Dead After Dark (Companion #6.5)(7)

That was when they’d assumed Fury had been human. Yeah. And the moment his family had found out he wasn’t human, they’d turned on him and tried to kill him.

So much for human compassion.

As for Angelia . . . he hated her even more than he hated his brother. At least Dare he understood. The punk had always been jealous of him. From the earliest memory of his childhood, Dare had been there, trying to push him out their mother’s affections.

But Lia had been his best friend. Closer than siblings or even lovers. She’d blood-promised to stand at his back for eternity.

Then the very moment Dare had exposed his secret, she had turned on him, too. For that alone he could kill her.

Even so, he had to admit she still dazzled him. Her long black hair was shiny and soft. The kind of hair that begged a man to brush his hand through and bury his face in until he was drunk from her feminine scent. Her large dark eyes held a sleepy quality to them that was as seductive as it was pretty. And her lips . . .

Large and plump, they begged for kisses. They were also the kind of lips a man couldn’t help but imagine wrapped around a part of his anatomy while she looked up at him with those dark bedroom eyes.

Damn, the very thought made him hot and hard.

Clenching his teeth, he narrowed his eyes at the scrolling marks that covered half her face. Those marked her as the worst sort of sanctimonious Arcadian.

A Sentinel.

They were the ones who thought themselves so much better than the Katagaria. Even worse, they were sworn to hunt them down and cage them like the animals the Arcadians accused them of being.

It was hard to believe he’d ever thought he cared about her. He must have been insane.

“I saw your work on the Litarian,” Fury said, his tone guttural. “Want to tell me how you did it?”

Dare, whose eyes looked so much like Vane’s that it was spooky as hell, glared at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Fury sneered at him. “Yeah, right. And I assume the two of you are here for drinks because those kind of screwed-up coincidences happen all the time.” He sniffed the air. “Oh wait, what is that? Bullshit? Yes, I smell lots of bullshit.”

“As if,” Dare spat. “You can’t smell shite in this cesspit of cheap alcohol, oversprayed perfume, and animal stench.”

“Oh see, there you’re wrong. I live in this cesspit. Picking out the scent of shit is my specialty, and, Brother, you reek of it. So if I were you, I’d tell me what you did, or I’m going to turn you in to the Peltier bears.”

Dare scoffed. “What are they going to do? They have to maintain the laws of No Spill Blood.”

“True, but there are three Omegrion reps under this roof and two more live just a howl away. We call a vote and . . . Basically, Brother, you’re f*cked.”

“No, Brother,” Dare mocked the word. “You are.”

Before Fury could blink, Dare lifted a gun and aimed it at Fury’s head. Fury caught Dare’s wrist at the same instant it fired. Docking and twisting, he fell to his knees, pulling Dare’s arm with him.

Screams rang out around them.

“Gun!” someone shouted, causing the human patrons to panic as they ran for the door.

Angelia caught Fury by his throat.

“Hold him down!” Dare snapped, as he tried to wring his hand out of Fury’s.

Fury refused to let go of Dare’s hand. If he did, the bastard would shoot him with whatever he’d used on the lions.

Angelia wrapped her arm around his throat, choking him. “Let him go, Fury.”

Before he could answer, all three of them were thrown apart. Fury tried to get up, but someone had them pinned down with one hell of a forcefield. Growling, he struck out with his powers in anger. Instead of breaking the hold, it turned him into a wolf.

He barked at Mama Peltier, who moved to stand between them. But he knew from experience that it wasn’t her powers he felt. The trouble was, he didn’t know who they belonged to.

“No one comes into my house and does this,” she snarled. “All three of you are banned from here, and if I ever catch you inside Sanctuary again, you won’t live long enough to regret it.”

“He attacked us,” Dare said. “Why should we be banned?”

Dev hauled him up from the floor. “Anyone who participates in a fight is thrown out. Those are the laws.”

Colt was far more gentle picking Angelia up.

“There was no bloodshed,” Angelia argued.

Mama curled her lip. “Doesn’t matter. You almost exposed us to the humans. Lucky for you, they evacuated quickly. Now get out.”

Fury tried to turn human again to tell them what was going on, but his magick wasn’t cooperating. Not even his mental powers were working. It most likely had to do with the fact that someone else’s powers were holding him down.

Damn it!

Dare glared at him and made a gesture to let him know it wasn’t over. Then, he and Angelia left.

“That means you, too, Wolf,” Dev growled. “Max, let him go.”

The forcefield dropped.

Finally he was able to turn back into a human. Though he could have done without the public nudity. Unlike other Were-Hunters, he couldn’t manifest clothes at the same time as he shapeshifted. I really hate my powers . . .

As he reached to scoop up his clothes, they were put on his body. Confused, he looked around and caught Aimee’s gaze. She inclined her head to let him know that she was the one who’d helped him. No doubt Fang had told her about his weakness.