Sebastian/Aristide (Bayou Heat) (13 page)

“Ari?” came a voice Aristide recognized instantly. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Ice froze the blood in Aristide’s veins. Coming to a stop beside him, towering over him, was the leader of the Hunters. Parish.
What the hell?
And beside him was his sister, Keira, and another massive, dark-haired Hunter called Lian. They were all staring down at him nonplussed, the moon overhead illuminating their stern body language and expressions. All three were in pure Hunter mode.

Suspicious and massively protective of the woman in his arms, Aristide bared his teeth at them and hissed, “You answer first. What are you doing here?”

Parish knocked his chin in the direction of the woman in Aristide’s arms. “We’ve come for her.”

Aristide’s wariness deepened. “Why? She’s a human.”

“Yes,” Lian said with a fierce glare. “And our enemy.”

Enemy? The word slid through Aristide’s gut, hot and painful. Yet his arms only tightened around the woman. He had no idea what she’d done—or what the Pantera believed she’d done—but in that moment it didn’t matter. He and his puma would protect her, no matter what.

“Release her, Aristide,” Keira said in calm but authoritative voice. “Release her and walk away. Let us take care of this.”

Aristide leapt to his feet. The sound that rumbled in his chest, then erupted from his throat and echoed down the deserted street, was so low and so terrible, both male Hunters stepped back.

“That’s right,” he snarled at them, his puma screaming to emerge. “Keep backing up, shifters. All the way to your vehicle. Then get inside, start the engine and return to the Wildlands. Because this woman will not be touched by anyone but me.”

The first thought Katherine Burke had when she awoke was:
Am I dead?
Followed closely by:
No, I can’t be. I can’t leave Noah.

Panic struck her and she tried to move, to sit up, but strong, gentle hands held her down.

“Easy,” came a voice she recognized. “You’re all right.”

Forcing her eyes open, she groaned at the intense light that instantly shrank her pupils and caused her head to ache. “Too bright. Please.”

The hands left her, and in seconds she heard a click and felt the shocking burst of light recede. Blinking to gain back her vision, Kat took in her surroundings. It was still night, the intense light obviously coming from a bright lamp. She was in a hospital room. Everything was white and sterile, and as her heart kicked against her ribs, her mind bent back to remember what had gotten her here. It didn’t take long for the chase and the accident to come back. Oh, god. Someone was after her. One of those cat shifters she’d written about. No. That she’d lied about.

“How are you feeling?”

On a gasp, her head came around and her eyes made contact with the man from The Cougar’s Den. One of the pool players. Mr. Cold Beer. He was in the same clothes, minus the leather jacket. Her gaze rolled over him. Tall, broad, shockingly handsome with short, thick sandy brown hair and black eyes. Her heart kicked.
Cat’s eyes
. Yes, she remembered. He was one of them. The Pantera. Which meant what exactly? She glanced around again. On second look, the hospital room seemed different than the rooms she’d seen before. Her breath stalled in her lungs. Was she in the Wildlands?

“Do you remember what happened to you?” he asked, his voice so husky, so male, Kat felt its vibration all through her body.

Her heart beating furiously inside her chest now, Kat nodded.

Light brown eyebrows raised over deep, dark and curious eyes. “Do you remember me?”

The vibration in her body dropped low in her stomach. Good lord, how did one forget a face like that, a body like that? A voice like that? She eyed the white lab coat he was wearing. “Are you doctor?”

“Of sorts,” he said. He glanced over his shoulder at the door, then returned his gaze to her. “Why were you running from the Pantera? Did someone threaten you?”

He seemed genuinely concerned, but Kat knew how men were. How they acted when they wanted something from you, and how they acted afterwards when they got it.

“This is all a mistake,” she said, trying to sit up. “I don’t know where you’ve put me or why, but I need to go home.”

“And where is that?”

She hesitated for a moment, then spat out the truth, “New Orleans.”

As the man came to sit on the bed near her waist, Kat drew back against the pillows. She felt breathless and warm, but not from her fear and anxiety. Up close, he was even better looking. He seemed to ooze strength and raw maleness, and she felt her curiosity flare. This was the real deal, and the Pantera males she’d written about—the fiction she’d invented—seemed positively puny in comparison.

“Listen,” he began, his voice soft but threaded with warning. “Very soon we’re going to have people in here asking you a lot of questions. Before they do, do you want to tell me anything? Who you are? Why you were running last night from—”

“The Pantera?” Kat said quickly and without thinking.

The man’s eyes shuttered, and he growled softly. “You know about us?”

Pressed back against the pillows, Kat stared at him, her breathing shallow. This was bad. How could she be so stupid as to show her hand when she might’ve gotten out of here? This man—it was him—he unnerved her, made her drop her guard. Even back at The Cougar’s Den she’d felt that from him.

“Shit…” The man sighed. “So what they said is true. You wrote a story about us for an online magazine?

She didn’t answer. “You can’t hold me here.”

“Can’t we? After all you said about us in that article? Calling us monsters who eat children?” He chuckled darkly. “Saying that we are not magical beings at all, but a cult of sociopaths?”

Panic flooded Kat’s body, and she glanced around the room. There had to be a way out of here. A way to escape.

“What do you say to this, Katherine Burke?”

Her eyes darted back to him. One brow lifted, his gorgeous face tight with tension.

“Yes. I know your name.” He leaned toward her. “How are you going to fix this? These lies you told? These families you’ve put in danger?”

Kat’s eyes widened and her heart stalled. “Danger? What are you talking about?”

“Ah,” came a female voice from the doorway. “The guards told us she was awake.”

Both Kat and the male turned to see three people walk into the room. They were tall and fierce, even the one female, and dressed very causally in faded jeans and tank tops. The lean muscles on each made Kat’s breath catch.

“What do you want from me?” Kat said slowly, fearfully.

The female spoke first. “Besides telling the entire world you lied about us? Immediately and on camera?”

Kat shook her head. “I can’t do that.”

“Why the hell not?” the woman growled, moving toward her.

But the man who sat on Kat’s bed was already on his feet and standing in the woman’s way. “Calm down, Keira.”

“Fuck you, Aristide,” she said. “We need answers.”

“Why did you spread those lies, Miss Burke?” asked one of the men behind Keira. He had gold eyes, long black hair and scars near his right ear and mouth.

Keira shook her head. “It was just a satire piece. Like The Onion.”

No matter how scared she was, or how much she hated herself for the article she was forced to write, she couldn’t tell them the truth. Not if she wanted to see Noah again.

“And yet you won’t tell the world that,” Keira spat back.

Kat remained tight-lipped. She had to find a way out of here. But if she truly was in the Wildlands, how would escape even be possible? She had no idea where she was, or how far it was to the outside world.

“Who are you working for, Miss Burke?” the golden-eyed man asked, his calm demeanor unnerving her. “Because even though you have no tattoo, no Mark of Shakpi on your body, we know you must be working for our enemies. The ones who are desperate to tell the human world to be afraid of us, to attack us.”

Oh, god. Was that true? Was that why Marco had forced her to do this? Was the man called Aristide right? Would she truly be hurting families? And what was the Mark of Shakpi?

“I work for the Jefferson Post,” she said, shaking her head against the desire to tell the whole truth, and the fear of what would happen if she did. “I’m one of their staff writers, and I wrote a satire piece. That’s all. That’s it.”

“Bullshit,” Keira said, flipping her off.

“Hey,” the man called Aristide growled beside her. “Rein in your sister, Parish. She’s about to get her ass kicked out of here.”

Parish sniffed. “Good luck with that, brother.”

“Fuck you, Aristide,” the woman returned, her own set of gold eyes flashing. “You can’t do that.”

“You’re in my jurisdiction now, Keira.”

Her eyes narrowed and she cocked her head, studying him. “You obviously have a hard-on for this human, but it isn’t going to get in the way of our investigation.”

Kat’s eyes lifted to Aristide. He stood beside her bed, his expression hard, resolute, his body language screaming defensiveness. What was Keira talking about? A hard-on for her? Was this man interested in her? And why did that idea make her entire body hum?

“Okay, let’s take a breath everyone,” Parish said, though his face and expression were tight with tension as he turned his gaze on Kat. “Will you or will you not recant your story publically, Miss Burke?”

“I will not,” she said softly.
I can’t
.

“Then you will stay in the Wildlands until we have answers to our questions.”

Ice raced into her veins and her breath caught in her throat. “You have your answers.”

He shook his head. “We want the truth. Names. Locations. The plan.”

“There is no plan!” Kat burst out, sitting up completely now, ignoring the slight pain in her head. “I don’t know about any plan!”

“Okay,” Aristide growled, placing his hand on her shoulder. “That’s enough.”

“You know something,” Keira hissed, coming to the edge of the bed.

Aristide growled at her. “She needs to rest, Hunter.”

Hunter
? Confusion mingled with the fear, and the shame inside Kat.

“You said she was fine, Ari,” Parish said tightly, his golden eyes narrowed.

“Nothing serious, nothing’s broken. But she’s had a shock. Give her some time.”

“We don’t have much of that, and you know it,” Parish said darkly.

The room seemed to grow cold as everyone in it fell silent. Kat looked from face to face. Worry and hope etched each taut expression. What was happening? What had that bastard Marco gotten her into?

Checking his phone, the man behind Parish, who had been quiet up until that point, spoke in a harsh whisper. “We have a possible breach at the south border.”

Parish cursed. “How many?”

“Seems to be a single.” He shrugged. “Could be another lost traveler.”

“Or it could be because of her.” Keira glared at Kat, pushing away from the end of the bed.

“Out,” Aristide growled.

“Fine,” Keira muttered. “But we’ll be back.”

As all three of them filed out of the room, Kat released the breath she’d been holding since they walked in, and dropped back against the pillows. She was so lost. Deeply in trouble. How in the world was she going to get out of this unscathed?

She turned to Aristide, to the one person who had championed her, and offered a very sincere, “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” he answered, his eyes still pinned to the door. “Thank my puma. I believe he’s the one who can’t resist protecting you.”

“Your puma?” she repeated, confused.

He didn’t elaborate further. “Rest, female. You’re going to need it.” He headed for the door, adding, “And don’t try to escape. There are guards at every exit.”

Kat opened her mouth to respond, but no words came out. Only a puff of air. In the doorway, the man called Aristide had completely disappeared, and in his place stood the most beautiful and terrifying cat Katherine had ever seen. It was large and had sandy brown just like…

Oh, god. She’d known…she’d known this. Maybe not exactly believed it, but she’d known that the Pantera were shape shifters. But to see it…actually witness the transformation…have it confirmed.

She covered her mouth and watched as he stalked out the door, his massive head held high and proud, his thick tail twitching.

***

Hiss cased the perimeter of the small house on Geradon Street, wishing he was about five miles west, inside the borders of the Wildlands, and able to access his puma. He never felt as powerful without it. But this was where he needed to be, and this was how Parish, Raphael and the elders wanted it. Shakpi and her accomplice locked up nice and tight where her disciples couldn’t find her. And even though the goddess was unconscious, the Pantera didn’t trust that her devastating magic couldn’t unfold at any second.

“You two stay here,” Hiss commanded the two Pantera guards who were stationed at the back of the house. “Rage and Elise, you take the front. One at the door, one patrolling. And try to be inconspicuous.”

“And inside the house?” Elise asked him.