Animal Instincts (Entangled Ignite) (2 page)

“And my sister is off-limits!” Shade yelled.

The stranger turned to him with a pointed expression when he said, “As sisters should be.”

“What’s going on?” I whipped back to Shade. “You
know
him?”

Rather than answering, he said, “I told you to wait where you were.”

The air around me shifted and flickered lightning-white for a second, and the tension that held me diminished. When I looked for the stranger, he was gone.

“Skye.”

Set free from whatever spell I’d been under, I pushed past Shade and started back toward the arena. “One of the animals in the fight escaped. I was trying to find it. It’s still out here somewhere. It was a coyote, not a dog.”

He didn’t sound surprised. “So you got out here and what?”

“The coyote was gone. But there were other animals. A wolf, a lion, and a hyena.”

I could tell Shade believed me. He knew something, but he was blocking me from finding out what exactly that might be. We were usually on the same wavelength psychically, but not tonight. Tonight he was holding secrets from me. It was as if he’d created an invisible wall to lock me out.

I stopped and asked, “What’s going on here? Explain.”

“Go home,” he told me, “where you belong.”

I tried to read him, but I couldn’t sense him the way I normally could. The same thing had happened the other day. Weird.

“I am where I belong,” I argued. “You’re the one who is out of his element. Unless you’ve quit homicide for animal control.”

“Why I’m here doesn’t concern you. And for God’s sake, don’t tell anyone about what you saw.”

When he got like this, there was nothing I could do. “You can be such a jerk. Leave me alone.”

Irritated, I stalked away. He was directly behind me as I passed the arena, but when I stopped to unlock my car door and glanced back, he was standing some distance away watching me. Obviously, he wasn’t going to tell me what he knew.

And what about the mysterious stranger? He seemed to have power to control the predators.

But most importantly…

Why did he think he had the power to control me?

Chapter Two

The mechanical music of the slot machines jarred Luc Lazare’s nerves the following night as he moved down the stairs and along the tunnel, closing in on the lower-level “invitation only” part of the casino. His father had won the permit to build the first casino boat in Chicago, though the permit for The Ark hadn’t included the several lower decks cloaked by magic where only the invited were permitted to play. The year before, when the secret complex had first opened, Luc had taken the job of security director to please his father. Most nights, the cacophony quickly faded into the background like white noise.

Not tonight.

Tonight, with the spectacle of last night’s shifter fight still clear in his mind, Luc felt everything here as if it was inside his skin—the scream of an excited gambler, the roar of a lion, the squawks of the caged parrots overhead, the blasting dance music from the bar.

He’d recognized Skye Cross immediately. She had the same mahogany hair as her brother, the same green eyes. Those luminous eyes had pinned him in place while he’d failed to control her. He told himself that’s what made him want to know her better. He didn’t like being thwarted. He was used to having control, especially over humans.

The heart of The Ark’s cloaked decks was the casino, surrounded by entertainment venues. Pop’s magic stretched the perimeter far beyond the size of a normal boat. Off to the back, a live band played in the bar, as one did in the legal casino above. The most noticeable difference on this level was the animal habitats. Big cats, wolves, bears, hawks, alligators, and other carnivores were on display for the amusement of their guests. As happened once a night, a caretaker was introducing prey for the predators. Even well fed, the meat eaters couldn’t resist the instinct to chase and kill.

On the other side of the closest habitat’s glass front, a rabbit whipped by him. Luc’s gut tightened and his gaze narrowed on the ragged prey. He had to restrain himself. His heart sped up, pumping hard. For a moment he was mesmerized, his appetites engaged. Wanting to shift and go after the prey, he had to force himself to look away, to take a deep breath and get a hold of himself.

Guests lined up along the glass cages to watch. Did they feel their hearts fluttering? Their primal instincts humming? They spoke in undertones, some laughing nervously, as if they were embarrassed when they actually enjoyed watching. For some reason, humans always felt the need to appear more noble and caring on the surface than they were inside. Part of their two-faced thinking.

Luc stopped in front of Jez’s area. As a big black panther, she was sleek and muscular. As a woman, she was all soft curves. His childhood friend, she was the only shifter other than his sister, Nuala, who stood with him against his brother, Nik. But tonight she wasn’t in her usual spot.
Later,
Luc thought, though instead of lush dark hair, he thought of mahogany. Instead of golden eyes, he imagined green.

He couldn’t put Skye Cross out of mind. Her image had been haunting him since the night before.

He’d known many human women. His own mother, who’d raised him, was human. But no other human woman had ever captured his interest in quite the same way Skye had, perhaps because she’d heard his silent commands. How intriguing. He wanted to know exactly how she’d done that. He wanted to know
her
. Knew he couldn’t. Or at least he shouldn’t.

At the memory of Skye challenging him, his pulse began to race and his gut tightened, the sensation not unlike what he experienced when he was after prey.

Not that Skye was prey.

Moving on, Luc passed guests familiar to him—people invited because they had something his father wanted. He forced his mind away from Skye Cross and onto business.

“Alderman Bakula, good to see you,” he greeted the politician. “Leaving so early?”

“Already shot my wad, son. Another time.”

“We’ll be looking forward to it,” Luc said, moving along, greeting a wealthy socialite at one bank of slots and a man who worked in airport security at another.

Pop wanted ears to the ground at every level, his entry point to taking over the city. If Pop succeeded—and odds were that he would—Luc knew he wouldn’t stop at Chicago. Being immortal, Pop had all the time in the world and filled his days and nights by figuring out ways of gaining more power. He was already making deals with Kindred scattered around the globe. Eventually, they would work under him. Pop had big plans for the world. That was the thing that tested Luc’s love of being Kindred. How Pop would do this offended his human side.

Luc waved to his people in the security office via one of the cameras suspended near high windows that let in the light of early evening. As always, flashes of silver circled the boat. Fish were drawn to the lights of sea glass. Odd how they were so aware of the lower deck casino when people weren’t, due, of course, to Pop’s cloaking spell.

Then again, the humans in this casino weren’t aware of the potential consequences of their gaming. They thought the dealers in tiger-striped vests and the waitresses in leopard-print sarongs were like them.

If their luck didn’t hold, which was inevitable, they would face the truth soon enough.

What if Skye Cross figured it out? Just as her brother had obviously done.

As if his thoughts had conjured Shade, Luc saw him with Nuala. Again. The man had been after his sister for weeks, no doubt as part of his investigation. Luc hoped Nuala had been careful what she’d told him. Even now, Shade was gazing around the casino as if trying to find some way to bring The Company down. The man was trouble, first appearing at the shifter fight, now here.

Stalking him, Luc wondered what Shade was saying to his sister. Normally expert at hiding what she was feeling, Nuala hadn’t been herself lately, and right now, Luc could tell she was struggling to contain her emotions.

She looked his way and her expression closed. “Luc.”

He put his arm around his sister’s shoulders, and in a low voice asked, “What are you doing back here, Detective?”

“You know I have a standing invitation.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to use it.”

Nuala moaned. “Luc, please—”

“What is it you
really
want?” he asked Shade.

Though after the raid the previous night, Luc thought he knew. And, like his sister, Shade couldn’t be influenced, as Luc had learned over the past weeks.

“I want a lot of things, Lazare.” He stepped closer, pushing his face into Luc’s. “Number one, stay away from my sister.”

Good advice
, Luc thought. What he said was, “And if I don’t?”

“Stop it, both of you,” Nuala said, “before you cause a scene.” She seemed in charge of herself again.

“Do
you
want me to leave?” Shade asked her.

Nuala hesitated a moment before she spoke. “No, but I think it would be best for everyone.”

Luc narrowed his gaze on his sister. Did she have real feelings for this human, who could bring trouble down on them? How could she get herself involved with a cop?

“All right, then, if that’s what you want,” Shade said. “But you’ll see me again soon.”

He turned to go, but Luc grabbed Shade’s arm. “One more thing. I hear you’ve been to see my mother.” Who had always stayed away from his father’s world.

“Gracious woman.” Shade pulled his arm free. “How she got mixed up in all this…” He shrugged.

“You’d damn well better stay away from her.”

Shade echoed Luc. “And if I don’t?”

Blood coursed through Luc. He tensed his muscles so that he didn’t do something he would regret. He locked gazes with the cop, who had no idea of what he was risking personally with his investigation of The Company. Luc sensed he wouldn’t stop, though.

Not as long as he was alive.

Shade backed off and made for the exit.

Only when he was sure the other man was gone did Luc relax and face Nuala. “What were the two of you talking about before I interrupted?”

She closed him off so he couldn’t read her.

“Nothing you would want to hear.”

Before she, too, stalked off, Luc noticed that the sea glass pendant she usually wore was missing.

Luc was still thinking about that later, when he had time to wind down.

As he approached the habitats, he looked for Jez again, but still she was nowhere to be seen, so he went inside and entered her favorite area, where a stream cut through woods. He couldn’t find her, so he signaled Clarke, a hawk who wheeled overhead and cut down through the trees.

Jez?

Haven’t seen her, not tonight.

No way could Clarke have missed her.

Odd. It wasn’t like Jez to skip a shift.

Which made Luc wonder if he should be worried.

She was as sweet as they came around here, and for their kind, a little naive. Though he’d told her things could get dangerous for her because of her association with him, Jez had simply shrugged off the warning.

Now Luc was having a hard time shrugging off the suspicion that sent a ripple down his spine.

Something was wrong.

Chapter Three

“Take the punishment you deserve with some dignity.”

Running the fights, he’d taken Jez last night, after the police had raided the last one. By the time anyone who cared found out where she was, it would be too late. As the fight controller, he’d been following her, looking for a reason to take her. In reality he wanted to make her pay for allying herself with Luc. He’d been waiting to get even with Cezar’s bastard son, and her death was the first step in his plan.

“This isn’t fair. I don’t deserve this,” Jez said, tears spilling out of her dark eyes as one of the guards pulled her into the preparation area, an office tucked inside the abandoned warehouse. Her waist-length black hair spilled over a bared shoulder. “Please, let me pay some other way.” She moved into him, palming his chest, her hand trembling. “You know I haven’t been properly trained for this, so please,
please
don’t send me out there to die.”

Quickening because her touch was apprehensive—he loved the taste of fear—he was tempted to let her seduce him, to allow her to think she could gain her freedom that way.

Tick-tock.
The bettors would get violently restless if he delayed the fight for some physical gratification. Besides, Jez wasn’t the one he wanted. He ripped her hand away and tried to ignore the insistent throbbing she’d set off in his groin.

“You
can
go out there and you
will
. You shouldn’t have broken the rules, shouldn’t have shifted in the park in front of a human.”

“Please! I was startled by that huge dog. I didn’t do it on purpose, I swear. It was animal instinct.”

Knowing Jez feared dogs—wild dogs were the panther’s natural enemy, and Jez was a weak disgrace to her kind—he smirked. He’d heard it all before. The begging. The pleading. The promises. “Out there you have a chance. In here, no chance at all. Are we clear?”

Sobbing, she nodded and the bones in her face began to quiver and stretch.

Not wanting to watch her shift, he left the airless room for the big empty warehouse. This area of the city was virtually abandoned at night. The fight venue constantly changed, and they had picked the perfect location tonight.

The spectators had already gathered, and the doors were closed. On one side of the arena, a young woman was giving money to a shady-looking guy. He handed her a plastic bag filled with white powder. In another corner, two teenagers made a quick exchange. One ran off while the other furtively checked over a handgun before slipping it into his waistband under his jacket. The heavens rumbled thunder in disapproval. Tough. Drug and weapons deals had always been a staple of dogfights. It wasn’t any different here, where the contestants were a bit more unusual than dogs. Just another perk.

The crowds were getting bigger with each bout. And younger. More kids were here with their parents than ever before. He smiled. “Corrupt them young,” that was the Boss’s motto. The young were malleable. They could go in any direction. So he’d allowed kids to come for free and their parents had willingly brought them. Knowing he was sending these annoying little humans in a direction that could ruin them for the rest of their pitiful lives, he took his seat. Handlers led the combatants out to the arena surrounded by three-foot plywood walls.

A small child screaming, “Doggie!” made him smirk. The doggie was a wild dog, another shape-shifter who would enjoy punishing Jez for him.

“What is that?” someone behind him asked. “The other animal. It looks like something else. A big black cat.”

The area was still dark except for occasional strikes of lightning, so it was hard to tell for certain unless you were up close. A murmur went up through the crowd as more than a few spectators saw enough to excite them.

“This is what I been waiting to see,” Lieutenant Ryan Connelly, a burly man with sandy hair, told his pretty blond companion.

The cop’s corruption warmed the fight controller’s insides, made him salivate with anticipation.

“Won’t you get in trouble if your captain finds out you’re doing something illegal?” the blonde asked.

Connelly grabbed the blonde by the arm and twisted so hard it made her squeal. “Can it, bitch!”

“Final bets,”
came over the loudspeaker.
“Three minutes.”

People frantically waved over the bookies. Money and betting slips quickly changed hands.

Glancing over the crowd, the controller started when a lightning strike revealed another familiar face. Another cop. Detective Shade Cross, cell phone in hand. What the Hades was
he
doing here? He’d been taken care of at the casino days ago so that he’d turn a blind eye to anything illicit—hadn’t he?

“One minute.”

When Jez’s black pelt quivered, the taste of her fear slid deliciously through him.

And then the bell clanged to cut off betting and portable lights aimed at the ring clicked on. Spectators gasped when they got a good look at Jez’s sleek black coat.

The controller’s pulse raced, and his senses sharpened as they always did when a fight was about to begin. The money was good, but money didn’t motivate him.

Another bell. Another bombshell-loud complaint from the clouds.

The combatants being held back at the scratch lines were let loose and the animals charged each other. At the wild dog’s first bite, Jez screeched. Bleeding, she tried to run from her opponent.

“Turn!” Jez’s handler yelled.

The other handler grabbed the wild dog, and both shape-shifters were returned to the scratch line to start over.

The controller had known Jez would try to back out and he’d told her handler to threaten her to make her fight. Whatever was necessary. The handler was doing it now, telling her that if she didn’t hold her own out there, he would take great pleasure in skinning her.

Hatred focused him. He couldn’t wait to see Luc’s reaction. He’d been humiliated because of the bastard, and it was time for payback, and Jez’s death would be a start.

The fight resumed, and this time, Jez tore into the wild dog as the dog’s teeth tore into her. The heavens rumbled as, within seconds, she lost the use of a hind leg. She might be a bit bigger than the wild dog, but she was inexperienced. He could feel her desperation as she lunged forward, swatting hard with sharp claws. Atmospheric electricity surrounded the combatants, illuminating streams of blood spurting from the wounded animals. Spectators screamed and a few even left. Jez did an impressive job of holding her own, but of course she hadn’t been trained. That was the point. That was her punishment. Her jaw already hung crookedly, and her screams pierced the din of the crowd.

Someone in the crowd screamed, and a thrill shot through him, awakening his appetites. He glanced back to the arena. As wave after wave of pain and fear and excitement of the audience washed over him, he gorged on the human bloodlust.

Glancing to where Shade Cross sat, the controller watched the cop use his smartphone to capture Jez’s death. Then he pocketed his phone, got up, and left. Damn it! What the hell was Cross up to now?

…

Shade went straight from the shifter fight to Elizabeth Reyes’s home. It was more estate than home, as were several other mansions surrounded by black iron fencing in the Buena Park neighborhood nestled close to the lake. Lit by streetlights as well as post lights on the property, the historic brick-and-limestone building was three stories high and certainly more than five thousand square feet. All for one person. Or maybe two, if her son still lived here—Shade hadn’t been able to find out.

He rang her bell. No answer. Shade checked his watch. Already half past eleven. He sat on the front steps to wait for her and flicked through the video he’d taken on his cell phone. The fight haunted him, and he hoped it would haunt the Reyes woman enough to make her talk this time. The panther had died, but in the morning, the woman’s body would be found, as had happened before.

Another case to add to the growing pile that he and Ethan were investigating. Shade didn’t know how to tell him about the shifter fights. Practical, black-and-white Ethan wouldn’t believe it. People who turned into predators. Even he’d had a hard time believing it. Now he knew it was true. Straight-arrow Ethan might force a psych evaluation on him if he tried to explain.

A dark sedan pulled into the side drive, and Shade got to his feet. Elizabeth Reyes alighted, her expression darkening as she took the walkway to the steps where he waited.

“What are you doing here, Detective Cross?” She walked up the steps past him, then paused to fumble with her keys. “I’ve told you everything I know.”

“You’ve told me fairy tales, Ms. Reyes. Now I have one to show you.”

She turned to him. “What?”

He clicked on the cell screen to show her digital footage of the black panther before she was sent out to be killed. “This is a friend of your son’s.”

“Excuse me? A zoo animal?”

He could see the lie on her face, could hear it in her voice. He couldn’t hear
her
. Not her thoughts. Not after what he’d done to break this case. He’d lost his psychic edge, maybe permanently. He’d lost more than that, enough that he shouldn’t care about the case anymore, but to his own surprise, he had no desire to give up.

“I think you know differently.”

“It’s late, Detective Cross.”

“One more look.” He clicked to the footage where the wild dog tore open the panther’s side and practically shoved the phone in her face. “This is how she ended the night.”

Her eyes widened and a strangled sound escaped her.

About to press her for information, Shade caught movement from the corner of his eye. One glance behind him, and he tossed away the cell to shove the Reyes woman out of harm’s way. The night exploded with sound, and her arm jerked as she took the bullet.

Before Shade could get to his Glock, something hot and sharp crashed through his skull.

Then all went dark.

…

The doorbell’s shrill buzz nearly tossed me out of bed. A quick glance at the clock confirmed it was 4:13, well before dawn.

Had I dreamed the sound?

Another blare, more insistent this time, confirmed someone was, indeed, at my door. One of the cats flew off the bed. Shade, no doubt, had misplaced his keys. Again.

Grumbling, I climbed over a second cat who couldn’t be bothered to move and stumbled out of bed and into the hall to the intercom. The video screen revealed not Shade, but his partner and best friend, Ethan Grainger.

“Isn’t Shade answering his door?” I asked over the intercom.

I could hear Shade’s dog Boomer barking downstairs. We lived in a two-flat we’d inherited from our grandmother, Shade in the first-floor apartment, me in the second.

“I need to talk to you.”

At four in the morning? He sounded so serious. Of course he wouldn’t wake me in the middle of the night if it wasn’t something serious.

“Okay.”

I pressed the buzzer that let him up. Spotting a long-sleeved shirt I’d left on a dining room chair, I grabbed it and pulled it on before unlocking the door. Ethan’s short, light-brown hair accentuated his broad cheeks. His blue eyes had gone all eerie, filled with something that went beyond simple grief.

My heart thundered.

“What is it?” I was fully awake now and filled with unease. I’d heard too often about official visits to relatives of coppers when something bad had to be reported. “What’s happened to Dad?”

“Not your father.” Ethan shook his head. “It’s Shade.”

My world suddenly got smaller. Tighter. My eyes began to sting. I knew. But I wouldn’t believe it.

“Where is he?” I demanded, my heart thudding against my ribs. “What hospital?”

“I’m so sorry.” Ethan pulled me to him and held me so tightly, I couldn’t move.

“No!” Tears flooded my eyes and I awkwardly struck him in the chest. “No.”

“I’m so sorry. You know I loved him like a brother.”

I was in the midst of a nightmare, but I was truly awake.

Shade, my twin, my other half, was gone.

Ethan let me cry until there were no more tears. Until my eyelids were so swollen I could hardly see. Then he led me to the living room where he sat me down in a chair and found a box of tissues so I could get myself together.

He waited for me to ask “Wh-what happened?”

“Shade was a hero again tonight. He was shot saving a woman’s life.”

“Who?”

“Her name is Elizabeth Reyes.” Ethan shook his head. “I don’t know why, just that he was on her porch waiting to talk to her when she came home around midnight. She took the first bullet before Shade pushed her out of harm’s way.”

I tried to take it all in. “He was on the job, then. Alone.” Shade never worked without backup. At least, I didn’t know about him doing so.

“Apparently. He didn’t confide in me. Not in a while.”

Shade
had
been acting odd lately. Secretive. Argumentative.

“And he was shot saving her?”

“Right. She said they’d hardly spoken for a minute before the first shot rang out. She was winged as he pushed her out of the way and took a bullet himself.”

“One bullet? That’s all it took to kill him?”

He nodded. “I’m sorry to have to tell you he was shot in the head.”

“Oh, my God.”

The last thing I had done was turn my back on my brother.

To never see him alive again.

I had to live with that.

Forever.