The Mating Intent-mobi (13 page)

Suddenly Gabriel raced to the bushes, bent over and began vomiting. Sienna’s  stomach squeezed in sympathy. With their sensitive olfactory senses, the stench must be gagging the shifters.

Sienna leaned over and held his shaking shoulders, supporting him as he emptied his stomach. She squeezed the hard muscles of Gabriel’s shoulders, wishing her touch could provide comfort.

Jake returned and fished two water bottles from his pack, handing one to Gabriel. He  straightened, took the bottle and drank deeply. Gabriel wiped his mouth with the back of one hand.

After draining his bottle, Jake squatted down and studied the creek. “Sienna, there’s an eye dropper in my pack. Can you get it for me? I need to take this back to the lab.”

“I wouldn’t get too close,” Gabriel warned. “This crap is deadly. It’s helped kill several shifters and infected the trees and plants. Let’s get a sample and get the hell out of here.”

Sienna retrieved the eyedropper and handed it to Jake.

As he carefully siphoned a small water sample into the eyedropper, and put it into his empty water bottle, something tickled her stomach. It came from inside, like feathers rubbing against skin. But this sensation wasn’t nice. It felt more like feathers studded with razor blades.

Cramps seized her and she put a hand to her belly.  The darkness was reacting to whatever this was.

“Sienna, can you tell what kind of magick did this?” Gabriel asked.

Her eyes watered. Blinking, she studied the oozing foulness polluting the water. She shook her head. “It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen or experienced. But it does have overtones of Fae magick.”

She pointed to a swirl of iridescent colors swirling lazily atop the water, like an oil slick. “See that rainbow? Only Fae can do this. Each time a Fae, be it a sprite, fairy or Elf, weaves a spell, he or she leaves behind their particular signature pattern. Elves have more forest green in theirs. Sprites and Fairies tend toward the reds and blues.”

Gabriel’s face tightened. “This is the same dark enchantment that’s poisoning the ‘Glades. My home. I will find out who did this and eliminate them.”

Absorbed in studying the slick colors, she barely heard the veiled threat in his tone. Sienna glanced up. “This creek is off limits to boaters.”

Jake nodded. “We sectioned it off last week because we’re doing controlled burns and don’t want nosy tourists investigating the smoke. Safety measure.”

“But shifters use this area to hunt?”

The ranger nodded. “We have fox and osprey shifters and Molly’s pack, the Monroes, comes here at least once a month to run with the moon and hunt squirrel and raccoons.”

She suddenly understood the implications. “That’s why this is here. It’s a shifter haven, and this toxic dark is only present around shifters, or Others.”

“Son of a …. ” Gabriel clenched his fists. “It’s following us. It tracks our scents, or other signature patterns, and follows us. Waiting to trap us.”

“And then it moves on.” She pointed to the swirl of colors gliding closer to shore. “It senses you two are here, and now it’s itching to get onshore to claim another victim. Only this is stronger. It’s not infecting the trees. It wants to kill you outright.”

Gabriel’s expression tightened. “If this continues, it will destroy every shifter in eastern Florida. We must find a way to stop it. Why would a Fae want to destroy the environment?”

His gaze looked haunted as turned to her. “Your people are supposed to protect the land, not destroy it.”

“I don’t know.” She hesitated. “But one could have turned fully dark and cast a spell to do this.”

“Why?” he repeated. “For power? To thumb their nose at me, at shifters? And this is the people you wish to return to? A people who would do this to shifters and drive us away from our homes?”

Her gorge rose as Gabriel surveyed the gray muck. This hurt him deeply. For the past 25 years he’d watched Skins encroach on his territory, where once he and his kind ran wild and free, until all that was left was a small area he fought hard to protect against development. And now Fae enchantment threatened what was left of his land.

Gabriel was a sexy bastard who wouldn’t hesitate at anything to get what he desired, but he loved the land and fought fiercely to protect it. Her people were dedicated to the same, but now one had betrayed them.

She had to help stop this. But if she didn’t report back in Cael soon, she’d risk losing everything dear to her. Sienna swallowed hard as she thought of being exiled from all Elven, wandering the land and never having a home.

But she couldn’t leave now, knowing how very bad things were for Gabriel. Yet she felt the darkness tickling her insides, itching to get out and join the evil enchantment that had taken over the water.

Sienna clasped his hand and squeezed tight. “I’m sorry one of my people did this.”

His gaze hardened. “Sienna, go back to the boat. I don’t want you near this waste and risk you getting hurt. Jake and I are scouring the area to see if any shifters have been infected or worse.”

Gabriel watched as she turned to head back to the boat. Then the two males shifted into their animal forms. The big panther and the gray timber wolf stole into the undergrowth and vanished.

She lugged Jake’s backpack to the boat and dumped it inside. Sienna stared at the water, searching a distant memory.

Something about the colors had bothered her. They seemed familiar. The signature pattern wasn’t odd, but significant.

Another look wouldn’t hurt, she reasoned.

When she returned to the creek, the darkness had spread. Thick as an oil slick and as lethal, it coated the water in an oozing mess.

On her haunches, Sienna stared at the murky water, grieving at the newfound threat. Who could be so nasty and infect the lands Others needed for hunting? As an Elf dedicated to protecting the earth, it hurt deeply to know one of her brethren had done this evil.

But she couldn’t risk getting heavily involved. Already she’d risked too much. A blush heated her face as she remembered Gabriel’s hands upon her body, giving her so much pleasure. The Blood Moon festival was soon. By then, she must be gone.  She needed to use the spring of Danu and move on.

She picked up a twig and poked at the black water, uneasy at how it began changing colors. The grayness vanished, replaced by charcoal. Sienna threw the twig into the creek and watched the dark swallow it.

No way would she risk getting this toxic substance on her.

The colors surfaced and swirled, rainbow patterns running into each other like a watercolor in the rain. And then it clicked. She had seen this type of magick before.

Cael’s magick. Only the King or someone of his blood could create such magick. She’d heard from Cael when Samantha had dined with them how proud he was of his daughter’s Elven powers. How she’d created a rainbow globe of power just like her father. Samantha had even demonstrated it at the table, the ball bouncing in her palm like a child’s toy. Then Cael had created a similar globe of energy, the colors much more vibrant and glowing.

Like the colors swirling inside the darkness of this toxic dark.

Deeply troubled, she stared at the water. Could this be the Fae King of the Northern Light’s work? Why would a Fae King devoted to protecting the land cast a dark enchantment on Gabriel’s territory, killing shifters and destroying the trees Cael loved?

It made no sense, unless Cael hated Gabriel so much he wanted to take the panther to his knees.

Gabriel needed to know the enemy he faced. But her loyalty to the king ran deep. She could not tell the panther until she had more evidence this was Cael’s doing.

The darkness inside her burned and cramped. She could feel it tugging at her, urging her on until the water would cover her head. Holding her stomach, wincing at the stabbing pain, she inched away from the creek.

Suddenly a tongue of water lapped at the sandy shore, close to her feet. Alarmed, she inched backward.

But the darkness inside her urged her forward. With all her might, she struggled against the violent urge to greet the toxic dark, let it engulf her.

You will not win
, she vowed.

Standing, she started to turn and head for the pathway to wait for Gabriel and Jake.

She heard footsteps behind her, but before she could turn, someone gave her a violent shove. Arms pin-wheeling, Sienna struggled to maintain her balance, frantic to avoid falling into the water.

A hard boot kicked her in the back. With a shriek she fell toward the water, felt the poison reach for her with greedy fingers.

The darkness rose up and covered her.

Nothing. They found no trace of shifters, not even a paw print. Gabriel nosed near a cabbage palm, his paws digging into the sand as he picked up an odd scent. When he saw the scrap of blue cloth, stamped with Molly’s scent, disappointment shot through him.

Lifting his head, he watched Jake sniff a sabal palm. The wolf growled low in his throat and lifted his leg on the tree, marking his territory. Then Jake loped over to Gabriel and shifted back to human form, clothing himself by magick.

Gabriel did the same, dusting off his hands. “Find anything?”

“Nothing but old deer scat and the stench of Silvern pack. One Lupine in particular. Luke Silvern, the bastard who wants to mate with Molly.” Jake snorted. “He marked several trees, arrogant prick. Just to let me know he was hunting in my turf without permission. He does it because he knows I can’t do anything without calling out a pack war. And as a ranger, I’m not going to fight with him in the open and risk alerting Skins to the fact there’s a wolf pack in the area.”

Sympathy filled Gabriel.  It was hard enough dealing with natural threats to his lands, but he’d never had to deal with pack politics.

“You find anything?”

When he pointed to the ground, Jake squatted down to examine the cloth. He picked it up and inhaled. “Molly again. Guess she was trying to throw Luke off her trail.”

With a snort of disgust, he stood and kicked sand over the cloth.

A scream cut through the stillness. Gabriel pivoted and stared in the direction of the creek. “Sienna,” he breathed.

Not waiting for Jake, he tore off through the brush, ignoring the saw palmetto scraping at his exposed arms. Heart pounding like a drum in his chest, Gabriel tasted real fear in his mouth.

At the shoreline, he ground to a halt and stared in horror.

Black, oily muck engulfed Sienna, who thrashed in the water. It covered her hair, her face, turning them to black oil until only the whites of her eyes showed. Finger-like appendages rose from the water and grabbed her, trying to pull her down.

She opened her mouth to scream again and more fingers of oily slickness slid past her lips. Sienna gagged and choked.

Gabriel searched frantically for something to pull her out. Behind him, Jake shouted, “Take this!”

The Lupine tossed him a thick branch.

Something inside him urged him not to use it. She needed skin contact with him. There was power inside Sienna, both light and dark. He must reach her and use that power to save her. Gabriel squatted by the creek, careful not to step in the water. Reaching out a hand, he called to her.

“Sienna, take my hand, now!”

She kept thrashing, the blackness sinking into her skin like sand absorbing rainfall.

“Sienna,
do it
!”

Struggling to reach the shoreline, she lifted her right hand. He must do this. It was a first for him, but Gabriel trusted his instincts. The pure, white light glowed within him, the light that had lain dormant until he’d made love with this Elf years ago. Sienna had awakened the power inside him but he had not felt it until she’d left and he finally reached inside himself for the Elven half he’d denied all his life.

I am the conduit, he chanted silently.
I am the one who brings forth the white, cleansing light.

Gabriel drew a deep breath, thought of how passion had glazed her green eyes as he’d pleasured her, how sleepy and sexy she’d looked after climaxing. Focusing on that shared connection, he clasped her hand.

Blackness poured over his fingers, eating into the skin. It hurt. Gabriel bit back a curse. He had to concentrate or she was dead and no way in hell was he losing her to this dark enchantment.

With all his strength, he pushed past the pain and gathered all his inner light. Then he reached inside her, using the connection they’d shared during those moments of passion, and yanked at the power inside her. It channeled straight into him, fueling his magick.

The blackness retreated from his hand. He pulled at Sienna’s hand.

“Pixie, remember the good times we had. Remember how much pleasure I gave you, what we shared,” he called out softly. “Focus on that. Use your good energy and your willpower to fight the darkness. Feel the white light in my spirit reaching to yours, my energy touching your energy.”

It was working! Blackness fled her hand, and inched down her arm, retreating off her face. The oily fingers of the toxic dark ceased grasping at her.

And then the terror returned to her face. “Help me. Don’t let go.”

Her fear ate at him with vicious force. The blackness crept up his arm again, threatening to devour him as it did Sienna.

It would eat through him, covering him until he screamed, and then his screams would cut off as it choked him.

“Gabriel, please help me.”

Sienna came first. He must save her. Gabriel remembered the hot pleasure they’d shared while making love and concentrated on the flickering white light threading through her now-dark aura. “Focus on me. Only me, pixie. I won’t let go. I promise. Now focus!”

He gave a mighty yank and pulled her. She flew through the air like a Fairy, landing hard on the soil.

Gabriel crouched over her, touching her face. The blackness inched off her skin and then crept back into the water, joining the oily mass.

Finally all of it fled her body. She sat up and looked woozy. Then she bent over and retched onto the sand, moaning as she threw up great quantities of black tar, tinged with rainbow colors.