Wild Cat

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Faerie was muddy and cold. Diego lay flat on his back, tied with ropes that had fastened themselves around him, with a snarling wildcat on his chest. Cassidy splayed herself protectively over Diego, growling at the Fae warriors that ringed them.

They looked like extras in a Knights of the Round Table movie, Diego thought. Shining mail, long braided hair, black surcoats, swords and bows, and hard expressions.

The light was gray like dawn, but Diego saw that the land was bathed in fog. Not a pea-souper, but enough mist to darken the sky and slide between the trees of the dense wood at the bottom of the hill.

One of the warriors, who had the stance of a leader or a general, spoke to Diego. Spoke at him. Demands, questions, who knew?

“Do you know what they’re saying?” he whispered to Cassidy.

She only growled again and lowered her head to his chest.

The general gave a curt command. Three came at Cassidy, swords drawn.

Diego, who still had his hand around his Sig, pointed it. “No. Back!”

The warriors hesitated. The general snapped something at Diego.

Diego shook his head. “Lo siento, no comprende.”

The general looked slightly surprised, as much as his granite face let him, then he came back with a halting sentence that sounded Italian. No, not Italian. Latin.

Great.

He wished Cassidy would shift and help him out with the linguistics. At the moment, Cassidy’s claws were raking down his chest, raising all kinds of welts, but she wasn’t trying to hurt him. She was cutting the ropes.

The general noticed this and motioned his men forward. Diego brought up the Sig.

“You touch her, and I will shoot you.”

The general snatched a crossbow from the warrior next to him. Diego fired, his sharpshooting skills wrenching the crossbow out of the general’s hands. But the bolt had already flown and struck Diego’s wrist.

The bolt glanced across his skin instead of embedding itself, but it dug deep enough in passing. Diego yelled, his gun falling from nerveless fingers.

Cassidy attacked. She landed on the general, all four feet on his chest, claws ripping. Her Collar went off, electricity arcing around her neck, but she didn’t stop.

She fought for a few seconds more before two of the Fae grabbed her and wrenched her away from the general. Cassidy landed on the ground, shuddering with the Collar’s pain, while the Fae collectively laughed at her.

Diego was going to pass out. He didn’t want to, but he had an arrow, the end of which had snapped off, stuck into him, and pain was catching up to him. Blood loss, shock. All there.

“Cassidy,” he said.

Before he blacked out, he saw Cassidy crawl to him and once more drape herself over him. At least she’s warm was Diego’s last coherent thought for a while.

Cassidy didn’t speak the languages of the Fae fluently, but she knew a little from the Shifter rituals and Shifter lore. She got the gist of the word slave, referring to her, and fun for what they wanted to do with Diego. One suggested they make Cassidy hunt Diego herself, but the general said no.

The Shifter female would become a fighting slave for the clan leader, he said, and the human would be put to death for his dealings with the dokk alfar.

Cassidy shifted to her human form. “He came through the gate by mistake,” she said. “Send him back and leave him alone.”

They didn’t understand, and Cassidy didn’t know enough to find the words in Fae.

“We’re friends of the warrior called Fionn Cillian,” she said. “Heard of him?”

From their reaction, they had. Also from their reaction, maybe that hadn’t been a smart thing to say.

Four of the warriors dragged Cassidy off Diego. She fought, but between the chain mail that protected them and the continuing pain from her Collar, she did little damage. The others cut the ropes from Diego that Cassidy hadn’t finished shredding. One kicked Diego’s gun away into the mud, then that Fae jerked back his booted foot as though even the small contact burned him.

The warriors staked out the unconscious Diego and got out their knives. Cassidy wrenched herself from her captors and shifted back to wildcat as she leapt onto Diego, shielding him with her body.

“You have mate bond?” a new voice asked.

Another warrior had joined the general. He spoke English with a thick accent and, though he wore silver mail, he wasn’t armed.

“He asks me to translate,” the new Fae said. “I know some human languages.”

Translate this. Cassidy curled her lip into a snarl. She’d spray him if she could.

The general began speaking rapidly without cracking a smile. The translator said for him, “It is known that the Shifters believe they form magical bonds with their mates. That the bond is so great they will die for one another. His lordship wishes to see if this is true.”

Oh, I’d die for Diego, all right. Cassidy knew she would, in a heartbeat. But I’d rather kill you instead.

Cassidy didn’t bother shifting to answer or even acknowledging she was being spoken to. The translator and the general didn’t seem to care.

“He will be awakened now.”

Two of the warriors strode forward, and one dumped a skin of water on Diego’s face. Cassidy ducked in to protect him, taking most of the cold water on her own head. She shook, in the cat way, and the warriors laughed.

Diego stirred beneath her, eyelids fluttering.

No, Diego, stay asleep. Don’t feel this.

Stubborn Diego forced his eyes open. He assessed the situation without jerking, without panic, and looked at Cassidy.

The look told her everything she needed to know.

“Human being,” the translator said for the general. “You have rutted with this creature?”

Cassidy swallowed bile and forced herself back to her human form. Diego looked past her at the two Fae standing over them.

“Watch your mouth,” he said.

“You have formed a mate bond with her?”

“No,” Cassidy said quickly. “He hasn’t. He barely knows me.”

“And yet, you, Shifter woman, rushed to his rescue and did not allow him to enter Faerie without you. And now you protect him like a mother pukka with her cubs.”

“What’s a pukka?” Diego whispered.

“Furry, horsy, nasty, ugly thing with claws,” Cassidy said. “Another breeding experiment. Some say they were trying to breed more of those and got Shifters instead.”

“You don’t look that bad,” Diego said.

“Thank you.”

“Do you have this bond?” the translator said to Diego. “Would you die for her?”

“Yes,” Diego said.

“Damn you, Diego,” Cassidy whispered frantically. “They’re not kidding.”

“I know they’re not. They’re bullies, just like the people I grew up with. Tying me down and sticking arrows into me is easy. Let’s see what happens when I get up and fight them instead.”

The translator told all this to the general, who shook his head.

“They don’t trust you,” Cassidy said. “And they don’t care what we think of them.”

“You understand them?”

“About one word in four.”

“Throw yourself on me, Cass,” Diego whispered. “And start bawling.”

Cassidy did it without asking questions. Diego loved that about her.

“My belt buckle is steel,” he said into her ear as she pretended to sob. “Get it off me, use it. Loosen me if you can and help me get my gun. If you can’t get me free, just shoot the mo fos.”

Cassidy kept on wailing as she unbuckled his belt. She let her hands turn to claws to pop the buckle from the leather.

The general gave orders that the other guy didn’t bother translating. Two warriors came forward and dragged Cassidy off Diego again. She managed to snag her fingers and one foot into the bonds on Diego’s left wrist and ankle, which came up with her.

Diego rolled over, almost screaming at the pain in his side, jerked his other wrist free, and dove for his pistol.

He got a foot toward it before two Fae, damn strong for their thin builds, grabbed him and flung him facedown, tethered him again, and secured him by driving a bronze knife right through his hand. Diego grunted in pain. The sound was swallowed by a Fae screaming-Cassidy using the belt buckle.

Diego heard bow strings thrum, the whistling release of arrows. Dios, they were killing her.

At the same time, the earth began to shake.

The hoch alfar didn’t like that. Neither did Diego.

Cassidy leapt past Diego, going for the pistol. She brought it up and around, firing at the Fae chasing her. She’d never shot a gun before, obviously. Her aim went wide, but she made the Fae dive for cover.

The earth was erupting. Diego turned his head to see boulders burst upward into the misty sky. Then a strange darkness started seeping from the woods.

Diego blinked, but he wasn’t hallucinating. Darkness did emanate from the woods to crawl along the ground, the fog dissipating before it. The Fae warriors were panicking, terrified of it.

Diego wasn’t thrilled by it either. “Cass!”

But she was right there, her warm scent on him. “I don’t know what it is,” she said. “I have to get you free. This is going to hurt.”

“Yeah, you think?”

The general was shouting. The translator was no longer bothering with them.

Cassidy used her claws to rip up Diego’s T-shirt, then she put one hand on the knife. “Close your eyes and think of something good.”

Diego’s eyes slid closed. “That’s easy.”

Cassidy in his shower, her red lips smiling, her hand soothing his body. Leaning her against the wall, warm water pouring over their bodies…

White-hot pain shot through him as Cassidy jerked the knife from his hand. The pain dwindled to mere torture while she tightly bound his hand in a cotton strip torn from his shirt. She hated hurting him, he saw, but Cassidy had courage.

The weird darkness flowed up the hill and surrounded Diego and Cassidy, Fae warriors and all. The Fae made a ring, swords and bows out, the translator hiding behind the general in the middle.

The general shouted commands. Diego didn’t understand the words, but the man sounded exactly like his sergeant in the Marines.

The darkness disappeared, instantly and without warning. Sunlight shone down on about two hundred warriors dressed in skins and carrying short but mean-looking swords that glittered in the sudden light. They all had dark hair and skin and were tall and wiry like Reid.

Dokk alfar.

Cassidy got Diego to his feet. He stumbled, but she was strong, and they ran, step by excruciating step, as the dokk alfar swarmed the Fae and started to fight.

“The gateway should be over there,” Diego yelled to Cassidy, pointing. “But I don’t know if it will open again, and it’s about four hundred feet in the air and six feet away from the cliffs on the other side.”

“I could jump it. You can hang on to me.”

“I don’t think I can hang on to anything. I’d pull you down. Too much weight. Jump it yourself, bring help.”

“Like hell I’m leaving you here.”

“Cass, remember when they asked if I’d die for you? Well, I would. If that’s what the mate bond means-that my world would be all wrong if anything happened to you-then I have the effing mate bond.”

“Diego…”

“You said you wanted to rescue me. Well, this is you doing it.”

They reached the spot. Diego looked for mist, tried to feel a tingle. Collapsed instead.

“Damn it,” Cassidy said.

“Come on, Cass. Just go. I would die for you, but I’d rather live.” He gave a breathless laugh. “Sex with you is fantastic. I want a chance at more of that.”

Cassidy had tears in her eyes as she looked at him. “I love you, Diego.”

“I love you too, mi ja.”

She leaned down and kissed him. Diego’s pain receded the slightest bit, enough for him to savor the pressure of her lips.

Then she stuck her hand through the mist forming on the other side of the boulder. And shouted in surprise.

Diego tried to haul himself to his feet, but whatever had grabbed Cassidy on the other side of the mist now shoved her back into Diego. A form came through the gate, tall and lean and pissed off.

Reid, carrying an iron crowbar, sprinted toward the fight.

Shane charged in after him, in full bear mode, roaring as he ran past. Then a leopard with a Collar, a smaller bear without one, and finally, Xavier.

“Hey, Diego,” Xavier said, grinning, arm in its sling, as he stopped in the middle of the mist. Behind him, morning light shone on dry cliff walls, the Nevada sunshine hard and clear. “This time I’m saving your ass.”

Reid and Xavier had crossed the gorge on a bridge-a narrow platform seven feet long, drilled and anchored into the cliff walls. Diego learned later that Xavier had made the rescue team build it, using engineers recruited from the fire department plus the best construction workers from the dam.

Xavier held out his good hand. “Come on, hermano. Time to get you down off this place.”

“Wait.”

Reid had joined the fray behind them, incongruous in jeans and T-shirt while the others of his kind wore skins.

More hoch alfar were riding in over the open field, on white horses that glowed a little-the cavalry, Diego supposed, coming to rescue their comrades.

“We need to help Reid,” Diego said.

“Doesn’t look like it’s our fight,” Xavier said.

“They just saved our butts. I need to do something for them.”

Diego held out his left hand for his Sig, and Cassidy reluctantly relinquished it. His right hand, the one the knife had gone through, was pretty much useless, but Diego’s left hand was strong, and he was a good marksman with either hand.

“Got a spare clip?” Diego asked his brother.

Xavier wordlessly handed it over. Diego ejected his empty and reloaded. He looked at Cassidy.

He knew he’d waste his breath begging her to run across the bridge to safety. Cassidy was staying, would fight by his side, would haul him off to save him if he fell. As he would for her.

“Nice day for it,” Diego said to her.

Cassidy smiled back, her beautiful, loving smile that made his heart beat faster. “I say we go for it.”

Diego leaned down and kissed her warm lips. “Love you, Cass.”

“Love you back.”

Xavier put his arm around Diego’s shoulders, his shining chrome Sig dangling from his good hand. “When’s the wedding?”

Diego gave him a look and released Cassidy. “Let’s go help Reid.”

Reid didn’t look like he needed a lot of help. During the little time Diego had known him, the man had always been morose and unhappy, lashing out in anger or folding up in misery.

Now Diego saw what Reid must have been before his exile-a fighter. A good and bloodthirsty fighter.

Reid laid into the hoch alfar with his crowbar, going up against those with bows, swords, chain mail-he didn’t much care. He swung and brought down a Fae from a horse, smashing the iron bar into the Fae’s face. The Fae screamed and then went horribly quiet.

The dokk alfar were fighting hard, and the hoch alfar were fighting just as hard back. Peigi jumped in, her bear attacking without restraint.

Peigi showed Diego how Shifters were bred to fight-no Collar holding her back. She attacked with the strength and speed of a bear coupled with the cunning of a human. Animals with human intelligence. As dangerous as Reid had once told him.

Peigi fought at Reid’s side, keeping the hoch alfar from reaching him.

Diego and Cassidy waded in. Xavier stayed at the bridge, guarding the retreat.

Diego knew he wasn’t going to be much good for fighting, but he could at least still shoot. Cassidy ran to help Shane, she beating off a hoch alfar who had been about to skewer the bear. Diego took aim, ready to shoot if he needed to.

The general broke out of the group and headed for Reid, the target for this whole fight. Pretty elaborate and long-lived trap for one man, Diego thought. Did they consider Reid that dangerous?

A long sword glittered in the general’s hand. Reid was unprotected, no vest, no weapon but a crowbar.

Peigi and Reid were fighting, not seeing the danger. Diego held his hurt hands steady, took aim, and shot the sword out of the general’s hand.

The general whirled around, and Diego grinned at him. “Hey, remember me?”

The general grabbed a bow out of a passing Fae’s hands, his own hands flashing as he drew it. The next moment, the general went down with a wildcat on his back.

Cassidy’s Collar went off, but she held the man pinned in place. Diego limped toward them, ignored by most of the fighters. More hoch alfar had ridden up, and the tide was going to turn against the dokk alfar soon. They were fighting hard, but they’d be crushed by numbers alone.

As Diego reached Cassidy and the general, a weird, piercing war cry came out of the couple hundred dokk alfar throats. It rang into the mists, scary as hell.

A lone cry answered it. Reid. He held up his iron bar and shouted one word.

The hoch alfar started scrambling away, running in pure terror. Diego watched over his aimed pistol, not sure what was going on.

The Fae jumped onto horses, galloping back across the field for the hills beyond. Those on foot ran like hell. The general, with a surge of strength, got out from under Cassidy, but instead of turning to fight, he sprinted away like a man trying to outrun floodwaters.

Reid’s iron bar exploded. It morphed from an ordinary crowbar into a rain of iron shards that flew with the speed of bullets after the fleeing hoch alfar.

Those it struck screamed and fell. A few got up again and kept running, but now the dokk alfar were after them.

The general, at the tail end of his men, shot behind him as he ran, while iron shards rained down on him like tiny heat-seeking missiles.

The dokk alfar charged after the Fae. The darkness Diego had first seen coated them like a curtain, and then he could see nothing but the black cloud.

Reid remained behind, his hands bloody, a defiant look in his eyes. Peigi landed on all fours beside him, growling a possessive bear growl.

Reid was watching the retreating hoch alfar, his usual arrogance in place. “Weak Fae, my ass,” he said.

Cassidy loped back to Diego, with Shane and Eric right behind her. Eric rose into his human form. “Time to go. No place for us in a Fae war. Those days are gone forever, thank the Goddess.”

Eric looked lighthearted for the first time in a long time. He scratched Cassidy’s head and strode off-a tall, naked man with a silver and black Collar, a tatt swirling down his arm, walking unashamedly past Xavier and through the mists that led home.