Now the love sang in her heart, binding Jaycee to Dimitri with a surety she could never dismiss. The mate bond had formed between them so quietly, Jaycee had not realized it, not until now, when his absence threatened to tear it from her.
“Good,” Dylan said firmly. “I’m thinking it’s about time. Now tell me how you became separated from him.”
Aisling listened, eyes alight with curiosity while Jaycee, with Angus filling in some details, related the tale of how she, Dimitri, and Angus had rushed to Brice’s to find the Shifters gone, about the circle in the basement, the fight, and ending with Dimitri being pulled with Brice into Faerie.
Presumably into Faerie. The circle might have gone anywhere.
Jaycee finished before her voice could break on a sob. The fact that Dimitri could be anywhere in the universe, well beyond Jaycee’s reach, scared the hell out of her. She wasn’t ready to let him go. Not now. Not ever.
“Hmph,” Aisling said. “That’s what comes of playing with magic beyond your ability. Fae soldiers have no business making circles and doing sage spells, and neither do Shifters.”
Dylan looked past Jaycee to Aisling, his gaze assessing. “What Fae would have the knowledge to use such a spell?”
“Any of them” was Aisling’s dampening answer. “It’s common, if not sensible. But Fae these days think they can wield magic because they find a ley line and know a chant. In my day, they studied for at least a century before they were allowed to so much as light a candle.” She sighed. “No wonder they lost their hold of the world to the humans.”
The garden door burst open, and Zander returned with his usual gusto. “Tiger’s pinpointed Dimitri.”
Jaycee whipped her attention to him in shock. “He did? Where?”
“I don’t know.” Zander’s irritated look softened as he took in Jaycee’s agitation. “He stood in the field looking around, and then said, That way, and took off.”
Aisling started down the stairs. “Which way?”
Zander let out a breath, went to the nearest window, and pointed. “That direction, more or less.”
Aisling halted next to him. She was only a few inches shorter than Zander, her red hair a sharp contrast to his white. “That could mean Simeon or Orag. Can you catch your tiger friend?”
“No.” Zander growled. “He’s gone. He’s not your average Shifter.”
“He wouldn’t be,” Aisling said. “Tigers were bred by the princes and kings. They mostly liked white tigers, but they’d take an orange in a pinch. Tigers are a special breed.”
“We noticed,” Zander said dryly.
“We’ll go to both,” Dylan broke in. “Zander to Orag, and me to this Simeon’s lands. Zander can take Angus to back him up, and I’ll take Jaycee.”
“No,” Aisling said firmly. “If either of you rush out beyond the boundaries of my estate, you’ll end up a Shifter skin on a castle wall. I don’t think much of my neighbors, but they are powerful warriors, and they have no use for Shifters they don’t control.”
“I wasn’t planning on letting them catch us,” Dylan said. “They won’t know I’m coming.”
Aisling shook her head. “You will die, Shifter. I don’t care how much power you have with your own people. You will come with me, in my carriage, and we will visit Orag and Simeon in turn. Neither will deny me entrance, and you will be under my protection.” She tapped her lips, looking Dylan up and down. “Best that you be in your animal forms, I think. They already believe me eccentric, and if I turn up with a wolf, a polar bear, and a lion, they’ll worry quite a lot. And Jaycee next to me as my leopard . . . Jaycee?”
Her voice faded as Jaycee loped from the house, already in leopard form, her sensitive nose catching Tiger’s scent.
The rest of them could debate all they wanted about how to best approach the Fae near Aisling’s lands, but Jaycee knew her easiest way in. Herself, with Tiger.
She heard Zander and Angus shouting for her, fear for her edging their voices. She doubled her speed, focused on Tiger’s scent and sprinted after him. Tiger could move swiftly, but Jaycee was a leopard, fast enough to catch a tiger.
* * *
Dimitri sang, talked, and otherwise made plenty of noise to cover the rattle of stones as Cian dug them out. At one point, Dimitri felt well enough to crawl over and try to help, but he got only a faceful of brick dust for his trouble. He coughed, cleared his throat, and went back to singing.
He segued from country to Chris Isaak, so he could croon. Cian screwed up his face and shook his head whenever Dimitri hit a high note. Everyone was a critic.
After a long time, when Dimitri’s voice was hoarse and his lungs hurt, Cian motioned him over. Dimitri slunk on elbows and knees, keeping up the insane humming.
Cian had scraped mortar, brick, and stone away from the channel that held the grating in place. He indicated where he wanted Dimitri to grip the bars, then once Dimitri had a firm hold, they began to work the grating free.
That took awhile, since they had to be quiet. Dimitri was too hoarse to sing anymore, so he talked, loudly, about anything and everything. His stammer came out as annoyingly as ever, but Dimitri didn’t fight it. If his captors wanted to think he was crazy—either from the Collar or because that was just him, so what?
He wound down as he and Cian slowly lowered a piece of the loosened grate to the floor, leaving a yard-sized square hole out of the cell. Dimitri kept talking even though he could barely rasp now. If the cell suddenly went silent, a guard might decide to investigate. If he simply thought Dimitri had talked and sung until he’d lost his voice, he might not.
No matter what, this was going to be tricky. Cian climbed through the hole first, his long limbs folding and unfolding like an acrobat’s. He must have been faking his pathetic weakness when he’d been brought to Simeon, because he was now nimble and strong. He turned around and helped Dimitri climb out, Dimitri now the pathetic one.
They traversed the corridor noiselessly, Cian seeming to know where he was going. As Dimitri had suspected, the light he’d seen came from a window that opened at the top of a stone staircase. He glanced up the stairs as they passed, but Cian didn’t stop, leading Dimitri deeper into the keep.
At one point, they had to duck into shadows as two Fae soldiers wandered past. They were talking easily to each other, not seeming to be on any kind of patrol. Off duty, probably.
Cian’s hand shook as he touched Dimitri’s after they’d gone. As strong and smart as this dokk alfar might be, he was scared. They were deep in enemy territory without a clear way out.
Dimitri lowered his head to Cian’s ear and whispered the word for Shifter. He pointed to his nose, then sniffed, trying to convey that if he turned to wolf, he could smell the Fae coming so they could hide more quickly. Cian caught on and nodded. Dimitri took a breath and changed into his wolf.
When he’d shifted in front of Simeon, he’d congratulated himself on how effortlessly he’d done it. Like I’m some kind of bad-ass.
The fluidness he’d achieved then was long gone. Dimitri’s limbs jerked, and his body shuddered, the shifting arduous. Fire shot from the Collar through every nerve, making the process even more painful.
As he fought his way into wolf form, Dimitri realized he’d grown cocky about being a Collarless Shifter—the Shifters who’d taken the Collar long ago had seemed like suckers to him. Maybe the Goddess was teaching Dimitri a lesson, making him understand what the Collared Shifters went through every day of their lives. Maybe the Goddess was mad at him for mocking her children, or maybe Dimitri was going as crazy as Casey or Brice.
Even so, the awareness shamed him. Dimitri vowed a new purpose in life, to help the Morrisseys get Shifters the hell out of their Collars—no more delays.
Dimitri landed on all fours as wolf, winded and panting. His throat was tight, the Collar slow to expand to fit him. Part of its mix of magi
c and technology was to adapt to the Shifter, no matter what form he took, but apparently a new Collar took time to figure it out.
They moved along the corridor noiselessly, Dimitri’s sense of smell thankfully undamaged by the Collar. He scented Fae, both nearby and far away, their trails clear.
Dimitri moved ahead of Cian, searching also for scents that might show them a way outside. The trapdoor they’d reached where they’d been caught lay in the other direction, but this fortress probably had more than one back entrance. The kitchen had looked well stocked—the supplies had to be coming from somewhere.
The problem with Dimitri’s being good with scent was that other Shifters were too. Dimitri smelled them coming, caught the stink of Shifters who hadn’t bathed in a while, one or two of whom were going feral. They were close, seeking.
He shoved Cian down a side passage into darkness, but too late. The stink grew stronger, and Dimitri turned around slowly to find about a dozen Shifters hemming them in. He’d seen most of the Shifters at Brice’s party, but they didn’t look cowed or enslaved at all. They watched Dimitri, some as humans, some in their animal forms, all with eyes bright with glee.
A Lupine pushed his way to the front. Dimitri recognized him as the wolf he’d battled at the fight club, who’d stuck a tranq dart into him, causing Jaycee to dash into the ring to help.
The Lupine grinned, all the evil Dimitri had sensed in him that night plain on his face. “Hey there, C-c-coyote,” he sneered. “Show us what you can do.”
He really shouldn’t taunt an enraged red wolf in serious pain. Dimitri growled with the fury of a dozen ferals and launched himself straight into him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Jaycee knew Tiger heard her coming. He had better senses than any Shifter alive. He slowed his steps and waited as Jaycee came bounding up to him.
He had changed to tiger, his large paws pressing huge indentations into the grass and mud. He growled softly, a frown on his tiger face, as Jaycee reached him.
I’m coming with you, Jaycee tried to convey. He’s my mate.
Jaycee hadn’t had a lot of interaction with Tiger, but he always seemed to understand her. He gave her an acknowledging look from his golden eyes and led the way onward.
Jaycee wanted to race ahead, Tiger’s steady pace too slow for her, but she understood the wisdom of sticking with him.
The scents of Faerie came to her as they went—which strangely weren’t that much different from those she’d smelled when she’d lived in the northern United States. Pine woods, fresh earth, grasses, wildflowers. Birds flitted, insects buzzed. It wasn’t an exact mirror world of Earth—some of the birds had odd plumage, and a few flying insects were about a foot long—but for the most part the woods seemed familiar.
From what Jaycee had read, scientists now believed there were many different possible worlds existing all at the same time. She didn’t understand their mathematical explanations, but they were basically talking about a place like Faerie and its threadlike connection to the human world. The professors might not know they were talking about Faerie, but then, no one had believed Shifters were real until recently either.
Tiger proceeded in a straight line, never mind stands of trees, hills, streams, in his way. He walked as the sun slanted to the west, then disappeared beneath the horizon.
Two moons appeared in the sky, one smaller than the other, both cool and white. Tiger walked on, Jaycee beside him. She wondered whether Aisling would reach wherever Tiger was going before them, but she doubted it. If her horses and carriage were like the kind in the human world, they’d have to traverse this terrain on a road, which Aisling had said would take hours. Tiger’s route would be faster.
More difficult as well. Jaycee shook nettles from her fur and flung water from her feet when she climbed out of a stream Tiger led her across. She growled. Her cat hated getting wet.
After a long time, when Jaycee’s paws were beginning to hurt, glittering lights showed ahead of them. The lights were high above the horizon, so at first Jaycee thought they were stars, but they resolved into warm lights, winking in and out.
Tiger halted. He shifted to his human shape and stood silhouetted against the sky, the double moonlight shining on his multicolored hair.
Jaycee morphed to human with him. “Is that where Dimitri is?”
“Yes.” Tiger said the simple word, and it pierced Jaycee’s heart.
“Thank the Goddess. He’s—is he still alive?”
A lump lodged in her throat, cutting off her breath. She didn’t want to ask the question, but she had to.
“I don’t know,” Tiger said, his deep voice rumbling. “But it is Dimitri. He is a good fighter.”
He was. Jaycee drew a breath, the cool air making her shiver. Dimitri could outfight most Shifters in the Austin Shiftertown, and most of Kendrick’s as well. He lost fights only when his opponent cheated—such as sticking him with a tranq dart.
Jaycee’s shivers turned to ice-cold fear. “If he’s in there—he’s alone. No help.” Tears stung her eyes and trickled to her cheeks. “I can’t let him be alone, Tiger. He needs me. So don’t even think about telling me to stay behind.”
Tiger looked down at her with eyes that were wise. “If you are hurt, Addison will be angry. So will Carly.” He said nothing about Dimitri’s or Kendrick’s anger, she noticed.
Jaycee swiped at her tears with the back of her hand. “I’ll tell them you couldn’t stop me. They’ll believe it. And if Dimitri is already gone . . .” She drew a shuddering breath. “Then it doesn’t matter.”
If Dimitri died, the mate bond that had been growing between them would be severed, and Jaycee would succumb to grief. Shifters did this, sometimes never coming out of it.
She’d long pretended the mate bond wasn’t there, pretended Dimitri meant nothing to her beyond their close friendship. But the bond had wrapped her heart so well, had become so familiar, that it had become part of her existence. If the bond broke, she’d lose not only Dimitri but herself.
The only thing that gave Jaycee hope as she gazed at the gleaming citadel on the hill was that she still felt the mate bond. If it existed, then Dimitri was alive.
Waiting for her. Needing her.
“I’ve got your back,” she whispered to him across the distance. “I’m coming, love.”
Tiger heard her. In silence, he shifted to tiger and led her onward. Jaycee changed into her leopard form and followed, but it was a long time before her eyes ceased blurring with tears.
* * *
Dimitri charged the Lupine, ready to lock his jaws around his throat and go for the kill. The Lupine managed to duck out of the way, but not fast enough to escape entirely. Dimitri gave him a heavy blow with his paw, spun, charged again, and locked his teeth into the stunned Lupine’s shoulder.
The Lupine howled and began to change to his half beast, but his Collar went off, tingling sparks around his neck. A heartbeat later, Dimitri’s Collar did as well.
Son of a bitch.
What ran through him was pure agony. The Collar shocked deep into Dimitri’s neck, biting into his nerves, turning every movement into torture.
How the hell did Shifters fight like this? Dylan and his family had trained themselves to not let their Collars hurt them until well after the event, and others could battle straight through the pain—he’d seen Shifters like Spike and Broderick do it often enough at the fight club. He’d admired them for it, but not until now did Dimitri understand the phenomenal thing they’d accomplished.
I will never sneer at Dylan Morrissey again as long as I live. And wouldn’t it be nice to have him here right now?
The other Shifters had hung back while the Lupine had taunted Dimitri, as though hoping for a good show. But now that the Lupine was snarling, trying and failing to shake off Dimitri, they waded in.
In spite of the Collar, Dimit
ri hung on, biting down on the Lupine, tasting blood.
This wasn’t the fight club. This was real, a battle for Dimitri’s life.
Dimitri’s anger helped him focus. If he killed the Lupine and got away, the Collar would cease torturing him.
Cian was there next to him, battling like a whirlwind, his knife flashing, Shifters yowling when he cut them. They should put Cian in the ring at the fight club, Dimitri thought distractedly.
He’d observed that the high Fae soldiers were crazy fighters, but Cian put them to shame. He kicked, spun, punched, slashed, and knocked down, keeping the Shifters away from Dimitri. He could have run, could have made it to freedom, but he’d stayed to help Dimitri fight.
Stupid of him. The odds were bad. These Shifters were spoiling for violence, despite the happy, hand-holding chants to the Goddess they’d been making at Brice’s. They probably thought the Goddess blessed their bloodthirstiness, endorsed it even. Shifters like that were doubly dangerous.
And just when Dimitri thought he and Cian might break free, along came Brice, the big grizzly running in to spoil the party.
Brice roared, his bear voice vibrating through the stones. He shoved the bleeding Lupine aside, breaking Dimitri’s hold, and went for Dimitri himself.
Dimitri fought with all his strength, his wolf more agile than the lumbering bear, but the bear made up for it in size and power. Dimitri’s Collar slowed him down, while Brice managed to ignore the sparks from his.
Damn it. So close. Dimitri’s fur became coated with blood as he entered a battle to the death.
The pain from Dimitri’s Collar was a river of fire, coupled with the bite of Brice’s grizzly claws raking across his stomach. Dimitri decided to do what wolves did best, and went for Brice’s throat. Brice’s claws were deadly, but so was the wolf’s bite. Dimitri clamped his jaws around Brice’s throat and hung on.
Cian fought the other Shifters, their screams and shouts echoing, but Shifters weren’t trying to rush to Brice’s aid, maybe sensing Brice wanted to finish this himself.