By the Horns

by Rachael Slate

  He’d set himself up when he’d told Nat they needed bait. Innocent bait. If she deemed the fox spirits innocent, well, hell.

  Price winked at the ladies. Kassian faced forward, crossing his arms.

  After driving for an hour, they reached the city. Price parked in a tight alleyway squeezed into the middle of a group of buildings.

  They piled out and followed Nat through the back door. The corridor of the shop they entered was even narrower than the alley. Worse, the aisles had been stocked high and tight with merchandise. Kassian wedged his body shoulder first down the aisle because he wouldn’t fit otherwise.

  “Over here.” Nat’s call carried from behind him.

  He spun toward her, bumped into a shelf, and cringed as several objects flew through the air, shattering against the tile floor. He whirled back around to steady the tower of fragile tea cups, but more on the other side of him dropped like flies.

  “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” Helplessly, he tried to prevent more from committing suicide. Finally, the diving team paused. Juggling the cups he caught, he set them onto the stack. He held his breath as he straightened.

  A boot tapped the tile floor in front of his line of vision. He raised his gaze.

  “Bull, meet china shop.” Nat grinned.

  “Glad to have entertained you. If you think this is funny, you can pay the bill.” He gritted his teeth as a stray cup clinked, shattering onto the floor.

  “Happy to.” She winked and tipped her head to the woman at her side. “Kassian, meet Ling.”

  Nat stepped aside to let him shake the slender hand offered. A pair of thick glasses framed her angular face. The tall, dark-haired woman’s other fingers nudged her glasses high on her nose. “A pleasure.”

  “The pleasure is mine. Ah, sorry about your shop. It’s a rather tight fit.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” She waved off his apology. “I’ve told my nǎinai—my Grandma—a thousand times this shop is too crowded. Maybe now she’ll listen.” She sighed as though she didn’t believe it would help. “Follow me.”

  Ling escorted them around another display and up a small creaking staircase. Kassian did his best to squeeze in behind Nat while Ling ushered them into the tiny attic.

  Nat twisted from in front of him, though. “Oh, no, big guy. We’re here for you.”

  “For me?”

  “Yep.” She nudged him forward.

  Ling crooked her head and tapped her finger against her lips. “Nice, very, ah…nice.” She cleared her throat and poked his chest. “W-wow.” She laughed nervously. “Boy, you’re solid.” She turned to Nat. “There’s not really a lot I can work with. He’s too big to be inconspicuous.” She coughed into her fist and addressed him. “Not that the female population is complaining, I’m sure.”

  “Wait.” He picked off her hand fondling his pecs. “What is this for?”

  A grin curved Nat’s lips. “Why, your disguise, of course.”

  ***

  Nat laughed at the gaping expression on Kassian’s face while Ling inspected various feminine materials, clucked at him, and ruffled through the bins again.

  “No fucking way. I’m not dressing like a chick.” He shot a scowl at Nat. “No offense, but the gender switch isn’t realistic on my part.”

  Yeah, no kidding. The man couldn’t pass for a woman even if he sprouted double D breasts. Transvestite, perhaps, but a drag queen look wouldn’t get them where they needed to go.

  “Why are we even considering a disguise?” He ground out his question as Ling took his measurements with a little too much enthusiasm for Nat’s liking. She didn’t blame the woman for fondling Kassian, though. He was hot.

  He wasn’t exactly hers, either, which might be the source of Nat’s jealousy. After this mission, Kassian might even hook up with Ling… The woman’s tall, slender frame, combined with her porcelain skin and inky black hair, reminded Nat of a dark swan. Graceful, delicate. Exactly the kind of female who’d bring out the protective nature in Kassian.

  Damn. She curled her fingers into fists. She had no right to claim possession on a man she planned to dump. What her brain told her and what her heart countered were two different things.

  “It’s part of the setup. If my father gets even a whiff I’m around or the Chosen are near, he’ll sense the trap. We can’t risk that.” She smiled. “Besides, a little disguise goes a long way.”

  “Yeah, but how come he,” he pointed straight at Price, “gets to wear that?”

  Price adjusted his stylish tie and smirked at them in the mirror where he admired his reflection.

  “Because he’s already met my father. Xing won’t recognize you. Not anymore.” Kassian looked nothing like the lanky teen he’d once been. He’d filled out…beautifully. She tore her admiring gaze off his brawny form. Hmm. What would work to hide his gorgeous masculinity? She scanned the piles of strewn costumes.

  Aha. She settled on a bright strip of cloth. Yes.

  “Seriously?” Kassian droned. Again. “This is hardly better than a dress.”

  “Keep whining and I’ll stick you in one.” Nat glared at him from across the seat of their limo. She bit the inside of her cheek to stop a smile. He was right. This disguise was rather frilly, but the Chinese lion costume would work.

  “Purple? Pink? You might’ve at least given me a masculine color.”

  A laugh bubbled on her lips. She pressed them tight and faced the window. Across from her, Kassian jiggled his leg, causing the gold metal chips sewn into the legging to chink in time.

  The fox spirit beside—and the one on top of—Price’s lap giggled while fawning over him. Their skimpy outfits weren’t that much of a disguise. One hoisted her open-laced bodice, the other tugged her skirt—up—to the tops of her thighs. He patted them like the simple-minded children they were. Price had dumped her for these sluts? How did he find anything real in such a trivial relationship? Then again, how had she in theirs?

  No matter. He played a huge part in her scheme. Fair recompense for shooting her.

  The driver they’d hired parked on the corner.

  She suppressed a shudder as thundering drums vibrated through her body. In a few moments, she’d see her father. As far as he knew, she’d died in the explosion he’d set after their last encounter. In fact, she hoped that was what he believed. It would make the surprise that much sweeter.

  “Do I have to be the ass?”

  She laughed at Kassian, who continued to gripe. “Yes. I can’t lift you up.” She adjusted the waistband on her leggings.

  The driver walked around to open Price’s door. He exited, followed by the two fox spirits, and then Nat and Kassian. She lowered the large sparkly lion’s head over hers and opened the back of the cape for Kassian to get inside the costume behind her. His hands slid to grip her hips, making her sex clench in remembered lust. As they strode toward the gathering throng of performers in Price’s impromptu street party, a torrent of bitter memories washed away the sensuality of Kassian’s hands.

  “Fuck. It’s hot in here,” he grumbled.

  “Shhh.” She jabbed him in the shoulder.

  Firecrackers popped in the distance. The clanging drums intensified. The roads filled with a human blockade. Car horns beeped. The few dozen people multiplied into hundreds as the party took off.

  She rushed forward—Kassian behind her—to join in. She scanned the crowd and the lineup of vehicles caught in the party’s path. There. Where Price said he would be, she spotted her father’s town car. He’d stepped out to shake his fist at the happy-go-lucky spectators.

  Xing slammed his palm on the roof of his car while shouting at his driver—likely to find an alternate route. The backup of vehicles behind him made that impossible.

  Damn, Price was good.

  She spotted him weaving through the throng with the two fox spirits clinging to each of his arms. He waded toward Xing, smiling and laughing as though enjoying the party.

  Setting the bait.

  Nat froz
e the second her father caught sight of Price and his companions. A flash of greed morphed Xing’s dark features into a sinister grin.

  Right. Monster. Not the man who read you bedtime stories. Not the one who held your hand as you skipped. Early in her childhood, that man had morphed into the villain who’d murdered her mother and countless others.

  She jolted into action, dancing with Kassian down the street. He lifted her and she glanced out from the lion’s head to pin her focus on her father.

  Price had caught Xing’s attention—as they intended. They neared and Snake’s senses allowed her to catch their conversation. A deep, familiar voice boomed. Her father’s. She froze mid-dance before Kassian tapped her hip and she jumped back into the movements. Right. This was not the time to falter. If she wanted to hash out her emotions, she’d do it afterward. She maneuvered the lion’s features, blinking its eyes, and opening and closing its mouth, careful not to face her father.

  “This damn party,” Xing complained.

  “Tell me about it.” Price pointed to their limo. “Got caught in the middle of this mess too.” He sighed, long and hard, and waved to the bright red and gold sign, which Nat translated as reading “Grand Opening.” The banner flapped in the slight breeze. It wasn’t unusual for a business to throw a huge block party when it launched. Lion dancers were hired for good fortune. Firecrackers and drums warded off evil spirits and bad luck. “This celebration doesn’t appear about to finish any time soon, and my car’s stuck.”

  As her father passed through her field of vision, she got her first good look at him in years. He hadn’t aged. Not a day. Not a single gray hair peppered the thick head of black hair he sported. No lines creased his fifty-year-old face. He’d grown leaner and bulked up. Her gaze passed over his broad shoulders and lack of a potbelly. His face carried the same classic features, but his eyes got her. They were black. Blacker than the dark depths of nothingness, and they narrowed in cunning shrewdness in her direction.

  Crap. She switched into high gear, shaking her ass in the traditional lion dance. A glimpse in Xing’s direction proved her efforts were successful. His scrutiny passed from her to Price and his companions. “Perhaps it’s not such a shame.” He studied the hotel lobby at their left and then barked a command toward his car. Two henchmen emerged to flank him. “You were rather abrupt the last time we spoke. You never did give me your answer.”

  Price smiled. “Well, a man sometimes needs time to consider an offer before he can realize how much of a fool he’d be to dismiss it.”

  “Indeed. Shall we continue our discussion?” Her father extended his arm for them to proceed into the lobby.

  Just as planned.

  Nat wended with Kassian to the edge of the street where Price, the fox spirits, Xing, and his lackeys entered the hotel together.

  Bait? Taken.

  How far would her father follow it?

  She and Kassian doubled back, weaving through the maze of spectators to wait for Price’s text.

  Her phone beeped, and she showed Kassian the room number Price had texted her.

  Kassian led them through a back entrance and they rode the servants’ elevator to the twenty-eighth floor. The two henchmen stood guard outside the door. If she didn’t take them out, they would stop her before she ever got the chance to slice Xing’s throat with her fan.

  She smiled as she approached them. “Excuse me. Could you tell me where room twenty-eight thirty is?”

  They regarded her, the slits of their eyes resembling those of yāoguài. Hell, they probably were demons disguised as humans. One glanced down the hall. She seized advantage of his momentary distraction, whipping out her fan and slashing it across his neck. Blue-black ooze splattered her.

  The second guard reared back, but Kassian cloaked Ox and lunged, stabbing its horns straight through the demon’s middle. Ox snorted and shook its head, flinging the body down the corridor.

  She and Kassian tossed off their costume, dragged the bodies into the vending room, and wiped themselves down. They picked the lock to the room adjoining the one where Price—or rather, the fox spirits—entertained her father.

  They snuck out onto the balcony and, bracing themselves against the wall, crept across the inch-wide ledge. Once she got close enough to play Peeping Tom, Nat peeked through the antique glass window.

  Xing settled onto a padded green chair and extended his hand for Price to sit across from him.

  Nat scowled as she assessed the situation. They had to get her father alone. Price had agreed to participate only if his loyalty remained in question. Namely, the bad guys had to believe Price might join forces with them—so he could later infiltrate their hierarchy and determine what the hell they sought with the fox spirits.

  Price conversed with her father, likely digging for details, while the two fox spirits provided a sizeable distraction as they fawned over Xing.

  She hoped like hell Price fathomed what he was getting into, being left alone with the devil.

  “If you’re uncertain, I suggest you take them into the bedroom. I guarantee your satisfaction.”

  Aha! Price had set the bait. Perfect.

  Now, she had to sneak in there and finish what she’d begun six years ago.

  Her gut twisted. Unfortunately, she couldn’t be certain killing Xing would actually stop him.

  Only one way to find out. She gripped the blade of her fan and crept forward.

  ***

  The wind kicked up as Kassian followed Nat and edged toward the bedroom window. The chill icing his spine wasn’t from the cool breeze, though. Was this it? The moment his vision would prove true?

  Fuck, no.

  She picked the lock and slid open the balcony door. He followed her inside, closing the door behind him. Giggling chimed outside the bedroom. He shoved Nat inside the closet, but she pressed forward, ready to exit first.

  “Wait. Nat, let me do it.” Kassian snagged her arm, whirling her around. “You don’t have to be the one.”

  She tilted her chin. “Yes, I do.”

  He studied Nat’s hard expression and didn’t like what he saw. This grim determination, this acceptance of morbidity. A darkness existed in Nat he hadn’t noticed before or hadn’t wanted to. This whole time, he’d never bought into the cold-hearted killer side of Nat.

  This was his vision, and he had his clear answer. The man he’d envisioned Nat murdering wasn’t Price. It was her father.

  Her darkness stared him straight in the face. She stood poised, ready to deal out death. Would it be as easy as she claimed?

  Xing was a monster. He had to be eliminated. Those facts held firm. But hell, Nat didn’t have to be the one to do it. Regardless of whatever twisted guilt convinced her otherwise.

  “Okay.” He stepped aside. “I’m going in with you.”

  She opened and closed her mouth before giving him a curt nod. The giggling drew nearer.

  He rolled his shoulders and let Ox cloak partially. Those sharp horns would come in handy. Nat tucked her fan behind her back and shoved open the swinging door.

  “What the fuck?” Her father swung his gaze from his playthings to them. He blinked once before darkness consumed his features. His eyes narrowed into feral slits, a snarl curling his lips. “Why, it’s little Natalie, come to face her father again.”

  Kassian’s knuckles cracked as he fisted his hands. He glanced at the two fox spirits, whose blank expressions had narrowed as they morphed like serpents about to strike. One raised her hand, a sharp claw extended toward Nat’s dad. Kassian shook his head at the females. “Leave.”

  Xing sneered as the fox spirits huffed out the door and straight into Price, who clutched their arms and retreated like he was a fucking coward. All part of the plan, of course. Price would wait outside—backup if they needed it.

  Kassian eased for a second before tensing once more.

  Xing glanced toward the suite door.

  “Your guards aren’t coming.” Nat brought her hand from behind he
r back to flare open her fan. One drop of bluish black ooze dripped to the ground as evidence.

  Xing fingered his collar and adjusted his pants before towering above them. “What do you want, Natalie?”

  She tilted her head. “Vengeance. For myself, for Mother, for little Mali.”

  “Who the hell is Mali?”

  “One of your many victims.” Her voice carried on a whisper. “You won’t live to murder more.”

  Her father let out a booming guffaw. “Who are you to stop me, Natalie? I gave you life. I can take it away. Not the other way around.”

  “I’m not that weak little girl anymore. I’m strong. Powerful enough to end you.” She flashed Snake over herself.

  “Snake,” Xing hissed, his eyes burning from the inside out, a molten reddish black. The tattoos creeping out from his shirtsleeves and collar assumed the same eerie glow.

  Xing rushed Nat, but Kassian bolted forward, intercepting him.

  He side-blocked the demon-man, knocking him to the ground. Nat whirled out of their path. Xing vaulted back to his feet, nimbly eluding Kassian’s grasp. Fuck, for a large bastard, he sure was slippery.

  “Snake, Nat!” Kassian shouted over his shoulder. To catch the fiend, they had to be faster than him, and nothing moved faster than Snake’s whip-like tail.

  He shot to all fours and spun to attack Xing again. Ox’s power lay in its strength, not so much in its agility, and the demon man outran every one of Kassian’s charges. He bolted forward, straight for the man’s middle, but Xing evaded him again. Kassian slammed into the wall, crashing halfway through, and scraping his shoulders. Buzzing filled his ears and he shook his head, tossing off the pain radiating like a gong’s vibrations through his body. Wedged between the living room and bedroom, he winced in shallow breaths. Drywall dust formed a cloud around him, its paste choking his lungs and coating his skin. He uncloaked Ox, clambered through the hole he’d made, and swiped his eyes to clear his vision. The living room and bedroom were empty.

  Hell.

  Grunting echoed from the direction of the balcony. Shit!

  He rushed to the sliding glass doors. Snake dipped its head and hissed long and slow at Xing, who bared his fangs—what must have been fifty sharp teeth inside his once-human mouth. One black-clawed finger scratched at his neck, causing the skin to strip like birch bark.