Bad Blood Leopard (Bad Blood Shifters Book 3) Page 15

  Shit.

  “Caitlyn?”

  She didn’t answer. He could still hear little sounds, like she was trying to stop herself from crying. He pushed through the screen door, out into the mudroom. Caitlyn was huddled behind the gun cabinet.

  “Hey,” he said softly, leaning on the gun cabinet and encircling her with one arm, trying to pull her closer. “You okay? What’s going on? Are you hurt?”

  She shook her head, still trying to get hold of herself. “I’m fine,” she said. “I just—” She gave a gulp and shook her head again.

  “Here, come on.” She wouldn’t come to him, though, wouldn’t let him comfort her. His cat was getting frantic. Make her not sad! It hurts!

  “Tell me how to help you,” he said helplessly. “I can’t stand to see you cry and not do anything. My leopard can’t stand it.”

  When she heard that, she closed her eyes and swallowed hard, dashing the tears away. God. Here she was, stopping her tears so he wouldn’t be upset.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m such a baby. You’ve been through so much since last night, them hitting you and hitting you every time you wouldn’t say what they wanted. And then they started the thunder, and you were so brave, fighting the whole time, trying to get to the speakers and make it stop… You tore your hands to shreds.” She caught his damaged hand and kissed the scraped knuckles. A tear fell on the half-healed wound, but instead of the sting of salt, he felt the warmth of her love.

  Then it hit him. “Wait,” he said. “How did you know all that?”

  She looked up at him, her eyes wide, tears shimmering in them, but she didn’t answer.

  Sloan backed up, rage surging through him. He clutched the back of his neck with both hands. “He made you watch, didn’t he. That fucking asshole. I bet he enjoyed it, too. He’s a fucking sadist, and if he ever even thinks about coming near you again I’m going to tear his goddamn guts out and use them for guitar strings.”

  “Don’t,” she said. “His guts would make very ugly music.”

  Sloan didn’t know whether to laugh at that, or put his fist through the fucking wall. He compromised by taking Caitlyn in his arms and holding her close.

  “I’m so sorry he did that to you.”

  “He didn’t,” she said softly. “I mean, he put me in front of the monitor, but I made myself watch, every single bit of it. If you had to go through it, I wanted to go through it with you. I didn’t want you to be alone, even if you didn’t know I was there.”

  That almost finished him. He clung to her, his face buried in her hair so she wouldn’t see the tears. “I don’t deserve you,” he said. “No wonder you were crying.”

  She shook her head. “It wasn’t about that,” she whispered. “I’m so ashamed.”

  He drew back, cupping her chin in his hand. “Ashamed? Why?”

  “Because this is my fault,” she said. “I’m the reason they found you. I had the vision, and came to find you. And when I did, when I found out about Kayisha, I called Jared and asked him for the file on you. I let him trace me to the Nashville area, and I told him what name you were going by now. Don’t you see?”

  Her voice was trembling with tears again. “If I hadn’t done that, Jared and Shifter Special Ops would never have known where you were. You would have been safe from them, and now they’re coming after you. I tried to save you,” she said softly. “And I put you in worse danger than ever before.”

  He hugged her close. “It’s not your fault,” he told her. “Now that the Bad Bloods are officially registered as a crew, they would have found me eventually. There aren’t that many snow leopards—at some point they would have gotten around to checking me out.”

  “What are we going to do now?” she asked him.

  Sloan sighed. “Wait, I guess. For Tristan’s contacts to get back to us and find out what the real official story is on my mission. And to see if there are any records on that damn artifact, where it comes from and what it does. And for my concussions to heal up all the way, so Tristan can go rummaging around in my mind.” He made a face. “Not looking forward to that.”

  He sighed. “I’m just so fucking tired.”

  She kissed him, warm and sweet. “Then I better take you back to your trailer and put you to bed.”

  Chapter 29

  She ended up putting him in the bathtub first, filling it with hot water and Epsom salts for his sore muscles, and washing off all the blood and sweat and terror. She massaged his scalp and his shoulders, trying to help him heal.

  Finally, he pulled her in on top of him, soaking her flimsy field suit and slopping a few gallons of water on the floor. “I’m okay,” he said. “Really.”

  He didn’t look okay. “You still look like you went about fifty rounds in the boxing ring. And the other guy won.”

  “Mmm,” he said, moving his lips down her neck. “What is this thing you’re wearing? The only thing I like about it is that it clings to your boobs when it gets wet, and I can see your nipples.”

  He proved that by hiking her further up and biting one of them very gently. It immediately hardened, and she got a spike of heat straight down to her core.

  “I thought you wanted to rest,” she said.

  “I’m willing to settle for lying down,” he said. “Somewhere dry. If you ask me nicely, I might even let you have your wicked way with me. I’ll just lie there and think of England, like Queen Victoria.”

  Caitlyn giggled. “Is that what she did?”

  “Supposedly,” Sloan said. “I’m thinking Prince Albert sucked in bed.”

  Once in Sloan’s bedroom, Caitlyn made him lie back, kissing his wounds one by one to make them better. She knew it didn’t really help, but at least it seemed to get Sloan’s mind off the soreness.

  “If I’d known I was going to get this kind of first aid,” he murmured, “I’d have had them hit me a few more places. I’m almost starting to be sorry they didn’t kick me in the nuts.”

  “You are not,” Caitlyn said. “Because, ow.”

  “But then you would be kissing them to make them better.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Well, if that’s all you want…”

  She moved lower, kissing his abs and his hips, running her tongue along the defined edges of his muscles, making him gasp and clench. She followed the v of muscle from his hip to his cock, and then licked his shaft slowly from base to tip.

  “Ffuck, babe,” he whispered.

  She knew what he liked best now, and she gave him lavish attention, loving the way he melted under her hands and lips and tongue, losing track of everything except how good she made him feel.

  How much she loved him.

  He reached down and pulled her on top of him, straddling him. He kissed her breasts, one by one, rolling her taut hard nipples over his tongue, sucking them until she moaned.

  She was wet just from tasting him, and she moved back to cover his shaft, rubbing her pussy up and down its hard length.

  He purred with pleasure, then pulled her in for a deep, soulful kiss. “I remember the first time I ever saw you,” he whispered against her lips.

  “I made you hurt yourself,” she said. “Still sorry about that.”

  He shook his head. “You made me feel alive. The second I turned around and saw you, I felt like the sun came up after a century of dark days.”

  Her eyes filled with tears, and she kissed him again. “Shh,” he said softly. “Don’t cry.” He kissed the tears away.

  She couldn’t handle it. She’d been through too much emotion in the last day.

  “The first time I saw you, you were naked,” she said.

  Sloan laughed. “I was not.”

  “You were,” she said. “Before I met you, when I was being a spook, I saw you naked lots of times. After you shifted.”

  “Well, yeah,” he said. “I guess you saw all of us naked.” He stroked her lower back, trailing his fingers along the base of her spine. She shivered.

  “Mmmm,” she said. “
But I liked you best.” She kissed his neck, right under his ear, and made a circle with her tongue. “Even when you had clothes on.”

  He rolled his hips, sliding his shaft against her.

  “Why?” he asked. “The rest of the crew are all louder and funnier and sexier and braver than I am.”

  “You think?” she said. She bit his neck, then kissed it again. “I don’t. I think you have to be really brave to jump into a fight knowing your cat might run at any moment, that it’s so hurt and broken it might not be able to help you when you need it.” She thought for a moment, kissing slowly down the tendon on the side of his neck. “Kind of like the rest of your crew.”

  “Hey,” he said, frowning. “My crew always comes through.”

  “I know,” she said. “That’s what makes the Bad Bloods strong. You love each other, and on any given day, whoever can stand up picks up the slack for the ones who can’t.” She kissed him again. “That’s what mates should do, too.”

  Sloan looked troubled. “I’m the male,” he protested. “I’m supposed to protect you, take care of you. Keep you safe.”

  “Mmmm.” She nibbled on his earlobe. “While I get my nails done and eat bonbons?”

  “It’s not like that.”

  “Exactly,” she said. “I’m a predator. And a trained agent. Well, okay, half-trained. You and I, I think we’re supposed to take care of each other. Help each other be strong, and be kind to each other when we’re not strong.”

  Sloan’s hands stilled. “You said we’re mates.”

  Caitlyn folded her arms on his chest and rested her chin on them. “Yes I did. You still in the market for one?”

  A slow smile spread across his face and lit up his eyes. “I was never in the market, sweetheart. I was just blindsided by beautiful white feathers and round amber eyes.”

  “Well, good,” she said softly. “Then you won’t mind being off the market.”

  He shook his head, his eyes growing serious. “You feel it?” he asked. “The bond?”

  She sat up and took his hand, placing it over her heart. “When I thought I lost you, I felt like my heart had been ripped right out of my chest. And when fucking Jared put you in that fucking room and played that fucking thunder, all I wanted to do was think up different ways to fucking kill him.”

  The smile grew broader. “There’s my feisty foul-mouthed T-Rex,” he said. “Tell me all the ways you thought of.”

  “Let’s see… Asphyxia, beheading, castration…”

  “You went through the alphabet?” Sloan was grinning now.

  “I’m organized. Dismemberment, disembowelment, defenestration… I did get a little stuck on ‘d.’”

  He wrapped his arms around her. “I like you when you’re bloodthirsty, Rex. It’s sexy.”

  She turned serious, kissing him slowly and thoroughly. “I love you, Sloan McCall. You’re mine, always and forever. Jared is never going to take me away from you.”

  He pulled his hips back and thrust inside her, filling her completely. “I love you too, Caitlyn Rex.”

  Chapter 30

  Caitlyn fought her way out of sleep. Someone was calling her name.

  She opened her eyes. She was walking through a windy forest, leaves slapping at her. The sky was dark and cloudy overhead. She was cold—she was wearing only a t-shirt and jeans, and work boots.

  What was she doing here?

  She stopped, trying to orient herself. She remembered a lazy afternoon in bed. Dinner. Making love to Sloan. Falling asleep in his arms…

  Sloan. Where was Sloan?

  She looked frantically around. She shouldn’t be out here without Sloan. Something must have happened…

  About ten feet away, the air shimmered. A figure took shape.

  Kayisha.

  She looked different; her robe was white, not gray, and she wasn’t wounded. But her face was the same. And her voice… it was barely a whisper inside Caitlyn’s mind.

  Sloan. Danger. Come.

  She followed, knowing in her guts where they were heading. The cliff.

  But surely he wouldn’t have gone out there by himself. He would have woken her. Unless he was sleepwalking again…

  But when he was sleepwalking, it was always Kayisha leading him. If Kayisha was here, leading her…

  The vision of him lying at the bottom of the cliff came back to her like a punch in the stomach.

  No!

  She crashed through the forest, running blindly, Kayisha always ahead of her, gliding eerily along. The edge of the woods surprised her, and she burst out into the clear ground by the cliff, panting. “Sloan?” she called out.

  Nothing.

  Oh, God. Please God…

  She ran to the edge of the cliff and looked over, dreading to see his body lying at the bottom, staring up at her. When her gaze fell on empty rocks, the relief buckled her knees.

  But where was he?

  From behind her came a voice, smooth as silk. “Looking for someone, Caitie?”

  She whirled around. Jared was standing in front of her, as if he’d materialized out of thin air.

  Her hand went to her chest. She almost stepped back, stopping herself just in time.

  “God, Jared, you scared me. What are you doing here?”

  He gazed at her, smiling in that way that had begun to terrify her. “I see you got my message.”

  “What?”

  He flicked his wrist, showing a gleam of gold. “Psychics like you are so susceptible,” he said. “I could have made you so useful…”

  His forehead furrowed in concentration, and then she saw the image of Kayisha once again. White robe. No wound.

  “You made the ghost? You made me sleepwalk?” He had an artifact, she realized. And he’d learned to use it. How long had this been going on?

  “Clever, isn’t it?” He smiled at her again. “I can do so many things no one gives me credit for.” His expression hardened. “But they will.”

  “But how the hell did you get here?” she said. “This is Flynn’s territory, and he has pack wards up.”

  Jared wrinkled his nose, as if he’d smelled something distasteful. “Animal magic,” he said dismissively. “I can get anywhere I want. I’m an intelligence agent.”

  “You’re a handler,” she said bluntly. “An analyst.”

  His face darkened. “I’m a better agent than half those idiots in the field,” he said. “And you’re going to help me prove it.”

  As if. She looked around her, trying to gauge her chances for escape. She could just step off the cliff and Change, but her shirt would get tangled in her wings. She might not be able to fly.

  And she wanted to know what the hell Jared was up to. “And how am I going to do that?”

  Jared stepped forward. Caitlyn resisted the urge to step back.

  “By finding the artifact for me,” he said. “With your visions.”

  Damn. He’d finally realized that Sloan didn’t know where the artifact was. She felt equal parts relief and terror. Relief that he’d let Sloan alone—and terror that he now wanted her instead.

  “I can’t do that,” she said. “That’s not how my visions work. I can’t control them.”

  “You can’t control them because you’re lazy and undisciplined,” Jared said in that toddler-soothing voice. “You just need the right incentive. I can help you.”

  She shuddered to think what Jared’s version of “helping” was.

  “You can come back,” he said, moving even closer. “Everything will be like it was before. You can have it all back. Status. Respect.”

  She stared at him. “Are you kidding? You don’t respect me. No one in our clan respects me. I’m just a female, an administrative assistant.”

  He looked confused. “Well, of course. But you’re promised to me. That earns you respect. And when you’re my mate, you’ll have more respect.”

  Of course. She could only gain the respect her mate had. She’d never have any of her own.

  “I’
m not coming back,” she said. “I’m staying here, with Sloan and the Bad Bloods. Where they really respect me—for who I am. Not who you want me to be.”

  He looked at her like she’d just grown another head. “You’d give up everything you could have with our clan to stay here with that landbound fur creature?”

  “I love him.”

  He gave a snort. “There’s no such thing as love. There’s only duty, and respect, and power.”

  She suddenly felt very sorry for him. “I’m sorry you believe that,” she said. “But I’m staying here.”

  He acted like he hadn’t heard her. He took a step closer.

  “Caitie,” he said coaxingly. She stiffened. He only called her Caitie when he wanted something.

  “Caitie, listen,” he said. “You have to help me find the artifact.” He took another step, and she tried to move to the side, but the ground was unsteady. She got ready to rip her shirt off and fly.

  “Don’t you see?” Jared said. “I already have one of the set. If I have the other, my power will increase tenfold. McCall kept it from me four years ago, and then the idiot lost track of it.”

  Oh my god, she thought. Jared was behind this all the time. He must have worked the mission as an analyst or handler, or even initiated it, just to get to Kayisha and her artifact. He was responsible for all of this.

  He moved in on her. She needed to get away. She had to jump, and take her chances.

  Then she saw the gun, holstered under his jacket. If she tried to fly, he would shoot her down.

  Sloan, she called out in her mind, as if he could hear her. I need you. Sloan, please.

  Chapter 31

  Sloan woke abruptly, fear stabbing him in the stomach. He was alone in the bed, only the warmth of the sheets telling him where Caitlyn had been.

  He listened, but he didn’t hear her in the bathroom. And there was a cold draft coming from the front of the trailer.

  It was just like the night of the thunderstorm.

  He raced for the living room, turning lights on as he went. The front door was ajar, squeaking slightly with the wind. He stepped out on the porch.