The warriors staked out the unconscious Diego and got out their knives. Cassidy wrenched herself from her captors and shifted back to wildcat as she leapt onto Diego, shielding him with her body.
“You have mate bond?” a new voice asked.
Another warrior had joined the general. He spoke English with a thick accent and, though he wore silver mail, he wasn’t armed.
“He asks me to translate,” the new Fae said. “I know some human languages.”
Translate this. Cassidy curled her lip into a snarl. She’d spray him if she could.
The general began speaking rapidly without cracking a smile. The translator said for him, “It is known that the Shifters believe they form magical bonds with their mates. That the bond is so great they will die for one another. His lordship wishes to see if this is true.”
Oh, I’d die for Diego, all right. Cassidy knew she would, in a heartbeat. But I’d rather kill you instead.
Cassidy didn’t bother shifting to answer or even acknowledging she was being spoken to. The translator and the general didn’t seem to care.
“He will be awakened now.”
Two of the warriors strode forward, and one dumped a skin of water on Diego’s face. Cassidy ducked in to protect him, taking most of the cold water on her own head. She shook, in the cat way, and the warriors laughed.
Diego stirred beneath her, eyelids fluttering.
No, Diego, stay asleep. Don’t feel this.
Stubborn Diego forced his eyes open. He assessed the situation without jerking, without panic, and looked at Cassidy.
The look told her everything she needed to know.
“Human being,” the translator said for the general. “You have rutted with this creature?”
Cassidy swallowed bile and forced herself back to her human form. Diego looked past her at the two Fae standing over them.
“Watch your mouth,” he said.
“You have formed a mate bond with her?”
“No,” Cassidy said quickly. “He hasn’t. He barely knows me.”
“And yet, you, Shifter woman, rushed to his rescue and did not allow him to enter Faerie without you. And now you protect him like a mother pukka with her cubs.”
“What’s a pukka?” Diego whispered.
“Furry, horsy, nasty, ugly thing with claws,” Cassidy said. “Another breeding experiment. Some say they were trying to breed more of those and got Shifters instead.”
“You don’t look that bad,” Diego said.
“Thank you.”
“Do you have this bond?” the translator said to Diego. “Would you die for her?”
“Yes,” Diego said.
“Damn you, Diego,” Cassidy whispered frantically. “They’re not kidding.”
“I know they’re not. They’re bullies, just like the people I grew up with. Tying me down and sticking arrows into me is easy. Let’s see what happens when I get up and fight them instead.”
The translator told all this to the general, who shook his head.
“They don’t trust you,” Cassidy said. “And they don’t care what we think of them.”
“You understand them?”
“About one word in four.”
“Throw yourself on me, Cass,” Diego whispered. “And start bawling.”
Cassidy did it without asking questions. Diego loved that about her.
“My belt buckle is steel,” he said into her ear as she pretended to sob. “Get it off me, use it. Loosen me if you can and help me get my gun. If you can’t get me free, just shoot the mo fos.”
Cassidy kept on wailing as she unbuckled his belt. She let her hands turn to claws to pop the buckle from the leather.
The general gave orders that the other guy didn’t bother translating. Two warriors came forward and dragged Cassidy off Diego again. She managed to snag her fingers and one foot into the bonds on Diego’s left wrist and ankle, which came up with her.
Diego rolled over, almost screaming at the pain in his side, jerked his other wrist free, and dove for his pistol.
He got a foot toward it before two Fae, damn strong for their thin builds, grabbed him and flung him facedown, tethered him again, and secured him by driving a bronze knife right through his hand. Diego grunted in pain. The sound was swallowed by a Fae screaming—Cassidy using the belt buckle.
Diego heard bow strings thrum, the whistling release of arrows. Dios, they were killing her.
At the same time, the earth began to shake.
The hoch alfar didn’t like that. Neither did Diego.
Cassidy leapt past Diego, going for the pistol. She brought it up and around, firing at the Fae chasing her. She’d never shot a gun before, obviously. Her aim went wide, but she made the Fae dive for cover.
The earth was erupting. Diego turned his head to see boulders burst upward into the misty sky. Then a strange darkness started seeping from the woods.
Diego blinked, but he wasn’t hallucinating. Darkness did emanate from the woods to crawl along the ground, the fog dissipating before it. The Fae warriors were panicking, terrified of it.
Diego wasn’t thrilled by it either. “Cass!”
But she was right there, her warm scent on him. “I don’t know what it is,” she said. “I have to get you free. This is going to hurt.”
“Yeah, you think?”
The general was shouting. The translator was no longer bothering with them.
Cassidy used her claws to rip up Diego’s T-shirt, then she put one hand on the knife. “Close your eyes and think of something good.”
Diego’s eyes slid closed. “That’s easy.”
Cassidy in his shower, her red lips smiling, her hand soothing his body. Leaning her against the wall, warm water pouring over their bodies…
White-hot pain shot through him as Cassidy jerked the knife from his hand. The pain dwindled to mere torture while she tightly bound his hand in a cotton strip torn from his shirt. She hated hurting him, he saw, but Cassidy had courage.
The weird darkness flowed up the hill and surrounded Diego and Cassidy, Fae warriors and all. The Fae made a ring, swords and bows out, the translator hiding behind the general in the middle.
The general shouted commands. Diego didn’t understand the words, but the man sounded exactly like his sergeant in the Marines.
The darkness disappeared, instantly and without warning. Sunlight shone down on about two hundred warriors dressed in skins and carrying short but mean-looking swords that glittered in the sudden light. They all had dark hair and skin and were tall and wiry like Reid.