Her appetite gone, Tessa carried her dishes to the sink and rinsed them off, then covered the leftover spaghetti sauce and put it in the fridge.
“I can finish cleaning up,” Bailey offered.
“Great, thanks. I’m going to go get into something more comfortable.” Tessa paused a moment. “Listen, we need to get you a couple of changes of clothes, some shoes, maybe a jacket and a pair of boots. Why don’t you go online and see if you can find anything you like? Just make a note of colors and sizes and I’ll order it later.”
“I can’t ask you to do that!”
“You didn’t ask,” Tessa said with a wink. “I want to do it.”
In her room, Tessa changed into a T-shirt and a pair of sweats, then called Jileen, who didn’t bother with hello.
“So, what’s the news?” Jilly asked.
“Are you sitting down?”
“I am now.”
“Andrei rescued a girl from Katerina’s clutches last night. Saved her life.”
“Go on.”
“Her name’s Bailey. She’s only sixteen and since he couldn’t very well take her home, he brought her here.” She didn’t tell Jileen that Katerina had almost killed Andrei, or that her blood had somehow saved him.
“Is that the good news?”
“Just listen. It turns out Bailey ran away from a foster home. It sounds like she’s run away from more than one. Anyway, not only is she a runaway teen, she’s a . . .”
“A what?”
Tessa sighed. Might as well just spit it out. “A shape-shifter.”
In the silence that followed, Tessa knew Jilly was trying to decide if she was joking or not.
“It’s true,” Tessa said. Then, taking a page from Jilly’s playbook, she sighed dramatically. “So now I’ve got a runaway teenage were-panther on my hands.”
And if there were werewolves and were-panthers, were there also were-lions and tigers and bears?
Oh, my.
Chapter Twenty
Andrei stood in the shadows under a tree, arms crossed over his chest, impatiently waiting for Katerina to stop playing with her food. She had been teasing and tormenting the poor man for the better part of thirty minutes.
A sharp cry of pain and denial told him the unfortunate man’s suffering was approaching a cruel end.
Andrei was looking forward to going home when Katerina turned away from her victim. Striding toward Andrei, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. It was all he could do to keep from recoiling as her tongue—still heavily coated with her victim’s blood—plunged into his mouth.
With an oath, he shoved her aside. “What the hell, woman!”
She glared at him, her eyes red and glowing in the darkness.
Andrei spat the man’s blood from his mouth.
“I want you,” Katerina said. “I’m your wife. You’re my husband. I command you to fulfill your husbandly duties.”
“Command me? Command me!” he exclaimed, his voice rising with his anger. “You’re lucky I don’t take your head off.”
She snorted. “As if you could.”
“Don’t tempt me,” he muttered, even as he wondered if he had the strength necessary to defeat her. He would have tried right then, but he was afraid of what the consequences might be for Tessa if he failed. In the past, he’d had only himself to worry about. But Tessa had changed that.
Lips compressed, eyes still red with fury, Katerina glared at him—and then vanished from his sight.
“Shit!” Fear for Tessa swamped him. She was the best thing in his life, his only reason for existing. He couldn’t lose her. Not now. Not ever.
A desperate thought took him to her apartment.
* * *
“Andrei!” Tessa blinked up at him. “What are you doing here?”
“Mind if I come in?”
“Of course not.” She stepped back to allow him entrance, then closed and locked the door. “Is something wrong?”
Needing to hold her, he drew her into his arms. “I think I just made a big mistake and I’m afraid you’re the one who might pay for it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Katerina. She wanted me to fulfill my ‘husbandly’ duty and I refused.”
“Oh.”
“I’m afraid she’ll take her anger out on you.”
Tessa shivered. She remembered all too clearly the woman’s malevolent gaze—and razor-sharp fangs—as she warned Tessa to stay away from Andrei. “What are we going to do?”
“Unless you want to stay locked in your apartment indefinitely, there are only two options that I can think of—do what she wants or destroy her.”
“Can you? Destroy her?”