Passion Untamed (Feral Warriors #3)(82)

"I wouldn't take her from her family. I just need to know she made it. I need to say good-bye."

Vhyper laid Foxx on the ground and stripped him, tossing Paenther the clothes. "You need these more than he does."

Paenther slipped Foxx's shirt over Skye's head, a soft cotton dress shirt that fell nearly to her knees, then pulled on the pants and boots for himself.

Beneath them, the ground rumbled and shook. "Get her off this mountain, Vhyper, before it implodes."

But Skye shook her head. Deep inside she could feel the pull of the animals. "Jag's coming." As the Feral cleared the entrance to the cave with four deer, elation flared inside her. It was done, and they'd all made it. Except Foxx.

Skye pulled away from Paenther and ran to Jag as he led the deer by the ends of their tethers. He might be holding them by the ends of ropes, but she noted with interest that Faithful was pressing as tightly against him as she usually did her. Which was extraordinary, really, considering the man was part predatory cat.

She also noticed that Jag's hand stroked the side of her friend's neck, long, gentle strokes. Skye pushed between the deer gathered around him and gave the Feral a kiss on the cheek.

He scowled as she knelt to pull the tethers from around the deer's heads, his face screwed up against the driving wind and rain. "Can the gratitude, Glinda. I told you I'd get 'em, and I got 'em. You saved us, I saved your friends. We're even."

"The blade?" Paenther called.

"No sign of it. And that hall is gone, now. It pan-caked about two seconds after I got Bambi and her friends out of there."

One by one, Skye looked into the beautiful creatures' eyes, sharing her joy in their survival, feeling their warming love in return, then sent them far away.

Finally, she kissed Faithful. "Go, dear one. Be safe." Faithful hesitated, then pressed her cheek against Skye one last time and took off.

Skye rose and turned back to Jaguar, tears in her eyes. "You're a better man than you want the world to think, Jag," she said softly.

He scowled at her again. "You're wrong, Sabrina. My heart is as black as they come, and it always has been."

She could see the utter truth of his words in his eyes. Or at least, a truth he fully believed. He was wrong.

But she had a feeling telling him that wouldn't do a bit of good.

The ground rumbled again, violently. Paenther's hand landed on her soaked head. "We have to go. Now! Just how many Mage did you kill in there, Jag?"

"Eight. Maybe nine."

Vhyper laughed. "Serves the f**kers right."

"Yeah, well let's hope we can get out of here before Nature's fury rips this mountain out from under us."

Skye grabbed Paenther's hand and ran as the earth began to cave in behind them. Birik and the caverns were gone. There was no going back.

But she feared the only future she wanted, one with Paenther at her side, was nothing more than a dream.

"How did Foxx die?" Tighe asked grimly as he drove them back to Feral House.

"I killed him." Vhyper's raw confession rang through the closed car.

Paenther looked at him sharply, hating the pain he heard in his friend's voice. They were in Tighe's Land Rover, Delaney riding in front with her mate, Vhyper in back with Skye and him. Foxx's body lay in the cargo area behind them. Hawke was driving Jag and Wulfe back in Paenther's Escalade.

"You didn't kill him, Vhype," Paenther said, willing his friend to believe the words he knew were true. "The Mage killed him when they stole his soul."

The car went silent except for the swish of the windshield wipers and the gusts of wind buffeting the Land Rover. Any rejoicing at Vhyper's and Jag's return was dampened by the hard truth of Foxx's death and Vhyper's earlier announcement that the three wraith Daemons had been set free just that morning. Goddess knew where the Daemons had gone, but Paenther felt certain they'd know soon enough. Just as soon as the first bodies of their victims were found.

His own satisfaction at finally freeing Vhyper was tempered by the pain lancing his body in harsh, regular waves. He didn't know what the sorcerers had done to him when they tried to steal his soul, but he felt strange in a way he never had before. Like there was still something inside him.

Skye lifted her head off his shoulder. "Something's wrong with your animal spirit, Paenther. He's acting like he's sick. I'm worried about him."

He looked down into the copper-and-blue eyes he'd come to love. "Me, too, Beauty. Me, too." Pressing her head against his shoulder again, he held her, needing the feel of her against him.

"If this is too insensitive, tell me and I'll shut up," Delaney said from the front seat. "But what happens now? With Foxx? Or the fox spirit?"

Tighe answered her without hesitation clearly relieved to end the silence. "Within the next few weeks a new Feral will be marked. Sometime in the next year or two, he'll find his way to us. If he doesn't, he'll die, clearing the way for one who will."

Vhyper met Paenther's gaze over Skye's head. "I can't decide if I should thank you for freeing me or kill you for it." His eyes swam with a guilt thick enough to choke. "I'm not sure I can live with the things I've done, B.P."

"You will, Vhype. Because you didn't do them. The darkness that held you captive did. And because I'm not ever giving up on you. Just as you've never given up on me."