Mr. and Mrs. Monster (9 page)

Kyla loomed over the back of the other animal. She let her breath wash down its spine as she snarled a little for affect. Young wolves had to learn. In her world, it was teeth and a scare. She dragged her fangs around the side of his throat and nipped. Not hard enough to draw blood but enough he got the point—a sharp, toothy point. The male wolf let out a whine.

Kyla backed away, but Damien flung himself at her, entangling their bodies and rolling them over and over in the clearing. Their death roll finished with Kyla on the bottom, pinned by the weight of Damien. She let a whine tumble out as an apology, but Damien refused to budge. She used her tail as leverage and bucked her hips, but he refused to move.

With a wolfish sigh, she dropped her head back. Fine. Mr. Wolf had some things to get off his chest. Damien leaned over, nuzzled the line of her throat and rubbed his head and scent along her. Kyla inhaled. His musky perfume surrounded her, caused her to shake. The damn man had sliced through her control as a human and now as a wolf, he was near impossible to resist.

So be it.

As long as he didn’t hunt her down with silver. As Artemis would say, time to pony up and pay the big boys. Speaking of her boss, she sent a questing thought out, letting her know she was with Damien. Pure black met her feelers. Nothing. A blank wall. That wasn’t possible. Couldn’t happen. Artie had a tie to all her wolves. What the hell was going on?

Kyla closed her eyes and let her change cocoon her. Electricity sparked along her spine. Heat spread up from her toes to her ears, making her gasp for air as the weight of the heat between her and Damien pressed down. Fur rippled back along her body, receding in a lightning flash of movement. Claws and fangs drew back until a normal human body appeared.

Kyla shuddered as the liquid surge of the change finally left. Without opening her eyes, she knew Damien had followed her lead. A hairy chest itched and tickled her bare skin. Her breasts swelled as their tips grazed him.

“Look, I’m sorry for…” Kyla tried to make peace, but Damien ignored her and lifted himself partially off her. He ran a hand down the side of her naked body.

She shuddered as his fingers dipped and soared along her skin. He trailed a finger down the center of her chest, stopping just above her groin. Kyla moaned and sucked in a wobbly breath, fought to keep the image of Artemis in her mind. Something was wrong with her boss. But Damien touching her derailed conscious reasoning. Excitement buzzed along her veins. An insistent ache deep in her core set up a clamor in her soul. This man wanted her—the wolf and the person. He loved her and needed to be by her side, her rather nasty, bitchy side.

Light swirled through Kyla’s mind, brightening corners she never thought she’d see again. Damien swirled his hand over the bottom of her stomach and palmed her core. She whimpered and tried to grind her hips into his hand. He pushed her down, settled his weight farther onto her and probed her swollen lips.

Damien nudged at Kyla’s chest and, rolling her body, she allowed more access to her nipple. He grazed his teeth along the upper swell of her breast. Then his head dropped lower still and he used his teeth to abrade the sensitive crest before sucking it deep into his mouth. Fire streaked from her nipple all the way down to her core. Kyla’s stomach muscles tightened as she jerked upward, accidently squishing her breasts tight against Damien’s face.

Her pain magnified, tripled. Glowing flickers spun in a circle affecting her sight. Even when she closed her eyes, the effect remained. This wasn’t just pain from bashing heads. This was more. This was Artemis she felt. Kyla extend her senses again, ignoring Damien’s questing hands. The blank wall was still in place, but ripples of red fire shimmered through the middle. Artemis’ pain flickered through the wall, gaining access even when her ties to her wolves were blocked. Artemis was in trouble and needed her.

“What the hell? Woman, you are a menace sometimes, but at least you’re mine.” Damien massaged the lump on his forehead and shifted them to a more comfortable position on the ground.

He mewled a protest as the pain from their heads connecting put a dampener on their fun. Giving up on their forest make-out, she sighed and glared up at him. “This is all your fault, you know.”

“What? How is this my fault and what is
this?”

“I have stones and grass sticking into my ass. I might have some dents and bruises. Hence it is your fault since you were on top.”

“Hang on.” Damien flashed a timeout sign. “You were the one who tried to eat me. And not in a fun, sexy kind of way. You had fangs out and were willing to use them.”

Kyla threw up her arms. Suddenly all that sexy, fiery energy she had bubbling away had now morphed into annoyance and frustration. “You were a wolf in my territory. You had to be taught a lesson and if I bite, you’ll know it.” She gnashed her teeth at him. “But I will say the fight with Actaeon scrambled my senses a little so it took a while to recognize you. Anyway, we can’t just sit here in this godforsaken place. We have to get going.”

“Not godforsaken. Actually, this was my dad’s territory first, so I guess it’s mine now. And why do we need to go anywhere? We caught the bad guy. Remember?”

“This was your dad’s park?”

“Yeah, the clearing is pretty close to where they found us afterward.” Damien looked around with a blank stare.

Kyla moved close to him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. But we don’t have time. Artie is in trouble. She’s in pain. I can’t reach her. But her pain is making it through to me. Something’s wrong.”

“I thought Actaeon worked alone. Could it have been possible he had a partner?” Damien was all business now, worry written plainly on his face.

“I would have said his ego wouldn’t allow him a partner. But he always seemed to know where the wolves were, even the new ones who weren’t out on patrol yet. I just thought it was because he’d been watching Artie for a while. Stalking her.”

Kyla slammed the dirt next to her with a clenched fist. “I missed something. He had someone inside feeding him information. The bastard turned someone in Artie’s circle.”

Damien grabbed Kyla’s fist and brushed away the dirt. “Let’s think it out logically. Who would have that kind of information about all the wolves? Who would know where Artie might be, her schedule?”

The roughness of his palm against the skin of her hand caused a ripple from her groin to her heart. Her body temperature spiked and her breath snagged on the lump that had formed in her throat. She swallowed convulsively. Sexual tension tightened the muscles low in her gut, setting up an ache deep in her core. She shivered, struggling to push back the need swirling inside her. Now was not the time.

She closed her eyes, the better to focus, as she searched through her mental files of personnel working for Artemis. “It would have to be someone who handled a lot of confidential information. The scheduling of the patrols and the wolves assigned to each one are on a need to know basis, except for a few select key employees. Maybe five people I can name off the top of my head.”

She nibbled at her lip. “Actually, a couple of years ago we had a series of Artie’s properties broken into and vandalized. We didn’t think much of it. Human kids get up to a lot of things and the properties have a skeleton crew on guard if Artie isn’t in residence.”

“But if it was just Artemis’ real estate being broken into and not surrounding neighbor’s then that would mean she was being targeted and not a random choice.”

Kyla nodded. “The first property was in a neighborhood that had some issues with security. Artie sold it off after that, but the other three properties were in secure areas and no one else had any issues.”

“So? Who has access to her property list, wolf patrols and Artemis’ schedule?”

“Shit.” She shook her head. “The wallflower.”

“Sorry?”

“One of Artie’s personal assistants. She has this thing of blending in with the furniture. We just thought she was shy. A Demi-God with little power, except that of organization. She’s one of two people in Artie’s circle who would have the access. The other person is Hermes. Artie likes to consult him when she buys property since he has such a knack for it. The bulk of the wolves are at Olympus, the hotel his family owns. She always coordinates with him. He’d never hurt Artie, so it has to be the wallflower.”

Damien stood and pulled Kyla with him. “So how do we find her?”

“This chick has a thing about Artie’s real estate? Well, Artie just happens to have brought this lovely secluded bungalow for a boy toy out on the outskirts of Vegas. She picked up the keys last week. Decorator was due to come in tomorrow to renovate. Wallflower would have had access to all that information. I’m betting she took her there. It’s the one place no one would think to look for her.”

Kyla turned to take off, but Damien grabbed her arm. “Hang on. You have a possible place, but Artemis is a goddess. How could someone lower on the power totem pole take her out?”

“Either Actaeon gave wallflower a powerful weapon—which I doubt his ego could handle—or she found something else for herself.” She spun around and slapped a hand against Damien’s shoulder. “After the fight with Actaeon, did you pick up Artie’s bow?”

He shook his head. “Picking up a weapon belonging to a strange Greek goddess isn’t on my bucket list. Artemis asked me about her bow too. She couldn’t find it but said she’d send her personal assistant to get it.”

Kyla offered an apologetic smile to Damien. “And of course I ran, so I didn’t pick it up.” Kyla thumped her head hard with her hand. “I am an idiot. The assistant has Artie’s bow. She’s somehow using it to control and hurt Artie. It’s imbued with some of Artie’s essence and, in theory, could be used against her. We need to get there as quickly as possible.”

“Four legs instead of two?”

Kyla snickered. “I was thinking of calling in a favor and using four wheels—four very fast wheels. You can hang your head out the window this time.” With a cheeky smile, she shifted and headed out of the clearing, knowing Damien wouldn’t be too far behind.

What boy could resist the lure of getting some tail in a fast car?

Chapter Ten

“When you said fast, I didn’t think you meant Ferrari fast.”

“Aphrodite has a weakness for fast boys and even faster toys. I deleted photos of her doing a nude run for a dare with one of her boyfriends. She owes me.” Kyla dropped down to her knees next to a stucco pink bungalow. “Can you see anything?”

Damien shifted closer to the window and risked a quick peek. “Someone’s in there. They keep pacing past the window every now and then, waving their arms.”

“Well, since Artie’s boy toy looks like a weightlifter and probably couldn’t lift his arms because of the heavy muscle let alone wave. I say we hit jackpot.”

Kyla winced as a shrill female voice suddenly broke the secluded quiet of the neighborhood surrounding Artie’s house. Damn, the woman could have rivaled a fire siren for volume.

“It was always you. Never me,” she screeched. “But I stayed. I helped. W-what have you done? N-nothing.” The voice faltered then hysterical sobbing took its place.

“Winner, winner, chicken dinner.” Kyla smirked and gestured for Damien to follow. Obviously, wallflower had lost it when she’d heard Actaeon was dead, collected the bow from the warehouse and had kidnapped Artemis for revenge. She was so sure she’d never be found out that she’d commandeered Artie’s house for the crime scene and even left her patio doors open. Once round the back of the house, Kyla could hear every word and had a straight line of sight. Artie had been tied to a chair and the wallflower hovered over her, Artie’s bow held threateningly in her hand.

“Carolyn, please listen to me. He never cared for me
or
you. Actaeon had something sick inside him. He killed those pups and thought I would actually reward him.” Artemis wiggled in her chair, obviously testing the ropes.

Damien leaned close and whispered, “She’s a goddess. Why can’t she just blast the ropes away?”

“She can’t. That looks like Arachne’s webs woven into a length of rope. Strongest material in the world whether you are god or a mortal. Salt or Athena’s spit will dissolve them. More luck with salt.” Kyla held one finger to her lips to signal quiet as wallflower responded to Artie’s comments.

“My name is Sia. Not Carolyn. Sia when you let me work in your temple. Sia when I died and Sia when Actaeon healed me. He. Loved. Me.” She shook the bow then seemed to calm. She smiled sweetly. “I let him into the compound to play with the pups. Did he tell you that before you killed him?”

She touched the tip of the bow to Artemis’ arms and watched the skin sizzle red. The smell of burning meat filled the house. Artemis grunted but barely moved.

“He killed them. You can’t condone that.”

“Please, they were little more than animals. He was above them. He could have been their king. But then you saw him and had to have him. You corrupted him. He loved me.”

The goddess snorted. “Please. He hunted me. For a while, it was flattering, but he turned obsessive, smothering. I ended it.”

“You. Lie,” she screeched at the goddess. The bow dropped to the ground as she slapped Artemis. “He loved me, even though I served and was mortal. You wouldn’t leave him alone. We all saw it. After you ordered his execution, his mother and I stole your bow. So easy to do. You were so gullible.”

Kyla motioned for Damien to move to the other side of the patio door. She pointed to the shelf above the stove in the kitchen and a container clearly marked as salt. He nodded and slid inside. Sia was too obsessed with her villainess speech to even notice.

Not so Artemis. Her eyes widened for a moment, then she quickly turned her gaze back to her kidnapper. “You already said you’re mortal, so how did you survive this long?” Artemis diverted her tormentor’s attention to her instead of the kitchen.

“The bow. His mother and I healed him after your captain killed him. He was unconscious when she started babbling about leaving, running away from you. She ordered me to stay behind and serve as a decoy for your hunters. I refused. Actaeon would have wanted me to stay with him. His mother didn’t approve, so she tried to hurt me.”