That pledge seemed to be enough for Mackenzie because she instantly relaxed, her shoulders drooping as all of the tension bled from her.
“I need to warn the others,” Hartt said, and Fuery shifted his gaze to meet his, concern growing in it. He knew what his friend was going to say. “I have this. I need you to do something else for me. Track Harbin down and bring him back to the guild. I need to know he’s safe.”
Because Hartt wouldn’t put it past the witch to target the snow leopard shifter now that they knew he had pitted them against each other in an attempt to get them to kill each other off.
Fuery nodded. “He checked in yesterday. I know his current location and should be able to find him quickly.”
Hartt cursed. If he had thought things through yesterday rather than getting swept up in Mackenzie, he could have caught Harbin when he was here, sparing Fuery the effort of having to find him. He looked at Mackenzie, his gaze straying to her. She had needed to talk though, and had needed time to recover from the ordeal of being resurrected. If he had realised he needed to warn the others, he would have had to come here alone, leaving her with the vampire to continue her recovery.
Just the thought of leaving her there made him want to gnash his fangs and growl.
“You look ready to kill something again,” Mackenzie said, dragging his focus back to her.
He shook his head. “Just irritated.”
He was more than irritated. He hungered with a dark need to butcher the vampire as payment for all the times he had looked at Mackenzie, and ached with a black urge to hunt down the witch and destroy him. It was wreaking havoc on his control, had him skirting the edge of the abyss.
Or maybe it was dread that had him walking the fine line between light and dark.
Fear.
“He will not be pleased to see you,” Fuery said in the elf tongue, thankfully keeping their conversation private from Mackenzie and proving once again that he was deeply attuned to Hartt. Hartt could hide things from others, but never from Fuery. Fuery knew all of him, even the darkest parts he wanted no one to see. He proved that by adding, “She will not be pleased to see you.”
Hartt rounded the desk and gripped Fuery’s shoulder. “I know that, but I have to warn them.”
“You could wait for me to find Harbin, or find Harbin yourself.”
Hartt shook his head again. “I cannot afford to waste time. I must go.”
He broke contact with his friend and stepped back towards Mackenzie. He took hold of her wrist. She looked down at his hand on her slender arm and then up into his eyes.
“We leaving already?” Her eyes leaped between his, the barest flicker of concern in them, and relief. “You kept your word.”
He had, just about. “And I’ll continue to keep it. Where we’re going, no one will hurt you.”
But he had the feeling they were going to hurt him.
Chapter 16
Mackenzie flinched as the big blond man who opened the metal door of the red-brick warehouse in London grabbed Hartt by his throat, twisted with him and slammed him into the wall near a piece of wood someone had nailed to it.
“The fuck you doing here?” the shifter growled, golden fur dotted with black rings sweeping up his toned forearms to disappear beneath the rolled-up sleeves of his tight white shirt.
Hartt tried to say something but choked as the jaguar tightened his grip.
Something inside Mackenzie cried at her to intervene, had her hand clamping down on the shifter’s shoulder and her short claws emerging as she dug her fingers into his thickly corded muscles.
“I suggest you put him down,” she snarled, a red haze descending and the edges of her vision shimmering as fire blazed through her, an inferno she didn’t try to hold back. “Unless you want me to hurt you.”
The big jaguar flinched as he went to look over his shoulder at her, his golden gaze falling to her hand instead. He frowned at it as smoke began to rise, a tiny tendril of it that caught in the cold breeze that swept along the quiet alley in front of the nightclub. He wisely released Hartt and she released him, stepping to her left at the same time to bring herself closer to Hartt in case he needed back up again.
He could have told her that he wasn’t on good terms with the people they were coming to warn.
Hartt dusted down his black knee-length tunic, looking for all the world as if he was avoiding her gaze so he didn’t have to explain himself.
The shifter huffed as he inspected the smouldering holes in his white shirt. “What the hell are you?”
He pinned her with a look that was half-wary, half-pissed.
“None of your damned business.” She squared up to him, smiled as she canted her head and looked into his eyes. “But if you lay a hand on him again, I’ll mount your head on my wall, kitty cat.”
He arched a dark blond eyebrow at that.
He was a good head taller than her, at least six-five, rivalling Hartt’s height. Unlike the elf, he was built, heavy with muscle that would slow him down but gave him strength. Not that it bothered her. If it came down to a fight, she could take him. She thought. She had fought jaguars in the past, but his scent was different. He felt different.
His bright golden eyes searched hers, leaping between them as he frowned at her, as if he was trying to figure her out. Maybe he was. What did she care? She doubted he would be able to tell what she was just by looking at her. Hartt was right about her kind. They were more myth than anything, fairy-tales told to young children or written about in stories to entertain bored minds.
“You know, we didn’t have to come and warn you.” She couldn’t stop herself from putting that out there. “If I had known this was the welcome we were going to get, I would have convinced Hartt not to bother and let you take your chances.”
But she had honestly believed these were his friends, that the reason coming here had been so important to him was because he cared about these people. As far as she could tell, they were more like enemies.
“Warn me about what?” The male glanced at Hartt.
Hartt scowled at him. “I refuse to talk about this out here, in the open.”
Mackenzie looked along the street in both directions. Her limited senses scoured the area. Everyone she could feel was indoors, either sleeping or not moving much. They had the late hour to thank for that. She looked skyward, at the heavy clouds that filled the space between the blocky brick buildings. What time was it anyway?
She frowned and pouted, her mood souring further as a fine drizzle began to fall.
She hated rain.
Jaguar stared at Hartt for another full minute, until she was close to either throttling him until he let them in before the weather turned worse or convincing Hartt to leave and take her back to Hell where she didn’t have to deal with rain.
In the end, the male grunted, “Fine.”
He yanked the metal door open and went inside, and she glanced at Hartt. Before she could ask him why they had come to this place, to people who obviously hated him, he followed the jaguar inside.
Mackenzie narrowed the focus of her senses to the nightclub as the door swung closed in front of her. People were moving around upstairs, off to her right. What snagged her attention was the fact that she couldn’t only sense Hartt and the shifter inside on the ground floor. Another signature had joined them.