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| BUY |
Kyle patted him on the
shoulder. “No thanks, my ride’s just down the road.”
“You going back through the
woods?”
“No. Through the cemetery...
Continuing...
"I
parked on a side road back there. I’ll call you.” Kyle walked away with
remarkable control considering how volatile his insides felt. As soon as he was
well hidden by the underbrush, he traced to where Dylan had met up with Garr
and the wolves.
“What do you think?” he asked
Dylan.
“I think if you want to keep
her alive, you need to bring her back here. We’ll help her through this.”
“If what he said about her
blood is true, someone or something infected her,” Salazar said.
“I keep having flashes of
memories, but nothing more than the scent of her blood.” Kyle licked his lips and
remembered the fragrance and the rich sweet taste. His head swam and his knees buckled.
He sat on an old headstone close by before he fell down and embarrassed
himself.
“It doesn’t matter now.” Garr
offered him a hand up and clapped him on the back. “The full moon is less than two nights
away. We don’t have much time to prepare her for her first shift. Go get her.”
“I don’t know if I can face
her. What the hell have I done?”
“Kyle, there’s no choice,”
Dylan said. “Garr’s right. You want me to come with you?”
“Allow me,” Victor Salazar
offered, stepping forward. “She and I have met before, and although it was
under terrible circumstances, I believe she came to trust me.”
“Good idea, Victor. Being a
doctor, you can spew all that medical mumbo jumbo with confidence,” Garr said.
“Dylan, will just go all mental.”
“You may need me to probe her
memories to discover if this was you, Kyle or some other jaguar, or worse yet, Amyra.
It will help to know what she’ll be facing,” Dylan pointed out.
 |
| Inspiration for Shelby & Kyle |
“You’ll get your chance, Dylan.
Victor and I will bring her to your place. Now all I have to figure out is what
to do about Max. Have any suggestions?” He’d just finished telling him to keep
her away. Now he was ready to go in and kidnap her if necessary.
“Tell him what he would expect
to hear—you’re hiding her out until Amyra is located. He’ll believe that,” Garr
suggested.
“He may believe it, but he
isn’t going to like it,” Kyle mumbled. “He won’t be comfortable being out of
the loop.”
Dylan added, “We’ll come up
with something else later when I have a chance to talk to the council. Now get
going, Kyle.”
“Hop in, doc, and buckle up,”
Kyle opened the passenger side for Victor and walked around to the driver’s
side.
When he slipped into the seat,
he told Dylan, “I’ll call Max and fill him in on the way. He can be prepared to
take our side when Shelby balks. I’ll make sure he doesn’t warn her that we’re
coming.” He punched the button, put the phone on speaker, and waited for the
call to go through.
Kyle assumed Max would go
along with the plan for the time being, but when he had time to think it over,
they had better have some reasonable explanation to account for the change in
Shelby. Max wasn’t going to accept a line of bull—not when it came to her.
“Max? Is Shelby at home?”
“No. She’s volunteering at the
clinic. Why?”
“Victor Salazar and I are heading
into town. I need to take her some place safe. Remember that danger I mentioned?
It’s worse than we thought.”
“You also said you were the danger.
You didn’t want to endanger her—”
“Doctor Hamilton, this is
Victor Salazar. I reviewed the DNA data you sent me. I need to examine Shelby
and run a few more tests, but Kyle wants to do them some place where she’ll be
protected.”
“I don’t think she’ll agree to
go with you.”
“I’m counting on you to talk
her into it. Max, Victor says this mutation could be serious.” Kyle shook his head at
Victor when he started to interrupt. “We’ll be there in fifteen
minutes. Can you meet us?”
“I’m heading out the door now.
Where do you plan to take her?”
“I’m not going to tell you that
and put you in danger, too. And Max, don’t warn her that we’re coming. If she
bolts, we’ll lose valuable time.”
“Doctor Hamilton,” Victor interrupted,
“I promise I will stay in constant touch with you. I may need you to run some
tests for me. You have the means, correct?”
“Uh, yes. I-uh… Kyle, we’ll
talk about this when I see you.” Max disconnected and Kyle punched the power
off button.
“Damn. He’s going to figure
out what we’re up to sooner or later.” Kyle sighed. “I don’t know how to keep
all this from him when he’s already seen the scientific evidence that beings
like us exist.”
“Dylan will make the decision about
what to do with him after he goes to the council. It won’t be the first time
they have made an exception, especially if the human in question can help us.”
“What else can they do?”
“Several of the members have
the ability to do a powerful mind wipe. Dylan is one of them.”
Kyle stepped on the gas and
Victor white knuckled the sissy strap. “My driving making you nervous, Victor?
Being three-hundred years old and an immortal, seems like you’d be immune to
fear?”
“We can be injured.” Victor
looked a bit sheepish when he answered. “The pain is as painful now as it was when
we were human. Although fortunately you have not experienced a mortal injury
yet, returning from death hurts the most.”
“Wimp. Shifting the first few times was no party, either.” Kyle snorted at the
immortal. “Don't worry. I won’t get you killed, Victor.”
“I always thought if I learned
how to drive one of these—”
“What? You don’t drive?”
Victor shook his head. “I
didn’t have a need—”
“It’s not about need, man. When
I lived in Boston, I didn’t need to drive, either, but no red-blooded young man
hits sixteen now-a-days without getting his license. It’s a ‘rite of passage’.”
Still weaving in and out of
traffic, Kyle glanced over at Victor. His hand no longer held the sissy strap
with a death grip. “Listen, when all this is over, and after you’ve taught me
how to manage my demon, I’ll teach you to drive.”
Victor looked unsure until
Kyle added, “We’ll buy you a sweet little Lamborghini like Dylan’s—”
“Yes!” Salazar perked right
up. “I would like a—how do you say? A ride like Dylan’s.” Victor’s face was as animated
as a sixteen-year-old boy’s contemplating his first naked girl.
“Well, let’s save the
princess, fight the demons, and thwart the evil Queen’s plans, first.
“You are joking?”
“Not really. All this sounds
like a Grimm’s fairy tale.”
“Ah, the brothers Grimm. I met
them once. The council wasn’t happy with all their diaries getting out.”
“Really? So I guess they
weren’t writing fiction after all.”
Kyle shook his head and
released a sigh. He was doing a lot of that lately. His head wanted to explode.
This was too much for him to take in. How was he going to break it to Shelby?
He turned the wheel, rounded
the corner, and brought the Jeep to a screaming halt behind Max’s Vette. He jumped
out and checked the interior on the way by. His friend had already gone inside.
Victor turned three-hundred
and sixty degrees and said, “Smell that?”
“Yes. She’d been here.” Kyle’s
gut churned. "Not long ago, either."
As he and Victor bounded up
the steps, Shelby was unsuccessfully struggling to break free of Max as he
dragged her out the door. When she bumped into him she stopped fighting Max.
“You!” she gasped and went
limp, deflating like a burst balloon.
He held on and Max backed
away.
“I’ll take her now.” Kyle
said, “You and Salazar go in your car. We’ll meet up at the same place where I
met you earlier.”
Max stared at Shelby who’d
gone pale at the sight of him and nodded. He asked, “Shelby, are you okay with
this?”
“I’m not sure.”
“You wanted me to find Kyle
for you,” Max said, sounding defensive. “I found him.”
“How?” Shelby’s lips continued
to move but no sound escaped.
Kyle hated to see her so
distraught, but it was for her own good. She was going to be tired of hearing
that before this was all over, and he was going to take the brunt of her anger.
Victor moved closer to Kyle
and Shelby. “We must go.” The scent of brimstone grew
stronger. “You’re in danger, Shelby. We’ll take you to safety.”
Her attention shifted to Max
for approval.
“Go ahead. They’ll explain
everything, and I’ll call you later. Take care, babe.” He kissed her cheek
before helping Shelby into Kyle’s car. After the door closed he said, “We’ll be
right behind you. Be careful.”
(These were early unedited versions.)
~~~
The interior of the Jeep never
felt so stifling to Kyle before. With the outside noises muffled by the hard
top, the silence inside the car hurt his ears. Besides, the beat of her heart and the scent of her blood distracted him. Everything about her called to
his basic instincts—to claim, provide for, keep, and protect.
Dylan had to be right.
Shelby was his soul mate and now, with the scent of the cat in her blood, his
jaguar roared for release.
 |
| Catlike attributes forming |
Maybe he’d been right from the
start. He wasn’t the best choice of guardians under the circumstances. Who
would heed the danger he posed to her?
“Did Max know where you were
all along?” Her voice sounded thick with
emotion, and he didn’t dare risk looking to see if there were tears.
“Not until today. I made him
promise not to say anything to you—”
“What changed your mind? Not only did you
suddenly show up where I work, what the three of you just did came damn close
to the definition of abduction. If I hadn’t agreed, would you have taken me
anyway?”
Her voice sounded stronger,
more indignant. To his way of thinking, that was a good sign even if his answer
wasn’t going to make her a fan.
“Yes. Absolutely.”
“Dammit, Kyle—”
“I warned you this was
serious. After that drugging in Guatemala, I’d think you’d believe me. I won't risk your safety.”
She shivered although the
night was hot and humid. When he stared at her to gauge her reaction, he noted
the perspiration on her upper lip glistened in the moonlight. Ready or not, the
moon approached its zenith, and the fever was upon her.
“What’s happening?” She turned
and stared directly into his eyes when he turned toward her. “And where are you
taking me?”
“The where is simple enough. I
have a friend who lives in a remote Parrish out by the bayou. He offered us his
guest house until the authorities track down the danger.”
“And what exactly is the
danger? That woman?”
“Yes.” There was no point in
denying it. “But under the circumstances, I’m not sure how safe you are with me
either.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m not the same man I was
when I left here.”
"I trust you, Kyle." She shivered again, doubled over,
and more sweat formed a sheen all over her face. “What’s happening to me?”
“Victor thinks he knows what’s
wrong with your blood. He brought some jungle plants known to ease your
symptoms. Max said you hadn’t had many, but you don’t look so good now, Shelby.”
“I’m on fire, and every muscle
in my body aches. It’s getting worse.”
Kyle glanced at the moon and cursed. It was going to be a blood moon. He stepped on the gas and drove faster as Shelby slumped over in her seat. She was better off being unconscious until he reached Dylan's and Victor could dose her with the medicine he brought with him. Too well, he remembered the fever and the aches. When her joints began to stretch, the pain would feel like every bone in her body was breaking. It was excruciating to experience, and he'd like to spare her as much of that as possible. His protective instincts wouldn't survive her pain.
...All rights reserved. No part of this may be copied or reproduced without the written permission of the author. Copyright 2012, Eliza March
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