Beat it. The man picked him up with his foot and tossed him half a dozen yards.
Damned human. Tighe came around behind him noisily, ensuring that the guard knew the movement behind him was a cat. Then he shifted and grabbed the mans neck before he knew what was happening. The moment the guard hit the ground, Tighe took control of his thoughts.
You need to use the bathroom. When I tell you to, go into the house. Two cats will try to come in with you. You must let them in. Dont allow anyone to stop them. Once inside the house, youll go into the bathroom and close the door, pull down your pants, then curl up on the floor and go to sleep.
The bastards career would be over when they caught him, literally, with his pants down. But he deserved it for kicking a cat.
Tighe? Hawkes voice broke into his thoughts. My guards out. Im flying up to the roof to keep watch.
Good. Meet me beside the front porch, Kougar. Were going in.
Wake, human, and do as I told you. As the guard rose to his feet, Tighe changed back into his cat form and raced for the front door.
The guard pulled out his phone. Ive got to take a crap. Change places with me.
Tighe trotted beside the human, leaping onto the front porch as the guard knocked on the door with a quick, light rhythm. As planned, the door opened and the two cats slipped inside.
Hey! The inside guard tried to stop their entry, but the one under Tighes control blocked the swing of his foot.
Leave them alone. Theyre not bothering anything.
Get control of things down here, Tighe told Kougar. Ive got to find Delaney.
The Feral didnt answer, but Tighe didnt expect him to. He dashed for the stairs and the source of the terror clawing at his brain. The closer he got to her, the stronger the darkness swirled at the edges of his consciousness. And the stronger he felt her desperation. She was fighting her fate, as was her nature, but without help she was lost in there. And she knew it.
Her door was closed, which meant he was going to have to shift to reach her. The prudent thing to do was search out the rest of the upstairs first, to make sure he wasnt surprised again. But his need to reach her was too strong.
Tighe shifted in the empty hallway, but as he reached for the doorknob, he heard the click of a gun.
Freeze! Hands in the air. A small, round woman with graying hair appeared at the other end of the hall, aiming a gun at his head. Intruder! she shouted.
Shit. This is so not happening. He needed to get to Delaney and he needed to reach her now.
He heard a short scuffle on the lower floor, then silence as a cat ran up the stairs. Kougar.
The woman was already talking into a phone. Its him. She paused. Agreed.
Tighe lifted his hands into the air, holding perfectly still. He could take another bullet if he had to, but hed just as soon not. Not when Delaney needed him.
I thought theyd shot you, the woman said conversationally.
Tighe didnt bother to answer as Kougar scooted past her, then shifted. The woman seemed to sense the change, but she was too slow turning around. Kougar jammed his thumb into the hollow at the base of her ear, stripping her gun from her hand as she went down.
Tighe grabbed for the door that separated him from Delaney. He found her exactly as hed seen her in his vision, still and silent, her cheeks stained with tears.
Delaney. He fell onto the bed beside her and reached for her hand. Like ice. D, Im coming for you. Im not going to leave you in there. But you have to trust me this time. Trust me.
Raw terror pressed in around her, squeezing her mind until Delaney thought her brain would crumble beneath the weight. Her existence had narrowed down to this darkness, this place void of everything shed ever known. This miserable pit of echoing pain and suffocating fear.
How long could she stay sane like this? Maybe it was better if she didnt. Better to lose herself somewhere else. Anywhere else.
Delaney.
A voice whispered from the darkness. A deep voice shed longed to hear so badly shed started to create it for herself. Maybe that insanity would come quicker than shed thought.
Delaney.
Tighes voice. But Tighe was dead.
Trust me.
How many times had he asked her to do that? But she hadnt. Not fully. She couldnt. Not when she knew he was one of the bad guys.
Tighe?
Darkness swirled around her, a perfect void without sound, without sight, without feel except that persistent, distant pain. But the voice continued to speak in her head.
D, Im coming for you. Im not going to leave you in there, but you have to reach out to me. You have to trust me.
Youre not real. Youre dead. And yet there was something about his voice that brushed her mind with a familiar feel of warmth. Of strength.
Im not dead, brown eyes. Im right here with you. Im trying to get you out. Can you feel my hands on your face?
No. I cant feel anything except the pain in my head, and even that isnt very strong.
Come to me, D. Follow the sound of my voice, then. Reach for me. Trust me.
I cant trust you. You ran from the Feds. The words tore at her, sending a cascade of tears through her mind. I cant trust you.
Then at least trust me to get you out of here. You must reach for me.
Help me, Tighe.
Do you see the thread, D? The iridescent one?
I cant see anything!
Easy, sweetheart. Reach for me with your mind. Reach for me, D.
And suddenly she saw something gleaming, shining with a million colors. A tiny thread. As she reached for it, she felt the angel wings flutter inside her head, telling her shed found it at last. No, not it. Tighe.
She felt his mind brush against hers, a soft thrill of pleasure in the feather-light touch, as she followed the thread. Little by little, it grew larger, brighter.
In a rush of warmth, he grabbed her mentally, his mind lifting her from the dark.
Sensation rushed back, overwhelmingly sweet, as she felt his strong arms go around her and pull her close against his warm body. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his throat, clinging to him as joy squeezed her heart and rushed through her chest.
Youre alive. Tears streaked down her face as she felt his hand cradling the back of her head.
He pulled back, urging her to look at him. She did, her gaze searching the face of the man shed thought shed never see again.
His thumb traced her eyebrow. You had me worried for a few minutes there, brown eyes. I wasnt sure I was going to be able to reach you.
How are you alive?
A shadow brushed past the open doorway.
Tighe, weve got company. Lots of it by the looks of things. Were not going to be able to take her.
Tighes expression tightened as he looked back down at her. Im going to have to leave you for now, but you need me, brown eyes. Im the only one who can save you next time this happens. His mouth turned hard. If you sic the Feds on me again, youre on your own. Dont turn on me again, Delaney. I mean it.
She forced herself to release him. How do I find you?
Stand in the parking lot along the northeast side of the Tidal Basin at 5:30 A.M. In four hours. Ill drive through in a green Camry sedan and pick you up.
How am I going to know its green, let alone you, in the dark?
Ill have one halogen headlight and one normal one. Youll be able to tell.
What if I cant get there that fast?
Do it. I want you with me before you get another vision.
Tighe! The mans voice shouted from the hallway. We have to get out of here. Now!
Tighe leaned down and kissed her hard, his hand sliding behind her neck, his thumb tracing her ear, then the hollow below it.
Trust me, Delaney, he murmured against her lips, then pressed his thumb beneath her ear.
Darkness swallowed her again.
Delaney shoved her hands in the pockets of her blazer as she stood on the edge of the parking lot where Tighe had promised to pick her up. The sky was still dark, few cars on the road at this hour on a Sunday morning. Everything should go down exactly as planned.
As shed planned, not Tighe.
Trust me, hed begged her.
Her stomach felt like shed swallowed nails. In some ways she did trust him. With her body. Oddly, she suspected, even with her life.
But she was an FBI agent. Sworn to uphold the law. She would not let her duty be derailed by feelings for a man she knew was involved in something hugely illegal. Feelings she didnt even understand.
When Tighe arrived to pick her up, he would be the one taken instead.
Her stomach clenched. The angel wings fluttered angrily. Hed begged her to trust him.
He had to be brought in for questioning. He was into something bad, and the Feds needed to know what it was.
Hed risked his life to come to her and free her from that dark prison. He hadnt even taken her with him, hed just saved her.
Delaney pressed her fist against the aching lump sitting in her gut. God, what had she done?
Her job. Shed done her job. He was a criminal. His brother a murderer. She had to catch them. She had no choice. He was a bad guy, blast it.
But he wasnt. Not completely. He had a goodness in him, a gentleness. Hed rescued that little girl from the fire, hadnt he?
All her life shed seen people as good or bad. Especially criminals. Yet Tighe didnt entirely fit either of those roles.
Delaney rubbed her fist against her churning stomach. Maybe he did. Maybe he wasnt one of the bad guys at all. All she knew for sure was that he was involved with something big and had refused to be taken by the Feds. All along her instincts had been telling her that he wasnt evil. What if her instincts were right? For all she knew, he could be part of some military special ops or other supersecret team put together to battle terrorism and save the world.
Yes, hed kidnapped her. And drugged her.
Good grief, was she really trying to convince herself hed done all those things for the right reasons?
Yeah, maybe she was. He hadnt hurt her. Hed never hurt her. In fact, hed gone to great lengths to keep her from being hurt. Hed saved her.
And shed set him up again to be captured. What if he tried to escape and wasnt as lucky this time?
The knots in her stomach cramped.
Shed made Phil promise no one would shoot him, but even if they didnt intend to kill him, they absolutely meant to apprehend him. Too many people had died for them to let him get away.
She couldnt do this. She couldnt let them shoot him again. It was a mistake. A horrible mistake.
Delaney started running through the trees, toward the road. She had to keep Tighe from making that turn. She had to stop this.
But shed barely gone ten yards when a car swung into the parking lot. A midsized sedan with one halogen headlight.
No.
A large bird of prey flew low over her head, but she barely noticed. She watched the car come to a slow stop not ten spaces into the lot, too far away for her to see Tighes face. Immediately, half a dozen SWAT surrounded the car, weapons drawn. If he tried to get away this time, he was a dead man.
Oh God, Tighe. What have I done?
A large hand clamped around her mouth, as an iron arm pinned her against a hard chest.
You did exactly what he expected you to, a deep, vaguely familiar voice said against her ear.
CHAPTER 14
Paenther turned at the sound of the blinkers to find Foxx preparing to pull the Mustang into a small, run-down convenience store set into the side of a steep, heavily wooded hill. An old sign hung above the single door. MARKET, it read. As if it were the only place to buy anything in this middle-of-nowhere deep in the mountains of western Virginia.
It probably was.
At the corner of the old brick building, a doe and a spotted fawn watched curiously until Foxx pulled into the nearly empty parking lot with a spray of gravel. The pair took off for the woods.
Your gut telling you something? Paenther eyed the redheaded Feral with a razor-sharp hope.
Foxx snorted. Yeah. Its telling me Im hungry.
With a thinly masked groan of disgust, Paenther tipped his head back against the headrest. Soon after the meeting at Feral House, Foxx announced that his gut was telling him theyd find Vhyper in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the narrow range that ran parallel to the East Coast from Georgia to Pennsylvania and met up with I66 a little over an hours drive west of D.C.
With nothing better to go on, he and Foxx had hightailed it out there and been driving aimlessly around this pastoral outback for the past seven plus hours. Theyd covered nearly two hundred miles of country roads and so far found nothing.
Damned useless intuition. How was the cub supposed to read his gut when all it seemed to do was rumble with hunger?
The dust kicked up by Foxxs assault on the gravel covered the car in a light fog that wafted in the open window, making Paenthers nose twitch.
Want anything? Foxx swung his long, broad-shouldered frame out of the car.
Yeah, he wanted something. Several somethings. Vhyper, the Daemon blade, Tighes clone. Not to mention the whereabouts of the Mage stronghold. None of which were likely to be found inside the Market.
With a growl of frustration, Paenther climbed out of the car and followed Foxx. For the moment, a hot dog and a Coke would have to do, but his always razor-thin patience was fraying fast. If that intuition of Foxxs didnt kick in soon, Paenther was going to turn into some seriously bad company.
He strode across the narrow parking lot, his gaze constantly on the move. There were five cars scattered across the small parking lot, none of which looked like it was less than fifteen years old. None of which was Vhypers. Across the rarely traveled two-lane was a small farmhouse set in the middle of a large pasture dotted with horses.
Not a mansion in sight. The Mage never lived in groups of fewer than thirty or forty, and thered been no sign of any large residences around there. They were wasting their time.
Paenther pushed through the twin glass doors, spying Foxx in the middle of a narrow aisle, his hands already half-filled with junk food. How he could stand to eat that crap, Paenther didnt know. He grabbed the closing door as a harried-looking woman approached, pushing a crying baby in a stroller.