Madeline nodded.
“Good, then take us to your car.” There had to be one stashed around there someplace. Mina frowned at the panther. “And maybe you can shift and borrow the clothes from one of the agents on the ground? Because you going in as a panther isn’t exactly keeping things on the down low, now, is it?”
A rumble came from the beast.
Mina exhaled and, once more, her gaze lifted toward the sky. The fear in her belly hadn’t lessened. She wanted to give chase, to run after Luke. He…needed her. “Tell me that Rayce will find him.”
Again, the panther rumbled.
“That had better be a yes,” Mina muttered.
***
Luke flew through the air and he twisted, his feet coming down hard just as he hit the rooftop. His knees didn’t buckle, but his fists clenched in rage. He looked around, seeing the glittering high rises, hearing the rush of traffic far below. “Fucking Miami?” Luke shouted as he recognized some of those too-tall buildings. He hated the damn city—that was why he lived on an island.
There was a fast rush of wind, the beat of powerful wings and then…
His dumb ass of a brother appeared before him.
Luke didn’t hesitate. He ran right at his twin and drove his fist into Leo’s face. Leo’s head snapped to the side. Luke drew back his hand, ready to hit again. “You had no right—”
Leo looked at him and his brother’s eyes—as dark as Luke’s own—gleamed. “You crossed the line. You broke the truce.”
“We have no truce. We have you and we have me, and we have us both supposedly staying the hell out of each other’s business!” Rage burned in him and smoke began to seep from his pores. Always a very, very bad sign.
But Leo ignored that obvious warning. “You attacked humans. I saw you. I was watching from above—”
“The way you always are,” Luke growled. He was so tired of Leo’s pompous bullshit.
“You hurt them. You were trying to terrify that human woman.”
Luke smiled at him. “Trust me. She deserved that terror, and everything else I was going to give her.”
Leo stepped closer to him. “You were threatening to let your darkness reign.”
Luke looked down at his hands. Claws had torn from his fingertips. Long, black. Sharper than knives. “You shouldn’t have interfered.” Leo had taken him from Mina. If anything happened to her…
“Would you have let your darkness out?” Leo demanded. “Knowing what it would do the world? Would you have really done it?”
Luke turned away from his brother. He had already wasted enough time with him. Mina was waiting. Mina needed him. He felt his own wings pushing from his back, growing and cutting right through his shirt. His wings weren’t soft. They were as sharp as the claws he now sported. He climbed onto the narrow ledge and looked at the city below.
“Luke!” His brother shouted his name.
Luke turned back.
Leo hadn’t moved. He stood there, glaring. Better watch it brother. All that rage…it will lead you straight to hell.
“You’re trying to take someone who belongs to me,” Leo gritted, his words brittle. “I don’t know what game you think you’re playing, but it ends now.”
“Those humans?” Luke knew his wings were stretching behind him. They were on a high-rise, far away from the prying eyes below. But even if someone had seen him right then, he didn’t care. He was growing sick of the shadows. “The ones who’ve been using my paranormals? Torturing them? You’re siding with them?”
Confusion flashed on Leo’s face. “What?”
“Those treacherous humans—they were the ones you were so angry with me for…hurting. As if they weren’t due some pain.” He could give them plenty. He turned away once more, ready to leap off that roof—
“I mean Mina. I’m talking about Mina James. She’s mine.”
His control had been cracking. Little, tiny spider web-like cracks. But at Leo’s words, something happened to Luke. He felt it, deep inside. Like a splintering. No, like an earthquake.
In a breath, he was in front of Leo. His claws were at his brother’s throat. “Say that shit to me again.”
Leo had gone statue-still.
“That’s what I thought,” Luke snarled. He’d always wondered…in the end, which of them would be stronger? Which would be left standing? He was ready to find out. “Mina is mine.”
He saw the understanding in his brother’s eyes. The shock. “You…you had sex with her?”
He let his claws draw blood from Leo. “Mina is mine,” he said again. Because there wasn’t more to say. He didn’t know what Leo thought he was doing, but—
“She isn’t dark,” Leo rasped, his lips barely moving. “You must have seen that. But…you ignored it? You’re trying to…to change her? You can’t. You can’t take one of the light and make her your mate.”
Mate. He tested the word in his mind. Mina. Mate. Why, yes, he rather liked that idea—