Seduction's Shift

by A. C. Arthur

  Ary’s wounded shoulder connected with the concrete and she hissed. Caprise helped her up, and they both got Kalina to her feet.

  “There’s a truck right around this corner. The keys are in the glove compartment. We need to get to Havenway,” Kalina told them.

  Clearly this was a getaway plan she and Rome had discussed. Nick probably knew, and Ary bristled only slightly at the fact he hadn’t told her. It didn’t matter; they were away from those weird-ass Rogues. No, she corrected after they’d shoved Kalina into the backseat and she’d climbed into the passenger side, while Caprise got behind the wheel, they were infected Rogues.

  “Where to?” Caprise yelled.

  On the backseat Kalina was stretched out, but her words were clear. “Hit 95 south and go until I give you the exit to turn off.”

  “Right,” Caprise said, starting the engine and driving down a path that could just about fit the width of the vehicle. They went up an incline to a wide door.

  “Hit the button under the dash,” Kalina said.

  Ary reached under the dashboard, running her hand along until she hit a button and pressed it. The door rose upward and they were introduced to the night. Caprise pressed on the gas and they shot out onto the road.

  Kalina continued to give directions. “There should be a cell in the glove compartment, too. Get it out and push pound-one.” Then she moaned and Ary, cell phone in hand, turned back to see how she was doing. There was a huge gash in her leg; blood was trickling out of it in a steady stream.

  “Shit! She’s loosing a lot of blood,” she said.

  “Make the call then get back there to help her,” Caprise said, turning them onto what looked like a busy highway.

  She nodded and dragged her finger along the base of the phone to turn it on. She’d been in the States for almost a month, where learning how to work a cell phone was almost as important as knowing how to read and write.

  A male answered. It sounded like Rome but Ary wasn’t 100 percent sure. But since this was a private phone she figured it had to be someone who at least worked for the FL.

  “Where are you?” he asked.

  “Going to Havenway. Caprise is driving. Kalina’s hurt,” she said.

  The string of curses that followed assured her it was Rome she was speaking to. “I’ll meet you there,” he said. Then hung up.

  Ary dropped the phone and leapt over the seat to get to Kalina.

  “Okay, this is going to hurt,” she told her as she ripped the bottom side of her robe. Wrapping the material around Kalina’s leg, she tied it as tight as she could.

  Kalina’s scream echoed throughout the car. Ary tried to ignore it as she pressed down on the wound, praying she could at least slow down the bleeding. At the rate it was going, Kalina might bleed out before they could get to Havenway.

  Chapter 33

  “Where the fuck are they?” Rome roared as he paced the floor of Havenway’s foyer.

  “It’s an hour-and-a-half drive to get here, Rome. Caprise probably doesn’t even know where she’s going,” X said, his voice gruff with the rage he was trying to hold back.

  “She knows these roads like the back of her hand. She’ll get them here safely,” Nick said. He was worried about Ary but somewhat relieved that she’d been the one to make the call.

  “Kalina’s hurt. Did I tell you she said that?” Rome asked, running a hand over his head as he paced.

  “You did,” Nick said, understanding exactly how his friend was feeling. “But Ary’s there. I know she’s helping her.”

  Rome nodded. “You’re right. I know you’re right. Still.”

  “Yeah,” Nick said. “Still.”

  It didn’t matter that a healer was with her. His mate was hurt and he was here, helpless for the most part. That was a bitch of a situation, and Nick didn’t want to relive it for anything in the world.

  When they’d gotten word there was a break-in at Rome’s, their first instinct had been to return, to get their females and fight off the bastards attacking them. But Baxter, the voice of reason, had warned against it. They were the government for the shifters at the moment, at least for the East Coast. Rome was the FL and Nick and X were his seconds-in-command. If all of them were killed in battle, where would that leave the rest of the shifters? Funny how it had taken an attack to have Nick agreeing with this type of logic.

  The safety of all shifters was a priority. Not over his mate, never over her, but it was still a priority. One that took consideration over his rash thinking.

  The latest call had news of eight Rogues dead. Baxter was safe and so were Jax and Leo. Nivea had been wounded, but was still fighting. And two guards were dead.

  Lights flashed outside and Rome tore through the door, running at the truck even before it stopped. Nick and X followed him out. Rome yanked open the back door and had Kalina in his arms. Nick smelled the blood. His heart pumped wildly as he looked at Ary, who wore a lot of that blood on her torn robe. She’d climbed out of the door on the opposite side. Nick was immediately on her, rubbing his hand down her front and back.

  “I’m okay, I’m okay,” she said. “I have to go help Kalina.”

  “Right,” Nick said, breathing a sigh of relief.

  He turned and saw Caprise getting out of the truck.

  “You good?” X asked, standing about a foot away from her.

  “Just peachy,” she said with a smirk. Then she looked over at Nick. “It was an ambush. They came from everywhere all at once, like they knew we were there and you guys weren’t.”

  The last was said pointedly. X looked at her with slight disbelief but Nick simply nodded. Caprise was like that—not at all what she appeared. He figured X was getting his first glimpse of that.

  “Another setup? Is that what you’re saying?” he asked.

  She rolled her eyes and started walking toward the door. “He’s a genius. You should definitely keep him around.”

  X growled, and Nick couldn’t help but grin.

  * * *

  An hour later Ary had stitched up Kalina’s leg and given her some antibiotics and pain medicine. It was a good thing Rome had insisted on the medical facility being one of the first priorities at Havenway. Not all the supplies and equipment were in, but she’d had enough to do what was necessary.

  The room Nick had led her to so she could shower and get some rest wasn’t as lavish as the one at Rome’s place—or the one at Nick’s apartment, for that matter. But it was clean and she was dead tired. She came out of the shower and he was right there wrapping her in a heavy terry-cloth robe.

  “Baxter’s going to bring some tea,” he told her.

  She sighed. “Oh, good. He’s all right. I was worried that we’d had to leave him.”

  “Baxter’s going to live forever,” Nick told her as he helped her to sit on the bed. It didn’t look big enough to hold both of them, but Ary figured they would worry about that later.

  Except Nick was still dressed.

  “Aren’t you going to shower and change?” she asked him.

  He looked at her—and that’s when she saw it. The furrow in his brow, the tinge to his eyes that said he was on the brink. “We’re heading out.”

  “Out where?” she asked, knowing damn well what he was about to say.

  “One of the Rogues talked after some manipulation. We’ve got an exact locale for Sabar.”

  “No!” she said, standing abruptly. “You are not going to fight him.”

  “He’s the top dog—or cat, I guess. We’ve got to dispatch him for this madness to stop. Or humans and shifters are going to keep dying.”

  Ary heard his words but couldn’t really decipher them because she was adamantly shaking her head. “No. You cannot go. They weren’t normal. Nothing about them was right. They were both halves and they were focused on killing and, and…”

  He touched her shoulders, but Ary pulled away. “No! Nick! No! All you think about is killing, all the time! I’m sick of it!” she screamed. “I won’t
live like this! I can’t! You said you wouldn’t leave me again. You said it and I heard you!”

  Tears streamed down her face and she didn’t care. He came at her again and she instantly started swinging, pain searing through her wounded shoulder. “You said you wouldn’t leave! They’re killers! If you leave … if you go they’ll—”

  “Stop,” he said, holding her wrists and pulling them together with her body flush against his front. “Just stop. I know what I’m doing.”

  “You don’t. You don’t know what they are, what they’re capable of,” she said, her voice sounding more shaky by the minute. “You don’t know.”

  She pulled away from him, staring at him through tear-blurred eyes. But this was Nick so he didn’t back down; he only followed her until her back was to the wall, his stare firm as he pressed his hard body against hers.

  His palms came to her cheeks, holding her face as gently as if she were a child. “Ary, I would do almost anything for you. I hope you know that,” he whispered.

  She nodded, heart hammering wildly, love overflowing for this man, her mate. She didn’t want him to go, had just about begged him to stay. But she knew he wouldn’t listen. He bent forward and dropped the sweetest kiss on her lips. Ary savored that kiss, let the warmth filter through her body, soothing the ache in her arm and the pain in her chest.

  When he pulled back, his dark brown human eyes had shifted to the yellow-gold eyes of his cat. “Please don’t ask me to be a coward.”

  Ary was shaking her head, her body warm from his touch. “You’re not a coward,” she told him and meant it. With everything that Nick was, everything that he wanted to be—coward was not on the list. “You just need to think before acting this time.”

  He looked for a long minute. “I know that now.”

  “No. You don’t know. I need you to really think … about … about everything you have here. About us, about what we can be. About Rome because he needs you, and Caprise because she does, too, even thought she’ll never admit it. About X because he’s going to kill Caprise if you’re not here to stop him. And … and … about our family.”

  “Caprise has a guard—she’s safe. X knows the boundaries. And you’re staying at Havenway until we find a house. This place is loaded with guards.”

  She shook her head again and moved his hand from her cheek down to rest over her abdomen. “Your new family.”

  Baxter’s insistence on giving her orange juice while the other females drank coffee had started her wondering. Lying in the bed just before the attack, she’d thought like the curandero and not the woman. She could’ve smacked herself for being so stupid. Of course that incessant pain and craving she’d been going through the night that shifter had chased them in the trees was because she was in heat. Most likely that was why the shifter had been chasing them in the first place.

  “What are you saying?” Nick asked, looking back up at her.

  “I think I might be pregnant,” she said, lifting a hand to wipe away her tears. “I haven’t had a chance to officially test myself, but Baxter seems to think I am, so…” She shrugged.

  “Baxter,” Nick said with a sigh, looking back down at his hand resting on her stomach. “Baxter knows everything.”

  She couldn’t tell if the possibility made him happy or sad. But it didn’t stop his resolve.

  “I’m coming back to you,” he told her. “To us. I promise.”

  * * *

  The plan was to go to the address on D Street that X had found using the FBI’s database. Rome, Nick, and X were going, despite Baxter’s arguments. This may have been the first time Rome blatantly went against Baxter’s advice, but Baxter had to understand how personal this was. Not only was one of his father’s killers in league with Sabar, but they’d hurt his mate. He was gunning for blood.

  Nick was in the same boat, needing to put an end to this threat before he lost his sanity. He had so much to lose now. He thought of Caprise being back and somewhat with them, then of Ary and the possibility that she was carrying his child. All were reasons for him to return from this operation. Not that he thought he wouldn’t. His plan was, as always, kill first, ask questions later. Because in his mind the answers weren’t as important as sending Sabar’s black soul directly to hell with no pit stops.

  As for X, Nick watched his usual dour demeanor deteriorate until he looked more like a soldier at war than an FBI special agent. He was going to do some real damage, and Nick figured, Good for him. Whatever ailed his friend might be healed after tonight. They all might have a little healing after the bloodshed they planned.

  There was a truckload of shifters riding behind them—two truckloads, actually. They probably looked like they were moving something in the dead of night with the black truck leading the entourage. The possibility of human exposure was a big consideration.

  “If we don’t protect the humans, they’re going to die without knowledge. I feel like this is a part of our job even though we might be breaking one of the rules of the Ètica,” Rome had told them before leaving the house.

  “Fuck the Ètica!” X had shouted, and Nick had agreed with a nod.

  And so they’d left, like soldiers heading off to war. Only they didn’t have a government and a country behind them, just the cats that lurked beneath the surface.

  * * *

  “The house is in the next block,” X said as they rode down a dark street.

  It was a warm night so the air-conditioning was going in the truck. Two guards were up front, with Nick, Rome, and X in the back. There wasn’t a lot of talking going on, just waiting, tension thick. Outside it was still, almost like a movie just before the scene turned to utter chaos.

  That thought should have been warning enough.

  In a blink cars were turned over skidding into the street in front of the truck they rode in. The guard up front pressed the brake almost to the floor and still hit one of the tumbling cars. Behind them brakes screeched as the other trucks tried to stop as well. Small trees lined the residential street. Nick watched as what looked like humans in the dark stood and uprooted the trees, throwing them at their vehicles.

  “Infected Rogues, just like Ary said,” Rome whispered.

  X growled so loud the truck shook.

  Nick nodded at him. “Right, let’s kick some ass and talk about this bullshit later!”

  He was first out of the truck, leaving the door swinging open. X and Rome were right behind him, Rome yelling something to the others in the back. They all had semi-automatic guns they could use to take the Rogues down, instead of shifting. But Nick didn’t care: He was killing these bastards any way he could. And right now, his cat was pacing, roaring, ready to go.

  A tree barreled at him and Nick reached up a hand to catch it midair, feeling the adrenaline rush through his blood like a drug. He opened his mouth and roared as he threw it back at the Rogue and watched the idiot fucker let it slam right into its burly chest. When it stumbled back, Nick pounced, landing on its chest and flipping it over, letting his sharp teeth sink into the back of its neck.

  His claws had elongated and he almost felt like the beasts they fought with his human and cat halves joining together to get the job done. They seemed to be everywhere, like some sort of infestation, and Nick wondered how many had been infected before he captured Yuri. Baxter had informed him that the shaman had still been in the guest house when his creations had attacked, and because they were simple soulless shifters, they’d killed him without thought. It didn’t matter to them who he was or what he’d done for them, he was a commodity and they’d been directed to take everyone at the mansion out. Nick couldn’t find any pity for the man, it served his ass right.

  Another one came at him and he grabbed it at the neck, letting his claws sink in deep. It roared, its mouth opening wide to reveal sharp teeth. When it reached for Nick with its own claws, Nick shook the big body until the feet were off the ground. With his other hand he sank his claws into its stomach then tossed it about a block away
.

  Nick was moving toward the house they suspected Sabar was living in, at least part-time. There was no way the shifter would have only one location; that would be dangerous, and Sabar seemed to be a little smarter than that. So they knew there was a chance he wouldn’t be there. But the plan was to do as much damage to his operation as they possibly could, both in retaliation for the attack on Rome’s house and to send a message that they were no longer playing with his sadistic ass.

  In the distance he saw Rome plowing through Rogues making his way to the house while shadows from behind took on more of the renegades. Nick was just about to catch up with Rome when he was knocked to the ground, something heavy bearing down on his back. He heard the deadly roar and realized the position he was in. Every muscle in his human body tensed. As the hot breath of the Rogue that had downed him rippled across the skin of his neck, in preparation for the kill, visions flashed before his eyes.

  Caprise as a little girl, running with a frilly pink dress on and two long ponytails. She loved to dress up so Sundays were extra special for her. A more adorable little girl Nick had never seen.

  Ary’s eyes appeared next, amber orbs holding his gaze as if he were hypnotized. She smiled and her plump lips called to him. She turned to run, her brown-streaked hair following behind her in a swirling stream.

  Then there was a cradle, white with lace all around it. As he approached the cradle to see who was inside, his parents appeared. Dressed in the dark colors they’d worn as they lay in their caskets at the funeral. Henrique and Sofia smiled as if welcoming him home. He was out of breath as he ran toward the cradle, his clawed hands grabbing the sides as he looked inside. It was filled with blood. He looked up at Henrique and Sofia and their faces were mauled, but their arms were extending, again beckoning him to come with them.

  In that instant Nick shifted, his cat tearing through the human flesh with a deafening roar. The quickness of the shift threw the Rogue to the side but it came back at the cat once more. Balancing on its hind legs, the cat came up to its full length of six feet, extending one of its paws so that it connected with the Rogue’s face with a sickening smack, blood spewing as it retracted. The Rogue stumbled back against a car, shattering the side windows with its weight. The cat jumped at it, attacking again, roaring deep guttural sounds that echoed up and down the residential street. When it was tired of playing with the Rogue—which was no match for its strength and fighting skills no matter who controlled its mind—the cat simply bit into its neck, going so deep its head dangled to the side as the body finally fell dead to the ground.