Taming Two Warriors (Kindred Tales)

When a Kindred set his sights on a female and knew she was his fated mate, he liked to bond her as soon as possible. Also, Liosh had been biting Melinda to inject his essence—a sure sign to his body that they would and should be bonding soon. Being away from her without the all-important bond established made him feel anxious in the extreme.

“It’s fine,” Liosh tried to tell himself. “Melinda is fine and you’re getting all worked up for nothing.”

But despite his reassuring words to himself, he couldn’t get back to the dorm fast enough. He pushed the shuttle-car to the limit and was greatly tempted to just fly back—it would have been so much faster. But that kind of thing was frowned upon, especially in the city. The humans were very proprietary about their air space and Tampa International Airport wasn’t that far away.

Reluctantly, Liosh kept to the ground but the minute he got back to the huge building on the USF campus that housed Melinda’s dorm, he grabbed the large, flat box and ran inside. The elevators were too slow, so he took the stairs—three at a time—and arrived back at her floor, panting a little, in no time.

Liosh didn’t know what he had expected to see—the dorm door broken open and everything a mess inside with obvious signs of a struggle? There was none of that, though. The door was firmly closed and everything in the hallway looked peaceful.

Feeling foolish for being so worried, Liosh knocked on the door and called Melinda’s name.

No answer.

Frowning, he turned the knob and found that the door was unlocked—which it absolutely was not supposed to be. Melinda had locked the door when he left—he was certain of it because he had stood there and listened for the click before going.

He pushed open the door, calling her name.

“Melinda? Talli? Where are you? If this is a game, it isn’t funny!”

Again, no answer. Liosh looked everywhere for her, the pizza box forgotten on the coffee table, but she was nowhere to be found. He sniffed deeply—he didn’t smell any scents but his own and Melinda’s, and there was no sign of a struggle—so then, where was she?

He didn’t know but the bad feeling had returned and intensified, like a lump of ice in his belly.

Melinda was missing and he had no idea where she had gone.

Thirty-Three

Liosh retraced his steps, following her scent. It was somewhat obscured by the strong smell of the pizza but luckily Melinda had gone down the elevators, not the stairs. So once he was past the dorm, he was able to isolate her scent and follow it exclusively.

It led him down into the lobby where it was mixed with all the other various smells of students—sweat and take-out food and perfume and after-shave and vending machine snacks and every other damn thing, Liosh thought in concern and irritation. Luckily, he was extremely attuned to Melinda so he was able to pick out her sweet fragrance among the cacophony of other smells and odors.

As he followed it, he noticed another familiar smell entwined with it. Frowning, he stopped in the middle of the floor, lifted his head and inhaled deeply. Some students who were trying to get by shot him dirty looks as they walked pointedly around him, but Liosh didn’t even notice. He had isolated the other scent and knew who it belonged to—Amanda Brannigan.

Now why in the Seven Hells would Melinda go off with her? The other female wasn’t even nice to her and had said many hurtful things to Melinda.

Still, Liosh knew his mate-to-be’s pure, innocent heart. Possibly Amanda had tricked Melinda into going with her in some way. But for what purpose?

Nothing good, that’s for damn sure! muttered the voice of instinct in his head.

Liosh agreed with it. Keeping his head lifted to follow her scent—which was several minutes old—he continued on out the door and into the night.

Melinda, wherever you are, I’m coming for you. Please, just be safe, Talli!

Thirty-Four

“Wh-what do you want?” Melli hated the waver in her voice but it was a wonder she could talk at all. Being faced with her attacker all these years later was like a slap in the face. No—it was more like someone had punched her in the gut, she thought distractedly. She could feel everything from the waist down tightening up and turning to ice as Jason Sykes took a step towards her.

“What do you think I want, Melli-baby?” he cooed, giving her that I’m the big man on campus, aren’t you lucky I’m paying attention to you? grin he had always used in high school. Well, until he’d gotten what he wanted from her and thrown her away like a used tissue, that was.

Melli still felt frozen. All she could think was that Amanda had brought Jason here to apologize for what he had done.