Excessive Force (Force of Nature Series) (7 page)

“What did he do?”
Tristan continued to pace and didn’t answer Reid. So he got up and went to Jodie. “What did the mage do to you?”

Instead of answering him
, she lifted her sleeves on her shirt. It wasn’t until then that he realized that she always wore long sleeves, even in her tee-shirts. When she held her arms out to him, he could see the scars there.

“He tried to kill me.
I was seventeen and had been on my own for only about a month when he found me. I didn’t have any idea how to fight him, or for that matter how to even save myself. But he…I hurt him somehow, and that’s all that saved me.” Reid pulled her wrists to his mouth and kissed the wide claw marks there. Dozens of them ran deeply along her wrists up to her elbows. He asked her if there were more. When she nodded and turned, he lifted her shirt up to expose her back.

It looked as if she’d gone a few rounds with a tiger.
Claw marks ran up and down as well as crossways across her back. Most of them were so deep they’d been stitched closed, the pucker marks evident among them. He lifted the shirt higher and found marks along her neck to her throat and up into her hairline. Reid wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her, but she stepped away before he could.

“Are they all over your body?” She nodded as she walked to the other side of the room and sat down. “How long were you in the hospital?”

“Three months. They told me I was lucky to be alive.” Her laughter was bitter and manic sounding. “I wish I would have given up some days instead of setting out to prove them wrong.”

“I found her there, in the hospital.”
Reid looked at Tristan, who was now seated again. “She was nearly healed by then, and since she wouldn’t take even a sip of my blood, I couldn’t heal her.”

“So you trained her instead.”
Tristan nodded at him. “And you knew when you took her under your wing that the same mage that hurt your mate is the one that hurt your daughter.”

“No. I didn’t know who had hurt her until a few years later. Jolene had a horrific nightmare one night during our time together. I only meant to sooth her
, but I found her memories of the monster who did that to her. It was then that I decided to give her everything.” Tristan seemed to come to a decision as he continued. “You know that when he finds her, and I’ve no doubt that he’s still looking, that he’ll stop at nothing this time to kill her. She’s much more powerful than she’d been as a child.”

“He’ll kill her for her own powers. They’ll come to him when he kills her.”
Tristan smiled sadly and nodded. “He won’t get the chance.”

Reid pulled her up from the couch and into his body. She was stiff yet didn’t fight him. When he buried her face
into his throat, she licked him but nothing more. Tristan cleared his throat.

“You do know that’s not what I meant when I said she needs to drink from you.”
It took Reid a few seconds to realize what he’d meant and flushed. “Yes, you’ll need to mate and bond for it to be finished.”

Jodie pulled from him.
“It’s not going to happen. I’ll take my chances with the mage, and if I die, then I do.”

She backed away from him and turned to the door.
He started after her when she stopped and held up her hand. Reid was frozen in place. Looking at Tristan, he could see that she held him as well, and both of them watched as she moved across the room and disappeared. They were both released as soon as she was gone.

“I wish now I’d not trained her on that trick.”
Reid wished Tristan hadn’t either. Sitting down on the couch, he tried to think what to do now. That’s when Tristan lifted his head up.

“She will die if you don’t bond with her.”
Reid nodded, but his hands were tied since she didn’t give him permission. “You need only to make her aware of what you plan to do to her. I’m sure you can be quite inventive if you set your mind to it.”

When Tristan disappeared a few seconds later, Reid still had no idea what he’d meant.
Standing up, he walked out of the living room and into the kitchen, almost afraid to see what damage had been done in there. He was shocked to see that this room, like the living room, was set to rights as well. Reid moved throughout the house and found that the entire house was now cleaned up as well as furnished.

Ending up in the master bedroom
, he sat in one of the beautiful wing chairs near the fireplace. He was closing his eyes when a thought suddenly popped into his head. Smiling, he sat up.

“Now all I have to do is nip a little blood from her and I can do it.” Sending her images of them together would either drive her over the edge or make her want to murder him. Either way, he was going to have some fun.

Chapter 7

Ethan Randolph sat quietly in his room. There was no furniture with the exception of a pad on the floor, and no windows. The walls had been painted with the blood of his victims, and under that was black magic. It was his own place to rest and to feel.

She was out there
, the girl that had nearly killed him. And he was going to find her if it was the last thing he did. Smiling, Ethan reached deeper into the earth to see where she might have tread, but found only traces of her, not enough for him to actually find where she was now. He would find her soon. He had to.

The girl was stronger than she’d been as a teenager
, but she’d never be strong enough to harm him again. He felt the scars she’d given him and the one wound that had yet to heal pull when he moved. She’d pay for those as well.

“I should have searched harder when I killed your mother and father.
I would have had you long before now.” Ethan smiled again, his fangs stretching below his lip as he thought of her mother. “Tasty.”

She’d been a morsel he’d not been able to resist.
Killing her mate had been incredibly easy, and he’d thought that she’d be easy as well, but she’d been like a bear with a cub. Ethan supposed now that he thought about it, she’d been just that. Protecting her cub would have been what drove her. And Kelley Elden had been a fighter.

Finding her after so long had been a
miracle. Ethan hadn’t really been looking very hard, he’d admit to himself now, but he’d been looking. She’d been powerful for a wolf, more than he’d ever thought, and her taste still lingered in his mouth when he wanted something to savor. But it hadn’t been nearly enough. But now there was her child.

Ethan knew that he’d only found the girl by chance. She’d been coming out of a fast food restaurant when he’d been walking by it. Her scent had nearly had him
take her then, but there were too many witnesses, and he was a little more cautious back then. Now he would simply have taken her and damn the others.

But he’d watched and listened
, and finding her alone had been easy if not exciting. She’d been a good deal more than he thought she’d be for one so young. And she fought back with the savagery of a cornered animal. Which he supposed she was.

He’d gotten the jump on her
, of course, but he’d never had the upper hand. She’d torn into him, shifting fast and attacking him as if she’d thought she had a chance of surviving. Ethan had been so terrified when she tore into his back that he’d allowed her to get to his throat. And when she’d torn into him, even though he knew she was close to dying, he had to leave her. It had taken him nearly a month to be able to move his head without pain from what she’d done to him, and longer to find someone to bleed dry for their magic. By then she had disappeared. That was over five years ago and he’d not been able to find her since.

Ethan knew that she lived.
He could feel her heart beating from the little blood he’d managed to taste from her. It hadn’t been enough to do much more than help him search for her, but enough that he knew she still lived.

And find her he would.

Moving to the upper levels of his home, Ethan moved through the house as quiet
ly as the wind. He had no desire to talk with anyone in the house. And his servants knew better than to disturb him unless it was an emergency. Which was why when someone knocked on his door he’d been so startled that it had taken him several seconds to bid them enter.

“Master, there is a gentleman here to see you.
He says you and he have an arrangement.” Ethan nodded at his man servant. “Very good, sir. I will bring him to you directly.”

He’d hired an investigator several months ago. And just last night he’d asked the man to come to the house. It was time to tell him that his services were no longer needed. As soon as he walked in the room however, Ethan knew that he’d finally found something.

“You told me once that there was a family by the name of Turner that had housed the girl’s mother. Well, I think the girl showed up there last week.” The man handed him a blurred picture of a person on a motorcycle. “I know this isn’t the best picture in the world, but—”

“You are correct. For all I know this could be you on this thing.”
Ethan knew that it wasn’t because this person was small while the man sitting across from him was a big as three of the biker. “If this is all that you have, I’m afraid that I have no more use—”

“She’s a shifter.” Ethan nodded for him to continue.
“I’ve seen her shift into a hawk as well as a wolf. A big fucking wolf too. One of the others, a male that lives in the house, is a wolf as well, but nothing much to worry about. But the girl?” He pulled out another picture and handed it to him.

This one was of a man facing the camera and a woman with her back to it.
The long dark hair seemed to be black, but the picture was of a substandard quality so it was difficult to tell. But the man standing next to them had his heart start to beat hard in his chest.

“Where was this taken?”
The man took a step back, and Ethan felt his beasts roar at him. Trying for a calmer tone, he asked him again. He could tell that the man was frightened of him and any other time would have been thrilled by it, but not now.

“A little town in Ohio.
I think….” He looked at his notes with a trembling hand. “Nashport. It’s a deli called
Get Fresh With Me.
I’ve seen her in there several times, but never with these two men before. Should I find out who they are?”

“No. I will.”
He stood up and smiled when the man flinched. “While I would love to simply play with you, I have more pressing items on my agenda. Perhaps another time.”

The man nodded
, and Ethan had a feeling he’d never hear from him again. Not even to send a bill. Which suited him fine. Ethan would have killed him over it. This way the man got to live a little longer.

Ethan waited until he had his mind under control before he used some of
his considerable magic to will himself to Nashport, Ohio. It wasn’t as difficult as it had been when he’d first tangled with the girl, but he was slightly weak from it. He was standing in front of the smallish deli with the bright windows seconds later, and something occurred to him. He should have asked the man what the girl’s name was.

Moving slowly so as not to draw attention to himself
, he found a hotel not far from where the deli was. There were people going in and out all the time, the doors barely closing before it opened again to bring customers in or to spill them out again. He’d gotten a room that overlooked the street and sat a chair in front of the window to watch. Even if he didn’t know what she looked like or her name, he did know the man. Tristan Elden was going to lead him right to his daughter. Glancing down at the paper that had come with the room, he was startled to see the name he’d heard from the investigator. Turner.

Curtis Turner was dead. Not that Ethan knew who he was or if he was the one that the investigator had been talking about
, but it was something to look into. Seeing that the funeral was at graveside in the morning, Ethan decided that he’d go because he knew it had to be one and the same. He did wonder what this man was to her, but decided that he honestly didn’t care. So long as he found her, he was going to be very happy.

~~~

Jodie sat in the hotel room with the phone still in her hand. When the noise that it was making indicating that it was a dead line finally registered in her mind, she set it gently in the cradle. It was done. The realtor had a buyer for the property. All she had to do was meet him at the bank in the morning and it would be over. There would be no more ties to this town.

Moving to the bed
, she lay down and closed her eyes. She wasn’t tired, but she was overwhelmed. There was simply too much going on right now for her to be anything but terrified. When she’d been to see Curtis three days ago, she’d gotten into a fight with Mike and had been knocked around again. Lucky, or not so lucky for her brother, Reid had been there to pull him off her. She smiled when she thought of the way he’d paced in front of her while she held an ice pack to her head.

“You do know that you’re twice the man he is, right?” She nodded once and had to stop because it made her slightly ill.
“Why the fuck aren’t you trying to fight back?”

“I
can’t. It’s part of the rules that I signed off on when I became an apprentice to Tristan.” She refused to call him Dad or even Father. Hell, she wasn’t sure that calling him by his first name made her feel all warm and fuzzy. “If I harm or kill someone of my blood, I’m doomed to be hurt too.”

“But he’s not your blood.”
She’d thought of that too, but it was simply a matter of splitting hairs. He was as close to being her brother as anyone else, and it might turn back on her.

“His
intent was to hurt me, not kill me. When he tries that, I can fuck him up.” She had shrugged at him, and he stepped too close to her. “Back off, buddy. You’re not related to me by proxy or anything else, and I will hurt your ass.”

But all he did was taste her again.
His tongue moved down along her skin until she felt it all the way to her core. He knew it too, and when he nuzzled her neck, it was everything she could do not to beg him to take her. So when he stepped back from her, she did whimper aloud.

“You’re going to be mine soon.” She shook her head at him
, and he smiled. “Oh but you will be. Soon you’ll be begging me to take you, and I will be more than glad to do so.”

When he’d stepped out of the room she’d been in
, Jodie had to take several deep breaths to get her heart under control. Then she had to keep telling herself that going after the big wolf wasn’t an option. She had something to do, and sleeping with him wasn’t going to get her any closer to her goal. That hadn’t gone over any better yesterday than it had the five or six hundred times she’d tried to tell herself that last night and today. The man was driving her over the edge of sanity.

Jodie opened her eyes when she felt someone touch her.
As tightly as she held her body, she was surprised when she felt a whisper of a touch over her arm. Looking around the room, she couldn’t see anyone but knew that someone was here. The second time someone touched her, it was along her ribs, and she nearly cried out when the touch moved over her breast.

Sitting up
, she turned on the light to see that the room was devoid of anyone but her. Closing her eyes, she reached into the room to see if someone was there that had shadowed themselves, but found no one. That’s when she felt her nipple being teased.

“Don’t.”
The sound of her own voice startled her. Looking around the room, she nearly cried out again when she felt someone brush across her lips. She knew who it was immediately.

Reid had somehow gotten into her mind.
Before she could block him out, he sent her image after image of him and her together. And the more he flashed before her closed eyes, the more erotic they got, until he was taking her against the wall and her legs wrapped around him.

“Why are you doing this?”
He didn’t answer, but she could feel his need. “
Stop this right now or so help me, I’ll make you regret it.”

“Come for me.”
She felt her body burn to do just what he wanted.
“Better yet, come here and let me taste you when you come.”

Her legs spread all on their own when she felt him touching her clit.
She was burning for him now, his magical touch not nearly enough. Over and over he moved above her, touching but not where she needed him to be, sliding his fingers over her only enough to make her want more. Relief wasn’t going to come if he wasn’t with her in the flesh.

His mouth touched her breasts.
Her nipples hardened so tightly that they ached. Rubbing her hands over them, trying to alleviate the need, she only made it worse, her body humming with need.

“Why are you doing this?” Again he didn’t answer her
, but he didn’t stop either. Her entire body was poised on the edge of the cliff, and he was the only one with the power to push her over. Need rolled over her, and she was so close that she could almost taste it when he suddenly stopped.

Jodie
laid there for several minutes. She wanted him to continue doing what he’d been doing, but more than that, she needed him to finish her. When she reached for him, she met with only a block wall and couldn’t beg him to do anything. Standing up, she began to pace the room, her body hurting for a completion she hadn’t reached.

“I’ll do it myself.”
Stripping down, she moved to the center of the bed and ran her fingers through her wet curls. Every time she touched her clit, she felt her body stir, but she knew that she’d find no relief. He’d brought her to this point, and now she was going to kill him for it. The more she flicked her fingers over her wet clit, the stronger her need became until it was no longer just need but a necessity. Jodie decided she was going to murder him when she saw him again. The phone ringing startled her enough that she cried out. Then she felt stupid for letting a man bring her to this point.

“Hello.”
Okay, she didn’t need to take it out on the person at the other end, then revised that thought when she heard the laughter at the other end. She hated Phil almost as much as she did Reid right now.