Hunger Untamed (Feral Warriors #5)(2)

"Later, we'll fall into one another's arms and forget talk altogether."

A knowing smile curved Kougar's beautiful mouth. "Of a certainty, we will." He pulled her close and pressed his open mouth upon hers, sweeping his warm tongue between her hungry lips. The kiss lasted only seconds, yet it left her feeling both weak and powerful.

As they pulled apart, a wry smile lifted her mouth. The argument always ended the same.

Once again, Kougar rubbed at his chest, his own mouth tightening.

She gave him an exasperated look, and he shrugged. "A twinge in my chest is all."

"The mating bond pinches?"

Kougar smiled. "So say my men, but no. Never." His hand slid beneath her jaw and he kissed her again, his tongue sweeping into her mouth on a promise. When he pulled back, she thought she might drown in the depth of the love in his eyes.

Ariana stroked his cheek. "Be safe, my beast."

His eyes crinkled. "Always." In a single move of power and grace, he turned and dove through a spray of sparkling lights to land on four paws. In a flash, he raced back into battle.

Her heart beating with pleasure and love, Ariana relaxed into her natural mistlike state, thought of her castle in the Crystal Realm, and moments later felt the gold-and-jeweled Grand Corridor take form around her, the ceiling high above. Kougar often told her she looked like a ghost in her mist state, her body visible but not corporeal. He preferred her flesh and blood. And when he pulled her against his hard body and kissed her with passionate tenderness, she absolutely preferred it, too.

She glanced around in surprise at the absence of her maidens. The Ilinas only numbered one hundred forty-one and not all lived in the Crystal Realm, far removed from the rest of the world. Long ago, the Ilinas had built the Crystal Realm, little more than a castle, in the energy belt that circled high above the Earth, known as the Syphian Stream. A castle in the clouds accessible only to those who could turn to mist and their guests. Or captives.

One of her maidens hurried into the Grand Corridor from a side hall. Getrill, her face a mask of concern, saw her. "You're back."

"Where is everyone?"

"The gardens."

Ariana started back, suspecting the two maidens injured on the Feral battlefield were the cause of her friend's concern. They were certainly causing her own. What in heaven's name was she going to do about them? Though it was the queen's right and responsibility to destroy a maiden turned to darkness, how could she possibly kill one of her own? One of her sisters, her friends?

She was halfway to the gardens when a scream broke the quiet of the passage.

Ariana froze, then willed herself to the site, turning to mist in order to cross the distance in an instant. She reached the inner garden to find Melisande, Brielle, and more than a dozen of her maidens circled around another. On the ground, writhing in pain, lay the sweet-natured Angelique.

For a moment, Ariana stared, confused. Angelique's limbs were intact. She wasn't one of the two who'd attacked the Ferals. Instead, Angelique's eyes glowed with a wildness Ariana had never seen. A wildness that crawled with evil.

"What happened?" Ariana's words vibrated with the fear that was beginning to invade her heart and blood.

Melisande looked up, her face alarmingly pale. "I don't know. She just returned from the temple claiming that the maidens down there are kidnapping human males and torturing them. They're plucking out their eyes as they ride them, Ariana. Laughing as the males' cries of release turn to screams of agony."

"What?"

"She was one of them, Ariana. Delightful fun, she called it. I saw the excitement in her eyes."

Angelique screamed again, her back bowing in a painful-looking, unnatural contortion. And froze, her skin turning a deathly gray.

"No!" Brielle cried.

Ariana stared with shock and understanding as deep inside, she felt the rending of the life fiber that connected them. The same kind of fiber that connected the queen to each of her maidens.

Angelique was dead.

But even as the shock of that severing tore through her heart and mind, she felt another. And another. And another. Octavia, Zerlina, Serafina. Gone, gone, gone.

Ariana swayed, her mind turning white with shock. "They're dying. They're all dying."

Around the gardens, her maidens cried out with grief, feeling their sisters' deaths. It was moments before Ariana realized the wails of grief had changed. That her maidens were beginning to dance. That their eyes had taken on the same glowing wildness she'd seen in Angelique's.

Ariana stared at them, her gaze flying from one to the next-- Getrill, Brielle, Marinn--as understanding dawned and horror crashed over her.

No, no, no.

"Ariana?" But even as Melisande asked the question, a sly smile broke across her mouth, her own eyes igniting with the glow of evil.

Ariana's blood ran cold.

Goddess help them all.

Kougar shifted back into his human form as the Wind rode to him atop Horse, his dark hair whipping in the gale. As the Wind leaped down, Horse shifted back to man in a spray of sparkling lights until the pair faced him, shoulder to shoulder, his oldest and closest friends.

Across the battlefield, the other Ferals shoved and congratulated one another on a battle well fought, a few of the cats wrestling in their animals.

"We destroyed the last of the orbs," the Wind informed him. " 'Tis done. The Mage have fled."