she waved. For one moment he forgot he had come on a rescue mission.
"Keep your mind on work," Corinne reminded him. "You're supposed to be her bodyguard. No ogling the client."
Cullen grinned sheepishly and edged his body in front of Corinne's as his gaze swept the crowd, looking for familiar faces. He was high on the society's hit list, branded a traitor by the organization. Somewhere in that crowd were men with guns - he was certain of it. "Maybe you should get back in the car," he told Corinne.
"You'll never get Lisa to come until this is over." Corinne was walking carefully through the maze of cable toward Lisa. She waved at a photographer she knew. "Are you on a break? I need to talk with Lisa." She held up one finger, indicating a quick chat.
The photographer nodded at her. "We can't decide if she looks better standing or sitting. Lisa can carry anything off."
"She's getting eaten alive by the mosquitoes," the hairdresser called as she patted Lisa's shimmering hair, then swatted at a bug landing on her own arm. "Honestly, Matt, these wilderness locations are dangerous."
"Not too much longer, Lisa," the photographer called back. "We'll lose the light pretty soon anyway."
Corinne had nearly reached Lisa's side when she glanced up and saw a man hidden above Lisa in the rocks. For one moment she thought he was part of the shoot, a male model, before it registered that he was short and plump and not at all handsome. As he half turned, the sun's rays glinted on something in his fist. Her heart in her throat, Corinne hurled herself at Lisa, catching her around the waist and driving both of them backward into the shrubbery. "Cullen!" she called out, terrified the unknown man would be able to get a clear shot at Cullen.
Both women fell heavily in a tangle of arms and legs. Corinne didn't care - she was concentrating on the object in the man's hand, fixing on it with her mind, determined to spoil his aim. She actually felt the intensity in the man as he fought for control. She saw people running toward her, saw two more men in the rocks out of the corner of her eye. Nothing mattered but covering Lisa protectively and keeping the man from shooting Cullen. She heard Dayan cry out in warning, felt his withdrawal from her mind. He had been providing emotional support, and it hurt that he left now when she was most afraid, when she didn't want to be alone.
Deep within the ground, Dayan shook with fear for her, raged at his inability to break free of the terrible paralysis that gripped his race during the daylight hours. He merged with Cullen, "seeing" through his eyes. Security guards were racing around in all directions, people were yelling, and Cullen was trying to make his way toward the two women. He was looking at his destination rather than at the wild crowd. Dayan drew a deep breath, let it out slowly to control his own panic. He forced Cullen to stop running and take a long look around himself to give Dayan a clear view of what was happening.
First he took care of the man struggling with Corinne for possession of the gun. Instead of attacking the weapon, Dayan went for the throat of the man, closing off his airway so that he had no time to think about shooting anyone. He let go of the gun, and it clattered downward through the rocks. He grasped at his throat in an attempt to fight off the unseen hands squeezing him like a vise. Only when the assailant fell from the rocks did Dayan, using Cullen's eyes, do a slow sweep of the crowd in search of other possible threats.
One man was dragging Corinne backward, away from the rocks toward the deeper thicket of trees, out of eyesight of the fast-moving security guards. The guards were converging on Lisa, who was still on the ground. Two women were screaming, and the scene was fast turning to chaos. Dayan forced Cullen to follow Corinne even though the human male wanted to go to Lisa, who was clearly sobbing, trying to fight her way past the security people to get to Corinne.
Dayan thought only of the man holding his lifemate. He allowed nothing else in his mind. He stared directly at the arm around her throat in an L choke hold. Almost at once the muscles in the man's arm