Wild Cat (38 page)

“Diego.”

Her tone held rage. Well, too bad that he pissed her off. Diego wished Donovan Grady was here right now so he could punch him.

“Let me tell you a story,” he said. “When I was fifteen, Xavier started running with gangs. Small stuff at first, just being a lookout, then the next thing I know, he has guns in his dresser drawers and he’s learning how to make explosives for Enrique. I lit into him, thought I could force him to get out of it by yelling at him. No, Xav keeps on, because he’s got a lot of rage about how my dad was killed, and his plan was to go up against the gang whose members shot our dad in the robbery and kill them.

“I went to Enrique and told him to keeps his claws off Xavier, to help me keep him from doing something stupid. Enrique’s sister had just run away, and I thought he’d understand my need to protect my brother. But Enrique, he’s happy to have Xavier work for him, because he wanted kids all fired up to kill members of other gangs. So, what does he do? Instead of just telling me no, Enrique grabs Xav and holds him hostage. The only way he’ll let Xavier go is if I let Xav stay in the gang. If I say no, Enrique will have his goons beat up Xav. These were big men. They’d have killed him.”

Cassidy listened, stricken. “What did you do?”

“I told them if they let Xavier go, I’d let Enrique’s boys beat me up instead. Enrique was all for it. He hated me. He even let me fight back. I gave pretty good, but I went down. Then they tied me to a chair, tortured me, and tried to get me to beg for my life. In the end, they let me go and Xav too, because they said I had balls. But Xavier hated me for it. He said I’d made him look weak, that I shouldn’t have interfered.”

“But you couldn’t have done nothing.”

Diego looked over at her. Her eyes glittered in the darkness.

“I know. What I’m trying to explain is those who need the most protecting are the ones who resist it the most. Xavier was stupid about it, and so was Donovan. Xav has an excuse—he was thirteen. Donovan was an adult, should have known better.”

Cassidy sat up straight. “Should have known better, should he? And who was the fully grown human male who attacked a fortress full of feral Shifters
by himself
?”

“I had Shane and Marlo for backup.
You
deliberately got yourself captured by the ferals so you could protect Xavier.”

“You’d have preferred me to stand and watch them drag him away? They’d have killed him.”

“I know that. You have the instinct to protect. So do I. If I get myself killed because of it, it has nothing to do with you.”

Cassidy glared at him. “This is your argument for why we should stay together?”

“I’m saying you can’t break up with me because you think you caused the death of your mate. You didn’t. Those hunters did by breaking the law and shooting him. You’re not responsible for absolutely every damned thing that goes on in other people’s lives.”

“I’m Eric’s second. Yes, I am.”

“Yeah? Then maybe Donovan was right. You’re too tied to being second to Eric and not enough to being first to yourself.”

Her anger was palpable. “And this is how you plan to convince me that a relationship between us will work?”

“I’m trying to convince you to give me
time
to convince you. Later. We’re here.”

The dirt road had narrowed. Xavier stopped his truck ahead of them, and Diego pulled in behind. Cassidy didn’t say anything or even look at him as they got out of the car.

Diego’s heart beat faster as Reid found the path and started leading them to the rock outcropping. Cassidy was pretty stubborn, but like hell Diego was going to let her win. He’d convince her they should be together if he had to argue with her until they were both too hoarse and too tired to talk. Then he’d teach her exactly how he felt about her, in all ways.

Court her
, his mother would call it.
Chase her ass
was Xavier’s term.

Diego watched Cassidy walking a little ahead of him, her legs slim in jeans, her loose sweatshirt in no way disguising the delectable body beneath. He thought of the way she’d slid onto him in his backseat last night, wearing nothing under her tight dress.

If Cassidy thought this human would run away with his tail between his legs, she didn’t know humans. Or at least Latino cops who didn’t take shit from anyone.

After twenty minutes of climbing, they came to the clearing and the buildup of rocks within it.

“This is a magical place,” Peigi said as she looked around. Cassidy looked around as well, her arms folded hard across her chest.

“How do you know that?” Xav asked.

Peigi touched one of the boulders. “I was raised on the Scottish west coast, where the Fae presence is strong. I learned the feel of it. It’s faint here, but Fae magic has touched it.”

Diego knew it only as a place where he’d been shot at, and where he’d found Cassidy ready to be butchered by Reid.

Eric walked through the cave with his flashlight, examining walls, floor, ceiling. Shane came behind him, the big bear man sniffing. Diego trained his own light on them but found nothing unusual, only gray and darker gray limestone of the mountains and a coating of dust.

“The gate won’t open for me,” Reid said. “I’ve tried.”

“What is the ritual?” Peigi asked.

“It involves candles and a big, long knife,” Cassidy said.

“And Tasers, apparently,” Shane said. “Though I’m thinking they weren’t in the original spell.”

“A spell I won’t try to work again,” Reid said. “I don’t fit in here, but I won’t kill to get back home.” Diego heard the dead note in Reid’s voice.

Eric pressed his hands on the wall at the end of the shallow cave. “According to my Fae source, the gates on the ley lines go to different places in Faerie. You can walk through two gates right next to each other in the human world and end up thousands of miles apart in Faerie. So this gate might not lead to anywhere near Fionn’s territory.”

“It might not lead to mine either,” Reid said. “But once I knew where I was, I could get home.” He touched the wall next to Eric’s hand. “I don’t know what I’d find, though. My entire clan destroyed by the
hoch alfar
? Or my people restored, and at peace?”

“Moot point if you can’t get through,” Xavier said.

“He’ll get through.” Peigi also touched the rock wall. “Maybe only a little Shifter blood will open it enough to assess where it comes out, and what is on the other side. Isn’t it worth a try?”

“The spell needs the lifeblood of a Shifter, sacrificed,” Reid said. “You’re not doing that.”

“How about freely given? I sacrifice it for you?”

Reid’s face was dark with anger. “Why the hell would you do that?”

Peigi took Reid’s hand and wrapped her own around it. “Let’s just say I want to see someone get their heart’s desire.”

Cassidy went to them. “Let her try. It might work.”

Reid didn’t want to. Peigi jerked her hand from Reid’s, turned it palm up, and let her claws come out. As Cassidy had at the club when she’d vouched for Diego, Peigi slashed her own claws across her human hand.

Blood welled up on her palm, and she pressed her hand against the rock wall.

Nothing happened.

Diego kept his eye on Reid as he approached Peigi. Peigi lifted her hand, leaving blood smeared on the rock. Shane tapped the wall. Solid.

“It won’t work,” Reid said. “It needs more blood. Forget it.”

“Spells are tricky,” Eric said. “Especially Fae spells. It’s not the ingredients that matter, but what they represent. Does the blood stand for life essence? Or a Shifter death?”

His words gave Diego an idea. “If these Fae seriously want to keep you from finding your way back, they won’t make the solution one you would like. You hated Shifters, and you were perfectly willing to kill one to open the gate. So maybe spilling Shifter blood really won’t work, because you were so eager, even happy, to do it.”

“I wasn’t
eager
,” Reid growled. “Or happy. I don’t like killing anything. Except
hoch alfar.
”

Diego continued. “What I’m saying is, when you talked to me about Shifters, you despised them. You were ready to make yourself sacrifice one. So do the Fae think it would be harder for you to
kill
a Shifter? Or to
save
one?”

Diego drew his Sig and trained it on Peigi.

Reid snarled in pure rage. He threw himself at Diego, slamming them both into the wall, right over the smear of Peigi’s blood. Reid knocked Diego’s hand into the rock until the gun fell from Diego’s grip.

Diego felt the rocks behind him give. He grabbed Reid and hauled him out of the way, turning to see a gray mist forming where the rock wall had been.

The misty patch expanded until it was about ten feet high and three feet wide. A doorway.

Peigi stared, openmouthed. “What happened?”

Eric gave Diego a thoughtful look. “The sacrifice was Reid saving a hated Shifter. Not killing one. Good perception, Diego.”

“Yeah,” Shane said. “But what’s that stink?”

Wind swirled through the doorway, bringing with it cold and a stench of something rotting.

“Goddess,” Cassidy said, waving her hand in front of her nose.

“This isn’t right,” Reid said. He started forward, but Xavier and Diego grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back.

“Wait,” Diego said.

Picking up his gun, Diego moved slowly toward the misty air. As he neared the door, its outline grew more and more clear. The mists rolled back in a sudden burst of cold, to show them a man-shaped figure silhouetted in the doorframe.

The figure turned and brought up a weapon.

“Down!” Diego shouted.

Shifters and cops hit the ground. A bolt pinged a rock in the cave and fell to the dirt, and at the same time, the man fell through the opening.

Not a man. He was tall and strangely lean, like a human who’d been stretched, and he had white blond hair and pointed ears.

He was also dead.

T
he figure stretched across the floor, his half-putrefying flesh black against his torn clothes.

“What the fuck?” Xavier asked softly.

“Trap.” Reid folded his arms over his stomach and looked sick. “They set guards compelled to shoot whoever manages to open the gateway. They’re spelled not to leave their post, not even to find food or water. Not even if they die.”

“They carry out their mission even if they’re
dead
?” Xavier asked. “Why the hell would anyone do that?”

“It’s a
hoch alfar
thing,” Reid said. “A sick, twisted
hoch alfar
thing. Suicide mission. Their families are handsomely rewarded.”

“What’s to stop you now, Reid?” Shane asked. “The guard missed, he’s dead.”

Diego moved back to the opening, around which thick mists had gathered once again. “Careful. There might be more than one.”

“Diego, don’t you dare,” Cassidy said, fury in her voice.

“He aimed at Reid, not me. I’ll make sure it’s clear, then Reid can go.”

“No!”

“Me and Xav,” Diego said. He held Cassidy’s gaze with his. “We know how to do this, and we’re the best shooters here. We’re cops, Cassidy. This is our job.”

Xavier drew his Sig and stood at Diego’s back. Even though Xavier’s left arm was still in a sling, Diego knew Xav could outshoot everyone in this cave, including himself.

“We know what we’re doing, Cass,” Xav said.

Diego nodded at Reid. “If any other guards are out there, Xav and I will draw their fire and take them out. Then you run through and get the hell home.”

“No!” Cassidy snarled.

“Cassidy,” Eric said sharply. “They’re right. Let them.”

Cassidy swung on her brother. “Don’t you
dare
treat them like they’re expendable.”

“I’m not.” Eric sounded more alert and focused than Diego had ever heard him. “I’m treating them like part of the team. We each contribute our strengths. Peigi did her part. Let them do theirs. Our part is to back them up. Now stop emoting and start working.”

Cassidy gave him a look that didn’t bode well for Eric’s future, but she subsided.

But the exchange gave Diego a little more insight into Eric. The laid-back Shifter act was just an act. Eric was a watcher, an assessor, who put together pieces while he pretended to laze. And then he struck. Diego decided he’d hate to be on the receiving end of his strike.

“Go,” Eric said.

Diego focused his pistol and quickly stepped through the thick mists, his foot landing on solid rock.

There
was
a guard with a crossbow pressed against the wall on the other side of the gate in the dark. Only one.

There didn’t need to be more, Diego’s mind hummed, because the opening led to a ledge about four feet wide that hung five hundred feet above… nothing.

In the split second that Diego saw this, the Fae tried to shoot him. Diego grabbed the Fae’s rotting arm and spun him away as the bolt left the crossbow. The dead man crumpled, then he and the crossbow bolt twirled into empty air and fell down, down, down, to a moonlit river far below.