Sebastian/Aristide (Bayou Heat) Read online

  Instantly, he was off the bed and pulling on his clothes. Their all-too-brief moment of privacy was over.

  It was time to rejoin the world.

  “What happened?” he demanded as soon as she ended the call.

  She dressed with a brisk efficiency. “There was another mauling.”

  “Damn.” Sebastian tucked his shirt in his pants and smoothed back his hair. “I need to talk to the victim.”

  “You can’t.”

  “Why not?” His brows snapped together as he watched her slip on her sensible leather shoes and tug her hair into a tight ponytail.

  Once again she was the starchy Agent Smith.

  His cat growled in disapproval.

  She lifted her head to meet his annoyed glare. “She’s at the morgue.”

  Oh…hell.

  Sebastian’s gut twisted with regret. He’d known it was only a matter of time before their enemies took their attacks to the next level, but he’d hoped he would be able to expose them before they actually killed someone.

  “Do you know where they found the body?”

  Reny grimaced. “It was propped next to the dumpster at the police station.”

  “Bold bastards.” Sebastian pulled out his phone and texted the info to Raphael. The Wildlands needed to be prepared in case the humans decided to retaliate. “They wanted to make sure it was found.”

  “Yes.”

  Sebastian slid the phone back into his pocket. “We need to find the first victim.”

  “I agree.”

  With an obvious refusal to glance toward the bed that was a visual display of their recent passion, she headed to pull open the door.

  Before she could step out of the room, however, he captured her from behind. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he whispered directly in her ear.

  “You know this isn’t finished.”

  She held herself stiffly, but there was no missing the rapid beat of her heart.

  “Don’t push your luck, cat,” she warned.

  He traced the curve of her ear with his tongue. “Sugar, I’m going to push until I hear you scream again.” He planted a kiss in the hollow beneath her jaw. “And again.” He gently sank his teeth into the tender flesh between her neck and shoulder, chuckling as she groaned in startled pleasure. “And—”

  Giving a small hiss, Reny broke out of his hold, turning to meet his smoldering gaze.

  “Are all Pantera so cocky?”

  An unexpected, shockingly violent tidal wave of territorial possession surged through him. “I’m the only Pantera you need to worry about.” There was a hint of warning in his voice. “Period.”

  Her eyes widened, but perhaps sensing the danger of poking his cat when it was anxious to pounce, she deliberately stepped into the hall.

  “Where do we start?” she asked.

  Sebastian squashed the urge to scoop her in his arms and carry her back to bed. His growingly urgent need to bond with Reny Smith would have to wait until they’d brought a halt to the bastards who were attacking defenseless women.

  “Back at the apartment,” he said, hoping Koni Handler had the information he needed to start his hunt. “I need to pick up the female’s scent.”

  “Makes sense,” she agreed, briskly heading down the stairs.

  Sebastian prowled at her side. “You should return to your office and start running her financials.”

  She pulled out her phone and began typing in a message. “I can have one of the techs take care of it.”

  They moved down the stairs and toward the back of the house. “Then you can go have dinner.”

  “I already ate.” She sent him a suspicious glare. “Why are you trying to get rid of me?”

  “We don’t know what’s out there hunting women,” he said.

  A dangerous heat sparked in her eyes. “Exactly. It’s my job to find out.”

  He was a Diplomat. He knew that tone.

  It meant, ‘You’ve just pissed on my last nerve. Now back off.’

  But he was also a Pantera male who possessed an instinctive need to protect his female.

  “You don’t understand the danger.”

  Heat sizzled through the air, the power of her cat glowing in her eyes.

  “Don’t you dare treat me like a helpless little woman.” She stepped forward, poking her finger into the middle of his chest. “This is my case.” Another poke, this one hard enough to hurt. “If you don’t want to be my partner then return to the Wildlands and send someone else.”

  Oh, hell. She was a born Hunter. He could read it in her fierce need to be out tracking down their enemies. It was no wonder that she’d chosen to go into law enforcement.

  Sebastian smothered a wry smile.

  She was going to make his life…interesting.

  “Come on,” he said.

  ***

  Reny was prepared to remain on her personal soapbox. There was nothing she hated more than being treated as if she couldn’t be good at her job because she had a uterus instead of a penis.

  But the moment they’d returned to the desolate neighborhood where Koni Handler had lived, Sebastian wisely resisted any urge to try and prevent her from remaining at his side as he focused on following the scent.

  A scent that teased at Reny’s nose even while she slammed the door on acknowledging her abilities.

  It was a trick she’d developed when she was in the hospital and realized how different she was from the other patients.

  How else could she stay sane?

  They’d traveled three blocks when Sebastian came to a sudden halt, his expression grim as he glanced around the corner that was bathed in the gaudy lights from a nearby bar.

  “Why are you stopping?” she demanded.

  “She must have gotten into a vehicle.” He gave a frustrated growl. “Dammit.”

  “Then we do it the human way,” Reny murmured, her trained gaze instantly searching near the doorway of the bar. She was rewarded by the sight of a small red light. “There.” She pointed toward the surveillance camera.

  He arched a brow, looking impossibly gorgeous despite his ruffled hair and the hint of tawny whiskers that shadowed his jaw.

  “Good call. Can you get us access?”

  Something eased in her chest at his ready willingness to accept her help.

  Maybe he wasn’t a complete jackass.

  With a smug smile she pulled her badge from the inner pocket of her jacket and headed across the street.

  Entering the narrow bar with a dozen worn tables scattered over a wood floor, Reny took a direct path toward the back of the room where a large, grizzled man was tending bar. A few of the drunken patrons gave her a lingering look before paling in fear as they caught sight of the predatory male who walked a half step behind her.

  Less than ten minutes later they were in a cramped office that smelled of scotch and cheap cologne, skimming through fuzzy images that flashed across the computer screen.

  “There she is,” Reny said, halting the video as she recognized Koni Handler stepping into a white van with an emblem painted on its side of a spread-winged raven flying across a full moon.

  “Shit.” Sebastian leaned over her shoulder, his expression grim. “Can you enlarge it?”

  She zoomed in on the blurred image of the driver. “Do you recognize him?”

  The heat from his body pumped through the room. “Unfortunately.”

  Her breath caught in her throat as she glanced up to meet his bloodthirsty gaze. “Is he Pantera?”

  “No,” he instantly denied. “But I think I know how to find him.”

  She rose to her feet, heading out of the office. “We’ll take my car.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he teased, allowing her to lead them out of the bar and down the street.

  She waited until they were in her car and Sebastian had punched in the GPS coordinates that had them heading east before she asked the obvious question.

  “How do you know the driver?”

  There was
another blast of heat, revealing that beneath Sebastian’s façade of calm focus was a smoldering fury.

  “We discovered that he’s a disciple for our enemy.”

  “Disciple?” She sent him a puzzled glance. “That’s a strange term.”

  “They worship the goddess who’s determined to destroy us.”

  She searched his tense profile, looking for some indication he was screwing with her.

  “A goddess?”

  “Yes.” His fingers tapped on his knee, clearly impatient to get to where they were going. “Which means this might be even worse than we originally anticipated.”

  Shit. He was serious.

  “What goddess?” she demanded, wondering if the night could get any more bizarre. “And why does she want to destroy you?”

  “I promise to explain it as soon as we find our missing victim,” he said, his tone distracted.

  Reny grimaced, not in the mood to insist on answers.

  She was still trying to accept the thought that she might be a Pantera.

  She didn’t want to add in a mysterious goddess who might or might not want to destroy her.

  They traveled in silence as Reny followed the GPS directions to the edge of town. At last, she turned into what looked like an abandoned industrial complex.

  “Pull over there.” Sebastian pointed toward a stack of pylons. She parked the car and shut off the engine, already prepared when he turned to send her a worried glance. “Reny.”

  “Don’t.” She pointed a warning finger into his face. “Start.”

  With a roll of his eyes, he shoved open the door and climbed out of the car. Reny pulled her gun from the holster before following him through the thick shadows toward a three-story brick building at the edge of the complex.

  Expecting him to head directly for the loading doors that stood open, Reny was caught off guard when he took a wide path around the far edge of the building.

  “Where are we going?” she demanded, keeping her voice pitched low so it wouldn’t carry.

  “There could be Pantera,” he explained. “We need to stay downwind.”

  She jumped over a pile of coiled steel cable that was nearly hidden by the patches of weeds.

  Damn. She was going to end up with a broken neck if she wasn’t careful.

  “I thought you said a Pantera couldn’t be involved,” she said.

  His pace never slowed. “I said a Pantera couldn’t shift away from the Wildlands, not that we haven’t discovered traitors among our people.”

  “Great,” she muttered. “Any other surprises you want to spring on me?”

  He glanced over his shoulder with a grin that made her blood heat. “Not while you’re clothed.”

  She cursed at the instant lust that raced through her body. “Arrogant cat.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Sebastian reluctantly led Reny toward the narrow door at the end of the abandoned warehouse, knowing it would be a waste of breath to try and convince her to wait in the car.

  Besides, he couldn’t change her nature.

  Reny Smith was a born warrior. To try and make her less would break something deep inside her.

  Not that it wasn’t going to make him crazy to have her charging into danger.

  With one sharp tug, Sebastian had the padlock broken and was pushing open the door. Then, with a silence that no human could hope to achieve, he was sliding through the vast room that had once been filled with crates of animal pelts. The lingering odor might have masked the presence of the four humans if they hadn’t been bonded to Shakpi. The sour stench that clung to her disciples couldn’t be missed.

  Halting in the shadows, Sebastian studied the humans who remained oblivious to his presence.

  There was a young woman he assumed was Koni Handler. She was tied to a chair, her head bent down so her hair fell forward to hide her face, although he could hear her soft sobs from across the room.

  Several feet away was an older woman with several bracelets on her scrawny arms, dressed in a brightly patterned dress. Her silver hair was pulled into a knot at the back of her head and she was currently giving two human males the evil eye.

  Sebastian growled deep in his throat. There was a redheaded male with a scar that twisted one side of his face, but it was the man with lanky black hair and a rat face that Sebastian had recognized from the video surveillance.

  Derek.

  The bastard who’d been pretending to be an ally to the Pantera when all along he was working for their enemies.

  On the plus side, it was Derek’s stupidity that had allowed the Geeks to track his movements from the voodoo shop where he’d been spying on Isi to this warehouse. Which was how Sebastian knew exactly where to locate him.

  Clearly not any more impressed with the thug’s intelligence than Sebastian was, the older woman pointed her finger toward the bound woman, the heavy bracelets that circled her arms giving a loud rattle.

  “You were told to kill her and dump the body.”

  “We did with the ugly one,” the redhead muttered, hunching his shoulders. “This one we want to play with first.”

  “Idiots.” The woman that he suspected was Lady Cerise stepped forward to slap the man on the side of his head. “My informant just called to warn me that a Pantera is in town working with the FBI. Do you want to lead them to us?”

  Sebastian silently cursed, making a mental note to track down the informant. He wouldn’t tolerate traitors.

  “They have no way of finding this place,” Derek boasted.

  “You know nothing,” Lady Cerise snapped. “It’s easy to be a bully when you’re dealing with the dregs of humanity. The Pantera will eat you alive.” She allowed a dramatic pause. “Literally.”

  “I’m not scared,” Derek muttered, ruining his cocky boast when he sent a nervous glance toward the shadows that shrouded the warehouse.

  Did he sense they were near? Sebastian hoped so.

  He wanted him afraid. To feel hunted.

  “Because you’re stupid.” Lady Cerise pointed out the obvious. “Now get rid of her.”

  The redhead folded his arms over his chest. “You ain’t in charge.”

  There was a shocked silence.

  “What did you say?” the older woman at last rasped.

  “Our goddess, Shakpi, has returned,” the man said. “She’s in charge now.”

  Sebastian covered Reny’s mouth with lightning speed, easily sensing her shock at the revelation that the goddess he’d mentioned earlier was actually walking the earth. He’d hoped to avoid sharing that little tidbit of info. At least until she’d managed to process the other shocks she’d had to endure over the past few hours.

  Across the cavernous room, Derek gave a nervous laugh. “Even if she does look like a middle-aged Indian dude.”

  “No shit,” the redhead agreed with a chuckle.

  Not amused, Lady Cerise deliberately grasped a small satin bag she had tied around her neck.

  “You will do as I say or I will place a curse on you that will cause a body part to fall off each and every day. Starting with your very small dicks.” The woman offered an evil smile. “Do you understand?”

  The two men shuddered at the threat. “Fine.”

  Sebastian was distracted as Reny pressed against him to whisper directly in his ear. “I have to do something.”

  He wisely bit back his instinctive refusal, reminding himself that Reny would never forgive him if he tried to cage her.

  Besides, he was going to need her if they were to get the female out alive.

  Assuring himself that he’d soon have her back in the Wildlands where she would be safe, he turned to meet her steady gaze.

  “I’ll distract them,” he murmured softly. “You circle around and get the girl.” Something that might have been relief darkened her eyes, as if she’d been dreading his refusal to accept her help. Of course, he couldn’t completely resist giving out at least one warning. “Don’t take any unnecessary risks.”

 
; Narrowing her gaze, she abruptly framed his face in her hands and glared at his startled expression.

  “You.”

  “Yes?”

  “Be careful.”

  He blinked in surprise, having expected a lecture, not a warning. Warmth spread through his heart as she brushed her lips across his with a kiss that promised far more wicked pleasures to come.

  “Careful is my middle name.”

  She gave a shake of her head. “I’m fairly certain your middle name is Aggravating Bastard.”

  He stole another kiss before straightening and nodding his head toward the west wall. “Take the female out the side door and call for backup.”

  With a smooth efficiency, Reny was moving along the edge of the room, her gun held in a professional grip.

  Good girl, he silently approved, waiting until she was approaching the bound female before he stalked forward, using the sheer power of his presence to capture the villains’ attention.

  Even humans could sense when there was a predator in their midst.

  Halting a few feet away, he folded his arms over his chest.

  “You should listen to…” He glanced toward the older woman. “Lady Cerise, I presume?”

  The redhead clenched his hands, deliberately flexing his muscles. As if Sebastian would be impressed. Twit.

  “Who the hell are you?” he blustered.

  “I could say I’m your worst nightmare but that would be so clichéd.” His smile was mocking. “Oh, the hell with it. I’m your worst nightmare.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Sebastian watched as Reny silently crept forward and began working on the ropes that held the nearly unconscious female.

  Confident she could complete her mission, Sebastian briefly watched Lady Cerise scuttle away, accepting he’d have to track her down later before he returned his attention to the redhead who was taking a step forward.

  “Careful, Van,” Derek warned. “He’s one of those fucking animals.”

  Van turned his head to spit on the ground, revealing the image of a raven that had been branded on his neck. The Mark of Shakpi.

  “I’ve had my rabies shots,” he assured his friend, acting all badass with the knowledge they had Sebastian outnumbered.