Angel/Hiss (Bayou Heat Box Set Book 7) (14 page)

Hiss acknowledged the look with a grim smile. “Hello, Parish.”

***

“Where is he?” Gia demanded fiercely as she paced back and forth in front of the leader of the Pantera.

They were in his office, and the stunning blond male with sharp, assessing eyes the color of gold-flecked jade remained seated, watching her. After the one called Parish had brought them to the Suits’ Headquarters, a virtual army of Pantera had descended on Hiss. With his grim consent and a nod of acceptance flashed her way, they’d taken him, and Raphael had “escorted” her here.

She didn’t know these Pantera. Didn’t know how they worked. Whether they were in any way a merciful sect. But the second Hiss was out of her sight, she couldn’t quell the anxiety in her blood. If they hurt him…

“He’s meeting with our Hunters,” Raphael told her. And as if reading her mind, added, “No harm will come to him.” He raised his brow and said very pointedly, “Yet.”

Her lips curled up.

Raphael interlocked his fingers and let his chin rest on his knuckles. “I want to know about you, Gia. About where you come from…where you were before the lab. Have you been living among humans?”

For a moment, she thought about holding back. Why did this male deserve her truth? Maybe she would bargain with him for it. Truth for Hiss. But the leader of the Pantera didn’t seem the bargaining kind. And she didn’t want her tenacity to cost Hiss in the end.

“My family come from a sect in the Everglades. As you are Pantera, we are Cadejo.”

Raphael nodded, but didn’t seem surprised by the information. Or the name. Her brows knit together.

“And did you know of the Pantera before you met Hiss?” he asked.

“No.”

“How were you taken? Was it from your home?”

Gia wanted to tell him she didn’t remember, but she wasn’t sure she could lie that well. The day would live in her memory, in her nightmares, for eternity. “I was in Miami selling alligator hide. I go once a month.” She shrugged. “We eat a lot of alligator in the Wetlands. I was loading the hide into the buyer’s van when I was struck with a needle. I woke up in the Sub.”

“And you were a blood donor?”

“So to speak,” she answered tightly.

His eyes flickered to her hands, her wrists. “How are you healing, by the way?”

Without even a hint of embarrassment or shame, Gia held out her arms. “Very well. The magic is incredibly strong and pure here. As it is at home.”

A flash of interest lit his eyes, but again, he didn’t probe the subject of the Cadejo. She wondered at it. Learning of a new group of puma shifters had to birth all sorts of questions. Unless it wasn’t his first time hearing of it.

“Have you been able to shift here?” he asked

“I haven’t had a chance to try,” she told him with a lift to her chin. “With the swift capture and now the interrogation. Who knows what lies ahead.”

His lips twitched. “You are suspicious of me.”

“Of course I am. I don’t know you.”

“But you know Hiss,” he countered.

“Yes.”

He sniffed with derision.

“Is that so impossible to believe?” she pushed.

“You don’t have a clue who that male really is, Gia. If you did—”

“A traitor, right?” she interrupted. She crossed her arms over her chest and regarded him. “Is that what he is? All that he is?”

Raphael blanched. “He told you.”

“Of course he told me.”

“And that doesn’t…concern you?” he asked, his voice a low growl on the last two words.

“What concerns me is his well-being.” She arched a brow at him. “I want to see him.”

“He’s busy.”

“Being tortured? I promised, I won’t interrupt.”

“I’m sorry, Gia, but you don’t understand—”

“No, you don’t understand,” she countered blackly. “He is my mate.”

That pronouncement brought with it a full minute of silence, and Raphael’s stunned expression. Or was it a horrified glare? Frankly, Gia didn’t care. She’d said what was true in her heart. What she wanted. Maybe it hadn’t been spoken between them. But she and Hiss had bonds and ties that went far beyond spoken words or declarations.

“In my sect,” she continued, “mate status comes with certain rights and privileges.”

“In ours as well,” Raphael acknowledged. “But your male,” he said on a sneer, “is our prisoner. And prisoners don’t have rights. They have cages.”

A shudder went through her and she had to fight to keep herself steady and in control. “Hiss and I know a good deal about living in cages.”

The male’s jaw tightened. “You, of course, will be treated as a welcome and honored guest. There are plenty of places to stay in the Wildlands. You have only to choose—”

“I choose him,” she interrupted. “If Hiss stays in a cage, then I will stay with him.”

Those gold eyes flashed with curiosity. “You are very stubborn.”

“You have no idea.”

“Hiss told you he was a traitor. Did he tell you what he did? How the lives of his family, and by that I mean the Pantera, were put in danger? We lost a life, Gia.”

“I’m very sorry for that.” She wouldn’t make excuses for him. She didn’t need to. Hiss was well aware of what he’d done. He lived with it every second of every day. “But he also saved a life,” she added.

“Whose?” Raphael sneered.

“Mine.”

His mouth opened, but he said nothing.

“And he could save many more, we both could, if you’d act on the information we’ve brought you.” She sighed. “Think about it for one second, Leader of the Pantera. He came back here. Knowing the risks, knowing his certain fate, so he could save not only my life but everyone in that building in Baton Rogue. You want to know my first thought when we escaped? Getting home. Getting to my family. Now.” She went to the door and opened it. “I want to see my mate.”

For a solid minute, Raphael digested what she’d said to him. Tension flickered in the air around them. But finally, he nodded. “Very well, Gia of the Cadejo. Follow me.” He stood up, shifted into his cat and growled at her to follow him.

CHAPTER 5

In a conference room on the top floor of the Suits’ Headquarters, the Hunters—Hiss’s once-upon-a-time Hunters—surrounded him a tight semi-circle. Not to reminisce or to chastise him. But to get their questions answered. How long had he been at the lab? Were there any other Wildlands Pantera there? What seemed to be their goal? How many floors were there? How many guards? Had he ever heard the name Christopher? Why did they want his blood?

As he answered, his gaze moved over each one in turn. Parish, Keira, Mal, Bayon and Lena. They had been his friends once upon a time. Ran side by side with his puma. They’d trusted him with their lives. And he could see it in their eyes. That trust was gone.

“Mal, draw us up a map,” Parish commanded. “We’ll meet to strategize at midnight. Let’s hope the building’s not already burned to the ground like the rest of Stanton’s properties by the time we get there.”

“It won’t be,” Hiss assured him.

“How can you be so sure?” Bayon put in. “It’s how he rolls.”

“Yes,” Mal agreed. “But remember what the human, Chelsea, has told us. Stanton Locke had one last big lab left in the South. He wouldn’t tell her or anyone else where it was because they couldn’t spare it. I don’t think they’d risk burning it down over a couple of test subjects going missing.”

“Agreed,” Hiss said, easily falling into his old way of talking to his peers. That is, until both Lena and Parish tossed him a vile sneer.

Mal, who had once been a great friend of his, asked, “And you say they know we’re coming, Hiss? The prisoners?”

He nodded, his chest tight when she refused to look him directly in his eyes. “I gave one of them, Blade is his name, the keys. Told him to make sure all cages were unlocked tonight.”

“Blade?” came a new voice to the fold.

Hiss glanced up. Raphael was standing inside the doorway, and just behind him was Gia. A wave of relief spilled through him when she gave him a reassuring smile.

“You know him, Raph?” Parish asked.

“He’s a Pantera Suit. Worked undercover out of New York, Boston and Florida.” The male looked pained. “We need to get them out of there.”

The leader of the Hunters turned back to Hiss. “How many cats on the lowest level?”

“Twelve.”

“Plus how many on the higher floors?”

Hiss shook his head. “I could only guesstimate. Twenty, thirty? Children and human prisoners too.”

Keira inhaled sharply. “Those soulless fuckers.”

“We’ll make sure they pay, sis,” Parish assured his twin.

“What will we do with them?” Lena asked. “When we bring them back here? Where will we put them?”

“Indy has plans for housing along the eastern border,” Raphael answered. “But in the meantime, we’ll use Medical, here, boarding, spare rooms, whatever’s available.”

The Hunters nodded in unison.

“I think that’s all for now,” Parish said. “The rest of you can go.” His gaze slid to Hiss. “I’ll make sure the prisoner gets to his cell. The elders have already been notified of his capture.”

It was the first time Hiss had allowed a growl to escape his lips since he’d been back. But it brought the attention of all the Hunters. Bayon started toward him, but only managed a few steps before Gia pushed past Raphael and came to stand at Hiss’s side.

Her chin lifted, she grabbed his hand. “We’re ready.”

***

“Not exactly the cages we’re used to, is it?” Gia remarked as they stood in the living room of the small but well-appointed cottage at the foot of the bayou.

“This isn’t for me,” Hiss said tightly.

“What do you mean?” She turned around to look at him. He’d changed into a pair of navy sweats and a matching t-shirt. It seemed strange to see him in clothes. But they fit very well, stretching over and across his lean, muscular body.

His eyes caught and held hers. “Raphael wants to make sure that when you return home you report only positive treatment by the Pantera. He is a Diplomat, after all.”

When
we
return home? she wanted to suggest. But she kept the thought to herself. Hiss would love the Wetlands. And he would be free of censure there. They could start over… Hell, they could just start.

“But make no mistake,” he continued. “It may feel calm and comfortable and hidden here, but there are guards all around us.”

She sobered somewhat, walked over to him. “What is their plan for you, do you think? A trial? Captivity? Will you be drugged so that your cat cannot emerge?” She shivered at that last question. She couldn’t imagine never being able to shift. It had been hell over the past several months. Not being able to connect with her cat.

“I honestly don’t know,” he said. “Whatever it is, I deserve it. I accept it.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist, looked up at him. “Tell me. Tell me why you did what you did.”

He stared down at her. “Does it matter?”

“Not with regard to how I feel about you. But I want to know. I want to know you. Your heart, your pain. You barely shared that side of yourself with me.”

“It’s an ugly side.”

She sniffed. “Baby, we all have those. And anyone who says differently is a liar.” She snuggled into his chest. Being in his arms, this close to him without bars in their way, was pure heaven. “I just don’t want us to have any secrets. It won’t work if we do.”

“What won’t work?” he asked, his lips against her hair.

“Our mating.”

He stilled.

She smiled. “I want to mate you, Hiss.”

A growl rumbled through him. She felt it against her chest, against the tips of her breasts, and it made her belly clench deliciously.

“And as you know,” she continued, lifting her head, “if I want something badly enough I get it.”

His eyes were a rich smoky gray. They clung to hers and his nostrils flared. He was drawing her scent.

“Kiss me,” she urged. “You want to, don’t you?”

His gaze dropped to her mouth and a soft snarl escaped his lips. “Oh, Gia, I’ve wanted to since that first night. But…”

“No buts,” she said, heat flickering between their tightly pressed bodies. “Look where we are. How we are. I’m holding you, you’re holding me. No bars between us, no nightmares, no—”

Hiss’s mouth was on hers before she could get that last word out. And as he kissed her with feral hunger and unbridled passion, life outside the cottage, outside the circle that their bodies made, didn’t exist. It was only heat and moans, skin and friction. Gia was overcome, overwhelmed. She wanted to both consume him and be consumed by him. And yet, she couldn’t decide which she wanted first. Her mind was butterflies on the bayou, flitting and floating, while her back arched and her hips pressed against the rigid arousal in his sweats.

Never in her life had she been kissed this way. All in, all consuming, starving. Like neither of them had eaten in weeks. Not the kind of food that would sustain them, anyway. Bland, boring, barely edible. This was the highly spiced, gourmet fare, addictive as hell.

She moaned and dipped her tongue into his mouth to play and lap, laughing when he slammed her tighter against him in response. Crushing her sensitive breasts against his hard chest. Every inch of her was hot and humming, and between her thighs she felt slick.