, and Tony fell with a thud before Bailey. Dante dragged him backward, leaving a large streak of red on the ground. Bailey didn’t want to look up. She didn’t want to see...
She glanced up, hoping it wasn’t real that Dante hadn’t just killed a man, or beast, or whatever he was. Fear reared up inside her as she beheld the lion’s fur smeared in blood with huge red stained paws standing over the top of a torn-up Tony. Bailey’s stomach rolled.
"No!" Trevon yelled, but it was too late.
The energy built up so intense, Bailey was about ready to scream. It wanted her to let it loose.
She stopped fighting it and let her body relax. Smokey flitted off her shoulder, hovering in front of her. His little body huffed out fire energy and her yellow pendant absorbed it. The dragon fell to the ground, still as a figurine. Had she stored energy in the inanimate object?
Just like when she touched the pendant her body arched backward at the power coming through her. She was on her knees. Treetops swayed in the breeze as she looked up at the sky. Tears slipped from the corner of her eyes as her arms flew backward, pushing her chest and the pendant out farther. She cried for Dante... Something had snapped in him, she could see it. The heat rushed through her, it burned so much Bailey wanted to scream, but no sounds escaped her lips. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and then all the energy was gone.
She fell forward breathing heavily, trying to calm her shaking body. She grabbed Smokey and stuck him in her pocket. She’d keep him for herself instead of putting him back in the store. She wasn't sure she could handle much more than this. When she finally looked at the scene before her she found the four remaining Bellers on the ground. The lion had stilled, and Trevon stared at her with wide disbelieving eyes.
"Are..." She took a long shuddering breath. "Are they dead?"
Trevon blinked. Sadie let him go as he shuffled over to one of the bad guys. He looked down and felt for a pulse. "Nope, looks like they are knocked out."
"What are you going to do with them?" Bailey was relieved she hadn't killed them, but wasn't ready for anyone else to either. She stared Dante down. He was tense, muscles bunched. His eyes hard and unyielding. He didn’t seem to know anything. His tail flicked back and forth.
“The better question is what are we going to do with him?" Trevon slowly pointed to the lion. He bared his teeth, and Trevon stood his full height.
Sadie moved up beside Trevon and said, "Keep him distracted. I have an idea."
Trevon nodded, put his fingers in his belt loops, and headed for the big beast. The lion's tail slashed back and forth and his ears fell flat along his head.
"You know, Dante, you've been my friend for as long as I can recall. You know we gotta do what we gotta do, big guy."
What was happening? What did they need to do to Dante? The air thickened with tension as Bailey's gaze followed Sadie. She slipped behind the lion with something in her hand. Trevon must have seen her too because he walked straight up to Dante keeping his full attention. Dante’s ears flattened. Sadie stuck him with something, and Dante whirled around on her, claws out, ready to tear her down. Bailey was stunned.
The lion wobbled and fell to the side, tongue lolling out.
"What have you done?" Bailey headed straight for Dante.
"He's asleep." Sadie looked worn out as she leaned against the big feline body.
"Where's the primal blade? We need to end this before he wakes up." Trevon looked around.
Bailey supposed he hoped the blade would have flashed to the ground even though they both new it had disappeared. Whatever Tony did with it, he took to his grave. Bailey avoided looking at the mangled body. "What are you going to do?"
A Beller, one of the dog-faced guys, started to wake up. His eyes fluttered and he scrambled backward. Trevon grabbed a hold of his arm in a flash. "Not so fast. Where's the primal blade?"
The man’s image began to change. The dog-like features on his head were reverting back into human form before their eyes. His pale pink skin glistened with sweat. "Where am I? Let me go!" He struggled, but Trevon didn't budge.
"Where is it?" Trevon growled.
"I don't know what it is." The man looked around as if with new eyes. "How did I get to the forest?" Panic flickered in his eyes when his gaze landed on Bailey. "I don't know my name." His entire body began to shake, and Trevon finally let go with a disgusted grunt. The man sprung up to run, only to slam directly into a tree. He fell backwards having knocked himself out.
Trevon stomped after him.
"Stop. Wait, I don't think he knows anything. I don't think any of them do." She looked over at the others still passed out on the ground all reverting ba
ck to human. "I think I wiped their memories."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A cage. They stuck Dante in a cage. Thankfully she had convinced Trevon, with Sadie's help, to let the Bellers go. None of them remembered anything. They took them to the local hospital and said they found the four of them wandering around downtown. Dante hadn't been so lucky. Still shifted in his lion form, he looked miserable pacing a metal cage in the basement of his own home. "You guys can't possibly keep him in there." Bailey crossed her arms. Yes, he was a giant feline, bigger than most actually, though she suspected Khimairans would be given they are a hybrid of animal and human. And he had killed someone, but it was a bad guy!
"He's gone primal. We can't let him out. Primal means he can't shift back. And he's likely to hurt someone." Trevon headed back up the stairs.
"Well, you can't just leave him in a cage," she called up the stairs after him. And she wasn't giving up on Dante. She didn't care what any of them thought. He shifted into a lion, and he could shift back. He was an alpha for Christ's sake, that had to hold some sway even if he went primal. He’d saved all their lives, and Tony got what he deserved. Bailey wanted to feel guilty about thinking that, but after he’d already killed her family and then came after the Khimairans, she didn’t.
"Let him go, sweetie. We don't have a choice." Sadie walked passed her, giving up sad eyes. Bailey didn't want them to feel bad for her. She wanted them to find a way to help him.
Trevon stopped at the top of the stairs, looking back over his shoulder. "Nothing can change him back. He's lost to us forever. We won't be leaving him in a cage for long. Go on back to the human side and let us Khimairans take care of our own portal guardian.”
Bailey stomped her foot, frustrated they would just give up. Angry she couldn't get Dante out. Trevon had pocketed the key and even though she could hold her own she wasn't going to take down a shifter cowboy when she didn't even know what he would shift into. "I'm not leaving."
"Bailey, please—"
"Let her be, Sadie. She'll figure it out soon enough. Let's go."
Bailey didn't bother stopping them. She turned and headed back over to the cage, to Dante. She wasn't dumb enough to get too close to the bars; he was, after all, still an animal. The bars were big, though. He had enough room his entire leg could come out of them, wide enough a human could pass through them.
No one had gotten through to Dante mentally, she wasn't even sure she could, but she had to try. They had a connection. Even as the lion stared her down, there was something in those gold eyes that called to her. She could be imagining it, but she almost felt as if he was pleading with her in those eyes, as if he recognized her. To stay or go she didn't know, but she wasn't going anywhere until they gave him a real chance. If his own people wouldn't, she would.
"How could they just turn on you like this, Dante?" She sat cross-legged in front of his cage. He yawned at her as if indifferent to her words. She pulled out her ponytail and ran fingers through her long curls, trying to tame them and failing. She rebanded her hair and pulled the ponytail tight. She eyed the lion. Bailey didn't know if he even understood what she said, it was the first time she'd had to deal with this kind of issue. "Just shift back."
The lion roared at her, causing Bailey to jump and back away. "Okay, clearly that is a sore spot." It was weird to just talk randomly to the beast, but in a way, she thought it was better to. She could tell him anything she wanted. He couldn't really talk back, and if he never turned human, he'd be caged with her secrets forever. The lion paced in a circle then settled back to the cement floor of the cage. His paws were massive, bigger than any lion she'd seen in a zoo. Bailey tentatively crawled back to her spot a few feet away from the cage. Light slipped in from the single window at the back of the basement. It was like a dug out, where only a small blimp of a window was available to see through, but the setting sun was pretty regardless of the circumstances. The light shimmered across Dante's fur.
If he reacted to her talking, maybe it would help if she just talked to him. "After my mother died, I'd only ever seen my aunt once, you know. Daddy started drinking pretty heavily. By the time I was a teen, I was ready to leave home." Bailey let memories flit across her mind. "He wasn't the greatest dad, but he was all I had. We spent our time out in the middle of nowhere. I grew up not having many friends. I was always the weird girl." She looked down at the floor not wanting to see his eyes. What if he did understand? Would she see pity? She didn't need pity. She'd never talked to anyone about her past.
"I think I keep traveling from place to place always on the move because..." Her voice faltered. Deep down she knew why. "If I stick around in one place, people inevitably disappoint me. I don't need to be let down again." She looked up to see Dante content watching her. "You see, this is why I need you to change. I need to know I can do more than just move around. Clearly, I'll be stuck in this town and to be honest..." She swallowed the lump forming in her throat. She knew what her next words would be, felt them as they bubbled up from deep inside her.
Dante had saved her life not once but twice. He'd helped her no matter what she had called his people. He'd been there for her when the pain was unbearable. "I wouldn't mind being stuck somewhere you were. You are the only person who has actually cared enough about another being, someone like me, to literally almost give your life up. I care what happens to you, even if I don't want to." Bailey stood, her stomach grumbled. She'd barely had anything to eat and exhaustion set in from the day. She gave the lion a weak smile and then headed toward the stairs. When she reached the first step she turned back to see him watching her.
"Just try."
***
Days had gone by and Bailey continued to care for the lion. No one had come to see him. No one came to do anything. It was as if everyone had deserted him completely, which only pushed Bailey that much harder to be there. Her heart ached as she was able to clean out his cage without him swiping at her. She fed and watered him, encouraged more and more by the fact he hadn't tried to attack her or roared at her since the first time. She'd just finished reading him a story off her smart phone when she heard the door open and close upstairs. Dante looked up, as if he might see through the floors. Feet thumped along the wood, heading down the hall, then step by step down the stairs.
Bailey's heart lurched. Who could it be? Would Trevon come back? Or Sadie to check he was taken care of? She noticed the cowboy boots first. Her gaze slid up jeans and finally found Trevon. His eyes wide.
"What in the hell you still doing here, woman? I told you to get." A scowl crossed his almost handsome features. He wasn't anything compared to Dante. There was a blade, eerily similar to the one Tony’d had in his right hand.
"The better question is what are you doing here?" Bailey stood in front of the cage. She was close enough the lion could swipe at her and truly do damage, but she wasn't letting Trevon anywhere near her lion...hers...she rather liked the sound of it.
"We have our ways. Ways you ain't no part of. Even if you are his mate. Get out before I throw you out." Trevon's voice came out low, menacing. A clear warning.
Mate? There was no way she was a Khimairan mate on top of being a guardian. And an alpha's mate at that? He had to be kidding, trying to get a rise out of her. Bailey pulled at her inner magic causing a light to swirl along her fingertips. She didn't want to hurt Trevon, but he wouldn't be touching Dante with that blade.
"You get out before one of us does something stupid. What do you think you're going to do with that blade anyway?" Dread pooled in her stomach, she already knew the answer.
"He has to be put down." Trevon raised an eyebrow. He stepped toward Bailey and the lion roared from behind her.
"I don't think he likes what you are doing, Trevon." Her body began to shake, though because Bailey couldn't be sure if he roared at her closeness or Trevon's. What would it hurt to bluff, as long as the lion didn't attack her in the process?
"He doesn't understand what's happening. You don't get it
, do you? We are not human. We shift into humans, not the other way around, which means going primal we literally revert back to our predatory ways. He doesn't know you. Don't kid yourself."
"I think you're wrong. I've been able to take care of him without him so much as harming a hair on my head. You all are giving up on him. I won't. You will not get near him with that blade. I promise you." Bailey glared at him. "I’ll wipe your memories as I did those Bellers." Her voice sounded hard even to her. She could barely believe it was her saying the words. The magic tingled along her fingers. She dared him to come at her with her gaze even as her heart slammed in her chest. She really didn't want to hurt him if she didn't have to.
Trevon took another step forward and then his gaze was snared behind her. He dropped the primal blade, and Bailey turned around to see the lion shifting back into a man.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Dante had struggled with the lion, trying to retake control, with Bailey’s constant presence he was able to come back a little more each day. Her connection helped draw his humanity back. As soon as Trevon was in the room with Dante's mate standing between the blade and Dante, his lion tried to retake the ground Dante had gained. His heart slammed against the lion ribcage. He refused to let go of himself, he would hurt both of them. Or worse watch them hurt each other. They were getting ready to go at it. He had to push through.
He forced the lion back, pulling his human side forward, using all the mental strength he could muster to change back into human, calling on all the alpha power he still had. The tear in his soul was a hindrance. He might not have lost control if his soul had been completely intact. There were many things he could handle in this world, but his closest friend and his mate coming to blows and possible death over him, wasn't one of them.
"Get. A-way," Dante said through his misshapen mouth. He grit through the pain, searing at first as his body contorted back into a human shape, but relief followed quickly as his immortality healed the tears in muscles.
Untamed: A Zodiac Shifters Paranormal Romance: Leo (Dark Khimairans Book 1) Page 8
