Consumed

Chapter 9

Standing next to Conn, Jordan rested a shoulder against the wall in the gym, slowly opening his right hand as the broken fingers mended. Nothing like a sparring session with a friend who had no problem taking your head off. His tennis shoes left deep imprints in the worn grappling mats as he tested his steadiness. He’d fought many times in a Kayrs gym ... though this was the first time they grappled aboveground in the main lodge. The ocean rolled lazily below, sending salt through the open windows.

He allowed his mind to blank in order for several concussions to heal. The past flashed back with a vengeance. Three hundred years ago, after the Kurjan massacre, peace was impossible.

Still in the new colonies, Jordan shoved the pain somewhere to be dealt with at another time. Sitting in a hastily built meeting room in the middle of thick trees and dark rocks, he glanced out the window at an unfamiliar world. With the death of his family, the world had changed.

Conn sat across the rough-planked table, anger and sorrow cutting new lines into his face. “What do you want to do?” His deep voice echoed in the silent room as the rest of the leaders had taken a break outside.

“I don’t know.” Jordan needed guidance. He needed his father. . . or Kyle Bomant, their former leader. Their deaths were fresh ... too fresh. “I just don’t know.”

“You don’t have to do anything.” Conn leaned forward, ensuring their conversation didn’t reach through the holes serving as windows in the pine walls. “Dage said your cousin will arrive later today and is considering allying with the Kurjans. What do you know about him?”

Jordan shook his head. “He’s an asshole. Beat the crap out of a girl last year because she didn’t respond to him. I can see him backing the Kurjans, considering they just took out half the Realm.” Over three hundred years older than Jordan, the other shifter had never grown up.

Conn paled. “If you align with the Kurjans, that makes us ...”

“Enemies.” Jordan met his friend’s gaze squarely. “Not only that, both our forces will be depleted and we’re at war. Nobody knows if the demons will jump in and if so, which side they’ll take.”

“Not to mention the damn witches.” Conn exhaled, the sound full of anguish. “I’ve never understood those crazy magic users and hope to God I never have to deal with a witch. Though Dage secured the canine and multi nations as allies, and they’re sending troops to fight.”

“That’s good.” Well, that was good if Jordan’s people remained allies with the Realm. Otherwise, the wolves would be chasing him. His mind spun, and his gut ached as reality settled hard. “Since Dage has relocated Realm Headquarters to these mountains in the new world, we have the opportunity to take care of business quietly and without a formal challenge to Brent.”

Conn lifted his chin, a veil dropping over his eyes. “Are you ready to challenge your cousin for leadership?”

“Yes.” The word weighed heavily in the room, and even more solidly in Jordan’s stomach. The choice might be out of his hands. His people were too scattered and scared for anyone else to step up, with the exception of Noah Chance. But Noah was a fighter, one of the best, and they needed him on the front line now more than ever. “I want to meet with Brent first and make sure he’s unwilling to align with Dage.”

No expression crossed Conn’s broad face. “You’re a good fighter.”

“Thanks.” Jordan allowed acceptance of the unspoken words to filter down his back. “But Brent is three hundred years older, is more experienced, and has fought before.” Fear at the decision he was considering made Jordan’s head pound. “I’ve never killed anyone.”

“Me, either.” Emotion broke through the false calmness on Conn’s face. “I think that’s about to change.”

Two weeks ago Jordan’s biggest decision had been what woman to woo. The world wasn’t the only thing that had changed ... he and Conn were next. Destiny slammed him right in the face. “If Brent turns against the Realm, there’s really no choice.”

“What are you saying?”

Jordan studied his friend. Conn knew exactly what Jordan was saying, but sometimes the words had to be spoken. “If necessary, I’ll challenge him. If I lose ... I need you to ...”

“Kill him.” Conn’s lids lowered to half mast, and suddenly, he looked like a killer. An unwilling, truly unhappy killer, but a killer nonetheless.

Spikes poked the back of Jordan’s eyes. The last thing he ever wanted to do was turn his best friend into a cold-blooded killer. “If there was anybody else to ask ...”

“I’m just meeting my destiny faster than I’d hoped.” Inevitability echoed in Conn’s low tone. “From day one of my life, I knew I’d be the soldier in my family. The fighter and the one on the front lines. I just didn’t think fate would come calling this soon.”

Fate had arrived for them both. Jordan extended his hand across the table. “This goes against everything we’ve been taught, and everything we believe in.”

“War leaves us no choice.” Conn took his hand in a strong grasp. “If we do this, Dage can never know. He has enough on his shoulders with the family and now with the Realm. He shouldn’t live with this.”

“No. This is ours.” Jordan released Conn and stood. “Let’s go issue the challenge. May God have mercy on us someday.”

Conn shook his head and stood. “What we do, we do because we have to. Mercy has no place—and neither does God.”

The words sent shards of pure ice down Jordan’s spine. Not because they were dismal ... but because they were the absolute truth. The world had changed, indeed.

Back in the present, Jordan opened his eyes in the large gym, his concussions healed.

“You’re stronger.” Conn popped his neck, grimacing as the vertebrae probably snapped back into place.

“I know.” Every day since being infected, his vision had sharpened, his hearing clarified, and his strength increased. As had the need to fight and kill. “I’ve been craving raw meat like you wouldn’t believe.”

Conn lifted a bloody eyebrow. “Ewww.”

“You drink blood, asshole.” Damn vampires didn’t know how gross that really was. “Ah, Brent Bomant is alive.”

Conn stilled. The air vibrated. “No, he’s not.”

“Yes. Apparently I left a tendon attached. And now he’s a werewolf. One with intelligence and the ability to speak.”

“Speak? A werewolf communicated?”

“Oh yeah. Spoke clearly and remembered his life before turning into a werewolf. Worse yet, he remembered me ... and what I did.”

“Unbelievable.” Conn scraped both hands down his face. “We did the right thing, Jordan.”

“Did we?” Jordan whispered. “I’ve always wondered.” Was it ambition that had him killing his own family? His own blood. “If we did the right thing, you would’ve cleared the plan with Dage instead of never saying a word.”

“We did our jobs ... and part of my job was protecting my king, regardless of his being my brother.” Conn gave a low growl. “You and I buried this issue three centuries ago. Too late to worry about our decisions now.”

Was it? The nape of Jordan’s neck began to tingle. “I can’t figure out who would be working with Brent. Who’d be taking pictures of Katie to give to him.” The whole idea infuriated Jordan to the point he could barely see.

Conn shook his head. “Most werewolves feel the need to kill humans. Well, to kill everyone. If Brent has progressed to where he can refrain from killing and actually work with a human, he’s even more dangerous than I would’ve thought.”

“That’s an understatement.” Jordan couldn’t talk about the past anymore. “Where’s your mate, anyway?”

“Moira is in Ireland meeting with the Council of the Coven Nine.” Conn rolled his neck. “The council has some sources in the demon nation that say there’s an internal war going on. We’re trying to find out if it’s true, and if so, what to do about it. Who to align with.”

The council ruled the witches and aligned with the Realm. If anybody had spies in the demon nation, it’d be the witches. Though, starting ten years ago, certain shifting clans had begun to work with the demons, so Jordan’s informants might be of some help, too. “I have several feelers out right now for information regarding the demons. They’re centralizing their power bases in Scotland and somewhere in the southern part of the United States.” Which meant they’d be hitting Realm forces sometime soon.

Conn nodded. “Between war with the Kurjans the last ten years, and your people’s problems with the virus killing so many, our troops are depleted.” He huffed out a laugh. “Thank God the witches have remained our allies.”

“Speaking of witches, when will yours be home?” The little witch always made things interesting, and watching her run Conn in circles would lighten Jordan’s mood.

“Next week,” the vampire growled, frowning. He rubbed his short hair. “I still owe her for the buzz cut.”

Jordan fought a smile. “You’re lucky she didn’t singe your eyebrows, too.”

“She’s lucky she didn’t.” Conn grinned, shaking his head. “She got me good this time. I’m trying to figure out a decent payback, but all I can think about is getting her home safely.”

The moon began to rise, snapping electricity along Jordan’s skin. Ever since he’d been infected, he’d been in tune with the moon. He shook off the unease. “Having your woman fighting ... the reality is hard, isn’t it?”

“Oh yeah. I’d love to lock Moira up in some fortress”—Conn snorted—“but she’d just blow the place to pieces on her way out.” All five fingers on his left hand popped as he stretched them out to heal. “She’s a fighter, and I like that about her, but it’s a lot easier when I’m fighting next to her.”

“I get that.” His friend would probably head to Ireland after the full moon—after Jordan would need to be put down. “The moon is up—I need to go outside.” He hated it. But rabid ants crawled under his skin until he leapt into moonlight when the orb appeared after dusk. The pull rivaled gravity.

A door slammed open in the hallway, and Katie rushed inside, her hair a wild mass around her slim shoulders. “Jordan—”

“I know.” He strode toward the door and grasped her arm. “We need to go outside.” He hadn’t realized how difficult the last decade must’ve been for her—craving the moon every night. The demand was like having an addiction with no treatment possibilities.

“No.” She tugged away. “Emma found a cure.” Strong fingers dug into his arm, yanking him into the hallway. “She used Maggie’s blood combined with yours since getting infected combined with a spell created by Moira before she left for Ireland.” Katie’s voice rose in excitement as she dragged him up a flight of stairs toward the labs. “Emma won’t use the concoction on me because the cure hasn’t been tested. But you’re out of time.”

Moira was one of the most powerful witches alive. If anyone could alter the subatomic particles of a liquid cure, it’d be Moira.

Jordan allowed Katie to tug him into the main lab where they almost ran over Kane Kayrs.

He lifted an eyebrow, his metallic violet eyes serious. Dressed in black slacks and silk shirt, the smartest vampire on the planet always looked like he should be vacationing in Rome instead of spending hours after hours in a lab working with the queen. Well, when he wasn’t catching werewolves for sport. “Good news travels fast.”

Hope. For the first time since the confirmation of Jordan’s being infected, hope battled through his despair. “Is there good news?”

Katie hopped in excitement next to him, her boots squeaking on the spotless tiles. She reached down to grip his hand. He leaned a hip against one of the three examination tables, trying to stay calm. Trying not to get too excited about the possibility.

Emma turned from peering through a microscope. “Maybe.” She glanced at Katie, concern furrowing her brow. “We managed to attack a sample of Virus-27 in a petri dish ... not exactly the same environment as a living body.”

“But the cure worked?” Katie breathed, her grip tightening.

“Yes. The mixture binds itself around the virus ... keeping the bug from reproducing.”

Katie smiled. “So the virus will stop attacking Jordan’s chromosomes and he won’t turn into a werewolf.”

“Theoretically.” Kane reached for a syringe off the wide granite counter. “I prepared an injection for you earlier, Jordan. Just in case.” The scientist stalked toward them, somehow menacing even in the comfortable lab.

Jordan held out his arm. With the luck he’d been having lately, the cure would turn him into a monkey. “How soon should we know?”

“With the new equipment, in a couple hours.” Kane jabbed the needle in his vein.

Lava poured through Jordan’s veins. Hot and angry, the liquid bubbled along with his blood. “Holy shit. What the hell is that?”

Emma pursed her lips. “A whole lot of stuff, including magic.” Then she frowned at the long row of equipment lining the counter. “In fact, several of our concoctions could be applied to cure human diseases.”

Kane sighed. “Emma, the methodology could be applied, not our results. Our results deal with nonhumans. And we let you send the methodology to the human scientists.”

“Let me?” The queen lifted her chin. Her pointy shoe tapped several times on the thick tiles. “One of my favorite pastimes is kicking you, Kane Kayrs.”

“Talk to your husband about outside communications, not me. My brother controls all information going out ... you know that.” Kane pivoted to the machines, turning his back on them all. “Jordan, I want to do blood tests on the hour, every hour. If you feel anything different, please let me know.”

Jordan nodded, a roaring filling his head. “Need to get outside.” The moon demanded.

Katie trembled, her face going white. “Me, too. Let’s go.”

Holding hands, they stumbled in their haste to feel the rays, dodging through corridors until running out the back sliding door into a courtyard that extended to the cliffs. Trees lined both sides, leading to forest land. Below them the ocean churned, as if even the massive body of water gyrated to the moon’s command.

Katie released his hand, lifting her chin to the heavens, pure bliss crossing her face.

Soft light cascaded down. Tension eased from Jordan’s shoulders. Peace, false and temporary, filled his pores. Even then, the woman’s pull beat the moon’s. Rays tangled around her, highlighting her exquisite bone structure and stabbing the beast inside him awake. Lion or werewolf, he wasn’t sure. Either way, the male at his core wanted the female.

He’d wondered. For more than ten years—he’d tried to keep from thinking about her. He’d known her as a child, a teenager, and now a woman. The crush she’d held came from youth.

But something in him recognized her. Wondered if she’d already be wearing his mark, had the damn Kurjans not messed with fate. Along with biology. The need to sink his teeth into her neck just enough to mark had his incisors lengthening, shifting into lion form while his body remained human.

Salty, the breeze carried her sigh as she lowered her gaze to him. Her pretty brown eyes widened. “Your teeth.”

“Yeah.” He shoved them back up.

“I miss that.”

He struggled for control. “You miss having cougar teeth?”

“Yeah.” Her smile surpassed beautiful and grabbed him around the heart to squeeze. “Remember when I first learned how to elongate the teeth only?”

Warmth slammed into his solar plexus. “You bit the crap out of us.” He chuckled, feeling humor for the first time in a week. “I thought Noah was going to perform a root canal on you.”

She threw back her head and laughed, the sound filling the night with joy. “Remember when I bit Talen because he wouldn’t play catch with me?”

“You were a monstrous six-year-old.”

Her eyes sparkled, then grew serious. The smile waned. Tremors shook her shoulders. Almost in slow motion, she turned her head to gaze beyond the courtyard to the forest extending into darkness.

“What?” His shoulders went back. Electricity danced up his spine. The breeze whipped a new scent into the area. “Dog.” Not just any dog. “How—”

His breath caught as fire lanced through his veins. A tidal force of energy ricocheted inside his muscles. Bones snapped. His teeth sharpened, drawing blood from his lips.

Stubborn will had him fighting the change, fighting what overcame his human side.

Without making a determination—against his will—he shot into lion form.

Katie flew across the courtyard to land on her butt. The energy released when Jordan shifted held an element of something new ... something she couldn’t shield against. Her palms pressed into the soft grass as she levered to her feet, her gaze on the massive western cougar eyeing her like a midnight snack.

Even so, a darker danger stalked closer ... menace and need winding through the oxygen to clog her lungs. Oily darkness reached out to her, sending a humming through her brain. A shiver rippled down her spine. The hair on her arms stood up. How the hell had he found her?

Roaring a battle cry, Brent leapt over the stone wall to land in the center of the courtyard.

She stepped back, fear turning her knees brittle. “How?”

“Kaattieee. Have blood.”

Jesus. He’d tracked her that easily—and traveled across the country during daytime? Just because he’d tasted her blood? She’d never be free of him. “Guess you need to die then.”

Why hadn’t Jordan attacked? She shifted her gaze to the cougar, who remained still, head cocked to the side and studying Brent. Was Jordan’s coat darker than usual? Had the changes already begun? “Jordan?”

Brent tilted his head, pivoting. Both animals began to circle, sniffing the air. Brent gave a low howl. “Jordaaan. Like meeee.” The furry beast clapped his hands together. “Baaad Jordaaan.”

Teeth flashed when Jordan snarled, his gaze going from Brent to Katie. He stilled and sniffed the night.

Damnit. The virus had progressed enough in Jordan to confuse him in relation to Brent. Katie kept her hands harmlessly at her sides. “Jordan. You’re the good guy. He’s the bad.” Simple, but hopefully effective. Though, the men had once been family.

The cat licked his lips. Too dark ears lay back, and he abandoned his vigil of Brent to stalk three steps closer to her.

“Uh, Jordan?” She edged sideways toward the door.

His low-pitched snarl stopped her cold.

Fear settled deep in her gut, sending adrenaline to flood her veins, terror erasing years of combat training. The animal held her in his sights. Jordan was gone. In his place a creature of primal instinct eyed her like she was dinner. Or maybe dessert.

She cleared her throat, the sound harsh in the quiet night. “You’re still a cougar, Jordan. Fight this. Please.” He wasn’t a werewolf yet—he could still think. Still be her protector.

His huge head lifted.

Powerful muscles bunched.

Then he leapt.

She screamed. Pivoting, she kicked out, connecting with his belly, sending him sprawling. Oh, she’d caught him by surprise, otherwise the move wouldn’t have worked.The cat rolled over in the spongy grass, stretching to his feet, sharp canines flashing. A quick weave to the side and he blocked her way to the door.

Brent threw back his furry head and laughed, the sound grating. He leaned against the hedge, amusement lightening those yellow eyes to something almost translucent.

Katie fought a whimper, sidling to the entrance. Fear cut through the night to narrow her vision. The cat’s low snarl stopped her escape.

Her feet froze. A tremor started at her knees and slid north until even her ears shook. “Jordan?”

He lunged.

Both paws hit her shoulders, knocking her down.

Pain radiated along her neck as she landed on the hard earth. The air swooshed from her lungs. Her head instantly pounded. Adrenaline slid with fear through her veins, and she calculated ways to take him down.

There weren’t any.

Heated breath brushed her face. Wide paws pressed down on her shoulders, keeping her in place. Blade-sharp claws ripped into her shirt, against her skin. His entire body vibrated.

Terror held her immobile. The cold ground chilled her back. Instinct had her stilling, trying not to breathe. Sharp, deadly teeth flashed in the moonlight. He lowered, scraping their fierce points along her jugular.

She fought her body to keep her hands at her sides, not threatening him. Inside her, a lioness awoke. Stretching, cautiously coming to the surface, instinct emerging in a final effort to stay alive.

A low grumble came from his chest. His teeth retracted and he sniffed her throat, along the jugular to behind her ear. His nose pressed against her skin, wet and flared.

Could she punch him in the throat and roll away? Something told her the move wouldn’t work—he was too fast and deadly in this state. Ever since she’d contracted the virus, her reflexes had slowed and her strength ebbed. She couldn’t take him like this.

Snarling, his head lowered, his teeth slowly elongating into the flesh where her neck met her shoulder.

Pain ripped through her. Reality smacked her—he wanted to mark her, not kill her. His fangs went deeper. She cried out, quickly silencing herself.

He stilled. His massive head lifted, those teeth leaving her flesh. His eyes swirled from yellow to green.

Three darts impacted his face, throwing him off her. Strong hands grabbed her armpits, dragging her to the entrance. Fresh bruises vibrated in her skin.

Her eyes wide on the cat, she struggled to stand. Conn shoved her partially behind him. His hand stayed steady as he extended the dart gun toward Jordan. With a soft snarl, the cougar lifted his upper lip. Then he swayed, dropping to the grass.

Katie gulped, her gaze spinning to the hedges.

Brent was gone.