Temptation Rising tss-1

by A. C. Arthur

  Now she looked at the four of them, hating each and every one of them equally. She should have listened to Rome, should have done what he said. But it was too late for regrets now.

  The only thing she could do now was survive.

  She screeched when the one called Sabar, the one who’d come to her house, ripped the tape from her lips.

  “Bastard!” she cursed and licked her dry lips.

  “Pretty mouth,” he said, leaning in closer. “I want to kiss that pretty mouth.”

  Kalina remained perfectly still, waiting, hating the stench that burned her nose. The minute his lips touched hers she struck out, biting his lips with teeth sharper than she’d thought: As he yelled, pulling back from her, she saw the steady stream of blood dripping from them and felt a measure of satisfaction.

  “Yeah, you’re for me,” he said wiping the back of his hand over his mouth. “An evil ruthless bitch just like me. We’re gonna rule this world together.”

  “Go to hell!” she spat.

  Sabar threw his head back and laughed. “Only with you right beside me.”

  He reached for the buckle of his pants and began undoing them, all the while keeping his gaze on her.

  Kalina felt sick, then she felt hot, and then … she felt something else.

  It moved inside her, slinking around as if it had been just awakened. Rising slowly it filled her; from her feet to her fingertips it was being reborn inside her. The feeling was eerie, and she thought instinctively she should have rejected it. Then she paused, recognized this other part of her, and welcomed the reunion. It had been there all along, revealing itself in the extra-sensitive senses she possessed, in the instincts she’d called on following her gut. Suddenly the memories came flooding back: the way she always felt as if she didn’t belong, no matter how hard she tried; the feeling of something itching just beneath her skin. It all made sense now, illogical and unheard-of sense.

  Now whatever had loomed just beneath the surface all her life was standing tall, making its grand entrance. And it was mad as hell.

  * * *

  The meeting place wasn’t what Rome or the other shifters had expected, but then this entire situation was way beyond the norm. Rogues didn’t give a shit who they killed, or when, or where, so calling them to an abandoned house on the end of one of the dirtiest streets in the city—literally and figuratively—was not their MO.

  Eli had driven the Tahoe, with Rome, Nick, and X riding in the back. Ezra was parked right around the corner in the Hummer with three more guards, should reinforcements be necessary. The message said for Rome to arrive alone. Yeah, like hell was that happening. Not only were Nick and X never going to allow it, Rome didn’t take orders from anybody, especially not a group of backstabbing Rogues.

  There were no words to describe the rage that ripped through him the moment he found out Kalina was gone. Eli looked as if he were about ready to shoot himself when Rome walked into the house and he had to deliver the news. At that exact moment Rome wanted to kill. Not Eli, because he was a friend and Rome knew he’d done his best. Although when this was all said and done the guard was definitely going to feel Rome’s wrath.

  But right now, at this second, Rome knew Kalina was in trouble. If she wasn’t here with him, she was in danger, and that was unacceptable. It had only taken about fifteen minutes for his house to fill with Shadow Shifters ready to comb the DC streets in search of her.

  “He will not hurt her,” Alamar said, coming into the hallway where they’d all aligned like an army about to move out.

  “How do you know that for sure?” X asked, probably because he knew words weren’t coming easily for Rome.

  Alamar held up a note. “He believes she is his companheiro. He will not hurt her.”

  Rome snatched the note, read it, and wanted to roar his fury. Instead Nick took the paper from Rome’s hands. “So he wants Rome to know he has her. To know he’s taken her away from him. Dumb fuck!”

  “Let’s go,” Rome said through clenched teeth.

  “Remember the Ètica,” Alamar said as they began to move out.

  Rome was already shaking his head. “No. Not this time. This time I’ve got my own code to go by.”

  As they filed out of the house, Nick and X right behind Rome, the Elder looked to Baxter.

  “He will do the right thing,” Baxter said.

  The Elder nodded glumly. “For all our sakes I hope that you are right.”

  Now, half an hour later, they were here. And Rome’s cat was ready to break free, to rip the throat from the Rogue who threatened what was his.

  Again.

  It was the same one, Rome thought with disgust. He’d recognized the scent at Kalina’s apartment. Remembered it from years ago when he’d been just a little boy. It had been mixed with another Rogue scent, but Rome knew that specific one and as he stepped out of the truck walking toward the corner house he smelled it again.

  Rage rippled, his cat roared inside clawing at the surface to be set free, but Rome, the man, walked purposely up the steps.

  “What’s the plan?” X said from behind him.

  “I’m going to get Kalina. When she’s safe I’m killing every sonofabitch Rogue in there then burning this fucking house down,” Rome said, reaching for the doorknob.

  Nick shrugged. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

  * * *

  A plain unmarked slate-gray Buick pulled onto the street about five minutes after Rome, Nick, and X walked into the row house. Pulling into an open parking space about five houses up from the end unit, which was his target, he stopped the car. Switching off the engine, Special Agent Dorian Wilson sat back against the leather seat, his eyes examining the SUV not too far in front of him. All the windows were tinted—and even if they weren’t, it was well after midnight. This street had obviously not been on the city’s cleanup list in a long while, because in addition to the majority of the windows on these houses being broken out, the lampposts had suffered the same fate. Saying it was dark as shit was an understatement.

  But Dorian knew it didn’t matter who drove the Tahoe. He knew who it was registered to. Roman Reynolds. He did wonder which one of Reynolds’s bodyguards was driving it tonight. The man never traveled alone. That was part of the reason Dorian and his team had begun looking at Reynolds and his law firm in the first place. The other part was still on a disk carefully hidden in a safe in Dorian’s apartment.

  * * *

  Jack “JC” Ferrell of the MPD took a long swig from the bottle of vodka he’d lifted from the liquor store around the corner. All he’d had to do was flash his police badge and the tiny little Asian woman minding the cash register had looked the other way. They knew him around here, knew what he liked and what he wouldn’t tolerate. After tonight they might know things JC didn’t want them to know.

  He was meeting with Sabar and his henchmen tonight, supposedly to give them the money from the stash he was assigned to sell. But JC didn’t have their money. He’d smoked half of it then put the other half in an account for his two sons. That’s the least he could do for them, since being Father of the Year wasn’t in the cards for him. But he wasn’t running; that wasn’t something he’d ever done in his life. After thirty-two years on the police force, two wives with dollar signs in their eyes and other cops’ cocks in their mouths, he’d given up the scared-and-begging sort of lifestyle he’d once lived. Now it was all about him. He lived for the moment, didn’t answer to anybody, and didn’t give a damn what anybody thought of him. Especially not now. Not tonight.

  This business with these crazy-ass animal people was coming to an end. JC had done a lot of shady crap in the past ten years of his life, but working alongside some half-breed animals was not going to be listed in his obituary. They were crass motherfuckers that didn’t care about anything or anybody; whatever they wanted they got, and it didn’t do any good to try to stop them. Living like that, JC figured, was sure to get those weirdos sliced and diced fast, and that he wasn’t willing t
o be a part of. He’d figured out a long time ago that with all the death and self-destruction he’d seen, his demise would probably come about the same way. But again, he wasn’t scared.

  He was shit-tired, though, ready to go someplace and lay the hell down for a while. A long while, he thought, as he entered the house and took the first steps to the upper rooms where the lead hairy bastard liked to stay. But as he took those steps a sound unlike any he’d ever heard stopped him.

  Chapter 27

  As the three of them took the steps, Rome scented Kalina and his chest constricted. Not only was she here, she was in full acordado.

  Her scent was different, heavier, tinged with a sultry floral aroma that permeated his senses, putting every muscle in his body on full alert.

  “Let me go first,” he whispered to Nick and X, who nodded behind him.

  They climbed two flights of stairs, each of them with guns in hand. The intent was to fight this battle the human way, to use the weapons of mass destruction that seemed to be so accepted, it was no wonder the murder rate in this country was so high. It would have been easier to come in jaguar form fighting and ripping everyone in this place to pieces, but Rome refused to do that without provocation.

  They were on the third floor of the row house walking down a narrow hallway, following Kalina’s scent. Just a few steps from the door every part of Rome’s calm, human plan fell apart as a scream ripped through the walls, traveling down his torso to settle in heated despair in his midsection.

  Rome broke into a run and kicked in the door without hesitation. Never in a million years would he have been prepared for the scene that confronted him.

  * * *

  Kalina screamed in pain again and again.

  Every part of her body hurt as heat engulfed her and pressure assailed her bones. Her clothes felt heavy and sticky, agitating her skin. Ripples ran beneath, pressing painfully against her limbs.

  Her chest constricted and she struggled to breathe. Everything around her was changing. As she inhaled, scents became acutely stronger, one after the other pushing against each other in a tug of war for her attention. Her tongue felt thick, dry as her gums ached. Teeth seemed to fill every corner of her mouth.

  She convulsed, feeling the chair shaking beneath her as the ropes that bound her stretched and popped. Her breasts tingled, hanging full and aching on her chest. In her ears she heard everything from dogs barking outside to hissing and cursing in this very room. At first it grew very dark; then she closed her eyes, opened them, and felt as if someone had dumped sand into them.

  Just as quickly her vision cleared, the darkness becoming crystal-clear. She searched for him, needed him to be there, but didn’t really understand why. Kalina saw Rome bust through the door, saw his cat’s eyes in the face of his human form. Inhaling deeply, she latched on to his scent and clung for dear life.

  Her heart hammered in her chest, arms extending before her and shaking almost uncontrollably. Something was happening, something big was happening, and Rome knew what it was. In his eyes she saw knowledge and understanding; in her mind she heard him comforting her, reaching out to her to let her know she would be okay. He was here to save her, again.

  Then again, that other part of her, the one she’d ignored for so long, stood inside and roared. She didn’t need to be saved this time. This time it would be her who did the rescuing.

  She felt the motion, the swaying of the room as she fell from the chair. Her jaw ached and her head pounded. With stinging fingertips she lifted her arms, looking down to see why her skin itched so badly. Waves of golden-yellow fur raced down her arm. She opened her mouth to scream but instead her jaw locked, teeth elongated, sharpened, extended. Her skull felt like it would explode as she heard cracking and felt her entire spine bend and contort. Rolling over she pulled herself up on fisted hands and wobbly knees. Her back arched and there was a series of cracks as her body contorted. More fur spread along her back and the pain in her head thumped to a sickening crescendo.

  Screaming wasn’t an option any longer. The sound coming from her opened mouth this time was guttural; it was primitive and rocked the entire room as it rumbled through her.

  “Shoot that bitch!” she heard a male voice roar.

  “No!” another sounded, but it was too late.

  There was a gunshot and Rome lunged for the tall shifter who’d fired his gun. Flattening the guy with his body, Rome pulled back, pounding a fist into his face. The shifter attempted to fight back, tossing heavy blows of his own.

  “Get her and let’s go!” another voice yelled.

  X moved quickly, crossing the room to where Kalina’s cat form, still a bit wobbly, struggled to stand on four legs.

  A female screech tore through the air as a redhead leapt from the shadows reaching for X but was quickly dispatched by Nick’s blow to the side of her head. She crumpled to the floor just as Darel struck out at Nick.

  Pulling his own gun from behind his back, Sabar turned and aimed at Rome. Kalina saw his intentions and pushed her now much larger and stronger cat’s body past X. Jumping up on hind legs, she tackled Sabar, knocking him to the floor and sending his gun across the room.

  The fear in his eyes as he turned to face her made her heart race. Baring her teeth she growled loudly in his face, heavy paws on his chest.

  “My mate,” he said, a sick smile spreading over his human lips even as his eyes shifted to cat.

  Beneath her she felt his shift, the connection of his fur against hers causing an eerie warmth inside. She backed off. The man who’d come to her house and stared at her with orange eyes now stood in front of her in his full cat form, baring his teeth and heading straight for her.

  In a blur of black, Rome pounced on Sabar, knocking the other cat into the wall. There were cats all over the room now, all growling and thrashing against one another. Kalina couldn’t tell who was who. Instead she felt dizzy, heat still running through her body like a blazing fever.

  Glass broke as cats rammed against the window. The scent of blood filled the air and Kalina choked. Backing into a corner she thought about Mrs. Gilbert’s cat, the one that had scared her so badly for years. Her legs wobbled, and she felt herself going down.

  Her head hurt like hell, images of cats blurring with humans. Confusion racked her mind as heat continued to tear through her body. She blinked and blinked, breathed in and out hoping to calm this wave of emotions and physical changes going through her, but there was no use. It was too much and she finally fell back, closing her eyes to it all.

  When she opened her eyes again it was to see a blur of spots moving fast and ferocious in front of her. They were fighting, big cats that belonged in the jungle were fighting, breaking everything in this medium-size human room.

  Instinctively the cop in her came to full alert. Kalina scrambled her human legs across the floor, reaching for the gun she saw lying there, and grabbed it with human fingers. She looked down at her hands holding the gun. They were normal again, four fingers and a thumb on each, creamy butter-toned skin wrapped around a cold black gun that she was now lifting and aiming.

  How to tell who was who? She took a deep breath as she stood, her human legs not necessarily accepting the quick shift she’d apparently made, but cooperating just the same.

  Rome was the black cat, his green eyes and dark rosettes like a beacon to her in this room full of felines. She would not shoot him. But the cat he was fighting, the lighter one with black rosettes set far apart, was the enemy. She remembered his eyes from the night at the party and she squeezed the trigger happily.

  The bullet tore through the fat skull of the cat, and it fell back away from Rome’s clutches. Next, she turned to a thinner yellow-gold cat that was swiping at a reddish brown cat with her heavy paws. Kalina knew this one, too.

  The yellow-gold cat was Melanie, the lying backstabbing so-called friend Kalina had believed like some naive schoolgirl. The woman had tricked her; she’d known all along who Kalina was and why she was ther
e. She also knew something Kalina didn’t. They’d mentioned it several times when they thought she was asleep. Kalina was Sabar’s mate, whatever that meant.

  Lifting her arm, Kalina aimed at the bitch and fired, cursing the cat and the one time she’d opened herself up to friendship. She fired again for good measure and felt waves of fury ripple through her.

  Two other cats had pulled back. A huge one with heaving sides and jade-green eyes. That one kept watching her, its long tongue lolling from its mouth as its labored breathing continued. The one beside it, which was only smaller by a fraction, nudged its big head against the other’s flanks.

  “Shoot him,” Kalina heard a male voice saying, but she couldn’t tear her gaze from the one with the dark eyes.

  His head lifted, his nose sniffing the air, and she took a step back. The gun was still in her hand but her fingers were shaking. She’d never shaken before, never hesitated to shoot. But at this moment, something held her back.

  The other cat nudged again when the sound of sirens echoed in the air and the two took off.

  “It’s okay, baby,” were the next words she heard. Strong arms encircled her, a hand going to her wrist, pushing at her fingers until the gun fell to the floor. “It’s okay, I’m here.”

  Rome hugged her close, whispering all kinds of words into her ear as his hands rubbed up and down her back. She let her head drop to his shoulders, let the heat continue to swim inside, and wondered what the hell had just happened.

  * * *

  Dorian heard the vicious roaring and was out of his car heading for the house when out of nowhere something smacked him from behind. He was falling to the ground just as he managed to get off one shot.

  JC ran from the house the moment he heard the gunshots. They were up there, those animals, fighting and whatnot. He didn’t want to be a part of it. Hoped they all killed one another so he could get on with his life. He had money now; he could go anywhere and make any future he wanted. He just had to get out of here.