Wild Cat

She reached over and rested her hand on Diego’s arm. Just touching him made her feel better. Diego glanced at her, his eyes full of warmth.

Cassidy wrapped her hand more firmly around his arm and sank her head into his shoulder. The hunt, the fight, had only stirred his warmth, she felt. Diego wanted sex; she could sense it and scent it. He’d wait until they were finished with this business, until he was certain Cassidy was safe. And then…

The mate bond was helping to keep down other things inside her. Rage, grief, the need for vengeance. They swooped at her, one after the other, but the mate bond kept them from driving her into a killing frenzy. She closed her eyes and breathed Diego’s scent. Comforting. Warm.

At the Warden house, they unloaded the unconscious Reid, not without drawing attention. Shifters had no concept of minding their own business. They came out of houses and stood watching curiously as Diego and Xav carried Reid into the house.

Nell came over from the porch next door. “That him?” she asked Cassidy.

Eric had gone inside closely after Diego and Xav. The trackers on their bikes and Shane in his truck were just pulling in.

Cassidy couldn’t speak, emotions now overwhelming her. Nell, understanding, pulled her into a hug, her arms strong. “I know, honey. I know. Want me in there with you?”

Cassidy wiped tears from her eyes. “No. Thanks. I have to do this.”

Nell gave her a quick squeeze. “All right, but if you want me, you just yell. I’m good at getting men to confess their sins. I’ve had all that practice with Shane and Brody.”

Cassidy smiled but at the same time blinked back more tears. “I’ll be fine.”

But would she?

Cassidy went inside to find that they’d tied up Reid on the floor, in a space cleared in the living room. Xavier sat backward on a wooden chair to watch him, both a Taser and a regular pistol in his hands. Eric waited on the other side of the room, Jace beside him. Diego stood above Reid, the tranquilizer rifle resting easily in his arms.

Cassidy halted at Reid’s feet, her emotions churning. She wanted to kill him, at the same time she wanted to pound on him until he begged her to stop.

Diego reached over to the dining room table, grabbed a glass of water that had been resting there, and poured the water over Reid’s face.

Reid coughed, and his eyes fluttered open.

Diego cocked the tranquilizer rifle and pressed it into Reid’s stomach. “First question. Who are you, really?”

Reid’s eyes were glassy as he stared up at Diego. He blinked, trying to focus. “You know me. Stuart Reid. I’m dokk alfar.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“That’s what he said to me,” Cassidy said. “In the cave. He said his people were the dokk alfar. He called the Fae the… something that sounded German.”

“Hoch alfar,” Jace said, breaking in. “It’s of Scandinavian derivation. It means, literally, high elf. Dokk alfar can be translated as dark elf.”

“There’s elves now?” Xavier asked. “What is this-Lord of the Rings? Pointy ears, long hair, bows and arrows?”

“Goddess, you’re ignorant,” Reid sneered.

Cassidy scented it, Reid’s body heating into the flare that built right before he vanished. “Diego.”

Diego dug the rifle into Reid’s stomach. “I can tranq you before you can fire up. Just stay here and answer, or you’re going to have one hell of a hangover.”

Jace came to them, still interested in Reid’s revelation. “Where do you think Tolkien got his ideas for his elves? From the legends of the Fae-from Celtic, Norse, and Anglo-Saxon stories. I’ve never seen a dark Fae, never knew they existed.”

“They exist,” Reid said. “I exist.”

“So, you’re not half Fae,” Eric said.

“No.” He shot Cassidy a derisive look. “I am pure.”

Cassidy had had enough. She advanced on him, ready to shift, ready to gut him.

“Why Donovan? Why him?” The last word robbed her of breath. Grief, rage, sorrow, confusion took hold of her. “And don’t you dare say he was only Shifter.”

To her amazement, Reid looked ashamed. “He wasn’t supposed to die,” he said. “I’m sorry. Those hunters killed him before I could stop them.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Cassidy advanced again, unable to stop herself, the bare floor cool on her feet. “What are you talking about? You told me you needed his blood. And my blood. Nothing personal, you said.”

“Shifter blood, yes.” Reid’s face was pasty, his breathing shallow. “I was going to take an un-Collared Shifter. These hunters had bagged un-Collareds before, and I paid them to do so again. I told them to keep the Shifter alive. But when I got there… when I got there…” A shudder went through him. “They’d shot him and pulled off his Collar. Stupid. Stupid. And then, when I knew that I’d have used his blood anyway, if the police hadn’t come too soon… I knew then… what I’d become. What they’d made me become…”

Anguish flooded his voice as much as it flooded Cassidy’s. The man moaned, his head dropping back to the floor.

Cassidy could scent his fear, his despair, and over that, his vast shame. It wrenched at her heart; at the same time, she could find no forgiveness. Donovan was dead. That was all.

Eric and Jace twitched with the heightened emotion in the room, but Diego was coolness itself. He stuck to essentials.

“What who had made you become?” Diego asked.

“The hoch alfar,” Reid said. “The fucking hoch alfar, who do you think? They took me because I was a danger to them. They killed my family and put me in this place. This human place.”

Diego prodded Reid with the rifle. “A little bit more. If you’re one of these dark elves, how did you join the police force? How do you have a name, a home, a social security number?”

“I’ve been here a long time. So long. Fifty human years. They exiled me. And for what? So that my dokk alfar, who lived in the land the hoch alfar warrior wanted, wouldn’t get in his way. I fought him. I’m very strong, a damn better warrior than any of them. I led my people against them. But in the end, there were too many. They killed my family and friends most loyal to me. They took me-the one who dared rise against them-and they shoved me here. To die, they thought. Stupid hoch alfar, think dokk alfar can’t take iron. Hell, we invented iron.”

“So you found yourself here,” Diego said, still calm. “What did you do then?”

Reid shrugged, as much as he could while bound hand and foot. “The humans didn’t notice any difference in me from themselves. They don’t believe anything until it’s shoved under their noses. I blended in. I became Stuart Reid. Paperwork was easier to fake fifty years ago. I’ve been Stuart Reid for a long time, moving before people caught on that I age more slowly than humans do.”

“And you tried to go back?” Diego asked.

“I tried, I tried, and I couldn’t. It doesn’t work for me to go to the weak places on the ley lines-the stone circles and whatever-which is how the hoch alfar cross. It doesn’t