Fated dp-1

by Rebecca Zanetti

  She opened her eyes sightlessly and ruthlessly drove toward a spiraling feeling deep within that reached out with dangerous claws until, with a sharp cry, she careened into a million pieces; all thought, all identity, shattered. She vaguely heard his pained shout as he followed her. His burst of pleasure cascaded through her own chest as ecstasy conquered them both.

  Her senses, the old familiar ones and the new frightening ones, all overloaded at once and her body slid into the security of blackness. She fell forward onto his heaving chest and sighed as unconsciousness blessed her.

  Talen held his unmoving wife against his heart as remorse beat him. Oh God. What had he done? She was out cold. His need for her to acknowledge what was between them had overpowered any sense of caution he may have felt. He had always controlled the power within him and had never taken another’s will unless in battle. A dense ego reminded him it had been battle, but his heart feared he had just sacrificed the war for its victory. He prayed the cost would not be so great as he closed his eyes and followed her into darkness.

  Moments or maybe hours later, Cara awoke with the need to run slamming into her head. She remained still as awareness dawned, as she realized where she lay. And with whom. Deep under the earth’s surface, in the very late hour he kept one heavy arm around her waist, his face turned into her shoulder, his heat keeping her warm. She opened wary eyes and shifted to study him, the small light in the corner of the room casting a soft glow over the bed. Even in sleep, the strength, power, and purpose stamped down hard on the sharp angles of his face, no sweet boyishness or innocence softened him while he rested, bold danger marked him even now.

  She needed to run.

  She wasn’t capable of the trust required to balance the helplessness she had felt while he easily controlled her body. And her reactions. She ignored the sigh within her as her gaze roamed the ridiculously long dark lashes against his tanned skin, the full sensuous lips and firm jaw she itched to trace with one finger. She tensed to spring for safety and was stopped as those lids flew open and clear golden eyes pinned her in place. “No.” His deep voice rumbled with determination.

  Cara instinctively slammed down hard shields around her brain until they echoed throughout her head.

  “Impressive,” he murmured as the hand around her waist slowly, leisurely ran over her stomach and breasts, causing the skin to pucker and ache before he finally rested it against her neck. He left his hand around her throat against her rapidly beating pulse.

  “Let me go.” She meant more than the immediate moment, and they both knew it.

  His eyes focused even harder on hers as he opened his mouth to speak, only to have a blaring alarm cut off his words. He rolled to the side and reached down to yank on faded jeans while grabbing his earpiece from the night table and shoving it into his ear.

  “Status,” he barked, nodding for her to get dressed, a red fury sweeping across his face.

  Cara jumped from the bed and pulled on the jeans and shirt she’d dropped to the floor the previous night before turning back to Talen, whose fury had deepened to rage. She took a step backward. He reached into the table and drew out a green gun which he tossed to her before grabbing his two knives and tucking one in his back pocket. “Roll call,” he muttered as he stalked across the room to the door where he waited a moment as he listened, then started barking orders. “They’ve only breached the first two levels—everyone head to the armory in section three—Jordan, do you know where that is? Good. Move now.”

  Yanking on boots, he turned toward her, his face cold and full of purpose, his chest bare and broad, an ancient warrior preparing for battle. “We’re under attack and only have a skeleton crew here.”

  “How did they find us?” Cara whispered urgently as she moved toward him.

  “I don’t know. We’ll worry about that later. Right now, we need to get to the armory.”

  Chapter 28

  The alarm blared through the underground facility, and Cara rushed close enough to feel Talen’s body heat. To sense his assurance; his strength of purpose.

  “Stay behind me, mate. When I tell you to move, you do it.” He slid open the door before looking first one way and then the other and escorting her into the hall, jogging down through several twists and turns until he halted and pressed her against the wall, shielding her from whatever threat he sensed, his entire body rigid and prepared. He relaxed as Jordan moved out of the shadows with Maggie right behind him, the young woman even more pale than the day before.

  “Where’s Katie?” Cara asked.

  Jordan only growled. “Not where she should have been.”

  “She’s with Jase—he called in saying they were playing pool in the rec room when the alarm hit,” Talen answered her. Both he and Jordan stilled, lifting their heads and listening to their earpieces.

  “Hit the lights, full power,” Talen responded after a moment.

  Cara winced and shut her eyes against the sudden glare all around them. The wattage of powerful white lights set hard into the stone ceiling was bright enough to be painful and had her squinting to see Talen’s strong form before her.

  “This should slow them down,” Talen muttered as he grabbed her hand and started down the hallway with Jordan and Maggie following. He stopped in front of a blank sheet of rock before placing his hand in the center and leaning forward to open both eyes. A hidden doorway opened to his left and he yanked her through to an ordinary looking stairwell made of cement lit hot and bright by the intruding lights, and they climbed down, their footsteps echoing rapidly on the hard steps.

  They ran down two flights, and Talen did another scan before a door slid open and three mean looking guns instantly pointed at their heads. The guns dropped as Dage, Conn, and Noah recognized them and stepped back into a large control room with flickering monitors set into the wall showing different areas of the underground base. Two were blank.

  Dage threw sunglasses at them and they donned them quickly. Cara sighed in relief.

  A long counter holding a myriad of computer equipment ran the length of the room, and a large stone table covered in papers stood to the left and maps dotted the walls. An armory with its multitude of weapons showed through a door to the right.

  “They cut the communications from sections one and two,” Dage said grimly as he turned to a keyboard just as Mac and Baye exited the armory with vests and weapons at ready. “The doctors and their lab were in two—we have no contact with the guards at the front entrance or the three inside the first perimeter.”

  Jordan grabbed Maggie’s arm and pulled her into the armory.

  “Who else do we have?” Conn asked tersely as he typed into a different keyboard.

  “That’s it,” Talen said. “We’re spread thin after the recent attacks.”

  “Plus the fact that you folks haven’t reproduced in a couple hundred years,” Baye muttered as he checked his weapon.

  “And you have, kitty?” Conn returned without looking up from his typing, missing the grin of appreciation Baye flashed back.

  “It’s time to remedy that,” Dage mused, causing a chill to wind down Cara’s spine. She was not put on the earth to breed soldiers to send to their deaths, damn it. The urge to run pounded hard and fast through her blood; in this, destiny was a complete bitch who wasn’t going to get her way. She lifted her eyes to see Talen calmly waiting for her to focus.

  “One thing at a time, mate.”

  She nodded in response and turned toward Dage as he spoke again.

  “The Kurjan attack squad had twelve—seven made it through the first two entry points—they headed for the medical lab, then for the rec room.” He shook his head in frustration. “We have four confirmed down. The cameras are useless.” He looked toward Cara. “Can you sense Katie, Jase, or the doctors?”

  Cara shut her eyes and tried to concentrate on Jase. An image of his grin, his delight with Janie and his strength filled her thoughts. She fell back with a cry as a rush of anger, of purpose hit her so h
ard she lost her balance and crashed into Talen, who righted her with gentle arms. “He’s alive, preparing to fight …” She didn’t finish the sentence as another wave of determination bordered with panic filled her. She had sensed Katie before and instantly knew her essence. “Katie’s there, and I think she’d getting ready to shift.”

  “Back away, Cara,” Talen said urgently into her ear. “Now.”

  She turned surprised eyes up at him even as she did as he ordered and let her connection with Katie’s feelings subside. “Why?”

  “She’ll release an amazing amount of power, and you’re not equipped to filter it yet, mate.” He looked around. “Gear up. Dage, Jordan, Noah, and I will head for the rec room and the medical lab while Conn and Mac take Cara and Maggie through the tunnels out the east side. We’ll meet you in Colorado.”

  “No, Talen,” Cara said as she followed his long stride into the armory, “I want to stay here—I can sense Katie and Jase for you.” She closed her eyes and reached for the doctors but only darkness swirled through her mind. “Though I can’t sense your doctors.” She opened her eyes as Jordan and Maggie, with protective vests and weapons, returned to the main room.

  Talen yanked a vest over her head before donning his own. “No. We’re outnumbered, and you need to get to safety. I promise I’ll be there quickly.” He checked his guns and knives and fastened his long dark hair in a band at the base of his neck.

  “I’m staying, Talen,” Cara muttered impatiently as she grabbed a knife off the stone wall.

  He swooped in until his face was an inch from hers. “Don’t argue, mate.” His eyes narrowed implacably. “You will go with Conn, one way or the other.”

  “Really?” she sputtered back as anger filled her. How dare he? She’d done a great job on the last raid.

  “Yes. I assure you, I can stop you from moving.” He straightened to his full height, his eyes deadly serious. “But I guarantee you wouldn’t like it. And I need to concentrate on other things.” He waited for her reply.

  “You wouldn’t.”

  “I would.” He actually meant it. He would take her freedom of movement away from her. It was unfathomable.

  She turned on her heel and left the room without a backward glance. She had been helpless once before, and she’d be damned if she’d feel that way again. She understood that they were symbiotic, that they both had increased in strength and potential the second they’d mated, and she knew somehow, deep down, her power would someday match his. For now, she’d wait. And remember.

  “I heard that.” Her husband chuckled in her head. Man. Now they could read each other’s minds.

  Her mental response was one she wouldn’t have uttered out loud. He sent back a mental image of her over his knee, and she had to fight the answering grin in herself. Jackass. Then she sobered. Just because he had an ability, one he hadn’t told her about, didn’t mean he had to use it. He had no right to squire her to safety while others needed her help.

  “I have every fucking right.” His chuckle was long gone and a brief image from her dream flashed through her head before he pushed it away. She stilled as she realized the dream had impacted him far more than she had thought. “That’s right, mate. You’ve been in danger before, and I wasn’t there. I’m here now, and I vow you’ll be safe.”

  “But, I went on the raid for Katie,” she protested vehemently in her head as the men started to gather around her.

  “A mistake I will not repeat,” came his firm response. His mental sigh whispered through her mind. “Fight me another day, mate. Today this battle is over.” He stalked into the room, armed with weapons as well as purpose, power all but gliding along his tanned skin above the dark vest.

  Her eyes met his as she mentally asked her question. “Does everyone know about your ability?”

  “No. Just my brothers know I can manipulate movement, or rather, the desire to move. “

  “I hadn’t noticed you use it before.”

  “I didn’t need it. “

  Dage cleared his throat while tucking another knife into his waistband. “If you two are done mentally whispering to each other, I thought we’d go and rescue our youngest brother.”

  Talen nodded and headed for the door.

  Three stories up, Katie gulped in air as she and Jase took in the five Kurjan soldiers on the other side of the grand room, their smiles sharp and mean, their eyes hidden by dark sunglasses. The alarm abruptly cut off, leaving an odd ringing through the sudden silence.

  Jase stood still as a statue to her side, the blue flecks in his eyes having taken over the copper as he’d killed the first two Kurjans to plow through the door before tackling her behind the pool table as a bomb destroyed half of the stone wall. A crumpled mess of arcade games, smashed dartboards, and a mangled flat-screen television splayed around the room while the neon light above the pool table swung back and forth, throwing sparks. The overly bright lights forced pure white pain into every corner.

  “You’ll have to shift,” Jase muttered under his breath.

  “No, Jase,” Katie protested. “I could kill you.”

  “I’ll be fine. You’re too fragile as a human, Katie. You know it. If you’re going to fight, you need to shift.” He veered a bit to the left of the pool table, readying himself to charge.

  He was right. She would be of little help against the monsters facing them in her current form. She hastened to the right, wanting to put as much space between them as possible. She stopped as the Kurjan soldier in the middle raised a large boned hand and smiled yellow teeth past crimson lips. “We don’t want you, shifter. We just want the other one. Where is she?”

  Katie cut her eyes to Jase, who studied all five soldiers with measured eyes. “I suppose you don’t want me, either?” His voice was dry.

  “On the contrary”—the rasp of the Kurjan’s voice deepened—”killing a Kayrs will ensure my place in our military for all time. But, tell me where to find the other shifter, and I won’t kill your friend here.”

  “Why do you want her?” Katie asked quietly.

  The soldier shrugged his massive shoulders under his protective vest. “Irrelevant.” He turned vicious eyes to Jase. “Well?”

  Jase’s grin was full of violence. “I decline your offer.” He lunged for the head soldier while bellowing for Katie to shift.

  Katie gathered her power, delving deep for the animal within her skin. Her spine tingled, an ache flashed along her skin, and her toes straightened out. Power flowed through her blood and with a simple command, she shifted from the delicate woman to a ferocious lioness, sending waves upon crashing waves of electric air slamming through the room. The electricity threw the two nearest Kurjans back into the jagged edges of the blasted rock walls to fall in heaps of muscle spouting blood while Jase was propelled against the opposite wall to land with a hard crash against several bar stools. With a fierce roar, he leapt to his feet, blood flowing freely down his face and from a wound in his side, charging to take a soldier to the ground with one strong hand around his neck. Katie lunged for the jugular of the nearest threat at the same time.

  The leader turned to assist his subordinate with Jase just as the two injured Kurjans helped each other to their feet before rounding on the determined lioness with her jaws clamped into a Kurjan’s neck. One raised a green gun and aimed for her shoulder.

  The bullet impacted close to her neck and she screeched in pain before whipping around with a Kurjan’s head in her jaws and tossing it at the soldier who had shot her. Damn it. They were healing quickly. It was four against two. And some of the blood scenting the air with copper wasn’t Kurjan. It was vampire. She lunged at the soldier holding the gun without sparing a glance for Jase; he was a fighter and used to bleeding. The Kurjan cried out as she latched onto his leg and ripped his knee out of his skin, spitting it to the ground with a growl. She readied herself to pounce just as the shooter fired again, sending her to the hard stone floor with agony ricocheting through her body.

 
Excruciating pain lanced along her nervous system. She tried to regain her feet, only to tumble down again as the overly bright room spun around her. Her canines retracted, her fur disappeared, leaving her naked and vulnerable on the cold stone floor. The sweet smell of her own blood filled her nostrils. “Jordan,” she whispered his name, wanting it to be the last thing she said before crossing over. Then, even in her pain, she rolled her eyes at herself.

  Her heart thumped in tune with a fierce roar from deep in the earth before blackness claimed her, and her head rested against the cool stone of the floor.

  Jase ripped the soldier’s head off his shoulders with a shout of outrage before lunging for the next nearest target, fully aware Katie had gone down. He’d heard the shots and now smelled her blood. His mind reeled with pain as the soldier’s fist plowed into the bleeding wound in his side before he pushed the pain back and went for the throat.

  Picturing the combination of oxygen and water molecules in the air, he whipped up a swirling mass of debris to beat against his enemies. The elements belonged to him, air and water obeyed his commands. But the pain in his body persisted, and his concentration waned. He had to get to Katie to stem the blood flow—even now the air scented with coppery sweetness.

  Jordan flew through the jagged hole in the wall, and Jase instantly allowed the air to drop her weapons. His hair a wild mass of color, his face chiseled into death, Jordan tackled the Kurjan still holding a gun on Katie and dug his fingers into the soldier’s neck, his knees pressing into its chest. Odd that he hadn’t shifted. Almost as if the need to kill with his bare hands rode him.

  Jordan wrenched their enemy’s head right off powerful shoulders, and deep, red blood scored across his chest and face. Livid topaz eyes sought and found Katie lying in a pool of blood across the way. With a deep roar, Jordan leapt toward her, sliding through red on his knees to reach her side.