Barbaric Tendencies (Ciara Steele Novella Series #2) Page 8

  I grabbed Shawn’s hand and squeezed. He looked in the direction I was and frowned. “What?” I faced Shawn and jumped back at the sight of his grey wolf over his face. “Uh, he’s here. At the end of the pier.”

  Shawn looked back. “We’ll need to move closer to intercept.”

  Magnus smiled. “I’ll build a trap here in case he runs.”

  Brad started to pull out his shotgun and I smacked his arm. “There are too many witnesses for you to pull that out yet.”

  He snarled at me. “Don’t ever touch me again.”

  I looked up at Kevin. “I’ll walk that way and keep him in my sight. The rest of you fan out and stay behind me. If he jumps off the pier someone will have to go after him.”

  Hugo smiled and I cringed back from him. “I’ll do it.”

  Jeff frowned and said, “I thought ogres were like wereanimals and can’t swim?”

  He nodded his head. “Right, we can’t, but we can hold our breaths a long time.”

  I shuddered at the thought of being trapped at the bottom of the ocean in his grasp and started walking. Focus on the purpose, one purpose. Obtain Josef. My aura flared around me forming a shield of green, anticipation. I walked slowly through the crowds of families and teenagers and toward Josef. He was still staring through the device when I stopped next to him. I cleared my throat and he looked up at me smiling. His large lion’s teeth were two inches longer than his human teeth. I smiled. “Please don’t run.”

  Josef frowned at me then turned and saw Kevin and Jeff. He reached for me, but hit my shield. I wagged my finger from side to side. “Ah ah ah. No touching.”

  He snarled and tensed to jump over the rail. I grabbed around his throat and pulled backwards trying to catch him off balance. Unfortunately Josef was much stronger than I had thought. He jumped up over the rail and in to the cold water. I gasped just before we hit the water and held on while he dropped to the floor of the ocean and started running. Wereanimals have very little body fat which means they don’t float. Unfortunately that meant that Josef was planning to run the rest of the way to shore. He tried to push me away, but his hits were muddled in the water. I willed the ocean to push us up, but I wasn’t a sidhe and I couldn’t control nature. I heard a massive splash and looked up to see Hugo above us. I jerked Josef back to keep him in Hugo’s descent, but he kicked me in the stomach and rushed forward. I grabbed on to his neck again and watched as Hugo dropped to the bottom of the ocean floor thirty yards behind us. Hugo started running forward, but he was much slower than Josef. I would have growled in anger, but then I would have had no air left.

  I kicked and punched Josef, but nothing fazed him. I didn’t want to hurt him, but he wasn’t playing fair and I was running out of oxygen. I pulled a silver dagger out of my wrist sheath and stabbed him in the side. Bubbles floated away from his mouth as he screamed in pain and he kicked faster than humanly possible and brought us up to surface. I inhaled and stabbed him again with the dagger. He picked me up over his head and tossed me one hundred yards to shore. I landed next to a kid’s sand castle and jumped up. Josef was fighting something in the water and I swallowed the knot in my throat when I saw the dorsal fin. Josef changed to warrior form and clawed and kicked at the shark. Blood pooled out around them drawing the attention of more sharks. I looked up at the pier and yelled to Magnus, “Trap him and pull him out!”

  Magnus began chanting in a strange tongue and gold lights shimmered around Josef. Hugo walked out of the water and shook like a giant dog. Kids started pointing at him and women screamed. Hugo’s glamour wasn’t on. I motioned to his face and he inhaled. With a large pop his glamour was back on. I turned back to Josef and saw him floating towards us in the magic cage holding a dead ten foot long shark in his hands. Josef snarled at me, “Why are you doing this? Why are you helping them?”

  I shrugged. “It wasn’t my first choice for a job, but they pay well.”

  Magnus chanted louder and the cage, Josef, and the shark disappeared in a yellow cloud. Hugo and I walked back to the SUVs in silence and ignored the stunned faces of the humans nearby. In a few hours they would all push the occurrence off as tricks of lighting or too much sun. Only a few kids would believe that they had seen a half lion half man get carried away in a magic cage and then disappear in smoke. The news would report it as one of the best magic acts of the decade and insist the persons responsible meet with them to divulge how they had done it. Unfortunately for them we would be in another country enjoying our bonus pay for catching a live subject.

  Kevin glared at me and snarled. “Don’t you ever do something so stupid again!”

  I smiled and said, “Thanks for being worried.”

  Kevin yelled in frustration and climbed in to the SUV. Shawn beamed down at me like a father seeing his son make a home run to win the championship. At least some people were as happy as I was.

  * * *

  The Council was pleased with our results and decided to give me a week before my next assignment. Dagda continued to train me and showed me more magic I could use. The amount of magic a human could use amazed me, but then again being able to use my third eye made me far from normal. Kheelan returned two days after we did and the feel of relief was overwhelming. He hugged me against him and I felt like a piece of me had returned. “What happened?” I asked nervously.

  Kheelan sat down on the couch in my room and ran a hand through his hair. “We let Jared go. Eric just didn’t feel right killing him so we let him go.”

  Shawn frowned deeply and asked softly, “Eric let him live? After he challenged him?”

  Kheelan said, “He had reasons, but I don’t know what they are.”

  I swallowed nervously and asked, “Is he…is Eric alright?”

  Kheelan smiled. “Perfectly healthy, well except for…anyways he sent you this.” He took out a small black velvet bag and handed it to me. “Eric said that you would understand what it meant.”

  I stared at the familiar black bag and felt my energy drain from me. I sat down on the couch and exhaled trying to calm myself down. It was just a bag. Right and the Mall of the USA is just a strip mall. My fingers shook and it took an entire minute for me to get the strings to open. I shook the contents out in to my hand and stared at the necklace chain with a ring dangling from it. The ring was white gold and had a claddagh symbol on the front. My heart skipped a beat and tears welled up in my eyes. As much as I wanted to save Eric, I knew I would never love anyone else and I was his, whether I could be with him or not. I put the chain around my neck with the ring hanging on it and whispered, “I know what it means.”

  ###

  More from this author

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  Barbaric Tendencies

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