Dangerous (12 page)

“Follow my orders. I will get her, you stay here.”

“Do you know what you are asking me to do?”

“I know what I’m telling you to do. Unless you plan to challenge me, I suggest you stay here. Understood? I don’t want you drawing them closer to human settlements. We settle this here—in the middle of nowhere, where no innocents get hurt.”

Xan nodded.

“Good. I’ll have her call to you as soon as we locate her.” Drew walked off, disappearing into the woods.

A chill raced up Xan’s spine. Why? Wouldn’t it be expected a mate be the first included in a rescue party, yet they’d kept him out of it. What Drew said made sense, but it went against his every instinct to protect his mate. He stared at where his Alpha went, wanting to go after him. Several heartbeats passed before he turned back to the Ilimu.
Follow orders.

Xan pointed the flare into the pit, his stomach in knots, beyond pissed he had to deal with this shit when he could be looking for Liv. He had no choice but to stay here. Better to focus on what Drew told him to do
. Interrogate.
He didn’t feel the least bit sorry for them after what they did in Wyoming. “Where are the others?”

“Do you really think you can threaten the information from us? Ajani has plans for you, government man. He, he, he. He knows how much you miss his
special
touch.”

Heat roared to life inside him. Xan’s wolf growled and snapped. “Where are the rest of your pack? How many are there?”

They looked at each other and giggled silently, their shoulders shaking with mirth. “What fun is it telling you, doggie?” The pair exploded into thousands of brown spiders, the size of plums. Clicking and chattering, they scurried in a wave up the sides of the pit. It seemed as though the earth itself moved.

Well, that is new.
He’d known they could assume any form, but not many forms all at once.
Shit.
Talk about a force multiplier. Xan stepped back and fired when the first of the mass began to exit. A fireball exploded, sucking all the oxygen around him. Heat curled his lashes and the smell of singed hair filled the air. The spiders screamed and curled into crispy balls before popping into blue, exploding bursts of light.

“You did the right thing.” Gee came up behind him. “Those were Sydney funnel webs, bigger than I’ve ever seen, but I’m certain of their genus. One bite and you would have been dead.”

“You know a lot for a bear who’s never left the Hills.” Xan tucked the flare gun away and stared into the woods. “I need to go after her, Gee.”

“You need to do what your Alpha told you.”

“I did. I can’t very well extract information from a corpse, can I? I can’t leave her out there, knowing Ajani could do the same things to her he did to me.”

“He won’t get the chance. Right now, we need to hand these demons their asses. Their army is here.” Gee shoved a water gun loaded with gasoline into his hands and walked off with two bazooka-style toys attached to a tank on his back. Around him in the woods, several fireballs lit the night. Everything from human cries to howls filled the darkness.

Xan trotted toward the thickest concentration of smoke and screams, fighting the urge to shift and search for his mate instead. The fresh snowmelt from spring thaw would help slow the burn, but prairie and forest fires were never something to mess with, any season. The longer the battle went on, the better chance something would catch and they’d have another issue to deal with. With Liv out there in a fresh construction site, she could be at risk if a fire got out of control.

“’Ello, government man,” said a cold voice, laced with deadly promise.

Xan turned toward Ajani and zeroed in with his wolf eyes, finding him in human form, leaning against a nearby tree, as though chaos hadn’t exploded around them.

“Ajani.”

The warlord gave a nod. “I’m going to kill her after I finish you, but it isn’t going to be easy. Dat shit gonna hurt. I make sure of it. And den I will kill your pretty sister and eat her unborn babies. You tink dis fire gonna stop me?”

Xan growled.

“I thought so.”

The white timber wolf inside him snarled. “Why don’t I melt your ass right here?”

“Hee, he, he. And den your mate will die. I don’t keep all my eggs in one basket or unattended? Or all my pack here, to deal with you. We are everywhere. You can’t kill us all. Drop your weapon or she will never be safe.” Ajani pushed off the tree and turned around, walking into the woods. “Dis way, doggie.”

He barely whispered the last bit, but Xan’s super-hearing caught it.
Come away from your pack if you dare.

***

Liv pressed up on the wooden crate they’d buried her in. She turned and examined the sides the best she could in the pure darkness. The smell of fresh earth filled her nostrils. She hadn’t expected to end up like this. Buried alive. After her escape attempt, they’d decided it would be better to bury her, so they didn’t have to watch her so close, even when it wasn’t possible for her run off—not with the bone in her leg broken and the tissue around it swollen like a balloon.

Bastards.

Clunk. Swoosh. Clunk. Swoosh.
Someone seemed to be digging. Hopefully, the good guys and not the bastards who’d buried her.

Liv cocked her head and listened. Soft mumbles. “Help!” she yelled and smacked the lid with both her palms. “Somebody, please.”

Clunk. Scrape.

Her heart pounded. “I’m alive! Please. I’m running out of air.”

Crack, squawk.
Someone pried the lid off and tossed it to the side.

Drew’s familiar face stared down, but instead of pulling her out, they aimed a flashlight at her eyes, sending spots of light across her vision. Seconds later, the light snapped off. “Good to see you, Liv.”

“You thought I was one of them?” She blinked the spots away.

“I had to be certain.”

As her vision cleared, she could see the Enforcer standing next to him. With a great big water gun. She sniffed.
Gasoline? They were going to burn me alive?

“Where’s Xan?” Her mouth went dry.

“Fighting the demons.” Drew clasped her wrist, pulling her out of the shipping crate and setting her on the ground next to her sister. “If it became necessary to put you down, I didn’t want it to be in front of Xan. I’m certain we would have had to kill him, too. Glad to know it won’t happen. Call to him, Liv. He needs to know you’re safe.”

If he felt as frantic as she did…. She closed her eyes, focusing on the change enough to tighten her vocal cords. Once satisfied, she tipped her head back and yipped several times before howling. She cocked her head and listened.
Nothing.

“Do it again.”

Liv let loose one last time, with all her heart, her coyote call exploded from her.

This time, a faint sound in the distance. Not a man. Not a wolf. Not yet. “Awhooooooo!”

“Kick their asses for me, babe.” She whooped and then cringed as her broken leg gave way.

Ryker scooped her into his arms.

“He’ll take you to Los Lobos to Kayla’s cabin. You need to sleep and heal. Betty and the other females are there. They’ve set up a place for triage.” Drew shifted and ran into the woods.

Kayla called out behind her as she followed. “He’s your Alpha now. We go home and sit tight. Xan will be fine.”

“My Alpha?”

“Yes, and when he says something, you do it.”

***

Xan turned toward the sound.
Liv?

“She gonna taste real good on a spit.”

“You don’t have her.”

“We don’t?”

Yip, yip, yip, awhooooooo!

“No, you don’t.” He smiled, tipped his head back and howled. “That’s right, I’m still a fucking Wolf. You didn’t break me.”

Ajani bared his canines. As a human, Xan had an advantage, one he could thank his pack for—eighteen years of martial arts. And on his battlefield, the warlord didn’t stand a chance.

“You’re going to need to come with more than a threat.” Xan exhaled and dropped into a fighting stance.

Ajani grabbed a walking stick leaning against a nearby tree, and yanked on the end, revealing the tip of his spear. “How’s dis work? You remember how it feels, stuck in your leg, gouging your flesh?” He dropped the cover onto snow-crusted leaves. Smoke hung in the air, swirling around the trees as the fire drew closer. Shouts of the pack and combat filled the night.

“Bad choice of weapon, Ajani.” Yeah, he remembered the nasty weapon the warlord toted everywhere with him. The asshole had claimed it was a family relic. Odd he’d bring it from Africa, making him wonder if it could be more than Ajani said.

Cursed or worse. Objects could be possessed. Could the artifact be the source of the warlord’s power? Regardless what gave him strength, a long-handled weapon lost effectiveness in close combat. Xan eyed all the trees around him and reached into his jacket pocket, fisting a handful of salt.

“Not so bad when you got nothing.” Ajani swung it around in an arc and jabbed. Xan jumped back. Ajani lunged again. This time Xan stepped to the side, behind a tree. The spear hit with a
thunk
, bark and debris exploded from the point of impact. The demon yanked it free. “You can’t avoid it forever, doggie. We’re surrounded by fire and our arena is going to grow smaller. He, he, heye hee, he.”

“Just wait until I send you back to hell. I’ll show you fire.” Xan threw the salt at the warlord.

The demon shrieked and jumped back, his flesh sizzled wherever the salt made contact.

“Who’d have thought you had a weakness for seasoning?”

“Big mistake, government man. I’m going to eat you now.”

“You might want to hold off on the salt, I hear it raises blood pressure.”

The warlord charged.

Xan blocked, parrying each swing of the spear, getting in as close as he could to avoid the tip, going for nerves and pressure points, driving the warlord back toward the fire. Smoke burned his eyes, and the acrid stench of burned hair and green wood coated his nostrils.

Ajani dove and rolled to the side, staking his spear into the ground. He grinned and dropped into a fighting stance, balling his fists. “I’ll save the best for last. Gonna skewer you like a kebab, government man, after I tear you limb from limb. You can’t beat me.”

“I can when you’re human.”

“Then let’s not disappoint you. Hey, ye, hee, he, he. You’re not going to live to save your pretty mate. I tried to break you, but you had to be stubborn. I did admire your resilience. Din you went and killed my woman. It became personal. Now I’m going to kill yours, after I let my pack have some fun with her.” Ajani’s eyes glowed a brilliant blue, and his form grew vaporous, blending with the smoke, whirling around like a tornado, it drew leaves, dirt, and ice chips along with it. “I bet she moans like a whore.”

Xan threw his forearm up, blocking the debris from biting into his face. As the mist dissolved and the leaves and dirt dropped, Ajani’s devil dog appeared, standing less than five feet from him. The hair on the hyena’s back stood up, sharp and spiky. Saliva dripped from his jaws in long strands, stretching to the ground. The beast began to circle.

Don’t shift.
More was at stake than his life, and Ajani couldn’t force him, not then, not now. “I’m not doing it.” He smacked his chest. “You’re going to have to take me like this if you think you can.” His Wolf couldn’t beat him. But as a human, he’d killed one of them before, and Ajani’s spear couldn’t be more useless to the warlord now.

“He, he, he, he.” The hyena snapped its powerful jaws.

Xan circled with him, toward the one weapon that would put the dog down. The one the warlord dismissed when he took another shape. “Your bitch didn’t fare so well with me as a human either.”

As Ajani roared and leaped. Xan dropped to the ground, rolled, and grabbed the spear, yanking it free from the forest floor and bringing the business end around. When Ajani spun to confront him, Xan shoved the end down the warlord’s throat and straight into his evil heart.

He twisted and yanked it out. Souls of thousands of victims screamed from the wood shaft, vibrating through Xan’s body in a buzz. “Shit. You’ve been collecting souls in this thing.” Xan brought the shaft down on his knee, snapping it in two and dropping the pieces of the cursed weapon, rubbing his palms down his pants and stepping back. A cold fire rushed up his arms.
What the fuck?

The hyena staggered and bared its teeth in a smug smile. Ajani collapsed before him as a jackal, his true form. The head of the spear glowed bright red, and then the shaft followed. Xan’s palms sizzled, and he scrubbed them against his jeans again, trying to remove the taint from his skin. He backed away and reached down to grab chunks of snow. Nothing stopped the burn.

The spear hummed and turned to ash. Sparks of light, like fireflies, swirled upward like a funnel, straight toward the star lit sky. The Hyena expelled his last breath and began to glow, repeating the spear’s performance, but only one light escaped and it sank into the earth like a hot coal would melt into snow, until the only thing left was a scorched outline of the beast on the earth. Worms and insects wriggled to the surface to escape whatever had invaded their ground.

Darkness descended on Xan, dropping like a shroud. Fever rolled through his body, every bone and muscle on fire. He stumbled back, his hands burning, his body aching. Xan’s skin itched. His canines descended.

No!

Xan tipped his head back to look at the moon through the smoke haze. “I’m not moon dependent, you bastard. I’m a fucking hybrid and I don’t have to play by the same rules. I shift when I want to, and right now, I don’t want to shift.”

Xander Davis never went back on his word. He’d promised his old Alpha he would never give up their secret. He’d promised Liv he would never hurt her, himself, or anyone else—even if controlled by the devil himself.

Tonight, he’d keep his promise. Even if it killed him. The warlord could never take his will. It alone belonged to him, and from this moment forward, he’d never lose control again. He had mastered his demon.

The salt.

Xan reached into his pocket and grabbed a handful. His palm sizzled the moment he made contact. Lifting it up, he sprinkled it over his head. Blue light shot from his palms, howling in fury, spearing straight into the ground where the warlord had vanished. He grabbed more and sprinkled it on the demon’s grave. The ground shook and soil exploded as though a mine were buried there. The scent of decay filled the air, and Xan staggered to the side, bracing against a tree. He’d been moments from becoming possessed, from shifting and breaking a decade-old promise.