Slade Read online

  “Go. I’ll be fine. I’m just going to lie down for a few minutes. If you need help, let me know.”

  He hated admitting his weakness and he really would have preferred playing the protector role and helping with the rescued critters, but she should be safe enough with Valerie. Even though the housing development had been breached to disastrous ends recently, everyone was on high alert now. Slade doubted anyone with malicious intent would be able to sneak up on the shifters now.

  Kate still looked worried, biting her lip in a way that made him want to kiss her. Valerie didn’t ring the bell again, but they were both well aware that she was waiting.

  “Call if you need me,” Kate said finally, looking back at him several times as she made her way down the hall.

  Slade listened to the door open and relaxed when he heard the women talking. Valerie had brought supplies with her and he could hear them both set to work as soon as the front door closed. All would be well. For now.

  Slade made an effort to get out of his clothing, but even the slightest movement hurt like hell. He was winded and in even more pain when he finally decided to just lay down and try not to hurt for a little while. He lowered himself inch by painful inch to the towel-covered bed behind him and left his booted feet hanging off the side. He didn’t want to ruin the flowery, feminine sheets Kate and put so much thought into if he could help it.

  He’d just rest here for a few minutes first, then he’d figure out what to do next.

  Valerie was a godsend. She had litter boxes and the stuff that went inside them, plus a few plush, cushioned beds for the animals that were too traumatized to be moved. To her credit, she did manage to coax the majority of the animals to leave with her, but a few were stubbornly affixed to Kate and would not leave their savior. At least not yet.

  Valerie confirmed that all of the animals had been familiars. There was a special quality about such creatures. They were attracted by magic and able to act as companions to mages, grounding them to the earth even as their magic allowed them to touch on realms beyond most human comprehension.

  They put those animals that were in the worst shape into small carriers Valerie had brought with her. Her husband, Keith, showed up a few minutes later to help carry them out to his vehicle. For the rest, which were all feline, Valerie helped Kate gather them into one place in the house. They would have freedom to roam around the living room and the long hallway. The rest of the doors were closed and litter boxes were placed in a discrete corner. The cats would have enough places to explore as well as rest while Kate helped Slade.

  She knew he had to be in worse shape than he was letting on. His skin was pale and every time he moved, he grimaced involuntarily. He was putting a brave face on it for her benefit, but she knew he was in terrible pain. That vampire had hit him hard. Harder than Kate had ever seen anyone get hit—even in movies. He’d be lucky if ribs were all she had broken.

  And his pride was probably even more injured. She got the idea that Slade wasn’t the kind of man who liked to show any kind of weakness at all. She would have to examine him for herself to discover the extent of his injuries. He certainly wouldn’t be telling her anything he didn’t want her to know.

  Luckily, Kate had always had a strong affinity for healing. It was one of the things she was particularly good at, and she planned to work her magic on Slade whether he was cooperating or not. She had ways to make him compliant if he dared to argue. He was in her house now. She would treat his wounds and nobody besides the two of them would ever have to know.

  When Valerie and Keith left and Kate finally had a chance to check on Slade, she found him asleep on the bed, fully clothed, his legs still hanging over the side. Poor guy.

  She approached him cautiously, wary of shifter reflexes. Sure, he didn’t look dangerous at the moment, but she’d be smart not to underestimate him.

  He didn’t even stir as she sat on the bed at his side. He was down for the count.

  Kate tried to be gentle as she moved. She’d brought scissors with her to cut off the scraps that remained of his shirt. That would be the easiest way to get him out of it without hurting him more. She set to work, pulling the fabric away from his body and cutting through it, piece by piece.

  What was revealed as she worked made her gasp. The vampire’s shifted claws had gouged deeply into his skin. In fact, he was still bleeding sluggishly from some of the cuts. Rows of angry red lines covered his torso and she could see where bruises were beginning to form on his side. The same side he’d been clutching as she drove him home.

  She didn’t bother trying to get his shirt out from under him. She just cut it off around him until his upper body was bare. His pants were bloody, but his legs had fared a lot better. The vampire had been going for his throat and she hadn’t damaged him much below the waist.

  Still, Kate wanted him as comfortable as possible before she started healing him in earnest, so she paused to take off his boots before going into the bathroom to gather a few things she would need. Her first order of business was to sponge off the blood and clean the cuts as best she could. Magic would go a long way toward fixing him up, but it was always better to start with a clean slate, as it were, before attempting something of this magnitude.

  She’d clean him up first, then use more extravagant means to do what she could to make him feel better. That plan in mind, she set to work, using a small basin of warm water and a sponge to get the worst of the blood and even some threads from his clothes, out of his wounds. He shifted a few times, but didn’t wake as she worked. She wondered at that. In her limited experience, shifters were very sensitive about people being nearby. They seemed to revel in touch—but usually only from family or friends.

  She didn’t really fall into the friend category with Slade, did she? They’d only met that day. She would’ve thought it would take more for him to be so comfortable around her, but then again, maybe not. There certainly had been a strong attraction between them from the moment they’d met. She found herself thinking of him in romantic terms when she knew darn well he was only here to do a job. He wasn’t staying. She had to resign herself to that.

  Still, as she bathed his muscular torso, she found herself daydreaming just the tiniest bit.

  What would it be like to make love with Slade? Would he be rough and masterful? Or would he be gentle and tender? Would he make her scream, and could she make him purr?

  She’d never been with a shifter before. In fact, it had been a long time since her last short-lived affair. She had decided to make her life among these big, strong, attractive people, but hadn’t been wowed by their physical attributes. They were still people—albeit more spiritual in many cases, than the regular humans she’d been around before. Slade though, he drew her like no other man ever had. She had only known him a few hours and she already wanted to know what he would feel like inside her.

  All she had to do was glance in his direction and her thoughts strayed to naughty places. The attraction was instant and intense. She wanted to feel his skin against hers, his body rocking her to completion. And she’d bet her life’s savings that the climax Slade could give her would be unlike anything she’d ever experienced. The way their magic met and twined whenever she touched him hinted at it. Theirs would be a joining not soon to be repeated and she wanted it. She wanted him. Bad.

  So many thoughts raced through her mind as she ran the damp sponge over his muscular chest. She touched him as lightly as she could, not wanting to cause him further pain. The poor man had been through a lot today—both the physical hurt to his body and what had to be hurt to his pride as well.

  She moved gently, but soon had him cleaned up enough to begin her real work. Laying aside the basin of bloody water, she rubbed her hands together to focus her energy, then began to work. She held her hands about an inch above his body, moving slowly as she took stock of the places where he was more seriously injured. Diagnosis was a rare skill, but one she had mastered early in her training.

&nbs
p; Kate tried to hold back her shock at what she found. Emotion may or may not help her focus her power to best advantage. She had to try for objectivity as she discovered what was truly wrong with him and why he continued to sleep even while she worked on him. She suspected that wasn’t normal shifter behavior. From what she’d seen they were always alert, particularly Slade.

  She started at the top and worked her way down his torso, pausing when she came to his ribs. She counted four broken ribs—one dangerously close to puncturing his lung. Dear Goddess. She didn’t know how he’d been walking around with this kind of damage.

  She went deeper and found internal hemorrhaging. Here was the real problem. When the vampire had hit him, she’d dealt him a crushing blow that had bruised his internal organs and caused a great deal of bleeding inside, where he’d been able to hide the extent of his injury through sheer force of will.

  The kind of pain he’d hidden was something few people—even shifters—could manage. Most would have passed out long before. Slade had managed not only to stay conscious, but to let her dilly-dally around with the animals before she saw to him.

  Guilt ate at her. She should have let the animals wait. Slade was much more badly injured than she would have imagined based on his actions. She couldn’t believe he’d waited so long to succumb to the pain, never making a sound about what had to be excruciating.

  Her admiration for his control went up another notch, but at the same time, she wished he’d have let on what was really going on. She would have come to him much sooner. As it was, she was going to have a hard time fixing him up. She would. She had to. But these kinds of injuries were tricky.

  Focusing, she sent her energy into him in small pulses, aimed at the areas of angry red in her internal vision. Healing required a slightly different use of her magesight. Many could not manage it, but she’d pleased her teachers with her ability. She would need all her skill now to help Slade, but she wouldn’t let him suffer any more than he already had. She would heal him if it took everything she had left. He was worth every sacrifice. Such a noble creature—such a pure-hearted man—could not be lost. She prayed the Goddess would not allow such an injustice.

  Kate touched him, using her fingers to aim the arrows of healing energy into his body, to the places that needed it most. She stopped the bleeding little by little and used dispersive magic to break up the pooling blood and encourage it to be reabsorbed into his body.

  He would probably be weak for a bit while his body made up for the lost blood, but he would be a lot better than he was now. She stopped the last of the bleeding and began to repair the internal injuries as best she could. She could do a lot to speed his recovery, but the fine work would have to be done by his body itself. She could do the heavy lifting—removing the bruising and even giving the bones a head start on fusing—but he would be achy for a while as his internal systems did the rest.

  One thing she noticed as she worked was that his magic rose up to meet and help hers. It didn’t fight her influence, as had happened sometimes when she tried to work on other shapeshifters. Instead, his inner magic met and augmented hers. That was new. And very useful. She was able to work more quickly and deeper than she had expected with his magic fueling her own. Maybe his healing would be more complete than she’d thought.

  It was as if he somehow knew on an unconscious level that she was trying to help him. While it might hurt a bit as she did her work, the ultimate goal was one of healing and his magic seemed to embrace hers and even encourage it.

  When she finally sat back and exhaled the breath she’d been holding, she was dizzy. The room spun a little, but it didn’t matter when Slade’s eyes opened. Slowly, he turned his head and smiled at her, his half-lidded gaze meeting hers with easy intimacy.

  Oh, yeah. She had to catch her breath as a startling mix of sexual energy and relief zinged through her.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked gently, her throat dry from the exertion of the past half hour.

  “Better.” His eyes narrowed even as he smiled. “Embarrassed. Thankful.”

  She smiled at him. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You took on an ancient, blood-starved, crazed vampire and lived to tell the tale. From what I hear, that’s an uncommon thing.” She brushed a strand of his black hair away from his brow. “Slade, you could have died of those injuries. You were bleeding internally and it was…” She had to pause as emotion welled. “It was bad,” she finished in a whisper.

  Slade made an attempt to get up, but she stilled him, reaching for his hands. He turned the tables on her and pulled her down on top of him until their faces were only inches apart, her fabric-covered breasts flattened against his bare chest.

  “Thank you.” His simple words whispered against her lips, and she needed to taste him. To know he was alive and with her. Her head lowered a fraction of an inch and then he took control.

  His kiss let her know, in no uncertain terms, that he was feeling better. It started out friendly, but soon turned passionate and when he rolled them both to the side, she didn’t protest, even though she knew she should caution him to take it easy.

  She was too caught up in his kiss, the feel of his arms engulfing her, protecting her, sharing his warmth and the heat of his skin.

  She wanted more.

  Chapter Eight

  The feel of Kate under him was something Slade had wanted to experience since the first moment he’d seen her. It was even better than anything he’d imagined in the short hours since they’d first met.

  Never in his long life had he felt such an instant, compelling attraction to a woman. He’d always been somewhat aloof in affairs of the heart, never spending more than a few weeks with any one woman. Running the other way if they showed signs of becoming too attached to him. Slade had been a loner—a tomcat on the prowl—which wasn’t all that uncommon among big cat shifters.

  But something about this priestess called to him on a deeper level. He wanted her to become attached to him. Actively wanted that, and so much more, from her.

  They hadn’t known each other long at all, but he’d heard that sometimes these sorts of things happened. Somehow, their magic recognized each other. Recognized and mingled in the most tantalizing way.

  Her magic had reached out and caressed his senses from the moment they started working together, using their power in a harmony he hadn’t ever felt with anyone else. She just… fit… somehow. Their power fed off and magnified each other, which was something entirely new to him.

  Even his own family—the few who had magic like his—didn’t evoke this kind of response. His mother and great-grandmother had taught him how to use his power but theirs had always remained separate and distinct from his own. Their magic competed with his for supremacy—as such things often did in his experience. They had counted him trained when he could copy their example and do whatever task they had set without their magic guiding his.

  The few times he had overpowered his mother’s attempts to teach him had been uncomfortable tests of will. It was at that point—at a very young age—that his training had been turned over to his great-grandmother. He’d never been able to overcome her magic. At least, not until he was fully adult. They’d never put it to the test, but he believed he was at least his great-grandmother’s equal now, if not slightly better. He would never pit his skills directly against hers out of respect, but he’d discovered things about himself and his magic over the years of his adulthood that would probably surprise the old gal.

  Kate’s magic was different. So beautifully different.

  It caressed him on several levels. Spiritually, she was a bright light of the Goddess’ favor. She touched Mother Earth and channeled the pure heart of the planet. The music of the spheres sang in her magic and the sheer goodness of the Light shone in her clear eyes.

  Her heart was pure. Of that he had no doubt. Whether she had come to her calling already that way, or if she had been purified by the Lady’s Light, Slade didn’t know. It didn�
�t really matter. She was beautiful inside and out, and to him, she was almost perfect in every way.

  She wasn’t a shifter, but that didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Differences often made partnerships stronger. Slade wasn’t a snob. That Kate was a woman of power, a priestess of the Lady, was nice, but he knew he still would have wanted her had she been a powerless mortal with no knowledge of the paranormal world.

  One of his relatives had already found a deep and true mating with a human, and Slade didn’t turn up his nose at their love. In fact, he admired their relationship, glad of their happiness. It didn’t matter to him that the newly adopted member of his Clan would never shift shape. All that mattered was that they loved each other and were happy.

  Happiness was rare in this dangerous time. Slade had dedicated his life to ridding the world of those who would cause sorrow. Making the world safer was his mission—in whatever form it took.

  This time, his calling had led him here, to this amazing woman and the new feelings she stirred in his soul. He didn’t question it too much. He didn’t want to jinx whatever it was that had started to grow between them. One should not question a blessing, he had learned.

  So rather than question, he merely enjoyed. He’d taken this moment out of time to take Kate in his arms and kiss the living daylights out of her.

  She responded so beautifully. She fit so perfectly in his arms. In his bed.

  Okay, it wasn’t technically his bed, but his aroused body didn’t know the difference. It could be the sandy desert floor or the flower covered sheets on the guest room’s bed. Wherever he was, as long as Kate was in his arms, he was happy. And seriously turned on.

  “Kate,” he whispered against her lips, breaking the kiss as the fire building inside him roared higher.

  He lowered his mouth to slide over her neck, nipping lightly. He had to hold back his instincts. He wanted to bite. To claim.