“That was for sending my plane to the bottom of the sea,” Sammy said, his smile cruel and savage. “It's going
to cost me a pretty penny to get it fixed up. You sure your cousin isn't going to notice that it's gone?”
“I'll handle that.” Killian straightened again, blood streaming from his broken nose. “He'll be too devastated over losing his mate to care about anything else.”
“You better see that you do.” Sammy glanced at his henchman, his black eyes cold. “Just one last thing to do, then.”
“Boss?” His thug looked confused.
He never saw the pegasus's hooves coming.
“There,” Killian said, shifting back again. “Now I can say that the wyvern shifter broke in here and I killed him, but not before he managed to poison Connie. Even if Chase calls in his truth-teller friend, the story will check out. You should go now.”
“Not yet.” Sammy crouched down on his heels next to Connie, staring intently into her face. “No one crosses me and lives to boast about it. I want to see the light go out of her eyes.”
Chase…
Her vision was going dark. The last thing she saw was Sammy's sharp, triumphant smile.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Chase…
Even though they weren't fully bonded, Chase could feel Connie calling his name. Her faint mental voice was growing weaker by the second.
Chase flew as he'd never flown before. All the aches and pains of his battered body fell away, as nothing compared to the overwhelming need to get to Connie. He flashed across the night sky like a shooting star, not even bothering to make himself invisible. His mate needed him now, now!
…Chase…
Even as he arrowed down toward her apartment building, her psychic call faded away into silence. Terror filled his heart. There was no time to land, no time to shift. He folded his wings as tightly as he could, aiming straight at her window.
He burst through in a shower of glass and splinters, taking the entire window and a good deal of the wall with him. Even in the chaos of flying debris, he knew with crystal clarity exactly where Connie was. She lay prone on the floor, barely breathing, Sammy Smiles crouched over her like a vulture.
He tucked up his hooves, leaping Connie's limp form as he knocked the shark shifter away from her. Sammy went flying, smashing hard into the far wall. Sammy bared his teeth, his form starting to swell into a monstrous shark-headed shape—but Chase whirled, kicking him hard in the chest with both back hooves. Sammy went down, and this time, he didn't get up again.
“Chase,” Killian gasped. His cousin staggered forward, hand outstretched, his face a mask of blood. “Thank God. Sammy brought—”
*LIAR!* Chase slammed into him. Killian gasped as a thousand pounds of angry equine crushed him into the corner. *You hired the wyvern! You tried to kill my mate! YOU!*
“I—I would never have hurt you.” Killian's eyes swiveled, searching for any way to escape, but Chase had him boxed in with no room to shift. “Just calm down and I'll explain. You don't want to hurt me either, not really. I'm your cousin!”
Not kin. Chase’s stallion laid its ears flat back against its skull. Rival!
Chase reared over his cousin, his iron-hard hooves directly over Killian’s head. It would be so easy…
Too easy.
He flicked out one foreleg, clipping Killian neatly on the side of the head. His cousin collapsed, knocked out cold.
Kill! urged his stallion.
No, Chase told his pegasus, turning away. He hurt our mate. He must lose everything, as he sought to take everything from us. He will never fly again, never run again, never be free again. He will live the rest of his life behind bars, and every day, every minute of his wretched existence, he will know that he lost.
Chase heard the sing-song wail of an approaching siren. Griff’s friends in the police were on their way. There was no time to wait for them, though. He could feel Connie's faltering pulse as if her heart beat inside his own chest.
Chase seized Connie’s collar in his teeth, awkwardly jerking his head round to sling her across his broad back. She hung limp, arms and legs dangling down. As soon as he had her secure, Chase launched himself out the hole in the wall as smoothly as he could, soaring back up into the cool night air.
*HUGH!* he sent telepathically, his pegasus senses reaching out to find the paramedic. *I need you, NOW!*