Raptor's Peak: Switch of Fate 4 Read online

  Just hearing her say the words made Aven want to grab Dakota to him, never let her go, but he held back the impulse. This was her choice, same as his. More, even.

  “You could do that. Or we could scratch that itch we both feel.” It felt wrong to even put it so casually, considering the way he’d been feeling about Dakota, but he couldn’t help himself. Desire for her threatened to snap him in half.

  He took another step closer, letting their bodies brush together in a few places, putting his mouth closer to her ear and breathing deep of her heat lightning scent. “We’ve been holding back,” he told her softly. “That’s the distraction.”

  Dakota looked at him, not speaking, but Aven could feel the push and pull of her arousal vs. her ambition. She wanted whatever was between them as much as Aven did, but she wanted The Cause more. But she wanted to want him more. He could help her with that.

  He pressed his hips against Dakota’s. Heat pulsed through her clothing, making him want to touch bare skin. “You want it as much as I do,” he said quietly.

  She wavered. He felt it. She gave in. He felt it.

  One of her fingers snagged his belt loop, so achingly close to his cock that it distracted Aven from the boot steps approaching at the end of the hall that led to the store.

  “What the hell?” A voice Aven recognized boomed angrily down the hallway. Aven knew exactly who it was.

  Dallas, Dakota’s big brother, had arrived.

  * * *

  Dakota locked eyes with her brother. At six feet tall, with dark hair and a sharp jaw, and still sporting the hard body the military had carved despite his injury and recovery, Dallas was still every bit a soldier, except instead of a uniform he wore jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt.

  And he was pissed.

  Aven stepped past her and greeted him with open arms and a wide grin, one hand outstretched to shake, the other to clap on the back. “You came.”

  Dallas snarled, even as he did the bro thing. “You didn’t text me.”

  That caught Aven up short. “Shit.”

  Dallas snarled it away. “More important, what in the hell is going on here?”

  She could see it on his face that what he was most pissed about was the fact that Aven was an eagle. He didn’t like her dating anyone, but across species? He wouldn’t like that for sure. Dallas was all about her being safe. He took that protective older brother role seriously, and it only seemed to get worse, the older she got.

  Dallas wouldn’t tell anyone her secret about not being able to shift, but he might not support her plan, either. Oh well. She would not let herself be talked out of Five Hills.

  “Not your business, Dallas,” she said, pushing off the wall, not happy at all with the way this was going. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “Looks like you do.” His narrowed eyes moved to Aven. “And dude, you’re hitting on my sister? They put something in the water out here, makes everyone lose their damn minds?”

  “Stay out of it, Dallas,” Dakota spit out at him.

  She pushed past both men, stalking through the shelves of merchandise toward the BBOC’s front door. She heard Aven call her name but she didn’t stop.

  Whatever Dallas had to say, he could say it to Aven.

  Time for a drive to clear her head.

  She strode to the parking lot, remembering how Aven had smelled when he’d gotten close to her. Like rich, red cedar and hard male. The way she’d been shaking with desire for him until Dallas showed up. The way they’d been about to kiss.

  She’d rather be hidden in a closet with Aven right now, his body punishing hers until her head cleared, but a drive would have to do.

  Chapter 21 - Stray Cat Strut

  Aven watched Dakota go, until she was gone, sensing how complicated things were between the brother and sister, how it had nothing to do with him, and yet, everything to do with him, at the same time.

  “What is this place?” Dallas asked, wonder in his voice, seemingly over his sister’s exit already.

  Aven decided Dakota would want him to stay with Dallas. He pointed his friend to the door that led to the Sparring room. “Come on. I’ll introduce you to Jameson, then we’ll go to lunch.”

  Dallas turned to walk with him, limping slightly, a film of pain lacing his vibe.

  He was not better, like Aven had thought. He might be worse.

  * * *

  Dakota thought she was going for a drive, but she ended up at the Bear Claw Diner, looking for someone.

  There. Brittany stood next to a table of dirty dishes, collecting money from under a salt shaker. Dakota sidled up behind the waitress and asked, “Can I talk to you outside?”

  Brittany jumped, the coins in her apron jingling when she landed. “You scared me!” she whisper-shouted, one hand pressed to her chest.

  Dakota jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “So can we?”

  Brittany nodded, catching Molly’s eye behind the counter and pointing outside, then leading Dakota out the front door and around the corner of the diner. “Where’s your raptor friend?”

  Dakota hesitated. Did Brittany mean Maze, or Aven? Didn’t matter. “He couldn’t come. You’re half-human, right?”

  Brittany braced one hand on her cocked hip. “Half-shifter. I learned weeks ago.”

  Dakota nodded, excited. “Right. I was just wondering… how did you do that?”

  Brittany looked at her quizzically. “You’re a half-shifter?”

  Dakota didn’t say yes or no. “I just wondered if you did something special to shift for the first time. I’m asking for a friend.”

  Brittany perked up, pulling a pack of gum out of her apron and slipping two pieces in her mouth. “Tell her to try Cove Springs, if she can find someone to take her out there. Maybe even a switch, just in case.”

  “Just in case of what?” Dakota asked.

  Before Brittany could answer, Hernando stuck his head out the back door and called their way, “Brittany, Molly needs you.”

  Brittany waved at him. “Be there in a second, ‘Nando.”

  She turned back to Dakota, gave her an urgent look. “Make sure someone goes with her. A predator, at least,” she said, as if Dakota wasn’t exactly that. Was it seriously that dangerous? Before Dakota could ask, Brittany let herself in the back door and was gone.

  Dakota had been hoping for something she could do on her own, though she wasn’t sure what. Eat some weird food and do a dance under the full moon, maybe? Dakota rolled her eyes. At least she’d gotten something.

  Cove Springs, she repeated to herself as she climbed into her car. She’d have to ask Aven what and where that was, if she could do it without letting on what she was up to.

  That is, she’d ask him if she ever got a chance again. If she decided to give them one.

  Dakota drove Luxe into the hills, not even sure where she was going, so she let the magic of the forest guide her.

  * * *

  After introductions, Aven and Dallas had lunch at The Bear Claw, skating around anything of any importance, only talking lightly of light things, while they felt each other out, neither of them hearing from Dakota.

  After lunch, they ended up back at the BBOC. The place was filling up with shifters. Good.

  Dallas pointed to the Sparring ring. “You up for it?”

  Aven’s mood was light. “Aw, that’s sweet. You came all this way for an ass-whooping?”

  Dallas’ laugh held an edge. “It’d be the first time,” he growled.

  Which was true. They were well-matched in either form.

  Dallas wasn’t everwefted, so he changed clothes in the locker room. Aven stood in the Sparring ring, stretching and warming up. This was just what he needed. A good fight to knock some sense into him. He bounced on the balls of his feet and wind milled his shoulders for flexibility.

  Dallas' nerves preceded him out of the locker room, catching Aven’s attention. Then Aven’s friend turned the corner and Aven understood, even though logic told him that what he
saw should have never happened.

  In their op-gone-bad, Dallas had been bit by a snake, right on the neck. Then he’d taken a bullet to his right heel that had exploded on impact, blasting through bones and lodging several pieces of shrapnel in his foot and ankle. Dallas had been in excruciating pain, screaming and thrashing so hard that it took Aven and another SEAL to get him in the boat. The ride across the Mediterranean had been a blur of agony for Dallas, shared by Aven.

  They’d gotten Dallas to the medics, who had removed every bit of shrapnel they could find, put pins in his bones, and repaired most of the damage to the soft tissues. They’d given him antivenoms for every species of venomous snake in the region. But Dallas' pain had gotten worse.

  Every time Aven visited, before he’d been kicked stateside, he’d found Dallas in a cold sweat, barely lucid, on a cocktail of pain meds that didn’t give him any relief. When they’d spoken the other day and Dallas had sounded so much better, Aven had been sure they’d found a cure.

  And in a way, he guessed they had.

  Dallas' right leg below the knee was missing, and in its place he walked on a thin, curved blade that bent with his weight. Aven tried not to stare as he took it all in.

  Guilt wracked him, of course, for his own part in the bad op, but now he also understood Dallas' nerves. For a shifter, who was supposed to be able to heal almost anything, to have a limb amputated… Aven had never heard of that happening before.

  Aven met Dallas’ eyes, and he knew in that moment that his job was not to flinch. No matter how Dallas felt about it, Aven could take his friend's new reality in stride.

  He gestured casually at the prosthetic. “Nice hardware. You know you have to tell me if that’s a razor blade, Kingsman-style, or it’s not a fair fight. Right?”

  Dallas shrugged and stepped into the ring. “You’re a smart bird. You’ll figure it out.” He dropped into a fighting stance, arms up and ready to go. A low-grade pain still laced his vibe.

  Aven got the sense that he was about to be used as a proving ground. “How long have you had that thing?”

  With a look, Dallas dropped his arms. “You want to talk or you want to get your ass kicked?”

  Aven brought his hands up. “I want to get my ass kicked, but I’m not going to.”

  Dallas didn’t jab back. They circled for a minute, Aven watching for how Dallas' new limb changed things. He tried a one-two punch and saw his friend lean back on the curved metal, the way it pushed Dallas forward.

  The thing made him bouncier. Bad news.

  Dallas snarled. He pushed with his real foot, spinning on the blade and whipping a roundhouse kick at Aven’s head. Aven snatched his upper body back, narrowly missing getting clocked. Faster, too.

  All-in the fight now, Aven pushed forward hard, aiming punches at Dallas' jaw and making him hop backward. His knuckles glanced off bone, but not hard enough to phase Dallas. The jaguar came back with two body shots that forced the breath from Aven’s lungs. Aven brought up a knee to protect himself and disengaged.

  Dallas kept his hands up. “How’s Dakota?”

  He wanted to talk about her now? “Settling in,” Aven replied, gritting his teeth and aiming a front kick at Dallas' midsection that Dallas pushed away almost lazily. He hadn’t lost any of those goddamn cat reflexes, either.

  They circled again, fists at the ready. Dallas tipped his head and asked, almost casually, “Where’s she staying?”

  Aven answered, just as casually, “My place.”

  He felt Dallas' anger a split-second before his friend came at him with the same one-two pattern Aven had used. The one missed. The two didn’t. The skin over Aven’s cheekbone split and his head snapped back from the impact. A low buzz filled Aven’s head but he came back swinging, tagging Dallas once on the jaw before they both backed away.

  Blood dripped down Aven’s face. “Did I mention I’m on the couch?”

  Dallas' anger still seethed. “When I walked in, it didn’t look like you’d be there tonight.”

  Aven nodded and brought his hands back up in fighting stance. “She’s an adult.”

  Dallas held something back. Aven couldn’t tell if it was a punch or a statement. Aven parried what he could and took what he couldn’t. His friend’s anger went beyond simple sibling protectiveness. Aven didn’t deserve this beating.

  The fight went on. Mostly punches with no more talking. Cuts on his face and knuckles stung with salty fire. Even Flint wandered over to watch, a guarded look in his eye like he wanted to be sure Aven and Dallas knew when to stop.

  Aven wanted to shift, to see Dallas’ jaguar after so long, but he wasn’t sure how the prosthetic changed things. The fact that Dallas hadn’t shifted first suggested that his missing limb was a problem in his animal form. Aven wasn’t the kind of friend to expose that weakness.

  Not that it mattered. While Aven was distracted, Dallas stepped in close. Aven saw Dallas' left fist coming in and pulled away. That put him perfectly in line for the uppercut Dallas had aimed at him with his right.

  Aven’s teeth slammed together with the impact. His eyes ached and his head pounded. He slammed to the ground.

  He was down. Dallas had taken him out, fair and square and he didn’t even use his razor leg. Aven lay there and breathed. He heard Flint say, “Nice fight,” and the slap of a high-five.

  Dallas sat on a nearby chair, wiping his bloody face with a towel. He threw one to Aven.

  Aven caught it from the ground. “Now can I date your sister?”

  Dallas' mouth pulled into an almost-smile. “Whatever, man. You’re still an eagle. And I don’t like her down here chasing scents from my stories.”

  Aven pushed to his feet with a groan and came to sit next to his friend. “I thought you said it was the Ingrav that did it.”

  “Yeah that, but also that scent, the pine and bitters scent.”

  Aven went still. Dallas had scented a vampire?

  Chapter 22 - Curiosity Bit The Cat

  Aven had to double-check what he’d heard. “Pine and bitter herbs. When? Where?”

  Dallas looked back. “That means something to you?”

  “When, Dallas?”

  Dallas looked at him through narrowed eyes. “When I got shot. And once years ago, when Katrina hit and I had orders to New Orleans. Why?”

  Aven swallowed, his mind a whirl of confusion. “It’s vampires, D.”

  Dallas balked. “How hard did I hit you?”

  This was a shitty way for his friend to find out, but Aven didn’t have time to ease him into it. “That’s what The Cause is about. Fighting vampires. Vampires are in the government, more and more of them every day.”

  Dallas just stared at him. His vibe was a tug-of-war between their bond and how crazy Aven sounded. Nothing Aven could do to convince him but keep on. Dallas would catch up.

  “Are you sure that’s what you scented, Dallas?” he asked.

  For a second, Dallas just stared, like he didn’t want to admit it. His shoulders slumped and he ran a hand through his hair. “I’ll never forget it.”

  Aven believed him. “That doesn’t make sense, though. I never scented vampires that night.”

  Dallas’ eyes were serious, open as wide as the swelling would allow. “What does it mean?”

  Aven’s heart was racing as fast as his mind, trying to sort out the implications. Vampires at the op? Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe it hadn’t been anything to do with their team. “Where did you scent them, exactly?”

  Dallas looked into the distance, as if picturing that night. “Third house east of our rendezvous point. Seven foot stucco wall.”

  Aven shook his head. “You sure? I swept the beach when we landed, and that was a party house. Everyone happy, and pure, too, like a kids’ party.” He knew he was right, because it had struck Aven as ironic, that a family so near the life-and-death reality of war could be so happy.

  But Dallas was nodding, looking just as sure. “Positive, man. We showed up, did our o
wn sweep. Eyes only, no special bird brain,” he razzed Aven, but there was no lightness in it. “I remember it because there were these weird stacks of rocks by the wall. Not rocks, exactly, but whatever. Five different stacks in the sand by the wall. That’s when I smelled that scent. On the way back to the boat the snake dropped out of the tree and bit me. After that bite I forgot about everything but getting us the fuck outta there.”

  The cut on Aven’s face stung when his eyes narrowed in thought. If there had been vampires at the op, had they charmed the humans in that house to think they were at a party, just like they’d charmed the TSK victim Aven had seen into running?

  Before Aven’s mind could go any further down that road, Dallas stood and Aven caught a glimpse of his prosthetic leg. The significance hit him like a plane in midair. “Dallas, you got a bloodwound! You have to talk to Jameson.” Aven had never thought of it before because of the snakebite Dallas had gotten, but vampires changed everything. If they had bloodblades and bloodchains, why not bloodbullets?

  Dallas was hesitant and hopeful at the same time. “What the hell is that?” he said, his voice pitched low.

  Aven explained bloodwounds, and the delay they were facing on the power doctor’s cure.

  Dallas shook his head, as it all clicked into place in his mind. “That’s why the amputation didn’t clear the infection,” he said, wonder in his voice. “The doctors said they got it all, but they didn’t. It’s still in there.”

  Dallas was silent for a moment. “There really is a cure?”

  Aven barely dared hope his friend might stay, his friend might finally be cured. “Yeah, there is. You have to stay. We need you in The Cause.”

  But Dallas threw up his hands in a slow-down gesture. “I just want to fix my leg, A-Game. The Cause is some bizarre shit. Vampires?” He shook his head. “We’ve been worse places, though.”

  He looked down at the ground, then met Aven’s eye again. “I’ll stay. I’ll talk to whoever you want me to talk to.”