Chapter 49
JESS
With superhuman speed, I assessed the situation. I could smell the same kind of sly aggression that I’d encountered once before—a being who would blot out others for the sake of aggrandizing himself. Or herself, in this case. Suzanne was sighting down the barrel of her rifle at a white wolf in mid-leap who was springing at her throat. Which was faster—a bullet or a maddened werewolf?
A bullet, of course. Without even knowing I could do it, I threw up a shield of icy air between my beloved white wolf and the bullet. Magic flowed out of me, but it was protective magic, not the vicious deathly magic I’d used on the lowlife who’d thrust a knife against my throat while he tried to rape me.
It did not stop the bullet. But it must have slowed it. Maybe altered its course. The bullet still struck Cade, but it penetrated his shoulder, not his heart. And without the impact it otherwise would have had.
The wolf had knocked the weapon from the killer’s hands before she could get off another shot. I was on her by that time, too, fangs and claws ready to tear her open.
She had tried to kill my lover. For that, she deserved to die.
The white wolf faltered in the snow, blood blossoming from his injured shoulder. Barney barked and Suzanne, our enemy, stumbled backwards, shrieking, “It can’t be! You’re a wolf. He saw you. He said you were a wolf!”
The claws of my right hand grabbed her around the throat and squeezed. As I lifted her off the ground, a variety of deaths flooded my mind—drop her from a great height? Rip her apart and drink her blood? Dash her brains against a rock? Impale her on the leafless branches of a tree? Or I could peel off her skin, strip by strip. That had been one of Jonathan’s favorite ways of killing the animals he tortured.
Something rebelled inside me at that idea.
I realized that, unlike the first time this had happened to me, I was thinking clearly.
I had control. I wasn't out of my mind with bloodlust. I could make a reasoned decision about what to do to the bitch.
A kind of exultation took me.
I shook Suzanne until her body flopped. I dropped her into the snow. She landed hard, but she was nowhere near dead.
I didn’t have to kill her. The pack would have a means of judging and condemning her. All I had to do here was protect my husband and our dog.
The crack of bones echoed all around me as Cade shifted back to his human form. At almost the same moment, Suzanne summoned the energy to shift to her wolf. Both were bleeding. The scent of blood made me half crazy. But only half.
It had been a long time since I had enjoyed a few mouthfuls of blood.
CADE
I didn’t know how Jess had found me, but her arrival had been timely. I’d twisted as I’d shifted, popping out in a different location than Suzanne had expected. She’d had to rotate to aim, and I’d already been airborne in my lunge for her throat when she’d gotten off the shot.
She would have hit me anyway, probably with a kill shot, but Jess had done something. I had no clue what, but I’d felt magical energy roar into me. It had seemed as if the air around me had coalesced for a second, turning into thick, icy soup.
I’d felt the bullet penetrate my flesh by degrees. I’d been shot once before and I’d felt nothing until well afterward. This time every millimeter had burned, but the good thing about it was that I knew it had not gone in too deep.
The slug was still there in my human body, and my shoulder hurt like hell, but I’d survive, thanks to Jess. Suzanne would not.
I dove for the shelter where I’d left my gun. Barney was crouched inside, half growling, half whining, thoroughly spooked by what he had just seen. I grabbed the shotgun, then changed my mind. I can’t claim my brain was operating too clearly. I leapt for and took up the rifle Suzanne had dropped when Jess had swung her up off her feet.
Jess had flung the bitch away and Suzanne had shifted. She had started to run now, somewhat impeded by the deep snow. Jess, the ultimate predator, took off after her. My darkling was chasing after the fleeing wolf like a black-winged falcon zeroing in on her prey.
Suzanne had to die for her crimes. But I didn’t want Jess to do it. If she did, she would probably torment herself over Suzanne the same way she’d agonized over killing that pond-scum, Jonathan.
I took aim swiftly and fired. The shot wasn’t perfect. It hit her, but not in a vital area. She faltered but kept running. Shifters were strong and fast. As I lined up another shot, I shouted for Jess.
“Let her run,” I yelled. “She can’t go far.”
I didn’t know if Darkling Jess would respond to my shout, but I yelled it again, imbuing the words with every ounce of alpha command I still held within me.
Normally I’d never have allowed a wounded animal to flee without delivering the coup de grace, but I wasn’t feeling charitable to my brother’s murderer.
The great black wings dipped and the darkling twisted in the air. Faster than I could even grasp, she came streaking toward me. She landed deftly in the snow in front of me. I was tall, even when stooped over with pain and cold. But dark winged, dark shadowed dark haired glorious Jess was taller still.
The darkling shift made her body long and thin in a way that was so different from her ordinary self, yet still alluring. She gave me a smile that looked a little odd on such a demonic creature. Were darklings really the origin of the vampire myth? Well, vampires had an offbeat sexuality, didn’t they?
The more I stared, the less she resembled a vampire. In fact, she looked a lot like Jess. Her eyes were more luminous—the green had turned brighter and those eyes shone in the dark like a cat’s.
But she gave me an old-fashioned curtsey and said in a low, husky voice, “You ordered me to stop and I did. But she was going to kill you. She must be found and brought to justice.”
“She will be. You saved my life, Jess. That was totally badass, and I love you, no matter what form you take. But I need my clothes. I’m fucking freezing.”
“Just a second. Let me take care of that bullet for you.”
She bent her face to my shoulder, where the blood was seeping out. I think at any other moment, I might have felt a pang of concern, because, weirdly beautiful though she was, she sure seemed deadly. But I relaxed when she set her mouth against my bleeding shoulder and started to suck.
Magic roiled around us once again. Everywhere we touched felt warm and bright. Her wings folded around me, sheltering me from the cold and the snow. All pain vanished. The sensation I felt as the bullet withdrew was blissful.
She spat it out on the snow and swallowed the blood that had been leaking. As she did so, her eyes flashed a deeper green and my cock pulsed with unexpected pleasure.
She licked my wound languorously with her tongue and drew back. “It should heal fine now.”