Shifter's Claim (The Shadow Shifters) (21 page)

“We need to get back upstairs. They won’t like it if they find us down here,” she told Priya.

“Who won’t like it and why not? It’s just a basement. What do they have down here besides probably old furniture and supplies?” Priya quipped, looking around the space.

It felt like a maze. A cement maze that twisted and turned in all directions with no discerning features to give even a hint of guidance. Yet, Jewel seemed to know exactly where she was going.

“Why are you down here if it’s not allowed?” Priya asked.

The other woman folded her arms over her chest, a deep frown marring her otherwise pretty face. Her riotous curls had been pulled back on top into a ponytail that gave her a childlike quality, her eyes blinking furiously as they glared at Priya.

“That’s none of your business,” was her sharp retort.

Priya nodded. “Okay, I could give you that except you just grabbed me from the elevator, running me down this hallway like you knew where you were taking me. As for me, I’ll gladly admit I have no idea what’s down here, but I’m awfully curious now that I’m not alone in my quest.”

Jewel sighed. “You’re not going to go back upstairs, are you?”

“Are you?”

The woman made a frustrated sound. “You’re going to mess up everything for me.”

Priya was not deterred by the anxiety in Jewel’s voice, but rather more intrigued. “And everything would be what, exactly?”

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of footsteps, running footsteps that were coming closer in their direction.

“Quick, down here!” Jewel yelled, reaching for Priya’s arm and pulling her along once more.

Priya was getting damned tired of people pulling her around like she was nothing more than a rag doll. Still, she ran with the woman because she had no clue who was running up behind them. About six feet ahead was a set of double doors. Jewel hesitated momentarily as they came to a four-way section and she tried to figure out which way to go. Priya, who again had no clue where she was going, took the lead. This time she dragged Jewel behind her and felt a spurt of enjoyment at having done so. Until she pushed against those double doors and they both tumbled out into the night.

Falling face-first onto the ground, they both grunted. Priya scrambled to get up even though her chest was throbbing with the breast-to-dirt-ground contact. She was on her hands and knees when she heard a sound that shook the world around her. Everything in her stilled, everything besides her heart which beat a rhythm that echoed almost as loudly as the horrific roar she knew she’d just heard.

In the next second she was grabbed around the waist and yanked from the spot where she’d been rooted. Her back hit the wall this time with a sickening thump as she was tossed behind whoever had come up from behind and grabbed her. When she thought her lungs were ready to cooperate—screw her legs because they just weren’t in the mood to move at the moment—she opened her mouth, prepared to scream a few choice expletives at someone. Then there were gunshots and more growling. Male voices yelled as a flurry of action seemed to break out around her. Looking to the side she tried to find Jewel, but didn’t see her. Figuring this couldn’t get any worse, she took a step and was prepared to run back inside the building when a body blocked that move.

She didn’t have to look up because she knew who that someone was, knew instinctively as the molten heat began to flood her body. But Priya did look up, there didn’t seem to be any other option. Bas was seething mad. No, that probably didn’t even begin to describe the look on his face, the glint in his crystalline-looking eyes or the snarl that marred the bottom half of his face. She opened her mouth to speak, not knowing for sure what was going to come out—an apology, a curse, a hi, how you doing?

It didn’t matter because he grabbed her by the front of her T-shirt, pulling her so close she came up on her tiptoes. “You stay behind me, do you hear? Don’t try anything stupid, just stay the fuck behind me!”

Priya nodded like one of those dingy cartoon females that had damsel-in-distress written all over them. Her head bobbed up and down like she was a mute and when he released her, she did exactly as she’d been told. Because while Priya had always been independent, stubborn, and just a little bit on the hyperactive side, she’d never considered herself to be stupid by any stretch of the word.

Bas moved back inside the building, mumbling something into his shoulder as he did. She couldn’t hear his words because her ears were still echoing from the roaring and being in close range of the gunshots. She hadn’t seen who’d been shot. Hell, she hadn’t even seen Jewel who just minutes ago had been within arm’s reach of her. Now they were moving through those damned light-gray-painted hallways that made her feel like now she might be in some kind of prison. Or at least, a warped-ass nightmare, the kind you had after staying up half the night eating Crunch ’n Munch, drinking chocolate milk, and watching a
Walking Dead
marathon.

They’d just rounded another corner when they came face-to-face with another man. Or at least Priya thought he was a man, even though right about now he looked like some sort of big-assed machine—“big” being the operative word.

“Well, if it ain’t the fuckin’ FL,” the man snarled at Bas. “And what do we have here?” he continued.

Bas’s left arm came backward, cupping Priya and tucking her even closer behind him. In his right hand, she’d just noticed, had to be the biggest, blackest gun she’d ever had the pleasure of seeing close-up.

“You don’t belong here,” Bas said in a steely tone Priya had never heard him use before. “I’m going to give you five seconds to walk the fuck away.”

Priya leaned around Bas’s muscled body to get another look at the guy/machine and cringed when she did. He’d thrown his head back and laughed in response to Bas’s directive. His teeth almost seemed as black as the sweaty skin on his face and he was built like a freakin’ boulder. When one of his creepy-ass eyes locked on hers she moved quickly, slipping behind Bas’s cover once more.

Then the man inhaled. She could actually hear him taking a deep breath and its exaggerated exhale.

“You got yourself a mate, FL? Weak-assed shadows,” he grumbled. “I’m gonna take pleasure in killing you both. Palermo’ll thank me later.”

“Or I’ll kill you now, take your choice,” Bas replied, his gun arm lifting, aiming.

“I’m gonna rip your throat out, FL!” the man shouted, then roared.

Yes, he roared, long and clear as those freshly painted walls that surrounded her. The sound was pure animal, killer animal, she corrected. She shook all over, her fingers grasping the material of Bas’s T-shirt, her teeth bearing down into her bottom lip to keep from screaming.

Bas fired, one, two, three … and more and more shots until Priya couldn’t hear anymore. She covered her ears, her mouth opened wide releasing a scream that was even silent to her. Then Priya did something she’d never, in all her life done before. As if she had that dingy cartoon damsel-in-distress female tattooed on her forehead, she fainted.

Chapter 18

“He’s gonna kill you for sure now,” announced the slow-talking shifter sitting across the table with his arms and legs shackled.

No, Bas thought, his temples still throbbing from the events of the night. Whoever “he” was, he would certainly kill this character before anyone else for the way he was running off at the mouth. Not that Bas was complaining, oh no, he was more than happy to sit across from him with Jacques standing to the right of them, listening to this idiot tell them everything he knew.

“Why does he want to kill me?” Bas asked.

Beside him Jacques growled, resting his hands on his hips, the right one closer to the gun he had holstered there.

Idiot Shifter’s nose had begun to run, right after he’d shed the first round of tears. Jacques and his team had found this one after he’d walked right through the front door of the resort. In human form, dressed in a golf outfit—complete with the most ridiculous hat ever—no warning bells had gone off with the security down there. Not until his scent sifted throughout the lower floors, but by then he’d disappeared down there and the cat that had traveled with him had been spotted. Then the alarm had gone off and they’d set out to catch the intruders.

“You took something he wants really bad.”

“The drugs,” Bas stated with a nod.

“Yeah, those too. They need to sell that, got lots of buyers chompin’ around for this hot new stuff. But that’s not all, there was something else down there in those caves, something he says is a big fuckin’ deal to some pretty dangerous humans.” He sneezed then and turned his head to his shoulder in an attempt to wipe his nose on the collar of his lemon drop-yellow shirt.

“Who is he?” was Bas’s next question even though—thanks to the cat he’d killed in the bunker—he had a pretty good idea who he was dealing with. He also had no doubt those pretty dangerous humans the rogue mentioned were connected to the Comastaz Labs.

Idiot golfing shifter sniffed and shrugged. “Goes by Mr. P.”

“Creative,” Jacques said with a smirk. “Who was the cat?”

“That’s Black. He came with Mr. P from the East Coast. They got a lot of plans for the operation here. I’m new, just started yesterday.”

That’s great, his resume would be short and sweet. Bas leaned forward, flattening his palms on the table. “I’ve got a message for you to take back to Mr. P,” Bas told him with a smirk.

The shifter shrugged again and Bas resisted the urge to punch him just for being the idiot snitch for these devious bastards. Instead, he was going to send Mr. P, also known as Palermo Greer, a nice little care package, one that would warn him in no uncertain terms not to fuck with Bas again.

Minutes later Bas was leaving the bunker with Jacques right behind him. “Burn that cat and put his ashes in a box with their signature mark on it. Send the box to Greer, with a message.”

Jacques nodded, probably reading Bas’s mind as to what the message should say.

“Tell him if he wants me, to grow some balls and come get me himself.” Bas stalked away, slamming his palm into the elevator button.

But as he waited he changed his mind. Upstairs was just one more issue for him to deal with and dammit, he was bone tired. The rush of adrenaline at hunting shifters combined with the general irritation with two of his soldiers then the surprise arrival of his sexy-as-hell, nosy little reporter.

His temples throbbed as he leaned backward to stretch his back. That action only fueled an already burning fire. He’d been trying like hell to ignore the persistent rustling at his spine, the pressure in his temples that was more than just tension. His shoulders burned, even though he’d tried rotating them a few times in search of release. The partial shift he’d allowed earlier in his office hadn’t helped. It wanted out and Bas was too damned tired to stop it any longer.

On a long curse, just as the elevator door opened, he turned away and headed for the double doors leading outside.

Down the small incline there was a path that Bas had purposely kept flanked by tall trees to provide much more than just shade. The path followed a winding uphill passage to the balcony of his room. In the opposite direction it led right into the forested area that was otherwise gated off from the resort guests. The walk was too long and the brush there too thick for any of them to ever try exploring even if they ignored the restricted area signs.

That’s where Bas was headed. And once he reached the fence he unlatched it and stripped. A box that looked like it held electrical wires and such opened at his touch and key-code entry and he placed his clothes in there. Then Bas dropped to his knees, lifted his head, and allowed his cat the freedom it requested.

The cracking of bones was a welcome sound as his spine expanded, his limbs thinning, yet growing even stronger. Like a shiver moving from head to toe, soft golden fur rippled through every pore. Night air reached its nose and there was a muted sneeze, then a brunt chuffing that announced the cat’s arrival. Remnants of the rogues that had invaded this area still lingered in the air, fueling the cat’s fire, so to speak. It took off into the darkness without further thought, running upward, upward over the red butte rocks it was accustomed to, through the trees and draped by the darkness of night. It ran free, ran long and hard all the while still yearning for more.

From her.

*   *   *

Priya awoke alone in the center of Bas’s bed surrounded by darkness. She sat straight up in the bed, looking around to no avail. He wasn’t here. She knew that without even getting out of the bed to inspect the rest of the rooms.

Folding her legs beneath her she rested her elbows on her thighs and replayed the events of the night. Bas’s touch was electrifying. His kisses were smoldering. The feel of his strength and experience between her legs was … well, mind-blowing. A gentle tugging at her center seconded that emotion.

But that wasn’t the part of the evening she wanted to replay. Priya had had questions before. Those questions had been the sole reason for her coming across the country. That original question was further corroborated by another glimpse of those strange eyes that night out in the desert. But tonight, tonight there had been so much more. By way of questions, that is. Why had Jewel been down in the basement and where had she gone to after they’d made it outside? And who had made that roaring sound? Priya was positive it had been a who and not a what, or quite possibly a what that could also be a who. The final question, or the most alarming realization of the night was that Sebastian Perry was a killer. He was gorgeous, rich, and one hell of a lover and he was also a coldhearted killer.

Closing her eyes, she jolted at the memory of him shooting that big man, shooting him so many times he could be nothing else but dead. And she was now a witness to that illegal act.

On a groan she fell back against the pillows, letting her arms drop over her eyes. She’d done it this time, she’d gone way beyond the boundaries of what she should have. And it was all to save her brother who had never done anything in his life to save himself.