Turned by a Tiger Read online

  Thankfully, the file contained links to all the profiles of the captives, so she was able to track down the demon they had taken with Talon. Her frown increased as she read the demon’s notes and saw everything they had put him through, gruelling tests that had lasted hours, and invasive procedures designed to not only uncover how his biology worked, but how quickly he could heal major wounds.

  The bastards had left him open on the table, had forced him to deal with his own wounds when he had come around, all so they could document his regenerative abilities.

  An urge to head out into the corridor and punch the hell out of the hunters in retaliation blasted through her.

  “I don’t like what I’m reading here,” Emelia said, stealing her focus. The brunette lifted her gaze to her over the top of the monitors that separated them, her emerald eyes cold and hard, but lit with fire. “What the fuck are they up to?”

  Sherry wanted the answer to that question herself. Archangel were meant to protect innocent non-humans, but they were experimenting on them in secret, learning everything about them, including their weaknesses.

  Were Archangel about to do a one-eighty back to the days when they had hunted and killed any non-humans?

  What had prompted them to do such a thing?

  She scrolled through the list of raids and stopped when she hit a date where they went from one every few weeks to almost one every other day. Why the sudden spike? Her eyes widened as she looked at the date when the increase had started.

  It was only six months ago.

  A shiver tripped down her spine.

  She clicked on the first raid and her blood ran cold as her worst fears were confirmed in the very first sentence.

  It is proposed in the aftermath of discovering the existence of another plane that Archangel must broaden its knowledge of all non-human species through any means necessary and forge forwards towards ensuring the safety of mankind.

  Archangel had learned of Hell.

  Someone in the organisation had seen it as an opportunity to steer Archangel towards a more violent future under the banner of protecting mankind.

  Sons of bitches.

  The non-humans rarely bothered her kind, had co-existed peacefully with them for centuries now according to her friends, and she seriously doubted everyone in Hell was a threat to mankind. They were just living their lives, in their own world, far away from this one.

  Hell, the elves had moved their entire species there thousands of years ago because her world had become too violent for them.

  She needed more information.

  Some of the profiles of those captured with Talon contained links to projects, so she clicked all of those too and saved all the related documents, following the trail deeper into Archangel’s heart.

  She kept hitting an encrypted file at the end of each path, one that required high level clearance and several passwords.

  Project Abaddon.

  Sherry tried to move the files for it over without decrypting them but the system refused, stating that without access she couldn’t retrieve the documents.

  She could move some related files though, ones that mentioned it. Hopefully that would be enough for them to piece together what Archangel were up to.

  Another rumbling roar echoed through the building.

  She hurried to find the next file, aware that Sable and Thorne wouldn’t be able to keep fighting much longer and would have to get out. The plan had been for a fifteen minute argument in the cafeteria and then Thorne would win and steal Sable away.

  It had to be close to time now.

  Sherry tracked back to the search page and typed in Talon’s name. She did her best to grab the file and put it on the second USB drive without looking at it, but the first line below his name caught her eye. It stated he was a tiger shifter, which was nothing new to her. The estimated age based on his appearance and other factors including a blood test was though.

  Three to four hundred.

  Here she was pushing thirty-six, and he was potentially pushing four hundred.

  She closed the file and deleted it off the servers, and did the same with the other ones.

  Just one more to go.

  She typed in another name and opened the file. A picture of a beautiful woman filled the rectangular panel on the left of the screen, next to her name.

  Jayna.

  They listed her as only two to three hundred, and her height and weight. She read down the page, her stomach slowly twisting as she found she had been subjected to experiment after experiment for over twenty different projects, far more than the others. One stood out, a project name unfamiliar to her, and she clicked on it to download it.

  Froze with her eyes locked on the first line.

  They had tried to force her to breed with Talon, drugging her to rouse a need to mate. Sickness brewed in Sherry’s stomach and she told herself not to read on, but she couldn’t stop her eyes from devouring each line, even when she feared what she would find.

  Talon had been brought to her several times over the period they had been in captivity.

  On the last occasion, they had drugged him too.

  The result.

  She couldn’t look, didn’t want to know if he had slept with another woman, wasn’t sure she could bear it if he had, even though they hadn’t known each other then.

  She moved the mouse to the close button on the file and paused with her finger hovering over it.

  No.

  She needed to know, because if she didn’t look, it would eat away at her, and she didn’t want anything coming between them. She didn’t want to end up driving him away because she was unsure of this one thing about him, and unable to control her emotions, believing he had gone through with it.

  She steeled herself, lowered her eyes from the corner of the page and read the last line.

  It was two words.

  Experiment failed.

  She let out her breath and deleted the file without downloading it, sure Talon wouldn’t want to be reminded of what they had put him and Jayna through, and wouldn’t want the others knowing about it.

  She clicked back to Jayna’s file and reached the notes at the bottom.

  Her heart dropped through her feet.

  It was a location followed by the word ‘authorised’ and today’s date.

  A shiver ran down her spine and thighs.

  Jayna had given them the location of a pride.

  Talon’s pride.

  Archangel had dispatched a team there.

  CHAPTER 14

  Talon couldn’t describe the relief that blasted through him as the roof access door finally opened and Sherry came rushing out of it. He was across the flat roof as quickly as he could manage, tearing up the distance between them and sweeping her into his arms before she had even noticed him. She gasped, struck his chest as he hauled her up against him, and then melted into him when his mouth found hers and she realised who he was.

  Her hands slipped over his bare shoulders and up the nape of his neck, and he growled low into her mouth as he kissed her, a thousand hot tiny shivers dancing down his spine in response to her caress.

  A little moan escaped her, teasing his ears and stirring thoughts of carrying her away into the deeper shadows.

  She suddenly pressed her hands to his shoulders and broke away from his lips, and he growled and tried to seize them again, unwilling to give them up when he needed her fiercely, had been going out of his fucking mind waiting for her to show up and show him she was safe.

  “Talon.” Her soft delicate voice was so serious that he stopped trying to kiss her and lifted his eyes to hers. They held a grim edge, one that sent a different sort of shiver down his spine.

  Did she know about his secret?

  His heart started a thunderous beat against his chest, his palms sweating where they pressed against her backside, holding her off the ground and against him.

  She swallowed hard, glanced at the others as they came to meet them, and then
looked back into his eyes.

  “Archangel… I’m sure it was a moment of weakness… that she just wanted whatever relief they promised…”

  He didn’t like the sound of that. “What?”

  Her sombre expression and the fear he could feel trickling through their link had his emotions switching from worry she had discovered the truth about him, to fear she had discovered something terrible about someone else.

  Somewhere else.

  They couldn’t have.

  “Not the pride,” he whispered, his throat so tight that he barely squeezed out the words.

  “There’s still time. They only dispatched a team today.”

  “Bleu.” He set Sherry down and turned to the elf.

  The dark male stood like a wraith in the darkness, his violet eyes cold and deadly. “Whatever you need, you will have it.”

  “I need to reach the pride. I can tell you a nearby portal.”

  Bleu nodded. “It will be enough.”

  “I’m coming too.” Kyter shoved his fingers hard through his sandy hair, positively growling the words, and Talon nodded, because he wasn’t about to turn the jaguar down. His kind were strong, warriors to the core after everything they had been through, and Talon would need his fighting talent if he was going to protect the pride.

  Most of the tigers there weren’t warriors. They were females, and children. Easy targets for Archangel hunters.

  “We’re coming too,” Iolanthe corrected her mate and stepped up beside him.

  While Talon didn’t want to turn her down, he had a problem with her accompanying them. “If you come… the others. I need them safe.”

  They weren’t free of Archangel yet.

  He looked at Agatha where she stood beside Klay, half his size. The bear could fight. Talon had seen him take down three Archangel hunters the night they had been snatched from the fae town. But Talon knew the male would be distracted with protecting Agatha. Bears were territorial about any female, highly protective. Klay and Agatha had bonded during their time in the cells, sharing the same dry humour and exchanging tales.

  Although, Agatha told him tales of the video games she played, and he told her stories of his real-life adventures and brushes with death.

  “Not a problem,” Bleu said and before Talon could ask what he was going to do, fearing he meant to teleport the others away from the rooftop to somewhere safe, draining himself and risking not being able to teleport him to the pride, the elf turned to the demon mercenary and spoke in his tongue.

  Whatever he was saying, the demon didn’t look particularly pleased about it. Reluctance shone in his near black eyes, a corona of purple-red shimmering around the edges of his pupils, a sign his emotions were getting the better of him.

  The male said something back at the elf, and glanced at Agatha. Tore his gaze away. Glanced again.

  His black horns flared, curling around the lobes of his ears.

  Aggression.

  Talon hadn’t realised that the male felt such a thing towards Agatha. Had she pushed the demon too far with her silly name for him? Demons could be a ridiculously proud race.

  The huge black-haired demon took hold of Klay’s arm, and reached for Agatha. He hesitated, his fingers flexing in the air between him and the witch. On a growl, he seized her arm, and they all dropped into a black hole in the ground that closed behind them.

  “He agreed to take them back to the fae town.” Bleu turned to him.

  Thank the gods. He could focus now, wouldn’t have any distractions when he reached the pride and would be able to fight with a clear mind.

  Or at least he hoped he would be able to.

  “I don’t like how the demon’s horns flared with aggression.” He looked back at the spot where they had disappeared, a ripple of worry running through his blood. If the bastard hurt Agatha, Talon would hunt him down.

  Bleu cocked an eyebrow. “Aggression? Believe me, the last thing Valdaine is feeling towards the little witch is aggression.”

  If it wasn’t aggression, what was it?

  The answer hit him like a tonne of bricks.

  Oh.

  Talon wasn’t sure which to be more shocked by—the fact that he knew the demon’s name now, or the fact the male wanted Agatha.

  He had the feeling that adventure was about to come and bang down her door.

  He would have to warn her once his pride was safe. A huge obstacle still stood between him and achieving that.

  Bleu and Iolanthe could only teleport directly to somewhere they had visited before. The elves had to rely on using the fae portals dotted around the world to access somewhere new to them.

  “The nearest portal is in Ullapool… but it’s a long way from the village on Tèarmann.” Close to fifty miles in fact, and Talon wasn’t sure Bleu would have the strength to teleport him to Ullapool and then onwards, leaping short distances to the furthest point he could see until they reached the pride village.

  Bleu’s violet eyes lit up. “Kincaid’s estate?”

  The elf knew the old werewolf? Fuck, he was glad to hear that.

  He nodded. “He gave us refuge on a section of his estate to the south west, away from his home… separated by a lake and a mountain.”

  Talon hoped that was enough to keep Kincaid safe from Archangel. The werewolf had done a lot for his pride, and he didn’t want him and his family being dragged into this mess.

  “South entrance, Io.” Bleu took hold of him and Sherry as Iolanthe nodded, and had teleported them before Talon could say she wasn’t coming.

  The elf landed hard in a dark forest, immediately released them and dropped to his knees on the leaf litter.

  Iolanthe and Kyter appeared a split-second behind them, and the female rushed to Bleu the moment she spotted him on his knees. “Brother!”

  Shit. Talon couldn’t exactly ask Bleu to take Sherry home now. Even Iolanthe was showing signs of fatigue, her fair brow dotted with sweat.

  “Quit fussing,” Bleu muttered as he grabbed her shoulder and pulled himself onto his feet. He swayed a little as he brushed his knees down but managed to remain on his feet. “Stupid tiger is stronger than he looks. I didn’t expect that sort of drain.”

  He swatted her hands away when she tried to keep hold of him.

  “I’ll be fine.” Bleu succeeded in brushing her off him.

  Mostly because she planted her hands on her hips and glared at him, her face darkening to reveal just how much she doubted that.

  “Ah, leave him be. You know you can’t stop him when he wants to do something.” Kyter weathered the black look Iolanthe threw over her shoulder at him. “Look, he’s already back to being annoying.”

  The female elf fixed her focus back on her brother as he produced a long black blade out of the air and swept his hand along it.

  The damned thing turned into a spear.

  Talon really had a lot to learn about elves.

  “This isn’t your fight,” he said and both of the elves turned murderous glares on him. He held his hands up at his side. “I’m just saying. You have orders not to reveal the involvement of elves in what happened. If any of the hunters from Archangel see you—”

  Bleu smiled coldly, flashing sharp fangs. “Oh, they won’t see me.”

  Damn. As much as Talon wanted to turn him down, he also didn’t want to get on the elf’s bad side, and he needed all the help he could get. If the male wanted to bloody his blade a little, Talon wasn’t going to stand in his way.

  Iolanthe drew a short black blade from the air, and then produced a longer silver one. She tossed it to Kyter, who caught it in one hand, and grinned at her.

  “Is this an order not to go all jaguar? You just don’t want the lady tigers seeing me in all my glory.”

  She huffed at that.

  By ‘all my glory’, Talon figured he meant naked and not in his feline form. Female tigers wouldn’t be interested in a jaguar, but they were drawn to warriors, their instincts pinning them as viable strong mates. A
naked Kyter would probably draw some unwanted attention from them.

  Iolanthe teleported another shorter silver blade into her hand, walked over to Sherry and held it out to her. The female elf nodded when Sherry took it, her violet eyes flashing with confidence and strength that she imbued into Sherry with only a handful of words.

  “Stick them with the pointy end.”

  Sherry nodded, flexed her fingers around the bound leather hilt of the sword, and took a deep breath.

  His stomach lurched at the sight of her swinging the blade, and the thought of what was about to happen, and every instinct he possessed had him stepping towards her, driven to stop her.

  “You don’t have to do this. You could stay here.” Where it was safe. Where Talon wanted her to be, far away from the fight.

  She shook her head, determination shining in her blue eyes. “Not going to happen. I’ve had my share of training. Besides, I have the best back up in the business.”

  Kyter growled low at that.

  Like hell Sherry was talking about him.

  Although Talon did appreciate that the male would be keeping tabs on her too. Not that Talon intended to let her out of his sight, or away from his side.

  “Got one of those for me?” He turned to Iolanthe.

  “I thought you would go all tiger… but if you want a weapon.” She held her hand out in front of her and a huge broadsword appeared in it. “I figure you can handle this.”

  Hell, yes, he could.

  He took the weapon from her, growled as he felt the weight of it and gave it a few test swings. Damn. It was a nice blade. Made for cutting down anyone who stood in his path.

  He would use it well.

  “This way.” He pointed in the direction of the pride village with the sword.

  Bleu, Iolanthe and Kyter took off, leaving him alone with Sherry.

  He swept her into his arms and claimed her lips, needing to feel them against his, needing to taste her and know that she was with him, and to thank her for wanting to fight for his pride.

  She smiled against his lips. “Let’s go do this.”