She’d stayed long enough. No need to tempt fate any further than she already had. Laila kept low, creeping around to the back of the building. She moved silently, grateful for the stealth that Master Toshi had drilled into her. When she reached the corner, she hooked up her ropes, snaking one down the side as quietly as she could, keeping her eyes open for signs of Sebastian.
He came around the corner at a dead run. Laila was already over the side, the rope wrapped around her arm in a complicated hold. She pushed out, aiming not for the ground, but rather the building next to it. She swung out, not far enough, and angled her body to take her back to her building.
“Laila, stop!” Sebastian warned, his hands on the metal hooks.
Laila smashed into the side of the building and used all her strength to push off. She unraveled the rope from her arm with a twist, then caught herself on the metal ladder of the fire escape of the neighboring building. It slammed down into the next section at her momentum. With a flick of her wrist, she freed the metal prongs and slung the rope and grapple downward.
She was already moving, using the grapple to break a nearby window and ducking through it while winding the rope up. Laila thought she heard a curse, and then a bang of something heavy hitting metalwork. She stowed the grapple away as she burst out the door and into the hallway. There was no way he could have made that jump on his own. Still, she wasn’t planning on sticking around to see herself proven wrong, so she hauled her ass to the stairwell that led to the ground floor.
Laila flung herself over the railings so she dropped a floor at a time. She looked up briefly when she heard the door to the stairwell open and slam shut a few floors above her and she quickened her pace. She blasted out of the side door, shoving the rifle deep into a trash bin, and sprang into the nearest crowd of people, content to let the pack of people hide her and her scent. She didn’t look back to see if Sebastian had followed her.
Only when she was out of the neighborhood, always sticking to crowds and busy areas, did she breathe a sigh of relief. The disposable phone buzzed at her hip, but she ignored it for the moment. She needed to get back to home base to collect the items she would need for the hunt tonight without being followed.
She had a lot of work to do.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Kess dressed carefully. She didn’t know how exactly the evening was going to go, but she knew that she was going to wind up in leopard form for part of it, so she didn’t want to wear anything that she’d miss. Eventually she settled on a simple skirt that flared to the knee, a plain white top and a pair of flats that she could run in. She pulled her long hair into a ponytail and then turned to check out her reflection in the mirror.
“You look beautiful,” Cormac said behind her.
She met his eyes in the mirror and smiled at him. His grey eyes were murky with worry. He didn’t like her going in alone, but he hadn’t fought her on it. He was letting her take the risks she needed to take. She was the clan leader; it was her responsibility.
“I’ll be fine, Cormac,” she assured him, in a voice more confident than she felt. Kess didn’t know if she would be coming out of this unscathed, but she could put on a brave front for him.
“I know,” he said, pulling her into his arms. “I know you will be.”
She kissed him then, not wanting to talk anymore. They had a workable plan, but there were still a lot of wild cards in play. Laila, Sebastian, Lukas himself—anyone of these could ruin their carefully thought out scheme. Kess put it out of her mind, choosing instead to focus on the feeling of Cormac’s mouth on hers, of the sensation of breathing the same breath, of melding into one body.
Reluctantly he pulled away. Kess opened her eyes, disappointed at the shortness of their interlude, but knowing that she had to get going. She took his hand in hers and led him out of the bedroom. Finn and Rafe were waiting for them at the door to the garage.
Finn tossed a set of keys at her. “It’s all gassed up and ready.”
Rafe took a step closer, still wary of Cormac. “Are you sure you want to do this? We can figure out another way.”
“It’s me he wants,” Kess answered firmly. “We have to be sure we get him. And I’m the best bait.”
The werehyena nodded. “We’ll be monitoring the car and your cell phone. Just make sure it stays on you and is powered up. We’ll track you from that.”
Kess nodded. She squeezed Cormac’s hand one last time, then let go. “Everyone, be careful.” As she passed Finn, she asked quietly, “Any word from Laila?”
Finn shook his head, his eyes shadowed. Kess knew he was worried about Laila. They had all hoped that she would have at least contacted Finn by now, if only to be kept in the loop, but with a Keeper after her she must have decided not to risk it. It especially bothered Finn that she had shut him out.
“Take care,” he said.
“You too.” Kess leaned in close to Finn. “And take care of him, too.” She jerked her head in Cormac’s direction.
“Always.”
Kess stepped into the garage and made her way over to the car. It was a red sports car—one of Sek’s old ones. She got in and turned the key in the ignition, then hit the garage door. Slowly she backed out into the drive. The boys had all gathered outside the door to see her off. If it hadn’t been such a serious occasion, she might have laughed. She felt like the favored son going off to war with all of the solemnity.
“We’ll be right behind you,” Cormac assured her. Kess nodded, then hit the gas, heading for her date with Lukas.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Lukas was nervous. It was a strange feeling for him. Since he was a young boy, he’d always looked forward to the hunt. His father had trained him and his older brother how to track and shoot and survive in the woods as soon as they were old enough to walk; at this point in his life, it was like second nature to him.
But this time was different and Lukas couldn’t explain why. He needed Kess to complete his trophy room. His motivations were simple. The thought of killing her in her leopard form didn’t bother him. Still, he paced around his living room as he waited for her to arrive, unsure where this feeling of dread came from. Lukas knew the time for his deal was almost up and that tonight’s hunt would be his last, whether he was able to kill Kess or not. He shook his head. Not kill Kess? He had a rifle whose bullets hit whatever he aimed at, provided to him—for the cost of his soul—by a very irritating demon who was currently commenting on his pacing while insubstantial.
“You seem to be in something of a state, Lukas,” Zamiel whispered, his voice coming from everywhere and nowhere.
Lukas glared at empty air. “I’m fine.” Damned if he’d let the demon know just how unsettled he was, excuse the pun.
Lukas saw the faint flash of white teeth appear in the air—a phantom grin. It was like having a conversation with a Chesire Cat that was more interested in eating your brain rather than riddling it. Lukas turned away.
“If you say so, Master.” The words from the demon were mocking. “This one appears to be bothering you.”
Lukas bit back a snarl. “That’s not really any of your business.”
“You don’t have to hunt her, you know. You could just let her go, if she means that much to you.” The demon’s voice was needling him, poking him in places he hadn’t realized were soft.
“ENOUGH!” Lukas shouted, stalking to look out the wall of windows. He would hunt Kess and he would bring back a black leopard. He would prove to his family, to his father, that he was the greatest hunter who ever lived. Kess was nothing more to him than another trophy. His last. His greatest.
“I was merely say…”
“I know exactly what you were saying, and what you weren’t saying, Zamiel.” Lukas’ blue eyes burned as he turned his head to meet the gaze of the now-visible demon. “Our deal holds until midnight tonight.”
“And then I collect what’s mine.” The demon smiled cruelly.
“And then you collect what’s yours
,” Lukas agreed quietly, turning his attention back to the window. All the people out there, going about their business, unaware of anything else around them. He could pick them off one by one, but there was no sport in that. It would be like hunting sheep. There was no instinct in these city dwellers, no call of the hunt in their blood. Not like Kess or the other weres he’d hunted. “And after you’ve collected it, you are to deliver my trophies to my father, is that understood?”
Lukas watched as Zamiel nodded, still grinning. He had given the demon specific instructions of how to present the trophies to Pop, along with a letter that only the old man would read. It was the last order he had given Zamiel, and he expected it to be carried out with a minimum of fuss. He wished he could be present to see his father’s face, but that wasn’t possible. His hunting prowess and the letter would have to be enough.
The doorbell to his condominium rang. Lukas waved Zamiel away, and the demon faded once more as Lukas went to answer the door. He brushed a hand through his short hair, straightened his shirt, then opened the door.
He smiled at Kess. She looked lovely, and he said as much as he welcomed her inside. She entered slowly, a shy smile on her face. He ushered her into the living room, leaving her only long enough to fetch a tray of drinks from the kitchen.
“I thought we might start with something refreshing before we head out to dinner,” he said, setting the tray down on the coffee table. He put his hand in his pocket, feeling the plunger of the hypodermic needle in his fingertips. He handed her one of the drinks.
He was moving faster than he liked to. The drink contained a special concoction that would trigger her change into a leopard. It was something Zamiel had whipped up early in their association. Lukas’ main problem had been forcing the weres to change into their animal form for him to hunt and kill. If they’d been unwilling to do so, Lukas would have had nothing to hunt. Zamiel had eliminated the problem by inducing a chemically altered state that forced the weres to change their form.
Kess took several sips and made a face. “Not to your liking?” he asked.
She cradled the drink in her hand. Lukas didn’t think she’d consumed enough yet. He didn’t want to force her and call attention to himself, but he needed her to finish the drink. “It’s a little potent,” she said, clearly being polite.
He raised his own glass. “It is a recipe of my mother’s. It is supposed to bring health and long life.” What a lie that was, for both of them. He downed his undoctored drink in one swallow.
Ruefully, Kess smiled. She raised the glass to him in a nonverbal toast, then knocked the whole thing back. She shuddered and set the glass down on the tray. “So where have you decided on for dinner?” she asked.
Lukas walked over to the windowed wall and hit the switch that would automatically close the blinds. He was on a high enough floor that people on the street wouldn’t be able to see anything, but there were still the rooftops and other buildings to worry about. He wanted no distractions tonight. As the blinds came down, he turned to Kess and said, “I thought perhaps Thai? I found this excellent little place on…Kess?”
She’d grabbed the back of one of the chairs in the living room, her growing claws shredding the cream colored fabric. Her eyes met his, a look of horror in them as they grew larger and took on the characteristic long, thin pupil of a cat’s. “What did you do?”
He smiled and said nothing. She bent over, landing on hands and knees as the transformation took her. It happened slowly and Kess cried out in pain as muscles and bones rearranged themselves. Lukas stepped behind her, watching dispassionately as her clothes shredded under the stress of her body’s shifting. He pulled the hypodermic out from his pants pocket and uncapped it. Inside was a powerful animal sedative that should knock her out once her change was complete.
The black leopard heaved herself to her feet, still obviously disoriented. It was an incredibly potent drug that Zamiel had brewed up, and Lukas doubted that Kess had all of her feline faculties in order. He plunged the needle into the side of her powerful neck and released the sedative into her system.
Kess gave a muted roar, then began swaying on her four feet. She took a few steps towards him, her head bobbing from side to side as if she couldn’t tell where he was. Lukas stepped back, out of reach, as her paws swiped at the space where he had been. Then her back legs gave out, crashing the heavy body to the floor. She tried to move, but only managed to drag herself a few feet before her front paws gave out on her too.
Lukas waited several minutes before walking over to her. He had to be sure that she wasn’t playing possum on him. He lifted one of the cat’s eyelids, able to see the nictitating membrane underneath it. She was out, her breathing steady and even.
He fetched the collar from one of his kitchen cabinets. The other thing he’d had to work out was how to prevent a werecreature from changing back into human form at the earliest opportunity. The collar worked well: it was tight, but not so tight as to strangle the beast so long as it stayed in animal form. Any hint of a change and it would constrict, cutting off the creature’s breath. Another handy tool courtesy of Zamiel.
He snapped the collar into place around Kess’ neck, then called for his demon. “Zamiel, I need you.”
The demon was suddenly there next to Lukas in a disturbance of air. “You’ve got her, I see.”
Lukas nodded. “To the truck,” was all he said. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to lift the black leopard and carry it down to the garage and the cage and truck waiting there. Zamiel would handle that with his magic. As the demon made his preparations for moving the animal, Lukas went to his bedroom to fetch his rifles.
His feeling of nervousness was gone.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Kess woke up with a splitting headache and no idea where she was. It was dark out and she could smell growing things and standing water. Her body felt heavy and ill-used, like she had been pounded flat and reconstituted as something else. She managed to open her eyes and saw the outlines of trees and scrub in the darkness.
She was in leopard form. And she was in the Everglades.
The events of the evening came back slowly. Everything was disjointed, like puzzle pieces she had to assemble in order to form a complete picture. Nothing was in an order that made sense. She remembered getting ready, followed by pain, followed by talking to Lukas, then driving in her car, then drinking something foul.
Her whole body convulsed at the memory of the drink. Something had been in it, something that forced her to change into a leopard. Kess had never heard of anything that could do that. The pain of the transformation had been like nothing she’d ever experienced: it had felt like she was being ripped apart. Usually her changes were seamless things, with a brief spark of pain followed by a bone-deep pleasure of letting her other side free. There had been nothing of that in this transformation. Her body had protested the entire time.
She lifted her head up slowly, the pounding in it making her cautious. Kess assumed it was an after effect of the drink or the drug he’d hit her with once she’d changed fully. She remembered seeing a hypodermic needle in his hand right before she lost consciousness. She blinked her large eyes, focusing on the bars of a very tight cage. She could only lie down—there wasn’t enough room for her to stand fully upright, let alone turn around.
Kess took stock of herself first. She didn’t appear to be injured in any way, headache notwithstanding. There was no pain or twinges from anywhere else in her cat body. All of her senses appeared to be working as usual. She levered herself up as far as possible onto her feet to make sure they’d support her weight. They did, so she dropped back down.
The only thing out of place was something tight and constricting around her neck. She raised a paw to investigate it. From the smell of it, whatever encircled her neck was made out of metal. The sharp edges of it bit into her fur and flesh. Some kind of metal collar then. Kess knew that she’d been collared for a very specific reason. She remembered when her brother
Sekhmet had kidnapped Cormac; he’d collared him in much the same way to prevent him from turning into a werewolf and escaping.
Lukas must have collared every were he hunted. He had to, otherwise they would have just turned back into their human selves and Lukas would have been accused of murder. Kess couldn’t risk a change with the collar tight around her neck—not if she didn’t want to risk strangulation.
Kess headbutted the bars of her cage door. The thought of the collar brought a memory of Cormac. He was out here somewhere. He’d told her before she’d left to go meet Lukas that he and the others would be right behind her. They’d be watching her all evening. She’d known that Lukas planned to hunt her tonight, but knowing it didn’t do much to limit her fear. She hoped Cormac, Finn, and Rafe were being smart and staying hidden.
There were others out here that Kess was far more wary of. She didn’t want the boys getting in their way.
She heard the click of the automatic lock on the cage door. Hesitantly she pushed the door with her head. It swung open. Kess looked around, trying to see if anything moved. If Lukas was smart, he’d be well-hidden, and she knew that he hadn’t amassed all of his were trophies by being stupid. He’d be holed up somewhere, hidden but close by.
Slowly she crept from the cage, pushing the door wider as she came through. Kess paused once she was out of the cage, taking a moment to stretch her bunched muscles. She sniffed the air, trying to catch a scent of Lukas, but smelled nothing but the Glades. She prowled the perimeter surrounding the cage, taking the time to get her bearings. Kess knew where she was, how far in he’d brought her. She’d be able to find her way back to the entrance if she needed to.
But first there was Lukas to deal with.
She decided to make it easy on him. She roared out a challenge, her cry fading into the murk like an alligator fades into the swampy water. Then she took off, choosing a direction at random to see if he might redirect her. Kess ran at half-speed, not willing to go all out until she needed to. She knew she had a lot of running to do if she wanted to get Lukas in the right place, so she wanted to conserve her strength.
Hunter Moon (The Moon Series) Page 17
