Slow Burn (18 page)

“So.” He cleared his throat and slid his hands down her
arms. “We’re going to bed. Max can couch surf again when he gets back unless
we’re gone.”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. “You’re just going to
tell me you love me and not require my submission?”

He tilted his head. “You have us confused with the wolf
shifters, dear. Pumas are very territorial and my scent is all over you. Anyone
with any sense of smell can see you’re mine. Even if we separate, you’re still
marked. But we’ve been drawn together and that’s reality. I do love you, Sonja.
I don’t know why yet, or entirely how, but in my world, I don’t question my
emotions.”

She sighed. Such a romantic thought, but could she allow
herself the freedom to dream like a normal human? She couldn’t exactly give up
being a witch. “I don’t know how to…”

Derrick led her back across the floor into the bedroom area.
“I don’t know how to proceed either. But do you love me?”

How could he ask that question? “Yes!”

How could she answer so quickly?

Fate is a funny thing, sis. Sometimes it throws you a
curveball and you have to run with it.
Her brother’s words echoed in her
head and reminded her that this had been playing out exactly as he predicted.
Life had thrown her a curveball in the form of Derrick. He’d been eye candy in
a crowd of many when she first spotted him. Then she saw him in other places
and couldn’t pull away from him. They’d even locked gazes once. Her brother had
seen it in her by the way she talked about the stranger she had eyes for.

Odd that he’d come to her show one night.

“You’re thinking again.”

She nodded. “It’s just all so a fast. My world doesn’t work
like that.”

“What do you mean? You’re a musician.”

She blinked. “Yes, but that’s routine. It’s work. I’m
passionate about it so it doesn’t feel like a job, and even with the constant
touring, it’s still fun. Rob is my only family so I’m not worried about missing
out on downtime. But emotionally…” She looked away. “I’ve never really had to
deal with anything like this.”

He offered her a kind smile. “Perhaps there’s the lesson.”

She looked at him, saw the richness of his purple eyes, and
understood that in that moment, he may be right. “Perhaps.”

Derrick nodded. “Now come on. I’m sure when Max gets back
he’ll have plenty to tell us. And a plan.”

“You don’t have a plan?”

“I do. It’s called get some sleep, dear. I’m here. They
can’t take you from me again.”

She snorted. “They did before.”

Derrick stopped abruptly.

Her hand went to her mouth as soon as the words left.

Slowly, he turned to face her. “I was too far away, we were
ambushed. And I was weighed down. Now I have something even stronger to work
with inside.”

She understood that. Human beings clung to emotions, dead
weight often held them down and that’s when she stepped in when she could. At
her concerts, she could even use a little magic to push something less violent
into her audience.

With Derrick, she’d done nothing of the sort. The vision
she’d experienced threw her for a loop, draining her energy supply. It was a
wonder she wasn’t already asleep, but there was something about him that
continued to give her more than just hope. Derrick gave her confidence and
stability.

“Come on. Let’s go to bed.”

Even in his aggressive tone, she could hear the
undercurrents of sexual innuendo. It would be fun to act on those, but a yawn
slipped past her lips and she covered her mouth with her free hand. “We’ll
sleep clothed.”

He faced her. “Indeed.”

Derrick pulled back the covers, kicked off his shoes, and
sat down. He patted a space beside him. “Come here, Sonja.”

She decided it wouldn’t hurt her to kick off her boots, too.
She usually slept naked, and she guessed Derrick did, too. Shifters were
usually comfortable in their natural habitat. “You’re not going to eat me in my
sleep, are you?”

He offered her a wry grin. “The only eating that’ll go on
will be when I dine next between your lovely thighs.” He cleared his throat
again. “Now, let’s go to bed before I ravish you.”

She liked that he lusted after her so much. It made her feel
feminine and different from how her fans viewed her.

A moment later, Sonja found herself snuggled against
Derrick, her bottom neatly pressed against his hardened crotch. She rather
liked it like that, but another yawn reminded her just how much energy she took
from Derrick in dispelling the nonsense he’d carried.

Guilt. It caused so many physical ailments. Normal humans
and even the shifter community didn’t understand that emotions were either
poisonous or healthy depending on what they were or how they were dealt with.
All the years Derrick let guilt eat at him for his faults inevitably would cause
him problems. Rest would help.

Most of her audience shared the same condition. The puma she
saw clearly had been repressed but the vision didn’t work to reveal past
mistakes, only current emotions. She didn’t have enough skill to enter his
dreams but would if she could help heal him. Some day she would be that
powerful, but right now wasn’t that time.

Derrick snuggled tighter against her, wrapping his arm
around her waist. “Goodnight, lover.”

She settled in beside him and enjoyed the feel of his fingers
running gently through her hair. The light touches comforted her and helped to
reassure her, to ground her to him and a reality where she could reach for
hope. And maybe grasp it.

She loved that about this man.

She had to do something to protect him, even if it only gave
him a slight advantage over their adversary. Her list of enemies wasn’t long,
but that meant whoever had ordered the hit on her earlier was someone she’d
probably met before.

If she thought about it, she could rule out those who tried to
have her murdered. She just needed to sleep on it.

Exhaustion gripped her, her mind drained, but at least
Derrick warmed her heart. For once in her life, she truly felt safe.

Sonja closed her eyes and let the even sound of Derrick’s
breathing sooth her to sleep.

Chapter Ten

Something jerked Sonja from her sleep. Her eyes flew open,
and she sat up, breathing hard. It took a few seconds to register in her mind
that she was with Derrick and they were in Max’s house. What was going on?

The image of a darker, larger cat pacing back and forth had
imprinted itself in her mind. His piercing black eyes stared at her. He
growled.

He wasn’t frightening but his ominous power gave her the
chills.

It definitely wasn’t Derrick’s puma.

The fog cleared from her mind and took the image of the
dark-furred cat with it.

“Fuck.”

She looked beside her. The heavy weight of Derrick’s arm
around her hip reminded her of just how secure she was. That mysterious puma
could touch her but wouldn’t take her, nor would it harm her, not without
incurring Derrick’s wrath. From the moment she realized they shared a bond, she
understood that he would give up his life to protect her. That thought scared
her because it meant she had grown vulnerable.

In her world, that was actually a great thing since she
needed the emotions to write song lyrics. Death metal wasn’t about the
happiness that she felt a bit of now, but about worry, the human condition.
Yes, they did the occasional song about cannibalism and stereotypical worship
of satanic figures, they were in an industry where that was a common thing.

But her band’s music had been about healing through giving
the fans a voice, someone else understood their pain and knew how badly they
wanted to take the easy way off this planet.

But that’s when the lyrics stopped and the magic kicked in
for her fans. She used her voice to seductively sway them, pull from them all
that self-hatred and destructive behavior while channeling the aggression in
the pit.

Sonja looked toward the window. The moon still hung bright
in the sky and shone down through them, casting a blue haze across parts of the
concrete floor.

Sonja would get an extra energy boost from the moon. She
always did, since nocturnal powers formed the basis of her magic. The sun’s
energy fed her brother and used to make her feel bad until she learned to
appreciate the different level of sensuality in affairs of the night.

She glanced around and spotted the flashing blue light of
Derrick’s phone. Carefully, she slid out of bed so as not to disturb him.

Not that it mattered anyway; he would sleep for the next
several hours. She neglected to mention that the release of emotional energy
would tire him out and force him to sleep for a solid eight hours. Since the
day had been slow and emotional, she figured he could afford the release.

Sonja padded across the room and picked up the phone. She
flipped it open and saw a missed call just after three a.m. from a blocked
number.

The voicemail indicator kept flashing, almost taunting her
to listen. She’d only missed the call by a few moments. How had she not heard
the phone ring?

Damn Derrick for being so comforting that she actually
slept. It’d been some time since that happened. She became a night owl
partially to refuel her magic but also because sleep escaped her more often
than not. All that energy she’d taken from her audience had to go somewhere.

She walked out to the balcony, slid the door closed behind
her, and listened. The humidity in the air quickly made her clothes stick to
her skin. Her hair stuck to her face, strewn about loosely. She ran a hand
through her mane, held the phone to her ear, and hit the voicemail button with
her thumb. She listened to the regular greeting, knots forming in her stomach.

Then the first message began to play and the voice of the
annoyed bear spoke.

“This message is for Derrick. I believe I have something of
value to him if he is to bring us the witch. We can perhaps set up a trade. To
show good faith, here’s our gift.” The line went silent for a moment. Then
heavy breathing interrupted the silence and her stomach sank even further when
she heard a familiar voice.

“I’m fine. But they have Rob, too. He’s here. So far we’re
alive. Just…”

Then his voice cut off and the bear’s returned. “You see now
I think we have something to discuss. Call me. You have my number, puma.”

The line went dead.

Shit!

Sonja’s brother had been kidnapped. And they had Max. She
stopped herself from panicking or rushing to Derrick to wake him and ask for
help. She’d caught herself in worse positions before and could deal with this.
Her brother, Rob, was powerful, but what if he was caught off guard? And why
was he with Max?

Nothing made sense. She needed to get answers from Derrick
about this fucking Russian shifter.

She shut the phone and paced back and forth on the patio.
She stopped and grabbed the railing, glanced at Derrick as he slept, then
looked at the phone. She tried hard to swallow the lump in her throat.

If she called the bear back, she’d end up being told where
to meet him and then show up and be captured. She could deal with that. Fucking
routine for her.

After talking to Derrick, she decided this needed to be the
last time incidents like this occurred. He’d proclaimed love for her after she
told him they were mated.

He had to be crazy.

But she stood on the balcony with the phone in one hand and
her other over her heart. Looking through the window at him made her shiver, he
was that sexy.

She hadn’t taken time to truly analyze her feelings for
Derrick. Being mated meant a lot more to supernatural beings than it did the
average human. Hell, marriage no longer held sanctity—the rising number of
divorces showed that.

But the number of matings that happened rose once shifters
were declared citizens with rights the same as any human. New cultural norms
were still being established, but in Sonja’s experiences, the shifter and human
couples that did get together were often happier, and had tighter bonds and
more compassion.

Not like the Anti-Shifter League. They were unable to understand
why unions of any nature were allowed outside of the human realm. They were
homophobic, racist, and very overly religious, often using privilege to their
advantage to step on those who they couldn’t understand.

“God made man above animal,” they claimed. “Mating with
these so-called beasts is a sin.” Their leader, a woman named Carmela was a
vicious and vile being. They picketed Ark-KaotiK’s shows but the fans and
police kept things semi-reasonable.

All that hatred from Carmela wore on Sonja, too, but she
screamed it out onstage. That was a plus.

Having known Derrick’s past as a spy from the beginning
would have been nice but he came clean with her. There had to be a certain
amount of confidentiality involved in his former line of work, but he had been
retired for how long?

She stepped back inside, still unsure of what to do. She
could go after her brother and his, but then he’d chase after her.

Derrick stirred.

She froze.

His arm searched the bed.

His awareness hit her and panic set in. Then she felt
stillness in him as he stalked toward her.

The look on his face showed his displeasure. “Hold the phone
up.”

She bit her bottom lip and did as he asked.

Gruffness in his voice made him sound more sexy than angry.
“Did you call the bear back?”

“Not yet.”

Derrick converged on her in a microsecond, his strong arms
wrapped securely around her, his mouth on hers in a smoldering kiss that stole
her breath and made her heart race.

His hips pressed into hers, a gesture that sent her juices
flowing.

The phone fell from her hand as she sought to hold him.
Fingers tangled in her hair tilted her head back and exposed her neck before
teeth scraped against her skin, setting her nerves on fire, hotter than she
could imagine.

He nipped her jaw line.

She moaned into him, smelling the forest and earthen scent
of the puma below his skin. An image in her mind flashed of the puma stalking
its prey. It was all lean and sensual, just like Derrick when he wrapped
himself around her protectively, even in bed.

The possessive way he nipped at her neck and lower lip told
her how he would awake if they lived together.

He pulled back from the kiss and stared into her eyes. “I
worry.”

His nostrils flared. With her clothes slightly out of place,
the crotch of her jeans damp, and her hair mussed, she could only focus on her
increasing need for him.

He stopped panting.

Her breathing slowed and she started crying, unable to stop
burning tears from sliding down her cheek.

Derrick pulled her closer. “Talk to me, baby.”

His voice soothed her, wrapping around her like a fluffy
blanket during a storm. Her breath hitched and the tears came harder.

“They have Max and Rob.”

If she weren’t standing so close to Derrick, she wouldn’t
have heard him swear.

His embrace tightened. “That was Max’s plan? I suppose he
wants us to call him and set up a meeting.”

She sniffled and pulled back. “I don’t understand.”

“Max and I used to use the
get-captured-and-learn-all-you-can-about-your-enemies plan a lot. Hated it, but
it got us closer. Just essentially walking up to your enemy and asking to join
them and learn about their organization.”

“Sounds stupid.”

“Max is good at what he does, but I’d never say he was less
than a little crazy.”

“You ever do anything like that?”

“Few times. Impulsive is not my nature as much as it is his.
I assume that fuck wants a deal?”

“Yeah.” One of Derrick’s fingers brushed tears from her
eyes. “They want a trade.”

“You for my brother and yours.”

She nodded.

Derrick closed his eyes, pursed his lips together in a thin
line. “We’ll call them back and set it up. I won’t let you down, Sonja.”

Confidence flowed off him in full force and reassured her,
but she still had her reservations. If Derrick spoke the truth about the drug
lord, then this wasn’t going to be a cakewalk.

* * *

An hour later, they were on the road headed toward the
location the bear shifter gave them. The directions were clear. Come alone
before sunrise, just the two of them. Or Max and Rob would die.

She wore his jacket; it’d protect her body from a lot of
physical stuff if things got rough. It didn’t hurt that it looked damn sexy on
her.

He’d have to take her one of these days while she just wore
his leather jacket. Then her scent would be ingrained in the leather along with
his puma’s. That made him and the puma inside happy.

Derrick worked out a very simple plan with Sonja. She’d come
in behind him, gun hidden, and distract the bear shifter with her charms and
voice.

Knowing what he did about Slovich’s usual practices, the
bear shifter would have armed guards with him. Max would probably be a little
beat up, as would Rob, but both of them were big enough to withstand a little
pain. Knowing Max’s plan didn’t make things easier, he still hated how his
brother operated impulsively but at least he got the job done.

Still, he didn’t like the odds. The sun had almost set,
providing them with the cover of darkness. Even though Derrick’s enhanced
vision gave him an added advantage over Sonja, it only put him on even keel
with the bear shifter.

He’d told Sonja that Slovich was a former gunrunner for
several organizations before the Spetznaz recruited him. When he retired, he
used his connections to make a comfortable lifestyle here in Miami for himself,
and it was then that the two met.

There had been no bad blood.

Other than the fact that, at one time, Slovich’s operatives
tried to take Derrick down and he ended up ripping out their throats and
sending pictures to Slovich. Oh, and then he’d made sure to go after known
associates and send a message to Slovich: crazy Soviets not welcome. Derrick
tried to recall whether he’d used old world suitcases to send the bodies back,
or if he’d had the courtesy to actually just send a note with the funeral
details.

The news of Derrick’s retirement traveled fast through the
espionage world and would have made a lot of criminals feel at ease, but
Derrick’s brother, Max, had just as much experience in dealing with trouble.
And he was just as ruthless.

Derrick kept Sonja’s hand in his, feeling tension pour off
her. He absorbed it, let it fuel his protective desires for her.

When they arrived at the large, empty parking lot, Derrick
scouted the area, saw no opportunities for snipers to attack.

Except for the large, white, abandoned structure dead ahead.

“Be prepared for anything. Slovich doesn’t play fair.”
Derrick’s thumb massaged the palm of Sonja’s hand.

She glanced at him and offered a weak smile. “This is going
to be hell, isn’t it?”

Derrick sighed. “I’d say yes. They’ll have us in the
building, with no way out. I don’t suppose your voice can shatter concrete and
steel?”

She shook her head. “I’ve never tried.”

“Given the nature of Slovich’s dealings, I’d say it’s
probably better if you don’t. Just follow my lead like we talked about and this
should all be over soon.”

She swallowed hard enough for him to hear her. “I hope so.”

“Trust me. I won’t let them have you. And I won’t let your
brother or mine come to harm.”

The look on her face said it all. She trusted him. His
sincerity reinforced her feelings about his plan. He’d only given Sonja certain
details. After her behavior during her previous kidnapping, Derrick was
determined to make sure that Sonja could live her life on her terms without the
fear of being kidnapped and used against her will.

But her fighting nature wouldn’t let him go this alone. The
necessity of the stunt she pulled earlier hit home when he realized how useless
he’d be if he held on to the excess baggage.