Shifter Town 3 - Big Cats Don't Purr (6 page)

Now, her every move was monitored and harassed. Damn. Okay. Sawyer slumped back against the wall and wrung the water out of her hair. “Sorry.”

“For what?” The toilet flushed and Kinsey made her way out of the stall to wash her hands.

“For being a nag.” That drew a flash of a smile out of Kins. “I’m not your mother and I know it. But hell, you
do
understand that Dougal wants to kill you, and probably me, as well?”

Whatever color Kinsey had had in her face drained away at that one question. She fisted her hands under the stream of water and watched the bubbles fall over her knuckles. Sawyer saw her knuckles bleed white and her small hands shake a little. “Yeah.”

Kinsey sounded so small, so vulnerable. Sawyer wanted to step closer and bear hug her. Wanted to, but wouldn’t. Kinsey needed to be tough. Lions had to be tough.

“Then why?”

She watched as Kinsey rolled the water around in her palms before she shut it off and popped her hands under the dryer. She looked so defeated. Lost. Now Sawyer felt like shit. Apparently she wasn’t cut out for tough love. A soft groan slipped from her before she walked over and looped Kinsey into a quick hug.

“I’m sorry. I just... we’re trying to stay one step ahead of them, but what if we make a mistake? I don’t want it to cost you your life. ‘Kay?”

Kinsey nodded, quickly swiping at a tear as she looked away. Sawyer knew better than to comment. Sometimes sorrow and guilt were personal. “I miss my mom,” Kinsey whispered, sounding so broken it tugged at Sawyer’s heart. She wished she could scream at Jenna for not being enough of a mother to protect her child. All Jenna had had to do was agree to come. To run. To fight to keep her daughter safe. Anything but just hope that the man who had beaten her constantly would show mercy for her daughter.

But no matter what Sawyer felt about Jenna Slade, she was still Kinsey’s mother. She cradled Kinsey’s head to her shoulder. “I know.”

She held the girl until Kinsey took a shaky breath and pulled away. “I’m okay,” she whispered, wiping at her eyes.

She wasn’t, and probably wouldn’t be for a long time. Sawyer didn’t think being abandoned by your mother was something a kid got over in a hurry. “Do we need to hit the vending machine on our way out?”

Kinsey gave her a small smile and Sawyer laughed.

“You give a whole new meaning to lion’s share, you know.” She bumped Kinsey’s hip with hers and looped an arm around the girl’s shoulder. They trooped out of the restroom, leaning into one another. She was going to make sure Kinsey made it out of this okay. And maybe, when this was all over and she was safe, Sawyer could see about getting Kinsey back to her mother.

A low growl trickled in from her right and Sawyer winced. Rift probably wasn’t thrilled that neither of them had bothered to tell him they were sprinting off into the rain. She squeezed Kinsey’s shoulder and turned towards him. “I’m sorry, Rift. We had to pee—”

Her voice shriveled up and died on the word. The lion leaning against the wall to her right was not Rift. Worse, he had a good twenty pounds on Rift. His eyes settled on Kinsey and his face twisted, lips curling back as he flashed fangs too long to be human.

Shit, shit, shit
. Sawyer forced herself to keep breathing normally, even when she felt Kinsey’s pulse speed up.

One look at the stranger and Sawyer knew he wasn’t far from sprouting claws and fur. He was too far into his beast to give a damn that he was looking at child with murder in his eyes. Then his attention swept past her to something behind her, just as the second man growled. Sawyer felt her heart freeze in her chest.

Against one male lion, she hadn’t had a chance, but Rift would’ve, if they could have gotten to him in time. Against two? She wasn’t sure, but with her as backup, they might be able to make it. Might.
Please let it only be two
. Sawyer squeezed Kinsey’s arm as hard as she could. She would only be able to give Kins one shot for the door. Hesitation would get them both killed.

Her tongue wet a nervous line over her lips.

“Hey pretty lady,” the man on her right said, his voice vibrating with a growl, and she fixed her attention on the enemy she could see. The man behind her still hadn’t stepped close enough for her to spot him without turning her back on the first lion.

This one looked a good five or ten years older than Rift. His black hair was tousled, greasy.

A rogue. That much she was certain of. He didn’t have the look of a pride male. He was nervous, edgy, and the way he kept tilting his head and scenting, she could see he was trying to figure out if they were alone, or if someone was close by waiting for them. Whether he’d already figured out it was a male rather than a batch of females with her, she didn’t know.

The man behind her shuffled and it was now or never.

Sawyer pushed Kinsey towards the door. The male to her right lunged, and she jerked back in the direction the bathroom, backpedaling until she could see them both. Brothers. They both had the same sharp chin, the same almond-shaped eyes. Both of them had crooked noses, but then again, so did Rift and every other lion male she’d met who’d seen more than a scrap or two in his lifetime. The second one looked younger, but not by much. Rift’s age, then. This didn’t bode well for their chances.

Still, if they both ran for it, Kinsey would never make it to the car alive.

Male lions could be fast when they wanted to be. Still, in human form, these guys wouldn’t pack quite the punch they would as a lion. It’d be stronger than anything a human could dole out, but it would lack the bone-shattering force of their lion half. Sawyer coaxed her lioness up under the surface, feeling the edgy twist of the beast inside her. The lioness didn’t like this.

She didn’t fight males. Not without her sisters. Sawyer felt her lioness twist a little, as if she were trying to look around, but instead she coaxed the lioness out even more, letting the magick and power sit just under her skin. With it came the added Hound magick she’d received after graduating from the Shifter Town Enforcement Academy. It wouldn’t help her much, but it would give her an edge, an added strength and speed they wouldn’t see coming.

“Go,” Sawyer yelled, and Kinsey bolted for the opening. The younger male lunged for her and Sawyer dived to intervene. She’d be damned if she let either one of these bastards touch that girl.

Both males turned towards her, and Sawyer pulled up, standing square between them. Kinsey faded into the rain and darkness. One of the men grinned, his smile feral in the dim light of the rest area. “Think you’re clever? You’re still here.”

He took a lumbering step toward her.

Just a few more seconds. Just enough to give Kinsey time to get to the car. To safety.

Sawyer grinned between them and took a step back. “You have to catch me first.”

Magick swirled and hummed through her veins as she felt their beasts tune to the challenge at hand. They wanted a fight, a hunt. Well, they were going to get one of those, probably even both, tonight.

She’d give them the chase first.

Now!
Sawyer spun away, racing for the rear exit. The males lunged after her, but she was already sprinting for the door. Kinsey would be at the car right now, and if Sawyer had any luck at all, they’d follow her in the opposite direction, like they’d follow a mother leading a hyena away from her cubs.

She crashed into the door and slammed it open as she darted out into the night. The rain made the sidewalk slick underfoot, and she skidded over the cement and onto the grass, running away from the car and further into the darkness. She slipped and caught herself against a tree, only to throw herself forward again, back into her run. Blinking through the rain pouring down her face, she saw a shadow to her left move, right before something slammed into her.

His fist caught her in the gut and Sawyer doubled over, gasping. The strike was more lion than man. He lashed out again, his fist slammed into her face hard enough that she tasted blood in her mouth.

Years of self-defense training kicked in. After she’d been kidnapped by a deranged serial killer, her father had made damn sure that every one of his kids knew out to fight like a man and not just as a lion. Then the Academy had honed her skills above and beyond her raw talent. Every Hound had to be able to fight without a gun, because sometimes there just wasn’t any other option.

The lioness in her strained to lash out with claws and teeth, but they’d expect moves like that. They wouldn’t expect this.

She rammed her elbow back into the first male’s nose, hard enough that she could hear the cartilage pop under the blow. Spinning, she kicked out, swiping her foot under his and sending him sprawling to the wet grass.

Sawyer spun, darting toward freedom, but his partner caught her by her arm and jerked her back. Her sneakers slid in the wet grass, and she fell face-first onto the ground with his heavy body toppling over hers.

A heavy, clawed paw crashed into her back, drove the breath from her lungs, and ground her face into the muddy grass. A roar filled her lungs and she felt the lioness inside her twist, wild to get loose. She lashed out, claws tearing into the ground, and it was enough to knock the man off of her. She rolled, scrambling onto her ass as she scooted back in the grass, swiping blindly out at shadows.

It was survival, pure and simple.

They took turns diving in at her, lashing out and roaring, leaving Sawyer with no choice but to alternate her attacks between the two, doing her best to stave them off. Where the hell was Rift? She didn’t have a nun’s chance in hell of fighting off two males alone. The only thing that was saving her was the Hound magick coursing through her veins, giving her just enough speed and strength to keep them at bay. Sawyer snarled, feigning a swipe at one male before launching herself full force at the other. Her open palm smacked across his face, but her claws ripped him open from temple to chin. He roared, lunging, only to be knocked back into the grass by a massive feline body.

The snap of bone came sharp into the darkness.

Sawyer lay there gasping as Rift ripped into the other lion, blood splattering in an arc the rain. The man beneath him screamed and then suddenly went silent. Sawyer knew without even looking that he was dead. The other male had shifted and was now circling Rift, his lips curled back to reveal fangs.

Rift threw back his head and roared. The sound echoed through the night air with raw, feral challenge. Surprise had let him win the first fight easily. A man against a lion didn’t a chance.

Lion to lion, though, was a different story.

The other male lunged and Rift met him with extended claws and huge, body-shaking slashes. Sawyer sucked in a breath and let her own beast out.

Her clothing faded under the magick, disappearing with the change. There was no logic or science to what they were, just pure magick. The moment all four paws hit the rain-slick grass Sawyer lunged. Claws spread wide, she caught the attacking male from behind and ripped open his haunches.

Rift battled him head to head, both males lashing out towards the face, but the moment she struck from behind, the rogue whirled on her. She ducked out of range and let Rift slam him into the ground, claws and teeth sinking into the other male’s back.

Her attacker twisted, lashing out wildly, and then, with a sudden wrench of his body he was free and bolting across to freedom. And unlike him, they let him go. This wasn’t their territory to defend, and they had a cub waiting for them in the car.

Sawyer watched their attacker go, her breath puffing out in curls of mist, her sides heaving. They’d been lucky, so damn lucky. She turned and saw Rift nosing over the dead lion, one large paw swiping at the body.

And yet, they hadn’t been lucky enough.

A dead shifter wasn’t a good thing. It was trouble that could make their situation far more deadly.

And how the hell she was going to explain this to Lennox was beyond her.

She shifted back, her rain-soaked clothes clinging to her skin again, but at least it washed away the blood. Rift shifted next to her, his lion fading into the shape of a man. He crouched next to the body, running a hand through his hair. Beads of rain slid down the hard lines of his face. “Hell.”

They had to call this in.
She
had to call this in, but then what? Kinsey would be back in a pride that wanted her dead, and Sawyer would be out of a job. She glanced at Rift. And Rift would probably be fined or executed, depending on the Hounds around here, for being an unregistered rogue who had just killed someone.

“We call it in on the road.”

She blinked at him. Lennox would kill her. “And say what? We went in for a piss, got jumped by one lion and killed him, but hey, we couldn’t stay for the police report, we have more trouble bearing down on our asses?”

Rift shook his head. “You got a better plan? Because sticking around for the Hounds to come spells bad in all kinds of ways. At least we’d be calling it in. Or we could just leave it for someone else to find.” That was something she definitely couldn’t do.

Just the thought of some mother and child pulling up and discovering the mutilated body—they didn’t deserve that.

“Fine, you call while I drive.” She turned to head back for the car and froze. Water and blood mixed, running down her arms and over her hands. She could see the cuts over her arms and winced. With a tilt of her head she could see the slice across Rift’s left cheek, the heavy bleeding on his left arm. “Maybe we should get cleaned up first.”