Southern Shifters: Scents and Scentability (Kindle Worlds Novella) (8 page)

A thump of a whirring motor interrupted him before he could pounce.

Bennett!

Exploding into motion, he left the tree and hit the snow. The motor he recognized.
Helicopter.
It had come along the far side of the ridge, the only way he wouldn’t have detected the approach. It meant whoever piloted it knew where the cabin was.

They’ll kill me…
The memory of her worry about what her Clan would do spurred him to greater speeds. He tore across the uneven snow without slowing, every second ticking by an agony. If he didn’t get there…pain seared his mind. Hot and blinding, like a nail being driven into his skull. He stumbled and fell. Shaking his head violently, he tried to clear the haze from his vision.

He must have blacked out for a moment, because his cat was frantic. Weakness turned his legs wobbly as he fought his way to his feet. Automatically reaching for his mate, he roared. Her mind went quiet, absolutely silent. Before he could fully process the thought, he ran once more. The whirring motors were lifting, and he had no idea how long he was out, but he arrived at the cabin in time to see the helicopter clearing the roof and soaring away.

Black.

Unmarked.

The steady thump-thump of the rotors slashing at him.

She wasn’t dead. In his soul, he knew it in the same way he knew she was aboard the helicopter. Roaring again, the animal lashed at him. They had to pursue. Every moment he stared at the helicopter it sped away farther. Beast and man were in absolute agreement, they would get their mate back but he had to know who took her.

His Clan?

Or hers?

It only mattered in as much as it defined who he would kill to have her returned. Leaping onto the porch, he stalked into the house and tested the air. The door to her lab stood open, the stench of chemicals wafting from below. It occluded the scents in the room, but he was a thorough hunter, and he didn’t let the burn assail his nose.

Shoving the door closed, he tested the scent on the exterior after the air cleared some.

No animal scent greeted him.

Male.

Fury boiled in his blood.

Not human either.

Her Clan.

He had a target.

Spinning, he poured on his speed. Her Clan lived beyond Deals Gap. He would find them. He would find her.

And he’d kill anyone who got in his way.

A
thousand needles
stabbed into Darcy’s mind as she fought her way to wakefulness. The path from the black safety of unconsciousness to awareness was littered with landmines, which seemed to detonate every time she opened her eyes. The overhead lights burned her retinas. Squeezing her eyes shut in a desperate bid for self-preservation, she fought the sickening sensation of disconnection.
Drugs or injury?
Brain bleeds could wreak havoc with their gifts. The pressure behind her eyes seemed to mount, and her skull felt almost too tight.

“BP is one-fifty over one-twenty. She’s waking.”

“Put her under again.”

The first voice she didn’t know, but the second sounded like—she tried to scan the minds closest to her and her agony tripled. Pain slashed through her, so she retreated into utter darkness.

Hours later, or maybe it was only seconds, the agony lancing her mind woke her. The lights remained too bright. Machines hummed around her. A faint beep noise increased and a distant part of her mind recognized the recording of her heart rate. A blood pressure cuff engaged on her arm, the additional pressure giving her something else to focus on besides the dizzying waves of sickness accompanying the hell tearing up her brain.

“Contact Gruner? She’s awake.”

She’d heard the clinical voice before.
The nurse informing them of her rise in blood pressure earlier.
Gritting her teeth together, she forced her eyes open. The brightness dazzled her eyes, which immediately sheened in tears. Fighting the pull of wanting to lapse into unconsciousness, she focused on a ceiling tile to the right of the LED lights. When she could make out the black spots in the tile, she tried to turn her head.

Another wave of nausea swept through her at the movement. She refused to vomit, however. She needed to know where she was, who held her, and what the hell they’d done. Vague shadows of memory inched across her mind’s eye. The door to her lab opened and she turned, already laughing. Bennett had been barely a fingerbreadth of a thought away all day and, though she basked in the strength of his affection, she was nowhere near done with—

Instead of Bennett, a man stood there. One who didn’t belong.

Darts, fired from his weapon, slammed into her chest. Pain overwhelmed her nervous system as electricity jolted her.
Tasered.
She’d been tasered. An effective way to incapacitate a telepath, especially one not expecting the attack. She’d managed to send a warning to her mate before her mind blanked out, trying to shut off their connection so the pain wouldn’t hit him.

God, had she been successful? Their minds had been so entwined, if she hadn’t—was he on the mountain? Unconscious and helpless? Did shifters lose their animal form if they were incapacitated?

Anger galvanized her to push past the pain. She tugged her arm, but it wouldn’t obey her. She barely had time to register it was bound when the nurse approached her. “You need to go back to sleep,” the woman informed her as she readied the needle to insert it into the tube which extended into Darcy’s arm.

Narcotic, most likely a sleeping agent.

Fuck no
. They weren’t putting her out again. Starbursts radiated through her mind as she lashed out mentally, shoving aside the other woman’s shields. It was brutal, inelegant, and utterly effective. The nurse’s expression blanked and she collapsed. The syringe clinked as it hit the floor.

Sickness welled within her, but she fought off the urge to vomit once more. She’d struck without hesitation or remorse, a part of her enormously satisfied to have knocked the bitch out, even if she didn’t know her or why she participated. All that mattered was Bennett. She had to get to him.

The damn ties held her wrists captive, but she tugged, pulled and twisted until she managed to slip her hand free. Every jerk sent another stab into her brain, but the injury was nothing compared to her fear. Sitting left her giddy and unstable, she managed to free her other wrist and ankles before she had to lean over and give into the urge to heave.

Whatever they’d given her before still worked through her system. The taser left its mark on her mental landscape, minor fires that left her synapses aching. When she got her rebellious stomach under control, she took inventory of the room—a med center of some kind. They had her hooked up to an IV, one she removed with two tugs. Whatever was in the saline bag, she didn’t want it anymore.

The nurse wore salmon colored scrubs, but had no revealing markers or symbols. The equipment was standard, the room appeared more an examination room than a place for patients checked in for a stay.

Standing slowly, she tested her balance. The cold floor against her bare feet helped chase away the grogginess and the thudding of her head dulled some. Shaking, she took one step, then another. The door was a few feet away. Once next to it, she clamped her teeth together and reached out with her mind.

Only locating six minds beyond the room, she sagged against the door.
Only six.
In her current state, it might as well be six hundred. Her Clan would never forgive her for mating Bennett, but she didn’t care. They weren’t killing her without a fight. Wherever the med center was, it didn’t matter—she could reach Bennett. If she could withstand the backlash of her electrified senses, she could.

Pressing her forehead to the wood of the door, she reached blindly to where he’d filled her mind only—hours ago? Days?
Be alive, Bennett. Please be alive.
Would they have executed him?

A roar greeted her and suddenly his presence flooded her—fur and snow and wildly masculine.
I’m coming for you, Darcy.

Tears escaped her eyes. He was alive.
I don’t know where
here
is.
She’d recognized the doctor earlier. Gruner—the head of scientific research for her whole department. He’d been the one to present her work to the Council, to get her noticed by them.

You’re about fifteen miles from Deal’s Gap. I’m less than thirty minutes from you. Stay alive. I will find you.

I’ll try to get out…

No.
The order tugged a grin from her weary lips.
Don’t fight them. Don’t give them a reason to hurt you. I will come for you.

Bennett.
The distance between them took everything she had to make the connection, but every word he spoke strengthened her. His cat seemed to twine around her and, maybe it was wishful thinking, but she could almost feel the silkiness of his fur.
They already hurt us—hurt
you
.
It was unforgiveable. Six minds? She could handle those. They’d never found a telepath who could block her, and she was angry enough to take on an army.

Woman, I will paddle your behind if you leave safety to pick a fight.

God, she loved him. Every grouchy inch.
I didn’t pick this fight.
They
did.
His rumbling growl reverberated through her.
I will give you time to get here.
She could concede that point.
But you will not face them without me.
He was one cat. They didn’t fight fair.

I’m coming.
A promise, a mental kiss, and more strength flowed into her. Every breath proved more cleansing. The confusion stymying her senses earlier continued to recede. Six minds were active beyond her door. Five males, one female. With the nurse unconscious behind her, it made for a total of seven. A standard trauma team for psi injured in the field.

Or brought in injured…bastards.
Bennett’s answering snarl told her he’d heard the thought, so she added.
I was tasered. I am awake now—and the drugs they used are fading.
She hoped.
I will not be so helpless if they come through this door.

A moment’s pause then,
Lock your damn door.

She moved to obey him before he completed the sentence, twisting the lock until she heard the tumbler engage. No security pad inside, which hopefully meant none outside. If she could slide into the mind of the nearest person, she could give Bennett a layout. Ignoring his automatic ‘no,’ she slipped her mental fingers out until she located the nearest individual.

An orderly. His mind was locked tight, a natural shield. Some children in their Clan were simply born able to keep others out, a defense mechanism encoded into their DNA. She measured his shield then matched it with her own. Another weakness she could always exploit, so she didn’t even have to think about it. Careful to not alert him to her intrusion, she studied what he knew.

Med Center B, isolation units.
God, she wasn’t that far from the cells where they locked up the psi going mad when their gifts turned on them. At a certain age, females always went mad if they didn’t find a mate. It was some kind of misogynistic quirk to their genetics courtesy of their abilities and always worse for the strongest women. She’d never courted madness, but her understanding of the process was it hit swiftly when the time came. The mind turned in on itself, conjuring terrors and hallucinations, and only mating could prevent it.

If they chose a male, they could mate him, merge their mind and he would help balance their gift. It also gave the men access to their strength and a certain amount of control over their abilities. She’d always found the idea distasteful.

No one will ever control you.
Bennett’s assurance emboldened her. No, he was protective and fierce and grumpy with his orders, but he would never force her obedience. Knowing the general idea of where she was, she sent it to him along with the layout she took from the orderly’s mind and what he knew about security.

Only two guards, since most of the psi consigned to the facility or the cells were too far gone to be a threat to anyone but themselves. He didn’t respond to the new information, but two of the minds she’d been tracking winked out.

You’re here.
Exhilaration flooded her, the rush of adrenaline clearing her mind further. Abandoning the orderly’s mind, she rushed to Bennett’s as he seized a male by the throat and hoisted him. The man scrabbled at Bennett’s grip, but the cat didn’t release him. Instead he cut off his oxygen supply. In the distance, she saw another man racing toward him.

Anticipating the mental attack, she shielded her mate’s mind and struck like a hammer at the other. The man fell, breaking his nose on the floor after he toppled. Bennett’s savage joy rebounded into her. Every step he took brought him closer to her. The orderly was suddenly in his way, but he took one look at her glorious mate and fled. Holding fast to his mind, she knew the minute Bennett arrived at her door.

Flipping the lock, she yanked it open and then she was in his arms. His skin was hot to the touch, and he was wild in his nudity, but their mouths came together in a kiss she wouldn’t soon forget. Then he ran his hands over her, inspecting her for injuries.

Belatedly, she noticed she wore a hospital gown, which meant someone had stripped her at some point. His snarl echoed her own distaste for the manhandling she’d endured.

“Halt,” a voice called from the speakers, and they both turned to face the new threat, only no one was there. “Stand down, Ms. Ashwood and Mr. Nelson.”

Stand down? “I recognize your voice, Dr. Gruner.” So, he wasn’t in the facility, but knowing who it was meant she could track his mind. Bennett’s hand tightened on hers, and his tacit permission flowed into her. She extended herself, the miles seemed to slip away as she reached across the mountains…he was with the Council.

A dozen minds were suddenly aware of her, and she faced them all, half-baring her teeth as though she were Bennett’s cat. His beast crept behind her, ready to pounce. When those minds tried to peer into hers, he roared and they retreated.

No, they could not have her nor could they touch her. Interlacing her fingers with her mate’s, she leaned into him.