“Gone,” the first man said. “They’re gone.”
“Gone where?”
Their fear escalated, the men stinking with it. They hadn’t bathed in a while either, so the smell was overwhelming.
“They’re dead, all right?” the second man nearly shouted. “Dead. He had them killed.”
Diego still didn’t move. “I want them.”
“Come on, man,” the first man said. “I’ll show you where we buried them. What was left of them. But we gotta go. Now.”
“Diego,” Xavier said.
Diego’s face was like stone. Cassidy took the shotgun Shane was holding unsteadily and touched it to the second man’s cheek. She leaned to him, letting her eyes go Shifter. “Who is it that you’re afraid of?” she asked.
The man gasped. “You’re one of them.”
Cassidy moved her scarf so he could see her Collar. “If you tell us the truth, you’ll be fine. Lie to me, and I’ll put up with the pain. I’ve done it before.”
The man eyed her Collar. “No, wait, you’re different.” His gaze flicked to Shane and his Collar. “You’re not with them.”
Cassidy wanted to scream, Them who? when Shane sniffed the wind.
“Aw, hell, Cass, you smell that?”
Cassidy did, and every hair on her body stood up.
“Can’t smell anything over the current BO,” Xavier said.
“Diego, get into the jeep and drive.” Cassidy pushed Xavier and his captive toward the backseat. “Just go.”
Diego gave her a hard look but, Goddess bless him, he didn’t argue. Diego shoved the first captive over and started up the jeep while Xavier pushed the second man into the backseat. Shane boosted Cassidy over the tailgate to the small space behind the seats.
Before Shane could climb in, they came. Out of the darkness, eyes shining in the jeep’s headlights, they came, bodies low to the ground, the smell overwhelming.
“Shifters,” Shane said as he dove over the tailgate. “Diego, gun it.”
“Shifters?” Xavier asked as the jeep leapt forward. “What the f**k?”
“Ferals,” Cassidy shouted. She hung on as Diego U-turned the jeep in a scattering of dirt. Every single one of the Shifters in the darkness had gone feral.
And every single one of them charged.
Eric had put Reid under his protection to reassure Cassidy, but he did not trust that Reid, once he felt better about himself, wouldn’t try to find another Shifter to bleed out for his spell. Reid might think twice about going after Collared Shifters, especially those protected by Eric, but there was an un-Collared Shifter running around Las Vegas, just waiting to be caught…
Iona Duncan.
Eric had put together the information on her himself the last couple of days, not wanting even his trackers to know that she was Shifter.
Iona owned, with her mother and sister, Duncan Construction, a company that built both residential and commercial buildings, nothing flashy, just serviceable. They’d been one of the few companies that kept going after the real estate crash, though they had to be hurting like everyone else. Humans put too much faith in building booms.
Iona’s mother was human, her father, an unknown Feline Shifter. Eric kept pretty close tabs on the Felines in his Shiftertown, and he knew that Iona’s father didn’t live there. Iona was just beyond thirty, which meant a few years past her Transition. She’d been born before the Collars, before Shiftertowns—her mother might not even have known until after Iona’s birth that the man who’d given her a daughter had been Shifter.
Iona stayed pretty low-key. She worked in the company’s office and didn’t often go to the building sites. She had a few select friends and confined her entertainments to simple outings with them or with her mother and sister.
And she was feeling the mating heat.
Eric had scented it on her at the club and knew it was only a matter of time before it started to drive her insane. She wouldn’t understand, and Eric needed to get to her before her instincts did her too much damage.
All Shifters learned careful control of their animal instincts from the time they were cubs, but Iona, who hadn’t been raised Shifter, wouldn’t have had that training. There was a good chance that her mating heat would drive her into becoming feral—Shifters who’d given in to their animal side, who’d become more animal than human, who could control no instincts at all. They mated, and killed, without restraint.
Tonight Iona had gone to the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace with her friends. Shifters weren’t allowed in the gigantic mall, but Eric was perfectly welcome to linger outside on the Strip in front of Caesars. He knew that Iona and her friends would come out that way, because his research told him they liked to walk down the street afterward and watch the dancing waters at the Bellagio.
Eric lingered, leaning on the railing, his leather jacket hiding his Collar. Next to him, men called out to passersby, thrusting leaflets for exotic dance clubs at anyone who looked interested. One of the flyers lay at Eric’s booted feet, showing a photo of a Shifter woman, bare, her hands hiding her br**sts.
Shifter women did dance in clubs, seeing nothing shaming about nudity and liking the tips. Some of the male Shifters didn’t like it, though, and Eric had to intervene with brothers angry that sisters were dancing for money. Granted, some males still thought Shifter females should be sequestered and used as cub-making machines, as they had hundreds of years ago.
Times change. We need to change with them, or we die.
Iona’s friends came out of the shops and strolled up the long walkway to the street. Iona wasn’t with them.
Damn it.
Eric strode down the length of the walk, passing Iona’s friends without looking at them. In the pressing crowd this fine night, no one noticed him.
He could tell that Iona hadn’t come out this door at all, because her scent was nowhere near it. Keeping his head down, Eric ducked inside with the rest of the tourists, hunkering a little so his height wouldn’t give him away.
He took an escalator down, patiently waiting on the moving stairs instead of shoving his way through the crowd. At the bottom, he searched the crowd, letting his nose lead him in the right direction once he’d picked up her scent.
He found Iona outside a chocolate shop, staring at the exotic confections within.
Eric stopped to watch her. Iona’s black hair was caught in a simple tail, her lean body fine-looking in jeans and blouse, her high-heeled boots making her legs long and sexy.