Book 16: Forgotten(10)

The Beast! It’s the Beast! screamed the panicky little voice in her brain. But if the big Kindred really did want to kill or hurt her, they why was he trying to save her? Especially after she had wounded him?

“You asshole!” the guy in the hoody growled. He was still fighting to get closer to the Kindred and now he raised his gun, which he must have tucked into his pocket, and pressed it to the Kindred’s head. Kate had no idea why he hadn’t used the gun earlier but it didn’t matter—now he had it out and there was a deadly look in his eyes that said he wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.

Inside her, the panic warred with the rational side of her brain. Part of her was screaming that she had to get away from the big Kindred at all costs but the other part was yelling that he was trying to save her—that this fear she felt wasn’t rational or right.

Not knowing what she was going to do, Kate raised her own gun which was still firmly gripped in her right hand.

“Kate,” the big Kindred said and there was despair in his deep voice. “Kate, baby…please, no.”

Kate didn’t answer. She just took aim and pulled the trigger.





Chapter Five





“Gah!” The guy in the hoody stumbled backwards, grabbing his throat. Blood seeped between his fingers and then he lost his grip on the big Kindred and fell over.

Got him, Kate thought and then huge black blossoms began to explode in her field of vision. She felt her fingers slipping again and knew she was losing her grip on the skinny support strut. Her other shoe fell. Dimly, she heard someone scream from far below.

Gonna fall, she thought woozily as the world swayed around her. Gonna fall…gonna die. Well, at least this way the Beast can’t get me.

Then strong hands were gripping her under her arms and dragging her up. Kate felt herself pulled up and over the railing. Her eyes closed for a moment and when they opened, she found she was being cradled against the big Kindred’s broad chest.

“Kate?” he asked hoarsely. “Lalli? Are you all right?”

No, whispered the panicky little voice in her brain. No, I’m being held in the arms of the Beast. I’ll never be all right again.

Then blackness ate the world and she knew no more.

* * * * *

“Gods! Lalli? Please be all right!” Rone cradled her to him, staring down into the delicate, familiar features. Kate was completely out—hanging limp in his arms like a doll. Her breathing was still rapid and light but she didn’t seem to be injured—at least not in any way that he could see.

He couldn’t understand what was going on. Why didn’t Kate remember him? And why was she so afraid of him? It wasn’t just the normal fear of a small woman confronted by a big male either—he could actually see panic in her big green eyes when she looked at him. And being Wulven, he could smell her fear—it hung around her like a curtain and intensified every time he got near her. Why?

It was as though all she could see when she looked at him was the Beast. What had she said earlier? That he was the Beast coming to eat her up? Something like that. Which was crazy—Rone would never let his Beast hurt her. He knew she could sense it inside him but it had never frightened her so much before—not even back when they were first getting to know each other.

But now it’s like she doesn’t know me at all. When will her memory come back? Will it ever come back?

The sound of shouting from the other end of the long hallway pulled him out of his dismal thoughts. He realized that men in uniform were running towards him—guards of some kind, no doubt. And if they got to him before he could get away, they would take Kate from him and he might never get to see her again.

Have to get her out of here! Take her someplace I can reason with her—try to make her remember.

“Hey—hey, you!” one of the guards yelled.

Rone didn’t hesitate any longer. He turned and ran, sprinting with Kate cradled in his arms, as fast as he could go. Thanks to his Wulven speed and strength, that was pretty damn fast. The security guards behind him probably saw only a blur before he was gone from their line of sight. In just a few seconds more, he was out of the mall completely and back to the little Kindred shuttle which doubled as a car when he and Kate were on Earth.

Gently he put her into the passenger seat and buckled her in, using the harness which he had modified specially to fit her small size. Then he got in the driver’s seat and gunned the engine.

The mall wasn’t a safe place anymore—he had to get Kate out of here although where he should take her wasn’t exactly clear. Someplace he could talk to her and get his arm fixed up. It was really beginning to throb by now and he knew even with his healing abilities he needed to get it dressed and cleaned before the flesh and tendons could start to knit together again.

I could take her to the Mother Ship but she might wake up along the way and begin to panic again. It would probably be even worse if he took her to The Finder, the ship they shared as their home, presently in orbit around Earth’s moon. If she woke up in unfamiliar surroundings and thought he was kidnapping her it wasn’t going to help her trust him.

So then, where could he go? Rone didn’t know—he only knew they had to get out of here and fast—before the sirens he heard blaring in the distance caught up with them.

* * * * *

Kate woke up with a quiet humming sound in her ears and the feeling that she was moving. She looked down at herself and saw that she was wearing some kind of strap across her chest and lap—a seatbelt? Was she in a car?

Looking to her right, she saw street lights and houses whizzing by in the deepening gloom. So she was in a car. But who was driving? She felt like she ought to know but she didn’t know why. There was a scent in the air that tickled her nose and filled her senses—a warm, masculine spice that was somehow familiar and yet unlike anything she’d ever smelled before. There was another smell too—a coppery odor that bothered her.

Blood. It’s blood, she thought drowsily. But who was bleeding?

She turned her head and saw that the huge Kindred was driving. Immediately the drowsiness vanished and her heart kicked into overdrive.

“Who are you? Where are you taking me? Let me go!” she blurted, struggling to sit up straighter in the seat.

He glanced at her, a worried look in his glowing blue eyes.

“Thank the Goddess you’re awake. Do you feel all right?” he asked in that deep, growling voice.

“I’ll be fine as soon as I get out of here.” She began fumbling with one hand for the release on the unfamiliar seat harness and feeling for the door handle with the other.

“That won’t do you any good,” he said quietly. “The doors are voice locked to my voice only.”

“What? Why? Let me out of here!”

“I’m sorry, Lalli.” He shot her an apologetic look. “I can’t do that. I have to talk to you…try to make you remember.”

“If you think I’m going to suddenly remember that we’re married you’re crazy,” Kate spat. “Now let me go you big asshole!”

“Kate, please…” He pulled the car to the side of the road and turned to face her. “I can tell you’re frightened of me although I don’t know why—”

“After what I saw you do with your eyes back at the store?” she interrupted him. “What the hell was that, anyway?”

“A partial shift.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I saw that you were in danger and the Beast came out a little bit. I was feeling…very protective…very upset. It happens sometimes when I have strong emotions but I would never let it all the way out. Not around you, baby.”

Kate shrank back in her seat, trying to get as far from him as possible.

“So you admit you have a Beast inside you?”

His eyes blazed. “Hell, yes I admit it! What good would it do to deny it? I know you can sense it—you have from the first minute I met you.”

Kate stared at him in disbelief. She’d thought it was something he wasn’t aware of—or maybe a warning her Knowing was trying to give her that he was bad inside somehow. Sometimes it spoke in metaphorical terms but apparently in this case it was being literal. There really was another creature inside the huge Kindred and he acknowledged it.

“Let me just show you something,” he said and started to reach inside his jacket pocket.

Instinctively, Kate reached for her Glock—only to find it was gone.

“It’s someplace safe,” he told her, plainly seeing her gesture. “You’ll get it back when I’m sure you won’t shoot me with it again.”

“You were grabbing for me,” Kate reminded him tightly. “Of course I shot you.”

“I was trying to keep you from going over that damn railing,” he growled, still digging in the inside pocket of his jacket. “Which you did anyway. And then you nearly shot me again.”

“I didn’t though,” Kate pointed out, although she had no idea why she hadn’t. She’d had every intention of shooting the big Kindred point blank between the eyes but at the last minute, her hand had jerked and she’d targeted the robber instead. Why? She didn’t know. She had no answers when it came to this strange male who now had her in his power. She only knew that being near him made her heart pound and her breath come in short, panicky gasps.