“There she is,” Reny said, halting the video as she recognized Koni Handler stepping into a white van with an emblem painted on its side of a spread-winged raven flying across a full moon.
“Shit.” Sebastian leaned over her shoulder, his expression grim. “Can you enlarge it?”
She zoomed in on the blurred image of the driver. “Do you recognize him?”
The heat from his body pumped through the room. “Unfortunately.”
Her breath caught in her throat as she glanced up to meet his bloodthirsty gaze. “Is he Pantera?”
“No,” he instantly denied. “But I think I know how to find him.”
She rose to her feet, heading out of the office. “We’ll take my car.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he teased, allowing her to lead them out of the bar and down the street.
She waited until they were in her car and Sebastian had punched in the GPS coordinates that had them heading east before she asked the obvious question.
“How do you know the driver?”
There was another blast of heat, revealing that beneath Sebastian’s façade of calm focus was a smoldering fury.
“We discovered that he’s a disciple for our enemy.”
“Disciple?” She sent him a puzzled glance. “That’s a strange term.”
“They worship the goddess who’s determined to destroy us.”
She searched his tense profile, looking for some indication he was screwing with her.
“A goddess?”
“Yes.” His fingers tapped on his knee, clearly impatient to get to where they were going. “Which means this might be even worse than we originally anticipated.”
Shit. He was serious.
“What goddess?” she demanded, wondering if the night could get any more bizarre. “And why does she want to destroy you?”
“I promise to explain it as soon as we find our missing victim,” he said, his tone distracted.
Reny grimaced, not in the mood to insist on answers.
She was still trying to accept the thought that she might be a Pantera.
She didn’t want to add in a mysterious goddess who might or might not want to destroy her.
They traveled in silence as Reny followed the GPS directions to the edge of town. At last, she turned into what looked like an abandoned industrial complex.
“Pull over there.” Sebastian pointed toward a stack of pylons. She parked the car and shut off the engine, already prepared when he turned to send her a worried glance. “Reny.”
“Don’t.” She pointed a warning finger into his face. “Start.”
With a roll of his eyes, he shoved open the door and climbed out of the car. Reny pulled her gun from the holster before following him through the thick shadows toward a three-story brick building at the edge of the complex.
Expecting him to head directly for the loading doors that stood open, Reny was caught off guard when he took a wide path around the far edge of the building.
“Where are we going?” she demanded, keeping her voice pitched low so it wouldn’t carry.
“There could be Pantera,” he explained. “We need to stay downwind.”
She jumped over a pile of coiled steel cable that was nearly hidden by the patches of weeds.
Damn. She was going to end up with a broken neck if she wasn’t careful.
“I thought you said a Pantera couldn’t be involved,” she said.
His pace never slowed. “I said a Pantera couldn’t shift away from the Wildlands, not that we haven’t discovered traitors among our people.”
“Great,” she muttered. “Any other surprises you want to spring on me?”
He glanced over his shoulder with a grin that made her blood heat. “Not while you’re clothed.”
She cursed at the instant lust that raced through her body. “Arrogant cat.”
CHAPTER 6
Sebastian reluctantly led Reny toward the narrow door at the end of the abandoned warehouse, knowing it would be a waste of breath to try and convince her to wait in the car.
Besides, he couldn’t change her nature.
Reny Smith was a born warrior. To try and make her less would break something deep inside her.
Not that it wasn’t going to make him crazy to have her charging into danger.
With one sharp tug, Sebastian had the padlock broken and was pushing open the door. Then, with a silence that no human could hope to achieve, he was sliding through the vast room that had once been filled with crates of animal pelts. The lingering odor might have masked the presence of the four humans if they hadn’t been bonded to Shakpi. The sour stench that clung to her disciples couldn’t be missed.
Halting in the shadows, Sebastian studied the humans who remained oblivious to his presence.
There was a young woman he assumed was Koni Handler. She was tied to a chair, her head bent down so her hair fell forward to hide her face, although he could hear her soft sobs from across the room.
Several feet away was an older woman with several bracelets on her scrawny arms, dressed in a brightly patterned dress. Her silver hair was pulled into a knot at the back of her head and she was currently giving two human males the evil eye.
Sebastian growled deep in his throat. There was a redheaded male with a scar that twisted one side of his face, but it was the man with lanky black hair and a rat face that Sebastian had recognized from the video surveillance.
Derek.
The bastard who’d been pretending to be an ally to the Pantera when all along he was working for their enemies.
On the plus side, it was Derek’s stupidity that had allowed the Geeks to track his movements from the voodoo shop where he’d been spying on Isi to this warehouse. Which was how Sebastian knew exactly where to locate him.
Clearly not any more impressed with the thug’s intelligence than Sebastian was, the older woman pointed her finger toward the bound woman, the heavy bracelets that circled her arms giving a loud rattle.
“You were told to kill her and dump the body.”
“We did with the ugly one,” the redhead muttered, hunching his shoulders. “This one we want to play with first.”
“Idiots.” The woman that he suspected was Lady Cerise stepped forward to slap the man on the side of his head. “My informant just called to warn me that a Pantera is in town working with the FBI. Do you want to lead them to us?”
Sebastian silently cursed, making a mental note to track down the informant. He wouldn’t tolerate traitors.
“They have no way of finding this place,” Derek boasted.
“You know nothing,” Lady Cerise snapped. “It’s easy to be a bully when you’re dealing with the dregs of humanity. The Pantera will eat you alive.” She allowed a dramatic pause. “Literally.”
“I’m not scared,” Derek muttered, ruining his cocky boast when he sent a nervous glance toward the shadows that shrouded the warehouse.
Did he sense they were near? Sebastian hoped so.
He wanted him afraid. To feel hunted.
“Because you’re stupid.” Lady Cerise pointed out the obvious. “Now get rid of her.”
The redhead folded his arms over his chest. “You ain’t in charge.”
There was a shocked silence.
“What did you say?” the older woman at last rasped.
“Our goddess, Shakpi, has returned,” the man said. “She’s in charge now.”
Sebastian covered Reny’s mouth with lightning speed, easily sensing her shock at the revelation that the goddess he’d mentioned earlier was actually walking the earth. He’d hoped to avoid sharing that little tidbit of info. At least until she’d managed to process the other shocks she’d had to endure over the past few hours.
Across the cavernous room, Derek gave a nervous laugh. “Even if she does look like a middle-aged Indian dude.”
“No shit,” the redhead agreed with a chuckle.
Not amused, Lady Cerise deliberately grasped a small satin bag she had tied around her neck.
“You will do as I say or I will place a curse on you that will cause a body part to fall off each and every day. Starting with your very small dicks.” The woman offered an evil smile. “Do you understand?”
The two men shuddered at the threat. “Fine.”
Sebastian was distracted as Reny pressed against him to whisper directly in his ear. “I have to do something.”
He wisely bit back his instinctive refusal, reminding himself that Reny would never forgive him if he tried to cage her.
Besides, he was going to need her if they were to get the female out alive.
Assuring himself that he’d soon have her back in the Wildlands where she would be safe, he turned to meet her steady gaze.
“I’ll distract them,” he murmured softly. “You circle around and get the girl.” Something that might have been relief darkened her eyes, as if she’d been dreading his refusal to accept her help. Of course, he couldn’t completely resist giving out at least one warning. “Don’t take any unnecessary risks.”
Narrowing her gaze, she abruptly framed his face in her hands and glared at his startled expression.
“You.”
“Yes?”
“Be careful.”
He blinked in surprise, having expected a lecture, not a warning. Warmth spread through his heart as she brushed her lips across his with a kiss that promised far more wicked pleasures to come.
“Careful is my middle name.”