Lynx Destiny (32 page)

No. Of course not. Because he’d taught her who and what she was. Because he’d shown her who and what
he
was.

Or what he was supposed to be.

“Sentinels,” Arshun said with disgust pushing through his satisfaction, one hand up to still his two musclemen when they would have moved for Regan. “You just can’t help yourselves.” He gestured at the gun, snapping, “Marat!”

The least imposing of his men—the one who had managed the amulet cleansing—stepped out from behind Bill’s chair. “Yes,” he said. “It’s not as strong as it should be—but that’s our prototype.”

“
That’s
why you want it back so badly,” Regan said, looking down at the gun. “It’s not just about taking my dad’s place for your secret hideaway. You can’t afford for the Sentinels to find
this.
” She narrowed her eyes at Arshun, a quick glance to his men and back. “I bet you can’t even afford for your own people to know it’s here, can you?”

Arshun showed no concern. “We’re a small team, dealing with a rather large task. Stubborn people, unexpected Sentinels...life just isn’t fair sometimes.” He smiled at her, showing teeth. “Give me the gun, little Sentinel girl, or I’ll start hurting people.”

“Regan,” Bill said, his voice full of unspoken words. A little bit “get this bastard” and a little bit “you’re the one with the gun—use it!” and a whole lot “don’t let them hurt Mary.”

“Regan,”
Kai said, his voice full of unspoken words, his body warning him that it couldn’t be relied upon.
Be careful
and
I’m furious
and
I love you.

“Regan,” Arshun said, his voice full only of a mocking satisfaction.

Regan lifted the gun just enough to clear her foot. “Let them go,” she said, “and I won’t bury this bullet in the ground where you’ll have to waste your precious time hunting for it while everyone out there comes running. Let them go, and I’ll tell you where the rest of the bullets are hidden. Let them go, and you
might
have the chance to get out of this place with your secrets.”

Arshun fixed her with a hard look as Marat said, “That would explain its weakness. She’s unloaded it.”

“I’ve mostly unloaded it,” Regan agreed. She looked at Kai, a glance of purpose that he couldn’t quite interpret.

It did nothing to quell his turmoil of emotion—the need to snarl his fury conflicting with his impulse to wrap his arms around her and never let her go—or the impulse to shove himself between her and Arshun, as little good as it would do.

Regan lifted her chin. “Let them all go. We’ll walk back out into the park, I’ll put this gun down and we’ll go our separate ways.”

Arshun barked laughter. “And then what? We start our little game all over again? Or have you forgotten your father?”

“My father signed a power of attorney before the surgery,” Regan said, shrugging, and Kai tried to hide his surprise just as he hid what the short fight had taken out of him, pushing himself back against the tree.

It didn’t matter. Like everyone else, Arshun had eyes only for Regan. “That simplifies things, but doesn’t stop me from using him.”

“It
is
simple.” She gestured slightly with the gun. “Let them go. Let
me
go. And get what you want.”

Arshun seemed to consider it. Actually seemed to consider it...

Kai felt the swell of warning from within himself, knowing they couldn’t trust this man even for this moment. His amulet expert had a hand in his pocket, a knowing look on his face...if he so much as brushed against Regan on the way back out into the park, she would be theirs again.

And it wouldn’t matter for how long, because it would be long enough. She’d never break free in time to stop them from regaining all the advantage they’d ever had. They’d kill Kai, they’d bury problematic memories from Phillip, Mary and Bill and they’d run roughshod over this little town.

You should have done as I asked.
Taken the gun, found the Sentinels...

Been safe.

“You won’t fire it,” Arshun decided, taking a step toward her; his men gravitated toward Kai. “You won’t draw attention to us this way.”

Regan laughed, utterly without humor. “They aren’t my secrets,” she said. “and you’re the one who started stomping around up here.”

Arshun glanced at Kai, a knowing look. She might not have secrets, but Kai...

It doesn’t matter,
he thought at her, grabbing her gaze just long enough for that. And it didn’t. The Core knew he was here. The Sentinels knew he was here. His friends already knew he was more than they’d ever thought, if not exactly why.

Regan’s eyes reflected pale in the overhead light, flashing with the faint lift of her head. She might not understand his exact message, not with the land severed between them. But she understood the reassurance behind it, and the intent—and she sent him back one of her own.
Apology. Determination.

Arshun should have paid attention.

“You won’t,” he said again, and made a sudden grab for her.

She shot him in the foot.

Someone cried out in surprise from behind her, and Phillip made an aborted, protective lurch for Bill and Mary, unable to do more than crumple beside Bill’s chair, and Kai—

Kai moved.

With Arshun’s shout of anger and pain in his ears, and the man himself sprawled back on the ground in awkward surprise, groping for some weapon of his own, Kai moved.

He went for Arshun first, pushing off the tree and into action—releasing the lynx just enough to swell fury over his weakness, to reach for the unerring swiftness of his other—to bring his hand slapping down at Arshun and bat the emerging pistol from his hands and skittering away into the trees.

He rolled aside, bounded up and drove all that energy into a stiff-armed blow against the solar plexus of the next man, the one he’d already taken down once—and then planted his hands on the man’s shoulders, using him as a pivot and ignoring the scream of pain in his own shoulder as he kicked out to catch the second muscleman against the side of his face, a cracking blow to his jaw.

Kai landed in a crouch, a snarl on his lips and already targeting Marat—but Regan cried out in surprise, dropping to her knees and ignoring her proximity to Arshun. Not just ignoring him, but shoving his foot aside as she ran her hands over the dirt. “Help me!” she shouted— distinctly over her shoulder. “We have to find it!”

Kai caught a brief hesitation of movement from behind the well house, and Regan looked back again. “Miss Laura—!”

Laura.
Still here, making herself part of this. She emerged—at first with hesitation, and then with more purpose—and dropped to her knees beside Regan, running her hands over the hard dirt.

The earth trembled; the trees groaned around them.

Mary clutched at Bill from behind the wheelchair, new fear on her face. He grabbed her hands, clutching back. Phillip cursed in astonishment—his attention, once riveted on Kai with eyes narrowed and assessing, jerked away—went to the ground, went to the woods.

Marat cast a wild glance at Kai, at Regan—at Arshun, who snapped something that Kai made no attempt to understand. Not so far into the lynx, not fighting so hard against the darkness that clutched him anew, and not when he already knew what he needed to do.

When Marat darted for Regan, Kai went for him—slamming into him, one hand at his throat and one drawn back into clawed fingers, ready to strike—ready to tear, as any wild thing would tear at its prey.

Regan screamed at him.
“Kai, NO!”
Even Phillip shouted out in warning, as if it was so obvious to them all that Kai had lost something of himself—to the darkness, to the anger...to the lynx.

“Kai,” Regan said again, no longer scrabbling at the ground but scrambling closer to him—and if one part of him strained for the touch of her, the other snarled viciously at her encroachment.

But he stayed his hand, fingers still clawed and trembling with restraint.

“You—” Regan said to Marat, stumbling over quick words. “You’re the one who does these amulet things. Turn it
off.
”

The man didn’t take his eyes from Kai—barely seemed able to talk at all, frozen with fear and his lips hardly moving. “Can’t.”

Kai understood it as a refusal and snarled, eyes narrowed...lynx rising. He gathered himself—

“Kai!” Regan said sharply, a sound that barely penetrated the swirling darkness, the taste of old blood in his mouth, the deep, ancient anger that swelled in him— pushing up from a wounded earth and right through him because he’d been wide-open, hunting connection, missing it...yearning for it. It mixed with protective fury.
Injured. Cornered. Dangerous.

Regan spoke; he shook her off in rejection. She persisted, her voice in his ear; her hand closed over his in midair, where it had no impact on the terrible, stiff weapon he’d made of it. Still she twined her fingers around his, applying gentle pressure—and with her touch came new sensations.

Warmth. Comfort. A tingle of soothing presence. A hint of liquid arousal.

Love.

“Kai,” she whispered, coming close to his ear as he suddenly became aware of how hard he trembled with tension and battle, how much he hurt, how appallingly easy it would have been to turn the weapon of his body against her. “Not this. Not as man, not as lynx. Not as
mine.
”

Mine.

He’d been afraid of hurting her. He’d been afraid of loving her—so long warned against what his unfettered strength might do to her.

Please, Kai. Stay mine.

Her fear pressed against him. Not fear for her body, but fear for that which she’d already given him. Fear for her heart—fear for his.

The greater harm.

He took a deep and sudden breath, a sharp sound on a gulp of air. He thought of them together...of the gentle beauty of the control he’d maintained in her bed. Of his ease in it. Of
reveling
in it.

Stay. Mine...
“Yes,” she whispered, her hand squeezing his. “Please.”

And dazed, he let her pull him away.

Dazed, he found and met her gaze.
Yes. Yours.

She wrapped one arm around him, resting her cheek briefly against his shoulder. And then the relief and pride in her expression changed to something else. She flattened a hand against the rumbling ground and came up with the gun.

Marat froze from where he’d been inching away, more walleyed at the groan of the surrounding trees than he was about Kai—but gave the unloaded gun a second look and relaxed again.

Regan said, “It’ll still hurt if I hit you with it. And I’m really, really angry, so I’ll hit you with it
hard.
”

“You won’t have to,” Phillip said, and Kai found him close, his stylish cane coming to hover over Marat’s face. “I may be beat to hell, but I can still hook this cane up his nostril and rip.”

Kai gave a weak snort of laughter, the lynx easing back to give him thinking space.

Marat braced against the quaking earth. “I
can’t stop it.
”

“He’s telling the truth,” Arshun said through gritted teeth. He sat on one haunch, clutching his ankle; blood poured from his shoe. “The workings aren’t
stopped
. They run their course.”

Wood cracked not far away, then again—with ominous grace, a tree gave way, groaning all the way down—they all froze, hearing it but unable to discern exactly where it stood or where it would land.

A sudden final rush of breaking branches, the springy bounce of the crown landing—

Regan glanced at Laura, who’d stopped searching to stare wide-eyed at Kai, at Regan—at the two of them, and what they were together. “Better dig, then. That bullet can’t be buried too deeply.” She lay down the gun to reach for Kai again, this time withdrawing the knife the lynx had forgotten he had, tossing it toward Laura.

“I don’t understand a single moment of this,” Laura muttered. She stabbed at the dirt, fingers pushing in behind to feel for metal. A sudden flurry of shouts rose from the park interior, along with the sound of ripping cloth and twisting metal.
Something giving way.

“Why the hell did you even shoot the ground?” Arshun snapped at Regan, abandoning his own pain to yank keys from his pocket and join Laura’s efforts.

“I shot
you,
” she snapped back at him. “Why the hell did you bring your poison to this town in the first place?”

The new voice came without warning and without apology. “That’s what I’d like to know.”

The two figures coming around the well house moved with grace and authority and power—the man taller than Kai with an impressive breadth of shoulder and strong build beneath work jeans and the rolled sleeves of an untucked flannel shirt.

More than that...

Sentinel.

Big cat, with tawny hair gone dark at the temples, shadowed eyes full of intent—power, riding beneath a deceptively easygoing stance.

The petite woman at his side looked even smaller in comparison, her presence more contained—her dark hair scraped back into a neat ponytail and her eyes big and smoky, carrying the same natural kohl effect as Kai’s, only more so. Also cat of some kind. Also Sentinel.

The lynx raised a growl at them.

“God,” said the woman. “What a mess.”

Arshun swore, falling back from his efforts. Marat swore, closing his eyes and flipping a faint wave at Phillip and his cane. Giving up.

Kai crouched in warning.
Sentinels.
Just as much of a threat as the Core in their way. Here, on his turf—

“That,” said the woman, dealing him a dark look, “is the first thing we’ll deal with.”

“You leave him alone,” Regan said, and her spiking concern came through Kai, clear and jarring. “I didn’t bring you here for him!”

But the man ignored them both, his head angled as if to catch a sound on the wind. He strode right up beside Laura, and she fell away in no small alarm—giving him all the considerable space he needed to crouch and place his hand flat over the earth. He closed his eyes, his face quiet but for a few faint flickers of effort.