Master of Smoke (15 page)

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Authors: Angela Knight

BOOK: Master of Smoke
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Reminded that they needed to get the hell away, she braced her hands under David/Smoke/Cat’s shoulders and pushed him into a sitting position. Thank God for werewolf strength. “Listen, Fang, we’ve got to get the hell out of Dodge. Smoke said Warlock’s coming.” And how weird was it, to tell him something he’d just told her as if he was somebody completely different? But he was, so she was just going to have to deal.
Shouldn’t be too hard. She’d been breaking the laws of common sense for years now.
“Warlock?” His voice rumbled, even deeper than normal.
“You can talk? Good. Yeah, Warlock. In the car, Fang.”
And he was out of her arms and on his feet, fluid and fast. He put down a hand, caught hers, and pulled her up. By the time Eva found the sword she’d dropped when his convulsions began, he was in the passenger seat.
Well, at least he’s obedient. Now if we can only get out of here before Warlock shows up.
She tossed the sword on the backseat, then slid into the driver’s side and buckled her seat belt out of pure habit. “Buckle up, Fang. The sooner we’re away from here, the better. There’s way too many dead people here.”
Fang obeyed without fumbling and settled back in the seat as Eva started the car. The Ford ran more smoothly than it had in years.
“I killed our enemies.” His growling voice barely sounded like the same man at all.
“I got one, too, but yeah.” Looking back over her shoulder, Eva pulled into the empty road. Now if only she could figure out where the hell she was and how to get home. It was really time to spring for a GPS.
“What happened when I left you?” Fang asked.
“This guy, god, whatever ...”
“His name is Smoke.”
“Right. Smoke ... umm, came out”—
just in time to keep you from dicing me into a Bloomin’ Onion
—“and fixed the car. He said Warlock was coming, and then he fell over and went into convulsions. Do you know what happened?”
“Warlock happened.” Fang flexed his big hands on his jeans-clad knees like a cat kneading a cushion. “Warlock stole our powers. And a good portion of the god. All that is left is the Sidhe and me, and we are in pieces. Too many pieces. Too scattered. We cannot”—he drew spread fingers into a fist—“connect.”
“She? She who?” God, was there another one? A girl?
Shit.
Because the lesbian thing was
so
not happening.
“Sidhe,” Fang corrected. “Fae. The one you call David.”
“Oh,
Sidhe
.” She’d read enough high fantasy to recognize the word. Reaching an intersection, she stopped as the light went red. “Were you together before?”
“We have been Smoke for many centuries.” With brooding eyes Fang watched a Toyota pickup roll past. “The god arrived in our world with others of his kind. His people are elementals, and alien—no more than magic and will. He would not have survived without a living host. He called, and I answered.”
As the light turned green, Eva frowned, tossed a mental coin, and turned left. She still had no freaking idea where she was, but she’d lived in Greendale for twenty-five years. Eventually she’d hit a street she recognized. “So this Smoke is some kind of
alien
?” As if her life wasn’t weird enough.
“Well, yes. But by your standards, so am I.”
EIGHT
Eva blinked at
him before jerking her eyes back on the road. “What?”
“We are not from this Earth. We’re from another ... dimension, I suppose you would say, an Earth where there is magic.”
Christ, weirder and weirder. I’d think he was nuts if I hadn’t seen him voodoo the car
. “But how did you get here?”
Fang shrugged. “A magical portal.”
“Oh, Lord, I’m trapped in an episode of
Stargate
.”
He frowned at her. “What?”
“Never mind. So a noncorporeal alien whatsit arrived on magic Earth. Then what?”
“I was a
ciardha
then ...”
“A what?”
“A
ciardha
. Something like a tiger, but a little bigger, black, with silver stripes on the haunches.” He smiled at some memory. “All the
ciardha
females thought I was very beautiful.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.” Eva spotted a strip mall she thought she recognized and turned down the street.
“I had only an animal’s mind until Smoke merged with me. He changed my brain, increased my intelligence, made me more than an animal. Later we found David’s people, and became their god. The one you call David was the greatest warrior of his tribe then, and Smoke selected him to be our new host. When he moved into David’s body, I went with him.”
Another red light brought her to a halt. “But ...
why
?”
He shrugged. “His people were suffering at the hands of the Dark Ones, who were predatory invading aliens who lived on the energy of human suffering. We needed hands, and all we had were paws. Good body for killing, less so for leading a tribe. And there was a priestess who wanted us.” Fang stopped, and his features suddenly contorted in feral rage as if at some horrible memory. “We should have killed her instead of loving her. Bitch. Oh, foul, foul bitch. We killed her too late.”
Which sounded like her cue for a subject change. “Ah, yeah. So, about this Warlock character. How did you end up locking horns with him?”
“He was trying to kill the son of Arthur Pendragon—”
Eva damn near ran off the road. “
King
Arthur?”
Fang nodded. “So he was, once. Now he leads the vampires of Avalon.”
Eva rubbed her aching head. “Of course. What else would he do? Jesus.”
 
 
Power surged and
sang in Warlock again, and he shuddered at the drugging pleasure. Gods and devils, but it was sweet having such magic burning wild and alien in his soul, ready to leap to his will.
And I’m not giving it back.
He snapped his jaws together, crunching imaginary bone. Soon he’d have Smoke dead and the power safe, beyond anyone’s ability to strip away.
But first he’d have to find out what had gone wrong.
The dimensional gateway formed at a flick of his clawed fingers, and he stepped through, every sense wary and alert.
An empty field lay around him, silent except for the sigh of the wind through rustling kudzu. But when he inhaled, the smell of blood and death coated the inside of his nose. Frowning, he followed the scent.
He found what was left of the Skoll team lying in crushed green leaves sticky and splattered with drying blood. Striding around the corpses, he mentally reconstructed the combat with eyes that had seen fifteen centuries of war.
At first Warlock wondered if Smoke had changed to his great cat form in order to kill his warriors. The godling had done it before. But no—these wounds had been inflicted with a blade, swung with great force and equal skill.
And tremendous rage.
Smoke hadn’t just killed the Dire Wolves, he’d butchered them. Warlock was reluctantly impressed, considering that each of his wolves outweighed Smoke’s human form by two hundred pounds and topped him by more than a foot. Yet he’d overwhelmed them.
Warlock would just have to make sure the next team didn’t underestimate the cat. Nothing less than Smoke’s death was acceptable.
It was just as unacceptable for the mortal police to stick their noses into this business. And they would, if they found all these werewolf corpses. That would draw the attention of their media, which would alert the Celt and his knights.
I don’t want to confront Arthur until I have gained control of my power. Then I’ll kill him.
With a sweeping gesture, Warlock sent a wave of magic rippling across the field. Everywhere it touched, sparks devoured the corpses of his men and eliminated every bloodstain, every crushed leaf, every broken stem. Even the Hummer and the two motorcycles disappeared, their component energy stored for later use as thundering blasts of magic. When it was done, there was no sign anyone had ever fought and died here.
Warlock summoned another gate and stalked through it, back to his lair deep in the mountains of North Carolina.
It was a damn good thing Danvers had called during the chase to report the tag number of the girl’s car. Otherwise Warlock would have no idea how to find her. As it was, the Fenir team’s computer hacker would be able to track her.
And where she was, they’d find Smoke.
 
Fluffy did not,
as a rule, like cats. But she sure liked Fang.
Actually, Eva didn’t blame her. Now that she’d figured out where the hell they were, and Fang had finished his mind-blowing story—witches, vampires, and god cats, may Jesus have mercy—she was feeling a little better about life.
Besides, Fang looked way too much like David, flavored with just a hint of
Animal Planet
. There was heat in his burning blue eyes, and his pupils were fat black ovals he kept fixed on her.
His shoulders looked very broad in that short-sleeve knit shirt.
She had a thing for shoulders. Also biceps that looked thick and round and bite-able. Add a narrow waist and a truly world-class ass ... Come to think of it, she liked the whole damned package.
Especially the
package
.
Oh, yum
, Fluffy purred.
I want.
 
She smelled like
sex.
Cat breathed deeply, drinking her scent, the femininity brushed with traces of fur and wind and deep forests. He’d finished telling her what he knew of their situation, and she’d begun to make her peace with it.
Which was a good thing, since his cock lay long and hungry behind the zipper of his jeans, eager for a taste of her.
Her gaze flicked sideways at him as she drove, and his keen night vision detected the blush that darkened her high, pretty cheeks.
Eva was as aware of his scent as he was of hers. And she liked it. Maybe more than she was comfortable with. Shifting in the car’s leather seat, she focused on the road with obvious determination. Cat let his gaze drift down her body, lingering on the rise of her breasts, her delicate hands gripping the wheel, her thighs encased in well-worn denim.
“You’re purring,” she said, without looking at him.
“
Ciardhas
mate for life.”
As he’d known it would, the statement brought her wide eyes darting to meet his. She immediately jerked them back to the road, swallowing. “And your point would be?” Her obvious attempt to sound cool failed when her voice cracked.
“We dreamed of you. Before we were broken, when we were still one. We dreamed of you for weeks. We knew we would meet you, but we did not know when.”
“David never said anything about that.” She frowned at the rear of the SUV just ahead and accelerated as the light changed. “Then again, David doesn’t remember a damned thing.” Her gaze flicked to him, then as quickly away. “But you do.”
“I kept parts of us he did not.” Cat shrugged. “Smoke believed shoving our magic down Warlock’s throat was the only way we would survive. But he did not realize how devastating it would be for us, or how difficult it would be to regain what we lost.” He took a deep breath, deciding the time had come to explain. “When they attacked us—hurt you—my rage drove me to the surface and I pushed David aside. At the end ... I did not know who you were in your werewolf form.”
She turned to look at him, eyes wide. “So it was you who ...”
“Butchered them? Yes.” He bared his teeth. “They
hurt
you. But when I saw how you feared me, I called Smoke. He tore away from Warlock and answered. At least, until Warlock dragged him back.”
“Wait—Warlock has Smoke’s
mind
?”
“Most of it. Warlock has walled it away to keep from being overwhelmed. The elemental is very powerful, and he would wipe Warlock’s mind if given the chance. But with his power turned against him, Smoke is trapped behind that spell. Reaching him is difficult, even with our bond. Luckily, your fear so infuriated me, I was able to free him.” He sighed, the sound brooding. “Unfortunately, it didn’t last.”
She said nothing for a long moment, her gaze fixed on the road. “Yeah, well, I’m afraid of a lot of things. I was useless in that fight.” Her lips peeled off her teeth. “Sucks being a coward.”
Studying her profile, Cat recognized shame. He found himself bitterly missing his spirit brothers. Either of them would know what to say to comfort her, but he had no idea.
“You are
not
a coward.” His snarl made her look over in surprise—and, he saw to his shame, a little fear. He fought to gentle his tone. “A coward would not have stood beside me when you could have run away.”
“Key word there is ‘stood.’ I didn’t fight.”
“Yes, you did. You killed one of them.”

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