Wild Cat (15 page)

“Understand something,” Diego said to Shane in a careful voice. “I know I can’t fight you one-on-one. I don’t have the strength. You could kill me right now, and I’m betting that your Collar wouldn’t slow you down fast enough to save me. But I will promise that if anything happens to me back here, you’ll be facing Xavier. Trust me, you don’t want to. Xav might act like a guy who lives to party, but he’s got a lot more anger in him than I do. If something happens to me, he’ll go for you, and he won’t stop for anything.”

A spark jumped on Shane’s Collar. Cassidy stood rigidly beside Diego, and Eric waited, quietly, for the outcome.

“Eric,” Cassidy said softly. “Stop this.”

Eric said nothing. Diego figured Eric would have a reason for not intervening, but he wasn’t sure what it was. Was he testing Diego? And why?

“He’s been with
Fae
, Cass,” Shane said. “We can’t trust him.
You
can’t trust him.”

Cassidy kept her gaze on her brother. “Eric, let me vouch for him.”

Eric’s quiet stance vanished. “No.”

At the same time, Shane said, “Don’t you dare let her.”

“No, it makes sense,” Cassidy said. “My fault for bringing him here tonight. My fault for bringing him to Shiftertown at all. There’s a lot of Shifters out there, and if he’s going to be safe from them, they need to know he’s protected. You’re leader, you’re needed. You can’t pay the price. But I can.”

“Price?” Diego demanded. “What price?”

“Cass, no,” Shane said, sounding anguished.

“Someone tell me what’s going on,” Diego said. “Now.”

“Cassidy, don’t do this.” Now Eric was pleading.

“If he’s going to be around Shifters, it’s the best way. You know it.”

Brother and sister exchanged a long look. For a moment, Eric’s eyes held pain, raw and stark. Then they filled with understanding, even sympathy.

“This is what you want?” he asked quietly.

Cassidy stepped to Eric and put her hand on his chest. “This is what I want.”

“It might not work out,” Eric said in a warning voice.

“Then it doesn’t.”

The two exchanged another look, rife with emotion, then Eric nodded once.

“No,” Shane growled. He brought up his claws.

Cassidy snarled. Her own fingers turned to claws, and she slashed quickly. Not at Shane—at her own hand.

Diego couldn’t stop her. By the time he grabbed her, Cassidy had slashed three deep marks into her palm and turned her hand upside down over Eric’s. Blood rained down to Eric’s open hand.

“I swear by my blood,” Cassidy said.

Shane’s Collar sparked. “Damn it, Cass, no.”

“It’s done,” Cassidy said calmly. “Let him go, Shane.”

Shane looked devastated.

“Cassidy, what the hell did you just do?” Diego demanded.

Cassidy plucked a tissue from a box on a table and wiped her hand with it. “I vouched for you. Now, no Shifter in our Shiftertown will give you problems.”

“What are you talking about?” Time was running out. Any second now, Xavier would try to burst in here, probably with LVPD’s finest at his back.

Shane stepped solidly in front of Diego again. His claws had vanished, his face human again, and his Collar had stopped sparking. He looked angry but resigned. “Listen to me, human cop. If you make Cassidy pay for your mistakes, I’ll kill you myself. I don’t care about Collars or human law. I’ll do it.”

Diego could arrest Shane and confine him for the rest of his life for even saying that. But he was tired of the whole confrontation. “Just shut up, Shane,” Diego said. “I’m not in the mood.”

Shane remained fixed. Beside him, Eric took Cassidy’s hands and kissed them. He gave her a worried and a loving look.

“I’d never let Cassidy pay for my mistakes,” Diego said to all of them. “Understand that.”

Shane’s dark eyes were still filled with fury. “Understand
this
, Diego. Cass took a blood oath for you. That means that if you step out of line, if you betray any Shifter in any way to anyone, Eric will have to kill her.”

C
assidy ran after Diego as he stormed down the back hall. As soon as they hit the club, he swung on her, his eyes glittering with rage.

“What crazy, fucked-up thing was that about?” he demanded.

“Diego.” Cassidy reached for him.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Xavier start for them. Diego shook his head at him, warning him off. Xavier nodded once, took Lindsay’s hand, and led her to the dance floor.

Diego took Cassidy’s hand and turned it palm up. The slashes she’d made had already closed. Shifters healed quickly. “Trust me,” she said. “It was necessary.”

“Let me understand. If I do anything Eric considers a betrayal—to you or to him, or to any Shifter—he thinks he can kill you for it?”

“It won’t come to that,” Cassidy said. “The Shifters will know I wouldn’t make a pledge lightly. But what you had with Shane was just a taste. If I don’t protect you, you’ll have dominance fight after dominance fight with every Shifter you meet. Some harmless, some violent.”

“Damn it, Cassidy, Shifters can’t touch me, no matter what kind of dominance fights you think they’ll start. They’ll be arrested if they even try. I could haul off Shane for what he’s done, and he’d be locked up forever, if they didn’t terminate him.”

“Instinct doesn’t always listen to reason, Diego. If Eric lets me do this, then he’s essentially saying he backs me up. Shifters will know to leave you alone.”

“Eric’s word is nothing. He can’t kill you. He’d be executed—fast. He has to know that, and the Shifters do too.”

Cassidy kept shaking her head, knowing Diego couldn’t understand. “Eric is my pride leader and my clan leader. His word is law to me.”

“No, it isn’t. Even my word isn’t law—I just enforce what’s on the books. If Eric touches you, he’ll be arrested and executed before he knows what hit him. They’d make a special example of him, since he’s your Shiftertown leader.”

“That doesn’t matter. Eric will honor the pledge.” Cassidy stepped closer to Diego and put her hand on his shoulder. She caressed, loving the hard muscle beneath his coat. “You were willing to vouch for me when your Shifter Division wanted to lock me up and not let me out. It’s only fitting that I return the favor.”

Diego lifted the hand she’d cut to his lips. “Not the same thing, Cass.”

“Isn’t it? What would have happened if I’d been arrested again? To you, I mean.”

Diego shrugged. “Mark in my file. Disciplinary action, maybe. Suspension, depending on what it was you did. But Captain Max wouldn’t shoot me for it.”

“You did it because you decided to trust me.”

Diego leaned to her, smelling good despite his brush with Fae—something she and Eric still needed to figure out. “And then you ran off again.”

“I did what I needed to do, then I was finished. You’d never have known I’d gone if you hadn’t popped up that evening. I wouldn’t have betrayed you. And I believe you won’t betray me.”

“That’s a lot of faith.”

“I know.” Cassidy put her other hand behind his neck. “Because of you, I can dance tonight in the club, celebrate with my family.”

She wanted to touch him. The need to be near this man was driving her insane. Diego stirred every protective instinct she had and every mating instinct too. Maybe the crazy protective urge was because of Donovan. She hadn’t been able to protect her mate, when she should have. She refused to let Diego die on her watch as well.

Cassidy also wanted the Fae scent off him. Other Shifters here would worry about it, even though Eric would warn them off confronting Diego. She believed Diego when he said he hadn’t encountered any Fae, to his knowledge. His confusion had been genuine.

She lifted herself up on tiptoe and spoke into his ear. “Dance with me.”

Diego’s eyes went soft. He lifted her hand to his lips again and led her to the dance floor.

The music was wild and rocking. Groupies were dancing with Shifters, Lindsay twirling herself around Xav. Xavier was a good dancer, body relaxing as he let himself enjoy it.

Diego tugged Cassidy toward a more deserted corner of the floor. She turned to him, put one arm around his waist, and rested her unhurt hand on his shoulder.

There was a slow beat in the music underneath the fast one, and Cassidy started to sway to it. Diego caught on and stepped into the dance with her.

He knew how to dance, this man, knew how to move his body with controlled power. He guided Cassidy in slow circles around the rapidly gyrating couples in the darkness. Those around them danced to the rapid beat; Diego and Cassidy swayed together in their own rhythm.

Cassidy touched Diego’s face, his jaw rough with dark whiskers. She came against him, resting her head against his cheek, letting her own scent mark him and erase the stink of Faerie from his skin.

Around and around they stepped, in slow, sensual rhythm. Diego’s hands rested protectively on her hips. Cassidy lifted her head, and Diego looked down at her with sin-dark eyes. She kissed him.

Diego’s hot, firm lips moved under hers, but he wouldn’t open to her. He broke the kiss when she tried again.

“Not here,” he said.

He stirred the challenge in her. Cassidy wrapped both arms around his neck. “Where then?”

“How about if I drive you home? You can explain more to me about these Fae on the way.”

Cassidy smiled up into his face. “Let’s finish the dance, first.”

“Happy to,
mi ja.
”

Cassidy put her arms all the way around him, feeling his body move in liquid grace. Across the dance floor, Lindsay grinned and gave Cassidy a thumbs-up behind Xav’s back. Cassidy smiled at her and rested her head on Diego’s shoulder.

E
ric watched Cassidy and Diego for a time, happy that his sister had found someone to draw her out of her grief, and at the same time worried as hell. Diego was human, which brought with it a bucketful of issues. Shane trying to challenge him was the least of it.

Cassidy’s pledge meant that the rest of the Shifters would leave Diego and Cassidy alone for now, which meant Eric could turn his attention to the other person in the club who was distracting him tonight.

A young woman sat by herself in the shadows at the back of the club. She’d come in with friends, but they’d soon deserted her to dance. She’d waved her friends off, telling them to enjoy themselves, while she remained alone at their table, sipping a drink.

She had dark hair and wore a slim blue dress, nothing too sexy—a woman determined not to draw attention to herself. Wasn’t working. She had thick dark hair that a male would enjoy under his hands, a fine-boned face, strong limbs, and a sexy shape her dress couldn’t hide. Her slender neck was bare of any Collar—real or Shifter-groupie fake.

She’d made sure not to get too near any Shifters; Eric had watched her making sure. Even now, she pretended not to see Eric leaving Shane to walk toward her, as though Eric would ignore her if she ignored him.

But
what
she was screamed itself at Eric. Eric needed to talk to her before any other Shifter noticed her.

She didn’t look up at him, didn’t react at all until Eric dropped into the chair next to her. “Who are you?” he asked.

She pretended to ignore him as she picked up her drink. Her eyes were deep blue, Scottish blue, like a loch in the summertime. She was sensual, beautiful, and very out of place. What this flower of the Highlands was doing in a seedy bar in the back streets of Las Vegas, Eric had no idea. But he would find out.

Eric leaned forward and rested his arms on the table, blocking the view of her from everyone else in the club. “What are you doing in here?” he asked.

The woman set down her drink and poked the slush of it with her straw. “It’s a club. What do you think I’m doing here? I dance, I drink.”

“You’ve been sitting here since you came in, trying not to be seen. Who talked you into coming? Or do you enjoy walking the edge?”

She flashed him a glance, then returned her gaze to her drink. “It’s my friend’s birthday.”

“And she wanted to hang out with Shifters?”

“She’s fascinated by them.” Another glance, this one trying to be dismissive. “Can’t think why.”

“I take it your friend doesn’t know that if she wants to see a Shifter, she doesn’t have to look any further than you?”

The woman froze. Her blue eyes flickered the tiniest bit to Shifter before she caught herself and forced them back to human. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Eric reached to touch her throat. “How did you avoid it? The Collar, I mean.”

She pulled back. “Get away from me, or I’ll scream for the bouncer. I’m not kidding.”

“The bouncer tonight is Brody,” Eric said. “He’s a Shifter—one of my trackers, in fact. He’ll do what I tell him.”

“Please, just go away.”

Eric caught her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “This is my territory, sweetheart. Every Shifter in this city is under my jurisdiction. That makes you one of mine. Mine to decide what to do with.”

The woman jerked away. “Arrogant bastard.”

“That’s what my sister calls me. And she’s right. But I’m still leader, and you’re Feline.” Eric drew in her scent. “A Feline female who’s hit her mating years.”