White Tiger

  Dimitri growled, the wolf in him responding, but Jaycee didn’t wait for any more argument. She sat on the lip of the opening, swung her legs over, and disappeared inside.

  Dimitri sweated while the ropes played out, holding the end even though it was secured by a big hook to an equally large metal loop driven into the ground.

  He didn’t relax until Jaycee called back up, “I’m down,” and sent the gear to the surface again.

  Addie shook as Dimitri helped strap her into the harness. She’d never done any rappelling before, or any even moderately dangerous sport for that matter. She took walks, went on occasional country hikes with the kids, and that was it.

  “You sure this will hold me?” she asked Dimitri nervously as she slipped on the leather gloves he handed her.

  “It held Tiger,” Dimitri said. “And he’s much bigger than you. You don’t have to go down,” he added.

  “Yes, I do. Thanks, Dimitri.” Addie impulsively gave the man a hug. Dimitri responded gladly, squeezing her in a tight embrace. “I’ll tell Jaycee she’d be a fool to refuse you.”

  Jaycee yelled up, “I can hear you! Don’t encourage him.”

  Addie patted Dimitri’s shoulder, sat on the edge of the hole as she’d seen Jaycee do, braced herself, and gingerly slid into the shaft.

  The ropes zipped through the buckles faster than Addie thought they would, and she yelped. She applied the brake as Dimitri had showed her, and yelped again as she dangled in mid-air.

  Jaycee had brought a flashlight with her, knowing Addie couldn’t see in the dark like Shifters. Jaycee shone it around now, and Addie saw a wall with dirt brushed away from it, a hole in the wall, and empty space beyond.

  She released the belaying device and let herself down a little more slowly, grateful for the gloves. When she reached the bottom, a tight space, Jaycee helped her unlock the ropes and step out of the harness.

  Tiger waited for them at the opening. Without speaking, he turned and squeezed through. Addie went next, and Jaycee followed, holding the flashlight so it would light Addie’s way but not blind Tiger.

  They moved through an almost round tunnel shored up with solid stone pressed together and mortared. Someone had made this long, long ago.

  “What is this?” Addie asked. “What’s it for?”

  “Escape tunnel,” Tiger said. “Looks like it was abandoned. There’s air coming through it.”

  Addie had noticed that. Instead of the stuffy, dusty air she’d expected, it was cool, with a flowing breeze.

  Tiger led them unerringly down this tunnel, their feet crunching on gravel. It was very dry, no dankness announcing the presence of water.

  After a long time of trudging, the opening left far behind them, Tiger stopped. Though the tunnel went on, beside him was another opening, half filled with rubble.

  He started digging through this, the rocks rolling out behind him. Jaycee started pushing the debris he shifted ahead of them into the tunnel, so it wouldn’t block their way back. Addie, after realizing what she was doing, helped.

  Tiger stopped digging. “Addie,” he said.

  Addie went to him, her heart beating faster. He’d found something.

  Before Addie could ask a question, Tiger boosted her up and over the pile of rocks he’d tunneled into. She slid down a slope on the other side, skittering and bumping in the dark, heading for a faint glow below.

  As she neared the glow, a large form rose in front of it, and she ran headlong into it. Addie tried to stop herself, but was lifted and steadied by the strong arms of Kendrick.

  * * *

  “Addison—what the hell?”

  Kendrick’s words were a croak, his voice gone after hours of being trapped beneath with no water.

  Addison’s cool hands were on him as she touched his chest, arms, face. “Kendrick—thank God you’re alive.”

  She flung her arms around him, and Kendrick held her, the relief that she was safe and whole almost making his knees buckle. He lifted her against him, tension flowing away as he clung to his mate. Addison was all right.

  Addison kissed his cracked lips. “Tiger found a way down.” She called behind her. “Jaycee, get him some water.” She turned to Kendrick again, then started as she saw Darien on the rubble a few feet away. “Hello . . .” Her breath brushed Kendrick’s face. “I’m Addie. We’re here to rescue you.”

  Darien stared, then he let out a breath. “She’s your mate all right. Damn, Kendrick, you move fast.”

  “When it’s important. Give Darien the water, Jaycee. He’s been hurt.”

  Jaycee was already unstrapping a bottle of water she’d carried down. “Whose side is he on?”

  Her voice held all kinds of suspicion, but she went to Darien and unscrewed the cap of the water bottle. Darien took it.

  “The Guardian’s side,” Darien said. “He proved himself the better.” Darien sipped water but didn’t take much before he was passing the bottle to Kendrick.

  “Kendrick shouldn’t have to prove himself to you,” Jaycee told Darien hotly. “You should have trusted him.”

  “Enough.” Kendrick drank, wiped his mouth, and tried not to crumple in gratitude for the cool liquid in his throat. “Tiger, Jaycee, take him out of here, and call Zander to come out and look at him.”

  “Zander’s here,” Addison said. “Just outside. You go first, Kendrick. We’ll take care of Darien.”

  “Doesn’t work that way.” Kendrick helped Darien to his feet. “Jaycee, get him out safely and stay with him. Don’t let anyone kill him. I’m relieving you of your duty to look after Addie and assigning you Darien.”

  Jaycee sighed in exasperation. “Sometimes it sucks being a tracker. Especially a tracker with an unreasonable leader.”

  “You can yell at me later,” Kendrick said. “Tiger—there are other Shifters down here. Some remained Lachlan’s followers, but it doesn’t matter. They’re all my Shifters, and we need to find them.”

  Tiger nodded. “On it. You next, though.”

  Kendrick knew damn well he wouldn’t leave this place until all his Shifters were accounted for and Addison was safely above. “What about Lachlan?” Kendrick asked. “Tell me someone found him and gutted him. Don’t worry about saving him for me.”

  “Haven’t seen him,” Tiger said.

  “He tricked me into thinking he’d taken my sister and her family hostage,” Addison told him. “So he could get you. I want to gut him.”

  “I bet he’s as trapped down here as you,” Jaycee said. “Caught under all the rubble like he wanted you to be.”

  “We need to make sure,” Kendrick said. “Tiger, send as much help down as you can.”

  Tiger gave another nod and assisted Darien up over the rubble. Tiger boosted Jaycee out then looked Kendrick and Addison over with his strange eyes.

  “Touch of a mate,” he said, then he scrambled up over the rocks and was gone.

  Addison looked after him in bewilderment then turned to Kendrick. “What does that mean?”

  Kendrick opened the bottle of water and took another welcome drink. “Touch of a mate heals,” he said. “When the mating is true.”

  “Did he mean you were hurt?” Addison’s hands moved over his chest again. Kendrick was sore, cut, bruised, and aching but he’d live. Not that he’d stop Addie touching him for any reason.

  “I’ll be all right,” he said.

  “Did Lachlan do this?” she asked. “Cause the cave-in?”

  “Yep. He came down here, robbed the Shifters that lived here of everything they had, lured me down, and collapsed the tunnels, trapping me and his own followers. That’s the kind of fine Shifter he is.”

  “I thought he’d taken Ivy. I couldn’t stay at the ranch and let that happen.”

  Addison spoke defiantly, as though she expected Kendrick to grow enraged, but he only ki
ssed her soft hair.

  “A leader has to make decisions like that,” he said, enjoying her warmth. “You weigh your safety against that of others and make your choice. I don’t blame you for going.”

  “Really?” Addison blinked at him in the glow of the flashlight Jaycee had left. “Jaycee was convinced you’d skin her alive.”

  “She kept you safe. That’s all that matters.” Kendrick made himself release Addison. “They should be out by now. Show me the way.”

  He boosted her to the top of the rubble then handed her the flashlight. Kendrick turned to retrieve his sword from where he’d stuck it point-first into the rocks and watched in momentary confusion as the boulders seemed to part and turn to dust.

  A flash blinded him, then came a roaring in his ears. “Addison!” he shouted, but couldn’t hear his own words. “Go!”

  The rock in front of him parted and became dust, the rest of the room falling on him. He saw Addison roll back down toward him as a slab fell on the opening she’d been about to crawl through.

  Rock and debris rained down on Kendrick’s back. Addison slammed into him, and Kendrick swiftly put her under him, trying to block the worst of the fall from her. He was pinned, trapped, and the rock was crushing him, filling his mouth, his nose, his lungs.

  A light shafted through the dust, and into it strode Lachlan. He kicked Kendrick’s head where it protruded from the rock fall, and another blinding flash flared before Kendrick could see no more.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Addie wriggled and squirmed, trying to fight free of the weight crushing her back. The flashlight had gone out, buried, but a pinprick of light pierced the blackness.

  She heaved herself onto her hands and knees, and the weight slid away, along with a cascade of pebbles.

  Coughing, Addie turned, groping in the darkness. “Kendrick,” she sobbed. “Kendrick . . .”

  The light brightened, something underneath a pile of stones making them glow. Addie shoved away rock and halted, stunned, when she saw that the light came from the Sword of the Guardian.

  It lay lengthwise, unsheathed, the naked blade and hilt flashing silver fire. Addie turned her head from the sudden glare, her eyes screwing shut.

  After a time, she pried her eyes open again, a crack at a time, letting herself adjust to the light. She saw that the chamber they were in was small and now crammed with even more rubble. The sword’s light illuminated it better than the brightest flashlight. By that light, Addie saw Kendrick.

  He lay facedown, half buried in rock, and she realized he had been the weight she’d climbed out from under. His shirt had been torn open, revealing his spine and neck covered in blood. His white and black mottled hair, which Addie had admired since the first time she’d seen him, was now drenched with dirt and gore.

  “Kendrick!” Addie shouted.

  She scrambled back to him, the sword flaring with still more light. Its glow brushed the broken wreck of Kendrick’s hand that reached out toward the sword. The hand was unmoving, as was Kendrick’s entire body.

  Addie quickly slid her hand to his neck, searching for a pulse. She found nothing—no beating to tell her he was still alive, no breath, nothing.

  “Kendrick.” The word turned to a sob. Addie collapsed onto Kendrick’s back, choking with tears, her body watery with fear. “Kendrick, please, no. I love you so much.”

  “Aw, very sweet.”

  Addie jerked her head up to see Lachlan climb into the room from the direction the blast had come. The sword’s light flooded his face, half of it ruined by old scars from Kendrick’s claws.

  Addie launched herself up, fury and grief giving her strength. She slipped, her leg throbbing, and fell to the rocks beside Kendrick.

  “No, stay there with him,” Lachlan said. “That way I can skewer you together. Won’t that be nice?”

  Lachlan reached down and snatched up the sword.

  The next instant, he yelled and dropped it, wringing out his hand. Addie saw a black streak, like a brand, burned across his palm.

  “Son of a fucking . . .” Lachlan snarled, and he shifted into his half-wolf, half-beast state, his T-shirt and jeans splitting as he did. His hands became wolf claws, his face fierce and terrible, half its fur gone, revealing scarred, bare skin.

  Beneath Addie, Kendrick moved the slightest bit. Addie’s relief, fear, and anger twisted together until she could barely see, barely think.

  “Addison,” Kendrick whispered. “Sword.”

  Lachlan struck. Addie tried desperately to deflect him, but he was too swift, too strong. Lachlan’s blow landed on Kendrick’s back, claws digging in. Kendrick grunted in pain, and blood flowed where Lachlan ripped.

  Kendrick needed the sword. But it was white-hot—Addie had seen it burn Lachlan. She wouldn’t be able to pick it up.

  She grabbed for Lachlan, getting her fingers around the waistband of his torn jeans. She tried to pull him away from Kendrick, but she might as well have tried to pull over a well-rooted tree. Lachlan shrugged her off as though he barely felt her and went for Kendrick again.

  Damn it. Addie wrapped her shirt around her hand and lunged for the sword.

  As she seized the hilt, she realized it wasn’t hot at all. In fact, no matter how much light the sword radiated, it was comfortably cool.

  Surprised, Addie freed her hand from the shirt and grasped the hilt with her bare fingers. The sword flashed, but was easy to hold, not as heavy as she’d feared.

  Behind her, Lachlan struck at Kendrick again. Kendrick managed to drag himself up enough to grasp Lachlan around the waist and pull him down to him.

  The two men grappled on the rocks, slipping and sliding, Kendrick trying to get a lock on the man’s throat. But he was hurt and Lachlan was whole, strong, unyielding.

  Addie snarled at Lachlan and smacked him with the sword.

  Lachlan scrambled up and spun around, his gray wolf eyes widening. “Hey, watch where you’re swinging that.”

  Kendrick got to his hands and knees. Lachlan turned and kicked him in the stomach. Kendrick, blood dripping from his mouth, went down.

  Addie shrieked. She held the sword in both hands and started beating Lachlan with it, not sure whether she hit him with the flat or the edge. Lachlan, a ferocious beast with a scarred wolf face, backed under her onslaught.

  In a moment, he would turn on her, batter the sword away, and kill her. Addie knew that. But then he’d kill Kendrick, and Addie would prevent that for as long as she had breath.

  “I’m a waitress,” she yelled at Lachlan. “I’m supposed to make coffee, not fight mythical beasts with magic swords. Why don’t you just go away?”

  “Don’t play with that, little girl,” Lachlan said, his voice a guttural snarl. “Stroking Kendrick’s sword won’t get you anything from him. Why don’t you stroke mine instead?”

  Addie’s rage escalated. She continued beating him, then behind her, she was aware of a long, low, growl.

  The growl held the fury of ages, an old, old anger that reached back to its ancestors, who’d been forced to fight for the princes of the hated Fae. A white tiger, battered and bloody, rose from the debris, his ears flat, his body moving with the deliberate, slow, almost trembling stalk of a cat intent on its kill.

  Lachlan howled, the primal cry of a wolf. He went for Kendrick, his massive arms spread, his claws primed to gouge his enemy.

  Addie heaved the sword in her sore arms, brought it around, point-first, and drove it straight into Lachlan’s side.

  Lachlan’s howl turned to a roar of anger. He grabbed the sword’s blade that stuck out of his ribs, then cried out again as the sword burned him.

  The sword was still cool to Addie’s hands. She stared as Lachlan fought it but she didn’t let go.

  Blood gushed from Lachlan’s side, but Shifters, it seemed, were tough to kill. Lachlan jerked himse
lf around, the sword tearing from him, and lunged for Addie, his wolf mouth open and ready to rip into her.

  Kendrick sprang. He was filthy with dirt, his front leg hung askew, and blood coated his mouth, but his spring was true and elegant.

  He leapt directly at Lachlan, a cat moving in a precise arc to take down his prey.

  Lachlan whirled from Addie to face Kendrick’s attack, but he didn’t have a chance. Kendrick landed on Lachlan without flinching, opened his tiger jaws, and tore out Lachlan’s throat.

  Blood, hot and red, gushed from the wolf as he howled and scrabbled, trying to get Kendrick off him. Kendrick yanked his head back and spat blood. Lachlan’s hands slipped from Kendrick’s white fur, the howl quickly becoming a drawn-out cry of agony.

  Kendrick shifted back to human, his naked body shaking under the glow of the sword, his face stark, his broken left arm folded across his chest.

  But his eyes were green and steady as he turned to Addie. “Addison. The sword.”

  Addie grabbed it, the blade coated with Lachlan’s blood. Kendrick snatched it by the hilt, tried to get to his feet, and fell back to his knees. Addie was next to him, her hand under his shoulder, helping him up again.

  Lachlan was still breathing, blood all over his throat, chest, and face as he slowly shifted back to human.

  “Fuck you, Kendrick,” he whispered. “I’ll see you in the Summerland—and I’ll best you there.”

  “You’ll see me,” Kendrick said. “Goddess go with you, Lachlan.”

  Kendrick touched Lachlan’s face. Lachlan, who’d moved feebly to bite him, suddenly sank back, the enraged expression vanishing from his face. He gazed up at Kendrick with pain in his gray eyes, and sudden loneliness and need.

  “Guardian,” Lachlan said, his voice fading. “Don’t leave me this time.”

  Kendrick brushed Lachlan’s hair from his forehead. “I won’t,” he promised, his voice gentling. “See you on the other side, my old friend.”

  Lachlan gave one feeble, very brief nod.

  Kendrick drew a long breath. He raised the Sword of the Guardian, which flared anew, lighting every facet in the rocks around them and making them glitter like jewels.