The Lion Must Die: A Sexy Paranormal Thriller Read online

  “That sounds like heaven,” she admitted, wishing she had that much time to enjoy this particular shifter.

  But she had work to do, and she needed to get down to it. She had a lot of information to pry out of him that night, and she couldn’t just ask him everything outright.

  She didn’t want him getting suspicious and getting away before he could take care of him and make sure that his kind weren’t roaming freely any more.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Sabrina fell back against the bed, snuggling into Paul’s arms and placing her head against his chest. Her body was on fire, legs weak and still shaking after three more rounds of feverish, frantic sex with Paul. He kissed the top of her head gently, for the first time all night, he was out of breath, pulse pounding and body limp from satisfaction.

  “You’re something else,” he said, chuckling when he said it. “And judging by your credentials, you’d definitely be a wonderful edition to our cause.”

  “I’m looking forward to it,” she said, eyes flicking lazily across the room and locating her purse, hanging on the back of a chair. “Unless you need another go to make sure that you want me on your team.”

  “Of course, I want you on my team. I wanted you on my team before we got in the elevator. Getting a taste of who you are in bed was just an added bonus.”

  “So, what is it exactly that you do?” she asked quietly, turning her head so that her ear with the earpiece in it was squashed against his chest.

  “Right now, we’re just gathering people up and getting ready to fight for our freedom.”

  “Freedom from The Zone? Isn’t it better for the shifters to stay there and roam free?”

  “There is no freedom when we are divided. Humans and shifters used to live together in peace. We want that again.”

  Yeah right, Sabrina thought.

  “So, you just want freedom?”

  “There’s more to it than that, but what it comes down to is that we want what others take for granted. We want to be able to love and marry whoever we love, and we want humans to come and go in The Zone as they see fit, without having to worry about being labeled a traitor and ending up a pariah.”

  “I would imagine that most street walkers are already pariahs, so I don’t really think that hiring women who are already working in the sex industry is going to change anything.”

  “What do you mean?” Paul asked, sounding genuinely perplexed.

  “How is hiring prostitutes and other women who work in the sex-based industries going to help your cause? What good could hiring human sex toys do to make other humans look favorably on WereLions? I don’t understand how that’s supposed to work.”

  The earpiece in her ear clicked and then she heard Tom Decker’s voice on the line, his tone warning.

  “Why isn’t that lion dead yet, Sabrina? This is not a social call. Get the location and end him.”

  “I think you were given some bad information,” Paul said, sitting up and setting her away from him so that he could look in her eyes. “I’m not hiring you because of your sexual prowess, though don’t get me wrong, you’re a tigress in bed. But I’m hiring you for your combat skills and your mental prowess.”

  “Sabrina,” Tom’s voice cut in. “Quit playing and kill him.”

  Paul was reaching out to the back of the chair where his clothes were hung, pulling on his boxer briefs and pants first, then his socks and shoes.

  Crap, he’s going to leave, Sabrina thought, but she was intrigued. How could the things he said be true? As far as he knew, she was nothing more than a high-end prostitute, working to secure her place as one of the overpaid playthings of the Lion clan.

  “What combat skills?” she asked, taking her dress from him and pulling it over her head, keeping an eye on her purse.

  He was between her and her purse, handing her lacy panties to her and stuffing her bra in his pants pocket before pulling on his shirt. He looked at her, then at the purse that hung so innocently on the chairback.

  “I know who you are, Sabrina. And I want you to join my team. You’re working for the wrong side, and I want to give you the chance to make that right. We are going to expose the truth, and I need your help to do that.”

  “Kill him, Sabrina,” the voice in her ear shouted.

  Sabrina shook her head, trying to listen to both men as their voices battled for her attention.

  “You know about me?” she said, incredulous.

  “Yes, we do. You were set up, and they’re going to let you take the fall for this one. You have a choice; you can come with me, or you can hope that your people come to the rescue while I escape.”

  “Sabrina,” Tom warned in her ear.

  “I know you were sent to kill me, Sabrina. You don’t want to kill me. There’s a pull between us, and I know you feel it too. Don’t let Tom convince you that he’s right.”

  There was a crash and a loud commotion, coming from somewhere below them.

  “Sabrina, kill him now! That’s an order!”

  “They’re coming, Sabrina. You can die in a hail of bullets, or you can trust me.” His hand was out, but she was looking over his shoulder and gauging the distance. “I’m not letting you get to your gun.”

  “Sabrina!” Tom shrieked in anger.

  Sabrina ripped the earpiece out of her ear, tossing it to the ground and kicking it across the room with her bare feet. She looked at Paul’s outstretched hand and reached for him as the commotion got closer to them.

  As soon as their hands connected, Paul was on the run, heading away from the front door of the suite to the bedroom. He pulled her through the doorway, shut the door and let go of her hand to shove a chair tilted under the door knob. He grabbed her hand again, his shirt still unbuttoned and flapping as they ran toward the balcony. He flung the sliding glass door open with his free hand so hard that the glass cracked when it connected with the frame.

  His hand was around her waist before she could react, and her stomach lurched with a sickening feeling as he hurled himself over the railing and into the air, fourteen stories up.

  Sabrina wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips. One arm was still locked around her and in the noise of the traffic below and the wind whistling in her ears, she heard the telltale sound of a retractable repel line being deployed. She held her breath, waiting for the sound of the metal hook hitting the balcony rail as time slowed and they seemed to hang in midair for an eternity. When she heard the clink of metal on metal and felt their bodies begin to arc as they swung toward the building, she held tighter, prepared for the moment when the line would draw taught and gravity would try to jerk her right out of Paul’s grasp.

  Paul’s free arm was cradled under her, holding her tight. When the line stretched taut, she felt her stomach drop out, but Paul’s grip on her was solid, and her arms around his body helped her cling to him tightly enough to fight gravity.

  Sabrina could hear the mechanism in Paul’s belt buckle engaging, and their descent slowed enough to make the over hundred-foot plunge to the ground almost pleasant. Sabrina laughed, her arms still wrapped so tightly around Paul’s neck that he couldn’t move.

  “What’s funny?”

  “You’re like a super-secret agent,” she laughed. “It’s like a movie.”

  “Except those are real bullets and we’re in real danger.”

  As if on cue, the glass shattered above them on the balcony they had just jumped from, and the barrage of bullets started to fly.

  Paul used his body to shield her as they made the last of the descent, and she felt him tense momentarily, but he didn’t cry out in pain.

  His feet touched the ground and he released the line, still holding her in his arms so her bare feet didn’t touch the ground and the glass that was scattered beneath them. There was a squeal of tires and out of nowhere, a black SUV came around the corner, coming straight at them.

  The back door flew open and Paul tossed her into the seat, climbing in behind her. The driver
stomped on the gas before the door was even closed, and Sabrina jumped when a bullet hit the dark glass. When it didn’t shatter, she breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the glass and the car were bulletproof.

  “We can stop down the street a few miles and let you out, or you can come with us,” Paul said, already opening a first aid kit and pawing through it until he found what he needed.

  He poured the liquid where the bullet had grazed him and sucked in a deep breath with the pain.

  “It’s your choice,” he continued. “We’re not taking anyone against their will. But know that, if they find you, they are going to kill you.”

  She doubted they would, but Sabrina wasn’t so sure that she was willing to bet her life on that. Something was off about this situation, and Tom’s reaction had given her more than just pause. He hadn’t wanted her to hear what Paul was saying, talking over Paul intentionally and ordering her to kill him when she hadn’t gotten all the information out of him that she could. It was strange, and it wasn’t like him at all. That wasn’t how her missions usually went, and she found herself wondering if Paul was speaking the truth, and if the HLF was on the wrong side of the war.

  If HLF was on the wrong side of history, then Sabrina had been working for the wrong people. If she was wrong, then she would kill Paul the first chance she got, and then she would come home and deal with the rest later.

  “I’ll stay,” she said. “But I’m going to need some clothes or something. My shoes are in the hotel room and you have my bra.”

  Sabrina heard a snicker from the front seat, but she ignored it. Just like HLF, the Lion Equality Organization was a boy’s club, and crude jokes were to be expected. It wasn’t like what she had been doing in that hotel room with Paul was a secret to anyone.

  “Good choice,” Paul said. He turned, reaching over the backseat and grabbing something in the dark.

  “What’s that?” she asked, looking at a good-sized black backpack that looked a lot like the “go bag” she kept in her hall closet.

  “It’s your recruit bag. We give one to all the new recruits. The terrain around our stronghold is rough, and most people aren’t prepared, even without taking into consideration our harsh winters. It’s waterproof and impact resistant. It can even serve as a floatation device in a pinch. Everything you need is in there, as well as some survival items in case we get separated. The pack itself has a solar panel to charge your electronic devices, and there is a water filtration system built in. It’s crude, but if you have to survive in the woods for an extended period of time, it can help save your life.”

  “Does it have shoes in it?”

  “No. But we’ll take care of that, too.”

  He tapped the driver on the shoulder and spoke quietly in his ear. The driver nodded, turning the next corner quickly and merging into the heavy traffic.

  “Sabrina, do you have any other listening devices on you?”

  “You saw me naked. Did you see any listening devices?”

  “No, but I wondered about your dress.” The passenger handed him a short wand, which Paul passed over Sabrina’s body and handed back. “Sorry, I just have to make sure. One of the things that we liked about you is your fierce loyalty, and I didn’t want to risk having them find one of our strong houses in the city. We’re going to stop and get supplies and change vehicles. These two are going to go on without us, and we’re going to head out of town and regroup.”

  “Are you taking me to The Zone?”

  “No. I need to make sure that I can trust you before I take you there. You have a reputation for being an,” he paused and searched for the right word, “efficient and resourceful killer. I need to make sure that you’re firmly on our side before I put any life but my own at risk.”

  “How very noble of you,” she said, and she meant it.

  “I know there’s a lot going on, and I also know that it’s going to take more than just this incident to completely get you on our side. I think I can show you the one thing that will make you see that we are the good guys, but it’s going to take time.”

  “How could you possibly know anything about me? We spent half a night together.”

  “We have been watching you for a long time.”

  “Why?”

  “That’s not something I can get into now. We have been interested in your skills for some time, and we think that you will be an asset to the cause.”

  “But there’s more to it than that,” Sabrina said.

  “Isn’t there always?” Paul said, winking at her. “Get ready; we have to act fast. We’re jumping out and the SUV is leaving.”

  Sabrina nodded, putting her backpack on and getting ready. The SUV turned down a side street, and immediately down another before pulling to a curb and stopping suddenly. As soon as the SUV stopped, the door opened and Paul jumped out, grabbing Sabrina by the hand and leading her in the dark.

  The concrete walkway was chilly on her bare feet, and as she ran, she listened for cars coming down the deserted street, but there were none.

  There were no lights on in the house or the yard, and the night was pitch black as they ran. Sabrina was glad that Paul was leading the way, because her human eyes could barely make out the gray concrete in the dim light cast by the street lights on the next street over. But Paul was running as fast as Sabrina would in daylight, completely unbothered by the darkness.

  The door opened before Paul reached it, and the two of them were rushed in, door closing and locking behind them. A man with a semi-automatic rifle stood at the door, looking out the peephole in the door.

  “What do you need?” the man asked without looking at them.

  “Clothes, a pair of boots and a car.”

  “I have all that. Five grand.”

  Paul nodded, taking his own back pack off his back, which Sabrina hadn’t even noticed until that moment. He took a wallet out of the inner pocket and counted out several bills.

  “Here’s ten.”

  “Thank you. The clothes are in the back. There should be something to fit her. There’s a car behind the house with the keys in the ignition. The tank is full. You have five minutes.”

  “Thank you,” Paul said, hurrying Sabrina to the back of the house.

  “That was-”

  “No time to talk,” he said, pointing to the wall of combat style boots arranged by size. “These are men sizes, so subtract two from your size and grab a pair.”

  While he talked, he rummaged through a closet, grabbing a couple black shirts and a black hoodie. He took two pairs of black tactical style pants out and held them up to her waist as she went through the shoes, then shoved them in her bag along with the shirts. He grabbed a few pairs of black socks and tossed a pair at her.

  “Put the boots on now. The back of the house isn’t as well-kept as the front. You can change your clothes in the car.”

  She nodded and sat down, pulling on one sock then the other. Paul knelt in front of her and put one boot on and tied it quickly while she worked on the other one, then put the now heavy bag over her shoulder and followed him out the back door.

  Sabrina stopped, following the direction of an all too familiar sound, heart racing when she saw the helicopter flying near the main road that they had just left.

  “Hurry!” Paul hissed.

  They ran to the first car, but the door was locked. Paul checked another car, crouched down and tugging on the handle. The door opened and he called to Sabrina.

  “This is it, get in the back and get down low.”

  She did as he said, jumping in the back and hunkering down low. He started the car and drove it around to the street, jumping the curb with a bone-jarring thud, then turning on the lights and getting onto one of the more traveled streets.

  “Hurry and change as fast as you can,” he said, driving with the flow of traffic. “There’s a black knit hat in that bag too. Not that anyone is going to be able to see that long black hair of yours in the dark, but make sure your hair is hidden anyway.
I need you to look like a guy from a distance, just in case. They will be looking for a man and a woman.”

  “Who is they?”

  “HLF and the authorities. The government is so far up Decker’s ass that they couldn’t smell a rat if they tried. One of those choppers is state police.”

  “The other is ours-I mean HLF.”

  “So, you’re on team LEO?”

  “I don’t know yet, but I’m pretty sure that HLF was trying to kill me, too.”

  “You would be correct. That’s part of the reason that I pulled you in before you were ready.”

  “Do you always speak in riddles?”

  “No.”

  “I guess you will explain this one at a later time too?”

  “No. Now is alright. Tom Decker was planning on letting me take you and kill you to reignite sympathies for HLF.”

  Sabrina was floored.

  “What? No way. There is plenty of sympathy over Annie and what happened to her.”

  Sabrina was lying on the backseat, fully dressed in black fatigues and watching Paul’s face as he drove. He shook his head.

  “No, people were starting to question his motivations, saying that he was using the HLF and the government to get retribution for Annie Decker’s disappearance. He needed another death to prove that human women aren’t safe and that it wasn’t just the fact that she was a politician’s daughter.”

  “Why me?”

  “You’re likeable and you’re pretty. You have a girl next door kind of vibe, and even though you’re stunning with your black hair and bright green eyes, you’re still very relatable. Annie came from privilege, and there are some people who struggle to empathize with the rich, even when it is well-deserved. But an orphan who rose up from her humble beginnings to become a fighter for Human Liberation is someone that most people can relate to.”

  Sabrina took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves before she spoke.

  “How do you know all that about me?”