Vixen (Dark Protectors #11.5) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,19

growled. Really growled. What the holy hell was happening?

“You’re okay.” Tabi’s voice cut through the cloud in his brain, and her soft touch on his arm eased the raging turmoil inside him. “Let’s sit you on the bed before you fall down.”

Evan looked toward the one threat in the room, appeased that Raine hadn’t moved away from the wall.

“Here you go,” Tabi said, her voice slightly higher than normal. Stress? Fear?

He reacted to her emotion and sat, pulling her onto his bare lap. The room smelled like sex…and sweat. She struggled against him, and he tightened his hold, forcing his gaze to focus again.

“Well,” Raine drawled. “This is certainly interesting.”

Evan swallowed, barely catching enough spit in his mouth to ease down his desert dry throat. “Why are you in my bedroom?”

Raine smiled, the sight not even close to being amused. “Tabitha? Want to field that curveball?”

She partially turned to face Evan, her butt nicely placed over his suddenly aching cock. “Well, now. I need you to keep an open mind.”

Evan’s gaze jerked from her face to Raine’s.

The man chuckled and held up a hand. “No. Not that open. God.”

Tabitha sighed and patted the side of Evan’s face. “Concentrate, would you? It’s like this. Well, I’m a demonness, and I mated you when we had sex.”

Oh God. Evan deliberately, very gently, set her next to him and stood to face Raine. “You’re a part of this cult?” What had he been thinking to sleep with her? His head pounded like he’d been punched repeatedly with a rock, but he’d deal with his illness later. Right now, he had to help the woman he apparently had just taken advantage of during the night. He’d known she was troubled. “Maxwell?”

Raine sighed. “Cult? What’s he talking about?”

Tabi started to stand and then halted when Evan glowered at her. “It’s a long story, but there’s no cult. Honest, Evan. You’re an enhanced male, maybe part dragon or witch or something, and I mated you.” She frowned, peering closer. “Do you feel any better? Maybe stronger?”

Actually, he felt like his head was about to blow right off his neck from the pounding agony at his temples. “Okay. Here’s what’s going to happen.” He needed to drink a glass of water to stop sounding like he’d been chewing soup cans all night. “Tabi? I’m going to take you to Dr. Lopez to get some help, while Mr. Maxwell and I go to the station. I think you’re under arrest, Raine.” He’d get the threat behind bars before making sure Tabi was cared for.

“You were fired,” Tabi reminded him.

Raine’s eyebrows rose. “Fired? What did you do?”

Oh yeah. Evan had forgotten. He eyed Raine. “Did you kill Monte Loften? As part of your cult or something? Is Siosal involved, and did he get Abby Miller to help?” It would make sense since they all had provided an alibi for each other. What had he gotten Abby and now Tabi involved in when he’d all but forced them into that anger management group? “Is the shrink part of the cult?”

Raine scratched his head. “Did the mating scramble his brain, do you think?”

“I don’t know,” Tabi said softly. “He has a pretty high fever. Maybe he’s delirious.”

“A fever?” Raine twisted his mouth, obviously thinking. “That’s rare. I don’t think Abby got a fever when Siosal mated her. I’ve never heard of that, but I guess it could be possible. We’ll know soon enough.”

Tabi stood, pausing when Evan instinctively turned to keep his body between the woman and Raine. “You did not text the queen,” she whispered tersely.

“Queen?” Evan said, anger flushing through him hotter than his fever. “Your cult has a fucking queen?”

Raine rubbed the whiskers along his jawline. “Maybe you should show him the marking?”

Tabi gasped. “Maybe. Look at your hip, Evan.”

Was this a trick? Evan looked at his left hip and then his right, seeing a perfect tattoo of the R that had been on Tabi’s hand. It looked kind of small on his hip, set crooked and leading to his ass. He gingerly touched it, noting the slight pain. His eyebrows rose, and fury lanced his chest. Had they somehow knocked him out during the night? Had he been poisoned or drugged? He felt like it. “You branded me when I was asleep? With your fucking cult sign?”

Raine knocked his head back against the wall. “For God’s sakes. He’s too dumb to be immortal.”

Tabi sighed and wrung her hands together. “You’re just not getting this, Evan. Please pay