Obsession Untamed (28 page)

Sirens tore through the lightly falling rain, and he took off. The humans could take care of their own.

As he headed toward the more affluent area where a house might back onto nothing but woods, he caught a glimpse of Wulfe.

I may have picked up the clone’s scent,Wulfe said.It’s not a smell, exactly, but I remember feeling something similar near where we found her phone.

I’m right behind you,Tighe told him, and raced after him, his sleek tiger’s body eating up the ground with ease.“Wulfe’s picked up a scent,” he told Hawke.

I heard. I’ve got you spotted. I’m following.

Tighe recognized the trees behind a large brick-front Colonial a split second before he heard the scream.

“I’ll take the front,”Wulfe said.

A large bay window framed kitchen cabinets. Without a single pause, Tighe flew over the high railing of the deck and crashed through the glass.

Delaney lay on the floor, staked in the center of the pentagram as he’d seen her in the vision. He could hear her heart beating. Unconscious, but alive.Thank you, goddess.

Hawke ran in from the front of the house. “Where is he?”

Tighe shifted back into a man. “He wasn’t here.Find him. ” He pulled out one of his switchblades and knelt at Delaney’s feet, cutting her loose. He’d freed her feet and pushed her legs together, and was sawing at the third bond when Wulfe and Hawke ran into the room from the opposite door.

“Where is he?” Hawke demanded.

Déjŕ vu.Tighe froze and stared at his friend. Understanding crashed over him like falling ice. “He was here. He wasyou. ” Tighe leaped to his feet. “Bleed!Now. ”

Wulfe and Hawke each pulled a knife and cut himself, then held their palms up as the blood ran down their flesh.

Tighe sliced his own.

“Find him!”

Damn it.Damn it! He’d been so concerned with Delaney, he’d forgotten the clone could change shape at will. That error just might cost him his life.

But he’d found her.He’d found her.

At least he thought he had. He could take no more chances. Lifting her free hand, he pressed the tip of his knife into her finger, drawing a single droplet of blood. She flinched, jerking her hand, and stirred.

As he watched, her eyes fluttered open, her gaze going from him to the knife still smeared with his own blood. With devastating dismay he watched those brown eyes fill with hopelessness and fear.

Fear.Of him.

He hated her fear.

Inside his head, the chaos rushed at him in a deafening roar.

“No, D, no!” He growled, his jaw clenching, his fingertips burning. “You’re safe.”

But he wasn’t.

The chaos broke over him like a tidal wave, the fury clawing through his limbs, into his heart and head, swirling inside him as he fought to battle it back.

But it was too strong. His defenses against it too badly cracked.

Too late.Too late.

His claws unsheathed. His fangs dropped.

His conscious mind disappeared in a bottomless well of darkness.

Chapter Twenty-five

“Tighe?”

Delaney fought against the pain that encased her body, struggling to clear her mind as a battle raged around her.He’d come for her. For one horrible moment she’d thought he was the clone, but then she’d heard his voice.He’d come for her.

She forced her eyes open, then squeezed them shut as something sailed over her head. A battle. They’d caught him. But the sounds that reached her ears were oddly, frighteningly familiar. Growling. Snarling. The breaking of furniture, just like the two times Tighe had lost it.

Oh, no. Please, not that.

She tried to move and realized she was only tied by one wrist.So cold. Exhaustion tugged at her battered mind, and she curled onto her side.

Stay awake. Warn them.

Out of the corner of her eye, another Feral appeared. Jag, her mind suggested.

His gaze went to the pile of dead bodies, his face screwing up in disgust. “Jesus.Someone needs to teach that demon to clean up after himself when he’s done eating. He’s feeding the whole bloody fly population of Northern Virginia!”

“Bleed, Jag!” Wulfe roared.

Jag scowled, pulled out a knife, and cut himself. Blood rolled down his palm.

“Get Delaney. We’ve got to get Tighe locked up.”

Locked up.Her chest squeezed.Lost in the darkness.

Jag bent over her, cutting the last of her bonds.

She tried to focus her eyes on him, but she was fast slipping away. “Not…Feral House. Did something to me. I’m…dangerous. And…get my boots!”

Delaney woke to the sound of the river and voices, and the feel of a cool wind in her face. She lay still, her battered mind trying to identify the voices as friend or foe. All male. No, a female voice.

She opened her eyes, finding a ceiling of stars high above her head, all but blotted out by a bright light just to her side.Kara. Her forehead wrinkled at the sight of the woman sitting with her legs crossed, glowing like a camp lantern.

“Hi there,” Kara said softly, meeting her gaze. “You’re safe, Delaney.”

Delaney tried to shake her head, but nothing happened. “You’re glowing.”

“That’s what I do,” she said with a lilt in her voice. “Remember I told you I was the power plug? I wish I could use some of my power to help you, but they tell me only Ferals can handle it. But I’m keeping the light on and the rock warm for you. Are you still cold?”

“No. Warm.” Surprisingly warm, despite the cool wind. She felt as if someone had wrapped her in blankets and laid her on a heated bed.

“Good.”

“Where am I?” Her gaze moved to an oddly dressed teenager kneeling on her other side, his hand on her forehead, his eyes closed.

“The goddess stone,” Kara told her. “The men called a Feral Circle, a mystic circle, to keep out draden and prying human eyes. The Shaman is trying to figure out what was done to you and whether you’re really a danger.”

“Tighe?”

Kara’s brows knit unhappily. “He’s at Feral House.”

“In the prison?”

“I’m afraid so. He may still snap out of it.” But her tone said she didn’t believe it.

“I need to…see him.”

The young man she assumed was the Shaman lifted his hand from her forehead. As she turned her gaze to him, he looked down at her with ancient eyes in his youthful face.

“Hello, Delaney.”

“Hi.”

He turned to face a distant point beyond Kara’s light.

“He definitely left a mark on her, Lyon,” he said. “Unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Not a dark charm. Nothing that concrete. More like shadows on her soul.”

“Is she a danger to us?”

“I can’t answer that for a certainty, but my instincts tell me those shadows are wounds, not magic. She needs to rest. To heal, both physically and mentally. It’s too bad Tighe’s not available to help the process.”

Tighe.Tears formed in her eyes. But she felt the Shaman’s hand on her forehead again, and slept before they had a chance to fall.

When Delaney woke again, she was in Tighe’s bedroom. The room was dark, but light shone from beneath the closed door, and the rumble of voices carried from far below. It was probably still evening. She stretched, taking quick inventory, deciding nothing hurt, then shuddered as memories rushed into her mind. The clone.Tighe. Kara had said he’d lost it and was in the prison. She envisioned him trapped in a darkness as bleak and terrifying as the one he’d pulled her from.

If there was a way to free him from his own dark hell, she was going to find it.

She pushed off the covers and swung her feet over the side of the bed, noting that the pajamas Kara had loaned her were back on her again. For a brief moment, she considered trying to find something better to wear downstairs than Kara’s p.j.s, and as quickly dismissed the concern. They certainly
showed less of her than the ceremonial gown. And if she remembered that nightmare in the kitchen correctly, they’d seen her in less. Far less.

Flicking on the light, she did a quick search of the walls and pulled down a wicked-looking twelve-inch dagger. She was not going unarmed again. Barefoot, she flew from the room and down the richly curved stairs.

Kougar glanced up as he crossed the foyer, his pale gaze expressionless.

“Where’s Tighe?”

He turned away. “He’s lost to you.”

“Like hell he is.” She moved to cut him off. “I want to see him.”

He towered over her, but stopped, eyeing her like he might an interesting little bug.

“Why?”

“I want to see if I can get him out of there.”

“You can’t.” He started around her.

She lifted the blade, threatening him if he took another step. “Sometimes when I touch him, it helps calm him. I might be able to pull him back.”

“He’ll kill you.”

“I’m willing to risk it.”

He lifted his hand and stroked his goatee as he studied her. “You would’ve attacked me.”

Delaney blinked, at first thinking he meant just then, when she’d raised the blade. Then she remembered the mating ceremony, when he’d cut Tighe. When she’d jumped off the pedestal, thinking they were in for a fight.

“His enemies are my enemies. At that moment, I
wasn’t sure whether you fell into that category.”

Without so much as an acknowledgment that she’d spoken, he turned and went back the way he’d come.

Delaney stared at his retreating back and released a frustrated sigh, then turned, figuring she’d have to find Tighe on her own.

But she’d barely taken two steps when Kougar spoke. “The human wants to see Tighe.”

Delaney whirled back to find Kougar standing in a doorway partway around the corner.

“Like hell.” Lyon’s voice.

She strode to Kougar and walked past him into what had to be Lyon’s office. The big man sat behind a desk with a computer, shelves full of books and binders on the wall behind him.

Lyon’s brow lifted as he dropped his gaze to her weapon. “Is there a reason you’re armed?”

“Tighe took my guns. And the last time I walked down those stairs, it didn’t end so well.” She lifted the blade, her eyes going hard. “I’m thinking maybe you should bleed for me.”

A spark of respect lit his eyes. He pulled out his knife and drew blood from his palm, holding her gaze. “Kougar?”

She turned and watched as the pale-eyed Feral did the same, then before they could ask, she pricked her own finger on the tip of her blade. After showing Lyon the blood, she sucked it from her skin.

“I want you to take me to him.”

“He wouldn’t want you to see him as he is now.”

“I’ve already seen him like that. The night he punched me full of holes. I need to touch him. I might be able to reach him.”

“Impossible. You’re only a human.”

She moved forward and leaned on his desk. “We won’t know whether or not I can help him until I try.”

Something approaching sorrow warmed his amber eyes. “We’ve been trying to reach him for two days, Delaney. There’s nothing to be done.”

She stared at him, his words a painful shock. “Two days? He’s been lost in there fortwo days ?”

Lyon’s eyes turned almost sympathetic. “I’m sorry.”

But his revelation only made her more desperate to reach him. She turned to Kougar. “Show me where he is.”

He gave an almost imperceptible nod and turned.

Behind her, Lyon leaped to his feet with a growl. “Delaney!”

She turned to face the chief of the Ferals, understanding why he was the leader as she felt the force within those amber eyes.

“He’ll take your arm off if you reach in there. There’s nothing in that cage but a vicious, wild animal.”

She flinched.

He saw it. His expression tightened with a pain that might almost have matched her own. “There’s nothing I can do for him except catch that clone.”

Delaney shook her head. “I’m not leaving him in there another second if I can get him out.” She
looked at him forcefully. “I need you to hold him down.”

“All it will take is a single slash of his claws, or one errant bite, and you’re dead.”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take. Twice he saved me when I needed him. Now he needs me.”

Lyon stared at her for a long, heavy minute. “You’re in love with him.”

She nodded slowly with a wry purse of her lips. “I am.”

On a huff of frustration, Lyon came around the desk. “If he kills you, he’ll never forgive me.”

“If I pull him out of there, you’ll have another warrior at your side.”

Lyon sighed. “True. Come on, then.”

He led her back through the foyer and down the same stairs Tighe had taken her to be mated. They passed the cavelike room and entered a wide, open gym, a section of which contained surprisingly modern equipment, including weight benches, stationary bikes, and six of the biggest treadmills she’d ever seen. At the back of that room, Lyon opened yet another door hidden within a wall of mirrors onto a long, narrow, stone-lined passage. Rustic and a little bit spooky.