3. Talon

CHAPTER 3

Talon

" I can't believe your private plane includes table-side human service ," I said directly into Cassandra's mind, my panther eyes watching the human offer itself to her.

Cassandra graciously thanked the human but declined the feed, and he bowed as if she was royalty before scurrying to the back of the plane where its private bedroom was.

We'd been in flight for three hours, the entirety of which I'd posed as Shadow, Cassandra's panther pet.

Shifting was part of who I was, but being forced to shift and maintain it for long periods of time definitely made my skin itch. That could also be because of the connection I'd had to construct between us, using my shifter magic to create a bond to link us so we could speak without me having to shift back. It had been hard to do, taking me twice as long as it ever had before, thanks to her barely lowering her mental shields for me.

The discomfort could also be because I was completely trapped in this horrific invention called an airplane. I'd flown before, after being awoken from stasis, but that had been an entirely different kind of flight. One where I was surrounded by my brothers as we did our best to acclimate to modern times. And while I'd definitely come to appreciate the technology of this age, there was something about being trapped at thirty thousand feet that had all of my primal instincts firing.

I paced up and down the aisle, only speaking to Cassandra mind-to-mind, an exhausting trick that only worked if I was in my shifted form. And since she would be my only ally on this mission—as much as I could call her an ally—she was the only one I'd be able to communicate with.

" Is this how you grew up ?" I asked. " Private planes, endless champagne, and free-flowing blood whenever you liked ?" I stopped pacing, sitting back on my haunches in the aisle and looking at her where she sat in the aisle seat.

I suppose I never really considered how big Shadow actually was until I stepped into her skin, but even sitting I was eye-level with Cassandra.

She pined those dark brown eyes on me, flashing me an unnerving look that I'd seen a lot of the last three hours. " It sounds all well and good when you put it that way ," she finally answered me, sending the words down the temporary bond. " But just because I grew up with finer things doesn't mean everything was fine growing up ."

Intrigue rattled through me, and not for the first time. The female was the perfect vampiric specimen on the outside—stunning, elegant, and with a rich history and expertise on the inner workings of the vampire court. But on the inside? I hadn't been able to figure out who exactly she was. She had traitors' blood in her veins, and had behaved awfully in court to win the king's affections. But somehow both my king and the queen had forgiven her, which made her even more of an enigma to me.

Her eyes trailed the length of my panther body one more time, and that unsettled look shaped her features again.

I released a low growl. " What ?" I asked. " Did I get a detail wrong? Did I miss something about your precious pussycat ?"

Her luscious red lips parted at my calling her deadly panther a pussycat, and if I could've smiled, I would've.

" No ," she answered. " You've managed to replicate Shadow completely. It's unnerving ."

Pride swelled in my chest. " I have been doing this for centuries, you know ," I said.

" Yes, and how grand it must be to blink and become something else entirely ," she said the words with a bite of sarcasm that didn't really reach her eyes. Her features screamed longing and curiosity more than the barb she'd intended.

" Oh, come on, Cassie ," I said into her mind, using the shortened version of her name that made her cringe every time I uttered it. " You know a little bit about shifting yourself, even if you can't do it as spectacularly as I can ." She tilted her head as if she wasn't catching my meaning. " I've seen you in court ," I continued. " Every single time your high-heels touch the marble floor, you become someone else. And if the rumors are true, you even altered your appearance once a few years ago—a splash of ink in the shape of our king's mating mark ?"

Anger turned her features sharp, her fangs flashing as she bared them at me. She seemed to think better of it, and quickly smoothed out the rigid lines on her face, retracting her fangs as she white-knuckled the hand rest with her fingers. " You're an asshole ," she said. " Do you know how hard it is to want to strangle you when you're taking the shape of the only creature I've ever actually loved ?"

The severity of her words hit me dead center in the chest. I shifted on my haunches, an involuntary whimper of apology escaping my panther throat.

Fuck me, I hadn't even considered that goading her while in this form would not only hurt her, but could very well blow our cover. Cassandra would never lay a finger on Shadow in anger, but if I kept it up, she wouldn't be able to hold back for long.

" Besides ," she continued before I could find the courage I needed to offer her a formal apology. " You have no clue what it was like to grow up a Zorin. And you certainly don't know the entire story behind the tattoo. "

I pawed past her, looking out the window and down where the Caribbean Sea stretched out in every direction beneath us, the moonlight reflecting against its turquoise waters. " Well, it looks like we have at least an hour until we land, " I said. " Why don't you tell me the story ?"

" Telling you that story would involve a great deal of trust ," she said, doing her best to look everywhere but at my panther face. " As it is, I don't trust you. And I don't think there's enough time in the world for me to do so. "

" That makes two of us, little viper. I'm not entirely certain that you won't slit my throat in my sleep ."

Her eyes met mine and the smallest smile shaped her full red lips.

She looked at me like she was seeing the vampire and not the jungle cat. " The thought has crossed my mind ," she said. " Not from any agenda I'm following like you think I am, but simply because the sound of your voice is more grating on my nerves than knives on a chalkboard. "

If I could've laughed, I would've, but in this form, the only thing I mustered was a huffed chortle. " Now I know you're lying ," I said, purring as I brushed against her. " I scented you yesterday. I know for a fact parts of you enjoy my voice. And even more parts of you enjoy the way I look. "

The memory of having her underneath me in the training room flooded back, filling my veins with liquid fire. I hadn't intended to get so close to her, but godsdamn, was she under-trained. We were heading into a mission she wasn't remotely qualified for beyond her family's connection. I never suspected that splaying her beneath me on the training mat would trigger our bodies' reactions in a way neither one of us wanted.

Fuck, she'd smelled so damn good, desire turning her signature sent of irises into something sharper, some mixture of floral and moss I couldn't resist. My instincts roared to bite, fuck, and bite some more, and in that moment, I think she would've let me.

Thank fuck the queen had interrupted our session and had broken the predatory instincts that had me reacting to having a beautiful female beneath me. I was a thousand years old, for fuck's sake. I should've been able to control my reactions better than that, but I knew there was a fine line between hate and desire, and Cassandra liked to dance all over it.

" Wanting a release from a pretty package has nothing to do with trust," she finally said. " And don't worry, I have no intentions of touching you like that ever again."

" That sounded more like a challenge than a threat, " I said, my heart racing at the tiny smirk on her beautiful mouth.

She didn't offer any retort, instead electing to look out the window as we continued to toward her family's estate.

Even I wasn't privy to the exact coordinates of the island. The Zorin family had kept their private island situated just to the east of Barbados in the Caribbean Sea a complete secret from even the Royal Court. They had that much wealth and power and had used an entire coven of witches to ward the place from unwanted visitors.

" Do you think your brother Edward will be there ?" I asked as we started our descent.

" I hope so ," she said. " It certainly would help make this mission a quick one, if he were ." She sighed. " But Warrick said he only sporadically used the island home for his endeavors, so I can't guarantee anything other than getting us in undetected."

I studied the lines of her delicate face, the soft skin stretched over an angular jawline. " You know that if he is there, and he is the threat, I'll have to kill him ."

" I'm helping you so that you don't have to kill him ," she said. " The king has prison cells for a reason ."

" It's good to know where your loyalties lie ," I said, unable to hide the disdain from my tone, even in this mental form of communication. " If Warrick is right, your brother Edward picked up right where your father left off. No doubt half, if not all, the deaths from their little lists they've been gathering are on his hands. And yet you want to protect him ?"

" I have no loyalty to Edward ," she said. " But killing him would start an even bigger internal battle that the king most certainly doesn't need. It would also give away the advantage we have, which is an amenity. Gathering information without them knowing and relaying it to your hunter brothers and the Onyx Assassins is a much more advantageous strategic move than just ripping out throats with your claws. Gods, you would think someone as ancient as you would understand that ."

The wheels of the plane hit the runway, jolting us slightly. My panther form brushed against her as the plane balanced out.

I quickly leveled out, giving myself a shake that started at my head and ended at the tip of my tail. I didn't quite know if I trusted what she was saying was true, but if it was, she was far more clever than I'd ever given her credit for.

And that was a little more terrifying than thinking she was just some spoiled traitor's daughter waiting for the best time to betray us all.

After a quick limo ride from the private airport, we passed beneath an opened spot in the wards that had been lifted for her and her pet, walking toward the massive Zorin estate. I felt the intense magic of the wards snap into place after we'd cleared the edge of the island. The weight of the power was almost suffocating.

For the first time, I could sense the severity of the mission. Could feel the danger with every step we took closer to the estate.

And I suddenly wondered if I would make it out alive.