Bearly Hanging On (The Jamesburg Shifters #6)(65)

“Why does it always have to be a cave? Why don’t you ever try to hide at the Four Seasons?”

Jamie blinked, but the throbbing in her head was so powerful she couldn’t open her eyes for more than a second before the pain took her.

“How did you find me?” Ryan clutched Jamie, still trying to calm her. “Why is a better question.”

“The why is less interesting. I was ordered to find you. Short and sweet. It was an assignment I was happy to get, though not for the reason you probably think. Oh,” he said, “why didn’t you tell me you had her with you?”

Jamie heard a radio’s squelch and suddenly the pain in her head stopped. She was still blinking, trying to clear the white hot pain out of her brain, but at least the agony was on hold. The hand she felt next was gloved, and strangely cold. “Sorry about that,” the same disembodied voice from earlier, intoned. “Radio jamming. Didn’t realize you were here or I’d never have—”

Ryan recognized the flash in Jamie’s eyes as the same one she had when she just about wrestled him to the ground what seemed like forever ago.

A split second later, she had her legs wrapped around Branson’s waist, she was perched on his back, and he was obviously more than a little confused. Actually, “completely terrified” would be a better descriptor. He didn’t try to fight, didn’t even move. The two agents who were also in the cave, but had so far stayed completely still, remained frozen in place.

Ryan made a move to stop her, but before he could reach her side, those pearly fangs flashed, and she flicked her head down into Branson’s neck.

The man’s skin went gray, all over his body, he seemed to wince, and then with an almost sickening sound like wet Velcro being pried apart, Jamie’s teeth, and then her grip, peeled off him. The suited man faced her, though with those glasses it was impossible to see what he was looking at, exactly, and cocked his head to the side.

“Interesting,” he said, as Jamie collapsed to the ground.

“What did you do to her?” Ryan demanded, following his mate to the ground, and picking her up in his huge arms. “What the hell did you do?”

Branson was shaking his head, the eyebrow lifted above the frame of his glasses indicated that he was as confused as he’d ever been, but without any words, it was hard to figure. “Branson!” Ryan was growling, shouting, and now that sound was thudding against Jamie’s eardrums, though she couldn’t move. “What did you do?”

Jamie was able to focus well enough to see Branson shaking his head slowly back and forth. “I don’t know,” he said. His voice was wavering and he really did seem like he had no idea what was going on. “I felt colder,” he coughed. “Colder than usual anyway. I need to sit, I think.”

And with that, he sat unceremoniously, squarely on his butt, in the middle of the cave. He pushed out his lips, and then swallowed hard. “I’m not sure what...”

“Get him,” one of the guys in the mouth of the cave said, suddenly, and for what Jamie realized was the first time she’d actually heard anyone besides Branson speak. “Get him, tranq the bear, and get the... uh, whatever that bat is.”

“Oh no you don’t,” Ryan said, standing up tall and shrugging his huge shoulders. He pushed Branson backwards with a casual sweep of his foot.

The two much smaller men paused, but not for long. “Fine,” one of them said. “Shoot him then. Doesn’t matter, he’s nothing special.”

The next sound Jamie heard were cracking knuckles, and a smug deep-throated growl.

The one after that was a gunshot that rang out so loud, she thought her eyes had popped out of her skull. Her brain rang, her ears ached so badly she thought she’d go deaf.

A cold arm around her shoulders, shaking, urging.

Ryan roared and swung a half-shifted paw, hurling one of the suited men heavily into the side of the cave.

“Is there another way out?” Branson said, shaking Jamie. “We need to get out now. Things are getting serious.”

“How can you be so calm?”

Ryan roared again, almost fully beared-out, and not having anything at all to do with anyone harming Jamie.

“Why is he protecting me?” Branson asked. “Five seconds ago he was about to kill me.”

Jamie’s eyes were fluttering, she was barely holding onto consciousness. “That’s... just how he is,” she said.





-18-


“Of all the things. How wonderful is this? How wonderfully fascinating IS this?”


-Agent Craig Branson


“Is that a no?” Branson asked.

Ryan planted another paw in the chest of yet another suit, and sent him flying. “How many of them are there?” Jamie asked.

Branson smiled. “Enough to last. So is there or is there not some way out of here that doesn’t involve going through the main entrance?”

Jamie shook her head. “Only been here twice. The first time,” she shook her head, still a little dazed, “I wasn’t paying much attention to getting out.”

A piece of black tie and a pair of sunglasses whizzed by Jamie as she tried to stand. She felt a strange shimmer in the air around herself. “What did you do to me?” she asked. “I feel like I can taste shapes. See sounds, whatever.” She smoothed the fabric of her skirt, and looked around the cave, wide-eyed and strangely able to see. “Scratch that, what the hell are you?”