Leopard 05 - Savage Nature

then we’ll head for bed.”
    Saria nodded and followed him to the dining room. Most of the team had already finished and were headed up to bed. Joshua paused by Drake’s chair.
    “I’m wiped out, man. Do you want a guard posted?”
    “I doubt it’s necessary with all of us in the house. Let’s sleep armed. We’ll activate the security system and let Pauline know it’s on so she won’t set it off when she comes back. We’ll sleep light enough and no self-respecting shifter is going to run around as a leopard in broad daylight out in the open. There are too many of us for the killer to show up.”
    Joshua nodded. “Thanks, boss. For some reason, I can’t keep my eyes open. I must be getting old and can’t hang with the young crowd anymore.”
    Drake laughed and pointed at Jeremiah, the youngest of all of them. He was desperately trying to cover a huge yawn. Joshua clapped the kid on the back and his team went upstairs to their rooms, leaving him alone with Pauline and Saria.
    Pauline took Saria’s face in her hands and kissed her forehead. “I hope Iris didn’t hurt you with her snide comments.”
    “No. I always hope she won’t come at me that way, but then I see what she does to Charisse and I know she does it because I’m friends with Charisse. Charisse is an amazing woman, Miss Pauline, and her mother doesn’t even see it. I went with her once to the hospital. She visited the children’s ward and she brought them all kinds of things and spent hours talking to the kids on the cancer floor. They all knew her by name. She goes there often. Her mother found out because we were late getting back and she was furious with Charisse and told her she’d better not bring some horrible disease home.”
    “Iris has a terrible fear of illness,” Pauline said. “She always has.” Pauline patted Saria’s hand. “Get some sleep, cher , I’ll be back this evening.”
    Saria blew her a kiss and sank down into a chair at the table. She was too tired to eat, but Drake was eating, so she drank a cup of coffee, hoping it would keep her awake long enough to get up the stairs to bed.
    In the end, Drake carried her up the stairs and tucked blankets around her. The coffee definitely hadn’t worked—she nearly fell asleep sitting at the table. The moment her head hit the pillow she was asleep, barely aware of Drake’s body pressed tightly up against hers.
    She dreamt of her leopard running in the swamp, feeling the freedom of her animal form for the first time. She’d never realized how easy it was to travel in the body of a cat, flowing over every obstacle, sensing where the ground was thin, hearing the very heartbeat of the swamp. A whiff of drifting smoke through the swamp had her cat wrinkling her nose. Her heart accelerated as adrenaline poured in. All wild things despised the smell of smoke, that heralding of imminent disaster. Her leopard coughed—lungs burning. She coughed.
    Her cat clawed at her, raked and snarled in warning. “Bad dream,” Saria murmured, trying to pry her eyes open to bring an end to the beginnings of a nightmare. She coughed again and opened her eyes. It was impossible to see anything with the room filled with smoke.
    “Drake!” She shook him, rolling from the bed onto the floor where she could breathe a little easier. She dragged his body down after hers. He landed heavily, just beginning to stir. Something wasn’t right. Drake always— always —came awake completely alert. “Drake! Fire. The inn is on fire and the smoke alarms aren’t goin’ off. Wake up now!”

17
     

     
    DRAKE heard Saria’s voice from a great distance, as if he was in a long tunnel and the fog was so thick, it muffled not only sound but vision as well. He opened his mouth to call to her, but instantly his lungs burned for air. He coughed, realizing he was on the floor and Saria was trying to wake him. What the hell was wrong? His leopard roared at him, clawing and raking in alarm. Smoke in the room was so thick he could barely make out Saria, who knelt over him.
    “The smoke alarms aren’t workin’.” Saria pressed her mouth against his ear. “I think we’ve all been drugged. If we can’t wake up, neither can the others.”
    Drake fought the layers of fog, pushing himself up gebreak/>
    She crawled along the floor to the French doors and reached up to the doorknob. Drake paused at the door to the hall to watch her. He couldn’t feel any heat coming off the door, but he was cautious as