"Fine, take the weapons, and make the damn call."
"Some girls just can’t take a compliment," Nicky said, leaning in close enough to put his face against my hair, as his hands found the gun at the small of my back, and pulled it from its holster. He rubbed his cheek against my hair like he was scent-marking me. I think he meant it to be irritating, or maybe even threatening; some women would have taken it that way, but the moment enough of his body touched mine with no cloth, no gloves in between, the power flared between us like a hot wind.
I expected him to pull back, but he didn’t, he sort of collapsed around me, hugging me to him with my own gun in his hand. Everywhere we touched the power grew, as if we’d burn if we touched too long. But fire wasn’t the right analogy, because it didn’t hurt. It felt good.
"Stop it," I said, and made sure there was anger in the words.
He rubbed his face against mine harder, his lips pressing along my cheek. "It feels good; I can smell that you think so, too."
"Get the fuck off me!" But anger wasn’t the right thing, either, because my beasts all reacted to anger. I had a moment of those other shadow beasts moving in the dark of me, but the lioness shoved them back. I watched her pull her lips away from those sharp teeth and draw the air into her mouth, scenting over her Jacobson’s Organ, so she could literally taste his power on the air.
He had his arms pinning mine, but only above the elbows, so that I could draw one of the knives and start to turn it into his arm. I wasn’t thinking about anything but getting him off me. Another hand grabbed mine, knife and all, and more power flared from that hand, too, so that the three of us were suddenly bathed in the power as if we’d all three fallen into a warm bath all at once. Our heads were below the water and we were drowning in the power. My necromancy folded away. It was just gone. It had given me a little more control of the lion in me; now I was bare to the power, to the pull of them.
I heard Jacob say, "Jesus," and then his power smashed into all of it and it was like a fist smashing a house of cards. It scattered the power, stripped the energy, and shut down both of them. He tried to shut down my beast, but he couldn’t. She snarled at him inside my head, and the sound trickled out my mouth.
He pulled both my blades from their sheaths and threw them on the ground, so he could tear Nicky away from me. Nicky went into a crouch, hands at his sides. He had both my guns in his hands, but he threw them to the ground in the bushes beside the knives so they faced each other bare-handed.
I thought about going for a weapon, but they’d missed the big knife that sat under my hair and down my spine; if they didn’t touch me again I wouldn’t be unarmed. And I was still too busy trying to control the animal in me to mess with their fight. The lioness’s emotions/thoughts were loud in my head. She thought they were strong, and liked it, and wanted to make them fight over us and save our family. I tried to explain to the beast that we needed them alive until they called the sniper, but it was too complex for my lion. I leaned against the truck and concentrated on controlling my breathing, quieting my pulse, and having her hunker back down into the grass. It wasn’t time to make our rush; we’d miss our prey. It was too soon; save your energy for the last big run. That she understood. Conservation of energy is a very real concept for a predator. We needed to wait for our timing to be just right.
"We are not going to fight over her, Nicky. Remember who you are. Remember what you are."
Nicky blinked the one eye that wasn’t hidden in his skater-cut bangs; it had gone to lion amber. He growled at his friend.
"Nicky, we’re on a job."
Nicky closed his eyes, fists at his side. He hugged himself tight. "Your eyes have changed, Jacob. Your fucking eyes shifted."
The words made me look at the other man’s face and see him blinking pale yellow eyes. His own eyes had been a pale enough gray that it hadn’t been as obvious as Nicky’s eyes going from blue to amber. They both almost shifted. Lycanthropes as powerful as they were didn’t lose control in a public parking lot; they just didn’t.