Rhiannon clambered to her feet and backtracked toward the train. The entrance to the stairwell was clogged with people. Heading in the opposite direction meant trying to get past Kit and Lilith.
“Oh no.” Poor Kit currently hung suspended a few feet above the ground, his tail only inches from the super-heated cement. Lilith had her right hand held up in front of her in a choking gesture. Blood saturated the demon’s clothing, arms, and legs. “Let him go.”
“Tell me where Jase is.” Lilith smiled, a baring of teeth.
She was killing Kit. That bitch. Rhiannon warred with herself for less than a second, caught between leaping onto the train and running toward danger instead. It’d be the height of idiocy to try and help Kit. It’s not like she had a spell book or an axe to swing at the demon’s face.
Except...she’d proven salt could break one of Lilith’s spells. Salt that was all over her.
She couldn’t let Kit die if there was something she could do to help him. What if he really was her mate and she let him die? He’d thrown himself right into a situation that could get him killed to give her a chance to escape.
Rhiannon barreled toward Lilith, tucked her head low, and body slammed the demon. Magic ensnared her, hot, sharp, and biting with thousands of tiny teeth. Lilith crumpled to the ground beneath her weight.
The demon snarled out a guttural language. The blood trickling from her eyes dripped in lazy crimson lines to her ears.
“Oh no lady, no spells for you.” Rhiannon rubbed the fabric of her salt-water laden shirt across the other female’s mouth, shot upright, punched her in the nose, and jolted away.
Lilith rolled to her stomach, groaning and spitting, clawing at her tongue and lips.
Her breathing labored and hair hanging in her eyes, she searched for Kit. He sprawled supine on the platform, his cougar form larger and bulkier than that of a natural, wild mountain lion.
“Get up Kit. Damn it get on your feet,” Rhiannon screamed at him, her voice breaking. Something inside her ached, a place in her chest hollowed out with despair.
She had to get him. They needed to get on the train and get out of here. Somehow.
“Kit!” Rhiannon put her entire heart behind his name, tears streaming down her face. Shoving both hands under his front legs, she braced herself and tried to drag him across the platform. Screaming tourists knocked into her, all of them in a rush to get on the train. Huddled over his body, she tried to shield him from being trampled. “Get up before she kills you.”
People stampeded into the train and down the stairs. A tall, dark haired man with facial piercings took her elbow and towed her to her feet. There was power in his touch, magic she couldn’t resist.
“He’ll meet you at the next station,” the stranger turned from her. “Get on the train.”
“Who are you?” She clamped her hand down on the shoulder of his worn leather jacket. A pulse of something other throbbed through her. The air around his form shimmered, and a cloud swirling with hidden lights obscured him except for his eyes, which glowed gold and orange.
“Kit’s a friend.” The man extricated himself from her grasp. “Go now.”
“How do I know you’re not lying?” She’d throw herself right back out of this train if she had to. Lillith snatched a metal water bottle from a screaming blonde and guzzled the contents. The demon tossed the container aside and appeared to be trying to decide if she wanted to take on the new comer or go back after Kit.
Kit still hadn’t moved.
“I can’t lie. Little fun fact about my species.” The man pushed her back behind the yellow safety line painted on the train floor. He snapped his fingers, and the train doors slid closed, trapping her inside.
“No. No. Stop the train. Please. My friend, he’s out there.” Rhiannon shoved her way to the emergency phone near the doors on opposite wall. She’d get someone to stop this train so she could save Kit.
“Stay back lady. No way I’m letting you press that button. You’d be putting us all in danger.” A balding man with wrinkled skin the color of a walnut blocked her way. “What I saw is a shifter attacking some other supernatural being. You were screamin’ at everyone, said that lady was a demon. We ain’t going back there to get him.”
“He was trying to protect me. I can’t leave him there. She’ll kill him.” Rhiannon tried to muscle her way past the man, but he planted his feet. “Please. Just let me call for help. I won’t try to stop the train.”
“There’s cameras all over these trains and the stations. My bet is the cops are on their way already.” The stranger shook his head, light hazel eyes concerned. “I can’t take the chance of letting you near that phone.”
The other passengers mumbled their support, some of them viewing her with visible hostility. She heard their whispered comments and glared at them all, until her gaze landed on a young couple, the woman half-hidden by her husband, one hand flat on her round belly.
Their eyes locked, and she knew trying to go back for Kit would be the height of selfishness.
Shifters were more than human strong, their ability to heal injuries that would kill a human well documented.
He just needed to wake up before Lilith managed to unleash her magic again. The strange man promised her Kit would be at the next station. He claimed he couldn’t lie.
Worried, scared, and distraught beyond reason, Rhiannon lowered herself to an empty bench seat as far away as she could get from the other passengers. She turned sideways and hugged her knees, not caring if the motion of the train knocked her to the floor.
There was no reason for her to care this much about Kit. She should be scared and worried, sure, but the aching despair in her heart didn’t make sense. It wasn’t like she was in love with him.
She wasn’t. God, she hadn’t seen him in years and he’d done nothing but screw up everything for her all day. This was definitely not love. This was anti-love. The antithesis of love. No love. Not here.
But...those kisses. There was an element to his embrace, the caress of his tongue and his hands on her—rough, harsh, manic, but tempered with some undefinable quality she ached to experience again.
She’d wanted so badly to believe she belonged to someone, that she’d convinced herself they were mates when they were so damn young. They’d only known each other a week. Over time she’d realized how irrational and needy that had been, how she’d been looking for a way to escape her father’s control, his hateful beliefs, and his fists.
But then Kit came storming back into her life and in a few hours, here she was again clinging to the idea that they were soul mates. The way he kept saying it too wasn’t helping.
Fuck, she knew better. She did.
She had to be making this all up in her head. She had some kind of defect that made her search out men that would do nothing but hurt her in the end. Shoving the thoughts about Kit and soul mates, she tried to focus on what to do at the next stop. Regardless of their history, she wasn’t a person who’d leave someone else behind to get hurt or killed.
She’d get off the train and board the one going in the opposite direction. They’d get to safety and then she’d get back to business with finding Jase. Alone.
If luck was really on her side, Lilith would have rolled onto the electrified tracks and fried herself.
The train slowed for the next station and Rhiannon positioned herself near the door. Exiting to the platform, she limped to the metal bench in the middle to wait.
A huge, fur covered head bumped into her calf and she startled. The gold-eyed cougar purred, and rubbed his cheek against her other leg. Blood stained the fur around his muzzle and all four paws. Fresh blood coated the fur on his belly.
“Kit? Kit. Oh my God where were you? Are you okay? You’re bleeding. I could kill you. Were you in the other train car? Did Lilith follow you? Who was that man?” Words tumbled out of her mouth, a waterfall of phonics broken by relieved sniffles. “You’re a horrible mate, you know. Not that I believe you about that. But if it was true
, you completely suck at being a mate.”
Kit placed his front paws on either side of her thighs and rested his head on her shoulder. His whiskers tickled her throat and his purr rumbled through her. Rhiannon allowed herself to hug him for a few seconds before shoving him away.
Taking comfort in him wasn’t allowed.
“I don’t know what to do. You can’t shift because you’ll be buck naked but if you walk down the Strip like this you’re going to attract attention. But if we get on the train again, we’re likely to be met by the security people who monitor the video feeds.” Rhiannon swiped under her eyes, irritated that tears kept leaking out. The reaction was irrational. He was fine. She was fine. “Oh my God, do you think Lilith will attack the cops? Shit, you might end up in jail and then what will we do?” Hell, he barely qualified as a friend, so being this upset over his well-being made zero sense. Right? “Fuck. Your wallet and clothes are back there. And my bag! Crap. Crap. What should we do?”
Kit prowled away, bounding from one end of the platform to the other. If he had any injuries from his fight with Lilith, they were minor. Or he was doing the super macho alpha-hole thing and pretending he wasn’t hurt.
He disappeared down the steps, moving with lethal, silent grace. Even the color of his fur blended in to the interspersed shadows with eerie ease.
Not one to sit and wait for the cavalry to come, Rhiannon strode after him. White knights didn’t exist in her world. She had to save herself, and right now that meant keeping on the move. If Kit wanted to find her, he could smell her scent trail.
The bald, bleached fact was she still had to find Jase and the money he’d promised to deliver to Mancini. A demon being after her ex didn’t change that and neither did her feelings for Kit.
Plus, she knew in her gut there was more to the story about why he was in Vegas. Jase wasn’t the type to live in a shifter community, running a business and showing up for clan meetings to discuss...whatever shifters worried about. Sustaining the rabbit population or which kid was going to shift soon or another animal group that had a crazy asshole running the show. Jase was the last person any clan grouping would want making those kinds of decisions or even voting on them. He couldn’t keep a job. Hell, he couldn’t keep an address.
The only job Jase would be suited for would be stud services and spontaneous partying, if that was a thing. He’d also be a fine fucking stripper if he felt like it.
Rhiannon trotted down the first few steps and almost fell ass over tea kettle. Kit blocked her way, growling low under his breath.
“Stop. I have to get my car, get cleaned up, and start looking for Jase again. Obviously work is totally out until I find him. That damn demon might crash my show and ruin everything. ” She used her knee to push into his heavy, muscular side. She needed to call The Howler and let them know she wouldn’t be performing. Without a mirror she could only guess at the extent of the bruising on her body, but from the pain signals pinging off every extremity and her ribs, she wasn’t fit to be in a dance costume on stage.
“Damn it Kit, let me pass. There’s no good way out of this except through it. I still have some time on the clock.”
With the sun low on the horizon, her pulse kicked up a notch, anxiety fueling her desire to hurry home and try to find another lead on Jase.
Kit growled louder and shoved her knee hard enough that she stumbled and sat down hard. He didn’t relent, instead biting the loose fabric of her shirt and yanking.
“Oh my God what is the matter with you?” She rolled to her knees and climbed toward the top step with her shirt halfway up her back.
The chatter of male voices filtered to her from below, and Rhiannon chanced a glance behind her.
Two huge men in suits, their shirts straining across bulging midsections approached the escalator. She recognized them as mob enforcers from Mancini’s organization.
Praying they hadn’t seen her yet, she gained her feet and chased after Kit. He led her to the stairwell at the opposite side of the station before wheeling around and going back the way she’d come.
“Kit, don’t do this. Come with me,” she hissed.
A twitch of his long tail and flattening ears was the only response he gave. Rhiannon tripped down the first few steps, not really watching where she was going.
“Kit, damn you come on. Forget them. They’re ogres. They’ll shift and eat you right here.” She bounced down a couple more steps, warring with her own indecision.
Stay and get grabbed by these guys or run for it?
Could she even go home at this point? Maybe they weren’t looking for her. Maybe they took the train like other people in Vegas.
Yeah right. They were totally looking for her. Mancini never promised to fight fair, and he paid off cops. He probably knew about her getting arrested and maybe even about the incident with Lilith. How else would he know she was here? Maybe he’d hired Lilith to nab Jase so she couldn’t find out what he’d done with the money.
But then why would Lilith come to her thinking she knew where Jase was? That didn’t make sense.
A smart woman that wanted to retain her freedom would run.
Kit released a blood curdling roar, and she paused, only to clamp her hand over her mouth at the answering girlish screams of Mancini’s goons. A giggle snuck around her fingers.
Maybe Kit would be okay after all. The stories Jase told her about Kit’s antics made him sound like he’d grown up to be a total bad ass.
A figure stepped out from behind a group of potted plants to her left.
Startled, Rhiannon tripped, fell to the ground, and skinned her hands and elbows. “Son of a biscuit eating whore.”
“Hiya. Bet you weren’t expecting me.” Big, black boots with silver threaded through the laces filled her vision. Lilith crouched and grabbed Rhiannon’s chin. “I didn’t want to hurt you. But you set your pet kitty on me, and I’ve got claw marks up my back my girlfriend is going to be super angry she didn’t put there. Get up. You’re coming with me.”
“Fuck you.” Rhiannon jerked away and blew a strand of hair away from her mouth. “This whole thing has gotten totally out of hand. I don’t know why you’re following me or why you’re after Jase, but I don’t want any part of it.”
“Oh, but you do have a part in it sweetie. You were dating the heir apparent to the alpha of the largest cougar clan in North America. And now, today, you’re running around with another high ranking member of that clan and he’s left his mark all over your neck.”
“Why does everyone assume Jase and I were screwing? We are just friends.”
“Sure you were. And I’m Mother Teresa’s mommy.” Lilith yanked her hair. “Get on your fucking feet. I need you. Don’t give me any shit and I’ll let you live.”
“Sure you will. That’s what all the serial killers say, isn’t it?” Rhiannon had no choice but to get to her feet to alleviate the pressure on her scalp. Pain moved like liquid over and through her. There wasn’t a part of her body that didn’t hurt.
The heat and blinding brightness of the desert sun clawed at her eyes, the sidewalk heated the soles of her feet through her shoes. Curious passersby loitered near the corner, smart phones aimed in their direction.
Rhiannon screamed and waved her arms, kicked to get free. “Help me! Help! Call the cops. She’s a demon. She’s trying to kill me.”
She didn’t care if Lilith yanked every hair on her head out by the roots. The spectators milled around, confused, but at least one appeared to be dialing their phone.
“You stupid cunt. All you had to do was lead me to Jase.” Lilith’s eyes turned purple and her lips curled back from her teeth. “I don’t like killing people, but you’ve forced my hand.”
Rhiannon lunged forward, raked Lilith’s face with her nails, and managed to topple the shorter but stronger woman to the ground. Bands of pressure constricted around her throat and she struggled to breathe.
She went for the demon’s eyes, but no amount of damage elicited a r
eaction. She wheezed, strangled by magic. Darkness flowed over her vision and she gasped, unable to draw air past her constricted tissue.
At least she wouldn’t be trapped in Mancini’s harem.
Too bad she hadn’t gotten to tell Kit how much she wanted him. How his kiss left her craving more. How much she wanted to give him a private dance he’d never forget.
How much she wished she really was his mate.
Chapter Nine
Kit chased the ogres halfway down the street, hiding in the palms lining the sidewalk and then launching himself at them in a classic ambush. Chomping down on the bald guy’s crotch and crushing his testicles had been nasty, but he didn’t care. He’d do it again to protect his mate.
One long growl and a swipe down baldie’s friend’s leg, and they’d hobbled off the way they’d come. Most ogres were cowards. They liked to scare people with their cannibalism and their sheer size, but take one by surprise and put a hurt on him, and the entire group would run.
Assholes. They’d send a message to Mancini. Rhiannon had protection, and next time, there’d be death instead of wounds.
After he shifted and had Rhiannon somewhere safe, he’d be making a call to his fae buddy Daegus. If Daegus hadn’t intervened back at the train station, Kit knew he’d be dead now. Lilith had damn near crushed his windpipe with magic and would have yanked his guts out given enough time. He’d let Rhiannon’s distress distract him. Worry for her safety had given the demon the opening she needed to hit him with a spell.
He hadn’t seen the fae in years, but if Daegus was in town, the Wild Hunt was also. The Hunt followed Daegus—or Daegus followed the Hunt. Kit didn’t fully understand the dynamics of the relationship between his friend and the magical host comprised of fae, the dead, and a few chosen humans. He only knew that if the Hunt was in town, there was sure to be mischief and mayhem afoot. Those fae knew how to party.
He shouldn’t have needed the back up, but he wasn’t going to be an idiot about it. Lilith had nailed him. He’d known his chances against a demon weren’t good, but he couldn’t sit there and let the evil hag hurt his mate. Kit loped back down the sidewalk, his ears trained ahead.
A Cougar's Claim (Charmed in Vegas Book 7) Page 8
