Antonio halted and sniffed the air. Something was wrong. The jaguar could just tell. Roberto prowled beside him and nudged his flank in question.
It wasn’t Mikey, but something was wrong. Something was off. He could scent something coppery in the air, like blood – but no, there wasn’t any blood around there. But somehow he could sense that there was blood somewhere. But…
Hester.
He roared and started pelting back to the compound.
*
Valentina dove for Mikey as Marta dove for Hester. While Hester was hardly a stranger to cat fights – she got into a fair amount of scrapes as a teenager – an unhinged jaguaress was another matter.
“I’d rather kill you with my own claws,” hissed Marta, slashing at Hester.
The hot pain as the bullets scraped her skin was nothing compared to Marta’s claws. Hester held onto her wrists as the two of them toppled to the floor, trying to keep the deadly points away from her. She could feel hot, searing agony at the scratches Marta had already landed.
Her cheetah snarled, trying to push forward, trying to take over. But if she did, Hester would have to lose her grip on Marta’s wrists and those darn claws
Marta writhed on top of her, her larger frame and heavier weight – ha! – easily pinning Hester. The woman was deranged, snapping her jaws, trying to take a bite out of Hester.
Hester managed to land a hard kick, momentarily stunning the jaguar and ably spinning them, so she was on top. But Marta flipped them back again, so they were rolling around the floor, destroying anything and everything in their path. Hester pushed out her claws, piercing Marta’s skin, though the woman barely seemed to notice. She growled and grunted, but she wasn’t sure she could physically best this lunatic.
Was this it? Was this how she was going to die? Torn to shreds by some crazy woman with delusions of grandeur? She had regrets of course. Small ones; like the one about not buying that pair of green pumps while they were on sale. They were still four hundred dollars, but Hester was certain she would have worn them… once or twice. She wished she’d been kinder to her mother, hugged her more instead of lamenting how bossy and interfering she was. Hester’s very possible imminent demise didn’t change her mother’s personality, just made her wonder if she could have done a better job of ignoring it.
But there was one freaking huge regret, and his name was Antonio. She’d felt something the moment he sat down in front of her at the speed dating – lord how that now felt like a lifetime ago! But it had been there. That easy smile, those twinkling eyes – neither of which dimmed as she all but barked at him. Her cheetah had fallen for him instantly, not understanding why they weren’t just trying to climb him like a tree. But Hester was stubborn – hell, why did she have to be stubborn? She refused to just throw herself at him, and admit she wanted him, admit she needed him. Course, he didn’t help matters with the whole kidnapping thing – though even that didn’t bother her now.
She should have admitted how she felt, admitted that she was falling for him, that she wanted to be his mate as much as he did. If she saw him again, she was going to throw herself at him, kiss and smooch him and tell him unreservedly that she wanted him. The obstructions to their future hardly seemed worth mentioning in the face of death by clawing.
Marta’s eyes seemed almost red, and Hester screamed in frustration as she slowly wilted under the onslaught of teeth and claws. Her cheetah howled.
Just as she thought she was about to give out, Marta snarled and lurched forward. Hester kicked her over her head, sending the woman sprawling.
Valentina stood over her with a baseball bat, trembling slightly. She looked scared and frantic, but hey, help was help. Hester scrambled to her feet, and the two of them faced the seething Marta.
The woman actually threw back her head and cackled in true supervillain style. “Please, I can take both of you.”
As Valentina let out a small whimper, Hester believed her. She could feel the blood oozing out of the various scratches she already had, and Valentina looked like she would scream if someone shouted ‘boo’ too loudly.
“I believe you,” said Hester weakly, and her cheetah mewled pathetically, somehow feeling she had let Hester down.
Hester took a second to comfort her beast before pulling the gun out from behind her back. Marta’s smug smile froze. After Marta had fired off a couple of rounds – with terrible aim it had to be said, as while they grazed Hester, neither bullet scored a direct hit - she dropped the gun and just lunged at Hester. While trying to get to her feet, Hester found it and hey, a gun was a gun.
“Unlike you, I’m fine with killing you with a gun.”
Marta narrowed her eyes. “You won’t shoot… ugh.”
Hester shot her. More than once. Valentina let out a yelp in surprise, but it didn’t deter Hester. She’d used a gun once or twice, going to the shooting range with SEA colleagues. She was proficient, but she didn’t carry or own a gun. Never had the need. She had sometimes wondered if she would be able to shoot a living person, and whether or not it would matter if it were in cold blood. For Marta, it didn’t seem to matter. This was a female who had stolen from her leap, killed a leap member who was infatuated with her and kidnapped a child. Not to mention all the times she had tried to kill Hester and probably a lot of other nasty things they didn’t know about. Hester dreaded to think about how Valentina had been treated over the years. No, she felt no remorse for this, especially since Marta didn’t even have the decency to die and was groaning on the floor.
Ugh, with the shifter healing powers she possessed it meant there was a good chance she would survive. Bitch.
“I think I’m going to throw up,” moaned Valentina.
“Fell free,” murmured Hester trying to pry the bat away from her. “Just avoid aiming at Daniel’s body. Where’s Mikey?”
“I took him a couple of houses over to Sally – she has cubs, I knew she would be home even if her mate was out with the search party. Should we call them back? But how can we? They’ll all be in their jaguar forms and won’t have their cell phones…”
Valentina was babbling, and Hester let her. Seemed like she needed it.
“Should we get the pack healer? Or an ambulance or something?”
Hester hesitated as her cheetah harrumphed. “Yeah, I guess so.”
They were considering their next move when the door burst open, and the naked forms of Antonio and Roberto flew through it.
Hester lit up, and her cheetah yipped in happiness. He was a sight for sore eyes. She remembered everything she had promised herself, but her stubbornness, mixed with a tiny bit of shyness, reasserted itself.
“You took your sweet time,” she said. Her cheetah groaned.
“Oh, Hessie,” he exclaimed, bounding into the room, gathering her into his arms.
She allowed him to wrap her in his naked arms and breathed a huge sigh of relief. This was right where she and her cheetah were supposed to be.