Panther Curse: Shifters Bewitched #3 Read online

  He didn’t have to ask me twice.

  I scrambled to my feet in time to see the other guard pulling something out of his cloak. I couldn’t make out what it was, but I wasn’t going to wait to find out.

  I ripped the collar off my neck and dashed it to the ground.

  Magic flowed back into me, and I felt like I was coming back to life. The water in the blades of grass whispered to me, the clear notes of the fresh river water sang out to my soul. There was water everywhere, and I was a part of it all.

  Empowered, I turned my attention to the man pulling out the weapon. I could hear the flow of his blood and the pump and whir of his heart beating. It would be so easy to just reach out and stop it.

  Panic engulfed me at the thought, and I froze up completely.

  Eve’s words echoed in my head.

  We call it blood walking, Kendall. It is a magic we do not use.

  15

  Jared

  Kendall’s collar clattered to the ground, and I clung to her arm, amazed.

  I could feel the magic swelling in her, as if her body were just now coming to life and the woman I had spent the night with in the cells had only been her shadow.

  She turned to Scarface ready to unleash her fury on him, but her face froze.

  “Kendall,” I said, tugging on her arm.

  But for all the power I could feel teeming in her, her expression was terror personified.

  Scarface pulled out a device and pressed a button. A klaxon sounded, and he grinned an evil grin. The whole place would be on us now.

  “Kendall,” I roared, dragging her along with me.

  We couldn’t wait here for more of them to come. Her collar was off, and there were only two of them, this might be our only chance.

  Behind the mill and meadow was a sheer cliff face. But on the other side a bridge stretched over the river. If we made it to the bridge, and the deep forest beyond, we might just have a chance.

  My chest burned and I longed for my panther. I had never missed him more. I would have torn them limb from limb before that fool had a chance to even think about sounding the alert.

  Kendall’s feet unfroze and we ran for the bridge.

  Oddly, I didn’t hear the men chasing after us. Either they were coming quietly, or there was something else going on.

  As soon as the bridge came into view I understood.

  At first glance, the stone walls on each side of the wooden bridge seemed to be moving. But that wasn’t right.

  Snakes were pouring out from the cracks between the stones. Dozens of them already slithered along the wooden planks of the bridge, making the structure look like it was alive.

  And something bigger was stirring in the pile of dead leaves right at the entrance.

  “What’s that?” Kendall asked, slowing down, her eyes wide with horror.

  I dropped her arm and we watched together as a wretched, skeletal shape took form, its bones weaving together as the thing stretched up out of the dead leaves, lifting a sword that shone like liquid metal.

  I turned back, but the men were already advancing behind us.

  We were trapped between a cliff face and a freezing cold river. The water was moving fast from a recent rain - so swollen that the banks on either side had all but disappeared.

  “Do you trust me?” Kendall asked quietly.

  I spun back to find her hand extended for me.

  I took it without hesitation.

  “Don’t stop, don’t think,” she said with a grim smile. “Just walk.”

  She led me to the left, past the bridge, right toward the river.

  “Kendall,” I said softly.

  “Just walk,” she repeated. “Don’t think.”

  I felt it in her then, the change. It reminded me of the moment I let the panther take me. There was a deep stillness in her for a moment, like the calm before the storm.

  And then a wave of magic like nothing I’d ever felt poured through her and into me.

  She stepped off the bank and onto the surface of the rushing water, and I joined her, trying my best to silence the part of my brain that was screaming about what a bad idea it was.

  Instead of sucking us in and sweeping our bodies along with the current, the water supported us like solid ground. Kendall was doing something, communing with the water, negotiating with it. Convincing it that we were part of its body.

  The men behind us shouted with frustration, their voices growing closer.

  “Keep walking,” she murmured. “Don’t rush. Don’t turn around.”

  There was a splash and a scream behind us. One of the men must have tried to follow us and learned quickly that the river wasn’t going to bend its rules for him.

  I thought about the sharp rocks and the rushing rapids, and for a moment, I almost felt sorry for him.

  Almost.

  I clenched my jaw and kept walking.

  At last, we reached the opposite bank and my feet hit solid ground once again.

  Kendall squeezed my hand and closed her eyes, and I felt the magic building once more. This time, it shimmered and danced along my nerve endings.

  A heavy mist rose from the water around us, completely obscuring the bank and the river.

  “Run,” she said.

  We took off, heading into the darkness of the forest.

  My muscles stretched and burned joyfully. No amount of exercise in the prison cell could replace this. I felt like I could barrel through the trees all night.

  I was free.

  The air was cold but sweet and my body was warming with the effort. My mate’s hand was wrapped in mine.

  And she was a powerful mate.

  I thought back to the river and nearly shivered.

  She is mine.

  But that wouldn’t be true until I could escape my collar and bring back my panther. If there was still enough of him to be salvaged.

  The thought of losing the other part of myself had haunted me for two years in that dark prison. Now I was about to learn the truth.

  Whatever grim realities I had worried about as they drained me down, I had never really believed that the panther could be gone.

  Now I was so close to finding out. The possibility of losing him felt more real than it ever had before. It would be like losing half of my very soul. And there was a new pain that I hadn’t really worried about until this moment.

  If I didn’t have my panther, I couldn’t claim my mate.

  I could couple with her like a human man, and fulfill the cravings of her sweet body. But the stronger, bone-deep hunger we both felt would never be satisfied. She would never be truly bonded to me in the old way, nor I to her. The idea was maddening.

  Beside me, Kendall panted slightly. She appeared to be in excellent physical condition. I would have guessed that she was some kind athlete. And we had barely begun to run. She shouldn’t be tiring yet.

  She glanced up at me. Her eyes were hazy, and the tops of her cheeks were a rosy pink. The way she was looking at me made me feel like she was the predator, and I was about to be the prey.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her, slowing down.

  “Fine,” she told me, her voice a breathy invitation.

  “What’s happening to you?” I asked her, unable to look away from her parted lips.

  16

  Kendall

  No, no, no…

  This was the last thing I wanted to be happening right now.

  But what I wanted didn’t matter.

  I tried to fight it off, but the price of my magic would be taken. And I had just done so much magic with no preparation.

  Jared gazed down at me, the expression in his jade eyes going from concern to desire so fast it nearly gave me whiplash.

  “Kendall,” he murmured.

  My body was pounding with need. I couldn’t speak, or even think.

  His arms went around me, and I almost wept with relief. But instead of embracing me, he was lifting me up, cradling me like a baby as he ran on a
nd on through the endless forest.

  I moaned with need, not caring what he thought or wanted. The desire pooled in me, pangs of pleasure so acute they were almost like pain every time he nuzzled my hair.

  “Let me protect you,” he murmured.

  His words wouldn’t form into a coherent thought in my head. I could only drink in the harmonics playing in his deep voice and hope that he stopped running and helped me before I died of this unquenched thirst.

  He ran on and on, stopping at last in the darkest part of the forest.

  “Here, my love,” he whispered. “We’re going to hide for a moment, until you feel better.”

  I buried my face in his neck as he lowered us to the ground, pulling my body tightly to his.

  We were under the branches of a small tree, whose canopy of fronds skimmed the forest floor.

  “Can you tell me what’s happening to you, Kendall?” he asked softly.

  “Magic,” I murmured, trying to collect my thoughts enough to form the proper words. “Price of my magic.”

  My hands searched his body, sliding down his rib cage to his rock-hard abs.

  “Kendall,” he said, his voice tight as he grabbed my wrist, stopping me from reaching what I needed.

  I whined in desperation.

  “Desire is the price of your magic?” he whispered in wonder.

  I struggled against his hold, pressing my breasts shamelessly against his chest in answer.

  He was my mate. Wasn’t he supposed to want me, too?

  “Gods,” he muttered, his voice tense. “Roll over.”

  I whimpered and tried to claw at him, but I was so weakened by desire he rolled me over effortlessly so that we were both lying on our sides.

  “Relax,” he whispered in my ear.

  But with his chest against to my back and his rigid cock pressed to my posterior all I wanted was to move.

  He wrapped his right arm around me and held my jaw while he nuzzled my neck from behind.

  Shivers of pleasure sparked through me, and I managed to hold myself still.

  “Good,” he whispered, dragging his hand lower to caress my breasts.

  I cried out, the pleasure rippling through me.

  “Try to stay quiet,” he whispered.

  But I moaned as he slid his hand down my belly. It took everything I had not to thrash against him as he slowly slipped his hand under my clothing to touch me.

  He groaned and bit my shoulder as his fingers finally met my sex.

  I was already seeing stars.

  “You’re so ready,” he moaned in wonder, stroking me slowly without penetrating. “So wet…”

  “Please,” I begged.

  But he seemed determined to explore my body slowly, discovering the secret places that set my blood on fire.

  After a few minutes, I was shaking with lust, bucking my hips up to meet his hand.

  “Now,” he growled against my neck.

  He gave me the rhythm I needed, two fingers dancing inside me while his thumb strummed against my swollen pearl at last.

  I bit back a scream as a tidal wave of pleasure obliterated me. It carried me on and on, waves rolling, until at last I crashed back to the shore.

  The world rushed back into focus around me.

  I was on the ground under a tree, panting and half dressed, with a man I had met last night, buried to the knuckles inside me.

  Somewhere just outside the branches that hid us, men were chasing us, ready to throw us back in that prison cell.

  “Better?” he asked.

  His attentions had taken the edge off, but I was still aching for more.

  “I’m fine,” I whispered, feeling a little embarrassed.

  I tried to scramble up to my knees, but he kept his hold on me.

  “I’m going to do that again slowly as soon as we get somewhere safe,” he growled in my ear. “And I’m going to use my mouth. Do you understand?”

  I shivered and nodded.

  His lips brushed my temple, and he released me.

  I straightened out my clothes and ran a hand through my hair.

  “We have to get back to our friends,” he told me. “I’m not sure how far that is. Were you blindfolded on the way here?”

  “I was in a car too,” I said, nodding.

  “Yeah,” he told me. “My panther side might be able to scent out our location, but I can’t shift.”

  “Why not?” I asked, my heart going out to him.

  “They’ve been draining my magic,” he said, looking down. “And then there’s the collar.”

  “We have to get that off you,” I told him.

  “I don’t know, Kendall,” he said. “How would we do that?”

  “Magic,” I told him and winked.

  “Are you sure you should be doing more magic?” he asked me with a pointed look.

  “If it releases your panther, yes,” I told him.

  He nodded slowly. “Okay, what do we do?”

  “I need water.”

  “How much water?” he asked. “We could try to find the river, but that could be dangerous right now. They’ll expect us to be following it.”

  “A puddle would work,” I told him.

  “Let’s go find a puddle,” he said with a smile.

  The dark forest seemed less dark when we stepped out from under our tree. But it was still slow going in the heavy foliage.

  “Here,” he said suddenly. “Is this enough?”

  He was looking at a tree trunk. A branch must have fallen off, leaving a notch in the trunk with a handful of rainwater in it.

  “I think it’s plenty,” I told him. “I’m not sure this will work, but hold still.”

  He turned his back to me, but his neck was up so high I wouldn’t be able to see what I was doing.

  “Can you kneel down?” I asked.

  He knelt and I pulled his too-long hair out of the way of the collar, revealing the pin.

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Surely there was time to meditate for a moment before beginning.

  But we were being hunted down. At any moment, the warlocks of the Order could descend on us.

  I took a few seconds to pay it forward, knowing it wouldn’t be enough.

  Then I lifted my palms to the sky.

  The magic flowed through me. I drew the moisture from the notch in the tree, lifting it into a quivering, oblong sphere.

  It floated through the air to Jared’s collar.

  I allowed a small amount of it to enter the section with the pin.

  Closing my eyes, I slowed molecules of the water, feeling it swell as it froze.

  I opened my eyes, but the pin hadn’t moved.

  I focused on the water again, agitating the molecules until they heated. Then I slowed them suddenly, feeling them swell rapidly as the water froze once more.

  Again and again, I froze and heated the water, causing the little metal chamber to expand and contract around it.

  I was just starting to think my plan wasn’t going to work, when the pin gave way with a loud pop.

  I grabbed the collar and broke it open, throwing it to the ground.

  The price of my magic landed on me instantly, leaving me frantic with desire before he had even turned around.

  17

  Jared

  The collar fell from my neck, and I groaned in relief.

  Reaching inside myself, I searched for any spark of magic.

  I felt a deeper pull to Kendall than before. But the panther, who should have been desperately trying to fight his way back to me, was silent.

  The Order had used me horribly, draining my magic again and again. The reality was hitting me harder now.

  My panther might really be gone forever.

  I rose to my feet and turned to Kendall, hoping the sight of her might bring him back to me.

  She gazed at me, trembling, her lips parted.

  Her magic…

  My body surged with my own desire. Pleasuring her before had req
uired all the restraint I had. With the collar off I wasn’t sure I could do it again without trying to claim her.

  But we were on the run. There was no time for that kind of thinking. Instead, I closed my eyes and reached out, begging the panther to lend me his senses. But the familiar feeling of the panther’s keen perception didn’t come.

  Stuck with the poor substitute of my own senses, I strained to pick up any noises around us, or any familiar sights or smells that might give me a clue about our location.

  It might have been my imagination, but I swore I heard footsteps in the woods behind us. When I spun to search the area, I couldn’t find any signs of anyone but us.

  Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was out there.

  “We have to go,” I told her, trusting whatever instincts I had left.

  She blinked at me, her eyes still hazy with desire.

  “Kendall,” I told her, taking her hand. “Run.”

  She let me tug her along with me, her feet moving faster than her poor, lust-addled mind.

  We continued through the trees, running on and on, putting more distance, I hoped, between us and our captors.

  The truth was that I wasn’t sure we were even heading in the right direction. My panther had always guided me in the woods. His superior senses ensured I never got lost or turned around.

  But now I was running on my human instincts, which were far from reliable, and worse from lack of use. Until now, I had never really tried to judge my location on my own.

  But Kendall was counting on me, so I pushed onward.

  When we couldn’t keep the pace anymore, we stopped running, but never stopped moving forward.

  We kept that up for hours, as the day lagged on into afternoon and into evening. Each time it seemed we were too exhausted to continue, I would swear I heard something following, and we would take off again.

  It didn’t make any sense. If something really was following us, why wasn’t it showing itself and trying to capture us? It was like whatever was out there was just toying with us.

  “Jared,” Kendall gasped at last.

  “Just a little farther,” I told her.