Wild Cat (41 page)

“I could jump it. You can hang on to me.”

“I don’t think I can hang on to anything. I’d pull you down. Too much weight. Jump it yourself, bring help.”

“Like hell I’m leaving you here.”

“Cass, remember when they asked if I’d die for you? Well, I would. If that’s what the mate bond means—that my world would be all wrong if anything happened to you—then I have the effing mate bond.”

“Diego…”

“You said you wanted to rescue me. Well, this is you doing it.”

They reached the spot. Diego looked for mist, tried to feel a tingle. Collapsed instead.

“Damn it,” Cassidy said.

“Come on, Cass. Just go. I
would
die for you, but I’d rather live.” He gave a breathless laugh. “Sex with you is fantastic. I want a chance at more of that.”

Cassidy had tears in her eyes as she looked at him. “I love you, Diego.”

“I love you too,
mi ja.
”

She leaned down and kissed him. Diego’s pain receded the slightest bit, enough for him to savor the pressure of her lips.

Then she stuck her hand through the mist forming on the other side of the boulder. And shouted in surprise.

Diego tried to haul himself to his feet, but whatever had grabbed Cassidy on the other side of the mist now shoved her back into Diego. A form came through the gate, tall and lean and pissed off.

Reid, carrying an iron crowbar, sprinted toward the fight.

Shane charged in after him, in full bear mode, roaring as he ran past. Then a leopard with a Collar, a smaller bear without one, and finally, Xavier.

“Hey, Diego,” Xavier said, grinning, arm in its sling, as he stopped in the middle of the mist. Behind him, morning light shone on dry cliff walls, the Nevada sunshine hard and clear. “This time I’m saving
your
ass.”

R
eid and Xavier had crossed the gorge on a bridge—a narrow platform seven feet long, drilled and anchored into the cliff walls. Diego learned later that Xavier had made the rescue team build it, using engineers recruited from the fire department plus the best construction workers from the dam.

Xavier held out his good hand. “Come on,
hermano.
Time to get you down off this place.”

“Wait.”

Reid had joined the fray behind them, incongruous in jeans and T-shirt while the others of his kind wore skins.

More
hoch alfar
were riding in over the open field, on white horses that glowed a little—the cavalry, Diego supposed, coming to rescue their comrades.

“We need to help Reid,” Diego said.

“Doesn’t look like it’s our fight,” Xavier said.

“They just saved our butts. I need to do something for them.”

Diego held out his left hand for his Sig, and Cassidy reluctantly relinquished it. His right hand, the one the knife had gone through, was pretty much useless, but Diego’s left hand was strong, and he was a good marksman with either hand.

“Got a spare clip?” Diego asked his brother.

Xavier wordlessly handed it over. Diego ejected his empty and reloaded. He looked at Cassidy.

He knew he’d waste his breath begging her to run across the bridge to safety. Cassidy was staying, would fight by his side, would haul him off to save him if he fell. As he would for her.

“Nice day for it,” Diego said to her.

Cassidy smiled back, her beautiful, loving smile that made his heart beat faster. “I say we go for it.”

Diego leaned down and kissed her warm lips. “Love you, Cass.”

“Love you back.”

Xavier put his arm around Diego’s shoulders, his shining chrome Sig dangling from his good hand. “When’s the wedding?”

Diego gave him a look and released Cassidy. “Let’s go help Reid.”

Reid didn’t look like he needed a lot of help. During the little time Diego had known him, the man had always been morose and unhappy, lashing out in anger or folding up in misery.

Now Diego saw what Reid must have been before his exile—a fighter. A good and bloodthirsty fighter.

Reid laid into the
hoch alfar
with his crowbar, going up against those with bows, swords, chain mail—he didn’t much care. He swung and brought down a Fae from a horse, smashing the iron bar into the Fae’s face. The Fae screamed and then went horribly quiet.

The
dokk alfar
were fighting hard, and the
hoch alfar
were fighting just as hard back. Peigi jumped in, her bear attacking without restraint.

Peigi showed Diego how Shifters were bred to fight—no Collar holding her back. She attacked with the strength and speed of a bear coupled with the cunning of a human. Animals with human intelligence. As dangerous as Reid had once told him.

Peigi fought at Reid’s side, keeping the
hoch alfar
from reaching him.

Diego and Cassidy waded in. Xavier stayed at the bridge, guarding the retreat.

Diego knew he wasn’t going to be much good for fighting, but he could at least still shoot. Cassidy ran to help Shane, she beating off a
hoch alfar
who had been about to skewer the bear. Diego took aim, ready to shoot if he needed to.

The general broke out of the group and headed for Reid, the target for this whole fight. Pretty elaborate and long-lived trap for one man, Diego thought. Did they consider Reid that dangerous?

A long sword glittered in the general’s hand. Reid was unprotected, no vest, no weapon but a crowbar.

Peigi and Reid were fighting, not seeing the danger. Diego held his hurt hands steady, took aim, and shot the sword out of the general’s hand.

The general whirled around, and Diego grinned at him. “Hey, remember me?”

The general grabbed a bow out of a passing Fae’s hands, his own hands flashing as he drew it. The next moment, the general went down with a wildcat on his back.

Cassidy’s Collar went off, but she held the man pinned in place. Diego limped toward them, ignored by most of the fighters. More
hoch alfar
had ridden up, and the tide was going to turn against the
dokk alfar
soon. They were fighting hard, but they’d be crushed by numbers alone.

As Diego reached Cassidy and the general, a weird, piercing war cry came out of the couple hundred
dokk alfar
throats. It rang into the mists, scary as hell.

A lone cry answered it. Reid. He held up his iron bar and shouted one word.

The
hoch alfar
started scrambling away, running in pure terror. Diego watched over his aimed pistol, not sure what was going on.

The Fae jumped onto horses, galloping back across the field for the hills beyond. Those on foot ran like hell. The general, with a surge of strength, got out from under Cassidy, but instead of turning to fight, he sprinted away like a man trying to outrun floodwaters.

Reid’s iron bar exploded. It morphed from an ordinary crowbar into a rain of iron shards that flew with the speed of bullets after the fleeing
hoch alfar.

Those it struck screamed and fell. A few got up again and kept running, but now the
dokk alfar
were after them.

The general, at the tail end of his men, shot behind him as he ran, while iron shards rained down on him like tiny heat-seeking missiles.

The
dokk alfar
charged after the Fae. The darkness Diego had first seen coated them like a curtain, and then he could see nothing but the black cloud.

Reid remained behind, his hands bloody, a defiant look in his eyes. Peigi landed on all fours beside him, growling a possessive bear growl.

Reid was watching the retreating
hoch alfar
, his usual arrogance in place. “Weak Fae, my ass,” he said.

Cassidy loped back to Diego, with Shane and Eric right behind her. Eric rose into his human form. “Time to go. No place for us in a Fae war. Those days are gone forever, thank the Goddess.”

Eric looked lighthearted for the first time in a long time. He scratched Cassidy’s head and strode off—a tall, naked man with a silver and black Collar, a tatt swirling down his arm, walking unashamedly past Xavier and through the mists that led home.

D
iego thought that fighting for his life on a tiny ledge five hundred feet above the ground and then being pulled across empty air in a net of ropes would have cured him of his fear of heights. But, no.

His head spun with dizziness as he limped across the extremely narrow makeshift bridge from the gate to Faerie to the familiar red brown cliffs of home.

Don’t look down.

It was so hard not to look down. Diego
had
to look to see where he was putting his feet. Below the slender iron span, the empty air dropped away to reveal the river like a vein of silver at the bottom. The sun had risen by now, so he could see everything in panoramic glory.

The view was beautiful. Upriver the giant span of the dam thrust from the bottom of the gorge, the edifice built nearly a hundred years ago by men braver than Diego. The slab of concrete poured like a sheer cliff from the serene blue lake behind it to the river below. Above it a new bridge spanned from cliff top to cliff top, the sun catching on its arches. Breathtaking.

The beauty of the sights didn’t help. Diego was too damned high off the ground.

He clung with one aching hand to Xavier’s shoulder and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Cassidy came right behind him.

They won’t let me fall
, he told himself.
My brother and the love of my life will see me safely across.

Diego was supposed to have an epiphany. A moment of truth that made him conquer his fear and realize that his love for Cassidy was so much stronger than a ridiculous worry about heights.

No such luck.

Screw this. I’m going back to the counselor.

Diego stepped onto the narrow rock ledge, let the rescue team strap a harness around him, and felt his feet leave the ground as they hauled him straight up the cliff. He thought he was going to puke.

Cassidy smiled at him from below, dressed now in the coverall the rescue guys had brought. She even seated herself on the makeshift bridge and dangled her legs over the side as she waved him on.

Maybe Cass can teach me not to be afraid.
That scenario was much more appealing than the one of him sitting in a room droning to a counselor. The rewards would be much better too. Cassidy would smile at Diego, kiss him, show him how much she admired his bravery…

By the time he made it to the top, to firm ground, Diego was both sick and dizzy, but picturing Cassidy teaching him not to be afraid of heights helped a lot. Paramedics took over, shoving an oxygen mask on him, unwrapping his hand, taking his blood pressure, generally burying him in modern health care.

Cassidy came into view before they loaded Diego into the ambulance. She leaned down and kissed his forehead. Her face was dirty and scratched, but she looked good for a woman who’d just been in a hell of a fight.
Damn
good.

“You’re beautiful,
amada mia
,” he said, words muffled by the oxygen mask. Then the paramedics lifted him, slid him into the waiting maw of the ambulance, and slammed the doors.

* * *

H
umans wouldn’t let Cassidy into the hospital with Diego. She had to fume and rely on Xavier and Diego’s mother to tell her what was going on.

Diego’s mom was the best resource. She even came to Shiftertown to visit Cassidy that afternoon as the Shifters lay about the Wardens’ living room and back patio, recovering from the fight.

“They’re keeping him overnight for observation,” Juanita said. “Xavier is staying with him. But the doctors are not that worried. My boy is strong.”

“And a damn good warrior,” Eric said to her.

Eric had fired up the grill again. Nothing for it but to celebrate saving Diego and Reid with a big cookout. Juanita took the invitation to stay for the party to mean she could invade the Wardens’ kitchen and put together a meal to die for.

Cassidy enjoyed the carne adobada—meat spiced with chiles—that Juanita turned out, which she served with tortillas and homemade pico de gallo. Cassidy ate it but chafed at having to sit here without Diego. The mate bond pulled at her, making her want to charge to the hospital and demand to see him.

It was hell following human rules.

Juanita leaned down and put her arms around Cassidy as Cassidy sat dejectedly on the edge of the patio. “I know it’s hard,” Juanita said. “But if you come home with me tonight, you’ll be there when he gets back.”

“You don’t mind?” Cassidy asked.

“Mind what?”

“That I love Diego, and that I’m Shifter.”

Juanita sat down next to Cassidy. “Let me tell you a little about Diego,
mi ja
. He thinks he has to take care of everyone but himself. Never himself. He joined the Marines to make some money and give Xavier and me a chance to move and start a better life. He joined the police for the same reason. Then when Jobe died, he lived to hunt down the men who killed him. Diego’s never done one single thing for himself. Not ever. He looked after me and after Xavier, and he looked after Jobe and now Jobe’s family. That’s it. And then he brings you home.
Chiquita
, I have been praying for the day he looked at someone the way he looks at you. He’s finally going to let himself be happy.”