FUR FOR ALL, Book 5 in FIXED (18 page)

Rafe saw the contrast between dark and light and tensed. Lionel raised his arm, pointing his fingers at Rafe’s chest. “If you won’t do it willingly, I can make you do it unwillingly. Which will it be?”

Rafe paused, weighing the risk of one rash act.

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“Do you think I’m hesitant to bespell you, De Santos?” Lionel’s voice became louder and more strident. “I won’t, you know. I’ll do whatever I need to, no hesitation at all.”

Hesitation.

Rafe remembered Tess’s words and stopped hesitating. He leapt forward.

Straight at the light bulb above the old man’s head.

Tess woke to the sound of glass breaking and opened her eyes to see not much more than she could see with them closed. The room around her was pitch dark.

She started to sit up, hoping it would help her get her bearings, but ended up diving right back to the floor, rolling out of the way as two large forms collided in the spot where she had just been sitting. She heard a curse and the rowling scream of a big cat and added a curse of her own. Just as soon as she got out of the way.

Stopping when she felt a stack of folding chairs at her back, Tess frantically tried to get her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Her grandfather would have made some comment about if she’d been a better witch, she’d have been able to cast a spell and get some light, but he was otherwise occupied. Trying to keep a three-hundred-pound jaguar from feasting on his intestines.

She could hear the sounds of the struggle, but it was quieter than she expected. This was the closest she’d ever gotten to an actual physical fight, and she’d always pictured them being louder, with lots of screaming and shouting and bellowing and the roar of the crowd. Instead, all she heard were grunts and harsh breathing and the sound of flesh and bone making impact. And since the crowd consisted of her, and the last thing she felt like doing was cheering, the scuff of bodies against the concrete floor provided the only accompaniment.

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Her eyes followed the sounds and finally picked up a flicker of golden light in the blackness. Rafe’s eyes. They glowed with a predatory fury as he wrestled across the floor with her grandfather. Thankfully he was managing to keep Lionel’s arms occupied and too busy to cast, or things would have been even more difficult for him. As it was, fighting Lionel Menzies wasn’t like fighting an ordinary seventy-five-year-old man. Her grandfather had the strength of magic, and had probably cast some sort of protective spell on himself before coming after them. Tess would have. If she could have.

Damn it, but she felt useless. Here she was cowering up against a row of metal auditorium chairs while the man she’d fallen in love with—damn it again—tried to save their lives. Couldn’t she at least do something? Damn it a third time, but why couldn’t she have been born with some real talent instead of this stupid, useless, no-good, insignificant, nuisance-making—

She broke off and stepped to the side three seconds before her grandfather managed to pull away and stagger back against the spot where she’d just been standing. Operating on the strange autopilot of her mini-talent, she grabbed a folding chair and lifted it over her head. She was waiting when her grandfather raised his hands and pointed toward Rafe’s glowing eyes.

He opened his mouth to sneer, “Now, De Santos,” he shouted, “you’ll—” The metal chair smacking down across the back of his head kept him from finishing his sentiment.

“Shut up, Granddad,” she whispered.

It might have been a more dramatic moment if she hadn’t followed him to the floor.

Thankfully, she wasn’t out long. Probably only a couple of seconds. She came to, feeling the warm, rough scrape of a Feline tongue against her cheek.

“Um, if I needed to exfoliate,” she said, eyes still closed, “you could have just said something.”

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The rumble of his amused purr vibrated right down to her toes, which she flexed experimentally. At least they still worked. Now if only she could get them on the floor under her, she’d be cooking with gas.

She was about to brace her hands on the floor and try it when the door to the storage room swung open and light flooded in from the hall. Followed by a very amused male voice.

“Rafe, Rafe, Rafe. How many times do I have to tell you not to play with your dinner?”

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Chapter Eighteen

“Your grandfather tried to kill you.”

“I’m trying to focus on the possibility that he only intended to maim me.” Missy collapsed into the sofa cushions beside Tess and shook her head, her brown eyes wide. “But… I mean, your
grandfather
.”

“Well, it’s not like we were close. And I really don’t think he knew what he was doing. I think he’d gone a few steps off the sanity trail.”

“How do you sound so calm?”

“I’m not dead.”

“And where’s your grandfather now?”

Tess sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. “After Graham showed up with the cavalry, we found out there was no council meeting tonight, so we had to take him to the home of one of the council members. He can be watched there until they can have a formal vote on how to handle him. He’ll be taken care of, but he won’t be getting into any more trouble.” Missy leaned over and hugged her. “I am so sorry, Tess. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Thanks, but I’m fine.” She laughed and sagged back against the sofa cushions. “Actually, it seems almost anticlimactic, until I realize there was no climax to anti. I mean, no one had any idea what was going on until it happened.

It was weird. It was like he just snapped. But somehow I still feel like there’s something left unresolved.”

Missy cleared her throat. “Well, there is the little matter of the curse.” 148

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“Do you even want me to get started with how
not
in the mood for that I really am?”

“I don’t think that matters much. It seems to be in a heck of a mood for
you
.”

“What are you talking about? Have the preggo triplets come by for another visit?”

“They’ve become septuplets.”

Tess blinked. “They’ve what?”

Missy nodded. “Seven. Four more of them crawled out of my woodwork this afternoon. That makes seven new Feline pregnancies in the week since Rafe met you.”

“Which is still so not my problem.”

“Yes, it so is, actually. Until you came along, there were no Feline pregnancies in Manhattan this year. Zilch. Nada. Not a one. Yet one week after you, a witch, start boinking Rafe, the local Felix, no fewer than
seven
new women show up to report their pregnancies to the Council of Others. Can you think of a single other logical explanation?”

“Fertility clinics.”

Missy threw up her hands, “Tess, I swear—”

“Don’t, okay?” Tess jumped up from the sofa and glared at her new friend.

“Don’t swear. Don’t swear, don’t vow, don’t promise—don’t frickin’ tell me. I don’t wanna know, do you hear me? This is a Feline thing. An Others thing. Shit, it could be an alien abduction thing for all I know, and that’s just it. It’s
none of
my business
. If you want to know what’s going on, go ask Rafe. Or better yet, present him with the evidence, and then ask him what he thinks. I’m going home.”

“I already did.”

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Tess looked up from using her wrap to cover up the sweatshirt and yoga pants she’d borrowed from Missy. Her unsexy dress had been ruined in the ruckus. “What?”

“I already sent Fawn and the others in to see Rafe. While you were changing.

In fact, they should have found him by now.” Missy looked toward the doors of the living room. “I can’t think what’s keeping—”

“TESS!”

Missy smiled. “Ah. I think they found him.”

“TESS!”

“Missy, one day I’m going to make you—”

“TESS!”

“—pay for this. Don’t you—”

“TESS!”

“—realize—”

“TEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!”

Missy raised an eyebrow. “Did that sound closer to you?”

“—what he’ll be like?”

The door to Graham’s library, where they had been sitting, slammed open and Rafe loomed in the entrance, chest heaving, eyes glowing, hands clenched into fists at his sides. “Tess Bryony Menzies.”

“Yes,” Missy said, grinning over Rafe’s shoulder at Graham. “I do believe that last one was louder, wasn’t it?”

“I think it was, yes. But I’m a bad judge. I think he permanently deafened me. But at least he didn’t wake Roark.”

The couple stood there and grinned at each other until Tess had to restrain herself from slapping the both of them. She could only watch them from the corner of her eye, anyway. The other one was trained warily on Rafe.

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“I think you two need to leave,” the Felix growled, never taking his eyes off Tess’s face. She wondered if he could see her swallow convulsively. “I want to talk to Tess. Alone.”

The menace in that statement made Tess dig in her heels. “That’s ridiculous.

We’re in their house. They don’t need to leave. Besides, what do we need to talk about? The stuff with my grandfather is resolved, and the rest of the council said they’d be happy to talk with you at their next meeting. Everything is resolved.” He half-roared. It made him sound like an irritated…well…jaguar. “Fine.

You don’t want privacy? You don’t get it. Now tell me why you never mentioned you were pregnant?”

Missy blinked and sidled around Tess and toward her husband. “Right. And on that note…” She pushed against Graham’s chest to force him out of the room and away from the door. “I believe that’s our cue to leave these crazy kids to themselves.”

Graham let her tug him down the hall, but before the door closed behind him, he turned to look over his shoulder. “The carpet in there is not too uncomfortable,” he said, laughing. “But I recommend you try the sofa if you’re allergic to wool.”

Missy dragged him away, scolding as she went.

Tess considered running and hiding behind them, but it wasn’t polite to cause the deaths of one’s hosts in their own home. Still, she couldn’t keep her gaze from sliding longingly toward the door.

“Tess!” Rafe stalked closer to her, looking almost more like a cat than when he was a cat. Something about that loose, deliberate way he moved. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?” She stared at the center of that loose-hipped stride and forgot about paying attention.

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“Tess…” His growl rumbled a warning. “Why did you not tell me you’re pregnant?”

That made her gaze snap back to his face. “Not you, too.”

“Not me, too, what?”

“You’re not going to go on about curses and destiny and me getting seven women pregnant, are you? Because that’s, like,
all
Missy can talk about these days.”

“Stop!” He shouted it loud enough to make Tess jump. “Stop trying to distract me and answer the damned question.
Why didn’t you tell me
?”

“Because I’m not.”

He opened his mouth to pour another tirade, but stopped short in surprise.

“What did you say?”

“I said I’m not pregnant.” She pushed herself up from the sofa and glared at him. “I keep telling people that, and they keep not believing it, but I’m here to tell you that it’s true. I. Am.
Not
. Pregnant.”

“Are you sure?”

If Tess had been holding a brick right then, she’d have thrown it at Rafe’s head with no hesitation. And a great deal of satisfaction. “What
is
it with you people? Yes! I am
positive
I am not pregnant. Are you happy? Or do you have a rabbit you want me to kill to prove my point?” His eyes narrowed. “How about you just let me check?” He was on her before she could tell him what she thought he could check. He caught her in his arms and tumbled her to the floor, twisting in midair to land on his back and cushion her fall with his body.

“This is all very helpful of you, and I appreciate your offer,” she bit out, already squirming to get away and struggling to ignore the way his slightest touch always made her crazy. “But get your hands the hell off me!” 152

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“Not yet.” He yanked aside the collar of her sweatshirt and buried his nose against her skin. “Checking.”

He inhaled deeply.

Tess cursed and began to struggle. She felt the way her stomach turned over at his slightest touch and knew she needed to get away from him. Touching him turned her willpower into something out of
Mission: Impossible
. It self destructed after fifteen seconds.

“Hands off, you furry bastard!”

He moved to the hollow of her throat, sniffed again. This time, his tongue darted out to taste her skin. She fought harder.

“I mean it! Get away, you lecherous lycanthrope!” His teeth closed gently on her throat and her pussy melted.

“Stop that!”

He didn’t stop that. Instead, he brushed aside the tail of her sweatshirt and slipped his hand inside her waistband, fingers gliding across her stomach and burrowing toward her already damp pussy. Damn him. She whimpered and tilted her hips forward. She felt his fingers dip between her slick folds and find her entrance. They slid deep, pumped twice, just to get her hips twitching, then pulled away. She suddenly realized she’d stopped struggling to get away. She was just about to kick him in the shins when he raised his fingers before him and inhaled. Then he frowned and licked them, savoring them like a spoon coated in cake mix.

He sucked the sheen of moisture off his fingers and purred with pleasure.

Then she saw his eyes narrow and he glared back down at her. “You’re not pregnant.”

“Argh!” She felt her eyes rolled back in her head and hoped it wouldn’t start spinning around while she spat pea soup. “What the
hell
have I been trying to tell 153

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you? The same thing I told Missy when
she
wouldn’t believe me either! Well, to hell with all of you! I don’t need this shit!” It would have made a great exit line, except that Rafe wasn’t about to let her exit. When her squirming became almost violent, he simply flipped them over and pinned her to the floor, making sure to settle between her legs where she couldn’t effectively kick him. The sneaky bastard.