Obsession Untamed (Feral Warriors #2)(62)

He was feeding off her pain.

Maybe he should feed off his own. Catching him off guard, she slammed the heel of her hand into his nose. When he didn’t so much as flinch, she raked her nails down his cheek. He didn’t bleed.

The full understanding of his inhumanity hit her even as he jerked her away from the wall and threw her to the ground. She slid across the wood floor, stopping less than a foot from the bodies, sending the flies swarming into the air.

Oh God, Oh God.

Her body aching, her mind dazed, she tried to push to her feet, but he stomped her flat with his foot. How long before another body topped that pile of corpses?

Hers.

Tighe’s chest burned as he climbed back into Jag’s Hummer with muscles so tense they were cramping Wulfe joined him through the opposite door.

Goddess, where is she? What is that piece of shit doing to her?

Is she even still alive?

“When I get my hands on him, he’s not going to die fast,” he snarled. “I’m cutting him up inch by inch until there’s nothing left of him but his head and his heart. Then I’ll shred those, strip by strip.”

But what would it matter? How sweet would revenge taste when Delaney was dead? The blades in his chest twisted, slicing him anew until he felt the blood running in rivulets down the sides of his heart.

“Where to?” Jag asked, starting the engine. No one answered. Where did they go from here?

As he opened his mouth to reply, his vision went suddenly, totally black. As it had when he’d first had the visions. Before Delaney got in the way.

His hand grabbed hold of the door as he held on, knowing he was about to watch the demon feed, and praying, praying, he wasn’t about to watch Delaney die.

Chapter Twenty-three

“She’s not a witch!” Paenther growled as Foxx pulled on his clothes after snooping on all fours around yet another mountain estate that had absolutely nothing to do with the Mage.

The clouds had rolled in, driven by a chilly wind, turning the afternoon hazy and gray.

Foxx finished tying his running shoes. “I’m just saying, you can’t always tell anymore. Zaphene hid her Mage eyes so well, none of us knew she was a witch. She had me fooled but good,” he added morosely. “I thought she was in love with me.”

“Foxx.” Paenther sighed as they started walking back to the Mustang parked alongside the road. “I can tell.” Which was an out-and-out lie. He hadn’t known Zaphene was a witch any more than anyone else had. Still…“If she were a witch, she’d have enthralled me already, right? A touch of her hand, and I’d have been hers. She’s not a witch. And it doesn’t matter anyway, because I’m not going back there. I don’t have time to get involved with a woman. Any woman. Especially one who lives hours from Feral House.”

Foxx grunted. “If you’re not interested in her, why do you keep talking about her?”

Paenther growled low in his throat, his hands fisting on his coat. “I’m not the one who just brought her up again!”

“Yeah, but you’re the one who keeps growling. You’re driving me crazy, B.P.”

“The feeling is mutual, Cub,” Paenther said, as they reached the car. “The feeling is mutual.”

“I’m doing the best I can,” Foxx snapped, guessing correctly Paenther had lost patience with the young Feral’s worthless intuition. They climbed in and Foxx started the car, gunning it onto the empty road.

“I didn’t say you’re not, Foxx, but for two and a half days you’ve been certain Vhyper is in these mountains, and for two and a half days we’ve found shit. We might as well head home.”

“No.”

Paenther looked at the younger man sharply.

Foxx met his gaze. “He’s here. I know he’s here. And I know we’re going to find him. But not yet.”

Paenther growled, his claws unsheathing for a frustrated instant. “When?”

“Later today.”

Paenther stared at his companion. “You really think that?”

Foxx’s gaze turned inward, but he nodded slowly. “Yeah. You’re going to be talking to him again soon.”

“And just how are we going to find him?”

“He’s going to find you. But later.” Foxx turned the Mustang around in the middle of the road and headed back the way they’d come.

Paenther scowled. “Now where are you going?”

“Following another one of my intuitions. We’re going back to the Market.”

“You’re going to hand me over to a witch?”

“I never said she was a witch. I was just making the point that you’re not being very cautious for a guy who’s lived long enough to know better.”

Paenther growled, but damn, the cub was right. He’d been so blown away by the woman that he’d completely forgotten Zaphene had been able to hide her Mage eyes. Then again, he’d never known a Mage to be able to do that. And, honestly, the chances of his little beauty’s being Mage were one in several million. Maybe a billion. Still, the thought probably should have crossed his mind.

But what he’d told Foxx was true. If, by some monumental coincidence, she’d been Mage and had wanted to enthrall him, she’d have done it already. She wasn’t Mage. And damn yes, he wanted her.