Rapture Untamed (Feral Warriors #4)(66)

"What the f**k happened?" he asked groggily. From what he could piece together, the Ferals were road-tripping, but he'd lost the why and where. Had he fallen asleep?

Goddess, he felt like he'd been hit over the head with a sledgehammer.

Or...enthralled.

The girl! The girl who'd run to him and Olivia.

The grogginess ripped away, leaving him reeling with shock, sending his heart into a free fall.

"Olivia."

Pamela Palmer Rapture Untamed

"What happened, Jag?" Lyon asked grimly from the seat in front of him. Hawke was driving, as he'd suspected.

Tension stiffened every muscle in his body. "Where is she?"

"Gone, buddy," Tighe said. "When you didn't come back, we went looking for you. We found you on the cliffs, unconscious. We followed Olivia's scent to the road. It disappeared there."

The memory of the child taunted him. A little girl with tears on her cheeks. And copper rings around her eyes.

"The Mage have her." Jag told them about the little girl, then tipped his head back, thinking. "They must know what she is. We destroyed all the Mage we found around that house, but we couldn't get through the warding to get inside. There must have been others." His breath caught on a snag of panic. "If they take her soul..."

"We had the same thought," Lyon said. "We're heading back to Harpers Ferry, now."

Jag raked his hair off his face with fingers that weren't even in the same ballpark as steady. "Wings, can't this bus go any faster?"

Tighe's hand landed on his shoulder. "We'll get there as quickly as we can." He didn't remove his hand, and Jag didn't ask him to. For once, he had no desire to push anyone away. His life was crumbling around him, and all he had, all he'd ever had, were these men.

Until Olivia.

And now he'd lost her.

"You really think you've fallen for her," Tighe said quietly.

"Hook, line, and sinker." Jag laughed, but the sound was strangled. "I have a hell of a way of showing it."

"Love has a way of cutting a man off at the knees. At least until he gives in to it. It makes you weaker than you'll ever be. And stronger."

Jag met Tighe's gaze, seeing a surprising understanding in his eyes.

His own expression hardened. "Fair warning," Jag said loud enough for every man to hear loud and clear.

Pamela Palmer Rapture Untamed

"Olivia's my mate." Even if she never spoke to him again. His jaw clenched, a growl rumbling from his throat. "If you try to harm her, I'll kill you."

"And if she's been turned?" Lyon asked from the front seat.

"If she's been turned, I'll kill her myself."

For several minutes, the silence in the car was absolute. Then Hawke spoke.

"I've never heard of anyone being able to feel a life-stealer feed."

Lyon turned to look at Jag over the back of his seat. "Is that what you felt in the war room, when you thought you were feeling magic?"

"Yes. She often feeds at a low graze when she's around others. It wouldn't have affected anyone, let alone hurt us, but I felt it. I always feel it."

He took a deep breath and told them everything. How she'd fed from the Daemon, and that essence had made her incredibly stronger. How she'd taken out an entire swarm single-handedly last night.

Pamela Palmer Rapture Untamed

"All the more reason to keep the women out of her reach," Tighe said.

"Where are they?"

"In your Hummer with Paenther, Kougar, and Ewan. They're behind us. We weren't taking any chances until we saw whether or not you were still enthralled when you woke up."

"Paenther's back?"

"We need every hand on deck for this operation."

They rode in silence, Jag's feet tapping a Mariachi beat on the floor mat. They'd get there in time. They had to get there in time. The alternative was more than he could bear to think about. He would save her.

And then what?

He'd f**ked up everything with her because of his hardheaded refusal to listen to her criticism. No, not criticism. Truth. She'd told him he had to face that day, the day Cordelia died. Face it, look it in the eye, then get over it.

A deep shudder went through him. He'd already faced that day a thousand times in his nightmares. The last thing, the very last thing he wanted to do was open it up in broad daylight. But tipping his head back against the seat, he knew he would. Because Olivia had asked him to. Demanded him to. And it might be the last thing he ever got to do for her.

The thought clutched at his chest.No. No, it wouldn't be the last, because he was f**king well going to save her.

He forced himself to go back to that awful day three hundred years ago. What a prick he'd been! Screwing every human girl who'd lift her skirts for him even though he'd known Therian tradition forbade him from having sex until he was twenty-five. How many times had Cordelia ordered him not to go to the village? How many times had she warned him...?

Jag stilled. How many times had she warned him how dangerous the human village would be if they ever realized he healed too quickly?

The memory, long forgotten, floored him. He'd hated her dictatorial ways and had fought them every chance he got, but she'd been afraid for him, he thought with wonder. Of course she had. She'd known, as he hadn't, what would happen if they realized he was immortal. Had she told him they might try to burn him at the stake?