Python's Embrace (Bitten Point Book 3) (13 page)

Parker.

My boss. The guy who sent me here and set me up.

O
pening the door
, a ready greeting on his lips, Constantine froze as he beheld a stranger. Not too tall, probably just shy of five-foot-ten, the man sported silver hair with only a few hints of darker gray. The fine suit he wore hung on his slender frame.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

Dry lips stretched in a vulpine smile. “Well, if it isn’t the snake’s son. I’m surprised you stuck around here. As I recall, your father couldn’t wait to leave.”

At the mention of his father, Constantine froze. “You know my dad?”

“Knew. He worked under me for years. As a matter of fact, he was one of the men I trusted to help start Bittech. Took him months to get all the permits and such sorted. Busy fellow, and I don’t just mean on the job site. I’d heard he’d knocked up a local before he returned to our home office.”

“You mean my dad never intended to stay?”

“Why would he when he had a perfectly fine family back home?”

Breath whooshed from Constantine, the casual statement a firm emotional punch.

“You lie.”

“Why would I? Your father was only in Bitten Point temporarily. Didn’t your mother tell you about the way he vanished every weekend? It was because he returned home every Saturday and Sunday to see his real family.” The man smiled. “You have two half-brothers, by the way. They work for me, but lack the skills I prized your father for.”

The shocking admission shattered long-held beliefs.
My dad didn’t leave because he was afraid of commitment. He left because he already had a family elsewhere.
The truth, while painful and twisted, in a sense set him free.

Dear old dad was a two-timing shit who got my mother pregnant and then walked out on her.
But from the sounds of it, while he’d abandoned one family, he did care for another.

If Constantine ignored the bastard, cheating part, it gave him hope that maybe he could have something long-term with Aria. If he survived. Because he didn’t need his python’s warning hiss to recognize the danger the man before him posed.

“Who are you? And what do you want?” Because holy moly, his oh-shit meter was going crazy. His snake writhed in his mind, begging to get out.

Strike first. Squeeze hard.

An extreme reaction, given the older man in front of him, while a wolf in a suit, would prove no match for his mighty coils.

“Is that any way to address an esteemed member of the Shifter High Council?”

“You’re a councilor?” Don’t scoff at his ignorance. Constantine didn’t pay much mind to shifter politics. He lived his life, in his town, and followed the rules.

He should also note not many could recognize the council members, given the only time people dealt with the SHC was if they’d broken some kind of hardcore law. And even then, local justice tended to be swift.

“Indeed I am, which gives me a lot of power, son.”

“I’m not your son.”

“Ah, but you could have been. Your mother was a little free with her affections back in the day. Alas, I couldn’t stay to oversee things, and your father got to her first.”

Constantine couldn’t stop his fist from flying, but to his shock, the older man grabbed it—and held it!

“Why are you here?” Constantine growled. He pushed against the man who held him, managing movement only because of his weight. A victory short-lived, as the other guy braced his feet and pushed back.

How is he so freakishly strong?

“I am here because you won’t stop asking questions and sticking your nose where you shouldn’t. I was willing to let your actions slide out of respect for your father, but then you just had to go and help that stupid bird.”

This guy knew about Aria? Shit. “Bird? What bird? The only poultry we have in this house is the chicken in the freezer.”

A fierce scowl crossed the man’s face. “Don’t lie. I know about the woman staying here.”

“No idea who you’re talking about. There’s no one else here.”

Tsk. Tsk
. The man shook his head, even as a smile stretched his lips. “You should know better than to try and bullshit me. I’ve got my men watching the house as we speak. They’ve reported she’s in here. And you’re going to tell her to come out.”

“Like fuck.”

“I thought you might say that, which was why I brought some incentive to obey.”

Constantine’s blood ran cold as a leathery hand appeared above the councilman’s head, the knuckles bristling with coarse fur. Hanging from its grip, one shivering little dog.

“Princess.” He couldn’t help but breathe her name.

Big eyes lifted to meet his, not in defeat but rather embarrassment. He knew his dog well enough to understand she took the sneaking in on her territory, and worse, getting caught, very personally.

Bad move. Now you’ve pissed my dog off.
And the man. And the snake.

But how to escape from this with everyone intact?

If he didn’t call for Aria, they would kill his little princess.
I can’t allow that.

He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, his dog acted. From limp and faking defeat to snarling dynamo with gnashing, sharp teeth. His dog wiggled in the grip holding her prisoner, twisting enough that she managed to sink her canines deep into flesh.

The hairy thing—part gorilla, part fucking nightmare—bellowed and flung his arm outward. Princess let go of her prey and came flying—right at Constantine!

I have to catch her.

He stomped his foot down on the councilor’s instep then kicked at a knee. The blow didn’t connect. However, it forced the guy to release him. Just in time, too.

Lunging to the side, Constantine caught his dog. However, he couldn’t stop his momentum, nor did he want to. He charged forward, but his aim wasn’t for either danger posed by the wolf or his henchman, but the umbrella stand by the door.

His fingers curled around the wooden stock of the shotgun his ma kept in case of nighttime critters—or, as she liked to call them, tomorrow night’s dinner.

As he yanked it from its spot, he took quick aim, raising the stock of the gun to chest level. He had a moment to look in the eyes—the very human, if crazy eyes—of the hybrid. He hesitated, only a fraction of a second, as he braced the gun against his hip.

Not human,
his inner snake hissed.

He applied pressure to the trigger.

BOOM
!

The millisecond pause gave the beast the time he needed to dive out the door. A shame. The elephant-sized slug would have probably taken him out.

The loud noise certainly made the old guy eye him with more wariness. The sound also served to hide Aria’s arrival, swinging…a sock?

Of more interest than her choice in weapon was her expression. The shock on her face proved unmistakable. Her face turned pale, and her jaw dropped. While whispered, Constantine still caught her words, “Parker? You’re behind this. You set me up. How could you?”

Even Constantine paused to hear the reply.

“Because you’re a nosy pain in my ass who wouldn’t stop harping in my ear about the strange shit happening in Bitten Point.” The councilor flung his hands in the air. “I know shit is happening because I’m the one behind it.”

“But you’re part of the council. You’re supposed to protect our kind from discovery and becoming lab rats.”

“Times change. The world has changed. It’s time we changed with it. I’m tired of cowering for weak humans. We are stronger than them. Better. It is we who should walk with our heads held high.”

“You’re a monster.”

“No, you’re looking at one of the successes.” Parker flexed an arm. “The strength of a bull, literally. But without the bone-headedness. I’ve also got the stamina.” The wink brought the shotgun in Constantine’s grip to bear.

“You’ve got balls to be flirting with my chick in front of me,” Constantine growled.

“The biggest balls, son. I’ve also got the upper hand. Submit and maybe I won’t hurt you. Why, you might even become one of our success stories.”

“I won’t let you experiment on me.”

“Who said you had a choice? Either come with me quietly or die. The choice is yours.”

“Neither,” Aria exclaimed. The swinging sock went flying, whipping out and hitting Parker with a solid thunk. The older man staggered, a hand pressed to his face, the gush of blood from his broken nose seeping through his fingers.

“Bitch! You’ll pay for that. Bruno, attack!” The injured man screamed the word, and through the open door rushed a thick body, arms tucked tight so that it could fit through the frame.

Constantine didn’t have time to turn and shoot before the hairy thing hit him. His arms went wide, and Princess, whom he’d not put down on the floor, went for her second flight that day.

Shit.

He had a moment to note Aria catching his dog before he hit the floor with a thump hard enough to rattle the house.

As he braced his hands against the jaw of the beast trying to bite his face off—a truly ugly blend of monster—he saw the streak of Aria’s bare legs as she ran past.

Run. Hide.
Her best course of action, given he found himself a little preoccupied with staying alive.

“If you can’t subdue him, then kill him,” Parker ordered as he strode past. “Be sure to bring his body to the lab when you’re done. Even if he’s dead, I can use his DNA.”

The man who’d dared attack Constantine, in his own home, left. Not much he could do about it, given he wrestled with a monster.

The rabid creature had a thing for digging in its claws. Constantine could have handled a few puncture wounds. It was the lethargy that stole his strength that proved his undoing.

Poison? Shit. That brought a new level of danger to this fight. But he did have one advantage. It wasn’t his first time getting drugged by venom. As a boy who’d grown up in the bayou, he’d gotten his fair share of bites over the years, which meant his body knew how to resist it.

He also knew how to fake it.

Sometimes, in order to gain the advantage, a man had to pretend a disadvantage, such as closing his eyes and allowing his body to go limp, hoping that wouldn’t result in his throat getting torn out because that Parker dude had a need for him.

The stupid beast bought the act. The heavy weight on his chest moved. Claws scrabbled for purchase on his laminate floor, and Constantine found his arm gripped. He fought hard not to react as the creature dragged him across the floor to the front door. Only once the thing heaved him onto the front step did he jump to his feet with a roar.

Okay, more like a hiss as his snake pushed back the remaining lethargy of the poison and tried to burst free.

The sudden attack caught the monster by surprise, allowing Constantine to grab him by the head and drop to the ground hard.

Crack.
A broken neck took care of the rabid Bruno, but Constantine knew there were more. He could smell traces of the flying lizard, a guy currently out of sight, but he proved the less pressing problem because it seemed Parker had brought more allies than expected.

Men, human ones he’d wager by the combat gear they wore and the guns they raised, waited outside a black SUV. Another truck with tinted windows sped away, probably carrying the cowardly Parker. A shame because he so wanted to give the dickwad a hug.

We’ll find him later and give him a sssqueeze.
First, though, Constantine needed to extricate himself from the current dilemma.

A pair of armed humans held guns trained on him while Princess barked and nipped at their impenetrable boots. If only one of them would lean down so his dog could go for the jugular. Instead, they didn’t give Princess a fair chance. They kicked her, sending her little canine body flying.

Princess. No.
She landed in a thick bush, a bush that didn’t move. A bush that did not bark.

I think they killed my dog.

Unacceptable. And punishable.

With a hiss, part of his snake burst free. For the first time in his life, Constantine managed a half shift. He kept his arms, but his head morphed into a diamond shape, his fangs dropped sharp and curved, and from the top of his tailbone exploded a sinuous tail.

Holy fucking cool. But he’d gloat about his super-duper hybrid shape later.

The tip of his tail lashed at the guy who dared hurt his precious princess. Being humans, at the sight of his majestic serpentine self, they panicked and fired wildly. A few of their darts stuck to his flesh, the tips not managing to penetrate his scaled skin. Puny inconveniences.

He unhinged his jaw and darted at the enemy. They screamed. How human. How useless.

They scattered from his mad dash.

Run fassst. Run far. I will still find you. And hug you.
It wasn’t just his python that wanted to hug bad guys. He wanted to squeeze them, too, until their eyes popped from their head and they breathed their last.

Cold-blooded excitement fueled his chase, but his prey wasn’t as frightened or disorganized as he thought. They broke apart and turned, firing at him. He couldn’t avoid both sets of missiles. One of the darts hit the more vulnerable flesh under his arm, stinging and injecting a lethargy-inducing drug into his system.

His adrenaline kept him awake, but for how long?
I’ve too many things to do before I can sleep.
He needed to find and save Aria, and he didn’t know how Princess fared. Losing consciousness now would spell not only his doom, but theirs, too.

I must recover.
As his legs refused to carry him with a drunken wobble, his body morphed again, his legs splitting the seams of his pants to fuse together in one long tail. He slithered from the men and their guns, his bottom half undulating on the ground.

It was then he heard the bark.
Princess lives!

Alive, but not for long if the winged lizard monster leaning over his dog had its way. “Ffffuck offfff,” he shouted, rolling the sound on his forked tongue. It was enough to draw the attention of the monster.

It faced him with an evil glare, the madness in its eyes chilling. Not the same creature he’d smelled from before, the one with the human stare. This was the murdering one. The one that, without mercy, had torn Jeffrey’s face off.