Leopard Tails: Alchemist

by Isabella Jordan

  Alex sat next to him, holding out a hand that Joey warmly clasped. Alex was a good friend and they’d been through a lot together. They’d even once shared Casey, the reporter they’d kidnapped not long after they’d escaped the lab. Casey was now Alex’s mate.

  Alex had always been fascinated with mechanical things, even when they had still been at the lab. With the help of his mate, Casey, he’d learned to drive and was all consumed by computers. Joey knew Alex was taking classes online and hoped eventually to be able to work from their home using the computer somehow.

  Over the last several months, the computer had become Joey’s world. He’d used disks that Casey and Alex had given him to learn to read, to learn math, just like he was a small child. He’d discovered that he was a fast study and the more he learned, the more he wanted to know. He had so many disks on so many subjects now. Foreign languages fascinated him and he had more than a passing interest in anything electronic.

  He hadn’t thought anything could make him happier than being literate until Casey taught him and Alex to drive a car. Now he enjoyed any excuse to drive.

  Mikhail Turgenev sat across the table from the other two, his hands folded in his lap. As he often did, he looked bored, even pissed that he had to be there. Joey didn’t know Mikhail very well himself. He only knew the Kerensky brothers, Ilia in particular, had no use for him. Alex often acted as a buffer between the brothers and Mikhail, always pointing out that they all needed to work together.

  Aside from that, Mikhail was married to Vitali and Ilia’s sister, Nadia. It wasn’t like they could get rid of him anyway. Mikhail and Nadia ran the butcher shop next door.

  Pulling out a chair next to Mikhail, Joey sat down.

  “What’s up, Joe?” Alex started out while Vitali closed the door behind them.

  Joey pulled the clear, plastic bag containing the knife, dried blood and fur out of his jacket and held it up.

  “Someone left something at my front door yesterday evening,” Joey announced.

  Alex stared at that bag. Vitali walked around the table to get a better view, leaning against the wall nearby.

  “That’s a hunting knife,” Alex spoke first.

  “Katrina is convinced this is wolf fur they stuck to the door, but I’m not so sure,” Joey explained.

  “I haven’t had much time to talk to you since you’ve been back. Has she encountered the werewolves since you left the town where you found her?”

  Nodding to Alex, Joey sighed and laid the bag on the table before him. He’d met with everyone in the room about Katrina before he’d ever left Madden to find her. He’d wanted their approval to bring her into their fold. And there’d been no objections, especially not when she’d been exposed to the werewolves, proof that they weren’t the only monsters that walked the earth.

  “Yes, she did and they have her ID, so they know who she is and where she used to live anyway. She’s been on the run.”

  “Sounds familiar,” Ilia snorted, pulling the bag toward him, pressing at the fur through the plastic. Glancing over his shoulder at his brother, he muttered something in Serbian. Vitali immediately moved closer, bending to inspect the bag himself.

  Alex looked at him helplessly. Neither of them spoke Serbian.

  “What?” Joey wanted to know what was going on.

  “This fur comes from our kind,” Vitali explained in his thick accent, his green eyes intent on Joey’s face. “It is leopard fur.”

  Alex shook his head. “Shit.”

  “Guess that rules the werewolves out.” Joey had suspected as much but he wanted their opinions. “So the question now is who and why?”

  “Well it’s not anyone here,” Alex threw out.

  “Do not be so certain.” Ilia glared at Mikhail.

  Mikhail leaned forward, grinning at Ilia. It made him look positively evil. “I am wounded, Ilia. You think I have nothing more important to do than to threaten our lab rat friend and his skinny human woman?”

  Joey glared at the other man.

  “How do you know what she looks like?” Ilia demanded.

  Mikhail shrugged again like the entire conversation wasn’t worthy of his attention. “I saw her at your house yesterday. I live across the street.”

  “If it is not anyone here, who would it be?” Vitali cut in.

  “You know who,” Alex told him. “Maybe the folks from the lab have found us.”

  “Bullshit!”

  Dark as the situation was, that made Joey smile. He loved the way the Serbians said that word. It sounded like bull-chit.

  “It is bullshit,” Mikhail went on. “If the men from your laboratory had found us, they would not stick a knife in your house with black fur. Nyet! They would break down the fucking door and stick a knife in your ass. That is what they would do.”

  “Misha,” Vitali’s tone held warning.

  “I will leave.” Mikhail rose from the table and walked to the door. “I have no time for this. Next you will want me to look at suspicious squirrel droppings.”

  Ilia muttered under his breath, watching Mikhail leave. The last thing they saw was his hand on the doorknob. There was a slender white bandage wrapped around that hand.

  Joey exchanged a glance with Alex who’d seen it too.

  “Enough!” Vitali growled at his brother who still sat in his chair, bitching in Serbian. “He was correct about one thing. If the men from the lab had found us, we would know it.”

  Joey had to agree with that.

  “It is not the werewolves. It is not the men.” Vitali glanced at the bag again. “The fur is leopard fur. That would suggest someone here is responsible. Nothing like this has happened until now, until you brought your woman here, Joey. That leads one to think that the message, whatever it is, was meant for her or for you because of her.”

  Vitali had pretty well summed up the situation.

  “Now what do we do?” Alex asked.

  “We wait and we watch,” Vitali told them. “How is your friend after this?”

  Katrina had been pretty damned upset, convinced the wolves had found her. Even though she knew they could protect her, he understood her fear. They really had been gruesome creatures and who knew what horrors she’d witnessed in the two weeks they’d held her captive.

  “She’s not handling it well,” Joey answered. “I need to get back to her.”

  Vitali nodded. “For now we will be on guard.”

  Ilia and Alex rose. Ilia nodded to Joey before walking around his brother and out into the store. Alex clapped him on the shoulder before he went the same way.

  Vitali stopped Joey before he left.

  “If something else should happen, call me. Yes?”

  “I will,” Joey told him. “Did you see Mikhail’s hand?”

  “Yes, but do not be quick to jump to conclusions.”

  Vitali’s defense of Mikhail caught Joey off guard. He’d always assumed they weren’t on good terms.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean --”

  Holding up a hand to halt his words, Vitali shook his head. “Anyone would have reason to be suspicious of Misha. In many ways, the animal in him is stronger than the man. Random violence and mischief, however, are not in his character. The only time Misha will cause trouble for you is if you cause trouble for him. Do not forget that.”

  Vitali left him at the door to ponder that and walked back out into the store. He wasn’t any closer to figuring out who had been responsible for scaring Katrina, but at least he had some back up now and other people watching.

  He just hoped that whatever menace might be out there waiting for them wasn’t so bad that he would need them.

  Chapter 6

  “What did they say?” Katrina caught Joey the moment he walked in the door.

  She knew he’d gone to meet the others, but couldn’t understand why she couldn’t have gone. Yeah, she was just a human but wasn’t it dangerous leaving her here by herself? If the werewolves came after her and found her alone, she stood no chance
.

  Joey wrapped his arms around her, the cool spring air clinging to him. “Everyone is going to help us keep an eye out for whoever did this,” he told her calmly.

  “That’s it?”

  “Katrina, what else can we do?” Guiding her to the chair where she’d sat the night before, he eased her into it, kneeling before her. “It’s not like we can go to the police. We have to handle this ourselves.”

  “Did they agree with me that it was wolf fur?” Katrina had to know that. “They did, didn’t they?”

  Joey sighed. She could read the reluctance in his dark eyes. “No, none of us think that, Katrina. It appears to be leopard fur.”

  “What? Leopard fur? That would mean…”

  “I know.” Joey pulled her against him, holding her. “It would appear to be one of us. I don’t know how that could be. I’ve known Alex since we were little, so I’m sure about him. He wouldn’t have done this. The others? I don’t know them well, but they seem like good guys.”

  “That doesn’t make me feel better, Joey.”

  “I’m sure it doesn’t.” He pulled back to look into her eyes. “Believe in me, Katrina. I’ll keep you safe. I promise.”

  Well, he had been right there with her when someone stuck the fur to the house with a knife. He could have been in on it though, arranged it…

  Stop thinking like that. Joey had saved her in Hell. He’d found her when she was out of money and hope in the streets. She could trust him, right?

  She let Joey scoop her up in his strong arms and her heart raced with excitement. He carried her down the hall and through the door of his bedroom, slamming it shut with his foot. Joey placed her on her feet by the bed with great care, asking for her trust with his devotion.

  Then all at once the rush was on to remove their clothing. Katrina’s hands were shaking, grabbing the hem of her blouse and pulling it over her head. She heard a ripping sound and looked up to see Joey tearing at his clothes with abandon. Now her thoughts were focused on him, all fear and anxiety slipping away.

  When she went to unhook her bra, Joey’s gaze darted after the movement. “Let me do that,” he said.

  With unbearably slow hands, he undressed her, touching her so lightly that she barely felt it. He took her breath away, kissing each new area of skin he revealed. Soft caresses played over her skin and she relaxed into his slow seduction. The desire in his eyes was easy to read. There was so much need there, it made the passion within her ignite in a way that it never had before.

  With her breasts revealed, Joey dropped to his knees before her, pressing his sexy mouth to her nipple. Gathering her to him, he buried his face between her breasts. Katrina heard his sharp intake of his breath as he inhaled her scent. She let her fingers spear into the silky locks of his blond hair and he moaned at her touch.

  Joey had large, rough hands. They felt so good covering her breasts, squeezing and plumping them. He guided one pouting nipple to his mouth. Katrina’s fingers clutched his hair when he caressed her with his tongue and teeth. White-hot sparks of ecstasy coursed through her when he widened his mouth, taking as much of her in as he could. Her pussy clenched in need and her juices flowed while he suckled against her with an endless hunger.

  When Joey pulled his head back, she had to wonder if she’d pulled his hair too hard. His dark eyes met hers and just the sight of his tongue teasing the sensitive tip of her breast made the craving between her thighs gnaw and grow.

  “That’s it. Relax. You’re safe.” Decadently, he suckled her nipple again with abandon, then returned his gaze to hers. “Does that feel good?”

  What? He expected her to speak? She couldn’t even breathe.

  Nodding, Katrina wantonly pushed herself back toward his mouth.

  Joey evaded the breast she offered him, diving for the other one instead, giving it the same devastating treatment as he had the first. Her knees were giving way and Joey sensed it, pulling her down to straddle his lap. The incredible heat of his body seeped through the thick denim of her jeans and she couldn’t resist the urge to rub herself against him.

  “Let’s get these off.”

  Joey’s hands were unsteady unfastening her jeans. She rose from his lap on shaking legs so he could push them and her panties down over her hips and thighs. Bracing herself on his broad shoulders, she kicked off her slippers and stepped out of the rest of her clothing.

  Leaning forward, Joey pressed a kiss to the soft swell of her tummy making her shiver in delight. He lifted one of her legs up over his shoulder and then she was trembling. Intense pulses of desire raced through her when she gazed down into his handsome face.

  “I love how you taste, Katrina.” His voice was deep, making the most wicked shudder pass through her.

  Katrina’s moan filled the room when he parted her with his fingers, but she didn’t say anything. She was way beyond that point.

  He pressed his mouth into her light patch of curls and licked her. His tongue roamed from her opening up to her clit where he lingered, flicking against that sensitive nub. Over and over he licked at her, halting now and again to suckle her labia or clit. He gave her clit special attention too, with hot kisses and licks, his lips and tongue smashing her sanity. It was a good thing he was holding her up because Katrina was writhing and her knees were losing tension with every second that passed. Joey held her against his busy mouth and the soft, wet sounds filling the room pushed her desire higher.

  The walls of her cunt clenched and he must have felt it. He thrust his tongue into her opening like a cock and she gasped. God, she loved how long his tongue was, the way it was just slightly rough. In and out his tongue worked, fucking her while his fingers began to toy with her swollen, sensitive clit. Katrina’s fingers dug into his shoulders hard, the blood racing through her as she struggled to stay upright, struggled to breathe. She was closer to coming by the second.

  “Joey, please!”

  The orgasm ripped through her like a tornado, making her scream. Her skin flushed from her face to her cunt. Her blood felt like it was on fire. Her legs finally gave way and she would have hit the floor if not for his strong arms there to catch her. The tremors shook her for what seemed like forever, her cries filling the room that darkened for a few moments around her.

  With very little effort, Joey lifted her in his arms and placed her on his bed. All the tenderness and control were gone now and Joey’s hands and mouth were all over her. She liked that idea and let her hands do the same, roaming over the smooth muscles of his long body. She felt powerful, more confident than she had in a long time. The way he moaned and gasped if she touched him a certain way had empowered her. Over and over she explored him, teasing him. Trying to figure out what he liked, what drove him wild.

  When Joey rose above her and spread her thighs wide with his own, Katrina glanced down to see his cock, poised and ready. She loved the size of him, loved the tight fit of him in her greedy pussy.

  The swollen head of his cock pushed against her wet flesh and she moaned as it began to sink into her. The hot column of his flesh stretched her, burning her, slowly sliding into her channel as far as he could go. He filled her completely. The walls of her pussy clenched around him in need, urging him to move.

  But he wouldn’t.

  Holding himself just above her, he gazed down into her face.

  “You know I’d give up my life for you.” A bead of perspiration fell from his forehead to splash on her skin. “Just to keep you safe.”

  Katrina’s heart shifted in her chest at that. How could he possibly feel that way? He didn’t really know her. How could he be that willing to protect her?

  Gently he lowered his mouth to hers, the kiss slow and deep, before he began to move within her.

  They moaned together at the indescribable sensation. Rocking back and forth, they both let go and surrendered to the powerful desire that claimed them. Wrapping her legs about his waist, she pulled him back to her each time he withdrew. Joey thrust in and out of her, reachin
g deeper inside her somehow with each stroke.

  The smell of sex surrounded them, her hands and legs sliding on his slick flesh. Their cries and moans filled the room around them while they writhed in the tangle of sheets on the bed. When Joey’s thrusts came harder and faster, she just hung onto him for all she was worth, allowing him to push her passion up to unbelievable heights.

  Katrina bucked beneath him, screaming while she came hard. Joey held on as spasm after spasm of unimaginable pleasure flooded her before he let go. His body went taut above her and his arms closed around her so tightly she could barely breathe. He threw his head back and yelled when he came while Katrina’s body pulsed around him, milking him of his seed.

  Joey’s weight dropped on her, burying her in the soft mattress. She didn’t care. She wrapped her arms around him, her fingers toying with the silky strands of his hair. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, the sound of their breathing filling the quiet around them.

  As blissful as she felt at that moment, Katrina couldn’t fight off the worries that crept back into her mind like dark clouds signaling an impending storm.

  “You’ll stay with me?” she asked him.

  Joey rolled off onto his side, pulling her into his arms to cuddle her against him. “You know I will.”

  “I mean all the time. You don’t have a job?”

  Joey chuckled at that. “I do actually. Since Alex and Casey taught me how to drive, I went into Bar Harbor and got a job at a music store there. I really enjoy it.”

  Katrina pulled back to grin at him. “Music store? Like musical instruments or CDs?”

  “CDs. We play music all day. It’s not a bad living.”

  “Music soothes the savage beast.”

  “You think I’m a savage beast?”

  “In bed I do.” Reaching down between his thighs, she felt his cock already stirring again. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  Joey laughed, rolling onto his back and pulling her on top of him. His body went tense the next moment because he was staring at something hard. A flash of silver on the bathroom door. “Shit! What the hell?”