Feral Passion (22 page)

Something like fire, ash...power.

Thinking about her made him hard. Not just
because she had a beautiful body that he could easily admire, but
because the power that radiated off of her called to him--in ways
that he hadn’t known possible.

Hoping that the light dose of chloroform
worked as he pressed the rag against her nose, he picked her up and
started to the front door. When he opened it, he realized that he
had taken far too long with his minstrels. The sun was peaking
above the clouds, the air musty with dew beading on the grass.
Quickly, so that no one getting ready for work would notice, he put
her in the back, covering her with the dark blanket.

He got his cell phone out, punching in the
number that he needed. “Amoria,” he greeted, putting the key in the
ignition.

“Yes, my love?” she asked, her voice low and
sleek. He could just imagine her, twirling her long hair around her
finger, bare legs kicked up on his desk.

“I took the leader.” He waited for her sharp
curse, or maybe even a hiss. She was prone to hissing, he had
noticed.

Instead of what he had expected, he heard a
seductive purr. “I can have some fun with her?” she asked, a mere
pout.

His eye brows raised, and he turned on the
blinker. “When I am done with her, yes you can.”

The man didn’t hear the faint rustling in the
back, so focused on driving and talking to the only woman in the
world who could actually make him fear his reflection.

He listened to her soft sigh, a sigh that he
much wished were for a different reason. Looking back at Mary, he
considered some things. The idea that popped into his head was
unholy, perverted, and utterly undo-able.

Once Amoria got her hands on Mary, the poor
woman was doomed. Amoria had slipped into her dreams, and also that
of the visiting leader. Wreaking havoc just as he had asked, she
had done it perfectly.

“Tell me why you contacted Raffaele Jacques?”
he asked, still wondering why she had bothered at all.

“Because, my darling. I had caused Jared to
get ran over, and put into the hospital. And I do believe that his
nephew was already on his way in earlier, to deal with the female
here. I figured that the two would become close. I mean, as
leaders,” she said smartly, “they must have--and they did.”

“Smart thinking, baby,” he said, still not
catching on. It was about the females, not the males. So why was
she so set on Raffaele? He felt like tearing the man’s eyes
out.

Not only because Mary was clearly affected by
him, but because Amoria was so obsessed with him. What was so great
about the leader that everyone was so entranced by?

He growled.

“Darling,” Amoria purred, “You know I am the
only one for you...”

“Are you really,” he said blandly, hiding his
bitterness.

“Yes, my love. Raffaele is just a pawn in my
game right now. You don’t need to worry that I will become
entranced by him,” she assured him, almost reading his mind.

He took a wide right turn at the stop light,
hearing a small thunk in the back. Mary had slipped halfway off of
the seat. He rolled his eyes, focusing on driving.

“Listen, I’ll be there in less than ten
minutes. Be there, naked, and ready for me,” he commanded, feeling
the need to claim her. Just thinking about his women--Mary and
Amoria, and any other female--with another man pissed him off to no
ends.

He anticipated opening the door of the house
that they were staying at, going up the stairs, and finding the
beautiful blonde splayed out in front of him, legs long, open,
breasts perked... His hand rubbed himself, trying to get rid of the
uncomfortable-ness that the hard-on was causing.

When he finally pulled into the short
driveway that was placed on a slight hill, he opened the door and
grabbed Mary, knowing that the only two neighbors he had were old
and still sleeping. The door to the house was unlocked, probably
Amoria knowing that he was almost there and waiting for him. Lights
were dimmed, candles placed expertly and seductively soothing along
the wall and shabby stair case.

Hands itching with anticipation, he put Mary
down and tightened the seat belt around her body, placing her in
the back room carelessly. She was still passed out, in light airy
pajama pants and a clinging tank top that revealed a lot of her
breasts.

Running up the hall, he was already
unbuttoning his jeans when he threw open the door, scanning the
room for his waiting woman.

The air felt off, different, as he slowed to
a stop, searching for her with his eyes, hands pausing on his
zipper.

“Amor--”

The blade sliced through the air.

Chapter 35

“Wake up,” a low voice hissed.

Mary waved a hand out, trying to stop the
voice from talking. It was so loud... her head, what was wrong with
her head? So heavy...

“Get up, Ms. Waters!” it insisted, grabbing
her shoulder. Mary was turned over, light hitting the lids of her
eyes as she struggled to overcome the horrible person who was
trying to wake her up.

Even if she had wanted to wake up, she
wouldn’t have been able to. One, her eyes wouldn’t open enough to
glare at the perpetrator, and two? She was about to puke, and
although it sounded appealing to vomit all over the person who was
trying to wake her up, it would have ended up on Mary in
return.

A growl came, low and angry. Mary flinched,
thinking of a man who had once made that sound to her, had hurt
her... Mary flung her hand out, catching the person on what she
thought was the jaw by the feel of it.

“God dammit!”

The short curse had Mary groaning, the
headache worsening. “Leave me the hell...”

Suddenly, she was picked up. In arms
that did
not
feel manly in the
least. In fact, they might have been slightly feminine, maybe a
fairu was picking her up. She started to laugh, hugging the
fairy.

“Mother told me you weren’t real... She
lied,” she said drowsily, laughing.

“Oh, god...”

“You mean Kevin,” Mary insisted, voice
turning bitter. “He is a bad, mean person. Don’t talk to him, ever.
He’ll make your life hell.”

The woman--that’s what she was going to
assume it was--stayed silent as she pushed open a door. Light hit
her face, made her flinch from the contact. Looking down at her
arm, eyes blinking, she saw fur coating herself.

She let out a scream, jumping from the woman
who was holding her. “Oh my god!” she shouted, almost falling on
her ass. Mary took in the scents around her, trying to find her
place.

“I’m not at home, I don’t know who you are,
and you’re--”

The model tall woman nodded, flipping her
hair over her shoulder impatiently. “Yes, I know. But we have to
go!” she said, motioning toward a rusting olds-mobile. Mary looked
between the woman and the car, feeling...displaced.

She swallowed. “What are you?” The woman
certainly wasn’t Acutos, nor Archaeos. She was what Mary had been
smelling for the past couple of days, what had clouded her dreams.
Mary got to her feet, unsteady because of reasons that she didn’t
know.

“You...tried to kill me,” she choked out,
shock and fear making her shake, along with the effort to stand on
her own.

The blond woman stepped forward quickly,
wrapping an arm around Mary to keep her from falling. Her head
shook. “That’s the exact opposite of what I was trying to do--now
please, get in the car so we can get you to your brothers,” she
spoke, urgently. Mary watched with confusion as her eyes flicked
suspiciously to the sides of the streets, looking for people who
would be watching them.

“Tell me where we are,” Mary demanded,
following her lead to the car, as much as she wished she didn’t
have to. Right now, she felt as weak and dizzy as a new born
kitten, disorientated.

“At his house, but we’re leaving right now.”
Once Mary was seated in the passenger's side, the door was slammed
and the leggy blonde ran to the other side of the car.

In less than a minute, they were going down
the street, Mary’s questions still unanswered.

“Tell me,” Mary hissed, putting her seat belt
on. The fur that had been sprinkling her hands and arms was still
there, red marks and swelling bruises coating her skin in random
places. “And tell me what happened to my arms, too?”

She was everything but aware of what was
going on.

“He tied you up,” came a brief answer. “Do
you know how hard it was to get that shit off of you?”

“Get what off?” she asked, feeling like an
outsider. Here they were, talking about her, and Mary had less
information than the woman beside her did. She rubbed her hands
together, feeling a chill come over her body as she met eyes with
silvery ones that spoke of age, wisdom, and knowledge.

“The seat belt that he tied you with,” she
answered, taking a sharp left turn, almost throwing Mary into the
side of the car. For a moment, she wondered if they were playing
grand theft auto. She wanted to ask if she had ever driven before,
but thought of the more important questions that needed to be
answered.

“Why would he tie me with a seat belt,
and who is this
he
?” she
asked, throat closing up as she realized that she already had the
answer.

“He
is the one
who has been getting away with murder for the past couple
months,
he
is the one who
almost killed you, and
he
was
smart enough to tie you with the closest equipment that would be
strong enough to hold down a drugged animal.”

Mary felt sick.

“I was in...his house? Why didn’t he just
kill... Wait,” she said, realizing something slowly. “Why were you
there?”

The woman glanced at her through old eyes. “I
was helping him.”

Mary’s eyes popped wide, blood freezing in
her veins. “Was?” she asked, voice breaking. Horror washed through
her, the realization that she was in a car with a cold blooded
killer while she was too weak to do anything about it.

“Yes.
Was
. I...killed him.”

Mary really wished she had puked on the
woman. Maybe if she had done it earlier, she wouldn’t be so close
to doing so now. The thought that she wasn’t going to live through
the morning came to her, almost had her curling in a ball as pain
wracked her head and her chest.

“Calm down,” the woman beside her coached,
sounding oddly sympathetic.

Mary shook her head, struggling to contain
her own thoughts. She was supposed to calm down when she had a
murderess kidnapping her after her own accomplice had already done
so? When she had been so cold hearted to kill her own partner? She
choked, fighting for peace.

“I wasn’t... Mary, calm down, dammit,” she
commanded, stopping her explanation to angrily reprimand Mary.

Her head shook again. “You weren’t what?”
Mary asked, eyes stinging under the stress. She wasn’t fit to be a
leader, she thought. She never had been, and her panicking under
this situation had only proved it. Had it been her early coronation
that had caused her downfall, or had it been slowly building inside
her?

“Wasn’t on his side,” she said solemnly,
voice ringing with truth.

Mary snorted. “Then tell me why you’re
kidnapping. Why didn’t he stop you?”

“I had...tricked him,” the blond said
awkwardly.

“Tricked? How?” She hated asking all of these
questions.

The woman's cheeks flamed red, Mary catching
on quickly. Was she telling the truth, or lying through her perfect
white teeth? Staring at her, Mary realized that the woman looked
gracefully, almost regal.

The ride was silent as they sped through the
street, something that strangely put Mary to ease.

Mary was shocked when they actually pulled up
to her brother’s place. Small, clean, just like a bachelors house
would be, it had only two floors, with the attic being a game room
where Mary and him had fights often.

The woman opened the door for Mary, who sat
there stock still, wondering why this woman knew where her brother
lived and if she knew him personally. She was praying not, because
unknowingly, he could have become an accomplice and that could risk
his placement as chief of police, and even if it didn’t, it would
ruin his respectability.

Mary sat there, staring up at the woman, not
moving.

“Armoria?”

The blond turned, a smile gracing her clear
face as her brother came down the stairs. Mary tensed, watching him
smile in return as he walked down the stairs, hand out reaching to
shake her more slender hand.

Then his gaze landed on Mary, who was still
partially furry, red and blue blotches covering almost every part
of her. The seat belt had done a lot more damage than it should
have, but maybe the man had been purposefully rough with her.

He
was
a murderer, after all.

“Mary?” he asked, confused.

The blond cleared her throat awkwardly, face
turning red for the second time that day. “I think we had better go
inside so that I can explain something to you…”

“What happened?” he asked, rounding on
Armoria. His eyes started to blaze, angry.

She held up her hands. “Now
I
did not do that,” she defended with
forced strength. Mary narrowed her eyes on Armoria, wondering at
her more demure behavior that she was trying to hide.

“Get in the house,” he growled at her,
striding forward to help Mary out of the car as gently as he could.
His breath caught when his hand landed on her arm, the soft
prickles of fur shocking him even more. “Mary, what did you do?” he
groaned.