Rapture Untamed (Feral Warriors #4)(74)

"Got him!" The words were barely out of Jag's mouth when a bloodcurdling, inhuman scream tore from the Earth itself. The sky turned suddenly dark, pitch-black, as if the last angel had turned off the lights of heaven.

"Dive!" Lyon yelled.

As one, Jag and Paenther leaped clear of the circle, hauling Wulfe with them as an unearthly red-orange glow erupted behind them. Jag spun, staring as the ground wrenched open, becoming a swirling, spinning vortex that ended mere feet from the outer posts. Mere feet from where he stood.

Olivia remained, as did the other captives on the outer posts, but the three center stakes and their victims were gone, having disappeared into the hole.

His heart seized.

As had Hawke and Tighe. Only the two Daemons remained, hovering over the hell pit.

Pamela Palmer Rapture Untamed

"No!"

"Wings!" Lyon shouted. "Stripes!

Wulfe's hand landed on Jag's shoulder, hard, his voice disbelieving. "They're gone."

Jag's heart rolled, his jaw clenching against the sudden and wrenching anguish as he stood stone-still beneath the weight of shock. Until the two Daemons turned and began floating toward them.

"Roar!" Paenther shouted beside him, pointing at the old building.

Jag shifted his gaze to stare at the dozen armed Mage sentinels streaming across the yard, swords drawn.

And Jag could still feel Olivia feeding.

"Hell," Paenther growled. "They want us all in there."

"That's exactly what they want," Wulfe muttered.

"I have to get to Olivia." Jag started running.

Across the circle, Lyon shifted back into his animal. An instant later, his voice blazed in Jag's head.

We are not defeated! No more Ferals will be lost this night. Jag, it's up to you. Stop Olivia!

Jag ran, his chest filled with gravel, his mind aching. Tighe and Hawke were gone.

Olivia was attacking them, almost certainly turned. He would have to destroy her.

No. He didn't know that. For this moment,this moment , all he had to do was reach her. But six feet from her, he hit another damned invisible wall. Warding of the thick-as-steel variety. And he knew he couldn't do even that.

"Liv!"

Olivia turned her head, finding him slowly with glazed eyes that were neither enthralled nor turned. But his heart's moment of rejoicing died as he took in the true look in those precious eyes - horror and misery.

"Jag." Her voice barely carried over the scream of the vortex. "I'm fighting it, Jag, but I can't stop feeding! The Mage have put a spell on me. You have to stop me!"

Ah, goddess. Not like this.She wasn't turned. Wasn't even doing it on purpose. It dawned on him the sharp discomfort of her hard feeding had dimmed considerably.

Now that she'd shaken off the enthrallment and regained consciousness she was fighting it. But she was still strong and would eventually drain them dead, even with the addition of the sentinels to dilute what she stole from any one person.

He had no choice but to stop her.

Shifting into his jaguar, he leaped toward Olivia, half-prepared to slam into the wall again. But this time, he reached her as if there were no barrier at all. At her feet, he shifted back into a man.

Olivia's frantic gaze met his. "Rip out my heart, Jag. This won't end until you do."

"No. There's got to be another way."

"There isn't! Mystery hooked me up to those orbs, stripping me of my control, making me feed on the combined energies of the Daemons, Mage, Therians, and humans, funneling the combined energies into the orbs. There's something about the combination that's especially potent. That's what's powering the vortex. And they want all the Ferals in it. Jag! Behind you!"

He whirled just as one of the Mage leaped at him, unhampered by the barrier.

"Liv, fight it!" he shouted as he and the Mage went tumbling to the hard ground in a tangle of knives and limbs, rolling straight for the vortex. Did his attacker care nothing for his own life? No, probably not. The soulless bastard's only goal was to send Jag into that swirling hell.

Jag dug his knife deep into the ground and held on, stopping his momentum cold, then whipped his body around, kicking the Mage free of him and into the swirling mass. His own foot brushed that rushing energy, snagging him and trying to pull him in, but he held on tight.

Dragging himself free, he leaped to his feet and grabbed up his knife as two more Mage came at him, each with blank, emotionless eyes. Eyes filled with death. His death.

He shifted into his animal and leaped at the nearest man, ripping his throat out with his jaguar's ferocious jaws. As his mouth filled with blood, he felt the fiery pain of a knife stabbing deeply into his hindquarters. With a furious growl, he turned and lunged at his second attacker, biting off his hand. In an instant, he shifted back into his human form, grabbed his now one-handed attacker by his good arm, and threw him into the waiting vortex. Without hesitation, he kicked the Mage whose throat he'd just ripped out in, too, before he could recover.

Bending double, hands on his knees, he sucked in air with shallow, rapid breaths. Not only did he feel winded, but his hip was killing him, and his shoulder throbbed, numb and achy. Olivia's feeding was starting to get to him. The more lives there were for her to feed from, the less she took from any one. But he wasn't the only one dispatching Mage right and left.