Lions' Pride

by Teresa Noelle Roberts

  Rafe was still naked, and this was no time for him to stop weaving through trees to put on clothes.

  Parts of Jude weren’t at all happy about Rafe’s nakedness, up there in the front seat with Elissa. He wasn’t sure whether he was being possessive or merely envious of Elissa’s better view. Little of both, maybe.

  He shrugged. Silly to worry about it either way. They were driving off-road through a blizzard with a government agency on their asses. If there was any time he shouldn’t be thinking about sex, this was it.

  But Powers help him, he was thinking about it, craving it—wanting sex with both of his rescuers, at once, right now, thank you.

  Somewhere, not so distant he could convince himself it was a hallucination, Trickster was laughing.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Elissa glanced over her shoulder. “The deer must be doing a good job. Or you are. We’ve lost them.”

  “Or they’re all waiting for us at the gate,” Rafe said, keeping his attention on finding a path between the trees.

  “That’s cheerful.”

  “That’s what I’d do. A lot easier than trying to trail us through the woods. How much do you like this car?”

  “Huh?”

  “There’s a break in the fence along a back road. I’m not sure it’s big enough to get through without damage, but…”

  Elissa looked back again. “Do it.”

  She didn’t ask how he knew about the break in the fence, and thank goodness for that. “The deer told me” might sound whacked even to a witch. It did to him.

  At this point, he’d take what he could get for help.

  They bounced and jounced through the woods in silence, except for the occasional groan from Elissa as the car ran down a sapling or bounced on a rock.

  The gap in the fence was smaller than the car. Shit. He knew how to do this, in theory, but it had been a few years since he took that class.

  “Hang on, folks. Ride’s going to get rocky.”

  Jude croaked from the back seat, “Like it’s been so smooth?”

  Figured—the first words out of Jude and they were teasing. “I’ll show you a smooth ride,” Rafe shot back. “Later.”

  “Enough with the innuendo,” Elissa said. “Shut up and drive.”

  He gunned the Highlander, picking up as much speed as he could in the tight quarters, and crashed through the fence.

  If the deer had mentioned the ditch on the other side of the fence, it would have been a little less dramatic. But at least there were no black SUVs waiting for them.

  Rafe had time to shout, “Holy shit!” and register they were airborne before they landed hard on the road, eliciting a moan from Jude.

  “Everyone okay?” Not waiting for their yeses, Rafe drove.

  After that, they were silent until Rafe turned off that side road for another heading east, and then another, this one narrow and windy and heading north with Cayuga Lake several hundred feet below on one side. It would have been fun to drive in decent weather, but was borderline terrifying in white-out conditions.

  Even so, Jude kept turning his head, sure he heard a fleet of SUVs in pursuit. He didn’t see anything, but he wasn’t convinced they weren’t out there, invisible.

  Finally, he said, “Thank you.”

  It was all he could trust himself to say. Too much emotion, too much fear still resonated.

  Elissa turned and looked at him, her eyes misted, full of love. She reached out, squeezed his shoulder.

  He tried to hide the wince, but failed.

  “Your shoulder’s hurt?”

  “Not hurt-hurt. No more than anything else is. But everything’s pretty much damaged.”

  “Everything?” Rafe said. “Elissa’s gonna be disappointed.”

  “I’d smack you,” Jude said, “but I don’t have the energy.” Then he laughed, not sure where that reserve of strength came from. “And no, not quite everything. The important parts are okay.”

  “Good,” Elissa and Rafe said simultaneously.

  Rafe added, the grin apparent in his voice, “Hey, speaking of those bits, I can’t feel mine. I’ve got to pull over and dress.”

  Jude was surprisingly disappointed the only reasonable way for Rafe to perform the reverse striptease was ensconced in the front seat, mostly hidden from his view.

  Rafe becoming un-naked was almost as sexy a thought as Rafe naked.

  That was plain weird.

  Maybe it was the drugs. He swore he remembered Rafe kissing him, Rafe’s cock in his mouth, but he knew that hadn’t happened. At least not in what, despite Elissa’s influence, he couldn’t help thinking of as the real world.

  He didn’t dare ask, any more than he dared ask about smelling Elissa’s familiar musk on Rafe. Or why Elissa’s magic had been doing things he didn’t think it could do.

  Too much magic, on top of drugs and torture, was fucking with his brain. Focus on survival now.

  Plenty of time to figure out those answers later…once they’d made sure there’d be a later.

  The side road ran out at Route 5. They looked for Agency SUVs, police, anything—but all they saw was snow and a few other cars. Rafe shrugged and took the highway to a secondary road heading north and east.

  Once Jude’s keen hearing thought it picked up the whir of a helicopter overhead, but they couldn’t see anything through the snow and had to trust the pilot couldn’t see anything either and was just trying to get the hell back to base and out of the storm.

  Jude figured they were getting lucky due to the weather—until, many miles from Seneca Lake, they passed a police car directing cars off a closed section of highway.

  It ignored them.

  “You’re hiding us,” he said to Elissa. “You’ve been hiding us.”

  “They’ve been chasing an illusion.” Her voice was small, pinched, and he realized she’d been talking very little since they got off the base. That would make sense if she was keeping up an illusion—for several hours, after performing a kind of pyrotechnic, fire-and-explosions magic he hadn’t thought she could do. Hell, she was lucky she was still conscious.

  “Where are you getting that kind of power from?” He caught the accusing tone in his voice.

  Trickster’s tits, that wasn’t right. It made sense for him to be worried, sure—he knew enough about magic to know pushing herself like this was risky—but accusing and paranoid? That wasn’t like him.

  He trusted Elissa with his life, his soul, everything.

  It was the drugs, he told himself. If they’d been trying to make him violent, they’d probably used something that fucked with his perceptions, making him twitchy and trigger-happy.

  Now that he’d reasoned it out, he could will his way through it.

  He hoped so, anyway.

  “Long story. Long, really weird story.” She turned to him. Her face, always pale, was the yellow of old paper, her eyes startlingly large, as if she were shrinking to skin and bones. “I’ll tell you…” She paused as if talking was too exhausting, then went on, “when we get somewhere safe.”

  He had smelled her on Rafe. That must be what she meant, that in desperation—at least he hoped it was desperation—she’d fucked Rafe to give her magic extra umph.

  How had the sex magic worked with someone else? It wasn’t supposed to except with her one true love. Jealous rage flared, a hot, queasy feeling as if he was about to vomit burning gasoline.

  Whoa. He wasn’t quite right in the head at the moment. That meant he had to take his time, think things through, be extra reasonable.

  He couldn’t be sure what Elissa meant. If he was right…well, sure he’d be jealous, maybe even a little pissed but how upset could a guy be that his wife would do just about anything to save his life? Sex magic was one of her big power sources. A witch had to do what a witch had to do under desperate circumstances.

  When you looked at it logically, it wasn’t so bad. Powers knew, if some freaky black-ops crew had kidnapped her, he’d do things that wer
e illegal, immoral or insane to get her back. It wasn’t as if she’d sacrificed babies—and under the circumstances, if someone could have convinced him it would help, those imaginary babies would have been history and he’d worry about the consequences later.

  But he wished she could have used a vibrator instead of Rafe.

  He yawned hard enough to learn his jaw was also on the long list of areas that hurt. Maybe a nap would help. Apparently being doped into unconsciousness wasn’t the same as sleeping. Who knew?

  He may have slipped from half-asleep to snoring by the time Rafe jarred him awake with an exclaimed, “Shit!”

  Jude sat up so fast his stiff muscles protested. Claws emerged from five-fingered hands. His still-invisible tail twitched as he got ready to attack. “What?”

  “Elissa fainted.”

  “Pull over!”

  Rafe snorted. “Where?”

  “Anywhere!” He gestured at the white world around him. “Not like you’re going to hit anything.”

  “The last thing we need is to get stuck here. I can’t tell where the road stops and the field starts.”

  Rafe had a point. They were on a side road somewhere in the blurry backwoods region where New York, Vermont and Canada bordered, and it was getting dark. If the road wasn’t closed, it was only because the state police figured no one would be crazy enough to drive in this weather. Not a place to be trapped.

  Jude leaned forward. Elissa slumped forward in her seat, so pale and drawn it seemed the magic had sucked the life right out of her. “Hey.” He touched her face gently.

  No sign she knew he was there.

  She felt feverish, but without the hectic flush of fever coloring her cheeks.

  “Come back, come back. I love you and you’re scaring me.” He tried to reach her the way she’d reached him in his darkest moments, but he wasn’t nearly as good at it as she was, and she seemed so far away.

  He slipped onto the floor of the passenger seat, knelt awkwardly between the seats and leaned forward, moving carefully because he didn’t want to distract Rafe. Their situation was nine hundred miles away from good, but it would get worse if they ended upside down in a ditch. He reached Elissa’s lips, not enough for a real kiss, but enough to brush against her. Enough to confirm the soft flow of breath. He could see her chest rising and falling, but he needed to feel it. Pouring too much of your own energy into magic could be deadly. Only he had no idea how much constituted “too much”.

  She sighed, but her eyes didn’t open.

  “We have to find a motel or something.”

  “I think we’d better go for ‘or something’. I’ve already heard about us on the radio. Apparently we killed Maggie and some guy named Hage, and I’m sure our pictures are all over TV.”

  “Hage? Anthony Hage?”

  “Something like that. I’m sure they killed him themselves, whoever he was.”

  Jude cursed as an image coalesced from some of the nightmare fragments floating around in his head: Hage screaming that night.

  If he’d thought about it, which he hadn’t because he’d been too busy fighting and then trying to survive, he’d have figured Hage had screamed from delayed panic.

  Apparently not, poor bastard.

  Just one more thing Shaw would need to pay for. Elissa had liked the guy.

  About five miles up the road, Rafe turned the car abruptly. Jude, lost in studying Elissa’s pale face for any sign of recovery, slammed sideways, landing almost in Rafe’s lap.

  Heat flared where they touched, even through layers of clothing. Jude’s heart raced in the fight-or-flight reaction of a male faced with another male who threatened his pride.

  Anger and alarm gripped his belly, but it blossomed warmly downward, making his cock twitch with need.

  Drugs. Must be the drugs. One reaction or the other he could fathom, but the combination?

  “Sorry,” Jude muttered, pulling away.

  “S’okay.” Rafe sounded as rattled as Jude felt.

  They plowed down a narrow, snow-covered side road. Through the storm, he could barely make out a multi-winged red farmhouse, once fine, but now vaguely cock-eyed. The front section was burned out, but the other wings looked mostly intact.

  “Not luxury,” Rafe said, shutting off the engine, “but shelter.”

  “How did you know this was here?”

  “Saw it from the main road. Or maybe sensed it.” Rafe shrugged. “I can’t say if I actually saw anything. I just knew to head down this road. Cop instinct, I guess.” Not particularly convincing, especially through the snow, but the lion, a good judge of character, prompted that Rafe was telling the truth as far as he understood it. “It’s not great, but it’s safer than a motel. I wish we could bring Elissa someplace warm, but it’s too risky.” His voice lowered, almost broke. “I’ll get the door open,” he added. “You get your wife.”

  In Jude’s arms, she seemed a wisp of burned paper that would dissolve in the wind. But as he picked her up, she snuggled against him and murmured his name, and he smelled herbs and saw green and red behind his eyes.

  He’d made it to the door as the next wave of the storm’s fury hit with a howl of wind and a wall of whiteness.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Once they got inside—the door looked like it had been forced open by firefighters—the house seemed less derelict. Jude’s best guess was the inhabitants had moved out after a recent fire and hadn’t had the heart to finish clearing it. The smell of smoke still clung to the air. Most of the furniture was gone and what was left had clearly been damaged by smoke or water or was just too junky to bother with.

  It was cold. Gusts of wind cut through rattly antique windows and poorly insulated walls, but Powers be praised, there was a woodstove and some wood in a box next to it. It would be taking a risk, both of detection and of causing another fire, but would be worth the risk to get some warmth for Elissa.

  Wordlessly they divided tasks. Rafe fetched a Coleman lantern from their emergency kit and a few other necessities from the car, then started the stove, which filled the room with smoke, but finally caught. Jude tended Elissa, swaddling her in blankets then lying down beside her, sharing the blankets to give her his heat.

  Without even opening her eyes, she cuddled close, seeking his warmth. Jude slipped his arm under her, pulled her closer yet.

  Finally, she blinked and focused on his face. “We did it?” she asked, her voice thin and exhausted. “We got you out?”

  Panic rose in Jude’s throat. “You don’t remember?”

  The tiniest shake of her head, barely visible in the dim light of the lantern. “What I remember seems…like I saw a movie. I remember riding in the car, and some crazy driving, but it’s all blurry. I was so busy shielding us and creating an illusion.”

  “Save your energy. You’re…”

  “Drained,” she filled in. “Beyond drained. Used all the power I’d collected and then some. And I’m freezing.”

  Jude laid a finger across her lips. Usually he loved the contrast between his dark skin and her fairness—together they made a yin-and-yang symbol. But now it underscored how physically fragile she was, and how, for all his strength and size, he couldn’t keep her safe.

  He couldn’t even keep himself safe. She’d rescued him. The one he’d sworn to protect with his life had rescued him. She and Rafe, a man they hardly knew.

  “Rafe’s getting a fire going, but it’s pretty cold in here,” he said.

  Another small shake of her head. “Cold inside. Shocky.”

  “Fuck. How can I help?”

  She almost managed to smile. “Gets better…in a few days.”

  Right. If they had a few days, preferably in a comfortable, warm place with decent food and nothing to worry about. He kept his mouth shut. No need to point out how screwed they were.

  “Just need rest. Chocolate’s good, too. Some in the duffel.”

  Rafe heard and was rummaging through the duffel almost before the words left her l
ips, crowing in triumph when he found the candy bars she’d stashed in the emergency kit. “Hershey’s or the fancy stuff?”

  “Hershey’s,” Jude said. “More sugar. It’ll work faster.”

  “Save the fancy stuff…for when…I can taste it.”

  “You keep her warm,” Rafe said. “I’ll feed her.”

  Jude sat up and raised her so she could lean on him to eat. Rafe arranged the blankets again around both of them, fussing until they were wrapped just right. He broke off a small chunk of chocolate and held it to Elissa’s lips. She opened her mouth, ate it mechanically, dutifully took another as Rafe held it out.

  Elissa whimpered a happy, almost-sexual mmm-mmm. “So good,” she whispered. She cocked her head, opened her mouth like a baby bird, closed her eyes blissfully.

  When Rafe brought the chocolate near her lips, her tongue darted out, licking at his fingers. Rafe smiled and Jude told himself Elissa’s reaction was merely hunger. She really, really needed that sugar rush.

  With the next bite, though, she took his fingertips into her mouth. Not obscene or anything, but definitely flirty.

  Rafe’s face ruddied, but he looked smug, too.

  The hell with that!

  Sex magic Jude understood, accepted, even. Yeah, if things ever calmed down, they’d need a big discussion to clear the air. He probably wouldn’t be alive to be jealous if she hadn’t done the red magic, but he still felt it, and he was sure she felt weird and awkward, too. Rafe, too, most likely. But flirting like that added insult to injury.

  The best defense was a good offense. He’d just have to flirt better.

  “My turn,” he said, and grabbed the candy bar out of Rafe’s hand.

  He was rewarded by Elissa’s lips hot around his finger, sucking way more than was necessary to capture any stray chocolate. Her tongue teased and licked, sending mini-shockwaves through Jude’s tired body.

  Where the hell was she finding the energy? She’d been ninety percent comatose…