to gather his woman into his arms and comfort her. Shelter her. Protect her from the terrible things her family had forced her to live through. They were still doing it in spite of the fact that he’d destroyed them. He had a sinking feeling the cats wouldn’t be able to overcome their fear and he would have to kill them. Would she forgive him?
Of course I would forgive you. I can’t hold it against you when you’re trying to save me, Isai. You haven’t indiscriminately decided the cats need to die. You’re waiting, even though you know they’ve been programmed.
How would they have done it? Isai believed in her. He believed in her ability to counter any spell or command they might have given to the cats. He tried sending the shadow cats waves of reassurance.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” she said aloud. “Clearly, they expected us to try to rescue them. That’s on me. They know I have a thing for animals. We’d had arguments over the sacrificing of them plenty of times. I gave them that weakness to use against me.”
Isai remained silent, but he watched the cats, particularly the male. He was close to Julija, much closer than he’d been just a few moments earlier. His eyes had gone from amber to red and back again, never a good sign. He wanted to yank Julija out of there, away from the cat.
Phantom was the smallest of the shadow cats, but that didn’t mean he was small. Most male panthers in the wild weighed between one hundred and thirty pounds and one hundred and sixty pounds. The females were smaller, coming in around seventy to a hundred pounds. These cats were larger than that and yet they could be insubstantial. Nothing but shadow, thin enough to slip through cracks and enter rooms they should never be able to get into. To have those razor-sharp claws and teeth so close to his woman made Isai very uneasy.
Julija ignored the warning signs that the cat was close to attack. She turned her attention to the female. “Sable, are they threatening you? Have they put something inside you that can harm you?” She beckoned the cat closer.
Isai suppressed a groan. Two of them close? Are you out of your mind? I am not a miracle worker. Already he was working out how to kill them both before they could touch his woman.
Of the two cats, the female was far more receptive to Julija’s overtures. She padded across the short distance and thrust her nose right into Julija’s middle. Every cell in Isai’s body reacted. He wanted to fling the cat away from her. He looked at the male, who was pacing, his eyes on his mate and Julija.
“I understand what you are feeling, ekäm. I want to protect my woman as well.” Deliberately he called Phantom his brother. They were forming a family and the shadow cat had to want to be part of it. That meant trusting Julija and Isai to guide the pair through this crisis.
“Can you lie down for me, Sable?” Julija asked, patting the ground beside her. “It will make Isai feel much better.”
“But not her mate.”
“You will, no doubt, ensure we are all safe from him.” Julija didn’t look at the male. All of her concentration was on the female. The little panther hesitated and once more glanced at the male before she reluctantly lay down in front of Julija.
His woman passed her hands over the cat’s body. She frowned and glanced up at him. Something is here, but I can’t feel it exactly.
You are much more sensitive to mage magic than I am, and I need to keep on Phantom. He is considering launching himself at you.
Julija’s gaze shifted, just for a moment, to the male cat and then she was back concentrating on the female. Once more her hands passed over the cat, this time much more slowly. She appeared to be searching inch by inch for whatever her brothers had placed in the cat. Her hands stayed over the head, and she frowned and moved on.
There is no command in her. She isn’t the trigger. Phantom obviously is. But still . . . there is something here.
You are Carpathian, Julija. I can protect your body if you go outside yourself and into her to examine her. He felt Julija’s instant excitement the moment he made the suggestion.
I can’t do that. I’ve never even tried. I wouldn’t know where to start.