Circle of Desire (32 page)

She raised a hand, feeling the flow of energy, trying to discern what spell the mara had used.

“Hurry,” he continued. “Because there are more than one of them.”

Hurry was the one thing she couldn’t do. She could hurt the girls if she dismantled this spell the wrong way. Light played across her fingers, a fire-fall of energy that whispered secrets to her mind. It was a simple containment spell, one very similar to what Kat had used across the cavern. She glanced at the stones, seeking the one she had to remove first, then began murmuring the words that would dismantle the energy wall.

“They’re almost here,” he warned her.

She swept away the first stone and continued murmuring the spell. The wall shimmered as she swept away the second. From behind her came the noise of flesh smacking against flesh. She swept away the third stone, effectively creating a doorway in the wall. She finished the spell and swung around to see Ethan in midair, diving feetfirst at the pack of zombies fighting to get into the cavern. He hit the first two hard, forcing them back into those behind. The dead toppled like bowling pins, creating a barrier of flesh that briefly stopped those behind from entering.

“Mask,” she said, putting on her own as she tossed a sleep bomb into the writhing pack of zombies.

The dead men at the back scrambled over those still fighting to find their feet. Ethan rose and swung a booted foot, knocking two more back. He didn’t look like he was trying to kill them, and of that she was glad. Right now they didn’t need to alert the mara to their presence.

She grabbed another bomb and tossed it deeper into the tunnel. As rust-colored smoke swirled, she dropped the pack on the ground and ran at the two zombies trying to get behind Ethan. She reached for kinetic energy and flung one back into the smoke. She slid to a stop and smacked the other across the back of the head. The zombie roared and swung around, clenched fists flying. She ducked, swept a leg around his, and knocked him onto his ass. Then she picked him up kinetically and tossed him back into the smoke as well, toppling more zombies in the process.

Dead men were beginning to drop like flies near the cavern entrance, making it harder for those behind to scrabble past. She grabbed another sleep bomb from the pack and lobbed it deeper, just in case there were more zombies waiting in the tunnel.

“You go get the two girls,” she said, putting the pack back on. “Make sure you enter and leave through the gap in the stones.”

He nodded and headed for the small cave holding the girls. She reached for kinetic energy again and began to stack the sleeping zombies, creating a wall of flesh that was as tall as she was and at least two arms’ widths deep. If there were any more of the dead down in that tunnel, the wall would at least hamper
their progress for a while. Though she had to hope there weren’t too many more. There were at least fifteen piled in front of her. How many more could the mara have raised in this area without someone noticing something odd was going on?

She half turned to go help Ethan, then stopped. Noise whispered down the tunnel. Nails, clicking against stone.

A werewolf was headed their way.

But how? This smoke was just as effective on shifters as on the dead. Unless the wolf had realized what was going on quickly enough and grabbed something to use as a mask.

“Something else is coming,” she warned Ethan, hurrying across to the small cave.

He’d taken off his sweater and put it over one of the girls. Then he carefully scooped both of the girls up. Neither of them moved or showed any sort of reaction, meaning that, like the other children, they’d been drugged. “Let’s get out of here.”

“You go. I’ll deal with the shifter coming down the tunnel.” She knew if she told him it was a werewolf, he’d refuse to leave her. Especially after her near escape with the last one.

His expression was grim. “I don’t think that’s a good—”

She touched a hand to his lips, stopping his words. “The most important thing right now is getting the girls to safety. I won’t be far behind, I promise you.”

He kissed her fingertips, then nodded. “You’d better not be, or I’m coming back after you.”

His words did weird things to the rhythm of her heart. God, it would be so easy to believe he
truly
loved her. Except for that moonlit ceremony. Except for the fact that he’d promised himself to a woman she wasn’t, even if it was only in his mind.

She followed him as far as the waterfall and dropped the backpack on the ground. There were a couple of sleep bombs left, and the holy water, but neither was much use against a werewolf.

She ripped free one of the stakes she’d taped to the leg of her jeans, tossing it lightly in her hand as she walked back to the cavern’s center.

The radiating heat of the werewolf’s aura hit her long before she ever saw him. Ethan might have had the moon heat under some control, but in this wolf, the fever raged free. His hunger was a force that seemed to suck the air from the room, leaving her breathless, hot, and very afraid.

Because it wasn’t just lust she sensed. This one hungered for violence as well as sex.
Another of the bitten
, she thought,
and as mad as a rattlesnake
. Maybe that was why the mara chose them as guards—they were fast, powerful, and more important, didn’t care who or what they killed.

For an instant she thought about retreating, but she had to give Ethan as much time as possible to get those kids free.

And it was only one werewolf. She could cope with that, surely. She’d certainly dealt with far worse in her time with the Circle.

Yet as much as she kept repeating that statement in her mind, it didn’t seem to help the fear churning her stomach.

A blur of brown hair leaped over the sleeping bodies of the zombies. She clenched her fingers around the
stake as the wolf came to a halt and shifted shape. As a man, he was big. Bigger even than Ethan. And like the wolf that had attacked her in the restaurant, he was all rippling muscles and golden skin.

He was also naked. And hard with wanting.

His gaze slid down her body, and she felt like a prize turkey at Christmastime—all fattened up and ready for the plucking. The wolf’s gaze finally rose to hers again, and all she could see was madness. The heat of his aura blasted her skin with his desire, but beyond her breathlessness, she had very little physical reaction. It was as if she’d somehow become immune to this wolf’s fever.

“I smell wolf on you.” He ripped off the mask he was wearing, revealing a mouth that was thin and cruel. “I shall enjoy erasing that scent.”

Bile rose in her throat. Ethan had all the time he was going to get, because she wasn’t about to stand here and play with this madman. She lifted her hand and hit the wolf kinetically, smashing him back against the wall. As he slithered down the rock, she flung the stake at him. At the last moment he saw it and dodged. The white ash stabbed through his side rather than his heart. Deadly, but not immediately so.

His rage washed over her, a force so great it knocked her back several steps. With the stake lodged in his body he couldn’t shapeshift, but he didn’t even appear to try as he picked himself up and rushed at her.

She dodged and hit him kinetically again. Pain slithered through her brain, and she knew she’d have to watch it. She’d need her kinetic skills to cope with the mara, and she couldn’t afford to overexert herself right now.

The wolf hit the wall with a grunt, bounced to the ground, and relaunched himself at her. She ducked away but wasn’t fast enough. His fingers hooked around the bottom of her sweater and jerked her to a stop. He laughed—a harsh, cruel sound that made her stomach churn.

She swore, twisted around, and raised her arms, pulling herself out of the sweater. She ripped the second stake free, holding it in front of her like a knife. It was doubtful he even noticed it as his gaze slid down her naked torso. The heat of his need boiled around her, sucking away the air and burning her lungs.

He sprang again, but before he reached her there was a blur of fur and fury that hit him broadside and thrust him away from her.

Anger and relief surged in equal portions.

Ethan
.

He hit the ground in human form and rose, standing between her and the other wolf. He had one hand behind his back and was flexing his fingers, as if grasping for something. She kinetically slipped the stake into his hand.

“No one touches what is mine,” he growled, and launched himself at the stranger.

The other wolf might have been bigger and more powerful, but he didn’t have a chance against Ethan, even if he hadn’t already been stabbed with white ash. Ethan was fast and furious, and he gave no mercy. Within minutes, the other wolf was dead at his feet.

He swung around and stalked toward her. His brown eyes were more wolf than human and glowed
almost golden in the torchlight. His hunger washed across her senses, and her body sprang to aching life. Reacting to him, and only him.

The spell
, she thought. He might have thought he was committing himself to Jacinta, but he’d bound himself to her. Or, at the very least, bound
her
to
him
.

He pulled her into his embrace and plundered her mouth. His kiss was intense and passionate and, in many ways, an affirmation of territory.
No one touches what is mine
, he’d said. Her heart did a joyful little dance, but she had to wonder if he was even aware he’d said those words.

“Next time tell me it’s a werewolf coming down the tunnel,” he growled when he finally broke away.

His breathing was as harsh as hers, and his desire thrummed through every fiber of her being, stirring her in ways she’d never dreamed possible. But right now, it was a need they both had to ignore.

“Next time, trust me to take care of myself,” she bit back. “Where in hell have you left the kids?”

“They’re safe.” He swept up her sweater and tossed it to her. “Put that on so we can get out of here.”

Once she’d pulled on the sweater, he grabbed her hand and led her out of the cave. When they were under the canopy of the forest, she dug the cell phone out of her pocket and dialed her grandmother. “Where are we?” she said to Ethan as she waited for the call to be put through.

“Tell her to meet us on Mountain Road, near the Agness signpost.”

“You have the kids?” Gwen questioned in her ear.

“Yes.” Kat quickly passed on Ethan’s instructions.
“I think it would be wise to get to a safer area before we hand the kids over.”

“I’ll arrange it.”

“Good. And bring a couple of full kits. The soul-sucker still isn’t in the cavern, so it might be a good time to check out whether she
is
breeding or not.”

“Will do. See you in ten.”

She hung up and stopped as Ethan stopped. He whipped away a couple of leafy branches that had been piled on top of each other, revealing the two girls tucked safely in a small depression. He picked them up and glanced at her.

“We haven’t got far to go,” he said.

No, they didn’t. Soon it would be over, and he hadn’t yet answered the question she’d raised in the tunnel.

She had a bad feeling he never would.

B
Y THE TIME THEY REACHED THE ROAD
, G
WEN WAS ALREADY
waiting. Ethan eased the two girls into the backseat of the car, carefully buckling the seat belt around their limp, sleeping bodies. Gwen checked them over and declared them both healthy and unhurt, even though both looked a little gaunt, Janie in particular. He was relieved, but that relief wasn’t complete.

Because this case was no longer solely about rescuing his niece. Someone else had entered the picture. Entered his life.

He could feel Kat’s gaze on him. She was waiting for an answer, but there was nothing more he could say to her.

He didn’t
know
what he felt for her. Yes, he wanted her. Yes, he cared for her more than he’d cared for any other woman since Jacinta. And he’d already told her both those things. If that wasn’t enough, then too bad, because he wasn’t going to lie.

But at the same time, he had to wonder if he was lying to himself.

He slammed the car door shut, then glanced skyward. Though he could no longer see the moon, the power of it thrummed through his veins. But there was a very different feel about that force now. It was intense, yes, but it was also controllable. In past months, past years, he’d spent this day in bed, unable to do anything more than sate his moon-spun lust with a willing woman. He’d never been fussy about who his partners were, and while in recent years he’d started seeing the same few faces, it hadn’t always been that way.

Yet right now, he didn’t hunger for just
any
woman, only the one, and the mere act of thinking about her had blood surging to his groin. But it wasn’t the must-have-you-now heat of a werewolf in the midst of rutting fever. It was deeper than that. Richer than that.

Love
.

But a werewolf couldn’t love twice. That was part of what they were. Part of the law of the moon. Once his heart had been given, there was no going back. There were no second chances. He couldn’t love Kat because he had loved Jacinta.

Hadn’t he?

For the first time in his life, he wasn’t so sure. But he wasn’t about to say anything to Kat. He didn’t want to raise her hopes only to dash them again. And
if he couldn’t love her, he couldn’t stay in her life. He might hunger for her, but she deserved far more than that.

Yet even the thought of leaving her formed a cold, hard lump in his gut.

He took a deep breath, then turned and walked around the car. She was still watching him, her big green eyes both warm and wary.

“All set,” he said, stopping beside Gwen.

“I’ll just go check the kiddies a final time.” Gwen reached up and kissed his cheek. “You be careful, wolf. And if all else fails, talk to your brother.”

He gave her a sharp glance, but she merely smiled and turned away. He returned his gaze to Kat’s. “What did she mean?”

Her shrug was tired. “I don’t know.”

He touched her cheek, running his fingers down to the warm mouth he couldn’t seem to taste enough. A tremor ran through her and her lips parted, as if she couldn’t breathe enough air. This close to her, he felt exactly the same way.