Rhyannon Byrd - Primal Instinct 04 (26 page)

“Damn it, Liv. I do like you,” he muttered, feeling
intensely awkward. He wasn’t used to admitting his feelings to himself, much
less out loud…for others to hear. His gaze shifted away, focusing on the
highway, and he scraped his fingers back through his hair. “And let’s face it.
It’s not like you’d ever want me for anything more than an affair anyway.”

He could sense the surprise his words caused, but
before she could ask what he meant, Kellan called out as he and Noah came
walking toward the truck, their arms filled with packs of chips, candy bars and
plastic soda bottles. “Morgan just called,” Kell told them, his auburn hair
hanging over his brow. “She hit some traffic and is running a little late.
Probably won’t be here for another twenty minutes or so.”

Noah lowered the truck’s tailgate, and he and Kellan
set down the drinks and snacks, inviting them to help themselves. Aiden walked
over and grabbed two sodas, then handed one to Liv. She murmured a quiet
thank-you and said, “Since we’re going to be waiting for a bit, I’m going to
wake up Jamie and take her over to the playground.”

“I’ll come with you,” he grunted, sliding a dark look
toward the grass-covered, brightly colored play area. It was only about twenty
yards away, wedged between the narrow parking lot and the surrounding woods,
but he didn’t like the idea of them going alone.

“No.” She took a step back, her face lowered as she
twisted the cap off her drink, making her expression difficult to read. “That’s
okay. I think it’ll be good if we just give each other some breathing room for
a while.”

“It isn’t safe for you to go off on your own, Liv.” He
took a drink of his soda, then wiped the back of his wrist over his mouth.
“There are cars all over the place here. No telling who’s in them. The Casus
could be anywhere.”

“We’ll be right over there, Aiden.” She flicked a
quick glance up at his face, then looked away again. “You’ll be able to see us
the entire time. It’s not like I’m going to go wandering off anywhere without
you. I’m not an idiot. I would never risk Jamie’s safety that way.”

Obviously sensing the tension between them, Noah spoke
up, saying, “If you want, I’ll head over with you.”

It chafed to see how quickly Liv agreed. “Thanks,
Noah. I’ll get Jamie,” she murmured, while Aiden just stood there, gritting his
teeth.

“Don’t let them out of your sight,” he muttered,
cutting a hard look toward the human.

“Don’t worry,” Noah told him. “I’ll stay close.”

Aiden gave a grim nod, and the three of them headed
over to the playground together, Jamie chattering away to Noah as she held
Olivia’s hand, the pink ball Aiden had bought her that morning clutched under
her arm. The child was obviously thrilled by the idea of some playtime, and as
he gazed toward the playground, he watched as Liv pushed Jamie on one of the
swings for a few minutes, then helped her make her way across the metal jungle
gym. He watched…and watched, and even though he knew he was staring, he
couldn’t look away. Everything about Olivia Harcourt fascinated him. All those
lush, feminine details. The thick, silken fall of her beautiful hair. The
delicate angle of her jaw and the glossy, petal-like softness of her mouth.
That luminous sparkle in her eyes when she smiled.

He was like an addict, starved for the sight of her.
And he wasn’t the only one who’d noticed.

Hopping up onto the tailgate, Kellan snickered under
his breath. “Dude, you are so obvious.”

“Shut up, Kell.”

“Seriously,” the Lycan drawled, and Aiden could hear
the smile in the jackass’s voice. “Look at you, man. You can’t even take your
eyes off her. All you can do is stand there drooling, watching her with those
sad kitten eyes.”

Aiden ran his tongue over his teeth, reminding himself
that it wasn’t going to help the situation if he broke Kellan’s nose. No matter
how bloody tempting it was.

Kellan clucked his tongue. “She’s getting to you,
isn’t she?”

“You not hear me the first time?” Aiden snapped,
cutting a furious scowl in Kell’s direction. “Mind your own damn business and
let it go.”

Instead of taking offense, Kellan just grinned back,
sitting there with his elbows resting on his knees. “Yeah, let it go,” he
murmured, a wistful edge to his gritty laughter that couldn’t be missed. “It’s
funny, but I don’t think any of us are very good at that sort of thing. I used
to think you and the others were sorta pathetic, with all the worrying that you
guys do. All the stress and tension and angst. But now I’m as bad as the rest
of you.” The Lycan looked toward Olivia, who had started playing a game of
catch with Jamie and Noah. “I’m also jealous as hell.”

Knowing he wasn’t going to like the answer, Aiden
couldn’t stop himself from asking why.

A wry smile twisted Kellan’s mouth as he met Aiden’s
stare. “Look at Ian and Riley. At Quinn. You’ve got the magic cure now, too,
Ade. Someone who not only gives a shit if you live or die, but if you’re happy.
Sad. Someone who would rather see a smile on your face more than anything else
in the world.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” he snarled,
feeling as if he was being shoved out to the edge of a cliff, the ground
crumbling beneath his feet. Any second now, he was going to be in free fall,
with nowhere to go but down.

The Lycan gave another husky laugh as Liv overthrew
Jamie’s head by about five feet, the ball rolling into the parking lot and
under a car. Then he looked back toward Aiden, saying, “I’m talking about—”

Aiden struggled to hear the rest of his explanation,
but the sound of Kellan’s voice was suddenly drowned out by the heavy chugging
of diesel engines as a trio of semis pulled into the rest stop, the acrid scent
of their exhaust so strong, it nearly made him gag. Looking around, he felt an
uneasy feeling settle heavily in his gut as he realized the trucks had
separated Noah, who had gone to retrieve the ball, from the girls. With a sharp
curse, Aiden started running, fully aware that he was probably overreacting.
But he couldn’t stop the thundering beat of his heart, or the nauseating spill
of fear that was quickly working its way through his system.

The second eighteen-wheeler had stopped right in front
of them, waiting for the one in front to park, and with Kellan right on his
heels, Aiden quickly made his way toward the back of the truck. “It’s going to
be fine,” he muttered under his breath, his beast prowling beneath his skin, as
agitated as the man. “Nothing’s going to happen. She’s going to be okay. Both
of them are.”

But the instant he made his way around the end of the
trailer, getting a clear view of the other side, he let out a bloodthirsty roar
of fury, the savage sound echoing over the engines, torn up from the very
depths of his soul. A panic-induced, surreal sense of time and space flooded his
system, skewing his sense of perception, as if everything around him was
happening in excruciatingly slow motion. A thick, crackling static of white
noise filled his head, blotting out all other sound, his legs pumping as he
powered himself forward through air that felt as viscous as honey, his right
arm already reaching behind him, his fingers grasping for his gun.

The playground was silent.

Still.

Empty.

And neither Liv nor Jamie was anywhere in sight.

IT’D HAPPENED SO QUICKLY, there’d been no time to
react. One second Olivia had been watching Noah run after Jamie’s ball, and in
the next, she and Jamie were being abducted, carried beneath the arms of their
captor as he ran through the woods, spiriting them away from the rest stop. She
couldn’t see his face clearly, the shadows thickening as he moved farther into
the dense wood, but she had no doubt that he was one of the enemy. A Casus. A
monster. One who would kill them both if given half the chance. Though his face
appeared human, the hands clutching their bodies had been transformed into
gnarled, long-fingered claws that could slice open flesh with nothing more than
an easy flick of his wrist.

It seemed unthinkable that they’d ended up in such a
deadly situation because of a toy. Because of a pretty little pink ball, and
the pathetic fact that she threw like a friggin’ girl.

But it was true.

Their only hope was Aiden and his friends. Olivia knew
the men would be coming for them, no doubt following her scent, but she
screamed as well, while Jamie cried at the top of her lungs. Between the two of
them, they were making enough racket to lead the others to their location. If
they could manage to catch up. The man holding them moved with preternatural
speed, the trees flashing by so quickly that they were nothing more than a blur
of branches and leaves. She didn’t know how far they’d traveled, but it was
obvious that she needed to do something to slow him down. That she had to find
a way to buy Aiden enough time to reach them.

And what if he doesn’t? What then?

With a violent shake of her head, she refused to go
there. She’d think of a way to give Aiden his chance. And for the moment, Jamie
still wore the cross, which would offer her niece a measure of protection,
though Olivia didn’t doubt that the man—the Casus—would try to take it from
Jamie if he could.

She didn’t know how long she’d been screaming, but
eventually her voice grew too hoarse to be effective, her lungs burning from
lack of sufficient air, her body aching from the jarring force of being trapped
beneath the man’s arm as he ran over the rugged terrain. Jamie’s cries had
drained to broken whimpers, and Olivia did her best to reassure her, shouting
that she loved her, that everything was going to be okay, until her voice faded
to a croak. She tried to twist her head around so that she could see her niece,
but they were being held with their backs to his sides, so all she could manage
was a view of the back of Jamie’s dark head, her small hands pounding against
the man’s hard-muscled arm.

“’Bout time you stopped that bloody screeching,” he
grunted, still running at a hard, steady pace, his clothes wet with sweat,
sticking to his skin. Olivia craned her neck, struggling to see his face, but
the poor lighting and constant motion made it difficult to focus, her stomach
roiling. She had a vague impression of a square, brutish-looking jaw and bald
head, his chest and shoulders huge, his height easily over six feet, though she
didn’t think he was quite as tall as Aiden.

“I can smell it, human.” His lip curled, the guttural
words thick with things she didn’t want to think about. Rage. Lust. Hunger.
“Smell that hot blood pumping through your veins.”

Olivia had been racking her brain for something she
could do—for some way that she could stall him—and she suddenly realized that
the Casus had just given her the answer.

Her scent. Her blood.

Her stomach churned at the thought of what she had to
do, but she forced the fear away, determination and adrenaline fueling her
actions. No matter what happened to her, she had to give Jamie a chance to
escape. Had to give Aiden the opportunity to rescue the precious little girl.

Taking a deep breath, she bit her lip, closed her
eyes…and jabbed her forearm against the tip of one of the scalpel-sharp claws
wrapped around her waist. Then she tugged, sweater and skin ripping open as the
claw sliced through her arm like a knife through butter. Choking back an
agonized cry of pain, she cracked her eyes open and inspected the damage,
stunned by how much blood had already spilled out of the wound, drenching the
torn sleeve of her sweater.

His nostrils flared as he sucked in a deep, snarling
breath, then stumbled…his pace slowing enough that the trees around them began
to take shape. He weaved, almost as if he was drunk, as they entered a small
clearing. But he wasn’t weakening. If anything, Olivia could feel the power in
his body growing…building, like a volcano that was getting ready to erupt in a
thundering act of violence.

Throwing back his head, he bellowed a stark, guttural
cry, then shifted his arm, throwing her to the ground. She landed on her hip,
the impact momentarily knocking the air from her lungs. Scrambling back on her
hands and knees, her fingers digging into the fallen leaves and cold earth,
Olivia stared up at the ravenous, lust-glazed look on his sweating face. With a
sharp pang of relief she realized she had his full attention, his ice-blue gaze
fixed on the crimson spill of blood pouring down her arm, soaking into the
leaf-covered floor of the forest. Licking his bottom lip, he carelessly dropped
Jamie’s small body to the ground and took a step toward Olivia.

It was nearly impossible to keep her worried gaze from
seeking out Jamie, but she was determined not to draw his attention back to the
child. Instead, Olivia prayed Jamie would run for help, getting herself to
safety.

“Who are you?” she croaked, hoping to distract him
with questions. Every second she could keep him talking bought them time. “Why
are you doing this? You know they’ll find us. The Watchmen can track us
anywhere!”

“I know that, you little bitch!” His lips pulled back
over his teeth, his face dripping with sweat as he paced at her feet, his
shoulders hunched, thick muscles hard with aggression. “You think I’m stupid?”

“I think you’re going to be dead if you don’t run.”