Slade (9 page)

“About as clear as mud, and you know it. But thanks for taking a minute for me to regroup. I’m good to go now.”

“Oo
h-rah. That’s my girl.” His tone was approving and he stroked her hair once before turning to continue their treacherous path. She followed along, a little more in love with him than she’d already been.

Love? Oh, man.

Yeah, if she was being honest with herself, she had to admit, she had it bad for the mysterious cat shifter. He fulfilled all her wildest fantasies about what a man could be and then some. Everything she’d seen about him attracted her on every level.

She was in serious danger of losing her heart to him forever. When he left—not
if
he left, because his time here had a definite, and short, time span—she could be destroyed. But she’d be damned if she saw any way out of it. Slade was just too attractive for his own good and she was powerless to resist him.

And they had a job to do. As the fourth set of shields confronted her, she set to work with renewed energy, knowing he’d be there for her if she needed to recharge again. They made a good team and she’d never forget this night, or the man at her side—if she lived through the confrontation to come, that is.

Chapter Five

The fifth and sixth set of shields went down even easier than the first few had. Now that Slade knew how to help her by feeding her energy, they were working more in tandem and were more powerful than either had been alone. The effect of shared energy was even greater than he’d been led to believe.

Or maybe it was just the fact that he was sharing energy with Kate. Maybe there was something special about her that affected his
power so strongly. He wouldn’t be surprised. The woman herself affected him as no woman ever had. He wanted so badly to be inside her, to know whether she was silent, or a screamer, when he made love to her. He wanted to hold her in the aftermath and bask in the knowledge that he had brought her pleasure.

He wanted a lot of things he’d never contemplated before, and didn’t know if he deserved. He was only here for a short time. A mission that would be over sooner rather than later. Did he dare get involved with a woman who could break his seldom-seen heart?

Kate frightened him.
Him.
The big, bad, black cat. His mother would laugh if she knew he was afraid of a small,
human
woman. But it was the feelings she aroused in him that scared him most. Protectiveness was something he’d felt all his life, but the possessiveness and need to claim one particular woman, was new and scary.

Better to concentrate on their mission. They were close to the house now and he felt the evil building. Kate was right. Whoever was in there was up to something big
, and bad, and magical in the extreme.

Slade gave a passing thought to the backup he could have called. The Spec Ops boys would have been of little help in this situation
, though. Most of them had no magic sense at all. They were good ground forces. Superior at stealth. But when it came down to it, this was a magical fight.

Calling in the cavalry tonight would have been
like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Slade was almost glad there had been no time to consider it. Matt’s discovery and the subsequent time squeeze made it impossible to get those guys here, and they wouldn’t have been of much help anyway. No, this was a job for Slade’s specialized abilities. His and Kate’s—much as he hated putting her in any sort of danger.

He’d do what he could to keep her safe, but he needed her
talents, and her help, to get through this magical minefield of a property. They’d made it through the yard, but the house would probably be even worse.

There was a window
about two meters to their right. He’d try to see what he could through it before they went any farther. Motioning to Kate to stay put in the shadow of the foundation, Slade crept up to the glass and peered in as stealthily as he could.

The room was empty. Nobody saw him
from the inside, but he could see through the open door of the empty room into the hall. From there, he could see into another area that looked like the great room of the McMansion. A man was seated on the floor of that room with his back to the window Slade looked through.

Slade sent all of his senses out, seeking. He breathed deep and recognized the scent of
the male from the crime scene, but the female scent was missing. In fact, there was no other scent than the male’s, and no other heartbeat. In the desert night, he could only hear Kate, himself, the man in the house and the two cougars still manning the perimeter like good little kitties.

The rest of the house was empty. He’d bet his life on it. Which left them with the single opponent he’d seen through the window.

Slade motioned to Kate, beckoning her closer. He pointed, indicating that she should take a quick look. Her head popped up and then down again, her eyes wide.

She stepped right up to Slade and spoke near his ear. He liked the feel of her warm body against his, but there wasn’t time to explore the feelings she roused in him. They had work to do and he had to keep his mind on business, dammit.

“He’s facing east,” she said. “Preparing a ritual. Looks like he is inside a scribed circle. I think they turned the great room into a ritual space. If he’s inside that circle, he’ll be harder to reach,” she added, confirming his thoughts.

He’d picked up a thing or two about human magic
rites in his life, but not enough to claim to be any sort of expert. Which is where Kate came in. She knew a lot more about human ways than he did. Most of his magic was instinctual, and animal in nature.

“So we need to draw him out.”
Easier said than done, he feared.

“Ideally,” she confirmed. “But how?”

“Follow me.” A plan was forming even as he moved through the yard toward the front of the house.

“What are you going to do?” Kate was doing her best to keep up with his fast pace, but he couldn’t slow down. Time was running out before the cougars showed up in force.

“Stay here and keep watch,” he said as they reached the corner of the house. “I’m going to draw him out.”

“How?”

He spared her a smile. “I’m going to ring the doorbell.”

She grabbed his arm. “You can’t! He’ll realize what you are
the minute he opens the door.”

“Calm down, kitten. He’s never seen me before. I only got here this morning. Watch and learn.” And with that, he used a skill he alone possessed—as far as he knew.

“Bright Lady,” she gasped, and he knew his little trick was working.

From one breath to the next, Slade’s strong magical aura just winked out of existence.

“How’d you do that?” She was shocked by his ability to mask his true nature.

Kate had never seen, or even heard of such a thing before. If she’d met him now for the first time, she’d think he was purely human. Not a glimmer of power escaped whatever he’d done to hide it.

“Stay put. You’ll know when it’s time to act,” was all he said before he walked away, heading straight for the front door of the big house.

She couldn’t believe his audacity as he rang the bell and waited.

A moment later the front door opened and the man was there, looking annoyed. Slade didn’t say a word, but reached out, trying to grab the guy
, and that’s when all hell broke loose. The mage wasn’t going to come quietly.

He shoved at the air between himself and Slade, using his magical energy to send Slade several yards away, fighting all the way. This was
it. Slade had told her she’d recognize the moment to act and this was definitely it.

Kate summoned her will and the potent and endless magic of the earth
, and pulled at the mage, drawing him out of the doorway and down the steps, using his own momentum against him. She drew him right into Slade’s reach.

While the mage’s attention was split between them, Slade took full advantage and grabbed the man in a choke hold. The mage struggled, but he was a small guy, not very physical
, and Kate kept the magical attack on him so he couldn’t do much more than try to respond—and that not very successfully.

“Can you do that thing you did before?” Slade asked, keeping hold of his prisoner, though the mage was gaining strength as the initial shock of the attack wore off.

She knew what he meant. Slade wanted her to drain the mage of all his power, as she’d done to Wayne.

Kate hadn’t done it since
Wayne, and she hesitated to strike out at the mage, lest she hit Slade too, but she knew the Goddess she served would help her, if she asked. The Lady would surely know good from evil and only purge the evil one, not the very good man that was holding him. Right? She had to trust that it would be so… as Slade apparently did.

He nodded to her, holding her gaze, imparting a bit of his courage to her. She nodded back, willing to try.

Tapping into Mother Earth’s endless fire and saying a silent prayer for Her divine guidance, Kate spoke the ancient words she’d been taught after that first night in the stone circle so many years before. She called on the earth to cleanse the evil from the man and purify his spirit, leaving behind only what power had been good.

That didn’t leave much. The mage had lots of bad energy to purge and it took long minutes of intense concentration on Kate’s part to do the deed. All the while, the mage writhed in agony as the Lady’s purifying Light poured through him.

It didn’t stay. It couldn’t stay inside a heart that held such hatred. It merely passed through, taking all his magical power with it.

By the time she was done, the mage was a mage no more.

Slade felt the full effect of Kate’s power and was awed by it. She was truly the hand of the Goddess
, as the Lady’s purifying Light poured through the man who struggled against Slade’s hold. The power touched Slade too, but didn’t burn. Instead, he felt the welcoming goodness of the Lady’s Light like a balm to his soul.

It was the most amazing feeling. And Kate—little,
human
Kate—wielded this power. Slade looked at her with renewed respect.

The man writhed in his arms, screaming as the power of the Lady’s Light cleansed him. He struggled a
t first and Slade held him so he couldn’t attack Kate. The hold became one more of support than restraint as the magic drained away until it was no more.

Slade actually felt it leave and be swallowed up by the earth beneath his feet. The pulsing negativity of the area went with it and the whole place began to glow with power while the Lady’s Light cleansed the earth, dispersing the evil for all time.

The man slumped in his hold, sliding to the ground. He was empty. No magic. Very little life energy left. He’d tied up too much of his own essence in the evil he worked. Blood magic did that.

Slade heard running feet and he turned his head to find the entire compliment of Redstone brothers pounding up the path. They were quiet enough, even in human form
, that Kate didn’t hear them yet, but Slade certainly did.

He pulled the man to his feet and shoved him toward the cougars.

“Don’t kill him yet. He’s harmless for now,” Slade said, knowing the man was aware enough to understand when he jerked in his hold. “He’s been defanged.”

“Permanently,” Kate added, coming closer and showing a lot more spirit than Slade had expected.

The power of the Lady was still running through her. She glowed with the Light when Slade glanced at her and he had to force himself to look away. The cougars couldn’t see it, but they probably felt something when they paused in their headlong rush to take charge of the man that had taken part in the murder of their mother.

“What did you do to him?” Grif asked, taking the lead, as was his right as Alpha. He looked at Kate with caution in his expression, as if he’d only just realized the priestess had real power of her own to call on.

“Purged all his evil,” she answered. “Unless he embraces the Light, he will never work magic again.”

“You can do that?” Steve asked. The cougars spread out in a semi-circle around them.

“Y
ep,” she answered, smacking her lips. Saucy. She was enjoying the surprise on the cougars’ faces.

Especially Steve’s. She had always thought
him the most attractive of the brothers. Tall, rugged, capable and handsome in a manly way.

Kate had once had a thing for him, though it would never have worked out. In all likelihood, he didn’t see her as anything other than some frail human priestess, always in need of protecting from the big, bad shifters. He had treated her like fragile porcelain—when he bothered to acknowledge her existence at all.

She had always been attracted to the strong, silent types. Steve was that, in spades. So was Slade—though he was on a whole other level than mild-mannered, mostly-silent Steve.

Slade
, now... He was something even more deadly to her soft heart and unruly attraction. He lit her up like a barn on fire and there was precious little she could do to stop her incendiary attraction to the mysterious man.

“She’s done it before,” Slade backed up her claim. “It’s permanent, painful and has no chance of recovery unless he turns from his evil path.”