Without thinking, her hands reached up and pulled the beautiful man standing before her to her eye level. They each seemed to instinctively know which way to lean as their lips met. He didn’t know it, but she was known for bumping her forehead while leaning in for a kiss and knocking a guy out.
He’d opened for her and let her control the kiss. Ronnie slacked up, but Oz’s arms wrapped around her and pulled her in tighter, reigniting the heat simmering between them.
Finally, Oz pulled back. The intensity in his eyes burned through her, and she felt like she could have melted on the spot. When was the last time she was kissed like that? Had she ever been kissed like that?
“I do trust you. Now, let’s go save my sister.”
Less than thirty minutes later, Oz and Ronnie stood in a rest stop parking lot along the side of the highway. Oz held pieces of a broken cell in his hands. He turned the handful of pink pieces toward Ronnie. “Your sister’s?”
She touched a few of the shiny, broken rhinestones, then picked up a large, gold colored, plastic ‘G’. She held it over her heart and nodded.
It took her a full minute before she spoke. “What are we going to do now?” She looked around the rest stop. “I don’t even know where we are!”
Oz looked around as well. He had a good idea about their location but wasn’t positive. He walked further along the walking path. The faint scents of more than just Golden still flittered through the air.
“Stay here. I’m just going to look around.”
She mumbled something inaudible and turned away from him. Maybe that was for the best. The scent of so many girls engulfed the area. The more recent ones were like Golden, nearing the first change. Grabbing these girls at this point before their transition was dangerous. They would only snatch girls at this point in their transition for one sick reason. Selling them now was something equivalent to a turn of the century virginity auction.
As he walked further down a worn, muddy path, the fresh odor of at least four lions bombarded his senses. Old odors intermingled with the new from others marking their territory. This was bad. Hell, it was worse than bad, this was downright dangerous. Everyone knew lions dealt in the skin trade. Sex slaves, prostitution, hits, and abductions was the least of their crimes.
The wind also carried something else, the sour smell of blood. Lots of it. His hand covered his nose automatically. The stench prickled his nose and made his eyes water.
Death. His leopard had been at attention since they found the phone. He sat ready to strike if needed.
They both knew what was beyond the copse of trees. With two fingers he lifted a torn yellow, tie-dyed t-shirt from a branch. He’d stepped off the path, through some evergreen bushes. The blood of a fresh kill was something he would never forget. His boots crunching down on broken branches seemed thunderous. The smell grew stronger and hung thick in the air.
A small muddy section was just ahead of him. He couldn’t even call it a clearing. Just enough room to lay a body… or hide one. He moved a patch of large broken tree limbs to reveal the battered and broken body of a young girl. Blood matted her hair and her facial features were indistinguishable. Claw slashes marred the body across her exposed breasts down her torso. The material of her skirt was hiked up around her waist like a scarf.
A small light flickered behind him. “What are you doing?” Ronnie’s gasp cut through the dead silence. “Is that? Is that my sister?”
He whipped around to see her wide-eyed stare. Her body trembled as she stood stock still. Her phone slipped from her hand, landing face up, illuminating the girl’s feet.
“No, it’s not her.”
His arms were around her, pressing her face to his chest, trying to block her view of the body. He’d told her to stay back at the parking lot for just this reason. But his friend, Wraith, president of the East Texas Dark Leopards, told him on more than one occasion - women seldom do as they’re told.
“How do you know?” She jostled in his arms in an effort to look around him, but he held her firm. “I need to see.”
“No, you don’t.”
Oz knew in that moment he wanted to protect this woman. Shield her from all the cruelness in the world. It wouldn’t always be possible, but in this thing… right now, he could. He turned her around by her shoulders and picked up the phone, dousing the light.
“Maybe, she’s not…” Ronnie turned to look back again.
“She’s gone. I’m sorry.”
The tears had been streaming down Ronnie’s face even though she wiped at them fiercely. When they reached the clearing, her knees seemed to give out from under her. With ease, he lifted her off her feet and sat her on the damp metal picnic table.
It broke his heart to see her like this. He wiped away the tears with his thumbs. It would take her a few minutes to process the horrible scene she just saw, and he let her have the time.
Console. His leopard raked him, displeased that he hadn’t hugged her yet.
Give her a minute, Oz told him.
Why?
She needs this.
“Oz.”
Ronnie’s soft voice brought him back to the here and now. Their eyes met, and he grunted something unintelligible.
“I just don’t understand. What kind of monster does that? She was just a baby.”
Oz moved to stand between her legs, then pulled her into his arms. She held him tight, squeezed him, then pulled back to look up at him with a stern glare. The look sort of reminded him of the terminator, serious and all business with red-rimmed eyes, but no more tears.
“We can’t let that happen to Golden. Promise me.” She grabbed the lapels of his coat and pulled
