A shadow passed over her face, her mouth tightening as if in pain though he knew that to be a lie. The soulless felt no pain but the physical.
She swallowed visibly, her expression hardening to granite. I severed the bond because I could. Once I embraced the dark spirit, I had no need of you, Feral. No desire to touch you or be touched by you again. And I still dont. The Ariana you knew no longer exists. And I have no interest in you.
Even though her words didnt surprise him, her cold dismissal turned like a blade in his gut, igniting his fury.
His hands fisted until the blood began to throb in his palms. Why did Melisande reconnect the mating bond?
She looked away. A perverse bit of mischief. Go away, Kougar. Theres nothing for you here.
As her gaze returned to his, brown contacts blocking any glimpse into her thoughts, he struggled to hold on to his thinning control. And felt it slipping through his fingersfingers about to erupt in claws.
Ariana flushed hot, then cold, as she stared at Kougar, at her mate, at the man shed loved for a thousand years.
Shed forgotten how tall he was, how broad his shoulders, how muscular his arms, as he stood before her now in a white-collared shirt and black pants, clothes torn and bloodied as if hed been fighting. Shed forgotten how his presence filled a room, how it filled the entire castle, until she could hardly breathe through the need to be in his arms, to feel his body sliding against hers, sliding into hers.
He couldnt know.
Never had she struggled so hard to control her emotions, to hide what was in her heart and head. Never had doing so caused her so much pain as it did now as Kougar stared at her with eyes as pale as ice, filled not with tenderness but with pain and a growing fury. Not with love but hatred. A hatred she must fan.
Her stomach clenched and churned. What she was doing was cruel beyond measure. But she had no choice. Her cruelty just might keep Kougar alive.
Soulless, soulless, soulless.
The chant pounded in her head as she focused on keeping her expression closed and hard even as emotions clawed at her in a wild battlelonging and fear. A storm of devastating love and aching grief that had lived within her for an eternity.
Inside, her heart trembled, on the verge of an emotional meltdown. She narrowed her eyes, dropping her lids to mere slits, trying to hide the sheen of disastrous tears even as she fought back the emotion, fought for control.
Goddess, she loved him. Shed never stopped loving him even when shed hated herself for it, for the destruction that love had wrought. So many dead. So much grief.
But the danger wasnt past for the Ilinas.
And thanks to Mel, Kougar was in danger again, too. Damn, Melisande! She never should have reconnected the mating bond without Arianas knowledge. Without her consent!
Mel knew Ariana wouldnt approve, which was why shed gone behind her back. Melisande might not care if Kougar, or any Feral, lived or died. But Ariana did. Too much. And he would die if that poison started flowing again. The only thing saving him was the miserable, mangled state of their mating bond.
And she must keep it that way.
Kougar took a threatening step toward her. Within the flaying hatred in his eyes she saw flashes of a pain that nearly drove her to her knees.
Why are you here, Kougar? Why now if youve known I was alive for over twenty years?
Youre going to free two of my friends from a Daemon spirit trap.
Oh, sweet goddess. She couldnt help him.
Struggling for control, she yanked the icy mask tighter over her features. No. Im not. I dont give a damn about your Ferals. Which was partly true. Most of his men had been as opposed to their mating as her maidens had been. Only Horse and the Wind had ever been friendly to her. But whoever the two were who were lost, they were Kougars men. If she could, she would certainly save them. For him.
But she couldnt help him. And she couldnt keep up this pretense much longer! She had to get him to leave.
Lifting her chin, she gave him her haughtiest, coldest look. Go, Kougar, and dont come back. Youre not welcome here.
In a flash, his anger ignited. Shed pushed him too far.
A chill of fear skipped down her spine as his eyes turned the pale gold of a cougars, as fangs dropped from his mouth. One moment he was standing still, the next he lunged, grabbing her around the throat with a wickedly clawed hand. Fiery pain exploded as his claws pierced the sides of her neck, as warm blood ran down into her scrubs. As he slammed her back against the wall.
Too late, she fought him, her instincts off, her gut-deep belief hed never really hurt her causing her to move too slowly when it suddenly became obvious he would.
You bitch. The words were a growl in his throat, his furious face mere inches from her own as his hot breath wafted over her chilling flesh.
She began to tremble from a combination of shock and the knowledge that without her unique Ilina weapons, she was virtually helpless against his far superior strength. If he chose to rip out her throat, she couldnt stop him.
That alone wouldnt kill her. Ilinas, like all immortals, healed almost any wound within minutes. Only if he took her heart would she die. But if she died, so too would her maidens. Her life force would dissipate, spreading to the other Ilinas. And with it, the poison shed protected them against for a thousand years.
As badly as she wanted to protect Kougar, her first responsibility must be to her maidens.
Kougar. Her voice gurgled with the blood in her ruptured windpipe.
He flinched, his gaze dropping to her neck, to where the blood ran in rivulets, soaking her top. Almost as quickly as hed attacked, his claws and fangs retracted, but he didnt pull away. His large hand remained closed around her throat as her pulse beat against his palm.
His gaze locked on hers and held as her wounds healed, as the pain in her throat died a quick death. And still he watched her, pale eyes probing, digging too deep. She tried to look away and couldnt, her parched heart drinking in the sight of the man shed longed for, whom shed missed, and loved, for a thousand years.
In so many ways, he hadnt changed. His hair was much shorter than hed worn it in those days, his beard trimmed to encompass only his mouth and chin. But hed always exuded a powerful pull on her physically, nearly overwhelming in its intensity, and that hadnt changed. For a thousand years, shed blamed herself for giving in to her feelings for him. But standing within the heat of his body, enveloped by his raw, masculine scent, snared by the power of his eyes, she remembered all over again how impossible hed been to resist.
But she must resist him now. His life absolutely depended on it.
He released her neck but continued to crowd her, forcing her to meet his glittering diamond-hard gaze. Youre going into that spirit trap, Ariana. Youre going to get them out.
She swallowed the words of regret. The soulless regretted nothing, and he must believe her soulless. No. Im not.
He growled low in his throat, the sound of an animal, his hand tightening around her throat. Seventeen Ferals died in one of those traps six hundred years ago.
Seventeen. Her mind reeled.
Horse died. You could have saved him. You could have saved them all.
Sweet goddess, Horse had been one of his oldest and closest friends. What must it have done to him to have lost so many in a single blow?
Now the Ferals number only nine, or will once the new fox comes forth. The Mage have acquired dark power and are coming too damn close to freeing the Daemons. We cannot lose two more.
Her heart ached, her fingers clenching at her sides as she fought to hide the sorrow fisting in her chest and present a callous front.
She swallowed, clearing the blood and emotion from her throat, layering her voice with ice. I couldnt have helped them, Kougar, even if Id known. Even if Id wanted to. And I cant help the ones in there now. Youre mistaken if you believe I can breach a spirit trap.
Only by turning to mist could she possibly get into the trap and out again. And if she did, her maidens would die.
She could see Kougars anger mounting. She could feel the pulse of it battering her through the mating bond. The Ilina queens possess that ability, Ariana. You know it as well as I.
Queens of old, perhaps, but not I. She needed to get away from him. Even if she hadnt seen him in centuries, she knew this man. No one had ever lived who was more tenacious.
With his friends in trouble, there was no way hed simply turn his back on her and leave. No way. Hed hound her and threaten her, demanding she help him until he finally broke through her façade and discovered the truth.
That she still loved him. That shed always loved him.
A truth that would, quite literally, kill him.
CHAPTER 2
Im not the woman you knew, Kougar, Ariana snapped. Even through the contacts, her eyes stabbed at him. Shed never been one to give up or give in.
Kougar crowded her against the wall. Though their bodies didnt quite touch, her body heat permeated his clothing, sinking into his skin. His hands fisted, slick with her blood as his gaze fell again to the red smear that had soaked into the neck of her shirt. Never had he expected to actually touch her, let alone hurt her. Ilinas were notoriously quick to turn to mist when threatened. Yet she hadnt. And despite his fury, drawing her blood had shaken him.
You ask the impossible, Kougar. She slid her hands between their bodies, grasping her wrists as she murmured something beneath her breath.
Too late, he recognized the chant he himself used to travel back and forth to the Crystal Realm.
An instant later, she was gone, and he stood alone in the Grand Corridor.
Ariana! His angry shout hit the walls, echoing back on him over and over. He couldnt follow her. And his awareness of her through the mating bond told him that she was no longer in the Crystal Realm.
Four days hed waited to catch her. Four fucking days!
Fury detonated within him, and he slammed his fist into the nearest wall, shattering no fewer than half a dozen bones in his hand. With a roar of pain and frustration, he held the hand still for the long seconds it took to heal, as the emotion swirled, then drained away.
Shed claimed she couldnt help him. Which wasnt all that surprising since he could hardly expect the soulless to possess compassion.
But nothing about that confrontation had gone as expected.
When hed attacked her, she hadnt turned to mist. Hed been almost as surprised as she had that his claws had found purchase in her neck. And when she left just now, instead of simply turning to mist and disappearing as any other Ilina would do, shed murmured a spell of transport, like a non-Ilina. As if she couldnt turn to mist.
And an Ilina queen who couldnt turn to mist certainly couldnt breach the spirit trap. If shed been irrevocably injured or altered in some way, in that way, his only chance to save Hawke and Tighe was gone.
No fucking way.
Melisande! His voice echoed through the crystal hall, over and over. Brielle!
He waited, his muscles rigid, his breath tight in his chest. As he opened his mouth to yell again, Melisande appeared, hovering before him. A slip of angry female.
Why isnt she turning to mist? he demanded. Why does she need a transport spell?
Cold eyes flinched, but Melisandes expression remained defiant. Shes not your concern.
Like hell she isnt! Shes the only one who can save two of my warriors. Why did you reconnect the mating bond, Melisande? Whats the matter with her?
The womans chin lifted. Find another way to free your men, Kougar. Youll get no help from us.
His fangs and claws erupted, and he lunged at her, reaching for her throat as he had Arianas even though she was already mist and he knew his claws would go right through her. For his efforts, she zapped him with her Ilina energy, lighting a fiery pain in every molecule of his body.
He struggled against the agony and, with a growl of pure fury, threw himself backward, out of that energy-induced inferno, slamming against the wall behind him. As he straightened, Melisande stared at him, her aura reddish orange, her sapphire eyes flashing with an anger to match his own.
Dont ever touch me, Feral, she hissed between bared teeth. If I didnt think it would hurt her more, Id kill you.
He growled between his fangs, drawing on his full size and power to intimidate. Then tell me what I want to know. Why isnt Ariana turning to mist?
Because she cant.
Why not?
The dark spirit . . . changed her.
Melisandes words almost made sense, but the blond Ilina had always been a lousy liar, and she was lying now.
Tell me the truth!
Instead, she disappeared, leaving him once more alone in the hall. It was all he could do not to slam his fist into the wall a second time. It wasnt over. It was not over.
So long as Hawke and Tighe lived, he would never give up.
Yet his hands were all but tied. He couldnt stay in the Crystal Realm more than a day before he started weakening and had to return to Earth, but once he left, he couldnt return until Ariana did. And unless he missed his guess, shed stay away as long as she could now that she knew hed come after her.
Which meant he had to find his answers immediately. Before he was forced to leave.
As he turned to begin the hunt for an Ilina who would tell him what he needed to know, something on the floor caught his eye. A flash of whitea card in protective plastic splattered with a single drop of blood. He bent down and picked it up. Turning it over, he stilled. Arianas pensive face stared back at him from a photo ID that read ANNA SMITH, R.N.
A nurse. Not just pretending. Was she living among the humans, then? If she truly couldnt turn to mist, then of course she was. No corporeal creature could live long in the Crystal Realm. Not even an Ilina.
He stared at the card, then tapped it against his hand, a savage smile lifting one corner of his mouth.
The hunt was on.
Deep below Feral House, Wulfe watched as Esmeria, the most gifted of the Therian healers, touched the forehead of the human male lying unconscious in one of the three now-occupied cells in the Ferals prison block. Long ago, all Therians had been shape-shifters, before the race had mortgaged most of its power to defeat the High Daemon Satanan and his horde. Now, only one each of nine of the ancient shifter lines still retained the power of his animal and the ability to shift. The nine known as the Feral Warriors.