Isla

 

“Piper!” I gasped, trying to pull out of Hunter’s grasp as we got closer to hills I was being led to. “No, Piper! How dare you!” 

After a hellish day of being with Lilian Frost, who’d meticulously tested my blood and then left me alone in a stark white room with no chairs or food for hours, I’d then been brought to another room. There was water and food, along with a couch. Worn out from the day, I’d curled up, pressing my face into the sleeve of Kai’s hoodie and telling myself he’d be there any minute.

I was more tired than I’d thought as I’d dropped off to sleep, only to be shaken awake by Hunter and led to a final round of testing with Dr. Crane.

Then I’d been marched outside into the cold night.

And Kai still hadn’t come.

Walking over to the spot at the base of the mountains, my skin had crawled at the sight of a chalked circle, the symbols mingling in ways I instinctively knew they shouldn’t. Then the light had reflected off the metal bars of a cage and I’d realized something was prowling inside.

A sacrifice? I wondered, my heart in my throat.

But then as we got closer, I saw the flash of golden eyes. The way the beautiful big cat, a jaguar, went still and stared at me. A growl had torn from her throat and I’d known.

“Let her go, Crane!” I shouted. “We had a deal.”

One of the hooded figures glanced over at me and I saw with a shock his face was entirely hidden behind a mask, with only his eyes showing. Something about that cold gleam arrested me as he appraised from head to toe.

Somehow, I knew he was smiling.

“You haven’t upheld your end of our bargain yet, Ms. DeLuca,” another hooded figure said and Crane stepped forward. It was so bizarre to see him standing there, wearing red robes along with his fake, snakelike smile and wire-rim glasses. “Soon, very soon.”

“If you do this, Crane – if you hurt her,” said an intense and angry female voice now. “There will be nowhere for you to hide or run. I will hunt you to the ends of the earth.”

Everyone looked to the cage, such was the force of Piper’s voice. She’d shifted back, her head was held high and eyes were blazing with fury as she stared them down. The force of it was such that I half-expected the bars of the cage to bend.

A trilling laugh interrupted. “Oh, but you wouldn’t even know where he was without us finding you first, would you, Piper?” Frost asked.

Piper’s lip curled. “Let me out of here, Frost and then say that to me.”

“Now that’s a catfight I’d like to see,” Hunter chuckled.

“Enough. Piper, easy. Isla willing gave herself up – she wants this,” Dr. Crane soothed. “To be with your brother, I suspect. Amusing how easy it was to spread a rumor about shifters not wanting to be with non-shifters. And I’m sure your superiority complex helped.”

Shock and grief raced over Piper’s face as our eyes met. I tried to give her a reassuring smile, but she fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around herself.

“Why can’t I ever do right by you, Kai?” I heard her whisper.

At that moment, I was brought forward and my hands were bound in front of me. “Extra precaution,” Hunter said. “But don’t try anything, stupid.” He patted his gun. “This ain’t loaded with tranquilizers, sweetheart.”

I stared straight ahead as I was led into the circle and forced to kneel. My mouth was dry and papery as a thousand thoughts raced through my brain all at once.

Memories of Kai in Maui, grinning up at me as we lay in the shallows. The cats sprawled around him during a lazy afternoon, all of them napping together. The furious angry look on his face when he’d dragged me out of the ocean.

Or the equally furious and scared one when Kai had caught me at the bottom of the cliff.

The curve of his smile as he leaned in to kiss me. His serious gaze when he regarded my art. The sly triumph when he’d brought me to the art gallery.

The bewildered one when I’d told him I loved him. Followed by the intense and exhilarated one when he’d broken the door down, sweeping me into his arms for our first kiss.

A few tears fell. I love you, Kai.

“Wait, can I just – I know that this doesn’t always work,” I said, rubbing my face on wrists as Dr. Crane approached me. “Could I – I need to tell Piper something.”

“Of course,” Crane said, with the odious air of someone bestowing a great favor.

“Piper,” I said and she looked up at me. Every eye was focused on me, but I didn’t care. Throwing my head back, I spoke, my voice ringing against the hills. “Tell Kai thank you for me. And that I’m partially to blame – tell him I know he didn’t mean any of that and I shouldn’t have–” I paused, realizing I was rambling and shaking. “Tell him that he was the only thing on the list. And that I loved him with all my heart and I know he loved me with all of his.”

“Isla, no, baby, please,” Piper’s face crumpled and a dull shock went through me. I’d never seen Piper cry. “Please, please let her go, Crane. You’ll kill my baby brother. Haven’t you taken enough from him? Please, I’ll do anything. Kill me instead, please.”

Looking up at Crane, I wasn’t surprised to see a look of ill-disguised satisfaction on his face as he looked from me to Piper. “Isla, you’ve managed to do what the TLO has been trying to do for almost a decade,” he sneered. “Destroy the Weslarks.”

Shuddering, I watched as he turned to accept a needle from Lilian Frost and everything around me went oddly quiet. It was as though I’d fallen deaf.

Everything was slow and strange as he turned to me, grinning and raising it up.

Then a scream echoed through the night, ending in a wail and Crane paused, his cheeks going ashen. I looked up to see the TLO agents looking from side to side, shifting uneasily.

“Don’t just stand there,” Hunter boomed. “Get your night-vision goggles on. Guns ready.”

But before they could, I saw an agent vanish before my very eyes, his expression too surprised to scream. For a second my brain went fuzzy with disbelief. Aliens? Ghosts?

Who could move in the night without being seen?

“Eques Pantherae!” Dr. Crane shouted. “Shifters of Anubis, you idiots! They’re here!” He turned to me. “How did they find us, you little bitch?”

I smiled up at him as he came closer and then I kicked his legs out from under him. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Getting to my feet quickly, I took advantage of the pandemonium and ran to Piper’s cage. Crane was still on his back like a turtle, shouting for Frost and Hunter.

She was back in her shifted form and I offered her my tied hands, which she promptly slashed. Staring at the cage door, I tried to wrench it open but it was padlocked shut.

“Be careful!” Piper had shifted back again, her eyes darting everywhere and rubbing her cheeks. “It’s electrically charged. Are you okay?”

“Yes. Um, sorry about all this. So, did you get shocked?” I asked, trying to joke.

Nostrils flaring, Piper rolled her eyes. “You’ve been spending too much time with Kai.” She paused. “And maybe once or twice.”

“I’m so sorry, Piper,” I said, still trying to figure out how to open it.

“Isla, please, this is not the time,” Piper said. I glanced over in time to see her squint at me. Then her face slowly lit up. “Is that Kai’s sweatshirt? That’s his favorite – wow you did a number on him.”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” I muttered, tugging fruitlessly on the door.

“Isla,” Piper said, her voice sharp. “Behind you – move!”

I turned to see a TLO goon reaching for me, but then his expression contorted as a roar echoed behind him. Turning, he gulped, staring straight into the face of a huge lion.

It shook its mane, lip curling, and then lashed out too quick to follow. In another blink of an eye, its maw was around the guy’s leg and he was being thrown through the air. His shocked face was the last thing I saw before he disappeared into the shadows.

Gulping, I fell back on the ground as the lion stalked closer. Was this one of Dr. Crane’s pets? He’d alluded to something like that earlier when we were walking out here.

Piper’s voice sounded from above me. “Don’t worry, Isla. It’s Balt.”

“Balt?” I exclaimed. “You sure? He looks pissed.”

The lion roared again, shaking its mane and glaring at the cage. Then it attacked, the sound like a hurricane as it ripped apart the door with its claws. I threw up my hands in front of my face. When the noise stopped, I lowered them and watched the panting lion stare as Piper swung herself free.

She raised an eyebrow and glanced around. “Miss me?”

“Piper,” Balt said, his voice ragged. I blinked. I hadn’t even seen him shift back. “Are you okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t know, I–”

As though unable to help himself, Balt reached out and crushed her against him. Piper looked surprised, but then her eyes closed as she let herself lean against him for a moment.

I put a hand to my heart, smiling at the sight.

Can’t wait to collect from Kai.

“Come on, big guy,” Piper said lightly, pushing away and schooling her expression. “Isla–”

“Is coming with me,” said a strange voice as I was hauled to my feet. A gun was pressed to my temple and I went still. “I can still recoup some of my losses from tonight.”

Like lightning, Piper pulled a gun from Balt’s belt and leveled it at my captor. Her eyes were slits. “You. You’re always around, but you never show your face, do you? Parasite.”

“Is that what you’re calling me now?” He asked and I realized the strangeness was from the muffling of the mask. “I like it. Quite a fitting moniker.”

“You don’t want to test me,” Piper said, her lips thinning now. “You’ve had me in your pens and cages for five damn days. I will blow your head off and not even blink an eye.”

Swallowing, I stood still as the Parasite pressed the gun harder into my temple. “You want to take that chance with Kai’s little lovebird here, Piper Weslark? I don’t think so. See, I’ve got you figured out, just like I had your brother figured out back when we had him as our pet.”

Air hissed between Piper’s teeth and I saw her exchange a look with Balt. 

“What do you want with me?” I said, jerking my arm and trying to look at him. Maybe a distraction would help, but I couldn’t move.

“Not so much you, sweetheart, as your blood. Kazan blood.” Piper’s lips parted and she stared at me as though seeing me for the first time. Balt did the same, only the look that crossed his face was one of disbelief and devastation. “Yes, Balt, this is your little cousin. She’s not dead after all.”

“Isla,” Balt said, moving forward, but Piper caught him.

“If you think the Kazan family won’t do whatever it takes to destroy you if you hurt one of their own, you are sadly mistaken,” Piper said in a low, intense voice.

“The Kazan family is shattered beyond any hope of redemption,” the Parasite hissed. “They have not cared for their own in a hundred years. I already have a buyer for Isla, so say your goodbyes. And don’t worry, she’s going to a good home, she’ll–”

He never finished because at that moment, he pushed me away, spinning to fire his gun. I saw a black streak, the bullet missing it by inches before the gun was knocked away and the Parasite was on the ground. Then there were more gunshots and the black jaguar leaped away, running for me. It spun, covering me with its body and I reached up to grab its fur.

Kai.