bear-man seized Peigi by the hair, yanking her head back.
“Hey, Peigi,” he growled and then smiled, showing pointed teeth. “Remember me? Your old mate?”
Chapter Nine
Reid fought with fury, but the Shifters were strong and numerous. And they seriously stank.
“You’re not my mate,” Peigi shouted. She wrenched herself from the bear’s grip, tears glittering on her face. “My friends blew your compound all to hell. I considered that a break-up.”
“That’s not how it works, baby.”
Peigi balled her fists. “We never had the sun and moon, Miguel.” She punctuated her next words with competent punches at the bear-man. “I. Am. Not. Your. Mate.”
He deflected her blows with some difficulty. “Name’s not Miguel anymore. It’s Michael.”
She stopped. “Right, you changed it in Mexico, to blend in, you said. Because you’re an idiot.”
Reid continued to battle. The Shifters were strong but Stuart knew how to fight dirty. The leopard went flying, yowling as it struck a brick wall. Reid got a kick into the wolf’s gut, and both elbows into the Shifters in human shape. Some were clothed, some naked, but Reid didn’t soften his blows for an opponent with bare skin. They’d just have to suck it up.
Miguel—or Michael—had his arm around Peigi’s neck. She fought him hard, kicking and punching, her vehemence obviously surprising Michael. He must have expected the weak and willing mate he assumed her to be, not the kick-ass woman who pummeled him with all her bear strength.
Reid fought his way to them. He’d break Michael’s neck, then he and Peigi would jump in the semi and blast their way out of here.
He briefly toyed with the idea of teleporting Michael away, possibly releasing him off the edge of a cliff, but that would leave Peigi to fight the other … ten? … Shifters on her own. Reid didn’t hear Dimitri or Jaycee running back to help—Michael must have waited until the two were out of range to spring his trap.
Reid could teleport Peigi to safety, but only if he could get his hands on her. That would leave Dimitri’s truck abandoned, but Peigi was far more important.
Reid kicked and punched, backhanded and kicked again, trying to throw off the horde to reach her. Peigi shouted at Michael, spewing him with plenty of foul words as she punched him again and again.
Out of the corner of his eye, Reid saw the flash of a huge black wolf running down the deserted street toward them, and the brighter smudge of a smaller animal behind him. Nice of them to try to help.
Almost there. Reid kicked the leopard again, dislodging its claws from his flesh. The leopard bounced back, as leopards did, but it didn’t matter. Reid only needed an opening.
He threw himself through the gap the tumbling leopard had left and launched himself at Peigi. He wrapped his mind over the first place he could think of, closed arms around Peigi, and willed himself there.
Michael’s giant hands grabbed Reid’s shoulders at the same time, and he felt the drag of the man’s weight through the ley line and un-space, all the way to the haunted house.
Peigi tried to scream as darkness and nothing squeezed her, but no air would come. She felt Reid’s protective arms around her, but she also smelled the stench of Miguel-Michael, and knew he was along for the ride.
The haunted house loomed before them. Before Peigi could register it, they were inside, flying through the hall to the parlor as though they were insubstantial, coasting on a blast of wind.
The house shook, shutters banging, the furniture jostling, the vines outside rattling so hard they almost drowned out the wind shrieking under the eaves.
Peigi heard Michael say, What the fuck? the words filled with fear.
A door appeared in the paneled wall, growing and forming before her eyes. She and Stuart and Michael zoomed toward it, passing a startled Ben, the three of them still incorporeal, like the ghosts people believed inhabited this house. The door banged open, revealing a blackness deeper than the most moonless night.
Stuart’s muscles bunched, as though he tried to stop their mad flight, but to no avail. The three of them tumbled into the doorway, an icy chill freezing Peigi to the bone.
Peigi landed on something hard. The pure darkness vanished, dissolving into gray daylight and thick mist. She found herself lying on ground covered with dead leaves and pine needles, Stuart and Miguel more or less on top of her.
The door behind them, hovering in midair, closed with a snap. Its outline