Slade (20 page)

There was far more on the line here than just the few shifters involved, or even just those many shifters who worked for Redstone Construction. The fate of all shifters
, everywhere, could be in question here tonight. If the sorceress succeeded in revealing the existence of the
were
, the fallout could be astronomical. And very, very deadly.

Slade thought it oddly poetic that he’d been sent her
e to prevent the Redstones from unintentionally revealing themselves out of grief. In reality, the task was much more complicated. The sorceress not only wanted shifters to be outed, but was doing all in her vast power to make it happen.

Grif cleared his throat and
recaptured Slade’s attention. “Rick Blackwing is the highest ranking raptor here tonight. His father is still the official Alpha, but Pablo retired from the work crews and is away, visiting his new granddaughter in Phoenix right now. So Rick is handling things here,” Grif said as he stowed his denim jacket in the back of his truck. His brothers, Steve and Robert, were doing the same, eliminating as much fabric as possible in case they wanted to shift form. “When on the ground, they’re going to gather in one trailer and keep track of everyone. I don’t want too many raptors running around where the sorceress might be able to corner someone.”

Grif had led their little convoy
past the gates and into a large temporary building that was used as a private garage of sorts on the vast property. Slade understood the need for a windowless space that backed up to a spot of dense vegetation.
Were
could shift in here and go out the back in their animal forms.

“How about the perimeter?” Slade asked.

He was talking across the hoods of the two vehicles as Kate moved slightly away, trying to concentrate on the magic they both felt at the site. It would take a few minutes to separate out the different strands of shifter magic to be able to see if there was some kind of infiltration. Maybe. There was no guarantee that tactic would work, which was why Slade wanted to do a visual inspection. And his leopard form was best for that.

“We’ll
check it now,” Steve volunteered, already shucking his shirt.

“I noticed several dark areas as we came in, where you guys will stand out. How about you take the dim areas where the brown of your fur will blend
, and leave the dark spots to me?” Slade suggested.

“Sounds like a plan. Meet back here in ten?” Steve asked, including his brother
Robert in the query. Nods all around firmed the decision.

A moment later, two sand-colored cougars prowled out the back of the big, steel garage.

Kate came to Slade, delaying his shift. There were still a few magical things to settle before he changed.

“Anything yet?” he asked
, taking her shoulders in his hands because he just couldn’t resist touching her.

“No.” She scowled, clearly still concentrating and annoyed she hadn’t been able to find the sorceress’s trail yet.

“Keep trying, but don’t strain too much. I’ll help you when I get back. Stay with Grif and help him coordinate things. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

He leaned in and kissed her briefly before placing her away from him.

“Be careful, Slade,” she whispered.

He looked at her as the change took him and spared a moment to rub his black fur up against her legs and hip before bounding off after the two cougars
, out the hidden back door of the garage.

Seeing Slade’s panther form was impressive to say the least. He was so casual about his ability to shapeshift, but it was still a miracle to her. Even living among the Redstones and the large collection of shifters they’d gathered around them, she still found it amazing, what these people could do.

Unlike the others, Slade hadn’t needed to undress before shifting. Whatever he was allowed his clothing to go into shift with him. They simply disappeared when he took his animal form. That wasn’t like any shifter she’d ever heard of
or seen. She’d been told—and had witnessed since joining the Redstone’s group—that they had to undress first or risk destroying all their clothing. It simply didn’t shift with them. Not the way Slade’s seemed to.

She hadn’t known what to expect from Slade’s beast form. The speckled white paw she’d seen before, when they were dealing with Abrahamson, had been quite different from the black on black pattern of his leopard coat. He was dark as midnight, with
those fascinating, glowing blue eyes. The same blue, blue eyes that looked back at her from his handsome, human face. The eyes she’d fallen in love with.

Oh, boy. Was she really in love with him? Sadly, for her heart’s sake, the answer was
a resounding yes.

And his eye
s were only the beginning of what she loved about him. He was smart and intellectually sharp in a way that challenged her. He had secrets—of that she had no doubt—but she thought she knew the goodness of his heart, the purity of his soul. His magic had shown that to her. His magic and his actions since his arrival.

Those beautiful, magnetic blue eyes, and the
ruggedly handsome package they came with were only the tip of the iceberg. Inside, where it really counted, he was just as beautiful. Even more so.

But the eyes were definitely mesmerizing, regardless of his form. The past minutes
—seeing the blue against his black fur—had only driven that point home beyond the shadow of a doubt.

O
ne thing she’d come to learn about shifters—no matter what shape they took, for the most part, their eyes remained the same. Although…now that she thought about it, she’d never really gotten very good look at a hawk or eagle shifter in their bird forms. She wondered idly if their avian eyes would retain the same characteristics of their human forms. It was something to ponder. When she had time.

Right now, there was no time to waste.

Grif was on the phone again, coordinating his employees through the site manager, in order to keep them as safe as possible. He snapped the small cell phone shut and faced her.

“What have you got? Anything?”

She shook her head. “Not a lot. There’s a great deal of magic here, but most of it is from your own people. Shifters have a magical signature that leaves traces wherever they go, if you know what to look for. Since I need to open my senses completely, all the traces from your workers are creating quite a muddle of magical threads for me to poke through. So far, I haven’t been able to find the one thread that might be the sorceress, but I’m still working on it.”

“Can the
leopard help?” Grif asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Slade? Oh, y
eah, he can definitely help. He has a way of untangling things. When he comes back, we can join forces. Until then, I can lay the groundwork, eliminating anything I can identify as safe, and narrow down the possibilities. I will say this—” She rubbed at her temples. “I don’t see anything overtly evil. If she’s here, she’s hiding her presence really well.”

“It’s still early,” Grif said, tilting his head as he considered. “Dusk is a good time to get into position and wait until the wee, small hours to do the real dirty work.”

“Sounds like you have some experience with that sort of thing,” she ventured. For all that she’d been living among Grif’s people for a while, the cougar Alpha was still very much a mystery to her.

“Both Steve and I served in Special Forces,” Grif admitted quietly.
“We’ve done our fair share of covert ops, but something tells me the leopard has us all beat.”

“Slade?” Kate looked toward the hidden door where he’d disappeared after turning into the most beautiful big cat she’d ever seen.

“There’s no prohibition against it if you want to get involved with him.” Grif’s words shocked her gaze back to his.

Kate had to smile
ruefully. She’d never been very good at hiding her emotions.

“That obvious, huh?”

“Only to a shifter, probably,” Grif admitted, leaning against the hood of his truck. “We can smell him on you and vice versa. He knew we would, and he’s made no effort to hide your involvement, which means he’s serious.”

“You can infer all of that just from the way we smell and act around each other?”

Grif actually cracked a small grin. “That, and a lot more. I’m holding back in deference to your human sensibilities.”

She had to laugh. “Well, thanks for that.” She was distinctly uncomfortable with the idea. She valued her privacy and hadn’t quite realized how much of that she would be giving up by moving to live among shifters.

A slight brushing sound made Kate look toward the hidden door and sure enough, the three big cats were returning. The Redstone brothers remained in their animal form while Slade stalked forward, shifting as he moved until he was once again human, clad in his black clothing.

Grif whistled through his teeth. “That’s a neat trick. I’d give my left nut to be able to take my clothes with me into the shift. How the hell do you do that?”

“Sorry, Alpha. It’s not something that can be learned. It’s both magic and heredity. Most of my family can do it, but not a lot of other shifters I’ve known.” Slade stopped at Kate’s side, standing in front of the vehicles facing Grif and his brothers. “The perimeter hasn’t been breached anyplace we can see,” Slade reported. “I’d say there’s a ninety percent chance that we beat her to it. She’s not here yet—or at least not in position inside the site yet. I also scented a few of Moore’s guys outside the fence. They’re well hidden. I’d estimate that, given the size of this place, she’d have to be inside the perimeter to be effective. Magic has distance limitations. Even the most powerful of mages usually need to be pretty close to their targets in order to cast their spells.”

A subtle knock sounded near the large garage door. A moment later, a man in dark, dusty clothing entered through the man-door at the side of the building.

“Alpha Redstone?” The newcomer greeted Grif first, walking right up to him. “I’m Johan Hager.”

Griffon extended his hand to the other man
, cocking his head in question.

“I came with the group from Wyoming,” he explained in vague terms, probably unsure of how much he could say in front of everyone
, and in this location.

“The building is secure,” Grif told him. “You can speak freely in front of my brothers,” he gestured to the two cats prowling behind him. “This is Kate, our priestess, and Slade, who was sent here by the Lords.”

Johan nodded at each in turn. “It is good to meet you, though of course, not under present circumstances. I am a healer and am sometimes called upon to travel with the team in special circumstances.” He reached into his pocket and produced three small earpieces, handing them to Grif. “These are for you. I assume you know what to do with them.”

Grif took the small devices and passed one to Slade and put one on top of Steve’s jacket, hanging over the side of his truck.

“We do,” Grif agreed, already placing the small earpiece into his ear. Slade did the same.

Johan
’s icy gray eyes were almost as intense as Slade’s but his blond hair and pale skin made him look completely different. He was also considerably older.

Both Slade and Grif sta
rted talking on the small radios they’d been given and Kate found herself under the older man’s scrutiny. He smiled at her and she felt pinned by the pale blueness of his gaze. It wasn’t entirely comfortable and she started to fidget.

“Fear not, young priestess, all will be well.” His comforting words and fatherly tones made her narrow her eyes.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Trust in the leopard.” With that inscrutable answer, the man left the way he had come.

He was decked out like a construction worker, so Kate assumed he was returning to his fake duties outside on the site. Something about the man’s clear, gray-blue eyes continued to haunt her even after he was gone from sight.

Kate turned back to Slade and Grif. They were both speaking, in turns, with whoever was on the other end of those little radios, finalizing plans and getting updates. After they had everything settled, Slade turned off his mic and came to her side.

“We’re going to walk the site and look for any telltale dark magic. Everybody else will be looking for physical signs of the sorceress’s presence while we search for the arcane ones.” Slade turned back to Grif. “Alpha, your talents are best used in coordination and camouflage for now. Once we locate the sorceress, Kate and I will close in on her. I need you to keep everyone else back, far away from us, while we deal with her. Set up a perimeter in case we fail. Only the raptor she’s targeting should be in danger if we do this right and if we can coax her into trying for the Alpha bird, his strength of will and flying ability should help protect him even if we screw up.”

“But the right of the kill is mine.” Grif was adamant about that one, bloodthirsty fact.

“I do not dispute it,” Slade answered firmly. “But if we can capture her—if Kate can defang her the way she did Abrahamson—she could be a valuable prisoner.”

Grif seemed to struggle with that idea. He growled deep in his throat and turned away, pacing. The two cougars behind him weren’t any happier.