Jace hadn’t meant to let Evie see him. He’d been there every night this week, blending into the shadows, and she’d never even suspected. But tonight, he’d known his eyes had gone night-glow in the dim light. He could’ve lowered his lids when she’d turned toward him.
Instead, he’d stared back. His heart had given a jubilant thump, his animal thrilled that she’d sensed him when she hadn’t the night before or the night before that. And before he knew it, he was crossing the alley to her.
Talking to Evie, having a beer in her homey little kitchen, was a balm to a man who’d been raised on war and bloodshed. He’d reveled in the unaccustomed sense of peace, like lying in the grass on a summer day and watching the clouds drift by. And kissing her was even better. He could get addicted to this woman: her spicy mouth, that sexy dimple, the taut body that was a perfect fit for his…
Then Kyler burst in and jolted Jace out of his pleasant haze. Because he’d come up here alone, and if a man from the clan was outside without his knowledge, it meant trouble anyway you looked at it.
Now he halted on the stoop, scanning the area with his night vision. Behind him, he heard Kyler shoot home the deadbolt.
Good man.
The other fada had disappeared. So he didn’t want to be seen. Jace’s skin prickled.
A scrape of gravel. He narrowed his eyes. There—across the alley, right where he’d been standing.
The shadows near the wooden fence coalesced, became a large animal. A shaggy black wolf.
No. It couldn’t be.
The wolf darted around the corner and disappeared.
Jace threw off his clothes and shifted to jaguar. As his animal, he could run faster and his senses were more acute, but he lost precious seconds in the shift. He shot out of the yard and around the corner in the wolf’s wake. Tracking it in a sea of small-town scents wasn’t easy, but he caught a wild, distinctive scent to the left and turned in that direction.
Two houses down, a dog’s indignant yapping changed to a terrified whine. Jace swerved in its direction and bounded over a chain link fence. The dog was pressed against the back door of a small white house. At the sight of Jace’s 250-pound jaguar, it whimpered and then peeled back its lips in a last, pitiful defense.
Jace ignored it to soar over the fence on the opposite side, hot on the wolf’s trail.
He still couldn’t quite believe it was Corban Savonett. The man was supposed to be dead. But Jace had known that scent since he was a cub.
When last heard from, Adric’s cousin had been in the Himalayas tracking a rogue ice fae female—and then he’d disappeared, his quartz winking out along with him.
But it made sense. Corban was a sly SOB. If he couldn’t beat Adric in a fair fight, it was just like him to try and take out his lieutenants.
Jace pounded after the huge black wolf. His jaguar was fast, but he hadn’t regained his full strength yet. He began to flag, but then something odd happened—Corban slowed down, too.
The fur rose on Jace’s nape. Too easy. With Corban’s head start, he should’ve been able to easily shake Jace off.
Trap!
He swerved just as another earth fada appeared beside Corban, a cougar Jace didn’t know. The two of them turned as one and charged Jace.
He went airborne, bounding sideways over a white picket fence. He was in a backyard with a wood playset. He ran up the slide and along the top bar and then launched himself onto the garage roof, hoping to confuse Corban. Wolves relied heavily on their sense of smell, especially at night.
Corban and the cougar raced into the yard, but Jace was already soaring off the other side of the garage. He hit the asphalt at a full run.
He considered his options. His main priority was Evie and Kyler, but even if he led Corban and his henchman away from their house, Corban knew where they lived. And Corban wouldn’t give a damn about collateral damage, especially two humans.
Jace would have to stand and fight.
He headed for Susquehanna River and the small park that would be empty at this time of night. Thank the gods he knew Grace Harbor from his visits with Merry. For the first couple of years, this had been the only place the Rock Run fada had allowed the two of them to meet. Neutral territory, but close to the base.
Now Jace knew the perfect place to take a stand.
He reached the park and sprinted toward a stream that fed into the Susquehanna, Corban and the cougar right behind. He ran onto a footbridge that spanned the stream and whipped around to face them. The bridge was too narrow for them to both attack him. They’d have to take him on one at a time.
They skidded to a halt a few yards away. Two sets of gold eyes gazed at him. All three of them were panting hard.
He caught a good whiff of the cougar’s scent and mentally raised a brow. A female—interesting. But then, Corban never seemed to have trouble attracting women, although why any female would align herself with a prick like Adric’s cousin was a mystery to Jace.
Corban snarled a warning. Surrender—or die.
Jace curled his lip. Like the wolf would let him leave alive anyway. Go fuck yourself.
Corban gathered his muscles and leapt. Jace rose to meet him and they collided with a crash that would’ve broken the bones of any creature who wasn’t a fada.
And damn, it hurt. Jace’s breath left his lungs. Pain ripped through his almost-healed knife wounds. Suha wasn’t going to be happy.
Then he stopped thinking and went for Corban’s jugular. The wolf jerked right, but Jace got a mouthful of fur and blood.
Corban went for Jace’s throat, silent and deadly. Meanwhile, the cougar had somehow slipped past Jace and was snapping at his hind legs.
Two against one wasn’t fair, but then Corban had always fought dirty, even back when they’d been cubs and he was several years older and nearly twice Jace’s weight.
But Jace wasn’t a cub anymore—and he’d learned some dirty tricks of his own.
He slashed at the cougar’s face with a hind leg, claws extended. She yelped and jumped back. Jace dodged Corban as he lunged a second time for Jace’s throat. He slid past the wolf and then turned and sank his teeth into Corban’s hind leg.
His jaguar’s long, curved canines were powerful enough to pierce a skull. He sliced through muscle above the hock and crunched against bone.
The wolf’s furious snarl split the night. He struck wildly at Jace, biting whatever he could reach—Jace’s face, his shoulder.
Jace released Corban’s leg to go for a killing bite to the neck, only to have the cougar leap on his back. Sharp canines sliced into his nape. He ignored the pain to slam her against the bridge’s metal railing. She released his nape and fell to the wooden planks, unconscious.
Jace turned toward Corban, but the coward was racing off as fast as he could on three legs. Jace looked after him, chest heaving, itching to chase him down but knowing it wasn’t worth it. From the amount of blood he’d left behind, Corban wouldn’t try anything else tonight.
Meanwhile, Jace had Evie and Kyler to protect, and on top of that, he was bleeding from several places himself.
He hissed a cat’s version of a curse after the wolf’s retreating figure and turned to the cougar. Adric would want to question her.
Shifting back to man, he tapped his quartz. The alpha answered immediately; Evie must have gotten through to him. “On my way,” he said over the muted roar of a motorcycle.
“We’ve got a situation here.” Jace explained what had happened.
When he got to Corban, the alpha snarled. “I knew the bastard wasn’t dead—that would be too fucking simple. I want to talk to that female. I don’t care how you do it, but make sure she doesn’t leave.”
“That’s what I thought. But your cousin—what if he goes after Evie and her brother? He knows I was there.”
Jace didn’t have to spell it out. They both knew Corban wouldn’t give a damn if innocents got hurt, especially humans.
“Fuck. What the hell were you doing there, anyway? No, don’t answer that. You can explain when I get there.”
“I’ll meet you at Evie’s house. I’ll bring the cougar with me.”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” Adric ended the connection.
The cougar’s eyelids fluttered. Jace knelt on the bridge to check her for injuries. Other than a gash on her head, she was all right. In fact, his injuries were worse.
He wrapped his hand around her quartz; lightly, but she felt it all right. She tensed and opened her eyes, her upper lip twitching in an attempt at a snarl.
“Shift,” he ordered. “Now.”
She growled weakly.
“Maybe I’m not being clear. You don’t have a choice.” He tightened his grip on her pendant.
She jerked in pain. Deep within, he sensed its panicked vibrations, echoing its wearer’s terror. You didn’t touch anyone’s quartz without their permission, and even then, only a close relation or a lover could wrap a hand around it without causing a deep, visceral discomfort.
He was being a bastard, but he didn’t fucking care. The fada who’d kidnapped Marjani had smashed her quartz to bits. This woman might not have been part of that, but she’d attacked Jace for no reason other than Corban’s say-so. Worse, she was a threat to Evie and Kyler.
The cougar whimpered. He let up on the pressure but kept the quartz in his palm. “Shift.”
Deep within, a single point of silver glowed to life, then another and another. Jace added a small portion of his energy to hers. He was the stronger, but his quartz was still being drained of energy to heal him, both from his earlier iron poisoning and now the cuts Corban and this female had inflicted during the fight. He’d give her an energy boost, but she could drain her own damn quartz to shift.
Silver and blue and purple sparkles spread over the cougar’s fur, and then a naked woman was curled up on the bridge, chest heaving, her hair a wild tangle around her shoulders.
Jace released her quartz and grabbed her arm. “Don’t even think about running. Understand?”
She growled, but nodded. He rose to his feet, bringing her with him.
She was tall and curvy. Jace took in her body with clinical detachment; shifters were used to seeing each other in their skins. He was more concerned about getting a naked woman back to Evie’s without some asshat human calling the cops.
The woman touched the side of her head. “Hurts.”
She was telling the truth, and yet he sensed the lie beneath. She wasn’t as injured as she was pretending.
He hardened his jaw. “What’s your name?”
She pressed her lips together. Names had power in their world.
He jerked her close and slid a finger over her quartz.
Her eyes flashed angrily. She knocked his hand away and wrapped her own fingers around the quartz, protecting it. “Nika,” she gritted.
“That’s better.” He took a firm hold of her upper arm. “Let’s go.”
Their mad dash through Grace Harbor had taken the form of a large circle. They’d ended up just a few blocks from Evie’s house.
Jace hurried the woman through the night, keeping an eye out for both the cops and Corban, although Jace was pretty sure the wolf would have to go to ground. Even with the help of his quartz, that leg of his was going to take a few days to heal.
They reached Evie’s house without incident. Jace marched his captive up the steps and tapped on the back door with his free hand. “Evie? It’s me, Jace.”
She did a double take when she saw him standing there naked, bloodied, and with a tall, curvy, and very naked female. “What the—”
“I’ll explain—just let me in, please.”
She hesitated another few seconds and then stepped back. “Come in.”
“Thanks.” Jace strong-armed his captive into the kitchen. “Do you have any rope?”
Evie started to nod, then her eyes widened. “You want to tie her up?”
“She attacked me, Evie. I promise I won’t hurt her—I just want to keep her quiet until Adric arrives.”
The shift had healed both his and Nika’s superficial cuts, but he was still bleeding from the claw marks on his face, shoulder, and thigh, and Nika’s face had a deep gash from the blow he’d struck with his hind claws. Evie’s gaze flicked to the blood on Jace’s face to Nika’s, and then she opened the door to the pantry.
“I think I have something in here…”
While he was gone, she’d changed into a purple tank top and loose gray shorts that stopped halfway down her thighs, exposing a length of strong, shapely legs. He eyed her calves as she rummaged in the pantry for rope and silently wished Nika back beneath whatever rock she’d crawled out from under.
“Is there anything I can do?” Kyler asked. To the kid’s credit, after one quick look at Nika, he’d kept his eyes on her face.
Jace nodded. “Get her a towel or something to cover up with.”
“Right.” The teenager jogged upstairs and returned a minute later with a large beach towel and a pair of gym shorts for Jace.
Jace wrapped the towel around Nika and pulled out a chair. He twirled it to face him. “Sit.”
While she obeyed, he dragged on the shorts. His own clothes were still outside where he’d dropped them, but he wasn’t going to open the door until Adric got here. He didn’t think Corban would try anything until his leg healed, but he wasn’t going to take any chances with Evie and Kyler.
He snagged a paper towel. “Give me your quartz,” he ordered Nika.
Her claws slid out. “And if I say no?”
He locked gazes with her. He couldn’t risk Nika changing to her cougar. With her teeth and claws, she could do serious damage to a human within seconds. “You don’t want to play games with me.”
She snarled but gave in, conceding Jace the silent contest. As he’d suspected, he was several degrees dominant to her. She scowled and dragged off the quartz, setting it on the towel. He wrapped it carefully and stowed it in his pocket.
Nika wound the beach towel more tightly around herself and slumped in the chair.
Good. She wasn’t going to try anything without her quartz. She wouldn’t even attempt to escape. An earth fada could survive without a quartz, but no one would do it willingly. It was like having a vise around your chest. You couldn’t breathe as well, you had less energy. You could make do with another quartz, but finding the perfect match, a quartz that resonated with you on a magical level, could take weeks.
Jace leaned against the counter and examined his captive. She had red hair and unusually pale skin for an earth fada.
She stared back impassively. “You have sent for Lord Adric?” It was the longest sentence she’d said yet. For the first time, he realized she had a foreign accent—Russian or some other Slavic country. Where the hell had Corban found her, anyway?
“Yeah.” Jace glanced at the kitchen clock. “He should be here any minute.”
Fear etched her face.
“I see you’ve heard of him.”
“Of course.” She smoothed her expression, but he scented her rising dread. “He is well known.”
Jace nodded. Earth fada weren’t as prolific as the water fada; there were only a dozen clans scattered around the world. The Baltimore clan had come to Maryland about fifty years ago by way of Jamaica and the Persian Gulf. Adric might be the youngest alpha, but his reputation as a ruthless SOB had quickly spread.
“You entered Adric’s territory,” Jace said, “and attacked one of his own people. I’d say you were asking to meet him.”
She moved a shoulder, her gaze on the floor.
“And Nika?” He leaned closer. “Everything you’ve heard about him is true.”
She remained silent but a fine tremor went down her spine. He grinned evilly and came upright to find Kyler eyeing him with a mixture of horror and respect. He winked at the lanky kid over the top of Nika’s head.
Evie exited the pantry with a ball of clothesline. “Will this work?”
“Perfect.” Jace took it and turned to Nika. “Put your hands behind the chair.”
The cougar bit her lip. “Please. There is no need. I will not run—I swear it.”
Jace inhaled. She had the scent of truth. Beside him, Evie tensed and he caught a whiff of fear.
A spike of anger lanced through him—not at Evie, but at Corban and the life he, Jace, led. He knew damn well any headway he’d made with Evie tonight had evaporated the minute he dragged a naked and injured woman into her kitchen. His stomach hollowed.
And things were about to get worse, because he was going to have to convince her to leave town. Corban Savonett was a coldhearted bastard and Jace’s scent was all over Evie. If Corban couldn’t take down Jace, he’d go after her next. Grace Harbor was no longer safe for her or Kyler.
Evie dragged a hand over her cropped blond hair. “I know she attacked you, but she’s hurt.”
Jace swore under his breath but dropped the clothesline on the table. “All right,” he told Nika. “But one false move and I’ll smash your quartz into a hundred pieces. Are we clear?”
Her throat worked. She dropped her head so that her tangled red hair hid her face and gave a jerky nod. “Yes.” She touched the bump on her head. “Hurts.”
Jace didn’t trust her worth a damn, but the pitiful-me act worked with Evie. “Can I give her a glass of water?”
He sighed in defeat. “Sure. Why not?”
While Evie got Nika water, Kyler handed her an ice pack for her head. Jace hooked his foot around the bottom rung of the nearest chair and dragged it in front of Nika. He dropped onto the seat and crossed his arms. Not speaking, just making it clear she wasn’t moving an inch without his say-so.
Nika pressed the ice pack to her head and stared down at the floor. At least she was smart enough not to challenge him directly.
Evie touched his shoulder. “Jace?”
“What?” he rapped out without taking his gaze from his prisoner.
“You’re hurt.”
“I’ll live.” But now the adrenaline had worn off, he was feeling every single one of the bites and cuts Corban and Nika had torn out of his hide. Shifting had caused most of them to scab over, but a gash on his thigh was oozing blood. The worst was his abdomen, where it felt like the deeper of the knife wounds had torn open again.
“This is getting to be a bad habit.” Evie’s tone was dry. “You bleeding in my kitchen.”
He barked out a laugh and glanced up in time to see her lopsided grin. The hollow feeling eased. “Clean it up then,” he grumbled. But his cat twitched its tail in delight.
Evie dampened a clean washcloth and used it to dab at the cuts on his face and shoulder. When she got to the gash on his thigh, she sucked in a breath.
“Just clean it,” he said. “I can heal it.”
“Sure you can.”
When she was finished, he ran his quartz over his thigh. The wound tingled and started closing up. The knife wound was trickier, but he sent a burst of energy into it and hoped it would hold until Suha could work her magic.
Nika watched, the ice pack to her head.
Evie sent him a look from where she was washing her hands in the sink. He could practically hear her urging him to help the injured woman as well. With a sigh, he rose to his feet and ran his quartz over the gashes on Nika’s face and head. Just a few quick pulses, but it would ease her pain as well as speed up her healing. Without her quartz, her ability to heal herself was even worse than the average human’s, since all her energy was now being directed to merely staying alive.
Kyler took a seat on the other side of the table, while Evie remained standing. The kid raised a shaggy brown brow. “So we’re waiting for Lord Adric?”
“Yeah. Tell me,” Jace said, “what did that guy say to you, anyway? The one who was outside?”
Kyler glanced at his sister.
She cocked a hip against the counter. “Tell him, Kyler.”
“He said that you were just fucking with Evie. That you eat little girls like her for breakfast.”