Today's teaser is from It Takes Two to Tango. This is Remi and Marshell's story.
Buy link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WQ32G5J
Heller unlocked his cell. “Hey babe, I—what? Lawson, stop yelling. I can’t….” Every drop of blood drained out of Heller’s face. “Oh goddess, are you okay? How bad? Where are you? Fuck. Are you sure…. What? Yes. Okay, yes, he’s right here with me. I… oh, fuck me, are you sure?” Heller glanced at me, his breathing spiking. “Okay, we’re on our way. Just… just hang on.”
No. No, no, no. No! My chest hurt so bad I couldn’t breathe. My head
spun, and my stomach roiled nastily. I wanted to puke. Little flashing lights
swam before my eyes. I grabbed the side of the truck to keep myself standing
upright, even though my knees threatened to give out.
“Remi? Remi!”
Far off I heard someone
yelling my name. My head hurt. My chest blazed with pain.
“Remi!”
I heard Lawson plain as
day say hunters had attacked them… and Marshell was stabbed in the chest with a
knife.
I lost you before I ever had a chance to know you. My vision went gray, and everything faded away.
“ARE YOU sure we
should’ve brought him?”
“Yes. This isn’t going to
be easy for him, but trying to keep him away would have been useless. At least
this way I’m here. If I have to, I can control him.”
Voices teased my
consciousness. Something nagged at me, some sense of urgency that demanded I
wake and deal with it. I didn’t want to, though. I knew, I just knew
something horrible waited for me. I was tempted to turn away, to let go… to
sink back into the darkness where I was numb.
But I wasn’t one to run.
I opened my eyes. My
Alpha’s scent, so warm and soothing, wrapped around me, although there was
nothing sexual about it. His arm was around my shoulders and my head rested
against his chest. His heart frantically pounded in my ear. Why was he holding
me? I glanced around and finally figured out I was in a truck cab, and we were
moving.
What was I doing here? It
was dark out, but I could see Heller was driving, so…. We were in his truck?
Maybe? The whine of the tires echoed in my ears. So silent. They were so silent,
but something, some scent—it smelled like
rotten eggs—saturated the cab of the truck.
“Remi?” My Alpha’s voice
rumbled against my ear, comforting me.
Suddenly my cat screamed
in my mind, a wailing stab of misery. My body locked up. Pain. Oh, the pain.
Sharp and nasty, it spread through me as I remembered my mate was gone. The
wail went on and on, whipping against my skin, my heart. All I could do was
suffer, the sound hammering at me—filling me up until
there was nothing but hot, searing agony.
The scent was grief.
“He’s dead, isn’t he?” I
croaked. My throat hurt. Had I been screaming? The scent of their grief
increased, all but choking me.
“We don’t know anything
for sure.” Heller clutched the wheel. “Lawson was nearly hysterical. He was
yelling about hunters and knives and blood and…. Gods, someone tape my mouth
shut, please. Fuck, I’m sorry, man. I probably shouldn’t have said that, but
I’m also freaked the fuck out.”
Hearing that said out
loud stabbed me in the heart. “I overheard Lawson telling you Marshell
had been stabbed in the chest… in the heart. He’s dead, Heller. You can’t stab
someone in the heart and have them not be dead.” Agony screeched across
my nerves as my cat demanded out. “What happened?”
Look at me using complete
sentences and everything.
“I didn’t talk to Lawson
long because I needed to get help, and you passed out.” Heller’s voice was
eerily devoid of emotions. “Lawson said they were run off the road by two
hunters who then attacked them.”
That’s right, I remembered
Lawson saying that now. Run off the road. That meant the hunters had staked
Marshell out. How did they find him? Why were they doing this? I didn’t
remember any hunters ever coming after our kind. “Is… is Lawson okay?”
“He’s… yeah, pretty much.
He took a few hits, but nothing too bad.”
It pained me to hear how
Heller’s voice shook. I was so lost in my misery, I hadn’t stopped to think
about how Heller was doing. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Lawson gave as
good as he got. He’s stronger and heals faster now, thank fuck. One hunter went
after him, but he said she seemed more concerned with keeping him busy. He got
her pretty good too, he said. The other hunter went after Marshell.”
“And stabbed him,” I said
dully. My skin rippled with the need to shift.
“No. Don’t shift,” Alpha
Armonty demanded, his voice taking on that powerful, unnatural tone that was
impossible to ignore—his
Alpha voice.
“Not here in the truck. It isn’t safe.” I couldn’t refuse an outright order
from my Alpha.
My cat settled down, but
the anger and pain still swirled in my mind. There was no escaping it. How was
I going to live with this anguish? I wanted to scream, yell, rip into something
until I tasted blood—just claw it all
to pieces.
I was afraid once I did
shift, I wouldn’t change back to human anytime soon. Maybe that was better. My
cat didn’t care for the things that occupied my human mind—his needs were more basic.
“Why are…. Where are we
going? Where are they?” I asked. I needed to distract myself from the pressing
need to shift.
“The attack happened not
far from Marshell’s home. The hunters ran off after…. Um, Lawson’s truck won’t
start,” Heller said. “They’re sitting out there on the side of the road, and
one of them has a large… ah, that is to say—”
“What Heller means is
Lawson got Marshell in the truck, so they have some privacy, but yes, we do
need to get there before someone stops to help or calls the cops. We don’t need
that,” Alpha Armonty said.
I was drowning. My mate
was on the side of the road with a fucking knife buried in his chest. Yeah,
having humans see that could present a problem for our kind, but it really
didn’t matter to me. Fuck the humans. It was humans who killed my mate. Call me
crazy, but that took precedence in my mind over any human.
“Dolf and the rest of the
betas are on the way there too. We’ll take care of everything. You just… just—”
“Not lose my shit?”
“Yes,” Alpha Armonty
said. “I’m so sorry. We’re here for you. We’ll help you—whatever you need.”
Nothing could help me,
but I didn’t say that. What I needed was gone. At least we hadn’t mated. If
that tie had existed between us, I wasn’t sure I could’ve survived Marshell’s
death. The way I felt right now, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it anyway.
“Someone needs to call
his sister,” I said.
“Oh, I’m willing to bet
that was the second phone call Lawson made.” A grimace crossed Heller’s face.
“If he did, then we need to be prepared for Janelle.”
“What do you mean?” Alpha
Armonty asked. “Prepared how?”
“We don’t really know
that much about the Vetala, but from what I’ve heard Lawson say, their females
are the more… violent ones. I don’t think she’d hurt any of us since she’s part
of our clowder, but she’s going to be wild with grief. I wouldn’t…. Don’t try
to protect the little woman, is what I’m saying.”
“I don’t think she should
be there, but I understand,” Alpha Armonty said.
“Wild horses couldn’t
drag her away.” Heller sighed. “Lawson’s going to need her, and frankly…. What
the hell?”
“What?” Alpha Armonty
asked.
Heller stared up at the
rearview mirror. “There’s a car coming up fast.”
It zoomed past us, not
even slowing down. The taillights disappeared in the night.
“Oh, fuck me running,
that was Janelle. Damn woman drives like a bat out of hell,” Heller snarled.
“She better not wrap herself around a telephone pole. I’ll kill her if she
does. That’s the last thing Lawson needs right now.”
It was the last thing any
of us needed, but I didn’t say that. Not long after she passed us, we saw
Lawson’s truck sitting off the side of the road. Janelle’s car was in front of
them. I wasn’t ready for this. What if I… what if I completely freaked out?
What if I lost it right there?
Heller pulled in behind
Lawson’s truck. The vehicle used to attack Lawson and Marshell was nowhere in
sight. My Alpha barely got out of the truck before I too was out. I ran toward
the other truck. The passenger door was open. Janelle and Lawson were crowded
around the door. I heard Heller yell Lawson’s name. His fear barely penetrated
the fog of despair around me.
“I’m fine… oomph! Heller,
really, I’m okay. Come on, hellcat. Easy there.”
I heard them, but all I
could see was Marshell’s long braids through the back window. My mate. The
scent of blood and violence still hung in the air. Just as I drew even with the
back of the truck, I heard an impressive string of creative cuss words from
Janelle. Well, guess that’s better than what Heller hinted at. Somehow I
thought she’d be more…. I didn’t know more what, just more.
Janelle swung around and
grabbed both my arms. “He’s not dead!”
