Morgan (22 page)

Eamon was released from his restraints in the next instant and Aiden’s strong arms were holding him as he was carried at vampire speed through the town.

“Let’s find you some nice tiger’s blood so you will be strong enough to mete out your well-deserved vengeance.”

Evan briefly struggled to move, then the weight was suddenly gone. He let the air rush back into his lungs as he turned to see Samson standing behind him. He had his arms locked around the throat of a hugely muscled man.

The man growled low in his throat and reached up his clawed hands to tear at Samson’s constraining arms. Evan rushed forward and sunk his teeth into the man’s exposed abdomen. His scream was cut short as Samson jerked one of his arms and the crunch of snapping vertebrae filled the now silent air.

“This was the last one,” Samson said. “He was perched on the roof of the department store. I nearly had him when he dropped down on top of you.”

Evan shifted back, his body protesting as bruised, or broken, bones snapped back into place in his human form. “Thanks. I thought a truck had fallen on me.”

“Must I keep bringing you clothes?” Max asked. He threw him a bundle of clothes. Evan unwrapped the bundle and pulled on the pair of shorts and T-shirt.

Caine jogged back toward them. “All’s quiet out there now.”

“Robert, Bart, and Austin Willis are collecting all the bodies, and body parts,” Samson said. “Wes Pollock will stay here in town with them. He’s remained in constant contact with Troy, and they need more men out at the Alpha’s. Troy’s certain that Petrov is there, as well as over a dozen shifters, some of which are hyenas.”

Evan wanted to go to the Alpha’s more than he wanted air to breathe. Morgan was there and he didn’t want Petrov getting to her, but he awaited Samson’s command. Samson was not a named enforcer for the pride, but he might as well have been. He just kept declining Finn’s offers.

“Evan, you and Max go straight there. Caine, find Barrett and the two of you head home. I’ll join you as soon as I contact Dane and tell him he’s needed back at home.”

Evan didn’t wait. He ran at full speed to the sheriff’s station where he’d parked his truck. Max climbed into the passenger seat as Dane opened the rear door.

“Go,” Dane said. “Samson sent me a text.” Evan wondered how they’d coped before they had mobile phones, but he was glad they had them.

“Has anyone heard from Cooper recently?” Evan asked.

As he sped out of town both Max and Dane shock their heads. If their Beta hadn’t been able to coordinate the fights as he usually did, shifting between human and cat to keep in contact with every member of the pride, then it meant he was injured or still fighting.

Evan drove as fast as he dared through the darkness. His cat paced and snarled in fear for its mate. The life her father had planned for her was the worst sort of hell. He just couldn’t let Petrov have her.

* * * *

Ben moved stiffly away from the body of the tiger he’d been following. Gabriel shook his head, sending blood flying from the deep gash that ran down his cheek and into his mouth.
“They outweigh us by a good fifty pounds,”
Gabe said.

“They fight dirty, too,”
Ben said. His side throbbed and was bleeding heavily from the deep bite the tiger had inflicted before Gabriel had knocked it free. Gabriel had then torn out its throat before Ben had managed to stand.

The sounds of roars and cackles filled the air as he and Gabriel turned from the corpse and ran toward the house. The bodies of two men and a tiger lay in the yard. When Ben saw the door to the house open, his mind filled with the rage of both of his natures.

“Are we sure the safe rooms will keep out one of these hyenas?”
Ben asked.

“They will keep out all creatures but a demon,”
Finn said. He moved to stand in the doorway, his massive cougar form too wide to fit through. “
The tiger that entered is dead.”

Ben and Gabriel left the continued security of the house to their Alpha and ran around the house to where they could hear the sound of fierce fighting. Ben took a running leap and bit into the thick hide of a hyena that was standing on a prostrate Drake.

The coarse hairs of the hyena’s coat made Ben want to gag as they dug like quills into the back of his throat. The bitter, metallic taste of its blood made the urge to vomit nearly impossible to overcome.

He swung his head to the side, tearing out a chunk of its rump. Its howl of pain released its jaws from Drake’s neck. Gabriel ran into it with his head down, knocking it free of Drake and sending it rolling across the grass.

Caine Prentiss appeared from nowhere and leaped on the hyena’s rolling body, stopping its progress and tearing out its throat with one bite.

“Drake, are you alive?”
Caine asked.

Ben was knocked to the ground as another hyena landed heavily on his back. Ben refused to be pinned down again and twisted his body to gouge at the hyena’s stomach with all four of his clawed paws.

Blood rained down on him as the hyena squealed. Ben wrapped his front paws around the thickly haired scruff, pulling it closer to his jaws until he had the beast’s throat punctured with his teeth. With his back paws he continued to gouge away at the soft abdomen. The hyena went limp as the wet gush of intestines landed on Ben, and the last of its blood pumped from its punctured neck.

Tossing the hyena aside Ben twisted to his feet and shook the blood and gore from his coat. He saw Caine standing protectively over his brother’s unmoving body, as Gabriel ran toward the continued sounds of fighting.

“He’s alive. I’ll watch out for him,”
Caine said.

Ben took it as a good sign that some of the pride from town were now here to help. It meant the town was secure and the pride was now only divided in two. As he ran into the trees he was again knocked from his feet. With a snarl, he quickly rose. He bared his teeth as he turned to face his attacker.

“You need to remember to look up, Ben,”
Michael said. He ran deeper into the trees with Ben following closely behind him.
“Tigers climb as well as we do.”

* * * *

Cameron snarled as the pain of breathing made his cat twitch as he struggled to rise.

“I suggest you stay still, boy,” said Theo Frederick, Finn’s father. “You don’t look so good.”

Cameron refused the suggestion and stood, leaning heavily against the big man squatting next to him. His head swam and he snarled at the continued pain that seemed confined to no specific area of his body. His entire body was throbbing in time with his rapidly beating heart.

“You’re a stubborn fucker,” Theo said. “The fight’s still going on out front if you’re determined to try to kill yourself.”

As Theo stood, Cameron swayed on his feet before limping forward. He could now hear the snarls and roars over the pounding in his head, so he quickened his pace. Petrov would not succeed in getting to Morgan as long as Cameron drew breaths, even painful ones.

Theo followed him around from the side of the house. The Alpha’s father must have dragged him there so he’d be out of harm’s way once the hyena had released him. His attacker must have assumed Cameron to be already dead, or he would have done a better job of killing him.

“So you're alive?”
Evan said.

“Fuck off,”
Cameron answered, the snarl that rose from his throat sounded more like a pained groan than he would have liked.

Cameron’s vision finally focused and he saw cougars and men from his pride still engaged in a heated battle. All the bodies lying still on the ground belonged to the intruders.

A huge bear, its thick black coat slick with blood, batted away first Rowan, and then Hunter, as they leaped for its throat.

“They have no idea how to take down a bear,”
Evan said.
“I’d have never thought our training with Landon and Elliot would one day be useful.”

Cameron didn’t know of how much use he’d be, but he knew that it took two people to bring down a bear. This fellow was not as big as either Landon or Elliot, but the cats here in Eminence were not going to bring him down if they continued with their current plan of attack.

“I’m with you,”
Cameron said. He shook himself and stepped up behind Evan, his movements coming easier with each minute his body had to heal.

“I’ll take out his legs,”
Evan said and ran at full speed toward the bear.

Troy Pollock had already launched himself at the bear and it swung its massive paw and sent Troy flying. Evan swung himself sideways as he neared the bear, his speed adding the necessary momentum to knock the bear off his feet.

The bear crashed down onto all fours and Cameron was there to leap on its back. He dug his claws deep into the massive bulk of the bear’s shoulders and closed his jaws around the side of its neck.

The bear roared, the sound shaking the night air like a thunderclap. It threw its head to the side and reared up in an instinctual move to throw off its attacker. Cameron held onto the fur-covered flesh for as long as his jaw muscles were able.

The massive size of the bear meant that Cameron’s smaller body was inevitably shaken off, but Cameron took the flesh in his mouth with him. It effectively tore away half of the bear’s throat.

The bear roared again as it staggered and fell to the ground before shifting to human. The man pushed both hands against the gaping hole in his throat, but it did nothing to staunch the flow of blood his heart continued to pump onto the ground.

Cameron roared loudly as he shook the bear’s blood from his coat.
“That’s how you bring down a bear.”

* * * *

The huge tiger stood panting and alone as Ben and the rest of the pride surrounded it. Their Alpha walked inside the circle and halted six feet from the lone survivor.

“If he looks like he’s attacking, I will be the one to kill him,”
Finn said.
“Otherwise I will hear what he has to say.”

Ben’s growl joined the chorus emanating from Finn’s assembled pride members. Blood ran from a deep gash in the Alpha’s neck to pool at his feet. Gabriel Prentiss came forward and stood beside Finn. He licked over the wound in the Alpha’s neck and stepped back a little so that their Alpha still faced the tiger alone.

Gabriel would not disrespect their Alpha by making him appear weak to their enemy, but he would also not leave him bleeding.

The tiger threw back its head and roared. The echoes bounced through the surrounding trees until the night fell silent once again. The tiger shifted restlessly in the ominous silence. It kept its gaze fixed on the Alpha as its wounds bled freely and it twitched in obvious pain.

Finn stood immobile, his blazing amber eyes fixed on the tiger. The stand-off lasted nearly five minutes and ended when the tiger decided to try and save his worthless life. He shifted.

“I am Ignaty Kachinkov. Beta to Artur Petrov of the Petrov streak.”

Finn did not shift back to speak to the man.

“I have been with the streak a long time and know you have one of Petrov’s daughters here. I have followed her scent directly to this place.”

He spun around and stared at the huge cougar that broke from the circle to approach him, its growl an ominous rumble in the quiet of the yard.

“Michael,”
Finn said simply. It froze Michael in his tracks, but his growling grew louder.

“She is of no use to you. I know this. I will take her and leave. I will not return to avenge the deaths that have occurred here. The bitch will become the payment for those deaths.”

Ben was amazed at the lack of fear the man was displaying. He truly was arrogant. He thought he still had the power to leave unharmed if he so wished.

Samson moved from his place in the circle. He stalked toward the man with murder gleaming clearly in his eyes. Before Finn had ordered Samson to stand down, the man in front of them disappeared. The faint scent of earth and flowers was the only indication that a vampire had just been there.

“Ben and Axel, follow them and make sure Aiden kills him,”
Finn said. The Alpha shifted and ran at full speed toward the trucks. “I have still heard nothing from Cooper. I will contact you when I know something.”

Ben tried his hardest to calm his cat. As the Alpha went home, Ben ran in the opposite direction. He followed the faint scent of vampire instead of running to his mate. With the town secure, more shifters would have gone to the Alpha’s.

She is safe.
He attempted to reassure himself.

“She is indeed safe and well, Ben,”
Aiden said.
“We are at the river.”

Ben looked across at Axel.

“We?”
they both queried.

Aiden remained silent, so they followed the scent trail to the river that ran behind the Prentiss home. What they saw when they arrived was defiantly not what Ben had been expecting.

Aiden stood leaning against a tree as a bedraggled-looking man sat in the dirt with Petrov’s Beta lying across his outstretched legs. The Beta was lying quietly with a peaceful smile on his face as the vampire fed directly from his neck.

“Is this your friend?”
Ben asked. Aiden nodded, his eyes flared a bright red and the scent of the vampire’s rage filled the space between them.

A few minutes later, Ben heard the tiger’s heart stop beating. The dead man wore the same peaceful expression in death.

“He certainly didn’t deserve a peaceful death,” Aiden said. “Eamon was too weak to fight the tiger, so I placed him under my control.”

Ben knew his jaw was hanging open slackly, in a most un-catlike manner as he watched the transformation of Aiden’s friend take place. As each second passed, the vampire’s appearance changed. His wounds sealed, shrank and then disappeared completely. His skin tone changed from a deathly grey to a shining white. His eyes emerged from their deeply sunken sockets and shone a vibrant cobalt blue.