female on the planet, not to sleep with his pain-in-the-ass charge. She slept with whomever she wanted. And God help anyone who presumed to judge her for it.
He licked his lips and started over. “Don’t break his heart, okay?”
“I’m not planning to jump him, Raphael. He’s got important work to do, and a night of my incredible body would only distract and confuse him.”
“Important work, huh?”
“Hell, yeah. He’s on a mission, that one. I don’t know what it is—don’t think he does, either—but it’s practically sparking from his aura. Something big is in store for him.”
“So he keeps telling me.”
“Believe him.” She got up from the bed. “Sleep, now. At sundown, the van will be packed and ready to go.”
“Roxy—”
“You don’t have wheels of your own anymore,” she reminded him. “You can’t go on foot, after all.”
“I can get a car.”
She shrugged. “Fine, get one. I’ll follow you.” She reached out a hand, as if about to lay it over his, but then she hesitated, because she knew he disliked touching unnecessarily. Drawing her hand away, she went on. “I know you hate accepting help, Raphael, but you’d damn well better believe me when I tell you that just this once, you need it. I feel it all the way to my gut. You’ll die if you don’t let Seth and me go with you.”
“And you and Seth could die if I do.”
“We won’t—”
He reached out and grabbed her hand, maybe just to show her how damn serious he was about this. “You know what I’m capable of, Roxy. You’re the only one who knows. Anyone who’s near me for any amount of time is at risk.”
“All the more reason to take me along. I won’t let you hurt him. Or me. Believe me, I can handle you.”
“No, you can’t.” He released her hand. The sleep was coming on strong and fast, but he had more to say. “I’d planned to come to see you while I was here. I’d planned to ask you to keep Seth, teach him until he’s ready to be on his own.”
“Yeah, I already figured that out. But it’s not going to work. We’re going with you. If you’re so worried that you might hurt us, then I’ll see to it we’re both armed.”
“You wouldn’t be willing to shoot me. I know you—” His eyes fell closed. He opened them again. “You’d be too afraid of killing me.” Again his eyes closed.
“You let me worry about that. As if I’d hesitate to kick your oversized ass to the grave and back if I thought you were gonna hurt me. Hell, Raphael, don’t kid yourself. Now, get some sleep.”
He tried to reply, but the sleep was on him before he could make a sound.
Vixen waited in the cell, wondering what was taking so long. She still wasn’t sure she could do what they asked of her, but she couldn’t stand any more torture. Why these people delighted in causing pain, she could not fathom.
Their footsteps came, just minutes before dawn. Briar was not alone this time. The one called Jack was with her. Longish brown hair, shot through with streaks of blond, parted on one side, so that it tended to fall over his eyes. An unshaven look that was always just that. Never more, never less. As if he meant it to be that way. Light blue eyes, almost shockingly pale.
Jack looked at her, smiled slyly, shook his head slowly. “Damn, she is a pretty thing, isn’t she?” He stuck his arm between the bars of her cage and made smacking sounds with his lips, like calling a pet. “Come here, hon. Let me feel that silky hair, hmm?”
She backed up to the far wall, her eyes wide and darting from Jack to Briar. Of the two, it was the female she most feared.
“Fine,” Jack said. “Your loss, babe.” Then he turned to Briar. “So what is it you wanted to show me?”
“She’s not human.”
“No, not anymore. Not since Gregor changed her.”
Briar shook her head. “Not even before. She’s a shape-shifter. Spent half her time as an animal.”
Jack grinned. “Right. Briar, have you been feeding on crack addicts tonight or what?”
“Gregor knows. That’s why he wanted her. He had me stake out the places where she tends to show up when she’s in human form and tell him her habits, so he could follow her. He set a trap, caught her in it when she was an animal, then waited for her to shift back and transformed her.”
Slowly Jack’s smile died. “He didn’t make you do it for him? You know, he didn’t have you suck her blood and then make her drink yours…?”
“No,” she said with a disgusted look.
Jack pushed a hand through his long hair and shook his head. “Damn, that would’ve been hot.”
“She’s a shape-shifter. Are you even getting this?”
He shrugged, then looked at Vixen. Then, frowning, he really looked at her. His brows drew together. “Vixen. And that hair. And those eyes.” He glanced at Briar again. “You saying she’s some kind of a fox?”
“Pull your hair back, Vixen. Show him.”
Vixen lowered her head, but not in shame, for she knew no such thing as shame. But she hated defeat. She hated obeying the girl with the blackest heart in all the world. Still, she pulled her hair back, and Jack looked, and then his brows shot up.
“Are her ears slightly…pointed?”
“Mmm-hmm. And now she’s going to try to shift back into her animal form. If she can still do it, she can be of invaluable help to Gregor. I mean, can you imagine the places she could get into where we couldn’t fit? Hell, we could set her loose inside a bank, then have her shift back and let us in after closing.”
“Gregor’s got more money than God already.”
“You can never be too rich,” Briar said. “You ready, Vixen?”
“I think so.”
“Then do it.”
Vixen nodded and sank down onto the floor. She lay down on her side and pulled her long, copper hair around her face. She closed her eyes and pretended to will her form to change. But in fact, she wasn’t willing it at all. She didn’t know if she could change, but she wasn’t going to do it just for them. Especially not for Briar. She had to wait, because she wasn’t sure she could fit between the bars. So she had to wait.
She lay there for several minutes.
“Dammit, Vixen, do it,” Briar snapped.
“I’m trying…”
“This is bullshit. She ain’t a damn fox.”
“She is, I’m telling you. Do it, Vixen!”
Vixen said nothing, just lay there, trembling, because she could feel Briar’s anger, and when that one got angry, it didn’t go well.
“You are gonna be so fucking sorry,” Briar whispered.
Vixen heard the keys in her cell door. Yes. Finally. Vixen focused. She honed her energy and saw herself in her mind’s eye as a fox, running free, and then she felt her body shrinking, growing smaller, vanishing into her long protective hair, until the hair was her tail, curled around her body like a warm coat and covering her face.
She’d changed. Just as Briar swung the cell door open and came charging inside, probably to hurt and punish her, she sprang onto her toes, her clothes falling away behind her, and darted right out of the cell, racing between Briar’s feet, dashing past Jack, who jumped and dodged her as if in fear for his life.
“Well,