Rapture Untamed (Feral Warriors #4)(22)

"I tried. It wasn't where I thought it would be."

Next time?Was he out of his mind? Was he really going to let her hunt that thing with him?

Hell.

He carried her awkwardly through the woods, trying not to hurt her more than the Daemon already had even as he kept his senses open. He was stark naked, carrying a wounded woman in his arms. Company of any kind - human, Mage, draden, Daemon - would prove awkward at this point, if not downright deadly. All he could do was try to get her back to the Hummer without another incident.

What were the chances?

He'd barely posed the question when he saw the shadow pass overhead, blotting out the moon's glow. An unnatural shadow he knew all too well.

Shit. "Draden."

Olivia's fingers dug into his bare shoulder. "How many?"

He swallowed. This was going to be close. "I'm guessing about a dozen. I need your knives, Red."

Pamela Palmer Rapture Untamed

"I thought Ferals fought draden in your animals."

"They're only drawn to Therian energy, not the animals. If I shift now, you'll be the only one they attack." In her weakened state, they'd kill her before he could destroy them. No way in hell he was letting that happen.

Above him, he felt the small cloud of draden pressing down, descending through the treetops, and he set Olivia on the ground at his feet. She managed to sit up, barely, pulling one knife after another out of her inner jacket pockets.

She handed two to him and palmed the third. He suspected she'd have gone for a fourth, except her injured arm still hung useless at her side.

Their gazes met, her eyes looking pained and dazed. "You okay, Red?" If only the Hummer were nearby. If only he could lock her safely behind its warded windows. She was too weak for this.

She nodded, giving him a pained smile. "Let's kill some draden." Injured and dazed, about to face a second mortal enemy in a matter of minutes, she should be terrified.

Beaten.

Instead, the light of battle shone in eyes bright with courage.

He met that smile slowly, a fierce determination to protect her, and something more, some emotion he couldn't even name, blooming warm and thick inside him. "You got it, Red. Let's kill us some draden." He winked at her and turned, spreading his feet shoulder-width apart as he prepared for the assault.

As the first draden descended, he attacked, digging his knives into their bodies and popping their hearts, one after the other. Four kills. Five. The key was to kill them before they latched onto him. Once they were on his back or scalp, he'd play heck getting them off him again and be forced to shift into his animal before they drained him dry. But the moment he shifted, they'd go after Olivia.

Instead, he moved cleanly and quickly, turning to keep them off him, circling Olivia to keep them off her.

One of the suckers got through and latched onto his shoulder, its sharp teeth burying deep into his flesh. Fortunately, it was where he could reach it, and he quickly killed it.

Two came in low and tried to attack Olivia directly, but she dispatched them with quick, practiced ease. The last five flew at him from opposite sides, dive-bombing him at once. He killed three, but one caught in his hair and latched onto the back of his skull. Another dug sharp teeth into his right flank.

The pain seared hot and sharp. He popped the one on his flank, but as he lifted his knife to go at the one on his head, he caught sight of a second shadow moving high above.

He looked up, and froze.

Holy shit.

"We've got trouble, Olivia. Looks like this was just the scouting party." High above them, another swarm descended, three times the size of the first. Maybe four.

As he killed the thing on his scalp, cold sweat broke out on his flesh. His head began to pound as the truth crashed over him. He couldn't take on a swarm that size in his human form. They'd kill him long before he destroyed half of them. But if he shifted back into his jaguar and saved himself, Olivia was as good as dead.

Dammit. His hands clenched and unclenched around the knife handles as the hopelessness of the situation rained over him like sharp pellets of ice.Dammit. She was going to die. Fury boiled inside him, spilling over in a hot rush, finding an outlet.

He whirled on Olivia."Why didn't you stay in the f**king car?"

She gaped at him. "It's a little late to be worrying about that now!" Her voice had steadied, turning strong again. She struggled to her feet and slowly pulled yet another knife out of her jacket with her injured arm. But the knife slid through her fingers and dropped to the ground.

Jag growled, his mind searching desperately for an answer. If he thought he could outrun the swarm, he'd toss her over his shoulder and take off, but draden on the scent could fly twice as fast as even his cat could run. On human feet, he and Olivia would be nothing but sitting ducks.

Running wasn't an option. And Olivia sure as hell wasn't up for defending herself.

How could anyone defend himself against more than forty draden?She was going to die .

Unless he shifted, they were both going to die.

The cold truth washed down his spine in an icy sweat.No!

"Back on the ground, Red. Now!"

Pulling on the power of his animal, he shifted into his jaguar, not for the first time wishing he possessed the ability to make his animal larger instead of just smaller. Still, at more than six feet long, not including his tail, he could protect most of her. Her back.