Leopard's Kiss (Shadow Guardians) (Shadows Guardians Book 1) Read online

  He didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, finally, “It’s that dangerous to you if someone finds out?”

  She glanced at him, surprised by his astute understanding of the situation. “Yes.”

  He let out his breath and shifted gears, the car’s engine whining as he pushed it. “You’re right not to trust me,” he finally said. “No one is worth trusting with something that important.”

  She was surprised by his comment. “You’re not worth trusting?”

  “No. I’m not. I have no idea what choices I’m going to have to make in the future, so no, I’m not.” He looked over at her. “Doesn’t mean I’m going to stop demanding you tell me what I need to know, but you’re right not to tell me. But I do need to know.”

  She raised her eyebrows at his dichotomous remark. “Seriously with that circular logic?”

  “Yeah.” He changed lanes, moving closer to the breakdown lane. “I’m running blind right now. I have no idea what the hell to do with you, or how to protect you. I’m used to being in complete control of the situation and the information. I’m not now, and that makes me ineffective and puts us both at risk.”

  She leaned back against the seat, wishing she could tell him. She was exhausted from a lifetime of carrying a secret that could destroy her. She wondered what it would be like to turn her problems over to someone else for help…then she shuddered. The mere thought of exposing herself like that was terrifying.

  “We’re here.” He interrupted her thoughts by pointing to her right.

  She sat up and looked out the window. There was a six story, gray cement warehouse looming up beside the highway. It looked old and abandoned, with broken windows on the top floors, and debris scattered in the empty parking lot. Her heart sank when she saw it. If Julia was trapped there, it couldn’t be good. “Do we just go in?”

  “We’ll see.” He eased off the gas as he sped down the ramp, circling under the highway and emerging by an entrance to the parking lot. He idled the car at the edge of the parking lot, and they both leaned forward, inspecting the tall, desolate building.

  “I don’t sense anyone there,” he said, after a moment.

  She glanced over at him. “You can sense people?”

  “Yes. I can track their mental energy. There’s nothing in there that’s alive.”

  Anya’s heart sank, and sudden tears threatened. “We’re going in anyway,” she said. “Beckett said Julia was here.”

  “She told you to come here. There’s a difference.” Slade eased the car into the parking lot, the engine humming as he drove up next to a massive garage door. He parked the car and turned off the engine. He draped his arms across the steering wheel, scanning the building. Anya could feel his energy drifting across her skin, and she knew he was scanning with his mind again.

  “Anything?”

  “No.” He looked over at her, his face stoic and grim, the face of a predator about to go into battle. He looked every bit the assassin, a lethal force of nature. “Ready?”

  She nodded, suddenly very glad he was on her side right now. “Ready.”

  Slade’s skin prickled as he eased open the door to the warehouse, the lock hanging in shattered bits after he’d taken it apart. He’d had to take down an extensive alarm system, which made him wary. Someone was hiding something significant, but he couldn’t pick up a live presence. There was something about the place that was setting off his internal radar, but he couldn’t place it.

  Maybe it was just that it had been a long time since he’d walked into an unknown situation. He was always on a mission, always on a plan, but this time, he was going in blind.

  Maybe it was the fact that Anya was right behind him, vulnerable. He didn’t like that she was here, but there was no way in hell he was leaving her alone, without his protection. Everything about this situation was wrong, but it was their only lead, and he had to find out what the hell was going on.

  His mind constantly scanning for psychic energy, he stepped inside the dingy warehouse. It was dark and dusty, with just the tiniest sliver of light beading through the cracks in the upper windows from the highway streetlights.

  “What’s that smell?”

  The moment Anya asked it, he caught the scent too. It was very faint, but once he noticed it, he could smell it clearly. The deep, rich scent of musk, mixed with something more human. He froze, his entire body slamming into alertness. Son of a bitch. He knew that scent. He knew that scent much too well.

  Memories assaulted him, ugly memories, and he shut them out, shifting into assassin mode. Stay close. He moved silently across the floor, tracking the scent from the far side of the warehouse.

  Anya was right behind him, moving as silently as he was. He couldn’t hear so much as her breath, and actually glanced over his shoulder once to make sure she was there.

  She was.

  On the other side of the warehouse, there was a steel door. He headed right for it, and when he reached it, the scent was stronger. There was blood mixed in with it now. Sweat. Fear. Pain. Shit.

  He knew what he was going to find behind that door. Stay here when I go in. Guard the door.

  Anya shook her head. No way. I’m going with you.

  He swore, even as he put his hand over the electronic alarm panel. You don’t want to go in there, Anya. He reached out with his mind, using his psychic energy to connect to the electronic impulses in the alarm system.

  She paled. Is Julia in there? Do you sense her?

  No one is alive in there. The alarm cleared, and he put his hand on the doorknob, using his mind to manipulate the electronic key pad.

  Is someone dead in there?

  He shrugged, and turned the doorknob. Stay here. But as he moved through the door, she followed him, keeping so close he could feel the heat from her body. He found sixteen infrared cameras, and he disarmed them carefully with psychic pulses.

  It was pitch black inside, and he pulled out a micro flashlight. He flicked it on, and the thin beam of light illuminated a long corridor of cells with steel bars, and impenetrable glass, a sight he’d seen before, one that he knew all too well. Son of a bitch. That’s why he’d been tapped for this assignment.

  Beside him, Anya sucked in her breath. She let out a yelp of distress, and tried to run past him to check the cells. He caught her wrist and yanked her back behind him. No.

  She went still as he eased forward, constantly scanning the surrounding area for mental signatures of someone approaching, but it was still clear. They reached the first cell, and he directed the thin beam of light inside.

  There was a mattress, a toilet, and a set of shackles.

  Anya pressed up against his back, looking past him. Oh, my God, she whispered. What is this place?

  It’s a staging area. He moved down the corridor, faster now, checking each cell. Every one was empty, but most were soiled. Blood. Urine. Semen. Hell. It was just like before, as if he’d never left it behind.

  He felt Anya tense. A staging area? For what?

  They reached the end of the corridor and ran out of cells to check. All of them were empty, but they’d had occupants recently. He turned to face her, studying her face closely. “Shifters, Anya. It’s a staging area for shifters. The black market trading of shifters. Panthers. Cougars. Wolves. You name it. Captured for experimentation, sexual use, breeding.”

  Her face drained of color. “Oh my God.”

  “Julia’s a shifter, isn’t she? Your mom? Marjorie?” He paused. “You?”

  She stared at him, her eyes wide with fear, and then he knew. He knew what she hadn’t told him. She wasn’t simply a shifter. “You’re a white leopard, aren’t you? All of you. White leopards.” The holy grail of the shifter black market. Worth billions of dollars to the merciless elite who wanted to use them as breeders, for their pelts, as sex toys to be hidden in the dungeons of the depraved. Almost extinct, now, wiped out by hunters. No wonder she hadn’t told him. No wonder he’d been selected. Son of a bitch.

  She
shook her head silently, but her terror was stark on her face. “White leopards don’t exist,” she whispered.

  “Oh, yes they do. And I know that, because my mother was one.”

  Her eyes widened. “She was?”

  “Yeah.” He looked grimly down the empty corridor. “I know all about this shit,” he said softly. “Every last detail.” He met her gaze. “My mother was murdered because of it. So was my dad, and my younger sister. This trade is the reason I am what I am, and it’s the reason I kill.”

  Chapter 11

  Anya felt like her world was closing in on her. She hadn’t wanted it to be about this. Her mother had told her, but she’d never imagined this. She could still taste the fear of each occupant, and she could smell the blood and the pain they’d endured. And Slade…the icy cold steel in his eyes made her shiver. He was no longer the man who’d kissed her. He was an assassin, pure and simple, and in that moment, she knew he would kill anyone who stood in the way of what he wanted to accomplish.

  “You’re a white leopard, aren’t you?” He asked it again, his voice low and cold, warning her against lying.

  So, she didn’t. She gave him the truth. “I don’t know for sure.”

  His eyes narrowed. “How do you not know?”

  She looked past him, down the hall. “Can we talk later? Can we look for any signs of where they went first, and then get out of here?” The place made her skin crawl. Was this where her mom and Marjorie had been held when they’d escaped so long ago? Or worse? And Julia, dear, sweet Julia.

  Slade swore under his breath, and muttered something about being distracted by her as he turned away. “Five minutes,” he said. “We’re out of here in five minutes.” He strode over to the nearest cell, and put his hand on the lock.

  “Can you pick up something?”

  “I’ll be able to track anyone who has been here recently.” He handed her his flashlight. “Look for Julia. I don’t know her scent. If you find it, tell me. I’ll do the rest.”

  Her heart pounding, Anya raced toward the nearest cell. She hesitated at the threshold, suddenly terrified. She felt as if she stepped across that line, the door could slam shut behind her, just as her mother had warned so many times. She’d heard her mother’s cries in her sleep, nightmares from the days she never talked about…in a place like this.

  She looked back at Slade, who was still at the doorway, moving his hands rapidly along the steel and glass. Energy was humming off him as he scanned for residue. “Slade?”

  He glanced at her, then paused when he saw her looking at him. “What’s wrong?”

  “You never make promises unless you know you can keep them, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will you promise me that you won’t let me be locked in here? That you’ll get me out, no matter what?”

  His eyes slid to the steel doorframe above her head, and then back to her face. Something shifted in his eyes, something she couldn’t decipher. “I promise I will not let you get trapped here,” he said quietly, his voice like steel.

  Relief rushed through her, and suddenly she felt like she could breathe again. “Okay. Thanks.” She flashed him a smile, then stepped into the cell. She glanced back as she moved inside. Slade was standing in the doorway, watching her. With the flick of his finger, he could slam the door shut and lock her in.

  For a split second, terror ripped through her. What if she were wrong to trust him? What if she’d just made a fatal error? What if—

  My mother was in a place like this, Anya. I would never let you stay. His voice was clipped and tight in her mind, but she felt the wave of pain deep in his soul, buried so deeply that she could sense only the faintest hint of it, but it was the kind of pain that burned all the time, every minute of every day. He was a man of steel, but she saw more. She saw what he didn’t even let himself see.

  He wouldn’t leave her there. She was certain of it. For the first time in her life, she was safe. Yes, she was in the most dangerous setting she’d ever been in, but she had no doubt the Black Swan would unleash his greatest wrath to keep his promise.

  “Thank you.”

  He nodded. “Four minutes left. Make it count.”

  “I will.” She took a deep breath, and turned toward the cot. Trusting him to keep her safe, she turned all her focus on her search. She raced over to the bed, and ran her hands over it. The mattress was filthy, tainted with fear and blood, but not Julia’s presence.

  Sweat beading between her shoulder blades, she raced out of the cell and into the next one, running to the cot. Again, she was assaulted with the scent of the person who’d been there last. It had been a woman. Terrified. Desperate. Not Julia. Tears filled Anya’s eyes as she tore herself away, sobs seizing in her chest as she ran to the next cell, and then the next. So many women had been here, dozens of different scents, so much pain, so much fear. God, it was so much worse than she’d ever understood. With her hands on their beds, she could sense the emotions of those who had been there before. So much suffering, so much pain.

  The fifth cell she was in had housed a woman, but there was also the scent of a male twisted through it. A partner? Or an assailant? Or another prisoner? Tears blurred her eyes as she stumbled for the door, barely able to focus through the assault of psychic energy.

  Slade caught her arms as she tripped on the threshold, his grip firm and strong. “Anya.” His voice was low and steady. “Look at me.”

  She obeyed, barely able to focus on his face through the tears streaming down her cheeks. “It’s so awful,” she whispered.

  “You need to focus on Julia,” he said firmly. “Just Julia. Don’t get overwhelmed by everything else. You have a mission right now. I’m assimilating everyone else. You need to find Julia. Focus only on her, and dismiss everything else. Got it?”

  She took a deep breath, and pressed her trembling hands to her forehead. “Okay, yeah, I’m all right. Keep going. I’ll be fine.”

  He gave her a skeptical look, but released her.

  She took a moment, pushing her hair out of her face while she tried to focus. He was right. They were here for Julia. She bit her lip, and strode into the next cell. She sifted through the scents, and quickly dismissed them, somehow managing to keep her focus.

  “Thirty seconds,” Slade called out. “We can’t risk staying longer.”

  Urgency pulsed through her, and Anya sprinted into the next cell. Then the next. Then there was only one left. She raced into it, and dropped to her knees by the cot. For a moment, she could smell only the scent of bear shifter, a male, and then, beneath it, she caught a faint scent she recognized. Julia. “She was here, Slade! Here!”

  He appeared in the doorway almost instantly, then strode across the floor to crouch beside her. He placed his hands on the mattress, and closed his eyes. She felt his energy circulate around her, prickly and powerful, as he breathed in Julia’s scent. “Can you track her? Do you have a strong enough lead?”

  He swore under his breath. “Almost.” He slowed his breathing, and she felt the surge of energy that he summoned as he poured it into the mattress, trying to create that bond with Julia.

  The seconds ticked by, and the back of her neck began to prickle. She instinctively looked out into the hall, fear creeping down her spine, a signal she had long ago learned not to ignore. Slade. Someone’s coming.

  He didn’t answer, but he poured more energy into the air around them, until it began to crackle audibly.

  Fear continued to build inside her, and Anya rose to her feet. Slade. Her heart began to thud, and she edged toward the door. Danger was getting close. She couldn’t pinpoint what she was sensing, but she had no doubt. We need to get out of here—

  She hadn’t even finished it when the door clicked and began to slide shut. She lunged for it, but she knew she’d never make it in time. Terror ripped through her, and then suddenly Slade grabbed her and bolted for the door, slipping them through the opening a split second before it slammed shut.

 
He swept her up in his arms and raced down the hall, toward the steel door that led to the rest of the warehouse…a door that was now closed. Slade—

  Psychic energy pulsed through the air, and the lock clicked. Slade ripped the door open and sprinted through the opening, bursting into the open area of the warehouse. He stopped sharply, keeping her close as he scanned the area. “No one’s here. Let’s go.” He took off with her toward the car. Moments later, they were on the highway, moving so fast they were nothing more than a blur.

  Anya’s heart was pounding, and she felt like she was going to be sick. She couldn’t clear her mind of the sight of that cell door closing on her, that terror that she was going to be trapped. She bent over, trying to regain her breath while Slade drove. “Are they following us?”

  “Not right now, but I expect they’ll be closing in on the place any minute. It was some sort of security system that picked us up. The doors closing was an automatic response, but I’m sure people were alerted.” He hit his hand on the steering wheel. “I never make a mistake with a security system. It must have been something I’ve never encountered. Shit. They’re good, Anya. Very good.”

  Anya leaned back in the seat, her hands shaking violently. “Did you get a fix on Julia?” she asked. “Tell me you can find her.” The thought of Julia being chained up in that cell was debilitating. What were they doing to her? Had she already been sold to some psychopath, already chained in his basement to be his plaything, impossible to ever track?

  “I’ll find her.” His voice was grim, edged with enough tension that she looked over at him.

  “You weren’t able to get enough of a lead on her, were you?”

  “I got some. I can work with it.”

  “Oh, God.” Anya leaned her head back against the seat, unable to stop her hands from shaking. “My mother told me about places like that,” she whispered. “That’s why we ran. She and Marjorie escaped when they were pregnant with Julia and me. No wonder they were so scared of being found.” She closed her eyes, trying to breathe. She needed to focus now, not freak out. “We need to go back. We need to find the people who did it.” Even as she said it, she felt sick.