Cravings (Fierce Hearts) (18 page)

He raced back to Kennedy. “Let’s get out of here, love.” He released her shackles.

Kennedy tried to swing her legs around to climb off the table, but the room started swimming, and her body tilted weakly.

“Whoa.” Asher caught her and lifted her in his arms. “Lean your head against me. I’m going to get you out of here.”

“No, I can manage.” Sounds from down the hall grabbed her attention. “That sounds like fighting. Put me down.”

“I’ll set you on your feet, but I want to make sure you’re stable. He looked into her eyes and seemed to see inside her head. The clear, piercing eyes saw her. She drew strength from him.

She put her hands on his chest. “I’m steady. Let’s go check out the activity down the hall.”

“If you’re sure.”

She didn’t wait to answer. They raced down the hall, the sounds growing louder and more disturbing the closer they got. She glanced at Asher pacing off steps beside her.

Suddenly, the hall filled with strange, furred, half-men, half-lynxes. A quick count of them totaled ten. Growling, hissing, and spitting as cats do, but standing upright, fighting with enormous clawed hands. Long, sharp fangs bit the air in fury.

Kennedy gasped. In the midst of all the chaos were her fellow colony cats, tearing and biting and ripping at their opponents. Each one fighting for his or her life. Quickly in her head, she ID’d everyone—Asia, Lara, Tizzy, Casey, Conrad, Quinn, and Booker. Their fur was bloodied and ripped, but their injuries did nothing to slow them down. Belief in their fierce hearts swelled in her chest.

She felt honored to join them. She exchanged a look with Asher, and the two peeled off their clothes and shimmered to join in the fight.

Instantly, a half-man, half-lynx swiped at her neck. She ducked, missing the blow. But the man wrapped his arms around her midsection, dragging her to the ground. Kennedy stared up into the beast’s eye and held her breath. His eyes emanated mindless rage. She pulled up her feet to rake gouges out of his exposed midsection. She’d never fought such a thing or even fought as a lynx, but memories from a video her trainers had made her watch jumped readily to the front of her thoughts. She yowled and took bites out of the tips of his furred ears, sending him away crying out in pain.

Scanning the room, she searched for Asher. When she spotted him across the room, fear sliced through her. He stood face to face with one of TNG’s warrior cats. Neither one moved. They stared at each other as though transfixed.

Realization of what he was up to sparked in her mind. The room was full of snarling, spitting colony cats in battle with TNG’s warrior cats. But Asher was doing battle with the warrior cat’s will.

• • •

Asher allowed the warm energy from his center to thrust up and out toward the warrior lynx in front of him. He added strong suggestions wrapped in the energy.
You do not want to fight. You want to stop right now and leave peacefully.

Syncing with the warrior lynx’s mind pushed Asher to work harder. Its mind was a maze, with dead ends and unusual twists that kept it shielded from awareness of reality.

He nudged harder, all the while his eyes focused intently on the cat’s eyes. Finally, the other cat blinked and relaxed its stance.
Walk out of the building peacefully. Walk out now.

The beast plodded down the hall toward a door without a look back.

Screams blasted his moment of success, tearing his attention to a standoff between Kennedy and another warrior lynx. Energy surged through him instantly. He leaped toward Kennedy, but shifted his weight to plow into the warrior, inadvertently knocking Kennedy flat.

Kennedy chuffed at him. She’d sustained a wound at her neck. Blood dripped down her fur. She shook her furred head at him, but he shoved his head up against her, comforting her whether she wanted it or not.

Kennedy nodded her head toward Asia, who had a warrior lynx cornered. Asia appeared to have its attention, her eyes trained directly on the warrior’s eyes. Asher recognized the look on her face. She was attempting to communicate telepathically with the creature. Its reaction was clear. He wasn’t interested in Asia’s words. Asher could only imagine what her message was, but likely it was something coaxing and demanding.

Suddenly, the warrior lunged at Asia, grabbing her in his furred arms around her waist and tossing her to the ground. Instantly, Asher leapt on top of it, his instincts driving him to claw at it with no holding back.

But still, he managed to draw nudging energy up and out to the cat.
You don’t want to fight. Leave peacefully, now.
Then Asher amped up the nudge and sent it out to every beast in the hall. With all his inner strength, he added the strongest suggestion he’d ever made.
Leave now, peacefully. Leave before you die. You don’t want to hurt these cats.

The will and energy to nudge multiple beings poured strong and warm throughout the hall. He had to keep it flowing. He had to maintain his control of it until he successfully stopped the creatures.
Walk quietly down the hall and out the building. Now.

One by one, the creatures headed into the hall and down the stairs, leaving the battle behind. He padded behind them, training his nudge on each of them. Like obedient drones, the creatures walked down the flights of stairs to the main floor, and Asher shoved open the door to the outside for them as they filed through.

He led them out toward the parking area. His body sagged from the exertion, but he couldn’t stop yet. He told them to wait. They each sat on their haunches or stretched out on the ground, behaving as one unit under his nudge.

He waited, too. Thoughts of what could be happening inside the building urged him to return and do his part to ensure the safety of his colony cats. He pawed restlessly at the gravel parking lot, his nerves twisting as the need to protect Kennedy from harm, or worse, tore up his gut.

Gunshots sounded from inside the building. Asher stopped breathing, but he kept the strength of his nudge flowing.

Kathryn Novak and a man he recognized from his Internet search as Dr. Benton came running out of the building. Patrick and Gordon followed, guns held ready. They stopped at the bottom of the stairs and stared at Asher. He couldn’t drop the nudge on the creatures, and his strength was waning just enough that to continue as well as add more energy to nudge the four at the stairs to surrender would collapse the whole structure.

Their attention turned to two vehicles that stirred up gravel as they rapidly approached the building. It was Ben, Jackson, Sterling, and Lacey. They climbed out of their cars, guns aimed at the members of TNG, just as Booker and Quinn, followed by Lara and Asia, burst through the doors, growling and screeching.

Kathryn led the others, dodging bullets the four humans shot, across the parking lot to SUVs that had just pulled up. Covered by guns firing from inside the SUVs, Kathryn’s group climbed inside. The vehicles squealed tires as they snaked by Asher and the creatures.

Asher sucked in a gulp of air, expecting gunshots. Suddenly, all the creatures screamed and writhed in pain. And just as suddenly, they silently collapsed on the ground.

Kennedy, standing with the other colony cats, had already shimmered and dressed. She sprinted toward Asher, leaping over low bushes as though they weren’t there.

“Here’re your clothes.” Panting, she handed him a pile of his clothes. “Casey and Tizzy are hurt, but they’re okay. What happened here?”

As Asher and Kennedy checked the creatures lying on the ground, Sterling and Lacey handed clothing to the other were-cats. Asher turned to Kennedy. “No pulse,” he said.

“The ones I checked are dead, too.”

“Very strange. It’s like someone just flipped a switch.” He scratched at his head. “Any ideas?”

The rest of the were-cats, except Casey, surrounded the dead creatures, checking for life themselves.

Jackson spoke up. “I’m only guessing, but I think maybe TNG implanted devices in these … half-men, half-cats that delivered drugs to their system and made them what we see here. I wonder if Kathryn had a remote device that controlled the implants’ activities. Maybe there was a death switch.”

Casey slowly made his way, assisted by Sterling and Lacey and limping, to join the others. He winced as he stepped closer. His pant leg was soaked in blood. “I checked the building. Not only are the experimental subjects dead, TNG people appear to have vacated the building. Just like before.”

Lacey wrapped her arms around her body. “I’m speechless. The Nexus Group really knows how to cause chaos.”

“Jackson and I will check out the building again.” Ben touched Casey’s shoulder. “I’ll take care of the LPD end of the investigation.”

Jackson nodded his head and grabbed Lacey’s hand. “And just like the last time TNG vanished, I’ll gather information to find them.”

Lacey nodded her head. “So will I. I’m sorry all this Nexus Group insanity has struck again.”

Sterling shook her head and glanced around, catching Kennedy’s gaze. “You can count on me, too. But it won’t be easy to find these bastards. With their connections to organized crime, they can disappear into the woodwork, slip down holes in the ground. Take off in a private jet or yacht. But they seem to have an affinity for Laurelwood.”

Casey slit his eyes. “Yes, they do.” He turned to Asher. “Great job helping. Your nudging probably saved our lives. Those creatures were brutal.”

Kennedy dipped her head. “I can’t imagine what they went through.”

“You almost found out.” Asher wrapped an arm around her shoulders, grateful to be standing beside her, not bending over her broken and lifeless body. “You were about to get the same treatment. Why did you go to your mother? You did just what she wanted you to do. Why?"

Kennedy’s eyes avoided his, and she didn’t respond for what seemed like forever. “I had to.”

“You had to?” Agitation and dismay hardened his muscles. “That’s not an explanation.”

“Later. We’ll talk more later. Please?” Her eyes pleaded with him for more time. He could nudge her … so easily. But he wouldn’t. He’d have to be patient.

“This isn’t over. I doubt your mother will stop her plans for TNG’s takeover of Laurelwood.” Tizzy leaned her head on one hand and surveyed the others. Her neck bore bloody gouges where one of the creatures had lashed her. “We can’t let her proceed. I hate to say it, but we need more information. Don’t you think we need an autopsy of a couple of these guys?”

Asher eyed Kennedy’s face. In her eyes, he saw sorrow and confusion. He didn’t blame her for feeling sad and mixed up. The sooner this business with her mother was put to rest, the sooner Kennedy would begin to live a full life of her own.

He pursed his lips. Restless quivers reminded him that he couldn’t count on being loved and accepted by anyone, much less Kennedy. Especially when she was fully herself.

He ached for resolution. She turned to him, the lines of her face sober. “You know what I have to do,” she whispered. Her eyes glistened.

Asher sighed. “We have to find your mother and pay a visit.”

She shook her head, and her ponytail bobbed seductively. “Not we, me.”

“I’m not letting you near her alone.” There was no space in him that trusted Kathryn. The idea of it gave him a sick feeling in his gut.

She shoved at him. “Don’t be so macho. I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can. But two of us are better than one.”

“You have a point.” A barely audible sigh escaped her lips.

He stroked her back, enjoying her firm, muscled physique. Lara sat on the ground beside Casey, applying her healing touch. His eyes closed, Casey’s peaceful expression was a giveaway that her touch was relieving the pain. And a few feet over, Tizzy smiled warmly at Booker as he applied his healing touch to her neck. Already, the edges of the gouges were knitting together.

These were-cats had taken him in along with his sister four years ago. They’d done that because of their compassion and interest in contributing to a better world not just for were-lynxes, but for humans, too. Asher would make damn sure no evil, secret organization nor its greedy, power-hungry leader would steal their lives.

He turned to Kennedy and caught her gaze just before pressing a loving kiss to her lips. “So we agree? We’ll take care of her together?”

Kennedy held out her hand to Asher, and they shook on it. “Agreed.”

Kennedy stared up at the ceiling in Asher’s bedroom. Lying beside him in bed, she counted the ceiling tiles. The night around her was silent except for the muted sounds of nature outside and the soft sounds from Asher as he slept.

The city was asleep, but Kennedy couldn’t join in. Her mind raced, replaying the recent occurrences.

After the confrontation at Phoenix Biosciences and the escape, they’d all helped transport the dead warrior lynxes to Lara’s veterinary clinic. Ben had called the LPD to come out to the site. The investigation of TNG’s activities in the building was officially passed over to the police. Unofficially, Jackson, Lacey, and Sterling, as well as the colony, would continue to track the group and its activities. They finished up the day by pitching in to give Asher’s townhouse some semblance of order. By the time discussion, planning, and cleanup had ended, the clock had passed midnight.

Her mind hyperstimulated, Kennedy’s thoughts shifted to her parents. A long list of thoughts and emotions regarding her parents clamored for attention. Pain sifted through her body as she saw her father’s dispassionate dismissal of her as she faced a procedure that would rob her of her true identity. She simply didn’t matter to him.

Her mother’s twisted expression threatened to bring her into a ball. It hurt so much, even though it was nothing new.

She stiffened at the thought that her parents and other members of The Nexus Group still were out there in the city, still free to steal, lie, and destroy at will.

Quietly, she withdrew from the blankets on Asher’s bed and touched her bare feet to the floor. She tiptoed in her sleep shorts and camisole out to the kitchen, where she found Asher’s laptop. She booted it up and began her hunt for her parents. Of course she knew where they lived, but she wanted to know if they’d left town, and she wanted to know right now.