Tracker and the Spy Read online

  “Be careful. Those guys are fast and unpredictable.”

  “Don’t worry. I grew up handling livestock.” Kyle approached cautiously, but Phyrrhos whirled away. She tried again, arms spread to gently corner her, but Phyrrhos turned to slip past her.

  “Hold on, and we’ll try that together.” Toni was at her elbow, holding the lead of the large old mare.

  Kyle frowned. “I thought I—”

  “That’s the trouble with you warriors. You’re all action and not enough thought.” Toni’s grin took the sting from her words. She led the mare to the cave stable, angled her to stand at the entrance, and dropped lead. The mare obediently stood in position. “Bella ground-ties better than a granite statue. Nothing can move her. If we both spread our arms out, we can span the rest of the entrance. Phyrrhos will have to run over one of us or go inside. I’m betting that even in her frenzy, she’s too well trained to run us over.”

  Kyle gave her new friend’s shoulder a squeeze. “I’m thinking that Pony isn’t a bad nickname, because every pony I’ve known was really smart.”

  Toni chuckled. “We have to use our brains to make up for our lack of height.”

  The two of them circled around behind Phyrrhos and spread their arms, drawing closer together as they slowly moved her toward the cave’s entrance. She whirled in panic when she realized they’d trapped her, then finally darted into the cave. They scrambled to opposite sides of the cave, pushed the two sides of the thick metal door closed, and locked eyes, their fingers on the keypads.

  “Ready?” Kyle asked.

  Toni nodded. “On my mark. One.”

  They punched the keys as they counted out the sequence together, and both visibly relaxed at the loud click of the lock sliding into place.

  Toni joined Kyle and slid down to sit in the dirt with her back against the metal door. “Stronger together, right?”

  Kyle nodded and flashed a brief smile but didn’t sit. She shifted restlessly, scanning the darkening horizon. Phyrrhos’ hooves thudded dully against the stone floor inside, and her shrill whinny clawed at Kyle’s ears.

  “Even if Tan shows up, she can’t release Phyrrhos by herself,” Toni said, nervously flicking the laces on her boots.

  “No. Not by herself,” Kyle said absently. She scanned the wide lane that wound through the encampment to their end of the valley. What was keeping Second?

  They silently watched the sun disappear behind the mountain peaks, and darkness fell around them like a cloak. Phyrrhos’ whinnies turned to dragon screams, and her hooves drummed against the door of her cave prison. Sweat ran down Kyle’s neck, her back, her belly. Her skin felt as if it would sear her clothes.

  Tan was near. Kyle could feel her. She turned to scan the mountainside at their backs. Would she need the things she’d hastily stuffed into her backpack? She had no idea what she’d do when Tan appeared, but she wouldn’t be caught unprepared this time. Not like she was in the woods earlier. She glanced at Toni. “I think you should leave.”

  “No way. I’m staying until the commander gets here and tells me to leave.”

  “You should listen to The Blaze.” The voice, low and rich, deadly and quiet, came from behind Kyle. “Second isn’t coming.”

  Toni scrambled to her feet as Kyle turned slowly and held her hand low, palm up to ignite a low, nonthreatening flame for illumination. “Captain Tanisha.”

  Tan stepped into the light. Her clothing was stained with dirt and sweat, but her eyes were bright, muscles taut and beautiful sliding under perfect bronze skin. She cocked her head as she regarded Kyle. “You can do better than that. You’re not a sparkler after all, are you? A real blazer, eh? Looking to test your flame?”

  “I’m not here to challenge you, Tan,” Kyle said, keeping her voice soft.

  Phyrrhos screamed and pounded the gate with her hooves. Tan’s eyes glittered; she rocked from foot to foot and her hands twitched. “My bonded calls, and you’re the only one left. Are you going to stand in my way?”

  Would she stop her? The rich timbre of Tan’s voice, the sway of her shoulders, the arousal dilating her pupils into dark pools was a mesmerizing, inviting vortex. Phyrrhos called to Specter. Tan called to Kyle. Every cell in her body yearned to answer.

  “Where’s Commander Second?” Toni’s voice broke the spell and doubt speared into Kyle. Maybe the connection wasn’t real. Maybe Tan also had the talent of illusion, or hypnosis. Or maybe she was just rationalizing to give in to her own desire.

  Tan’s eyes never left Kyle’s. “She’s taking a nap. Just like Jael and Diego.”

  Kyle didn’t respond, even when Toni’s sharp elbow nailed her in the ribs.

  “What’s the matter with you?” Toni kept her voice low, edging close to present a united front against Tan.

  Another dragon scream echoed through the valley but from outside the cave. Specter, his eyes glowing red and huge wings ghostly in the moonlight, dropped to the ground at the other end of the paddock. He spewed a stream of blue flame toward the stars. Phyrrhos answered his call and again drummed her hooves against the gate.

  Tan’s calm façade was fading. Sweat poured from her scalp and dripped from her chin. She began to pace. “Get out of my way.”

  Specter screamed and Phyrrhos answered. Tan grunted and clutched her side. Kyle’s belly churned and her sex pounded with the two beasts’ desperate calls. She couldn’t imagine what Tan must be experiencing.

  “It takes two people to open the gate,” Toni said.

  “Move.” Tan’s eyes were black, her face contorted in a pained grimace. Kyle was amazed at her control as she fired a stream of flame just to the left of Toni’s head. Not meant to hit but to scare. Still, Toni threw up her hands and mysteriously deflected the flame skyward.

  Sun and stars. It was like an invisible shield. She didn’t know Toni was gifted. She’d never heard of such a talent.

  “What the jump?” Tan’s growl choked off and she dropped to her knees, clutching her belly, when Specter screamed and a column of blue-white flame barreled toward them. Kyle met his flame and stopped it with her inferno. She walked slowly toward him, her flame backing him away until he extinguished and she stood next to Tan.

  Specter screamed and reared. Phyrrhos’ answering call was followed by flame pouring forth from the narrow transom of the stable. A choked sob rose up from Tan’s bowed head. Kyle knelt next to her and cupped Tan’s face in her hands. Tan’s eyes swirled with desire and misery, urgency and longing.

  No words, no mental telepathy, no empathic impressions passed between them, yet they had complete understanding. Kyle knew it as sure as the certainty in Tan’s eyes. She felt it as real as the need churning in her belly. She knew what must be done. This was as it should be.

  She rose and turned to Toni. “We have to release Phyrrhos.”

  “Are you kidding me? Commander Second will have our hides.”

  Kyle laid her hand on Toni’s shoulder and held her gaze. “She’s going to hurt herself if we don’t. It’s going to hurt Tan if we don’t.”

  Toni glanced at Tan, on her knees with hands pressed over her ears to shut out the continuous screams of the two crazed dragon horses. Flames licked again at the transom of Phyrrhos’ prison. That door had to be red-hot, and the stone of the cave would trap the heat, too. If she kept it up, she would cook herself.

  “If Jael was awake, I’m sure this is what she’d do, too,” Kyle said. “I’ll take responsibility.”

  Toni stared into the darkness for a few seconds, then stared hard at Kyle. “I’ll do it, but you have to do something for me.”

  “Name it.”

  “What you saw earlier…me deflecting Tan’s flame. Don’t tell anyone.”

  Kyle blinked. What? Why would she hide this talent? She was among people who valued gifts. “Toni—”

  “No. Swear it or I won’t help. You have to make Tan promise, too, when she’s sane again, or you have to convince her that she imagined it.”

  She didn
’t have time to argue. “Yes. I swear. Not a word. I’ll make sure Tan says nothing, too.”

  Toni nodded. “Okay, then.”

  Kyle helped Tan to her feet. “Try to get through to Phyrrhos. Tell her we’re opening the door, but she has to stop heating it. I just hope she hasn’t already melted the mechanism.” Tan nodded and leaned against Kyle as they moved to the keypad on the right side of the entrance. Toni stood next to the left keypad.

  “On my count,” Toni said. “One.”

  The keys were hot, but they punched them quickly and the lock thankfully clicked open when Kyle called out the last number. They met in the center to slide the two sides of the door back, but the calluses of Kyle’s pyro hands sizzled against the heated metal. It would surely damage Toni’s thinner skin. “Don’t touch it,” she said. “Take Bella down to the stable, then go to the headquarters to check on Nicole and Alyssa. Tell them everything is okay, but I don’t want anyone else coming up here tonight.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m staying to take care of Tan.”

  Toni’s eyebrows shot up. “I don’t know, Kyle. I’ve heard stuff about her.”

  Phyrrhos had gone eerily quiet, while Specter strutted the width of the paddock, fluttering his wings in an erotic display. He spit a fireball into the sky, impatient with the delay.

  “I don’t have time to argue. You shouldn’t listen to rumors.”

  Toni looked around Kyle to Tan. She was pacing again, halfway to Specter before turning back to test the heat of the door before snatching her hand back when her sweaty skin audibly sizzled. Toni didn’t look convinced.

  “I know more about her than you think. I’m prepared,” Kyle said, holding Toni’s gaze.

  “Okay.” Toni went to Bella and gathered the mare’s lead in her hand before turning back to Kyle. “Just be careful.”

  “See you in the morning,” Kyle said as Toni and the mare started down the hill. Kyle pulled her T-shirt over her head. The night air felt good against her bare chest.

  Tan stopped pacing. The urgency, the need driving her stilled like a stalking predator suddenly motionless as its prey turns. Kyle was primal under a backdrop of stars. Lean muscle etched across her shoulders and torso. Her blue eyes glinted gray in the moonlight, framed by the sweat-dampened strands of her dark hair plastered across her forehead. Tan’s mouth was a desert. She licked at the perspiration salting her lips, but she really wanted to taste, to drink from the bead of sweat that was making a path between Kyle’s small breasts, aiming for the ridges of her abdomen and ultimately the belt of the utility pants slung low on her slim hips.

  “Take your shirt off,” Kyle said. “We can open the gate and release Phyrrhos if we use our shirts to protect our hands.”

  Kyle’s words were fast and urgent, but Tan savored each like the last swallows of water in barren desert. She tugged her shirt over her head. She was more full-breasted than Kyle and wore a support band underneath. She pulled that off, too, and was rewarded when Kyle’s eyes flicked downward.

  “You’re beautiful,” Kyle said, lifting her hand.

  Tan burned when Kyle’s hand hovered and dropped to her side without touching her.

  Specter screamed and flames licked at the grass near their feet. They ran for the cave. The stallion’s patience had run out. They used their shirts like hot pads to grasp the door’s handles and slide it open. Phyrrhos shot out into the paddock and launched skyward with Specter close behind.

  Tan expected they would court briefly midair, then settle on a private mountaintop to breed. A shudder ran through her. Her bonded might be out of sight, but she wouldn’t be out of mind. Tan closed her eyes against the frenzy building in her gut. Her core temperature was rising. Phyrrhos might survive this breeding, but she wasn’t sure she would.

  She swayed. Sun, she was burning. Her mind was filled with stars. She couldn’t sort her thoughts from the images Phyrrhos was feeding her. Hot flesh burned against hers. Kyle? She sagged against Kyle’s body and the arm that held tight around her waist. They were moving, moving backward.

  “Sit.” Kyle knelt to put food and a bottle of water in her hands. “Eat. And drink this.”

  Tan blinked slowly. “What is it?” Her voice was rough and sounded loud inside the cave.

  “Water with some electrolytes, and a couple of Second’s special cakes. They’ll help.”

  She tensed, her spine bowing at another barrage of images from Phyrrhos and a sharp spasm of pain along her neck. Specter was a rough sire. But then she had no doubt Phyrrhos would mark him with a few love bites, too. She stuffed the cakes into her mouth and chewed, then washed them down with half the bottle of water before the spasm released her.

  “I don’t understand why you don’t just knock yourself out until it’s all over,” Kyle said.

  “Can’t,” Tan said, panting through another spasm that raced through her loin. She rolled on her side, holding her crotch and squeezing her legs together. “If I’m…unconscious…will break…the bond…Could…hurt Phyrrhos.”

  Kyle left, and Tan heard the clang and click of metal. The cave went dark as her spasm eased again.

  “What are you doing?” Panic rose in her throat, a hot bitter bile, but Kyle was back. Tan’s skin tingled where Kyle’s hands stroked along her arms and chest.

  “It’s okay. I locked the door to give you some privacy, but I can open it when we’re ready. I know what you need, Tan. Let me help you.”

  She rolled onto her back, the stone floor cool against her overheated shoulders, but her pants burned her skin and were too tight against her throbbing sex. The dark was disorienting. She needed to get out of her clothes. She was so empty inside. She needed to couple. No. She needed to get out of here. Nobody knew what she needed. Not Anya. Not Jael. Certainly not this stranger. “Because of what you saw in the woods today? You don’t know anything, Blaze.”

  Something soft wrapped around her waist and wrists and tightened. A cuff belt. She was trapped. The only thing she could reach was her own clit. As if that would be enough.

  “I’m going to roast your heart right out of your—”

  Another spasm bowed her body and she fought to breathe through it. Air at last filled her lungs again, and she found her hands encased in fireproof gloves they used to keep pyros on the mental ward from hurting themselves. Tan’s fury exploded. She screamed into the pitch. “I’ll kill you. I’ll jumping kill you, Blaze.”

  Her angry words still reverberated off the stone walls when a flame lit the cavern. Kyle flicked the switch on a solar lantern hung from the hay manger and extinguished the fireball in her palm. She was naked, her eyes blue jewels even in the muted light. Her short black hair was plastered against her skull, and sweat poured down her lean form. Tan groaned and clutched at her pulsing crotch as much as the cuff belt allowed. She closed her eyes. Phyrrhos was breeding now. She could almost feel it. Almost.

  Kyle was beside her. “I need to help, Tan. As much as you need it, I need you.” She was tugging at Tan’s pants. “Sun, you’re burning up.”

  Tan moaned. “Inside. I need you inside me.”

  “I need that, too, but we need to cool you down.”

  Her pants gone, Tan felt Kyle lift her as if she weren’t equal her weight. Then she gasped when Kyle dropped her into the icy water of the drinking trough and slid in after her. The water sizzled against their skin, steam rising as it cooled their heated bodies. Tan wrapped her legs around Kyle’s hips, and Kyle buried her fingers in Tan’s Mohawk, yanking her head back to claim her mouth in a rough exploration of teeth and tongue. Tan growled, struggling futilely to free her hands. She bit Kyle’s lip in frustration, and Kyle pulled back. Tan feared for a second that she would leave her wanting. She was even more afraid she would beg. She was on the verge of it now.

  Instead, Kyle held her gaze as she slipped an arm under Tan’s lower back and jerked her up so that her tender clit rubbed against the stiff curls of Kyle’s sex. She undulated against
her until Tan felt her eyes start to roll back at the sensation. She groaned and tightened as Kyle filled her with two, then three fingers and thrust with a steady pressure that pushed her instantly to a racking orgasm. Before the first orgasm subsided, Kyle lifted her higher to the surface of the water and bent over her. One long finger penetrated her ass as Kyle’s thumb pushed into her again. Tan found footing on the sides of the trough and pushed upward to meet Kyle’s renewed thrusts. When Kyle’s hot mouth closed on her distended clit and sucked, she soared. She sang. She burst forth inside and out until she was limp and panting. Still, she needed more.

  “More,” she moaned.

  “I know, baby.” Kyle climbed out of the trough and moved Tan to one end so that she sat up with her elbows on the edge. “Can you sit here for a minute? I need to get some things ready, but I don’t want you slipping down under the water.”

  “Free my hands.”

  Kyle stroked her face. “Not sure I can do that just yet.”

  “I suppose I deserved that after drugging half The Guard.” Tan did understand, but she’d never taken orders from anyone but Jael, never taken punishment from anyone but Anya.

  Kyle’s lips were soft and searching against hers, no desperate clash of teeth and tongue. When she withdrew, she gently fingered a ragged welt that marred the smooth skin of Tan’s shoulder. “I’m not Anya, Tan. Please understand that you’re shackled for your safety and mine. I trust you, but I don’t know—you don’t know—how Phyrrhos’ breeding will affect you tonight.” Another brush of lips, and Kyle fed her two more special cakes and helped her down another bottle of water before moving away. Tan frowned. The brief break in Phyrrhos’ breeding felt like she was finally swimming to the surface for a big gulp of air, but Kyle was muddying her water.

  Tan hadn’t realized she had drifted until she felt Kyle lift her from the water. She tried to rouse, but she was very relaxed after four of Second’s cakes. She was vaguely aware of Phyrrhos. Images of a clear night, a million stars, and wings that fluttered like a heartbeat seeped into her brain. Kyle’s body was smooth and firm, her nipples hard. She smiled when a gentle bite elicited a low groan.