The Mating Intent-mobi (12 page)

His expression turned intent. “I don’t care if he sees me naked. But no male is seeing you naked, pixie. No male but me.”

A rustling came from the bushes to their left. Sienna froze.

Gabriel whirled so fast, his long hair flew out. A low growl rumbled deep in his throat as he fisted his hands. The stench of putrid decay fouled the air. Sienna blinked her watering eyes and forced herself to analyze the smell. It was horrid, but natural. Almost as if someone wished to disguise their true scent…

And then she saw a small nose peek out from the bushes and caught a glimpse of red fur.

“Go to Jake. He’ll keep you safe. I’ll take care of this intruder,” Gabriel ordered.

“Wait!”

Too late. He’d shifted back to panther and stalked toward the undergrowth. He wasn’t thinking clearly, was too cranked up from sexual need.

My fault.

Sienna called out to him again, but he ignored her. She snatched up her blouse and shrugged into it, buttoning it closed. As she started for Gabriel, a large gray timber wolf bolted forward and leapt upon the panther. Snarling, the big cat rolled. As the wolf tried pinning the panther, Gabriel raked a claw through the wolf’s thick fur.

“Stop it,” she screamed, rushing forward. “Stop it, Jake’s trying to protect her.”

But the pair kept fighting, the wolf’s claws raking over the panther’s muzzle. Gabriel yowled and hissed, rolling on the ground as the wolf snapped at him, those fangs dangerously close to his throat.

She had the power to stop this. Sienna focused all her strength and yanked hard inside her, reaching for the light.

The tiny ball of blue-white energy floated toward the fighting shifters like a soap bubble, then popped into the air.

Too weak. If she tried separating them without magick, they could hurt her badly.

Sienna closed her eyes and murmured the ancient chant Kendall had taught her, to find peace between her dueling halves. Then she reached inside and drew out the dark magick, envisioning it as a ball of pure power. She thought of Gabriel’s kisses, and how good he’d made her feel, and how she wanted to keep that pleasure.

Stretching out her hands, she felt the ball of pure energy dance upon her outstretched palms. Sienna opened her eyes. A baseball-sized globe of black energy, encased by pure white light, rested in her hands. The energy did not burn with the zeal to destroy, but pulsed with powerful light magick. Stunned she bounced it up and down.

She had created this. How was this even possible?

“Sorry guys,” she murmured, and flung the power at the fighting shifters.

It slammed into them with the force of a hammer. The wolf and the panther howled and broke apart. The ball separated instead of dissipating and started to pursue the shifters, eager to punish again, eager to hurt…

“No! Back to me. I command you!”

Sienna pulled hard, and the globe of energy hurled toward her. She stiffened, bracing herself for the white-hot pain. It encased her and then sank deep into her body. Stunned, she absorbed the power. It did not hurt like hot razors as when she’d pulled Terithen’s evil essence from the earth into herself. Rather, it felt like sinking into a warm bath.

Was Gabriel correct? When they’d kissed and shared sexual energy, had it molded the dark power she carried? Could she do this again?

Looking rattled, the two males shifted back to their human forms and clothed themselves by magick, but Jake left his shirt off. Rows of crimson stripes marched down his torso to the waistband of his gray trousers. The wounds had begun to heal. Bloodied scratches covered Gabriel’s handsome face, but they also knit together.

Respect flared on Jake’s face as he looked at her. “Thanks, Lady Elf. I tried warning him off, but he thought I attacked.”

“You did attack.” Gabriel touched a healing laceration on his cheek. “Next time you want to spar, give fair warning, wolf.”

“He wasn’t sparring. He didn’t want you assaulting her.”

Gabriel looked in the direction of her pointing finger.

Half-hidden by palmetto bushes, the red wolf quivered. Slightly larger than a fox, its fur a deep red, she looked terrified. Sienna could smell its fear and knew the shifters did as well.

As his nostrils flared, Jake’s eyes widened with shock. “Molly? What are you doing here?”

The wolf shrank back into the bushes.

He crouched down and held out a hand. “Come on out, sweetie. No one’s going to hurt you. These are friends.”

Knowing the wolf had witnessed the violence, Sienna advanced. The wolf retreated into the undergrowth. Jake made an impatient sound, but she gestured for him to quiet.

Sienna dropped to her knees before the palmetto scrub. “Hi Molly. I’m Sienna. I’m sorry the guys scared you. Jake only attacked Gabriel because he caught your scent and didn’t want Gabriel hurting you. Right, Jake?”

“Right.” Jake kept holding out a hand. “Come on out, sweetie. It’s okay.”

The red wolf stepped daintily out of the bushes, shook its body. Sleek red fur rippled in the wind. Jake ran his hand over the wolf’s hindquarters. “You okay, Molly? What are you doing so far from home?”

The wolf lifted her muzzle and he scratched behind her ears. “Is the rest of your pack here? Why are you disguising your scent?”

The red wolf stepped back and shifted to a petite woman. She waved a hand and jeans and a bright yellow T-shirt covered her body. The Lupine pushed back a lock of long red hair. Then she stepped into the saw palmetto bushes and picked up a blue cloth. Sienna’s eyes watered. “Goodness, is that what I smelled?”

Molly gave her an apologetic glance as she dropped the fabric. “Sorry. I soaked it in swamp water and …other things. This is my favorite place to visit. I didn’t want my pack following me, so I used this to cover my scent.”

Gabriel’s nose wrinkled. “You did a good job. Too good. I almost attacked you, thinking you were the source of the toxic dark that’s poisoning the land. Jake stopped me. And Sienna.”

He glanced at Sienna, and his gaze softened. “Thanks, pixie.”

Jake sighed and removed his ball cap, running a hand over his black hair. “This is turning out to be one screwy day.”

Molly blinked hard. “I know I stink, but I had to do something… what is that?”

They turned in the direction of her pointing finger. Jake’s eyes widened. Red flushed Sienna’s face as the Lupine jogged over to her white lacy bra lying on the ground. He picked it up.

Sienna wished the earth would open up and swallow her.

Returning to them, he handed Gabriel the bra. “Next time you want to prowl around do it with a little more discretion. Unless you’re into cross-dressing, and I don’t think that’s your style.”

Grateful Jake hadn’t given her the garment, she watched Gabriel tuck the bra into the waistband of his jeans. “Thanks man.”

Jake turned his attention to the little red wolf. “Why are you hiding, Molly? Is someone threatening you?”

The young shifter stared at the ground. “It’s Luke, the Lupine my alpha wants me to mate with. He keeps pressuring my folks. But I don’t want to mate with him. I don’t care how much it unites our two packs or increases my alpha’s territory. I won’t be turned into a political pawn.”

Jake sighed. “Running away never solved any problems. In this case, you caused more. We’re on the trail of a nasty dark enchantment and Gabe here almost turned you into wolf sushi because of that stench.”

Molly’s mouth wobbled. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think I’d cause trouble.”

Fishing into his pocket, Jake withdrew a set of keys and handed them to the female. “My cabin’s over by the environmental center. Number sixty-nine. Go there, shower that stench off you and stay there. When we’re finished, I’ll come for you and we’ll go to your parents, have a little chat.”

“They won’t listen to you. You’re a stranger in these parts. They only listen to kin.”

Jake’s jaw tensed. “They’ll listen to me if they ever want to run with the moon in my park again.”

He gave her shoulder a gentle pat. “Go now. I’ll be there soon.”

Giving him a grateful look, she shifted back into a wolf and raced off into the brush.

Jake jingled the keys in his hand. “Guess that shadow I saw the other day was Molly. And the stench. But we should check out the river and make sure. If this toxic dark is in my territory, I need to know. We’ll take the boats, cover the river.”

They started back for the truck. Sienna itched to test out her powers, but didn’t want Gabriel or Jake near if things soared out of control. She would not risk hurting them.

“I’ll meet you at the truck.” Sienna jerked a thumb at the bushes. “I have to…”

At her delicate pause, Gabriel frowned. “I’ll wait for you.”

“Um, not necessary. And I can’t, ah, do what I must do if I know you’re nearby.”

Gods, wasn’t that the truth?

Soon as he left, she cut through an opening in the bushes and stood in a small clearing. No one around. Sienna closed her eyes and summoned her powers, pulling all the dark magick together into a big ball.

She thought of happy thoughts, like watching a sunrise over the Pacific Ocean, and aimed them at the ball of darkness. Then she summoned the magick to her outstretched palms.

Heart racing with anticipation, she opened her eyes.
Oh please…

It glowed pure black. No threads of white magick to control it. The dark energy pulsed and grew larger.

Oh gods, it was getting out of control. Panicked, she yanked it back inside her. It slammed into her chest like a white-hot hammer. Biting her lip against a scream, she rode through the pain.

Finally the globe of dark power vanished. Sienna bent over and breathed deeply, her guts feeling like someone ground glass into them.

Tears filled her eyes. She brushed them away with an angry fist. It was pointless.

She could not control the dark magick inside her.

The spring of Danu remained her only option.

Thirty minutes later, Sienna sat with Gabriel in a small skiff powered by a motor while Jake paddled in a yellow kayak. They headed north on the Loxahatchee River, passing by Skins enjoying an outing on the water. Eyes trained on the shoreline and the tangle of red mangroves peppering the shore, she looked for anything unusual. But she smelled nothing and saw nothing odd.

A cooling breeze lifted damp tendrils of hair escaping her ponytail. Her nipples brushed against the cotton shirt. Sienna ran a hand over her mussed ponytail. It came back covered with sand. She glanced at Gabriel, manning the boat motor.

He winked.

Narrowing her eyes, she continued her search of the shoreline.

In a patch of mud where the river had receded, a great blue heron nosed about for food. They ventured further north, passing a metal box. Gabriel explained that it was a water monitoring station to measure the river’s salinity. Turtles sunning themselves on fallen logs saw them approach and splashed into the river. A six-foot alligator, eyes peering above the waterline, studied them with lazy indifference as they passed.

“George’s cousin? Or another relative?” she asked Gabriel.

He shook his head. “George isn’t a river gator. He prefers the swamp. Fewer people to annoy him.”

“He doesn’t like people?”

“Oh, he does.  If you put a little hot sauce and salt on the person, then he
really
likes them. But just as an appetizer.”

Gabriel grinned. 

Gradually the landscape changed as the water turned less brackish and fresher. Instead of mangroves, bald cypress and scrub pines lined the shoreline.

They traveled for another three miles and then turned back.

“Whatever was here is gone now,” Jake said, dipping the yellow paddle into the river as he guided the kayak alongside them. He tied the kayak to their boat.

“Or maybe it’s not gone,” Gabriel mused. He cut the motor and let the boat drift. “If this toxic dark is truly an enchantment, it has a life of its own. It’s guided by its maker, who wouldn’t want us to find him. And what does someone who doesn’t want to be found do?”

“Like Molly,” Sienna realized. “He’s hiding from us. He knows we’re here searching and the dark is hiding.”

Jake nodded. “Let’s pull off the river and explore that little creek on foot. There’s a pathway we can use.”

A refreshing breeze cooled the sweat on Sienna’s body as they continued their journey. They entered a narrow creek, following its twists and turns until reaching a small clearing on shore. Brush and trees flanked a pathway, as Jake had indicated. After tying up the boats, they went ashore, following the trail.

The pathway dipped again, leading to the creek. Jake went still, his eyes widening. “It’s here. I sense it. There’s a heaviness in the air. Feel that?”

He waved his hand and she saw a queer rippling in the air, as if he pushed a fist through clear gelatin. Fear clogged her throat. Sienna wondered if the evil inside her could be controlled if she faced another source of dark magick.

Gabriel squeezed her arm. “You’re looking pale, pixie. Maybe you should wait this out. Stay by the boats.”

“Not a good idea. If this is Eleven magick like you said, Gabe, we’ll need her to counteract it.” Jake studied her. “You up to this, Sienna?”

They needed her. The land and the water, if it were fouled with this dreck, needed her. Sienna pulled herself up. “Yes. Lead on.”

The sandy path dipped and twisted, winding down to the creek once more. But as they approached the water, a foulness clogged the air. Sienna’s eyes watered as they stepped onto a sandy shoreline.

Flat and calm, the little creek looked normal further away from where they stood. But right before them was nothing normal.

Here the water was a sickening shade of gray. The stench made her gag. This wasn’t low tide and the normal scent of decaying material. It was foul, and smelled like fetid death.

Gabriel’s nose wrinkled. “It smells like every bad thing that’s ever polluted the Everglades.”

Unstrapping his backpack, Jake suddenly began coughing. He dumped his pack on the ground, clapped a hand over his mouth and raced away. The sounds of retching followed.