Chapter 2

2

I looked deep into Kye’s eyes as I yanked my right knee up and ground it into his crotch.

One thing about doing this to a wolf shifter is that his blessed anatomy makes getting nailed in the dick way more painful.

He howled a baleful wail and rolled off me.

“Everybody makes mistakes, Kye.” I climbed to my feet, feeling more satisfied than ever. “Yours was getting between me and my paycheck.”

“And yours was getting involved in pack business.” He gritted out between curses.

“Like I give a shit. Not my pack. Not my problem. Remember?”

The only thing I cared about now was getting ahold of the thingamajig sending supernatural shockwaves up my body before Kye did.

He tossed and turned before the barrel I needed, gripping his man parts protectively. I would have reveled in his long overdue suffering, but I had zero time to fuck around. His injury was healing as we spoke.

I jumped over him to reach the barrel but Kye rose with preternatural strength, his pain disregarded at the threat of me getting what was in that wooden cylinder.

My shoulder connected with his abdomen just inside his hipbone, and we flew back toward the wall.

Instead of trying to break his fall, Kye slammed his hands on either side of my head as we fell and crushed an ancient crate. I rolled over him in a crazy somersault and jumped to my feet, my ears ringing and my eyes still spotty from his first hit.

I’m not winning the fight at this rate, no way, and I’m smart enough to admit it.

See, what I hate about the movies is how often they make it seem easy to get right back into the action after getting injured or punched to shit. Maybe if he were human, I could’ve shaken it off. But getting punched in the face by a shifter who outweighs you by a hundred plus pounds knocks you on your ass and puts a damper on your recovery time.

But I’m screwed because Kye is on his feet, and I see a knife glinting in his hand.

“Just walk away, Pinky, and I won’t have to hurt you. Again.”

“Bring it,” I challenged with false bravado, patting my waistband, looking for my knife, only to find my sheath empty.

Fuck.

Then I glanced at his hand again. It’s my knife he holds.

Double fuck.

“Unlike you,” he laughed, waving my knife in my face, “I don’t need this. I could rip your heart out and eat it while the light fades from your eyes—if I wanted…”

I raised an eyebrow. “Okay, give me the knife back and try it then.”

He laughed and jerked his other fist at me. But instead of throwing a punch, he flung floor dirt and rat shit at me. The filth formed a cloud in the shack’s moonlit interior, obscuring everything. I instinctively ducked back and covered my face, only to take a real punch to my gut and another blow to my cheek before I could block it.

I dropped like a goddamned sack and blinked fast, trying to find him in the cloud of filth sparkling in the moonlight as it fell.

Stop looking and listen.

I focused my gaze to the floor and held my breath instead, careful to keep from inhaling the dirt while listening for his movements. At my left, a creak shattered the air, and I threw a kick out, knee-height. I was immediately rewarded with a satisfying crack as I connected with his leg, and he showered me with curses as he jumped back again.

“Leave it, Elena. It’s not for you.”

“Like I care,” I muttered as the dust finally cleared.

“Elena.”

But I was on my feet and closer to the barrel now. Kye finally figured out he had to either kill or incapacitate me to stop me. The only problem was Kye still held my knife, and judging from the look on his face, he was perfectly willing to kill me.

I walked backward until my heel hit the barrel, then accidentally slammed my elbow into the lid. However, the stupid thing flipped up on its end and toppled onto the floor instead of breaking.

“Elena,” my opponent growled in warning.

“Sorry, Kye, but an exiled girl has got to eat, you know?” I glanced down, careful to keep him in my peripheral vision as I reached into the sand and, as I hoped, my fingers found the cool, pitted old glass jar. It shot into my palm as if under its own volition.

Then the air in the room shifted, and I swore the atmosphere became so thin I could barely breathe. I hadn’t seen what was in the jar yet, and now I didn’t want to. My throat dried, and I swallowed as I began to understand.

It wanted out.

I definitely should not let it out.

And then, as I stared at Kye, watching him pace mere yards from me, he was clearly debating whether charging for the jar would end the fight or make it worse, when suddenly an unfamiliar smell drifted into the room.

Ozone, char, and under it, fresh earth and—cinnamon?

All I knew was the scent was raw, angry, and pulsing in the space around us. And even though my heart was about to pound out of my chest, I didn’t hate the aroma.

Kye still paced on the other side of the shack, probably working out how to keep me from taking the mysterious magical item from the barrel.

“Focus, dipshit,” I hissed to myself but from the corner of my eye, I glimpsed Kye as he lunged.

With a roar, he slammed into me.

We grappled over the jar, but I kept my hold on it, which surprised Kye. He never tried to understand my abilities before, so there was no point in explaining since I found it, the jar and its contents wanted to stay with me.

That’s my gift, talent, or whatever the fuck my power is.

The more magical an item is, the more powerful the pull, which means whatever is glowing darkly to me is incredibly powerful. That was only one more reason, as if I needed to add another, not to let Kye get his slimy claws on it.

He flipped me off him, and I rolled and tucked the jar into my chest as sharp bits of debris bit into my back and ass through my clothes.

“Back the fuck off, Kye. I have what I came for, and we both know this isn’t yours.” The energy inside the jar reverberated through my chest, and I refused to let him have it.

He growled at me, his eyes changing as he struggled to maintain control of his temper. “You’re messing around where you shouldn’t. Especially without the ability to shift or defend yourself.”

“Try me, asshole. You’d be surprised at the damage I can do when necessary.” I watched him as he crouched and jumped back when he swung out with an arm that didn’t look quite human anymore. “Kye. Don’t escalate this, I won’t back down. Now tell me why you’re really here. What the hell have you gotten yourself into?”

He flinched and looked like he was going to say something, but instead, he raised his head and sniffed the air.

A shadow covered the moon, dropping darkness into the shack like someone had tossed a thick tarp over the holes in the roof, sinking us into inky blackness.

It was far worse for me than for Kye, who had even sharper night vision than I did... but maybe he wouldn’t see me scoot to my left and begin circling the room as far as I could. I hoped. The pressing sensation from the Mason jar grew, nearly pushing me to the floor. I braced my free hand against the wall, taking my eyes off the shadowy silhouette of my ex-mate for the briefest moment. It was enough of a gap in my focus. Kye collided with me as I pushed away from the wall, my legs so shaky that we tumbled to the floor, and the jar fell with us. Glass flew, and an object rolled toward a patch of missing floorboards in the center of the room.

As I hit the ground, I looked up to see an unfamiliar shadow emerge—a man or almost man, whose eyes glowed gold, his sharp teeth bared and glinting faintly in his snarling face. Kye stiffened and jumped back from me, his back pressed to the wall as Mr. Big and Bad growled so low I felt it in my stomach before I even heard a sound. Both flew past me, clawing and snapping at each other, and the shadow rolled closer to the hole.

Shit.

I combat-crawled over the rough surface, splaying myself out to limit the pressure I leveraged on the fragile flooring. Ignoring the splinters embedding in my stomach, I worked my way across the ground as my jacket pushed up and exposed more of my abdomen. I wouldn’t let Kye take another thing from me. Not even this. I reached for the shattered jar and the black lump of something that rested on the edge of the ragged hole.

I wasn’t near enough to secure a solid hold on it, but I wasn’t sure the boards would support my weight as I inched closer. Crashing through the floor into whatever mess of swamp snakes, bayou spiders, and probably fucking alligators lived in the underside of the cabin didn’t appeal to me, so I studied the object, still tucked in a portion of the jar.

The black thingy took the shape of a small hand with the fingers outstretched. But, no, it was too small to be a real hand, and it glowed like the night sky. I wanted it, and I bet Kye felt the same need to possess it as well. He had to. Why else would he be here?

First, he took my home.

Then he stole my dignity.

Now that bastard dared to take my only source of income? Yeah right.

The cloak of darkness passed over us, and the moonlight returned, and with it, I could finally see the creature fighting Kye on the far side of the shack.

Kye got in a shot that sent his opponent flying backward. Ignoring me, he lunged for the broken jar and scooped the ragged muck-encrusted glass, cradling the talisman into his arms.

“What in the fuck are you doing?” I screeched. He would not make off with my payday. I probably resembled a rabid squirrel flying at him, but I didn’t care.

We tumbled, and I grabbed the jar free, jagged glass biting my palm. I grappled with him, then sunk my teeth into Kye’s arm.

Suddenly I was tumbling headfirst, falling into the warm, murky water under the shack. My face scraped along the swamp bottom as my fingers found the object again, invisible in the inky, muddy water but hotter than the tepid bayou water. And the damn thing called me.

I clutched it as it pulsed in my hand like a living heart. I tried to turn myself right side up, but before I could kick to the surface, the oblong black crystal burst into a thousand stars, shining brighter than the sun, and slammed into the center of my chest.

I gasped, stunned, and sunk into the ebony water as the brilliance sunk into the spot between my breasts, lighting me up like a fucking star.

But I couldn’t move or breathe.

Fetid water filled my throat, and darkness blurred the edges of my vision. I can not believe that I’m fucking dying, which makes me scared and pissed because I did not want this.

And then a hand grasped my jacket and hauled me to the surface as I gasped. But I was so busy coughing up water that I didn’t look to see if it was Kye or the shadow guy.

But I knew one thing. With my payday pulsing inside my chest, Mr. X would kill me.