surprise, running on adrenaline.”
“At any time, in any circumstances, I know who I’m fighting, Rome. And you would have, too. It was a cheetah.”
“No way,” X said from the corner he’d boxed himself in after he’d finished pacing.
As if hearing his voice reminded Rome of his presence, he turned to the man. “Where did you come from? I thought you had some research to do tonight.”
At his side X’s fists clenched and unclenched. He didn’t go for the stress ball, but holding on to his cat was a test as well. They all wanted to go back out, to find those Rogues and finish them off. The instinct to hunt and kill their enemy was strong, stroking along their humanity like a serrated-edge knife.
X was the largest of the trio, standing six foot four with broad shoulders, a bald head, and skin almost the same reddish brown tone he had in cat form.
It was no accident that their coloring stayed generally consistent in both forms. Nick’s lighter shade coincided with the tawny brown jaguar he became, just as Rome’s darker cocoa complexion melded perfectly into the black jaguar he was. As full-grown male cats they each had length and agility that made them the feral hunters they were reputed to be. Standing here in their human form, they were still magnificently built men, toned muscle and barely restrained strength. Only now they were using their intelligence to sort through this situation instead of violence, revealing the humanity they strived to retain.
“I arrived at the party just as you were leaving. When I saw the Tahoe and the limo I followed.” X shrugged. “Good thing I did. Three against two.”
“We’ve had worse odds,” Nick stated. “Besides, Eli and Ezra were there.”
They had fought together often, facing all sorts of odds, years ago when all three of them were in the Gungi. Which is why all of them remained firm that even when living in the States, fighting wasn’t a lifestyle they wanted on a daily basis. Tonight, however, there’d been no choice.
“The cops didn’t see anything, Rome,” X told him as if reading his mind.
“I know,” he said, still not liking the fact that they’d all been in cat form as if it were the most natural thing on the streets of DC. “But they’ll be back. Showing themselves tonight was like a preamble for what’s to come.”
Silence meant they all agreed.
“You think it’s the three from the party? The ones that were gunning for Kalina? That was Kalina Harper, our new employee, correct?”
Nick was still working that stress ball, his brow furrowed, pupils now mere slits in the light of the room. Shifters had eyes that adapted to light and dark. In the alley where they’d relied on their night vision, their pupils were round and big, allowing them to see. In the light, smaller, dark slashes against the bright cornea showed. This was because the cat was still lurking, waiting. In the office or whenever they were completely human, with the cat resting inside, their eyes looked like any normal human’s.
“It was Kalina,” Rome said tightly. “They had her in their sights. I knew there were shifters in the building but didn’t get a look at them until I noticed she was there.” That knowledge was still scraping against his already raw nerves. Why were they aiming for her? Had they known she was going to be there?
“Who’s Kalina Harper?” X asked, moving with quiet agility to sit on the leather couch.
“She’s our new hot-ass accountant,” Nick said with a bleak smile that withered only slightly when he caught Rome’s glare.
It was bait, Rome knew, and he decided quickly to ignore it. “I don’t know what she was doing there tonight,” he said, still thinking of the way she looked caught in those Rogues’ glare. Nothing could have stopped him from going to her at that moment, from taking her with him, showing the Rogues that she was under his protection.
“Maybe she just bought a ticket like most of the other people there,” Nick offered.
“Maybe.” But Rome wasn’t convinced. There was still something about her that beckoned him. He remembered that night two years ago when he’d been heading home from a meeting. He never usually drove himself to meetings, especially not faction meetings. But he had that night. He’d been walking to the parking garage where he’d left his car when he took a detour. A scent he’d lifted had drawn him in the opposite direction. Toward that alley where the man was attacking her.
Tonight, he now realized, he’d been drawn to her again, this time before she’d been attacked.
As for what happened in the back of the truck, it was inevitable that it would continue. Rome was too strong-minded, too sure of himself to believe anything else.
“The bigger question is what we’re going to do about those Rogues. Do you think they acted alone?” X asked.
“No way,” Nick spoke up. “They weren’t trained fighters, or at least not trained well. It was a sloppy attack. I don’t even think they expected us to be there.”
X sat back on the couch. “Which means they were looking for the woman because you were just leaving her house, right, Rome?”
“Yes. I’d just come outside when I saw Nick. We picked up the scent at the same time.”
“There wasn’t time to do anything but react,” Nick said then tossed the ball across the room, where it bounced off a bookshelf. “The fuckers snuck up on us.”
“Retaliation,” X said. “Rome took away their prize. You know how they are about females.”
Rome nodded. “I know.” And that’s exactly why he’d been so intent on getting Kalina out of there. Now his concern was whether the Rogues were bold enough to go back to her apartment. “Put Ezra on her. I don’t want her alone at any time.”
Nick nodded. “The question’s still: Why? What’s her connection to them?”
“Rogues don’t need a connection. If they want her they’re going to keep going until they get her,” X surmised.
“That’s what they do in the Gungi. This is not the forest,” Rome stated, hearing the hollowness of his words.
Nick interjected, “And the Rogues are no longer in the forest, as we now know. Just because we’re acting civilized doesn’t mean they will.”
Rome reluctantly agreed. Tonight had proven that the rules had changed. The question was what they were going to do about it. “Get Baxter on the phone. I want a meeting first thing tomorrow morning,” he told Nick. “Everybody is to be here at seven.”
He was assembling his squad. Each Faction Leader had a core squad they worked with to enforce the laws of Etica in their zones. If the Rogues were stepping up their game in Rome’s territory, he and his squad would be ready to do whatever was necessary to neutralize them.
Nick nodded. “Eli stays with you tonight. I’ll send Ezra back to Ms. Harper.”
“They weren’t after me,” Rome said.
X stood. “They are now. You’re the Faction Leader, they know that. And you took something they wanted. They’ll be after you just for the fun of it.”
Rome went back to the window, looked out into the night. “Hunting me won’t be fun for them. I can promise that.”
Vicious claws sank into flesh with a sickening sound that mixed with the howl of a wounded cat. Rage spewed through each strike, filling the room with the acidic stench of blood and evil simultaneously.
They were in an old warehouse off Interstate 95 just outside DC in the northern Virginia area. The building had been abandoned long before they arrived but they’d taken over earlier this year. Slowly but surely, as money poured in, they were making it a more livable space. Soon it would be the headquarters of their empire. Just as soon they would rule, as their kind was meant to do.
This was Sabar’s goal. He’d been born in the jungle, treated like an animal for the first years of his life, until he’d been taught differently. His eyes had been opened, his mind awakened to what was theirs for the taking. Now twenty years later he was here, in the United States, doing what was necessary for his species to survive. To rule.
His cat clawed at the surface, wanting to dominate the situation, to handle the reprobates itself. But that would end in death, and while he was no stranger to the act of killing, in this instance Sabar wasn’t quite ready for
