Rise of the Gryphon

  Talk about missed opportunities.

  Could he temporarily block the bone's influence long enough to get through to the real Evalle? Maybe, if she gave him the time he needed for the spell to work. But if she figured out what he was doing too soon, she might go from being aroused to furious. That could end with her shifting into her beast and killing him, because he would cut his arms off before he harmed her.

  Smiling to keep up the charade, he said, "Ready for something special?"

  Her eyes glowed brighter, almost as bright as the dazzling smile she gave him. "Absolutely. Bring it."

  "Then close your eyes and cover your ears with your hands."

  That earned him a confused frown. "Why?"

  "Closing off your senses heightens your sensitivity to touch." True, but he was playing on her sexual naivete. She might be able to kill a demon six different ways, but she'd had very little experience with men.

  "Oh. Okay." Hooking her glasses in the opening of her shirt, she slapped her hands over her ears and closed her eyes.

  As if the real Evalle would go along with anything that easily?

  Keeping his voice soft, he immediately started chanting words he'd learned among the Ashaninka tribe where he'd grown up, and moved in a slow circle around her.

  By the time he reached her front again, her smile had deteriorated into a flat line of discontent. A crease formed at the bridge of her nose with her concentration.

  His words were getting past her hands. She was hearing him.

  Her eyes flew open, glaring with promise of retaliation. She dropped her hands and balled them into fists. "You lied to me."

  He kept chanting, his voice growing stronger.

  It wasn't working.

  Storm could feel the bone's power fighting him, trying to push him away. Moving back a step out of her reach, he shouted native words in his chant, telling the bone, "You can't have her. She's mine."

  She took a step toward him, fists cocked. "Stop it. I told you to never use your majik on me."

  True. He'd just broken his word, but he'd do far worse to guard her from harm. His chants were loud now, harsh, biting sounds he forced power into, rushing the spell.

  "Damn you!" She dove at him, hands stretched out toward his neck.

  Just as he raised his arms to deflect her hands, Evalle's face changed in midflight from fury to confusion. He caught her when she fell against him, limp from the sudden loss of the unknown power. Chugging in deep breaths, he lifted her up and hugged her close, whispering words to soothe her.

  She panted and trembled as if she'd run to the top of Mount Everest.

  Their hearts beat in a staccato, so fast he couldn't tell his from hers. She got her footing and tightened her grip on his arms, then pushed up to bear her own weight. He let her ease back, but he held on, watching a mix of emotions flash through her eyes until one came through clearly. Humiliation.

  Damn that witch to an eternal hell.

  He couldn't let go of Evalle yet, not with her looking at him as though she'd degraded herself.

  She drew in a deep breath and said, "That was--"

  "Not you, sweetheart. It's that freakin' bone. It started to influence you as soon as it wrapped around your arm back at the Beast Club."

  Evalle looked down at her wrist then back at him. "What's it doing?"

  "Imogenia said unless you intended to use it for dark arts it only enhances your desire. I'm guessing it amplifies or boosts your intention to get what you want. I think when you want something, the bone drives more power into that want until it overrides everything else, demanding you fulfill the urge or desire above all."

  Nodding her head, she looked away, eyes glancing here and there. "I can't tell when anything changes. I need to figure out when the Volonte's power is taking over."

  He thought on that and recalled how her skin had turned to fire as he held her. "Try to notice when your skin heats up. I could feel it getting hotter as that armband influenced you."

  She lifted her gaze back to his with a wry smile tilting her lips. "Sure that wasn't your influence?"

  Glad to hear the amusement in her voice after what she'd just gone through, he leaned close, inhaling her delicious scent. "You'll know when it's me, and I'll make you hot in a far better way."

  She shivered, and he knew damn well she wasn't cold.

  "Careful," she warned. "Or we'll be right back where we started." But she'd said that in a breathless voice that was so damned sexy it rode along his senses, stroking him even harder.

  Evalle whispered, "What'd you do to . . . uhm, stop me from attacking you a minute ago?"

  That broke the tension threatening to snap his body in half. He sucked in a deep breath and straightened away from her, anything to keep from pulling her up against him. "I used a spell to wrap you and dilute the power, but it's probably only temporary. I doubt it will hold long. We need to get that thing off your arm."

  She wiped a hand over her face. "In the meantime, I'll be . . . dangerous to be around."

  He could see where this was going. "I'm not letting you out of my sight. I'm not concerned."

  "You should be. I'm not Bernie. I can kill you."

  He had more faith in her than she had in herself. "I'll take my chances."

  She got that stubborn look on her face, but she didn't argue with him. "That armband had to be why Imogenia was acting erratic when we first met her. I thought she was on some cooked-up drugs. Think she was using a spell to block her reactions?"

  "Possibly, and one much stronger than mine."

  "She could have told me about this. She might have told us the truth, but she was twisting the words. Probably pissed that I got the upper hand on her." Evalle pounded her fist into her palm and started pacing. "I'm going to find that bitch and break her--"

  "E-valle."

  She snapped her head around to him and snarled, "What?"

  Ah, hell. "You're letting the bone influence you again."

  Her mouth opened and closed. She started to say something, then just growled. "Crap. I have to talk to Macha and VIPER. If I go around Sen with this thing, it'll end in a bloodbath."

  Of her blood. "You're taking it off."

  "I have to gift it to someone. Remember? Who am I going to give it to?"

  "Me."

  "We already had that discussion. No. Besides, I wouldn't give this to my worst enemy." She rubbed her arm. "I'm tired, Storm. I need to go home and get some sleep."

  Telling Evalle he wanted her close to keep her safe would probably set her off again, but he couldn't leave her alone with her wearing the powerful artifact. "You're staying at my place."

  "No."

  Didn't she realize this was not up for debate? She wasn't safe being out alone, when anyone could trigger a reaction from her. "Why not?"

  "I don't want a replay of Sex in the Country."

  "You know I won't do anything."

  "I'm worried about what I might do to you, Storm, plus I need to talk to Macha before she hears about these games another way and thinks I'm holding back information."

  Had she lost her mind? "Talk to Macha while you're wearing an ancient bone that shoves your pissed-off level into hyper speed? She's dynamite and you're a hot fuse. She raises your hackles when she's in a good mood, and right now she's at the end of her patience with Alterants. Snarl at her once and she'll destroy you with a flip of her finger. You can't do this."

  Evalle leaned forward, her mouth rigid as she gritted her teeth against unleashed anger. "I am doing this, so let's hope your spell helps channel my inner passive child."

  Yeah, right. She didn't have a passive bone in her body and there wasn't a spell on this earth that would turn her into a docile woman.

  SIX

  Storm drove through downtown Atlanta with one hand on the steering wheel and his other toying with a strand of Evalle's dark hair while she slept in the passenger seat. This woman had breathed life back into his heart. Had made him care about living again.


  How was he going to keep the hardheaded Alterant safe?

  If his visions and his spirit guide were right about the witch doctor from South America being close, he had to figure a way to keep that bitch away from Evalle, especially with Evalle's control compromised.

  Turning off Marietta Street, he drove down to an area below the main street levels. His truck tires bumped over the rails of an old train track that gave history to the iconic Underground Atlanta entertainment mall.

  Jostled mildly, Evalle slept like the dead, just as she had for the whole trip back from the mountains. He didn't want to wake her, but she had less than fifteen minutes to get inside her apartment before light leaking over the eastern horizon turned into full-blown daylight.

  He didn't want to leave her either, but he'd finally relented when she'd argued she wouldn't rest if she spent the whole time worrying about what she might do to him.

  Also, with her safe in her underground apartment he'd have time to do some tracking.

  Driving across the last section of the cracked concrete lot where knee-high weeds sprouted, he parked in front of a crumbling brick building that shielded Evalle's basement home.

  And sat there for several seconds, indulging in a stolen moment. Just the two of them. No one to save. No one to kill. What he wouldn't give to make this time stretch into infinity.

  He leaned over the console and kissed her softly.

  She woke with a start, alert. Her bright green eyes met his. He'd taken her sunglasses off when she'd fallen asleep. They were parked in the dark shadow of the building, where no light would harm her eyes.

  Evalle breathed deeply and smiled.

  Sunshine came in many forms. The ball of fire that burst into the sky daily had nothing on one of her smiles. She leaned forward and kissed him back, fingers gliding into his hair, then curving around the back of his head to pull him closer.

  And just like that, he had the erection from hell.

  He held her face, tasting slowly, when he practically shook with wanting her. When he traced his fingers down to her shoulder, he slipped his hand around her neck.

  Her skin started to heat, but he was ready this time and broke the kiss. Or tried to.

  She wrenched him closer, kissing with more urgency.

  "Evalle . . . honey," he murmured when he could get a word out. "Have to stop."

  "No."

  He didn't grab her this time. No sudden moves unless he wanted to go airborne. Instead, he said, "The armband."

  She paused, kissed him again, then paused once more, hesitating with indecision, but this time she pulled away and released a sigh weighted with frustration.

  He could sympathize. Frustration had become a natural state for him, but it appeared that some of his spell was still holding. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

  "Yes." She snagged her glasses off the dash and shoved them onto her face before opening the door to get out. He met her at the front of the truck.

  Light glowed in the eastern sky, but she had eleven minutes left until the first rays of the sun broke the horizon. He wanted eight of those but wouldn't push her for more than she could handle right now, so he stood a few steps away, hands loose at his sides.

  Had to be ready for anything.

  She crossed the few steps separating them and lifted her fingers to his chin, then her lips to his, kissing him gently. Pinning his hands at his sides to keep from touching her took all the control he had left.

  A man could only resist so much.

  When she moved back, she kept her fingers on his face. "I'm ready for . . . more. For us."

  Words he'd dreamed about hearing. "You have no idea how much I'd like that to be the case but--"

  "But nothing." She lifted her glasses long enough for him to see her clear gaze before she dropped them back into place. "This is me, Storm. Not the bone. You said to trust you. When I get this thing off my arm, I want to try . . . with you."

  Those words hadn't come easily.

  Her pride had prevented her from taking the plunge before now and either making a fool of herself or harming him. But that same pride forced her to face her fears. To meet him on equal footing. With Evalle's deep sense of honor, she'd follow through no matter how much the idea might terrify her.

  Humbling to be given a trust so precious.

  He'd never let her get to the point of feeling terrified, and he believed she had plenty of control over shifting when she was fully in charge of her actions.

  No woman could stack up next to this one.

  Wrapping his fingers around her hand, he turned her palm to kiss the soft pads. "I'll be here when you're ready, but not until you really are ready. Right now, I just want that thing off your arm before you try to kill Sen or Macha."

  She laughed. "Let's hope I have more control around those two than I seem to have around you."

  He'd like to be near when she saw those two. "Where're you meeting Macha?"

  "Upstairs here in the building, on the roof."

  Evalle would be in her apartment until dark, which would give him time he needed. "Come to my place before you go to VIPER."

  "I don't want you signing on with VIPER again. Not for this Alterant issue."

  "I'll be looking for you."

  She rolled her eyes and grumbled something acerbic under her breath. "This is my fight. Even if you sign on with VIPER again, only two people can get into the beast championship with this armband. I'll probably have to argue hard to get on that VIPER team, but Macha's opinion should sway Sen. I'm telling you right now that I'm not going to vote for you to go, so you have no reason to come back to VIPER."

  "With my background, I'm the best piece of intel on these beast fights, and I plan to dig up more on the ABC." That made Storm the prime candidate to be entered as a fighter. Something Tzader would agree with. The only other choice would be entering Evalle, but she couldn't shift into her Alterant beast state, so she couldn't possibly fight another Alterant and win.

  Didn't matter. Storm was going with her regardless.

  She said, "Then share what you find out with me and I'll give the information to VIPER."

  "We'll talk."

  "It's a good thing I've got my inner beast under control, because I have the urge to beat some sense into you."

  He gave her a quick kiss. "You're out of time. Get inside and don't forget to stop by after you talk to Macha."

  Shaking her head, she lifted her hand, fingers pointed toward the metal door that covered her elevator. The door slid open and an oversized elevator appeared. All directed by her kinetic power. When she stepped inside, she turned around. "Where're you going?"

  "Home." He hadn't lied. He was going to his house first to grab a shower before he headed back to the area where the Beast Club had been held in the mountains.

  Then he'd shift into his jaguar so he could track the slightest scent.

  He'd find Imogenia and persuade her to tell him everything about that bone that she hadn't shared the first time.

  SEVEN

  Imogenia dragged Bernie along on his spelled chain leash that clanked every time he caught up to her. She should make him shift and carry her, but he'd whine about that.

  Worthless excuse for an Alterant.

  Couldn't even kill a jaguar.

  Thorns on a bush caught her dress and snagged a hole.

  Next time I make a deal, it won't include traipsing all over a mountain in the middle of the night.

  With the sun finally ready to appear, Imogenia picked her way along the base of Oakey Mountain, relieved this miserable morning would come to an end. How was she going to gain Noirre majik with this wretched beast?

  Why couldn't she have captured an Alterant with some backbone?

  A man like that jaguar shifter who'd kicked Bernie's butt.

  She passed through a copse of trees that shivered in the wind and entered a clearing she'd visited before midnight on her way to the Beast Club.

  Rattling erupted all around her, as if hundr
eds of rattlesnakes circled where she stood.

  Bernie whimpered.

  Sorry excuse for a man. She yanked the leash. "Shut up."

  A woman emerged from the shadows cast by a stand of trees clustered on the shadow side of the mountain. When she came into focus, Imogenia could see that she wore an ankle-length hooded cape the color of a violent sea. Two red boot tips peeked out. She lifted her head enough for the light to catch her face, and thick lashes outlined exotic brown eyes.

  Everything about that face was too perfect.

  Imogenia never trusted perfection in anything. "Nadina."

  "You left plenty of trail, yes?"

  "I zigzagged all over the place for the past four hours." Imogenia had no idea why that had been part of the negotiation. She shouldn't have been so anxious to deal, but the chance to get Noirre majik didn't come along often.

  Like never.

  "When you leave, walk back the way you came until you can circle around this clearing, then go to your car."

  "I will do that." Imogenia didn't know why she had to make a wide arc around this clearing, but in the interest of getting along, she would.

  "You were successful at the Beast Club?"

  "Of course." Imogenia flipped her chin up. "Not like I would have missed finding the target. Talk about diva attitude. She was the only woman wearing sunglasses at night. It turned out better than I expected."

  "Bueno."

  "Except for one thing."

  "What?"

  One word shouldn't raise the hairs along Imogenia's arms, but Nadina had loaded that one with plenty of threat. "Did you know Daniella was a traitor in my coven?"

  "Of course. Do not look so put-upon. Evalle needed something to trade with you."

  You better hope I never see a chance for payback. So Evalle was the name of that mouthy bitch with the jaguar. "Well, I have no strand of hair from her because she had Daniella to bargain with."

  Nadina studied on that for a moment. "What of the armband? It is now on her arm, yes?"

  "Ye-sss," Imogenia stressed impatiently. Nadina must normally deal with morons to keep asking me stupid questions. "I told you I was successful."

  Waving a hand tipped with long red nails, Nadina said, "Then the strand of hair is of no importance."

  Would have been nice to have had all the information before walking into that Beast Club. Imogenia should never have dealt with this unknown witch, but she needed more power than she held. She'd suspected a traitor in her coven for a while. Nadina had shown up with Volonte bones Imogenia would never have located. Even for one who practiced dark majik, Nadina had some serious connections. The Noirre spell Nadina agreed to give her in exchange for getting the armband locked on Evalle had seemed like a small favor until the woman's jaguar almost killed Bernie. "Back to Daniella."