His Purrfect Mate (14 page)

Chloe looked at her.  The demon-possessed
Sophronia had produced a knife, with a gleaming, wickedly curved blade.   Her stomach lurched.

“Fine,” she said. “
I’ll tell you what you want to know.  But I just want to know something first.  Why was it that you always avoided my mother when she was growing up?”

The demon threw its hands up in the air despairingly.

“Humans!” it said. “Do you know how much I despise this mortal body? Its hideous weaknesses, its feelings, its needs…it sickens me! I long to return to the demon realm.”

“Then why don’t you?”

“We can’t,” the demon said bitterly. “None of us can.  It was a one way portal; after we were summoned, we were trapped in this human world forever.  At least in the days when we were first summoned here, there was blood everywhere. My master looked out on the field of battle, and made the blood of the humans boil inside their bodies, until they fell to the ground screaming in their death throes, and then we feasted.  Glorious blood, beautiful, wonderful, fear and pain.”

She fixed her gaze on Chloe. “You humans enjoy your chocolate and your wine. We live off of blood, and fear.  The blood of a human dying in agony…it tastes a million times better than the sweetest
sugar, it feels a million times better than the most intense orgasm. And you pathetic humans can never experience that joy.”

“How unfortunate for us,” Chloe murmured. “But you still haven’t explained, why did you always avoid my mother?”

The demon-woman fixed its eyes on
Hilary, despairingly. “Because I didn’t want to kill her. Oh, I had no problem killing my husbands, my parents, sneaking out at night to find people to kill…”

Hilary
let out a shocked gasp. “You killed my father!”

“
Eventually, yes.  I couldn’t help myself.  I have to kill, you know, or I start to burn inside, with a craving so painful you can’t imagine it,” the demon said in a conversational tone.  “But Hilary…when she was born, I felt…weakness.” The demon’s smooth brow wrinkled in frustration.  “I didn’t want her to die.” Her lips curled back in disgust. “It was horrible.  Unnatural.  I had banished the human whose body I stole into an endless sleep, I should have no human feelings, but… there it was. ‘Maternal instinct’, they call it.  I simply could not make myself kill that infant.  This human body pollutes me.”

“So you sent her away…”

“I would have killed her if she’d stayed close to me. I couldn’t let myself be near her for any length of time or the urge would become too strong. It’s part of what we are. We can’t feel that loathsome human emotion that you call love; it turns into hate, and then the urgent need to kill.” A smile drifted across her face. “And then there’s blood. Delicious blood.”

Hilary
’s eyes were huge with shock. “My father,” she whispered.  Chloe grabbed her shaking hand and squeezed it, hard.

“You
kept in touch with my mother over the years so that you could use her to help you look for the other statues.  That’s why you had her take over that antique shop,” Chloe said.  So much was becoming clear now…terribly clear.

“Of course. The only reason I exist is to serve my master. I almost gave up, you know.  I thought I’d never find the statues.  I thought I was condemned to roam this world alone, sneaking under cover of darkness to feed, living a life of pointless monotony, tormented by human feelings…until that magazine came out with the pictures of those statues.” Her face stretched in a hideous rictus which apparently was meant to be a blissful smile.

Chloe looked at her, narrow-eyed.  “You stole those two statues
from Kenneth. Why did you leave the other one behind?”

“That was my statue.
My prison.  Once I was released from it, I didn’t need it anymore.”

“And why did you lure me to your house and try to have lion shifters attack me? Why did you leave your own blood there?”

“To make sure that you’d come after me. And now I tire of your stupid questions.  What difference does it make, when you’re going to die soon?”

She spun around, and the tip of her knife was pressed against
Hilary’s throat. Hilary gasped in shock.

“Where are the other
statues? You know! Tell me!” the demon screamed at Chloe.

“Wait!” Chloe cried. “You said that you didn’t want to kill her!”

“I resisted the urge to kill before, when I thought I was trapped in this mortal body forever.   Now, I am so close to the return of my master…so close…I would sacrifice anything for him, for his glory.” Her eyes were glowing as red as rubies. “The sacrifice of this human body’s daughter and grand-daughter…the master would appreciate that.”

The master?
One master? Which statue held the master, Chloe wondered.

Chloe swallowed hard.  This thing would kill her mother if she didn’t talk.

She thought back on what Kenneth had told her about his employees who’d gone to Turak, and what they’d learned there. 

“There is a family named El-Debar, and they live in a compound in the center o
f town. They run an antique dealership.   They questioned Kenneth’s family several times about the statues, asking to buy them. Kenneth’s family thinks it is possible that they have the other statues and that now they want to gather them all together.”

The demon
’s eyes were positively blazing now.

“Yes. I have heard of them. Yes.
It makes sense,” it growled happily.

Chloe
turned to the bear shifter.

“You’re all right with this? You’re in service to a demon that feeds off blood, and you have no problem with that?” she demanded.
He didn’t bother to answer her.

“Humans will do anything for money,”
Sophronia sneered. The shifter didn’t look the least bit offended.

“So we kill them now?”
the shifter asked. Chloe tensed.  Was this it? She glanced at her mother, and a look of understanding passed between them. They were panthers; they’d go down fighting.

Pride swelled inside her, and also
sorrow, at the loss of the lifetime she should have been able to share with Kenneth.

“Not now.” The woman who looked like her grandmother tossed them a look of contempt. “
They will be a worthy sacrifice to the Master.  Lock them up.”

“I like this place,” Reggie said.  “There is a nice breeze here, and an excellent view. I would like my room at home to look like this.” He dug his hand into a bowl of dates and stuffed four of them in his mouth at the same time.

“See?”
Pixie said to Bobbi.

Bobb
i just shook her head.

Heath,
Jax, and Reggie had moved in to Bobbi’s hotel room, because it was further away from the fighting, at least for the moment.   They were eating breakfast at the café, and trying to ignore the sound of gunfire in the distance.

Bobbi was about as frustrated as she could be. Whenever she was near
Jax, she wanted to rip his clothes off and ravage him, but they were all crammed into one tiny room, with the girls and Reggie sleeping on the narrow bed (he slept curled up at their feet), and Jax and Heath sleeping on the floor. 

Her only comfort was knowing that
Jax was as frustrated as she was, and that when they got back to their apartment in Playa Linda, they’d have a marathon sex session so epic they’d have to buy new furniture.

“
Gmmp mmph hmmp mmph mmph?” Reggie asked, around his mouthful of dates.

“What? Chew your food! You’re going to choke,” Bobbi said.  And then his parents will have our heads, she thought.

“He said, are you sure my parents still don’t know I’m here?” Pixie said.  At Bobbi’s surprised look, she added “I speak brat. Because I am one.”

“I’m absolutely sure
they don’t know,” Bobbi said. She was lying. She had no idea what was happening back in California. They hadn’t even been able to get their satellite phones to work for the last day. Cell phone and regular phone service was nonexistent.  All they could do is show up at the place where the plane was supposed to land in a couple of days, and pray that it actually was able to make a landing.

“This goat stew’s actually pretty good,” Heath said, scooping up a huge spoonful. “I’ll have to get the recipe before we go.”

“Right. Because the local grocery stores in Playa Linda sell a lot of goat steak,” Bobbi said, rolling her eyes at him. He tried to kick her under the table, but she pulled her leg out of the way and he kicked Jax instead.

“Ha,” she said. “Serves you
both right.”

“For what?
Wanting to cook goat stew?” Heath demanded indignantly.

“No, jerk, for trying to ditch me back in Playa Linda.
Yes, I’m still on that.”

“She holds a mean grudge,” Heath told
Jax. “You sure you can handle her?”

“Hey, our friend’s back,” Pixie said
before Jax could answer. She nodded at Karesh, who’d just pulled up in front of the café in a battered car which was punctured by several bullet holes. These days, it was rare to see a car in Turak which didn’t have at least one bullet hole.

“That’s the guy I told you about,
Karesh,” Bobbi told Jax.  “The one from the El-Debar family.”

Karesh
gestured at them from outside of the café, waving at them to come outside.  Heath sighed, quickly crammed a huge spoonful of goat stew in his mouth, and tossed several bills on the table. Mamoud bowed politely.

When they trooped
outside, Karesh glanced at Jax and Heath with surprise. “Who are they?” he asked Bobbi.

“They work for my company,” she said.

“All right. I want you to come back to my compound with me, and try one final time to appeal to my family to leave the country.  If this doesn’t work, I will have to take matters into my own hands.  I can’t let my father destroy us all with his stubbornness.”  Bobbi could see circles under his eyes, and a shadow of stubble on his face.

“Why
would he change his mind now?” Bobbi demanded skeptically.

“A mortar landed in the yard yesterday and came very close to killing my mother and two younger brothers while they were tending
the vegetable garden and milking the goats.  If every last one of us dies, there will be no guardians left. Even a stubborn old fool like my father must understand that.”

Bobbi glanced inside the café. 
Mayameen was in there, helping her uncle cook. Her taxi was parked down the block. 

“We’ll follow you there in our own taxi,” she said. 
Karesh looked as if he might protest, but then shrugged and nodded, and climbed into his car to wait for them.

“It’s not that I don’t trust him,” Bobbi said
to Jax, “It’s that I don’t trust anybody, him included.”

“But you trust me, right,
baby?” Jax slung his arm around her shoulders.

“
Hmmph,” she muttered. “I’m addicted to you like an addict is addicted to crack cocaine. But trust you? Ehh….”

“I’ll settle,”
Jax said.

The fighting was exceptional
ly heavy that day, and Mayameen had to weave through neighborhoods all over town to make it back to the compound.

“What was it like to drive here before the war?” Pixie asked her.

“Oh, much more boring,” Mayameen said. “But much safer, of course. I think my passengers preferred it.”

A servant was waiting for them at
the gate, along with Karesh.  When they walked through the gates, Bobbi noticed that the fountain that had been there earlier had been destroyed by mortar fire; now it was splattered across the ground in giant, glittering shards. It made Bobbi feel oddly sad, not for the loss of the fountain, but for the loss that people all over this city were suffering.  The loss of safety, a sense of security, of property, of lives, all over a stupid power grab between two warring brothers.

“Penny for your thoughts,”
Jax said. He could always sense her moods.

Bobbi
sighed. “When we leave, we’ll be leaving Mayameen and Mamoud and his whole family behind in this hell.”

“That sucks,” Pixie agreed, as they stepped over the shards of the fountain. 
Reggie made a game of it, hopping from one foot to another.  “I’ll miss that blackmailing bastard. And his goat yogurt. And Mayameen’s driving.  Could we take them with us on the plane?”

“We could offer, I guess.  I don’t know if they’d even agree to come.  Leaving behind your home and your friends and your country is hard.  And it still doesn’t solve anything for all of the other people who are trapped here with no way out. This bites.”

The door to the house swung open, and they were ushered in to the living room.  The El-Debar family had all gathered there, waiting for them…along with half a dozen large, armed men clutching  AK-47s. 

Bobbi glanced at
Jax. They hadn’t been able to reach Kenneth to let him know they were coming to the compound. “I don’t like the looks of this,” she whispered, sliding in front of Reggie.

* * *

Chloe and her mother spent a sleepless night in their room, trying to figure out an escape plan, and coming up with nothing.  They’d been able to discern by listening at the door that there were half a dozen shifter bodyguards in the house, working for the demon.

“I seriously can’t believe that there are that many shifters who are willing to sell out to a being of pure evil,” Chloe groused. “Apparently I had a very sheltered upbringing. I expect people to be decent.”

“Apparently your upbringing wasn’t sheltered enough.  I spent all my life trying to keep you safe, being the most careful mother I possibly could, and now this happens. I’ve failed as a mother.” Hilary sighed heavily, running her fingers through her tangled hair.

“Okay, you got lured into a car by what you thought was your mother, and it turned out to be a demon. I hardly think you could have seen that one coming,” Chloe protested.

“You know, I probably have a hundred Facebook messages right now, and I haven’t been able to reply to any of them. Everyone must think I’m terribly rude,” Hillary said.  “And think what an amazing status update this would be. My mother turned out to be a demon!”

Well, at least her mother was focusing on what was important.
Rather than, say, the fact that in a few hours they might be demon chow.

“Kenneth will save us,” Chloe said. “He said that he’s my fated mate, and I believe him.
Wouldn’t a panther go to the ends of the earth for his fated mate? I would. I’d go to the ends of the earth for him. ”

“You really think he’ll find us in time?”

“Yes,” Chloe said fervently.

No, she thought. H
e’ll try to find us…but how could he?

When
the sun rose, the door opened. Four bear shifters in human form strode through the door. They made a big display of the shoulder holsters that they carried. Chloe could smell the silver coating on their bullets.   There was no point in resisting.  They’d die in agony, with the silver sizzling through their flesh.

Could this really be the end? Chloe thought despairingly.  Will Kenneth think I abandoned him? Will I watc
h my mother die, at the hands of a demon?

At gunpoint, t
heir hands were cuffed behind their backs with copper handcuffs, preventing them from shifting, and then they were quickly led outside and shepherded into a waiting stretch limousine by half a dozen men with guns. Sophronia sat in the front seat.  The windows of the car were tinted so nobody could see inside.

Most of
the men climbed into the back of the limousine with them, with one sliding into the driver’s seat.

Gunfire crackled through the air
, only blocks from where they drove, and Chloe cringed at the sound of mortars that were much too close.  It’s a toss-up what’s going to kill us first, she thought despairingly; the war or my demonically possessed grandmother.

“I can’t believe that just days ago, my worst
problem was grammatically-impaired students who wouldn’t stop texting during my lectures,” she muttered.

They came to a large c
ompound with high concrete walls. Gliding to a stop, they parked outside.  

“This is the compound of the El-Debars, isn’t it?” Chloe guessed.
Sophronia ignored her, staring straight ahead as if she didn’t exist.

“I can’t believe that thing is my mother,” Hilary said, shaking her head indignantly. “She has no manners.”

Two of the bear shifters climbed out of the vehicle and went to the front gate of the compound, which was unlocked and swung open when they pushed on it.

“It’s safe inside,”
one of them said to Sophronia. “They’ve been secured.”

That doesn’t sound good, Chloe thought.

They were pulled from the limousine, and marched at gunpoint through a courtyard scarred by mortars, and into the home of the El-Debars.

They were led into a large living room. All the shutters on the windows had been closed, and the room was lit only by the flickering light of kerosene lamps, giving it an eerie feeling.

Chloe and her mother were led over to
a long wooden table, next to what must have been the El-Debar family, all of whom were lashed to chairs. There were more than a dozen adults, and ten children of varying ages.  Also tied to the chairs were a female coyote shifter, a female human, a male bear shifter, and a male wolf shifter.  Several burly human soldiers in camouflage gear stood nearby, holding Ak-47s.

Chloe thought she could scent a cheetah shifter somewhere nearby, but there was none in the room. Maybe somebody had escaped capture and was hiding, she thought. Maybe it was somebody who could run for help?

The shifters must be tied with copper wire, Chloe thought, or they’d shift into animal form, jump up, and rip these soldiers to pieces.

Suddenly,
Chloe felt an odd tug inside, almost as if Kenneth were nearby, but that was not possible. If he were here, all these people couldn’t be tied up – unless he were mortally wounded, somewhere?

Her stomach lurched at the thought.

I must be mistaken, she thought.  I feel that way because I want him to be here so badly. He’s fine; he isn’t hurt. He can’t be hurt. He mustn’t be.

One man
, a handsome young man in his thirties, stood next to the soldiers.  He bore such a strong resemblance to the people who were tied up that it was clear that he was a family member – so why was he free? One of the men tied up at the table, an older man in his sixties, was almost certainly his father.  The other men were his brothers.

When
Sophronia marched into the room, he turned to her, smiled, and bowed ironically.

Sophronia
stripped off her hat and veil, and spoke to him in an ancient Semitic tongue that Chloe only partially understood, but she understood enough.  She blanched.

“What did he say?” her mother asked her.

“He is greeting her as a fellow servant of Lashkallu,” Chloe said. “Lashkallu must be their demon master.  He said that his human name is Karesh, but when he was moving the statues, he cut himself and accidentally bled on the statue of the servant, and now he is Devora, who lives only to free their master from his stone prisons.”