Ivory (Manhatten ten) (10 page)

I didn’t like it. We needed backup. And I needed her not to be suicidal, if that’s what this was. Not that I would fucking let it play like that.
 

She was booking fast enough that I wanted to panther out, but if I shredded my pants, I lost my cell, and the first millisecond I could I was phoning this in.

Trees loomed at our right as we hit Central Park. Park or not, it had a lot of places to hide…

Nope.

We veered off to avenues of soaring apartment buildings with million-dollar views. So not where you expected to find a ring of super serial killers.

Were Ivory’s people really behind the murders? Ice boy hadn’t given off that psycho vibe, but he’d showed his killer’s gaze when I challenged him. It wasn’t that they weren’t capable, but it didn’t make sense.

With the way Ivory was rocking her beast mode, she had no doubts who’d done it. I would
not
want to be on the other side of that vengeance.

She wheeled down an alley, though the address was really too upscale to call it that. More like a path between two mansions. A wrought-iron gate surrounded a micro-patio and the entrance to the high rise’s basement apartment. I ducked to try and peer through the street-level windows, but frost choked the glass.

We were in the right place.

Ivory gave a war-whoop that froze my blood, leaped the fence and kicked in the door like Jean-Claude fucking Van Damme. I hadn’t planned on knocking, but a warning would’ve been cool.

Pop. Pop. Pop.

I’d started to follow as soon as Ivory moved, but that sound would’ve frozen me if the bullets hadn’t.

I reached for my neck.

Not bullets. Three feathered darts.

Shit.

My vision blurred and my knees hit the sidewalk. Tranqs. Probably for big game if they worked this fast.

Even as the toxins worked their way into my blood, I growled fury. I couldn’t see Ivory, but if she was hurt…

When I came to, I was going to liberate some throats from their owners’ bodies.
 

Ivory

Gunshots rang out, but the weapon wasn’t aimed my way. Kevan and four others stood inside the apartment. He did say they’d be waiting.

I stormed among them and grabbed Kevan by his throat, lifting him onto his tiptoes. “Tell me it wasn’t you.”

“Lady…Valdís…” Kevan choked out the words. “Please…can explain—”

“Start now.” I dropped him. Kevan fell into the same deep bow he’d practiced at the press social, though it wasn’t so smooth after my treatment. The others followed his lead.

But where was…

The gunshots. Panther.

I’d been too caught in the hunt to look back, but now I did. He sprawled on the outdoor patio. No blood. I lunged for him, my pulse racing in terror.

Darts. I yanked the things from his neck. Since when would my tribesmen stoop as low as tranquilizers?
 

At least Panther wasn’t hurt.
 

I would’ve relaxed, but I was too livid. And what to do with him? I couldn’t bring him into their den, but if I left him limp on the patio, someone would call the police.

I compromised, propping him against the wall. Assuming no one recognized him as M-10, he might pass for napping. Or a bum in Citizen jeans. It would have to do until I had my vengeance.

The men hadn’t moved when I reentered the apartment and shut the door behind myself. All five pressed their foreheads to the floor.

“Lady Valdís,” they muttered in unison.

“Kneel.” For once their obedience didn’t irk me. They rose to their knees and folded their hands in front of their bodies, perfectly respectful.

“You used tranquilizers on my creature.” My first question should’ve been about the murders, but they didn’t seem as important.

“Forgive us.” Kevan ducked his head. “We feared that he would keep you from listening.”

“I’m listening.” With a ready spear. “Tell me you haven’t been murdering humans.”

“Not murdering.” Kevan’s head jerked up. “Not humans.”

“But you’ve killed.” The truth was an icy knot in my stomach. They had no idea what they’d done.

“Yes. The queen wished us to seek out worthy targets. And she bade us give you her gift.” He waved at an ornamental chest set in a place of honor, at the center of the mantel.

“My mother? Why would she…” Care? Acknowledge my existence? Not try to kill me?

“May I?” Kevan asked.

At my nod, he rose. The others hadn’t moved. They knelt, blond heads bowed, all five of them tall and close to identical. I’d craved my tribesmen’s company so much in the beginning, but I’d been gone too many years and this was nothing like a homecoming. I felt no kinship, no warmth, no connection to my people. They’d justified their inhuman actions to the point that I couldn’t recognize them as my own.

Kevan lifted the chest with care and eased open its lid. A white box sat on a velvet cushion, and I knew what it must contain.

A heart. To symbolize the one I’d ripped out of her and the rest of my people by leaving. Probably a vole or shrew or some rodent’s because I’d heaped that much more disgrace on my family by skulking away in the night like a coward. By rights I should’ve declared my intent to leave in front of the tribe and been executed for the betrayal.

Wasn’t I just a terrible daughter?

“I don’t want it.” I wasn’t squeamish, but I didn’t need to see my shame laid bare. It wouldn’t make me regret my decision, and I’d come too far to look back.

“Please.” Kevan bowed deep. “She prays for your return. It is not what you think.”

At one time, I would’ve thought it dishonorable to ask, but I’d spent too many years among humans. That, and I needed to know. “It’s not a heart?”

“Of course not.” Passion seeped into Kevan’s voice. “She has absolved you of any dishonor. You were wise to journey among the humans and learn the ways of the southlands. We’ll need your knowledge to survive these troubled times.”

“She said all of that?” My mother’s world began and ended on ice. She’d almost beaten me to death for asking about a ship, and suddenly I was wise? I couldn’t believe it. Not my mother. Not the queen.

“I would not lie to you, my lady.” Kevan thrust the box out, as if he could will me to reach for it. “She says the world has changed. The ice shrinks and there is little to hunt. We were to find you and bring you back to share your knowledge, learning the humans’ ways as we searched.”

“And you found me.” Until my run-in with the M-10, I’d been cautious about exposing myself to the media, but I’d never,
never
expected anyone from the tribe to come this far.

“It was fated.” The bliss in Kevan’s smile made my skin crawl. “You slew the man we were to meet in Los Angeles, and we saw your picture in the news, on the television. We flew to New York, and here we are.”

“
You
were meeting that horrible man?” Goddess, this was worse than I’d imagined.

“Ah.” Kevan shrugged. “He hated our people, but not as much as the other creatures called supers. His organization arranged hunting grounds and was to provide us with a longer list of worthy prey. The first made for exciting hunts. Did you obtain the names?” At the last, he leaned forward in excitement, his arms drooping with the chest they still held out to me.

“Let me see that.” I should’ve taken the whole bundle and thrown it into a fire, but I had to see what my mother deigned to send her disgraced daughter. Then, justice.

As I reached for the box, Kevan averted his eyes. Out of respect? Fear?

The parcel was heavier than expected. My fingers didn’t quite tremble, but I felt very much the girl who’d never live up to her mother’s expectations as I untied the length of blood-red ribbon.
 

The lid fell away and a bluish white glow expanded. As it touched my skin, it sank into the depths of my soul.

So beautiful. Like the heart of a glacier.

A bright, frigid sphere of elemental ice. A true snow globe. Not like the humans’ chintzy treasures. It was pure energy, and as soon as my gaze touched its surface, I was lost to its spell. This was my home. This was who I was at my deepest core.

And my mother was as much a bitch as ever.

It was my last coherent thought before my consciousness slipped into the well of power. There could be no escape.
 

Panther

My neck stung like a mother and my head ached like the morning after a night in Tijuana, but I was coming back to life. Ivory needed me, and I was going to kill the icy bastards who’d done this. Claws extended from my paws—

Paws?

When did I…

I jerked fully awake. My head throbbed and a chain pulled against the collar around my neck. I fell back on four legs. Maybe I hadn’t signed off on panthering out, but it was all the better to get with the flesh-tearing.

Except for the collar. The chain ran to an iron link in the floor of some dank sub-basement.

I was alone. Where was Ivory?

This was not happening. I threw myself, but the chain wrenched me back hard. No dice.

Had to go human. The shredded remnants of my clothes were balled on the other side of my makeshift prison. My cell phone better be there. We needed the cavalry. And I wouldn’t say no to a flamethrower.

I started to shift. My muscles rippled and fur smoothed into skin, but right as my body moved from cat-shaped to humanoid, a massive jolt of electricity tore through my body.

The fire circled my neck and corded out my muscles. I fell to the ground in a twitching pile.

Fuck, that hurt.

As the electricity faded, my body bled from the doughy half-form back to full panther. When I stopped twitching enough, I touched the collar with the pad of my paw.

The thing was solid and hot. Collars were always about dominance, and I’d worn my share of spiked, tie-me-up, bondage chokers under better circumstances, but this was fucking cruel.

And who the hell had a jungle-cat sized shock collar ready to go?

I needed to get to Ivory. But no shifting, no phone and the Alcatraz treatment left me with panther mojo and not much else.

One deep breath, and I worked a few thousand scents through my enhanced nose. Mold dominated the basement, but an icy-sweet scent wafted down from above. A group of icemen. Their scents were so similar I couldn’t tell how many there were, but it had to be more than three by the amount of particles in the air.

Ivory’s scent was distinct. It started with the same notes but had some smoke and heat to it, where the others were just cold.

I smelled stale coffee. Febreze. But nothing like blood.

Maybe Ivory was fine. If so, she was welcome to rescue me at any time. I’d be the damsel, no problem.

But she didn’t come, and whatever was going on with us, I was pretty sure she wouldn’t have wanted me chained to a wall. That meant she was captive too. Hopefully in nicer digs.

If they’d so much as scratched her…

I forced down visions of evisceration and made myself focus. The rumble of low conversation drifted through the floorboards.

“…her creature? This is overstepping—”

“He’s a beast.” The answer lifted my hackles. It was the banquet waiter. “I’m sure she would’ve hunted with us gladly.”

“We go without her?” Another voice. All of them sounded the same to me, and only the little bit of authority distinguished the waiter from the other ice-douches.

“We cannot tarry here. The queen wants her daughter back with urgency.”

Queen, eh? So my Ivory was a princess. It explained the bowing, and I’d take it if it meant she was safe.

“The hunting ground is prepared.” Another voice. That made at least four. “We need only wait for nightfall and the arrival of our transport.”

The group must’ve broken up after that, because all I could catch were footsteps and creaking floorboards. The tiny window was still frosted over, but by the light that seeped through, it wasn’t much past mid-day.

What was happening at nightfall? Transport meant someone was going somewhere…but who? Would they put Ivory on a plane straight for home and leave me chained in their basement? Or did they think I’d play good kitty and follow along? Shock collar or not, screw that.

By the talk of hunting, I had an inkling who was going to be the main event in their safari.
 

Good. They’d have to come get me.

I paced as much as the chain allowed. I could already taste their blood.

Chapter Nine

Panther

They came just before nightfall. The cellar door creaked open and five icemen tromped downstairs.

If they’d ever had street clothes, they weren’t wearing them now. Instead they sported a macabre spread of skins and furs, a few with heads still attached.
 

I hit them with a growl, but they didn’t flinch. Fuckers.