Rhyannon Byrd - Primal Instinct 04 (27 page)

“Shut up!” he roared. The vicious sound bled into a
low, keening groan, and he curled his arms over his head, every muscle bulging
beneath his skin. He was clearly fighting an internal battle with himself, his
pale blue eyes bright with madness as he stared at her blood-covered arm with almost
worshipful intensity. “I don’t have time for this,” he hissed as he began to
prowl around her body in a tight circle, his movements becoming less human and
more like that of an animal. His nostrils flared wider as he sucked in deep,
ragged pulls of air. “But that smell. It’s too good.” Thick, guttural words
that shook with need. “Good enough to make me think you’ll be worth the
consequences.”

Her first instinct was to get up and run, but she’d
seen how fast he could move. “Are you not supposed to kill me, then?” she
asked, watching from the corner of her eye as Jamie began to creep away from
the small clearing on her hands and knees. Olivia silently urged the little
girl to move faster, wanting her as far away from the monster as possible.

“We’ve been warned about feeding.” His corded throat
twisted, jerking at an unusual angle, as if something inside him was trying to
fight its way out. “Warned about not…not taking the things we need.” A slow,
evil grin spread across his wide mouth. “You wanna know what I need? You under
me. Screaming. Bleeding. Just like that sister of yours bled for Josef.”

Closing her eyes, Olivia fought a rising wave of
nausea. Her relief that he’d forgotten about Jamie in his blood-frenzy was
sharp—and yet she couldn’t help but be terrified by his words. “How did you
find me?” She finally managed to scrape out the words, forcing her lids to
crack open. Better to keep an eye on him, since she didn’t have any idea when
he would lose control and attack.

A low, arrogant laugh rumbled up from his chest. “I’ve
been on your trail for hours. Just waiting. Biding my time.” He lifted one
clawed hand, wiping the back of his wrist over his damp mouth. “When those
trucks pulled in, the opportunity was too good to resist.”

“So you came by yourself, then?”

“There’s no one else,” he muttered, his claws making a
clicking sound as he flexed his fingers. “Only me. I didn’t want to risk anyone
else getting in my way.”

A flash of movement just to his left caught her eye,
and to her horror she spotted Jamie peeking out from behind the nearest oak
tree. No! Instead of running away, the little girl had stayed, probably afraid
to leave Olivia alone with the monster.

As if fate was determined to conspire against her, the
wind suddenly surged from the east, brushing past Jamie’s dark curls, and the
Casus froze, his eyes narrowing as he whipped his head in Jamie’s direction.
“Where do you think you’re going? Get over here, you little brat. I didn’t say
you could go anywhere.”

“Jamie, run!” she screamed, reaching out and wrapping
her arms around his left leg. Olivia knew, in the back of her mind, that she
wasn’t strong enough to hold him, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try.
She’d bite and scratch and kick if she had to. She was more than willing to let
the bastard rip her to shreds, so long as it meant Jamie could get away. Her
heart twisted as she thought of never seeing Aiden again, but she knew he would
understand. That he would have done the same thing if it meant protecting a
child. “Get out of here! Run back to Aiden!”

“Shut up,” the Casus snarled, reaching down and
twisting his gnarled, claw-tipped fingers in Olivia’s hair. He wrenched her to
her feet, pulling a low groan from her throat. Jamie screamed, running toward
them, only to be stopped when Noah suddenly burst through the trees, putting
his tall body in front of the little girl as he leveled a gun at the Casus’s
chest. Olivia nearly sagged with relief, her wild gaze scanning the trees,
searching for the others. Where was Aiden? Kellan?

“Jamie,” Noah said in a low, easy voice, “I want you
to stay behind me. You got that, honey?”

The Casus curled his lip, eyeing Noah with a hot,
malevolent stare. “Well, look who it is. You’re like a bad penny, Winston. You
just keep turning up. First Washington. Now here. If I didn’t know better, I’d
think you had a thing for me.”

“We have you surrounded.” Noah’s deep voice rang with
cool, steady confidence. “Let the woman go.”

“I don’t think so,” the Casus drawled, bringing her
closer to his body. “I like her right where she is.” His voice sank to a sneer.
“I gotta tell ya, Calder has big things planned for your family, half-breed.”

Noah lifted his brows, looking for all the world as if
he was discussing nothing more interesting than the weather. “Calder? Oh…yeah,
I remember. From what the other Casus have said, we figure he’s some kind of
chicken-shit leader who’s still hiding out in Meridian, too afraid to show his
face.”

The Casus snorted. “Be cocky now, human. But when
Calder finally comes across, maybe it’ll be your pretty little face he’s
wearing.”

Olivia reeled, unable to believe what she was hearing.
Looking between Noah and the Casus, there was no denying that their eyes were
the exact same icy, piercing shade of blue. Understanding slowly dawned, and
she swallowed the bile that rose in her throat, a new flavor to the panic that
had seized her body and her mind. She got it now—why Noah had always seemed a little
something more than human. He was descended from a human female who had been
raped by one of the Casus monsters before they’d been imprisoned, which meant
that his family could act as hosts to the escaping Casus shades.

Her thoughts spun as she tried to wrap her mind around
it—the fact that one of Aiden’s friends could actually become one of the bad
guys. That Noah was a walking human shell for the monsters. Hysterical, she
struggled in the Casus’s hold, her eyes tearing from the pain as he pulled her
hair even tighter, the tips of her toes only just brushing the ground. She
fought harder, driven by the knowledge that she had to reach Jamie. Had to get
her out of there, away from the madness and the danger.

“I told you to shut up,” the Casus snarled in her
face, shaking her, and she realized the screams filling her head were her own.
“Stop the bloody screaming or I’ll—”

“You won’t be doing anything,” Kellan barked in a
hard, deep voice, “except what I tell you to do.”

Kellan! Olivia’s eyes went wide when she spotted the
auburn-haired Lycan moving in from the Casus’s right side with his gun held in
front of him, the barrel pointed directly at the monster’s chest, same as
Noah’s. The Casus turned his head, a low, gritty bark of laughter slipping from
his lips, as if he thought the situation was funny. “You shoot me,” he drawled,
scraping the claws of his other hand lightly across her throat, “and there’s no
telling what will happen to Olivia here.”

The monster took a step back, dragging her with him, and
from the corner of her eye she saw Noah take a step toward Jamie, who had moved
off to his left so that she could see what was happening. The rational part of
Olivia’s brain knew he just wanted to put himself between her niece and the
Casus, but she couldn’t stifle the scream that stopped him in his tracks, the
words ripping up out of her, unstoppable and cruel. “Don’t touch her! Just…just
stay away from her!”

Noah’s face pulled tight, but he didn’t argue. He
simply raised his free hand in a sign of consent, letting her know he wouldn’t
move any closer to Jamie.

The Casus barked another low laugh and shook his head.
“So judgmental,” he drawled, the truth of his words only intensifying the
guilty, sour feeling in her stomach. She blinked away the tears blurring her
vision, still scanning the edges of the clearing, searching for Aiden. Why
wasn’t he there? Had something happened to him? Had he decided she wasn’t worth
the trouble?

A sharp pain twisted through her middle—this one born
completely from emotion, rather than a physical wound—and she swallowed,
silently praying that he would appear with the next heavy beat of her heart.
She took a deep, shuddering breath, and then she felt it, as if there was
something electric in the air. She could taste it on her tongue. Feel it
shivering across her skin. A heavy, pervasive sense of something powerful
watching from the shadowed woods, silently waiting. Was it Aiden? Or someone
else? Friend…or enemy?

Kellan still had his gun trained on the Casus, and he
lifted the barrel, aiming it right at the monster’s temple. “Where are your
Kraven buddies? The Collective soldiers who follow you guys around, cleaning up
your messes?”

“I left them behind.” The claws at her throat made a
sickening pass down the front of her body, sweeping low across her pelvis, and
she sucked in her breath, wondering if Kellan would take his shot. But he
waited, obviously too afraid of the Casus cutting her open.

“Not very smart of you to come without your pals,”
Kellan drawled, arching one auburn brow.

“I’m not afraid of a few Watchmen,” he claimed with
cocky arrogance. “And I wanted to make sure I had the human bitch to myself
before handing over the kid. Me and her are gonna have a real special time
together,” he added, snickering under his breath.

A deep, chilling snarl suddenly rumbled in the
branches above their heads, the thick sound reminding Olivia of some kind of
predatory jungle cat, feral and wild and deadly. As the Casus’s gaze swung
upward, toward the lofty branches, she twisted to her right, bringing her left
knee up and slamming it into the bastard’s groin. He grunted in pain, his hold
on her hair loosening as he hunched forward, and she was able to drop to the
ground. She’d just rolled to her back when he let out a bloodcurdling roar,
pulling back one claw-tipped arm as he prepared to swipe at her, his face
twisted into a grotesque expression of hatred and rage. Opening her mouth, Olivia
was ready to scream for Kellan to shoot, when Aiden’s body went soaring over
her head, as if he’d launched himself from one of the trees. Her mouth fell
open in shock as she realized he must have been hiding among the highest
branches, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. His trajectory should have
had him crashing straight into the Casus, but he twisted at the last second in
a sinuous, catlike move, swiping a lethal-looking set of claws across the
monster’s gut before landing with perfect balance on the balls of his feet.

“Well, if it isn’t the kitty,” the Casus sneered,
clutching one clawed hand against his shredded stomach. Blood oozed through his
fingers, dripping onto the leaf-covered ground. “I was wondering when you were
going to show up.”

“Get away from him, Liv.” Aiden didn’t take his
glittering amber gaze off the Casus as he spoke to her, his claws battle-ready
at his sides, long fangs glistening beneath the curve of his upper lip.

“She can run, but you can’t protect her,” the monster
drawled, stepping to the side.

“Like hell I can’t.” Aiden’s mouth curled in a mean
smile, the hungry glint in his golden eyes giving the impression that he
couldn’t wait for the fight to begin as he countered the Casus’s move. Pushing
herself to her feet, Olivia ran for Jamie, while keeping one eye on Aiden. She
was mesmerized by the sight of him. By the raw, animal intensity of his rage.

“You kill me,” the Casus rasped, “and something so
much worse is going to come for her. He’ll tear her apart, piece by piece, and
laugh while he’s doing it.”

Aiden flexed his claws, his muscles bulging beneath
the dark sheen of his skin. “He’ll have to get through us first, and that’s not
gonna happen.”

“You won’t be able to stop him.” His skin began to
ripple, as if something was moving around inside him, and Olivia shoved Jamie
behind her, knowing he was getting ready to change into his Casus form. “He’ll
find her, take her and then she’s gonna bleed for him like a stuck pig,” he
added, his voice turning deeper, grittier, the shape of his mouth changing as
bones began to pop and crack, reshaping themselves into something monstrous.
“And knowing Josef, he’ll make sure the kid is there to see the whole show.
Hell, he might even decide to take the little witch for himself.”

Aiden went deathly still, sliding a dark, tortured
look toward her and Jamie. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was across the
clearing and yanking the Casus off his feet. Stunned, Olivia watched him drag
the monster into the trees, both of them disappearing from sight.

“Aiden!” she cried out, lifting Jamie into her arms
and covering her little ears so that the child couldn’t hear the horrific
sounds tearing through the woods. There were low, gritty words that she
couldn’t understand, followed by vicious snarls and stark, screaming cries of
pain. “What’s happening?” she gasped, taking a step forward, terrified that
Aiden was going to be hurt. “What is he doing?”

“Leave him,” Kellan muttered, grabbing hold of her
arm.

“What?” She whipped around, thinking the Watchman must
have lost his mind. “Leave him? Are you crazy? That thing was already changing
form!”

Another high-pitched cry cut through the forest,
followed by a deep, menacing growl. “Aiden’s got it under control,” Kellan
grunted, slanting a meaningful look toward Jamie. She understood what he didn’t
want to say in front of the little girl. That Aiden wouldn’t be coming back
until he’d destroyed the Casus, sending its shade back to Meridian.

“Oh, God,” she whispered, feeling as if her knees were
going to give out. She didn’t know if she was going into shock, but she was
acutely aware of her body slipping away from her. Or maybe it’s simply the
ground slipping away, she thought fuzzily, tightening her arms around Jamie’s
body just as Kellan caught hold of her shoulders.