Turned by a Tiger Read online

  “You may want to move back a little. Cavanaugh’s brother assures me this device has a narrow blast radius but I’ve never used one before.” Iolanthe had twisted the small black disc in her hands and stuck it to the glass wall before he had a chance to distance himself.

  She teleported.

  Talon hurled himself towards the back of the cell, hunkered down and covered his head with his arms.

  The device detonated.

  A percussion wave hit him and he grunted as his ears rang and the smell of smoke filled the room. A thousand tiny needles bit into his forearms and shins.

  “Fuck,” he muttered and gritted his teeth as he emerged and saw all the pieces of glass sticking out of his skin. He plucked one out, tossed it aside and froze. “Agatha!”

  He leaped to his feet and was standing in the corridor near her cell a heartbeat later, not feeling the pain in the soles of his bare feet as glass sliced into them. He waved his hand in front of him, clearing the smoke, his heart pounding as he searched for her with his senses and his eyes stinging as he tried to see if she was alright.

  Those eyes slowly widened.

  She stood in the middle of her cell, her hands stretched out in front of her and a shimmering pale purple-pink bubble surrounding her so she hovered a few inches from the ground.

  Completely unharmed.

  Her platinum-to-black hair floated around her shoulders as if she was under water and her lilac eyes shone with stardust, twinkling as she maintained the barrier with her magic.

  Incredible.

  “I think your friends disabled everything,” she said in a matter of fact tone and the bubble wobbled and disappeared with a faint pop, and her hair suddenly dropped to land on her shoulders as her feet floated to hit the ground.

  He just stared at her. He had seen magic before, but never anything as useful as what she had performed.

  Never anything defensive.

  She kicked at the glass on the floor of her cell, pushing it aside as she made her way to him. When he didn’t stop staring at her in silence, she glared at him.

  “Don’t give me that look. Now you know why I don’t go off looking for adventure. What good would this sort of magic be to me?”

  True. If she specialised in magic that protected, she probably had very little experience of magic that was offensive. Attacking spells. Witches normally chose the offensive route, and for good reason. There were a lot of species who didn’t like them.

  Odd considering those same species would visit a witch in a fae town whenever they required a spell or potion, or lotion for something.

  Agatha took hold of his wrists, let her eyelids drop to half-mast and stared blankly at his chest. Her lilac eyes captivated him, distracting him from whatever she was doing as they sparkled, glowing in the darkness.

  “Done,” she said just as another explosion rocked the cellblock and sent him swaying sideways.

  He scowled in its direction, expecting to find Iolanthe there.

  Bleu glared right back at him. “You are taking too long. I am not blowing my cover here because you cannot handle a few scratches.”

  Talon bared his teeth. He wasn’t dawdling, and he hadn’t asked Agatha to heal him.

  Another roar came from above.

  “They’re making a bit of a show of it,” Iolanthe said right beside him and he tensed, his heart leaping into his throat.

  She chuckled.

  He scowled at her too, because he was damned if she was going to mention how she had got the jump on him. Elves. He was starting to dislike them. It wasn’t natural for a creature to just suddenly appear right beside someone. He preferred to be able to track everyone around him, accounting for them all so they couldn’t sneak up on him. Elves made that impossible.

  “Sable and Thorne always make a bit of a show of it,” Bleu muttered. “I’ve seen them fight enough times. At least Archangel will buy it if it’s violent and a little bloody. Thorne is meant to be playing the role of a demon mate intent on bending his female to his will and forcing her away from Archangel in order to pop little demon heirs for him after all.”

  The way his expression soured at that said that Bleu wasn’t in the market for heirs of his own anytime soon.

  Talon doubted that Sable was either.

  “We get to fight now,” Klay growled and Iolanthe looked the big brunet bear up and down.

  “No.” She laid a hand on him before he could evade her and they both disappeared.

  Klay was going to be pissed. Talon had to admit that even he was a little irritated. He had been gearing up to fight his way out of the building again, fantasising about taking out a few Archangel hunters along the way, and maybe seeing if he could get a peek at that room they kept under heavy guard.

  Now he had the sinking feeling that escaping was going to be disappointingly easy.

  And not at all bloody.

  And he wasn’t going to get to satisfy his curiosity.

  “There’s a room near the cage, I want to take a look at it.” Talon looked in that direction, and then back at Bleu.

  The elf glanced along the corridor. “Are there other captives there? I only took out the power in this area.”

  Meaning Bleu would have to take it out across the entire secret facility for Talon to get a look at the room beyond that door, and Bleu had made it clear during the meeting at Underworld that using his powers to kill the lights and cameras would be taxing on him.

  Talon wanted to nod, just so Bleu would get him that look he wanted, but in the end forced himself to shake his head.

  “I could go alone.” It was off plan, but the more he stood there thinking about that door, the more he needed to get a look.

  “No way. Hunters will spot you, and I am not explaining to Sherry that curiosity got you killed.” Bleu huffed as he met his gaze. “Do not give me that look either. I am not helping you. I am sorry, Talon, but I have orders from on high not to expose myself or any elf involvement.”

  Talon wanted to growl at that, but drew down a deep breath and crushed that urge, somehow found the strength to shake off his curiosity and let it go. Bleu was right. Escaping took priority, as did keeping the hunters unaware of what was happening. Hopefully Sherry and Emelia would find some information that explained what was beyond the door.

  Bleu took hold of Agatha, who merely stared at him in abject fascination.

  “Are you really an elf?” she said as they disappeared.

  Iolanthe reappeared. “I’d better make this quick. We made Kyter stay on the roof to protect it and he’s just figured out it was a trick to keep him out of trouble.”

  She grabbed the demon and teleported.

  Leaving him alone.

  For five seconds, the amount of time it took for Bleu to reappear and grab him.

  A shiver went down his spine, lighting up his senses.

  Sherry.

  “Wait,” he snapped.

  The elf paused and arched a black eyebrow at him. “If this is about that damned room again—”

  “No… I need to find her… I need…” Talon interjected, his senses reaching out and searching for her. She was in the building now. He could feel that much. He just wasn’t sure where.

  How far away was she?

  Was she safe?

  He needed to see her.

  “You need to get to the roof.” Bleu’s grip on his wrist tightened, and then relaxed a notch as he sighed. “It will be risky… the lights are still on in the main building… but I can go.”

  Talon wanted to say yes to that, to beg him to do it, but he forced himself to shake his head. He couldn’t ask the elf to risk exposing his people to Archangel, not when he had been kind enough to rescue him and his friends. The male’s hand was trembling against Talon’s wrist, and he could feel that he was weakening, that teleporting and using his psychic abilities to cut out the power to the secret facility had taken its toll on him.

  After teleporting Talon to the roof and the others, Bleu probably woul
dn’t have the strength left to both cut the power on the floor where Sherry was and teleport in and then out with her.

  He would expose himself to Archangel, going against his orders and placing his species at risk of retaliation from the hunter organisation.

  No. As much as he wanted Sherry safe in his arms, he couldn’t ask the elf to do it. He needed to think about the bigger picture, about keeping Archangel in the dark for as long as possible, unaware that the shifters, elves, demons and fae had been warned they were up to something.

  “Just take me to the roof,” he said and Bleu nodded.

  As darkness swept around him, Talon clung to the thread that connected him to Sherry, linking their hearts and telling him that she was safe right now.

  She was strong.

  Brave.

  He had to trust that she could do this. He had to believe in that strength and her courage.

  But if he felt a change in her emotions, even the slightest trickle of fear, then he was going back in.

  They landed on the roof of the elegant sandstone building, in a shadowy corner behind a rumbling air-conditioning outlet. He glanced down into the courtyard far below, tracking the hunters moving around it, unaware of him and his friends, and what they had just done.

  And what they were about to do.

  His gaze shifted to the door across the roof from him.

  He stared at it, his heart beginning a slow pound as he willed Sherry to hurry, to get all the information she could on Archangel and get out of there.

  His limbs twitched, his animal side prowling just beneath his skin as he waited, losing patience, and he started pacing, desperately trying to work off some energy and give his tiger some release. Kyter’s steady gaze tracked him, filled with sympathy that said the jaguar knew what he was feeling, how he was slowly going crazy and it wouldn’t be long before he lost his grip on his primal instinct to protect Sherry.

  When that happened, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself.

  He would shift and hunt her down.

  He would go back into the lion’s den for her.

  Even though he knew he wouldn’t come back out.

  CHAPTER 13

  Sherry kept her nerves in check as she casually walked along the corridor on the second floor of the Archangel building, Emelia at her side. The pretty brunette had met her at the roof access door and brought her down to this level shortly after Thorne had shown up to cause a ruckus in the cafeteria as planned.

  By the sounds echoing through the building, and the occasional rush of armed hunters past her, Sable and Thorne were still fighting.

  She looked down at her boots, trying to see beyond the wooden floor to the lowest level of the building.

  Was Talon still down there?

  Emelia had explained that she’d had to put him in a cell to make it look good after she had run into one of the scientists in charge of whatever went on down there, but that Bleu and Iolanthe had been given his location and were already on their way to rescue him and the others.

  The huntress had been silent ever since, lost in her own thoughts as they headed towards the central archive.

  Sherry offered a flirty smile to a hunter who glanced her way, distracting him as he frowned at her as if he was trying to place her. It worked. He grinned right back at her and went on his way, only pausing to look back at her before entering one of the offices that came off the corridor.

  She tried to focus on Talon, needing to know he was safe and convinced she would be able to feel him in the way he said that he could feel her. A way he had implied ran deeper than simply him feeling her on his sharp senses. She felt stupid when she felt nothing, an idiot for even trying.

  “Not far now,” Emelia said in a low voice.

  Sherry’s nerves instantly rose, trying to get the better of her. She breathed slowly to calm her racing heart and tamped them down, telling herself on repeat that she would be fine and no one would suspect her. Apparently hunters visited the archive all the time, checking the files for information on their latest target.

  The people in there would just think she was another hunter researching a mark.

  She slipped her hand into her right pocket and felt the USB drive there, turning it in her fingers. It was one she had found in her apartment.

  One she was going to use to download Talon’s file.

  What secret was he trying to protect?

  If she asked him, would he tell her?

  Emelia slowed.

  Sherry stopped and looked back at her, frowned as the woman stared straight through her, her eyes wide and lips parted. Spacing out?

  “What’s wrong?” Sherry closed the distance between them and Emelia snapped back to her.

  “Nothing.” Emelia hesitated in a way that screamed it was something. “I’m just a bit on edge.”

  “Because of what we’re doing?” she whispered.

  The brunette shook her head.

  “No.” Emelia paused again, looked at her as if she was trying to pull her apart and see how she ticked, and then sighed and glanced off to her right, to a window there that opened onto a courtyard. “Someone I know… I think he’s done something stupid… something that might get him killed. I’m worried about him.”

  That made two of them.

  Sherry didn’t want to probe, because she hated it when people poked around in her private business, but Emelia looked as if she needed to talk to someone and get it off her chest.

  “What do you think he’s done?”

  Emelia’s green eyes slipped shut. “I think he went to Hell… to hunt a dragon for me.”

  Wow. Whoever he was, he was definitely in love with Emelia. No doubt about that.

  And suicidal.

  Dragons were ridiculously strong from what she had heard, and the men working at Archangel didn’t exactly look capable of hunting one. She eyed one as he passed her—a regular human man. Not strong enough to take down a sixty-foot shifter with teeth that were probably almost as big as her.

  Unless Emelia’s man wasn’t human.

  “Is he a hunter here?” Sherry edged a little closer still, aware that people were looking at them as they passed and sure that if the man in question wasn’t one of them, Emelia would get into trouble if they heard about her mysterious and non-human lover.

  The huntress shook her head again.

  “Is he strong?” Sherry watched her face closely, but not as closely as she watched the people coming and going along the corridor.

  Emelia was helping her. She was damned if she was going to expose her and whatever was happening between her and this man.

  Emelia nodded.

  “Capable of killing a dragon?

  Another nod.

  “So you’re just worried about him because you feel something for him?” She could relate to that. She was worried about Talon too, even though she was sure he could take care of himself and Bleu had probably teleported him out of the building by now.

  “No.” Emelia’s eyes met hers. “You don’t understand… like dragons aren’t meant to come here… he isn’t supposed to go there.”

  Sherry knew enough about dragons after meeting Loke to know what Emelia was getting at, and why she was worried.

  Dragons were stripped of their powers and died if they dared to leave Hell. Loke had been in a bad shape when the elves had brought him to Underworld, close to dying, and he had only been away from Hell for a few days at most.

  Emelia believed the man she loved was about to suffer the same painful fate, but in reverse. He was going to die because he had chosen to enter Hell, to fight a dragon for her.

  “Is there nothing you can do?” Sherry’s chest ached for Emelia when her dark eyebrows furrowed and she shook her head.

  A huge boom rocked the floor and Emelia’s green eyes shot down to her feet.

  They widened and then narrowed.

  “Maybe there is something I can do after all.”

  Something that terrified her, but something she w
as going to do regardless if the steely look in her eyes was anything to go by.

  Sherry had the feeling that Thorne was going to be taking more than one huntress back to Hell with him.

  An alarm sounded and she almost jumped out of her skin. Damn it. She covered her ears, flinching at the high pitch wail, and squinted as red lights flashed, hurting her eyes.

  “Is it that fucking demon again?” someone yelled.

  Hunters streamed past her, heading for the stairs that led downwards, and Emelia grabbed her wrist, tugging her in the opposite direction.

  “Now,” the huntress said and she hurried to keep up with her, a sense of urgency suddenly flooding her as they raced along the corridor.

  They skidded around a bend, almost ploughing straight into two men. One shouted that they were going the wrong way.

  Emelia didn’t slow, and Sherry could see why as she dragged her eyes away from the hunters and focused on running again.

  Ahead of her, twin doors loomed at the end of the corridor, and the sign above them read ‘Central Archive’.

  They were here.

  The doors burst open as they reached them, a woman coming out of them with a blade at the ready. Sherry plastered herself against the wall to avoid being cut and then ducked into the room the moment she had passed.

  Emelia released her and headed straight for one of the computers on the long double rows of desks that filled the middle of the room. All around the edges, huge black cases lined the white walls, the servers stacked in them flashing with green, orange and red lights.

  Sherry grabbed the computer opposite Emelia so the huntress couldn’t see what she was doing. Her hands shook as she took out the two USB drives, one from each pocket. She pushed the first into the slot in the black tower beside the flat screen, and woke the display with the mouse.

  A pale blue screen came up with a column of links down the left side and Archangel’s winged logo in the centre of the space on the right, just above a search box.

  She typed in the names Talon had given her one by one and moved those files onto the USB drive. All of the files contained a link to a page that documented the raid on the fae town. She quickly skimmed it, frowning as she realised it was just one raid in many, something Archangel were doing with increasing regularity to track down different species for their research.