"What were you thinking about during lunch? All I did was touch your neck, yet you were rising." His mouth dipped, his warm breath teasing her temple.

"Nothing. Let me go, Jag."

He didn't. Instead, he moved to her earlobe and took it carefully between his teeth, his breath tickling the sensitive lobe and sending delicious shivers through her body.

His teeth released her ear, a soft stroke of his tongue easing the light pinch before his lips trailed down her rain-slick neck, heating her from the inside out. Deep inside, her body turned warm and soft, and damp. The restlessness began to build again, throbbing and tightening all over again.

Pamela Palmer Rapture Untamed

"Jag, stop. You're doing it again," she gasped, her breath turning shallow, labored.

"You can do it with your knuckles, your mouth. The heat. The pleasure."

He released her and turned her to face him, his grip on her shoulders absolute as he stared into her face. In his expression, she saw a mix of bemusement and satisfaction.

In his eyes, fire.

"Goddess, you are rising again." His hands shot up under her jacket, curving around her waist.

Through the thin cotton of her shirt, she felt a sudden rush of coolness battling back the tide of heat, and shivered.

"Enough, Jag," she pleaded. "You're giving me temperature whiplash."

His mouth kicked up, a soft, amused smile. "You rise for me even when I don't try. I've never seen anything like it."

"I can't say I'm thrilled about it."

He chuckled low. "It's a good thing I can cool as well as heat."

Pamela Palmer Rapture Untamed

"I suppose. That's quite a gift you have."

"It comes in handy from time to time."

"Have you always been able to do that with your hands?" She stepped closer, drawn as much to his heat as to the man himself, and slid her arms around his waist. "Or was it one of your Feral gifts?"

His hands slid to her back, pressing her closer. "I've always had the ability. When I was a boy, I used to catch forest creatures - rabbits, deer, squirrels - calming them and making pets of them if you can believe it."

She found herself smiling at the thought.

"I wasn't always an ass." A hardness entered his voice with his words, a hardness turned on himself.

Her smile died. The man he'd become, the Jag she knew, was no longer that boy.

Instead, he'd grown into an angry and difficult man. Because of something that happened, something he blamed himself for, she was positive. Something that concerned Cordelia.

Pamela Palmer Rapture Untamed

"Jag?"

His chin brushed over her hair. "What?"

She shouldn't ask. It was none of her business. "Who's Cordelia?"

He stiffened as if he'd been stabbed through the side. Slowly, his hands dropped away from her.

"Why?"

"You said her name in your sleep this morning."

"She's nobody. Not anymore." He stepped back and turned away. "She's dead."

Unh. "I'm sorry, Jag." She knew she was treading dangerous ground, yet something told her she needed to know. If she were ever going to help him, she needed to understand what drove him. Why she thought she could help him - or even wanted to - she wasn't sure.

"Was she your mate?"

Pamela Palmer Rapture Untamed

"No." He turned his head, looking at her over one broad, muscled shoulder, meeting her gaze with eyes filled with an ancient pain. "She was my mother."

Oh, Jag.

He walked away, as if needing to distance himself from her, from the truths she'd pulled from him. She ached from the pain she'd seen in his eyes, and from the deep well of empathy she felt for him. His parent was dead, and he blamed himself. She knew that dark, bitter landscape far too well.

For long minutes she stood in the woods, alone but for the need to somehow ease Jag's torment. But how, when he wouldn't listen? When he wasn't ready to hear?

Finally, the others began to return, rescuing her from her frustratingly inadequate thoughts. Tighe and Delaney came through the trees first, hand in hand, Delaney's cheeks flushed, Tighe's eyes warm with satisfaction and love.

As Olivia watched them together, she couldn't help but wonder what it would feel like to be cared for like that. To be loved. Sometimes she caught a similar look in Niall's eyes as he watched her, but Niall's feelings lacked the depth of Tighe's for Delaney. In comparison, they felt weak and thin. Unhappy.

Unreturned. And perhaps that was the difference. Love could never be rich and full when it went only one way.

Niall and Ewan came in from opposite directions.

"Success?" Tighe asked. "Delaney's a go."

"Shit hole of a house," Ewan commented by way of an answer.

Niall nodded. But the look he gave her was nothing less than morose. Niall knew her better than anyone ever had, except, oddly, Jag. Niall had always sensed her moods surprisingly accurately and could no doubt feel that her relationship with Jag wasn't quite right.

He'd just have to deal with it.

Hawke and Kougar returned, shimmering into man shape in a concert of sparkling lights. Interestingly, while Hawke's shifting lights were multihued, as Jag's always were, Kougar's were almost colorless. White and silver and gray.

"Report?" Tighe asked.

The group had reassembled behind a thick stand of brush where no one from the house would be able to see them if they looked. Jag came up behind her. Though he didn't quite touch her, she felt his body heat at her back.

"No change," Hawke replied. "They either have no clue we're out here, or they're waiting for us inside."

Tighe nodded. "Let's hope it's the former, but we're going in either way. Hawke and Kougar, you'll take the back door with Olivia."

"No," Jag said abruptly. "Olivia stays with me."

Olivia shot him a questioning look. Was he afraid she'd start feeding again and hurt his friends? But when she met his gaze, she saw only a fierce and startling protectiveness. Of her.

She turned back to Tighe, her heart pounding an awkward rhythm. Jag positively confused her. He was the last man in the world she needed to be involved with. And yet, wasn't that exactly what they were? Involved?

With a twist of her gut, she knew they always would be, on some level. Because as long as he alone knew her secret, he'd always hold her life in his hands.

Hell.

Tighe's gaze moved between her and Jag. Like Niall, she could tell Tighe wasn't entirely trustful of what he sensed between them. His gaze landed on her, a question in his eyes. She dipped her head in a brief nod.

Tighe shrugged. "Okay, then. Kougar, you're taking the front, with Niall and me. Ewan and D are staying outside to catch anyone who tries to escape."

As Tighe met his mate's gaze, Olivia could tell neither was thrilled with the situation.

Delaney wanted to be in on the attack. Tighe didn't like the idea of being separated from her.

But she heartily concurred with Tighe's refusal to take his mate inside with him.

Fighting the Mage, with their ability to enthrall, was a skill acquired over decades. A skill no human possessed. Delaney might be a fighter, but she lacked the training that would keep her alive.

"Hawke, let me know when your team's in place," Tighe said. "Let's move out."

Almost as one, the Ferals shifted into their animals, the cats downsizing. The jaguar led the way and Olivia followed close behind as they delved deeper into the woods to circle the stronghold. They kept low, ducking behind trees whenever they came within sight of the house.

The battle was bound to turn dangerous whether or not the Mage saw them coming.

The Mage had magic at their disposal they hadn't had...perhaps ever. Magic strong enough to steal souls, free three wraith Daemons, and goddess only knew what else.

Dark magic. Maybe even Daemon magic, though no one knew for sure. They needed to be prepared for anything.

The rain intensified as they approached the back of the house, and Olivia once more wondered if Mother Nature knew what they intended.

Olivia was soaked through, her hair and pants plastered against her skin, the rain having seeped beneath her jacket through the rips in the leather. But growing up in the fifteenth century and living years on her own without shelter, she'd never been bothered by physical discomfort. Besides, her Therian nature had never completely lost its basic wildness. She'd always felt more at home in the woods and the rain than in a dry, centrally heated modern house.

When we get into place,Tighe's voice said in her mind,we'll go in fast and hard. Most of us have fought the Mage numerous times, but it bears repeating. Cut off their hands before you're enthralled. Kill the sentinels if you have to, but not the sorcerers. We need to know what they're up to. And keep your eyes open for Daemons. If we're right about them being nocturnal, they shouldn't be a problem. But we can't be sure.

Olivia's team circled to the back of the house, easing in close as they waited for Tighe's signal to proceed. Her tense gaze traveled to the two thick wooden posts staked in the backyard, a chill slithering through her as she watched them run with watery blood.

What an awful way to die.

Hawke turned human. Olivia lifted a brow, and he explained. "Birds are of little use in battle. I'm better off with knives."

The small jaguar rubbed against her leg, then began to grow to full size in a rush of magic that tingled excitedly along her skin. The beautiful, full-sized jaguar swung his dark head to look up at her. In the cat's eyes, she saw Jag's, without hardness or devilment, but warm and rich with a demanding intensity.

Be careful in there, Red.

I will.She thought he warned her not to hurt anyone she shouldn't, but the words that followed told her otherwise.

Be careful of the Mage, Olivia.

Now!Tighe's voice exploded in her head.

The jaguar took off at a race, Hawke and Olivia following close behind.

Jag?she thought softly.You be careful, too. She wasn't sure if he'd heard her. She wasn't skilled in telepathic communication.

But a low purr caressed her mind.Will do, Liv. Will do.

The jaguar leaped onto the porch and crashed through the front window, disappearing from sight. But as Olivia followed, she slammed into something solid and invisible, tossing her onto her buttocks in the grass, knocking the wind out of her.

"Warding," Hawke muttered beside her a second before he shifted into his bird and flew right through it. His voice rang in her head, a communication with Tighe he'd opened to her as well.Animal forms only, Stripes. The warding...holy shit!

Hawke flew through the broken window and went silent. Olivia's pulse began to race.

Jag? Jag!

But no voice answered. She looked up to find Delaney, Niall, and Ewan racing around the corner of the house.

Delaney's eyes were fierce and wild. "It's a trap! They've walked into a trap!"

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do. Tighe and I are connected. I feel snatches of what he's feeling. And it's pain.

God, it's pain."

Olivia stared at the house, her heart pounding. They couldn't lose four Ferals! Deep inside her, something ripped loose at the thought of Jag in there. Of his not coming out again.

"There has to be a way inside. We have to help them."

But even as the last words left her mouth, something flew out of the window.

Something chillingly familiar.

A Daemon.

"Oh, my God," Delaney whispered beside her, pulling her gun.

"Bloody hell." Niall drew his sword, as did Ewan.

Blood dripped from the Daemon's claws and ran down his mouth and chin.

Whose blood? Whose blood?

So much for trying to help the Ferals. Their own survival would have to come first.

Olivia drew her knives. And prayed.

Chapter Fifteen

Darkness. Nothingness.

All around him Jag felt a thick, unnatural absence of light and sound. The only sense of his that seemed to work was that of scent. And he smelled Daemon.

How in the hell are we supposed to get through this soup?Jag snarled.

Hawke's voice answered in his head.It's warding. If we can find the path, there has to be a way out.

Jag moved forward, but couldn't tell if he moved. He couldn't feel the ground or floor or whatever in the hell was beneath his feet.

Tighe's roar of pain rang through his brain.Shit, shit, shit. Motherfucker. That thing just tore a strip of hide off my back...I saw him. For an instant. Right after he attacked.

He's too fast. Hawke, either find a way out of here fast, or shift. He'll rip off your bird head with a single swipe of those knifelike claws.

I'm already shifting.

As am I,Kougar said.

Jag, I need someone to remain in animal form, or we won't be able to communicate,Tighe said.Since you're the only one weaponless, you're my pick.

Works for me.The putrid smell leaped at him suddenly. Understanding registered a split second before the knifelike claws tore into his shoulder, ripping flesh from his bone.

A strangled cry tore from his jaguar's throat, but no sound met his ears.Holy fucking moly. In the instant the claws left his flesh, he saw it up close and personal as he hadn't in the woods, its long black hair flashing like gleaming ebony around a hideous gray melted face with razor-sharp fangs.

Jag leaped at the fiend, but the venom was already doing a number on him, and the Daemon disappeared back into the darkness before he could touch him.

Fuck!Blood ran down his leg.I'm beginning to see why they call this thing a wraith Daemon.