Beauty Dates the Beast (27 page)

I gave him a mutinous glare.

Jason just smiled, moving back toward me again, and chuckled when I shied away. He pulled
my hair free of the ponytail and arranged it over my shoulders, looking at me thoughtfully. “It’s a shame you’re human,” he said, trailing a finger over my bra again. “But if Beau can look past it …”

My breathing stopped in fear.

But he simply smiled at me, stood up, and left the room.

Hot tears of fright threatened, and I gave in for a few seconds before nearly choking on the gag. I forced myself to recompose, and thought hard, my mind frantic.

How could Beau possibly take down two super-fast, superstrong shifters?

How could I?

“Well, well,” a voice cooed near my ear. “It looks like the cavalry has arrived.”

I looked up, half-conscious, from where I was slumped in my bonds. Arabella loomed over me, and I blinked at her.

She slapped me across the face so hard that lights danced in front of my eyes. “Wakey wakey.”

Bitch. I groaned, “Fuck you” around the sock.

She put her hands on her knees and stuck her face in mine, eyeing me with entirely too much interest. Her fetid breath fanned my face. “You are
just full of surprises, aren’t you?” She reached out and poked the end of my nose.

Alarmed by her too-chummy attitude, I looked around for Jason. But it was just me and the crazy girlfriend. Lucky day.

Arabella sliced my bonds from the chair and grabbed me by the arms. Her grip was so tight that I thought she was going to break my arms, and tears of pain streamed from my eyes. My nostrils flaring as I sucked in a frightened breath, I struggled against her grip, but it was useless. Despite my terrified jerking, she dragged me over to the window.

Was she going to throw me out of it?

She flung open the curtain and shoved my face against the glass. “Take a look, sweet-cheeks. Take a good look.”

It was a little hard to look with my face plastered to the window, but I quickly scanned the wintry lawn, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Bare trees. Large patches of muddy lawn, and …

I gasped and nearly gagged on the sock. It took me a moment to recover before I could look again and make sure I wasn’t mad.

Beau stood down there in cat form, his large body visible near the tree line. He was beautiful—long, swishing tail and buff feline form. There was nothing to distinguish him from any other cougar, but I knew it was Beau. He’d come for me.

Oh God, he was going to get killed.

More shadows melted out of the trees, and with them, more animals. A giant brown bear appeared at Beau’s side. Ramsey.

More shadows—more cougars, who stood a few feet behind Beau, unequivocally stating that he was their leader.

Beau began to walk forward and then it was like Noah’s ark threw up on the lawn. Animals of every shape and size, predators of every imagining, began to appear on Jason’s front lawn. A giant Siberian tiger prowled next to Beau, at his other side, a lion. An eagle circled in the sky, swooping low around them. I counted dozens, then I gave up when they continued pouring out of the trees. I could even pick out Sara’s small wolf form.

They were showing their allegiance to him. Supporting him in his bid to get me back.

It was beautiful.

It was very, very bad.

Arabella grabbed the back of my head, her hand snarling in my messy, loose hair. “You must have a magic snatch for him to bring out the cavalry like this.” She grabbed between my legs in a painful clench: I snapped my thighs shut, trying to shove her away. She laughed, but there was a desperate edge to it.

I shoved at her and bolted, but she grabbed me
by my hair and threw me to the floor, knocking the wind from me. “Dumb bitch.”

I flexed my hands, gasping for breath to return. The pool table was enticingly near and I crawled under it, then worked on pulling the tape off my mouth.

A pair of new shoes appeared on the other side of the pool table. “Arabella,” Jason said warningly. “Have you seen the front lawn?”

“I have,” she said, sounding a little defensive. Was she scared of Jason, too?

“Didn’t I tell you quite specifically that he was to come here alone if he wanted to see her alive again?”

“That’s what I told him,” she said, her voice rising. “Since he’s not listening to you, he must want her dead.” A hard, raspy edge entered her voice. “Let’s just eat her, already.”

I stilled, not daring to breathe.

“Not yet. He wants her. I know he does,” Jason said, furious. I watched as his feet thunked across the floor and over to the window. “He filed for a mate visa yesterday. He’s trying to get her permanent status in the Alliance.”

A mate visa? Beau wanted to marry me?

“He what?” Arabella sounded furious. “He can’t possibly mean to mate a human; he’ll be laughed out of the Alliance.”

“Then why is my lawn filled with a display of force?” His voice was becoming rougher with anger. It was frightening to hear. “He needs to come up here, alone.”

Alone? No—they’d kill him.

Jason looked under the pool table and grinned at the sight of me. I stared at him, muffling my defiance and hoping he didn’t notice that I was missing the tape across my mouth. I’d spit out the sock and clutched it in my hand.

He grabbed me by my ankle and dragged me across the carpet like he would a rag doll. He stroked my hair and admired me like one might a fragile possession. “Arabella’s not hurting you, is she?”

I looked over at Arabella, who was glaring at me with hate.

“Good,” he said, taking my silence for obedience. His hand continued to stroke my hair in that odd, possessive way. “If he intends to have a siege, we’ll give him one.” Jason smiled coldly. “But I have to wonder how long it will last when he hears your screams when I’m fucking you.” He gazed down at me, almost tenderly. “Do you think that would bother him?”

Yes
, I thought and tried to shove him away.

He batted my hands away as if they’d been nothing, grinning.

“It would bother me,” Arabella snarled and
shoved between us. Her force knocked me against the nearby wall, and my head cracked against a painting. “You said I could eat her! Not that you would fuck her.”

Jason gave her an amused look. “My dear, I have no interest in a human.” He took her hand and began to kiss her wrist, then delicately up her arm. She watched him with intense, crazily possessive eyes. “But think of how much it will bother him. First I steal
you
away from him, then he finds that I’m fucking his little pet human.”

“But I don’t want you touching her,” she whined.

Jason stared at Arabella, his mouth thinning as if he was finding her needy side very annoying. After a moment, he sighed. “All right, my pet. I won’t touch her. She’s all yours—”

Arabella’s smile was brilliant.

I swallowed hard.

“—as soon as we’ve killed Beau,” Jason finished.

“But—” Arabella began.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” I blurted.

Both of them turned to stare at me in annoyance.

“Sorry,” I said in a small voice, trying to sound pathetic. “I can’t hold it much longer.”

It was the oldest ploy in the world.
Please let them fall for it
.

To my vast surprise, Jason acquiesced. “Take
her to the bathroom, and we’ll finish where we left off.”

Oh, boy.

Arabella gave me an impatient look and grabbed my arm. “Come on.”

She dragged me toward the bathroom. Giselle’s bathroom. Bile rose in my throat and I clutched a hand to my mouth. “Not that one,” I said between pressed fingers.
“Please.”

She looked at me in disgust and wavered for a moment. I knew what she was thinking. Give in to my stupid demand, or push me into the bloody butcher shop and risk Jason’s wrath if I freaked out?

“Come on,” she said gruffly and dragged me across the hall and down the stairs, back to the first floor.

Thank God for that small miracle. I allowed her to drag me through the house with no protest, and when she threw me into the bathroom, I didn’t utter a squeak as I slapped against the wall. “Five minutes, or I break your leg,” she snarled at me. “I can still eat you with a busted leg.”

I nodded at her as she closed the door of the bathroom. When it shut, I heard her pacing the hall.

I had five minutes to think of something, fast.

I ruled out the window right away. Instead of regular glass, there were small blocks of thick, bubbled glass too small to squeeze through.

Think, Bathsheba, think.

I had two massively powerful shapeshifters in this house with me. Beau and his small army waited on the lawn. Neither was going to make a move until the other did. Beau wouldn’t come inside unless he knew it wouldn’t cost us our lives. Arabella and Jason wouldn’t vacate because right now they held the advantage.

I had to get Arabella and Jason out of the house, somehow.

A small, decorative set of candles on the back wall caught my eye. A fire! Candles needed matches.

I quietly pulled open the drawer under the sink and rummaged through it. No matches.

There was nail polish, hairspray, hair doodads, a curling iron, and a blow-dryer. Arabella’s stuff. My hand passed over the nail polish again, and then the curling iron, and then stopped.

The curling iron might get hot enough to start a fire.

Excited, I glanced around and looked for an outlet. There—on the far end of the wall. Good. I plugged the curling iron in, turned it on high, and looked for someplace to hide it.

A half-full wastebasket sat on the far side of the toilet. Even better. I shoved the curling iron in the bottom, and filled the rest of the wastebasket with loose toilet paper, then dripped the nail polish over
it. Last, I set the aerosol can next to the curling iron. That would explode, right? I hoped so. If I was lucky, it’d catch fire.

“Hurry up,” Arabella yelled, and I hastily flushed the toilet. I took a quick look at the cloth shower curtain, then shoved the wastebasket over as far as the curling iron’s cord would stretch and tucked some of the shower curtain in it. Perfect. Unless you were looking closely, the beige cord of the curling iron was invisible against the wall, and the shower curtain ruffles hid the basket.

The faint stink of hot metal was already starting to fill the room, mixing with the scent of nail polish, and I panicked. I needed to conceal the smell. I grabbed the nearby perfume bottle and smashed it on the floor.

Arabella flung the door open. “What are you doing, you stupid bitch?”

As soon as she opened the door I bolted past her, barreling for the kitchen.

She grabbed my elbow and snapped me backward so hard that my arm throbbed and burned, and I collapsed at her feet. Arabella wrapped her hands in my shredded clothing and dragged me back down the hall. “You’re done.”

Exhausted and hurting, I cradled my arm and let her drag me back to the pool room, praying for a miracle.

T
he day passed unbearably slowly. My nerves were so tight that I thought my entire body would snap. Nothing was happening. It was a standoff of strange, bizarre proportions. The host of Alliance shifters was still on the lawn, circling the house in animal form, prowling.

The only bits of news I got were from the few short, terse words exchanged by Arabella and Jason. They’d bound me again, and alternated between glancing at me and then uneasily back at the lawn.

Beau’s backup had thrown a major wrench into their plans.

“We need a way to draw him in,” Jason said after a time. “He’s too confident out there, surrounded by the others. In here we can destroy him, steal his power. Once he’s downed, the others would fall like cards.”

I shuddered.
Come on, fire. Any time now.

Arabella gave a small shrug. “Why not hurt her? Take her out on the balcony and remove a few fingers to get him moving.” Her eyes gleamed.

As if considering this rather horrible plan, Jason studied me. “Take your clothes off.”

What?
“No.” I glanced at Arabella, whose mouth had thinned into a line of disapproval.

“Take your clothes off,” Jason repeated, staring at me with intensity. “We need to make him think the worst.”

No, no, no. I scooted my chair back.

Jason strode over to me, a crazy light in his eyes. His hand extended toward me, and as I watched, it twisted and bubbled, transforming into something hideous. The distorted flesh formed a paw, and then kept going. Muscles bulged and ripped, and the claws grew even larger.

I scooted back another inch. Arabella’s eyes began to gleam and transform, as if she was excited by the thought of the violence.

Oh, God.

The repulsive paw touched my shoulder, and a shudder rocked through me. I tried to wriggle away. “No! Don’t touch me!”

His lips curled back as if amused. Claws sliced through my already shredded T-shirt and snarled on my bra, leaving painful red welts. Then he sliced through my bra. Jason methodically tore my
clothing until it hung off me in shreds, exposing my trembling body and leaving long red scratches across my pale skin.

After my clothing was demolished, Jason took a step back, flexing his distorted paw. “Why don’t you mess her up a little, my dear?”

Arabella pushed forward and decked me across the face.

Red and black edged my vision, and I tasted blood. Hot blood ran out of my nose, and my head rang with pain.

“Just enough to make her look roughed up,” Jason cautioned. “We want her mobile enough for him to know she’s alive. Make her scream.”

He knew Beau’s ultra-sensitive shifter hearing would pick up my cries. Well, I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. I bit my lip and closed my eyes, bracing myself. Arabella’s next fist got me in the gut. She punched me a few more times, but I remained silent, choking back sobs of pain.

Jason pushed Arabella aside. With one quick swipe, he ripped his claws across my shoulder and breast, tearing my skin. Blood ran from the shallow wounds and my chest felt like it was on fire.