More Than Life (Arcane Crossbreeds) (11 page)

Chest heaving with the onslaught of power that was sparking through his system like a current of electricity, Raife glanced down at the unmoving bodies. His partner, Kel Sheridan, was half Guardian and the dirtiest damn fighter he’d ever come up against. She’d sliced him up many a time before he learned to stay one step ahead of her. These assholes didn’t even come close to her gutter skills.

Glancing left to right, he growled in frustration. He could feel Katya, knew she was fading, but he didn’t know what damn direction to go in. Cursing, he shoved a hand through his hair. He’d been here for only a little more than a day and hadn’t gotten so much as a glance outside the room they’d thrown him in. How the hell was he going to find her? He
needed
to get to her. His awareness of her resonated deep inside him, and he paused, lowering his hands to his sides.

A mating between Drachon was spiritual as well as physical. According to his teachings as a boy, they should be connected in a way that transcended the meshing of their mere bodies. He should be able to trail her that way. Spiritually.

Closing his eyes, he scented the air, focused on her waning energy. His bare feet fell rapidly on the gleaming concrete as he followed that essence; angling left around two corners before he jerked to a stop. The scent of her was strong here. He knelt next to a splattering of blood near an overturned gurney. It wasn’t hers, but the gurney carried that heady ripeness he associated with her. Throbbed with the rhythm of her. It was a strange sensation. Disorienting. The echo of her determination and pain rippled through him, almost a vibration in the air around him.

With a shaky hand, he touched the vinyl of the gurney padding, absorbed her lingering emotions. The betrayal was overwhelming, the ache of it a strong reverberation that brushed harshly over his skin like little nettles. She needed him, whether she wanted to acknowledge it or not. This time he intended to be there for her.

After standing, he continued on, letting his vision recede to heat signatures as he scanned the hall. Tag had said the west wing. Heart pounding, he continued heading west down the hall. Instinct was guiding him now; it was linked to the tenuous thread of her life force. As he turned a corner, the unique aura of her hit him again. Stronger this time.

Blinking away his heat vision, he slowed, his gaze sliding over the walls, the floor. At first it was just bright red speckles, but as he moved down the hall, he stopped at the large smear of it against one wall. Dropping to a knee, he touched the puddle on the floor. It was just starting to coagulate. Pain, real physical pain, burst over his senses. She’d been hit. He drew in a deep breath and trembled with rage. Coming to his feet, he glanced around. There was more of it just ahead. Small bloody footprints leading away.

He followed those prints, moving faster, pulled by the frenetic energy of a fight. His awareness of her expanded and grew stronger until he heard the grunt and thud of battle. He rounded a corner and froze. Bodies littered the floor. Gideon was fighting in the midst of a group of feral Guardians. The bastard was pure poetry when he fought.

A sharp cry sliced through the sounds of the fight. Gideon spun around on his heel, and Raife followed his gaze. Katya was struggling against one of the guards. Blood covered her small frame, pooling around her feet. How could she lose that much and still live? He watched as she released her hold on a bag she was clutching, and she pressed one hand to the soon-to-be dead fucker’s chest. Light flashed sharp and white between them, and the guard was propelled back. Before Raife could register what he was seeing, the guard lunged forward, swung his arm out, claws extended, and connected with the side of her head.

Time stopped. All rational thought was sucked from him, leaving him suspended in a strange emotional void, distanced from the fight. Color drained from his world except for the bright splash of red on his mate’s body. A pain-filled cry echoed as though far off, the waves of it crashing over him shattering the mental thrall that held him.

A fury unlike anything he’d ever experienced before surged into the void, filling him until he thought he would explode with it. It had substance, heat, and it poured out through his nose and mouth, clouding his eyes with a red haze. His heart beat like a war drum, pounding out a cadence of death in his head, through his every fiber. The call of vengeance rang through him. They would all die for touching what belonged to him.

A roar bubbled up in his throat, and he released it, letting the warning resound. The assholes surrounding her jolted, wincing as it struck their heads with the force of a physical blow.

“He’s gone into rage. Get the girl out of here.”

Raife didn’t know which of the six spoke the words, and he didn’t give a fuck; his eyes were only for the sorry bastard who held Katya in his grip. That man was going to hell. In pieces. Anyone who tried to stop him would accompany the dog. Raife, unable to see beyond the blinding fury and blood creating a halo around Katya and her abuser, rushed into the thick of the Guardians who attempted to fight him. Their unearthly screams were drowned out by the clamor of the fury crashing through him as he descended on them with preternatural speed, wrapping his hand around one’s arm with enough strength to crush the bone beneath his fingers. It softened in his grip as he wrenched hard, flesh separating with a wet crunch as he tossed the body. From a distance, he heard cursing as they growled instructions at each other, fanning out to surround him.

“Raife!”

Her scream infused his rage with electricity. Eyes never leaving his mate, Raife dropped to the ground and rolled before jumping to his feet, kicking a stunned Guardian into another with enough force to shatter bone.

Raife never slowed. Sliding beneath the slashing claws of one Guardian, he palmed another’s face and rammed his head into the wall until his skull felt like a bag of chips beneath his wide hand, blood pooling from between his fingers. Spinning on his heel beneath the other dog’s swinging arm, he came around behind him and slammed both fists into either side of his ribs. The bones crackled as his knuckles met somewhere in the vicinity of the Guardian’s stuttering heart. He didn’t stop to watch the bastard slide to the ground.

Another Guardian rushed forward with phenomenal speed.

Too bad Raife was faster.

His heel met the center of the bastard’s chest; the gratifying crush of bone and tissue reverberated up his leg. Blood shot from the Guardian’s mouth as his ribs shattered, shredding his lungs. Claws raked his bare torso as he reached out with both hands to grab the final Guardian, breaking his neck.

A final burst of speed and he faced the Guardian holding his mate like a shield. The bastard had one forearm around her neck and the tips of his claws pressed into the soft swell of her belly. Four fresh beads of blood welled up against the pale flesh.

He focused on the Guardian who held his entire world in his grasp. He didn’t look at her; her fear blasting over his mind told him enough. The blood of the Guardians he’d just torn apart coated him – he could feel the dampness on his face and chest. Was she disgusted by his brutality? Repelled by what he was capable of? For one brief moment, his concern for her was a cooling breeze over the fever of his rage, but he quickly steeled himself against it. It didn’t matter. Not now.

She belonged to him. She would learn to accept him. All of him. She would know what would happen to any who dared threaten her, threatened what was his. An uncontrolled growl built in him as he advanced another step.

“Mine.”
It burst from him, creating a shock wave of energy that had Katya gasping and the Guardian swaying with a grunt.

“Take another step, fire breather, and it ends now.” The claws pressed deeper into his mate’s flesh. Her sharp intake of air inflamed the need to rush the man harming her, his desire to kill. That ominous rumble intensified in him until he nearly choked on it, cresting over his mind in a dark wave as he lunged at the last threat to his mate.

KATYA COULD FEEL the sharp burn of the claws piercing her flesh one moment, and then a flash of movement and sudden relief. It happened so fast, and yet she would later remember it all in such slow, graphic detail. The sight of Raife’s burning amber eyes would haunt her nightmares. He looked wild, a mane of tangled light brown hair, stringy with the blood of the Guardians that lay writhing in his wake. Crimson stained the angles of his face, making his intense gaze glow in contrast beneath the heavy line of his brow.

The echo of the Guardian’s screams and the wet sounds of flesh being torn filled her mind. And the blood. Her bare feet slid in it as she fell to her hands and knees. It coated her, soaking into her skin. Bile rushed up her throat, filling her mouth.

Then Raife was there, pulling her into his arms, cradling her, his golden eyes blazing.

His massive body practically hummed with power and fury. It soaked him as surely as the blood of the Guardians he’d practically ripped to shreds. When she tried to touch his mind, it was too hot and too bright. It repelled her, scorched her. There was no rational thought. No reason.

It terrified her. Held her immobile.

Distantly she recognized the soft
thud
of boots advancing on them.

Katya didn’t acknowledge them, her focus caught on Raife. She was afraid to release his gaze, afraid she would lose him to that seething well of fire that smoldered just behind his eyes. Raife growled at the approaching man. The man who had saved her.

“Merrick?” The query was nonthreatening; still, Raife’s hold tightened on her, forcing a gasp from her.

“Don’t come near us.” She hung weakly in his grasp. Blood coated Raife, but it was the tantalizing scent of
him
that drew her in.

“We don’t have time.” The dark man’s voice was emotionless. Soft. He advanced another step. “They’ll send more.”

Raife’s body quaked beneath her cheek, and she gasped as her fangs filled her mouth. She was so weak from blood loss, the craving for it was a living beast that ravaged her. Pain blazed through her entire body.

“Jennings, Merrick went into rage. I can’t approach him.”

He was speaking to someone. When she didn’t hear a response, she distantly acknowledged he must have some communication link. Like those damn Guardians. The ones who were scattered in pieces on the floor. Closing her eyes, she blocked the sight out.

“Try it. Soon they will both bleed out.”

“Can you hear me?”

Katya jerked at the deep voice in her mind. It felt foreign. Intrusive. It wasn’t like listening in on someone’s thoughts. It followed the familiar path that Raife always used when he spoke to her. Her first instinct was to reject it, but she exhaled shakily and followed the psychic trail of the speaker.

“Yes,”
she sent the thought back. Raife’s chest resonated against her with the sound of his displeasure, and his fiery presence in her mind tightened, nearly disrupting her connection to the other man. He may have been rational just then, but he took exception to another male in her mind, reacting to her discomfort at the intrusion.

“Good. I need you to connect with him, pull him back. You are both bleeding. Gideon needs to get close enough to help.”

“I can’t.”
Katya felt the thought leave her mind, but it felt like a tight fit, the words a bare wisp of energy.

“You have to try.”

Raife was a weight deep within her, holding her down. It even made it difficult to breathe, as though the air was too thick. She gave her head a little shake. She was too tired. It had all been too much. All these months of being some science project, of finding Raife. The mating. She just wanted to rest. The lure to close her eyes and let it all go was so strong.

“Woman!”
The voice was sharp in her head. Stern. She opened her eyes.
“You are losing too much blood. Tell him. Do it now.”

Raife’s growl grew louder, and she felt it from the outside in, as though she was being filled with a clingy, suffocating blackness. A chill settled over her skin, and she shivered.

Katya blinked. The scent of blood infused the air around her, suffocating her. She shuddered as another icy rush racked her body. Darkness edged on her, crowding her, threatening her grip on consciousness.

“Raife.”

His gaze jerked back to her, and the rumble ceased. Those unblinking eyes reflected a feral intensity as they studied her.

“I can’t breathe. You’re too much.”

Almost immediately his presence in her lightened, and Katya felt air fill her lungs. That distinct tinny scent came with it. It filled her mouth, rolling over her tongue, and her gums tingled. She licked her dry lips, tasting the faint metallic tinge of her own blood.

He pressed her face more firmly into his neck, and her tongue touched the hot pulsing flesh against her lips. A jolt of panic shot through that darkness edging closer on her mind. If she tried to bleed him now, she would have no control. What if she couldn’t stop? She pulled back to look up at him again.

“I need help. I hurt.”

He blinked. Some reason flooded his golden depths as they slowly slid over her, searching.

Another chill racked her body, and her vision dimmed.

“Katya.”
Suddenly his hold shifted, and a hand pressed hard over her shoulder. “Fuck. You’ve been shot. Katya?”

His voice was rough, and there was a distant buzzing in her ears. Was the other man speaking to him?

“You must feed her, Merrick. She will not make it out otherwise,” Gideon hissed.

Denial surged weakly in her, and she tried to turn away, but he gently cupped the back of her head and pressed her face into his neck again.

“Do it, baby.”
His voice was a sexy rumble in her head. He filled her. So deeply entrenched she couldn’t tell where her thoughts ended and his began. He tried to compel her to drink, but she tensed and pulled back in panic at the mental command. “Okay. Okay. Easy. Easy, baby.”