Delaney lay alone and shivering on the hardwood floor, a grandfather clock somewhere in the deserted house chiming the quarter hour. Fifteen minutes, the clone had been gone. Maybe twenty. And she knew exactly what hed been up to.
Three fires, three houses in a row, as if he wanted to get the biggest feed for his match. The pain of the vision was finally beginning to recede from her head.
Im not dead yet! Her voice rang into the empty room as she jerked her head, jarring the stupid flies loose from her face. Her nostrils were so fried from the stench, she almost couldnt smell it any longer.
Is he just going to leave me here?
Cold sweat slicked her skin. Terror snaked in and out of her heart, slithering and gnawing as it went. So cold.
Tighe, please. Please find me. Use your superpowers. Find me.
A door clicked and opened. She lifted her head, for one desperate moment thinking Tighe had heard her. But the man who walked into the kitchen had eyes of pure evil.
Delaney shuddered, her shivers becoming violent as terror joined the cold. What would he do to her this time?
Despair nearly stole her will. How badly would he hurt her before he finally put his mouth to her neck again, as he had the first time, and took her life?
Tears burned in her eyes, but she fought them back. Tighe would come. Hed come for her. She had to believe that.
The clone stood over her, looking down at her body, his gaze crawling across her breasts.
Did you feed? she asked, struggling to keep her voice even. He could probably sense her emotions better than Tighe since he actually drank them. But not hearing the fear in her own voice helped her keep the rank hysteria at bay.
I did. Squatting at her hip, he reached between her legs, his cold, awful touch stroking her, circling her opening.
Her eyes nearly rolled back in her head as she fought to scramble away mentally from the feel of that cold, inhuman finger.
I feed on pain, but I think you know that. And I know a thousand ways to cause it. A thousand ways without killing you.
Youre only a few weeks old. How could you possibly know a thousand ways?
Daemon memories, thanks to my draden host. Ways to torture a human.
His finger slid across the tight, dry opening to her womb. Imagine the steel hilt of a knife, heated over an open fire until it glows red, then shoved
He pressed his finger inside her. She gasped at the sharp tug of pain, her mind screaming against the invasion as much as the horror of his words.
Can you imagine it?
Oh, God. Yes. Her heart thudded. She had to stop reacting. She had to get control of her fear. Get her mind on something else before he turned her into a trembling wreck.
Why did you take me? What do you want with me other than my fear?
His finger left her, his cold hand closing around her breast, stroking it with frightening gentleness. Ive never forgotten you. From the moment I first put my mouth on you, Ive thought of you.
He swung his long leg over her and straddled her waist, bracing his arms on either side of her head as he stared into her eyes. Slowly, his eyes changed, the coldness pushed aside by a warmth, a depth of emotion that made her skin crawl.
I love you.
Staring at him, she could almost believe he thought he did. Then why do you want to hurt me? If you loved me, youd let me go.
He grinned at her, flashing Tighes dimples, intelligence gleaming in his eyes. Nice try. But, no, Im not going to let you go. He shrugged. I may have feelings for you, but at heart Im a Daemon. I need someone to help me get the other half of the soul I need to survive. And when I saw you with him, when I realized he was the one touching you, I decided to take you from him. Youll be the one to help me.
Ill never help you.
He smiled, the coldness rushing back into his eyes. Oh, but you will. Now, as a matter of fact.
He swung off her, then moved until he was kneeling at her head. Her heart thundered with terror as he gripped her face with both icy hands.
Cold flowed into her. So cold. Every time he touched her, her body temperature dropped another degree, until she feared she was at risk for hypothermia.
What are you doing? she demanded, unable to keep the quaver out of her voice.
For more than a minute, he didnt answer, just stroked her temples with gentle thumbs as he watched her upside down.
His fingers stopped their caressing and his grip tightened. What am I doing? Im making you mine, Delaney. Im making you mine.
His fingers squeezed. Pain unlike anything shed ever imagined poured into her head and began to pump through her veins like acid. Screams tore through her mind, raking her flesh.
Deep inside, she felt something unnatural, something evil, take root and grow.
Tighe tore through the woods, following his tigers scent of smoke as surely as his own human sense of direction. The moment he reached the back of the burning houses, he knew Delaney wasnt in any of them. The lots were small, houses crowding too close in the back.
Sirens tore through the lightly falling rain, and he took off. The humans could take care of their own.
As he headed toward the more affluent area where a house might back onto nothing but woods, he caught a glimpse of Wulfe.
I may have picked up the clones scent, Wulfe said. Its not a smell, exactly, but I remember feeling something similar near where we found her phone.
Im right behind you, Tighe told him, and raced after him, his sleek tigers body eating up the ground with ease. Wulfes picked up a scent, he told Hawke.
I heard. Ive got you spotted. Im following.
Tighe recognized the trees behind a large brick-front Colonial a split second before he heard the scream.
Ill take the front, Wulfe said.
A large bay window framed kitchen cabinets. Without a single pause, Tighe flew over the high railing of the deck and crashed through the glass.
Delaney lay on the floor, staked in the center of the pentagram as hed seen her in the vision. He could hear her heart beating. Unconscious, but alive. Thank you, goddess.
Hawke ran in from the front of the house. Where is he?
Tighe shifted back into a man. He wasnt here. Find him. He pulled out one of his switchblades and knelt at Delaneys feet, cutting her loose. Hed freed her feet and pushed her legs together, and was sawing at the third bond when Wulfe and Hawke ran into the room from the opposite door.
Where is he? Hawke demanded.
Déjà vu. Tighe froze and stared at his friend. Understanding crashed over him like falling ice. He was here. He was you. Tighe leaped to his feet. Bleed! Now.
Wulfe and Hawke each pulled a knife and cut himself, then held their palms up as the blood ran down their flesh.
Tighe sliced his own.
Find him!
Damn it. Damn it! Hed been so concerned with Delaney, hed forgotten the clone could change shape at will. That error just might cost him his life.
But hed found her. Hed found her.
At least he thought he had. He could take no more chances. Lifting her free hand, he pressed the tip of his knife into her finger, drawing a single droplet of blood. She flinched, jerking her hand, and stirred.
As he watched, her eyes fluttered open, her gaze going from him to the knife still smeared with his own blood. With devastating dismay he watched those brown eyes fill with hopelessness and fear.
Fear. Of him.
He hated her fear.
Inside his head, the chaos rushed at him in a deafening roar.
No, D, no! He growled, his jaw clenching, his fingertips burning. Youre safe.
But he wasnt.
The chaos broke over him like a tidal wave, the fury clawing through his limbs, into his heart and head, swirling inside him as he fought to battle it back.
But it was too strong. His defenses against it too badly cracked.
Too late. Too late.
His claws unsheathed. His fangs dropped.
His conscious mind disappeared in a bottomless well of darkness.
CHAPTER 25
Tighe?
Delaney fought against the pain that encased her body, struggling to clear her mind as a battle raged around her. Hed come for her. For one horrible moment shed thought he was the clone, but then shed heard his voice. Hed come for her.
She forced her eyes open, then squeezed them shut as something sailed over her head. A battle. Theyd caught him. But the sounds that reached her ears were oddly, frighteningly familiar. Growling. Snarling. The breaking of furniture, just like the two times Tighe had lost it.
Oh, no. Please, not that.
She tried to move and realized she was only tied by one wrist. So cold. Exhaustion tugged at her battered mind, and she curled onto her side.
Stay awake. Warn them.
Out of the corner of her eye, another Feral appeared. Jag, her mind suggested.
His gaze went to the pile of dead bodies, his face screwing up in disgust. Jesus. Someone needs to teach that demon to clean up after himself when hes done eating. Hes feeding the whole bloody fly population of Northern Virginia!
Bleed, Jag! Wulfe roared.
Jag scowled, pulled out a knife, and cut himself. Blood rolled down his palm.
Get Delaney. Weve got to get Tighe locked up.
Locked up. Her chest squeezed. Lost in the darkness.
Jag bent over her, cutting the last of her bonds.
She tried to focus her eyes on him, but she was fast slipping away. NotFeral House. Did something to me. Imdangerous. Andget my boots!
Delaney woke to the sound of the river and voices, and the feel of a cool wind in her face. She lay still, her battered mind trying to identify the voices as friend or foe. All male. No, a female voice.
She opened her eyes, finding a ceiling of stars high above her head, all but blotted out by a bright light just to her side. Kara. Her forehead wrinkled at the sight of the woman sitting with her legs crossed, glowing like a camp lantern.
Hi there, Kara said softly, meeting her gaze. Youre safe, Delaney.
Delaney tried to shake her head, but nothing happened. Youre glowing.
Thats what I do, she said with a lilt in her voice. Remember I told you I was the power plug? I wish I could use some of my power to help you, but they tell me only Ferals can handle it. But Im keeping the light on and the rock warm for you. Are you still cold?
No. Warm. Surprisingly warm, despite the cool wind. She felt as if someone had wrapped her in blankets and laid her on a heated bed.
Good.
Where am I? Her gaze moved to an oddly dressed teenager kneeling on her other side, his hand on her forehead, his eyes closed.
The goddess stone, Kara told her. The men called a Feral Circle, a mystic circle, to keep out draden and prying human eyes. The Shaman is trying to figure out what was done to you and whether youre really a danger.
Tighe?
Karas brows knit unhappily. Hes at Feral House.
In the prison?
Im afraid so. He may still snap out of it. But her tone said she didnt believe it.
I need tosee him.
The young man she assumed was the Shaman lifted his hand from her forehead. As she turned her gaze to him, he looked down at her with ancient eyes in his youthful face.
Hello, Delaney.
Hi.
He turned to face a distant point beyond Karas light.
He definitely left a mark on her, Lyon, he said. Unlike anything Ive ever seen. Not a dark charm. Nothing that concrete. More like shadows on her soul.
Is she a danger to us?
I cant answer that for a certainty, but my instincts tell me those shadows are wounds, not magic. She needs to rest. To heal, both physically and mentally. Its too bad Tighes not available to help the process.
Tighe. Tears formed in her eyes. But she felt the Shamans hand on her forehead again, and slept before they had a chance to fall.
When Delaney woke again, she was in Tighes bedroom. The room was dark, but light shone from beneath the closed door, and the rumble of voices carried from far below. It was probably still evening. She stretched, taking quick inventory, deciding nothing hurt, then shuddered as memories rushed into her mind. The clone. Tighe. Kara had said hed lost it and was in the prison. She envisioned him trapped in a darkness as bleak and terrifying as the one hed pulled her from.
If there was a way to free him from his own dark hell, she was going to find it.
She pushed off the covers and swung her feet over the side of the bed, noting that the pajamas Kara had loaned her were back on her again. For a brief moment, she considered trying to find something better to wear downstairs than Karas p.j.s, and as quickly dismissed the concern. They certainly showed less of her than the ceremonial gown. And if she remembered that nightmare in the kitchen correctly, theyd seen her in less. Far less.
Flicking on the light, she did a quick search of the walls and pulled down a wicked-looking twelve-inch dagger. She was not going unarmed again. Barefoot, she flew from the room and down the richly curved stairs.
Kougar glanced up as he crossed the foyer, his pale gaze expressionless.
Wheres Tighe?
He turned away. Hes lost to you.
Like hell he is. She moved to cut him off. I want to see him.
He towered over her, but stopped, eyeing her like he might an interesting little bug.
Why?
I want to see if I can get him out of there.
You cant. He started around her.
She lifted the blade, threatening him if he took another step. Sometimes when I touch him, it helps calm him. I might be able to pull him back.
Hell kill you.
Im willing to risk it.
He lifted his hand and stroked his goatee as he studied her. You wouldve attacked me.
Delaney blinked, at first thinking he meant just then, when shed raised the blade. Then she remembered the mating ceremony, when hed cut Tighe. When shed jumped off the pedestal, thinking they were in for a fight.
His enemies are my enemies. At that moment, I wasnt sure whether you fell into that category.
Without so much as an acknowledgment that shed spoken, he turned and went back the way hed come.
Delaney stared at his retreating back and released a frustrated sigh, then turned, figuring shed have to find Tighe on her own.
But shed barely taken two steps when Kougar spoke. The human wants to see Tighe.
Delaney whirled back to find Kougar standing in a doorway partway around the corner.
Like hell. Lyons voice.
She strode to Kougar and walked past him into what had to be Lyons office. The big man sat behind a desk with a computer, shelves full of books and binders on the wall behind him.
Lyons brow lifted as he dropped his gaze to her weapon. Is there a reason youre armed?
Tighe took my guns. And the last time I walked down those stairs, it didnt end so well. She lifted the blade, her eyes going hard. Im thinking maybe you should bleed for me.
A spark of respect lit his eyes. He pulled out his knife and drew blood from his palm, holding her gaze. Kougar?
She turned and watched as the pale-eyed Feral did the same, then before they could ask, she pricked her own finger on the tip of her blade. After showing Lyon the blood, she sucked it from her skin.
I want you to take me to him.
He wouldnt want you to see him as he is now.
Ive already seen him like that. The night he punched me full of holes. I need to touch him. I might be able to reach him.
Impossible. Youre only a human.
She moved forward and leaned on his desk. We wont know whether or not I can help him until I try.
Something approaching sorrow warmed his amber eyes. Weve been trying to reach him for two days, Delaney. Theres nothing to be done.
She stared at him, his words a painful shock. Two days? Hes been lost in there for two days?
Lyons eyes turned almost sympathetic. Im sorry.
But his revelation only made her more desperate to reach him. She turned to Kougar. Show me where he is.
He gave an almost imperceptible nod and turned.
Behind her, Lyon leaped to his feet with a growl. Delaney!
She turned to face the chief of the Ferals, understanding why he was the leader as she felt the force within those amber eyes.
Hell take your arm off if you reach in there. Theres nothing in that cage but a vicious, wild animal.
She flinched.
He saw it. His expression tightened with a pain that might almost have matched her own. Theres nothing I can do for him except catch that clone.
Delaney shook her head. Im not leaving him in there another second if I can get him out. She looked at him forcefully. I need you to hold him down.
All it will take is a single slash of his claws, or one errant bite, and youre dead.
Its a risk Im willing to take. Twice he saved me when I needed him. Now he needs me.
Lyon stared at her for a long, heavy minute. Youre in love with him.
She nodded slowly with a wry purse of her lips. I am.
On a huff of frustration, Lyon came around the desk. If he kills you, hell never forgive me.
If I pull him out of there, youll have another warrior at your side.
Lyon sighed. True. Come on, then.
He led her back through the foyer and down the same stairs Tighe had taken her to be mated. They passed the cavelike room and entered a wide, open gym, a section of which contained surprisingly modern equipment, including weight benches, stationary bikes, and six of the biggest treadmills shed ever seen. At the back of that room, Lyon opened yet another door hidden within a wall of mirrors onto a long, narrow, stone-lined passage. Rustic and a little bit spooky.
As shed suspected, she never would have found Tighe on her own.
The house doesnt look this big from upstairs, she murmured as she followed him. Kougar brought up the rear.
Its not, Lyon said cryptically.
Sounds began to reach her ears, the grunts and snarls of an animal. Tighe. Shed seen him feral before. A classic horror-show wolf man, only terribly, terribly real. Her fingernails dug into her palms as she prepared herself for that sight again.
The passage finally opened onto what was clearly a prison block with three thick-walled cells on either side, each with a heavily barred steel door. The floor was stone.
Gripping the bars of one door with fingers tipped by three-inch claws was Tighe.
Or rather the creature Tighe had become.
As before, his teeth were the wicked fangs of a tiger. His sunglasses were gone, his eyes those of an animal rather than a humanlarge, orange-gold pupils streaked with black. Not even a flicker of humanity lurked in their depths.
Tighe roared with fury, shaking the bars as if he wanted nothing more than to rip them out of their hinges and tear the limbs off anyone he could sink his claws into. With icy understanding, she knew that was exactly what hed do if he got loose. She was not only risking her own life for what was almost certainly a waste of time, but she might even be risking the lives of the two men shed dragged down there with her.
Tighe? Delaney stepped closer to the cage, but not so close he could reach through and catch her with those claws. Tighe! Can you hear me?
His growls only intensified.
Tighe, its me. Delaney. Tighe, I need you. Your men need you. Youve got to fight your way back.
But the creature in front of her just snarled and shook the bars, his eyes at once wild and dead.
I did warn you, Lyon said softly.
She turned and met his gaze. I need to touch him. I may need to look into his eyes.
Lyon watched her for a long moment before he tossed her a key and nodded to the far cell. Lock yourself in until we have him down. Dont come out until I tell you to.
With a nod, she went into the cell hed indicated, pulled the metal door shut with a clang, then reached through the bars to lock it from outside. A shiver of claustrophobia had her curling her fingers tight around one cool steel bar. And Tighe had been caged like that for two days. Did he even know? Was he somewhat aware of where he was or, as she had been, was he floating around some dark void?
As she watched, Lyon and Wulfe shifted into the wolf-man feral state, their fangs and claws sprouting. Goose bumps rose on her arms. Unlike Tighe, though, they seemed to be in complete control. It wasnt the feral state itself that had sent Tighe into oblivion. It was his halved soul. The feral state was only the door into that place.
The moment Lyon unlocked Tighes cage, all hell broke loose. Tighe sprang at them, slashing and ripping with his claws, going for Lyons throat.
Delaney pressed her hand to her forehead. Kara was going to kill her if Lyon died because of this.
But Lyon had clearly been prepared for the attack. In a carefully coordinated move, the two thinking Ferals went at Tighe from both sides and, in a matter of minutes, had him pinned to the floor, facedown. While Wulfe sat on him, pulling his arms up his back nearly to his shoulder blades, Lyon crushed his face against the floor.
Ready, Lyon said.
Delaneys heart threatened to pound right out of her chest. Her palms turned damp. Was she really going in there?
She remembered Tighes voice when shed been the one lost in the dark. The unbelievable relief.
Yes. She was really going in there.
Sticking her hand back between the bars, she unlocked the door and let herself out, then crossed the stone floor to enter Tighes cage. She shivered at the sight of Lyon and Kougar watching her with animal eyes, fangs dripping from their mouths. Beneath them, Tighe thrashed and snarled, desperate to be free to annihilate them all.
And she was walking into his cage instead of running for her life as any sane person would do. Then again, running had never been her style.
Circling the edges of the cage, Delaney finally knelt near Tighes head. He saw her. Oh yeah, he saw her. He snarled, his mouth dripping with saliva as he tried to snap at her with deadly teeth.
A wild, vicious animal Lyon had called him. And he was. On the outside. But the man shed fallen in love with was in there somewhere. Oh, Tighe. How much harder must this be for you?
Shaking like a rookie on her first takedown, she reached for him, laying her hand on the bare flesh of one of the arms Kougar had pinned high up Tighes back. His skin was warm and damp with exertion, but she knew that arm. How many times had it held her with gentle strength?
The thought grounded her.
Tighe, I know youre in there. Come back to me. I need you to come back to me.
But her words didnt calm him, just as her touch was having no effect. If anything, he thrashed and struggled all the harder to free himself. As if dinner were within his reach and two fools were keeping him from it.
Despair pressed on her heart. Was she being totally foolish to think she could help him? She was human. Powerless. Tighes thrashing body began to glisten through the tears filling her eyes.
Do something, Delaney, Lyon growled. We cant hold him forever.
With a bracing breath, she lowered herself to the floor until she lay beside Tighe, face-to-face. Until she was staring into those wild, golden orange tiger eyes with the jagged black lines.
Whats the matter with his eyes? The clones had the same weird lines.
The soul they share is disintegrating.
Disintegrating. Oh, Tighe. Fool or not, she wasnt giving up until she got him out of there.
Tighe. As Lyons big hand pinned Tighes head, struggling to keep him from turning and biting off her fingers, Delaney gingerly reached for him, touching his stubbled jaw just below his upper fangs.
He growled low in his throat.
Tighe, I know youre in there. Do you remember when I was trapped in the darkness? You came for me. You reached down deep in my mind and came for me. I dont know how you did that. Im terrified it takes some kind of Feral gift that I dont possess.
Her voice caught as a tear escaped her eye to run over the bridge of her nose.
Im hoping you can follow my voice, Tighe. Follow my voice.
She stroked the rough stubble of his jaw, running her fingers gently over his warm skin, as she stared into those black and orange-gold tiger eyes that tracked her without recognition. Without humanity.
Youre not like him. Even feral like this, your skins warm. Alive. Come back to me, Tighe. She couldnt stop the tears. I need you to come back to me.
Keeping her gaze pinned on his, she thought of Tighe in there and tried to mimic the way he used to touch her mind when he was trying to get control over her. Shed been able to feel him like a warm presence in her head. If only she knew how to do that.
She kept talking, praying her voice might find its way down into whatever dark cellar hed fallen into. Tighe, Im remembering how you brushed my mind when you were trying to steal my memories of you. How the touch of your mind against mine was warm and soft. And so much more. Im remembering that touch of your mind, and Im reaching for yours. In my mind, Im reaching for you.
This was useless. Embarrassing. How could she ever think she could help him? A human.
With a suddenness that had her gasping, the face of a tiger leaped into her head as it had the other time, so clear, it almost felt real. A wild, beautiful sight. Like before she startled.
The tiger began to fade.
No! No, come back to me, tiger. Her fingers dug into Tighes jaw as she thought of the tiger this time, willing him to return.
He did. His ruffed, striped face rose in her mind until she could neither think of, nor see, anything else. And as it did, a warmth wrapped around her as strong and wonderful as Tighes arms.
Her tears fell in earnest.
Find him for me. I cant reach him, but you can. Find him. Please find him.
Shes connected with his animal. Kougars voice fell on her ears as if from a distance.
Ill be damned, Lyon replied.
D?
Tighes voice sounded in her head, clear, but faint.
Im here, Tighe. She said the words out loud. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Follow my voice.
Slowly, the hungry predatory eyes began to take on a glow of humanity. Even more slowly, his fangs began to recede, and the pupils of his eyes shrank until white showed around them again, and the color beneath the black shards turned to green.
Youre okay? The words fell from his throat roughly, more growl than speech as his fangs disappeared altogether.
She lunged forward and pressed her cheek against his, drenching him with her tears. The next thing she knew, she was in his arms, crying with relief, battered by all that had happened since she last felt his arms around her. And scared by Lyons words. That Tighes soul was disintegrating.
Lyon cleared his throat behind her.
Tighe ran his hand down her hair. Lets get up. She pushed off him and stood, brushing away the tears on her cheeks as he rose beside her. He reached for something in the corner and when he straightened those blasted sunglasses of his were back on his face, having miraculously survived the fight.
He reached for her, pulling her tight against his side as he faced the others.
Welcome back. Lyon eyed him with a relief that glowed hotly in his amber eyes.
Whats the situation? Tighe asked, as if hed just woken from a quick nap. Any news from Paenther?
Not today. I got a brief call from Foxx yesterday. They havent found anything, yet.
What about my clone?
Lyons mouth tensed. In the two days youve been out, weve tried every Daemon-trapping spell Kougar can come up with, but so far, no luck. Either the clones not Daemon enough, or the rituals arent right.
Tighes arm tightened around her. So Im out of luck?
Were not giving up. But Lyons tone held little hope.
Delaney pressed her cheek against Tighes chest as fear twisted in her heart.
How long do I have? Tighe asked.
Lyon just shook his head.
Tighe stiffened. Tell me, Roar.
The man, who was clearly Tighes friend, cleared his throat, a suspicious glimmer entering his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was low and pained.
Your soulis almost gone. The Shaman thinks you may see another sunrise. But you wont see another sunset unless we get a miracle. Im sorry, Tighe.