Chapter 17
Jess paced back and forth like a caged cougar on steroids. Every time he started to go after Abigail, Ren grabbed his arm and stopped him.
The bastard was about to get a boot kicked so far up his ass, he'd be burping shoe leather for the rest of his immortal life.
Jess started for the cave again.
Ren cut him off. "You can't."
"Bull. Shit. What I can't do is leave her. Don't you understand?"
Ren laughed bitterly. "Yeah, I understand better than you can ever imagine. I know exactly what it's like to want something so bad, you can taste it and to have to watch as it voluntarily goes to someone else and then wish them both the best and try to mean it. I know the bitter taste of gall as they sit down at your table and you have to smile while inside you die every time they touch or exchange love-saturated glances. Don't talk to me about torment, Jess. I wrote the fucking book on it."
Now, that was something Ren had never shared with him before. He had no idea his friend had been through an experience like that. Ren never talked about his past. Hell, Jess didn't even know why Ren was a Dark-Hunter.
Because of his own past, he'd never wanted to pry into someone else's. He figured they'd tell him what they wanted him to know, and if they didn't volunteer it, then there was probably a real good reason why.
Far be it from him to stick his nose in it.
Jess inclined his head respectfully. "I'm sorry, Ren."
Ren wore an expression that said, You have no idea.
From up the hill where the cavern was, a fierce battle cry rang out. One that sounded like Choo Co La Tah's. Jess's heart seized as a bad feeling tore through him.
Please let me be wrong.
As fast as he could, he ran up the red-soiled hill while Ren turned into a bird to fly and Sasha took his wolf form.
By the time Jess reached Choo Co La Tah's private cave, Sasha, still in wolf form, was fighting a coyote and Ren was nowhere to be seen.
Neither was Abigail.
That didn't make him happy at all. Was she dead?
He ground his teeth as agony poured through him. It was the same aching, desolate feeling he'd had the night he sold his soul to Artemis.
Abigail was gone.
Please don't be dead.
"Jess?" Choo Co La Tah's voice pulled him back to their present situation. They were in the middle of an attack, and he had to focus if they were to survive. Six bodies of coyotes lay nearby as a gruesome reminder of everything at stake. Blood was splattered on the walls and pooled on the floor, under the bodies.
Choo Co La Tah took a step toward him, then slipped and fell on the blood-drenched ground.
He didn't get back up.
Jess sprinted toward the elder, who lay in a small crevice on his side. A quick visual skim of his injuries said that it was a miracle he was still alive.
Coyote had been playing for keeps. But by the looks of it, so had Choo Co La Tah.
Jess reached down to gently roll him over so that he could see the extent of his injuries. And they were extensive. The coyotes had torn him up badly. "What happened?"
He swallowed hard. "They jumped us."
"Us?"
Choo Co La Tah cleared his throat. "They took Abigail before I could complete the ritual. We have to make the offering by dawn ... or else."
Hell would rain down on them in biblical proportions. Boy, would his snooty neighbors be pissed. They didn't like him on his best day anyway. Not that he cared.
"Do you know where they took her?"
Choo Co La Tah rubbed at his bleeding forehead while Jess tried to tend the wound. "Most likely, Coyote's den ... and you can't kill him there, Jess. We have to get him here in the Valley."
Jess glanced around to see Sasha defeating his playmate. "Where's Ren?"
"He went after Coyote and Abigail. You have to find them, Jess. Bring them back."
"Don't worry. I won't fail."
He hoped.
* * *
Abigail fought hard against the ropes that bound her hands and feet together, but there was no give with them. As Jess would say, she was bound up and dressed like a Christmas goose.
And in total darkness. If only she knew where she was.
Then she heard a deep voice from the other side of whatever she was in.
"I'll deal with him later," a man growled in a voice that was familiar, yet she couldn't identify it.
A second later, the door opened and relief poured through her at the sight of a friendly face. And here she'd thought she was in danger.
Thank God.
She smiled at him. "Ren. It's so good to see you. You won't believe what happened."
He curled his lip at her, silencing her happy greeting. "Do I look like that piece of shit?"
Okay ... Obviously he equated Ren with something bad. Which was strange, since they were virtually identical. Same black hair, dark eyes. Refined features. But now that he mentioned it, there was a difference.
Ren wasn't crazy. This man was.
Did he have multiple personality disorder?
"Are you a shape-shifter?" she tried again.
"Are you stupid? Of course I am."
He acted like she should know him and yet claimed he wasn't Ren. What was she dealing with? "Are we playing a game?"
He snatched her closer to him. "I don't play games. Ever."
Psycho it was. She would take that category and run with it.
And he got even weirder a few heartbeats later when he leaned over her and brushed his hand through her hair. He picked a handful of it up and held it to his nose so that he could sniff it. "So beautiful."
Ew ... where's my Perv Be Gone? Had she known she'd be facing him, she'd have brought extra.
He brushed his lips against her forehead. The moment he touched her, a bright image appeared in her mind.
She saw the Butterfly again, and this time she was talking to ...
Ren?
"I can't marry you, Coyote."
That name slammed into her like a truck. For a full minute, she couldn't breathe.
Coyote was an identical match for Ren? WTF? Why hadn't Ren mentioned that fact? Wouldn't something like that be a little important?
Especially since they were at war.
That thought made her blood run cold as another one followed right behind it. Was Ren a spy for Coyote?
It made total sense. No wonder Coyote kept finding them and Ren kept vanishing. He was probably heading straight to his brother every time he took flight.
She was the only one who knew. I can't die until I let the others know, too.
And still the images of the past played in her mind....
Coyote's handsome face was a mixture of equal parts horror and hurt over Butterfly breaking up with him. His breathing ragged, he shook his head in denial. "I don't understand. More than anything, I love you. Why would you want to leave me?"
Guilt hung heavy in her heart. The last thing she'd wanted to do was make him hurt. "I love someone else."
Coyote shot to his feet to confront her. "No. It's not possible."
Of course it was possible. It'd already happened. She started crying. "I'm so sorry, Cy. I never meant for this to happen. I did want to marry you, but then we met and ... and ... I haven't been the same. Please be happy for us." Her smile turned dreamy through her tears. "He understands me in a way no one ever has. I feel so alive, and all I have to do is think of him."
Coyote's face turned beet red from his fury, and for a second, she thought he might actually strike her.
Girl, get out of there. This was the part where Freddy Krueger or some other ghoul jumped out and killed the hapless victim.
Why wasn't Butterfly standing up for herself?