Obsession Untamed (Feral Warriors #2)(56)

“Not…Tighe.” Her hand shot out, reaching for him blindly. “Vision.”

And then she was in his arms, cradled against his bare chest, his palm tight to her forehead. “Easy, sweetheart. Are you seeing it this time?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I think. Better than the slide to nowhere, anyway.”

The view was of the back of an old two-story house. Fire licked at the base from one end of the house to the other as if…

“He’s poured gasoline around it again,” Tighe said.

“Any identifiers?” one of the men asked. Hawke’s voice, she was almost certain.

“Nothing so far. You don’t recognize anything do you, D?”

“No. What do you mean…again?”

An old woman appeared in one of the upstairs windows, struggling to lift the window sash.

“This is the fourth time he’s done this in the past twelve hours. We found two of the houses, but too late. He was long gone. But we know he’s using flammables to trap his victims.”

“I didn’t have the visions.”

His arm tightened around her, pulling her even closer against his chest as if he’d shield her from this horror. “Oh you had them, you were just unconscious at the time. I was holding you. I saw them for you.”

The old woman was making no progress with the window. It appeared to be stuck. She disappeared only to appear at a different window. Delaney could feel her terror in the frantic way she beat at the window frame, and in the screams barely filtering through the window.

While the clone watched, feeding on her fear.

The men’s conversation went on around her.

“He’s not feeding as well this way.”

“Maybe he’s needing to feed more often to counteract the disintegration of his soul.”

The fire was beginning to creep up the wood siding of the house. Delaney’s arms slid around Tighe’s waist as she buried her face in his chest. “I don’t want to see this.”

Tighe’s hand caressed her head. “I can knock you out.”

“No.”

The woman finally threw a chair through the window, the glass shards sparkling like gold in the fire’s glow. Her screams for help tore through Delaney’s mind. She felt the strong arms around her tighten as if he, too, could barely stand to hear this.

“We’ve got it!” Another male voice. “Not that far from here. A Falls Church address.”

Tighe brushed her hair with his hand. “I’ve got to go, brown eyes. I’ve got to try to stop him.”

She nodded. “Help her.”

“If I can.” But they both knew by the time he got there, if no one else had come to her aid, it would be too late. “Let me knock you out.”

“No. I can’t leave her. Besides, maybe I’ll see something.”

She felt the press of his lips on her hair. “Lyon can knock you out as easily as I can. If you need help, ask him.”

“I’ll stay with her,” said a woman’s voice. The blonde, no doubt.

He helped her sit on the pedestal before he released her. The rush of pain had her cradling her head in her arms. Through the old woman’s hoarse screams, she heard the sound of male feet pounding up the stairs. Then the soft brush of silk.

To her surprise, a gentle hand began to rub her back. A woman’s hand.

“I’m sure this isn’t helping at all, but it’s what my mom always did when I needed any kind of comforting.”

“It helps.”

“Good. I’m Kara, by the way. Lyon’s mate, as they put it. His wife.”

The soft voice helped drown out the sound of the woman’s coughing cries, as they helped ground Delaney in the real world.

“As they put it?” she asked, struggling to force her mind anywhere but that fire. “Aren’t you one of them?”

“Technically. I thought I was human until about two weeks ago.”

“Seriously?”

“Oh, yeah. Let me tell you, that was a shocker. I taught preschool in Spearsville, Missouri. I guess I should have known something was up when my cuts always healed within seconds, and I never got sick. But I was so average in every other way, I never suspected I was different. Who would? There’s no such thing as immortals, right?”

“You’re a shape-shifter?”

“No.” Kara’s hand rubbed soft, comforting circles over her back. “I’m just their power plug. Their Radiant. It’s complicated. A lot more than you’re up for right now.”

“Are there many of them? The tigers, or whatever they are?”

“Only one tiger. One of each animal, nine in all. A lot more Therians, but only nine shifters.”

“Hawke, Lyon, Kougar…?” It finally dawned on her. “Their names…?”

“Are the names of their animals, yes. Or close. Tighe is obviously the tiger.” She continued to rub Delaney’s back. “Is the woman still struggling?”

“She has the window open, but the fire’s on the outside, so all the smoke’s going in.” Behind the woman, she saw a flicker of light. Had help finally arrived? The flicker rose higher. Flame.

“Why didn’t she…?”

“The fire’s inside the house, too. She’s trapped.”