Prey (29 page)

Y
arnell clomped off down the hall, and I wiped blood from my chin onto my shoulder, then stared at Dan, begging him silently to look at me. “Dan, don’t let them do this! Marc never did anything but help you!”

Dan turned away from me, but his leg began to bounce, his foot rapidly tapping the thick carpet. I was getting to him.

“How can you sit there and watch them beat him for no reason?” Yes, Marc had often pounded information out of hostile trespassers, but Kevin didn’t want information out of him. He wanted it from
me,
and we’d
never
hosted a pounding by proxy. That was a line my Pride would never cross. “You can stop this, Dan. You can do the right thing. Hell, you fought
with
us in the ambush. Was that part of your act?”

He shrugged, still avoiding my eyes. “I’m not close personal friends with every stray out there. Besides, I didn’t kill anyone. And it’s not like I could stand there and watch you all get
slaughtered.
”

“But you can
now?
”

And finally he met my desperate, imploring gaze, silently begging me to understand. “Now, it’s him or me, Faythe.” His voice was empty. Hollow. Detached. That was the only way he could remain sane, because inside, I knew Dan Painter was a good person. He’d fought alongside us because he and Marc were
friends.
I was sure of that, because Marc was a wonderful judge of character.

But Kevin had preyed on his worst fears and his biggest dreams, convincing Dan that his only shot for acceptance by and protection from his fellow werecats lay in giving them Marc.

“If I help you, they’ll kill me.” He tossed his head at Kevin, who nodded smugly. “And even if they don’t, your dad will. Every cat in your Pride will be after me within the hour, and you know it. I’m sorry, but it’s too late. I gotta think about me.”

Fresh tears formed in my eyes, and this time the pain had nothing to do with my bruises. Dan was breaking my heart. Killing some relentlessly optimistic part of me that had truly believed Pinocchio would listen to Jiminy Cricket in the end. That good would triumph over evil, as trite as that sounded.

“That’s the difference between you and him,” I said, as Yarnell backed into the living room hauling Marc with an arm under each shoulder, his feet dragging the carpet. “He’d
die
for you, or for me, or for anyone he cares about. And you’re just gonna watch him do it.”

Dan’s jaw went tight, and he stood silently, then walked into the kitchen without another glance in my
direction. Though I could have sworn I saw moisture glinting in the corner of his eye.

Though his eyes remained closed, Marc moaned when Yarnell dropped him on the floor, and I got my first good look at the wound Eckard thought had killed him. There was a two-inch-long gash on the side of his head, crusted over with blood. It was a miracle he’d survived that one. And if Kevin had his way, it wouldn’t be for long.

I had to do something. I couldn’t watch Marc beaten to death, but neither could I give Kevin information that might doom my father’s quest for allies against Malone. Unfortunately, the only trick I had up my sleeve was the partial Shift, and with my hands and feet bound, cat’s jaws wouldn’t do me any good unless someone came really close to my face. And trying to fully Shift with my wrists taped at my back would only dislocate my shoulders. Assuming Yarnell didn’t kill me when he saw what I was up to.

Now, if I could partially Shift my
hands,
that would be another story entirely.
With cat claws, I could slice through duct tape like a canoe paddle through water. But I couldn’t Shift just my hands.

Could I?

With a start, I realized I’d never tried. But I’d gotten pretty damn good at Shifting just my face, and my hands couldn’t be that different, right?

“Bring him around,” Kevin ordered, recapturing my attention while Yarnell headed into the kitchen. Water ran, and a moment later he was back with a large, full glass. Which he promptly dumped over Marc’s face.

Marc’s eyes popped open, and he sputtered, trying to expel water from both his nose and mouth, even as he blinked it from his eyes. Watching him, and suffering along with him, I harnessed my mounting rage to fuel a partial Shift I couldn’t even be sure was possible. I pictured my left hand slimming and lengthening, and fur rolling over my fingers.

“Oh good, you’re awake!” Kevin peered down at Marc from two feet away—well within the danger zone, had Marc not been bound as I was. “Your part in tonight’s production is that of the whipping boy. If your girlfriend truly can’t be motivated by pain, then every time she refuses to answer a question, Peter will break one of your bones. Make sense? Or are you still foggy from the tranquilizer?”

“Leave him alone, you bastard!” I said through clenched teeth as I flexed my hands behind my back.

“Faythe…?” Marc’s voice was slurred, yet he called my name with a sense of urgency, of fear, and fresh tears spilled over my cheeks. I was the first thought on his mind, the moment he woke up from an ordeal that would have killed just about anyone else.

“Over here,” I whispered, and he twisted toward me at the sound of my voice, one shoulder slanted awkwardly into the floor, the side of his face pressed into the carpet. In my mind, I pictured my nails growing into long, curved claws, and I flexed my fingers to unsheathe them.

“Your face…” he said, and his features went hard with anger on my behalf, in spite of the drug-glaze in his eyes.

I forced a grin to tell him I was fine. “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” My left hand twitched, and my heart leapt at the familiar sensation. It was working! And suddenly my smile felt genuine.

“Well, now that we’re all caught up, let’s move on,” Kevin said, and Yarnell stalked toward me, ready to commence with the interrogation. “Did your mother let Ryan go?”

“What?”
For a moment, I couldn’t process the sudden subject change, and my partial Shift faltered as my concentration wavered. But then the question sank in, and the possibility flooded me like lead anchoring me to the sea floor.

Had
my mother let Ryan go? The truth was that it was entirely possible. I have no idea how Kevin came by that idea when
I
hadn’t even thought of it, but it made sense. My mother couldn’t stand to see her son locked up, so she would have let him go for the same reason she’d taken care of him, even while he lived in the free zone.

Because he needed her.

Kevin saw the answer on my face, but that wasn’t enough for him. The bastard wanted to hear it. Wanted to force me to play his game. “Did she?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered, because even if my hunch was right, I couldn’t tell him. He’d stepped way over the line, going after my mother. Especially considering that she was well respected by most of the Alphas, even those who didn’t like my father’s politics.

They were trying to get to him through her, and in
an odd way, I was disillusioned by that realization. Was
nothing
sacred to these pricks?

At that thought, and the fresh anger it triggered, the skin over my hand began to itch unbearably, and my fingers ached as they shortened and thickened, protective pads covering my palm.

Kevin nodded at Pete and gestured toward me grandly with one outstretched arm. “No bones yet. We don’t want her passing out this early.”

Yarnell pulled me to my feet by one arm, and I let him, still focusing on the weapon forming at my back. “Answer him.”

I could have repeated my reply, and technically it would have been the truth. But the words tasted bitter in my mouth. So I swallowed them.

Yarnell’s huge fist slammed into my stomach, dead center, driving the air from my body and folding me in half.

“No!” Marc thrashed as if
he’d
been hit, and I fell to the floor hard, bruising my knees. Several seconds passed before I could draw another breath, and when I finally looked up, agony still radiating outward from my center, Yarnell stood over me, a blissful smile on his face, as if he got actual physical pleasure from my pain.

Great.
But the latest blow had so thoroughly pissed me off that my left hand had Shifted completely. Perfectly. That arm now ended in a fur-covered cat paw and claws. Unfortunately, the tape binding my wrists was too far up for my new claws to reach.

Or was it…?

My dewclaw! Cats have an extra claw—like a thumbnail—high up on the inside of their paws, near where the wrist would be in human form. Dewclaws aren’t good for much. They don’t even hit the ground when a cat walks. But most werecats can flex their dewclaws, and I was no exception. If I could move it enough to puncture all the layers of duct tape, I’d have that weak spot in my bindings I’d wished for earlier.

“Did she let him out?” Kevin repeated, as I flexed my dewclaw desperately, trying not to squirm as I worked.

I glanced at Marc, silently hoping that they’d hit me again, instead of him. Then I met Yarnell’s gaze boldly. “I. Don’t. Fucking. Know.” But instead of hauling me up, he stomped across the room toward Marc and pulled his right foot back, preparing to slam his heavy boot into Marc’s ribs.

My pulse raced, and I swallowed thickly. “Wait! I’m serious. Even if she
had
let him out, she wouldn’t have told me about it. She wouldn’t have told
anyone,
so I can’t imagine where you’re getting your information.”

“Fine,” Kevin said, and Yarnell let his foot drop, though it was clear neither of them planned to reveal their sources. “Let’s talk about something you do know about. When will your dad move against Malone?”

My heart pounded, and I began to sweat in spite of the cool draft near the floor. I flexed my paw furiously, wiggling the dewclaw as much as I could. And finally that tiny, vestigial claw popped silently through the layers of tape binding my wrists.

I could have squealed with relief, but it wasn’t over yet. I couldn’t move the dewclaw enough to actually cut the tape, so I’d still have to rip it open the hard way. But I couldn’t do that with Kevin watching me.

Exhaling dread and frustration, I glanced at Marc, silently apologizing for what I was about to do. I needed a distraction, and the only thing that would take all eyes off me was putting them all on
him.

Marc blinked at me and nodded, telling me to go ahead with whatever I had to do. My guilt level sky-rocketed at his selfless submission, but I forced the words out anyway, staring at Kevin with challenge written in every line of my face.
“Fuck you.”

Kevin’s face flamed with anger, and instead of looking to Yarnell, he turned toward Marc himself, drawing his own foot back. As all eyes focused on Marc, I pulled my arms apart with all the strength left in my body. My shoulders ached. Tape tugged at my recently grown fur. And my pulse spiked with the fear that even though I’d come so close, I would still be too late. Or too weak.

Kevin’s foot slammed into Marc’s ribs, and his whole body jerked in pain. Then, just when I though it wasn’t going to happen, the tape tore open at my back with a loud ripping sound.

All heads turned my way. Kevin’s foot was cocked and ready to fly again. I gave my arms one last, violent tug, and the tape pulled free from one arm, taking large patches of fur with it. I grabbed the edge of the couch for balance and was on my feet in an instant, slicing through the tape binding my ankles as I stood.

“What the
hell!
” Yarnell lunged for me, and I leapt to the left, ripping the remaining tape from my ankles with my human right hand. He tackled me a second later, driving us both to the ground. Yarnell tried to force my arms to the carpet, still staring in shock and disgust at my newly furry appendage.

I brought my knee up hard into his crotch, and he groaned miserably. His grip loosened in the face of intense pain, and I tugged my Shifted hand loose. Still wheezing in agony, Yarnell wrapped one hand around my throat and squeezed. Gagging, I unsheathed my claws and swiped them across his arm, shredding the flesh in one pass.

Blood sprayed my face, and I shoved Yarnell, then rolled out from under him. He howled, and clapped his good hand over the injury, trying to slow the blood loss.

I jumped to my feet just in time to see Kevin run at me. I dodged him to the left and dropped to the floor beside Marc. Dan stared at us in shock from the kitchen doorway, making no move to join either side of the fight. I ripped the tape from Marc’s arms, then rose into an immediate roundhouse as Kevin dove at me.

My boot hit his stomach, and he doubled over the blow, barely grunting because of the air he’d lost. But he grabbed my human wrist as I tried to run, and jerked me backward so brutally I heard a bone crack, and pain radiated from my fingers all the way into my elbow. His fist hit my back, and an all-new agony slammed into my kidney, so acute I couldn’t move. I clamped my jaws
shut to keep from screaming and waking the neighbors as I breathed through the pain.

On the floor, Marc sat up and ripped the tape from his ankles. He leapt awkwardly to his feet, but Yarnell rammed him an instant later, dripping a trail of blood on his own carpet all the way across the room.

Marc went down on his back, with Yarnell on top of him. They alternated blows, grunting and wheezing as the fists flew.

Kevin tightened his grip on my broken arm, and I choked on a scream as he pulled his fist back for another blow. I twisted away from him and slashed my paw in a vicious arc. Blood instantly soaked his shredded shirt. He started to shriek, but I followed up with a breath-stealing blow to the gut, acutely aware that too much noise would lead to neighbor—and police—involvement. He knocked my feet out from under me and his weight crushed me to the floor.

Across the room, Marc rolled over Yarnell, still throwing punches. A moment later, Yarnell was on top again. Then he suddenly lunged sideways, and took a punch to the ribs from Marc as he shoved one hand under an armchair. When his arm emerged, he held Dan’s framing hammer.

My heart stopped beating, and pain shot through my chest. I tried to shout, but Kevin’s hands closed around my throat. Yarnell raised the hammer. And out of nowhere, a denim-clad blur shot across the room toward him.