And yet, he couldn’t.
“I could perhaps be persuaded, but I’d require some sort of payment, no?”
“And what would that be?”
Jagger sucked in air, holding the growl at bay. What the fuck was she doing? The man reeked of black magic.
“Oh, I think you know.” The otherworlder’s voice had deepened and his arms crept up to Skye’s shoulders.
The beast inside of Jagger erupted and the control that he’d had disintegrated in less than a second. The snarl that fell from his lips pushed him forward and he leapt to his feet, bursting from the underbrush with a fury that was only matched by the deadly intent in his eyes.
“What the hell?”
The otherworlder whipped his head around and pushed Skye away with a powerful shove. She landed hard and rolled over into a crouch. “Fucking bitch. You set me up.”
The man was tall, muscular, with a nasty smile gracing features that were as cold as ice. He also held in his hand a deadly looking weapon and Jagger stalled, noting that the barrel of the gun was pointed directly at Skye.
The black magick Jagger had sensed earlier was heavy in the air but it was layered with a subtle hint of something else entirely, and while it tugged at his mind, he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was exactly.
“Touch her and I’ll rip your head off,” Jagger growled.
The man turned his weird silver/gray eyes back to Jagger. They narrowed and he spit into the ground before he spoke. “You’re jaguar.” He nodded to Skye and shook his head, ignoring the warrior. “Feeling desperate, love? Desperate enough to bed down with the likes of him?”
“Tell me where Cormac is or I’ll—”
“You’ll what, Skye?” The otherworlder snorted. “Time’s almost up and you’re on the losing side of this war. He will find the portal, and this"—the man waved his hands as the air around him began to shimmer—"this will no longer exist.”
Jagger fought the urge to attack. He needed to keep his cool. There was no way he could risk the fucker firing a shot at Skye.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Kragen,” Skye said as she stood and faced the man.
Alarm shot through Jagger and he was primed to react, to do anything he could to protect the woman, but a vortex of wind, mist, and rain enveloped all of them. It was gone as fast as it had arrived, and with it the otherworlder.
Jagger’s tense bo
dy shifted as he stood staring into the empty spot where the other man had been. His nostrils wrinkled as the smell of sulfur rent the air. It was putrid, metallic. He was just about to turn toward Skye when instinct had him dropping to the earthen floor, twisting his body as he rolled.
He narrowly avoided the deadly knife that arced through the air. It had been thrown with such force that it became embedded deep in the large trunk of a tree.
He whipped his head around, the snarl that erupted from his mouth matched by the fury that graced the blonde’s beautiful features.
“You dumb-ass fucking idiot! Do you know what you just did?” Skye shouted hoarsely, so full of emotion was she. “Kragen could’ve led me to Cormac.”
He watched in silence as she began to pace, shaking her head in agitation. “With Cormac out of the way things would have been so much easier, but now"— her eyes flashed as she whirled around toward him—"you’ve screwed it all up. What the hell was I thinking hooking up with you? You’re a goddamn jaguar, nothing good can come of that!”
Jagger had had enough.
If anyone should be pissed off it was him, not her. Up until the day before his life had been a peaceful, if somewhat lonely, nomadic existence. She was the one who had blown all of that to hell.
He moved so fast, Skye had no time to react. When he grabbed her arms and pulled her in close, he expected to see at least some fear deep in her eyes. Instead, the vibrant blue that stared back at him was cloaked in something close to disgust.
Whether she was disgusted at herself or him, he couldn’t say. But the fact that she stood rigid in his embrace, looking at Jagger like he was the biggest piece of crap on the planet, totally enraged him.
He could feel the blackness that lived inside of him tickle along the edges of his mind, and his skin began to burn. Energy sizzled along nerve endings, trailing a path of fire all over his body.
“Two things,” he said roughly. “I want to know who the hell this Cormac dude is, but more importantly, what the hell he is.” His hands gripped her tightly and he took some measure of pleasure as she winced in pain.
“And secondly, someone needs a lesson in manners.” Jagger’s voice dropped into a whisper and he watched closely, feeling a keen sense of satisfaction as she swallowed heavily. He could hear her heart rate increase and her mouth opened slightly as she tried to control the rapid breaths that filled her lungs. She flinched and turned slightly. “Take your hands off me.”