Chapter Twenty
Andrei stood in the shadows under a tree, arms crossed over his chest, impatiently waiting for Katerina to stop playing with her food. She had been teasing and tormenting the poor man for the better part of thirty minutes.
A sharp cry of pain and denial told him the unfortunate man’s suffering was approaching a cruel end.
Andrei was looking forward to going home when Katerina turned away from her victim. Striding toward Andrei, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. It was all he could do to keep from recoiling as her tongue—still heavily coated with her victim’s blood—plunged into his mouth.
With an oath, he shoved her aside. “What the hell, woman!”
She glared at him, her eyes red and glowing in the darkness.
Andrei spat the man’s blood from his mouth.
“I want you,” Katerina said. “I’m your wife. You’re my husband. I command you to fulfill your husbandly duties.”
“Command me? Command me!” he exclaimed, his voice rising with his anger. “You’re lucky I don’t take your head off.”
She snorted. “As if you could.”
“Don’t tempt me,” he muttered, even as he wondered if he had the strength necessary to defeat her. He would have tried right then, but he was afraid of what the consequences might be for Tessa if he failed. In the past, he’d had only himself to worry about. But Tessa had changed that.
Lips compressed, eyes still red with fury, Katerina glared at him—and then vanished from his sight.
“Shit!” Fear for Tessa swamped him. She was the best thing in his life, his only reason for existing. He couldn’t lose her. Not now. Not ever.
A desperate thought took him to her apartment.
* * *
“Andrei!” Tessa blinked up at him. “What are you doing here?”
“Mind if I come in?”
“Of course not.” She stepped back to allow him entrance, then closed and locked the door. “Is something wrong?”
Needing to hold her, he drew her into his arms. “I think I just made a big mistake and I’m afraid you’re the one who might pay for it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Katerina. She wanted me to fulfill my ‘husbandly’ duty and I refused.”
“Oh.”
“I’m afraid she’ll take her anger out on you.”
Tessa shivered. She remembered all too clearly the woman’s malevolent gaze—and razor-sharp fangs—as she warned Tessa to stay away from Andrei. “What are we going to do?”
“Unless you want to stay locked in your apartment indefinitely, there are only two options that I can think of—do what she wants or destroy her.”
“Can you? Destroy her?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
If he tried and failed . . . Tessa wrapped her arms around his waist and held on tight. She didn’t want to lose him. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want him to make love to Katerina, either, although it wouldn’t be love, she thought, just sex. But he would still be lying in Katerina’s bed, holding her in his strong embrace. Her stomach roiled at the thought.
Andrei brushed a kiss across the top of her head. “I’ll think of something.”
She nodded. “Maybe, if you do what she wants, she’ll go away.”
And maybe she wouldn’t.
“Okay if I spend the night here?” he asked.
That question, more than anything he had said, told her how worried he was for her safety.
It also took her mind off Katerina, at least for the moment. Should she offer him the sofa, or invite him to share her bed?
“The sofa will be fine,” he remarked with a wry grin. “But I wouldn’t say no to the other.”
Tessa bit down on her lip, tempted more than she wanted to admit.
It didn’t help when Andrei lowered his head and claimed her lips with his, sending a thrill of anticipation racing down her spine. Lordy, the man could kiss. His mouth moving over hers drove every other thought from her mind and she clung to him, her senses reeling as his tongue plundered her mouth.
“You don’t play fair,” she gasped when he lifted his head.
“Just trying to sway the jury,” he replied with a wicked grin. “Is it working?”
“You said . . .”
“That I’d only go as far as you’d let me. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t try to change your mind.”
“Andrei . . .”
“Okay, love, have it your way. The sofa it is. But I’m not giving up.”
* * *
The sound of footsteps tiptoeing across the living room floor woke Andrei instantly. For a moment, his senses were on high alert. Then, realizing it was only Bailey heading for the kitchen, he relaxed.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
Curious, Andrei followed the girl into the other room. “How did you know you woke me?”
“I heard the change in your breathing. Why?”
“So, your senses are enhanced, even in human form?”
She glanced at him over her shoulder. “I guess so.”
“Your vision, too?” He braced one shoulder against the doorjamb, arms folded across his chest.
She nodded. “Funny, I never gave that any thought until you mentioned it.” Opening the fridge, she pulled out a carton of orange juice and poured herself a glass. “Would you like a . . . no, I guess not,” she said, grinning sheepishly. “Too bad Tessa doesn’t keep a bag of blood handy for midnight snacks.”
Andrei grimaced. “I wouldn’t drink it if she did.”
“No?”
He shook his head. “Tastes like plastic. I almost forgot. I bought you something.” Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew a pink cell phone and handed it to her.
“For me?” She looked up at him, her eyes sparkling like a child’s at Christmas.
“I figured you didn’t have one. I’ve programmed all of our phone numbers in it so you can get in touch with us—and we can get in touch with you—if the need arises.”
“Thank you so much.” She tucked it into the pocket of her robe. “Tessa said maybe you could help me find other shifters.”
“Probably.” In his long life he had run into a shifter or two. “Why?”
“I was hoping I could find someone to teach me what I need to know.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve only had these new powers for a short time . . . I don’t know what to expect.”
He grunted softly. He’d had to learn how to use his vampire senses—his preternatural power—but he had assumed that shifters knew what to do instinctively, since they weren’t made, but born that way. “What do you need to know?”
“How to shift when I want to. I’ve only done it once, and that was right after my sixteenth birthday. It just happened. I haven’t been able to do it since.”
“Have you tried concentrating? Picturing your other self in your mind?”
“Sort of.”
“Do you want to try it now?”
She looked doubtful; then, putting her glass aside, she nodded. Closing her eyes, she clenched her hands, her face screwed up as she concentrated.
“You’re trying too hard,” Andrei said. “It’s part of you, part of what you are. Embrace it. Reach for it.”
Bailey opened her eyes, shook her arms, took a deep breath, and tried again.
Andrei watched in fascination as her body began to shift. One minute, a slender teenage girl stood in the middle of the kitchen. The next, a sleek black panther stood there amid a pile of tattered clothing, ears flicking back and forth, tail twitching.
He grinned, somewhat surprised that she hadn’t thought to undress first. “Would you like to go hunting?” he asked.
When the big cat nodded, Andrei went into the living room and unlocked the door. “Wait for me on the landing.”
He let the panther out, then double-locked the door. Going into Tessa’s room, he spoke to her mind, assuring that she wouldn’t wake up until morning. After kissing her on the forehead, he dissolved into mist and slipped under the front door.
Bailey the panther was waiting for him.
Resuming his own form, Andrei warded the entrance and the windows against intruders.
Convinced that Tessa would be safe in his absence, he transformed himself into a wolf and led the way out of town to a thick stand of timber that grew along a narrow stream. Rabbits and squirrels made their homes among the trees. If they were lucky, they might even find a deer.