Devoured Read online

  “Why don’t you just admit there ain’t no guy?” Fat Chick Wanted demanded. “Then come on with me—I’ll show you a real good time.” Before Tess could turn him down again and get away, he grabbed her hand and entwined their fingers. “See? Isn’t that niiice?” he slurred.

  “Hey!” Her heart began to beat harder. Fat Chick Wanted was falling down drunk but he was also a foot taller and way stronger than her. “Get off me!” she demanded, trying to shake off his hand. “I don’t even know you!”

  “But we’re gonna get to know each other.” He leered at her. “Get to know each other real good, honey.”

  “Raymond? Raymond Jason Calhoun!” An angry, heavy-set woman with improbably bright purple-red hair who looked to be in her fifties came bustling up before Tess could say or do anything. She was wearing a Piggly Wiggly smock and a disapproving scowl on her thickly made-up face.

  “Uh…Miss Tabby?” Fat Chick Wanted didn’t let go of Tess but he did turn quickly to face the angry woman.

  “Raymond, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” the woman demanded. “Didn’t Bob tell you if he caught you in here again harassing the female customers he’d call the law?”

  “I wasn’t harassing her none!” Fat Chick Wanted protested, looking guilty. “We were having a conversation—getting along real nice.” He held up Tess’s hand, which he still had a firm grip on, as though to prove his point. “See?”

  “You stop that and let the nice lady go!” the woman exclaimed. She turned to Tess. “I’m real sorry, Miss. RayJay don’t mean anything by it. He’s just got a thing for fluffy gals like you and me.” She nodded at her own ample physique. “He gets to drinking down at the Sore Elbow and then he comes in here and—”

  “Let go of her. Now.”

  The voice behind Tess was familiar and yet strange at the same time. It was deeper somehow—with more than a hint of an animalistic growl—but the threat in those quiet, menacing tones couldn’t be disguised. Her stomach seemed to drop down to her shoes and she turned her head slowly to see Garron looming over her.

  Now you’ve done it! whispered a panicked little voice in the back of her brain. He’s seen you with another man’s hands on you! You’re in trouble now—so much trouble!

  She tried desperately to drop Fat Chick Wanted’s hand but if anything his grip had tightened as he looked up at Garron.

  “I said let…her…go.” The big Kindred’s voice was definitely a growl now and his eyes were glowing with rage. He seemed to have somehow grown twice as big as he normally was—which made him freaking enormous.

  “Y-you heard the man, RayJay.” The Piggly Wiggly clerk’s voice shook. “Let his lady friend go and step away.”

  No wonder she sounded scared—the enraged Kindred was terrifying to behold. Tess felt her own mouth grow dry with fear as well. A punishment, whispered the little voice in her head. Oh, you’re going to get such a punishment for this…

  “I…I…” Fat Chick Wanted’s hand at last unclasped from Tess’s and he took a faltering step back.

  Apparently this gesture of defeat wasn’t enough for Garron. He stepped forward and grabbed the drunk by the throat. Lifting him with one hand as easily as if he was a doll, he shook the big man until his remaining teeth clicked together in his head.

  “You dare…” he snarled, glaring up at the other man’s face which was now going purple. “You dare to touch my female? She’s mine!” He shook the man again, who made choked, strangling noises. “Mine! Understand? You don’t lay a fucking hand on her. Ever.”

  Tess backed away from the terrifying sight, her heart pounding, her stomach clenched into a sick fist. You’re mine, whispered Pierce’s voice inside her head. Mine, you little slut! Mine to punish, mine to fuck, and I’ll never let you go!

  “Stop it! Stop!” screamed the Piggly Wiggly clerk. “He don’t mean no harm—he’s just drunk! You’re gonna kill him!”

  Her words seemed to fire something in Tess. This scene was going to end badly if she didn’t do something to stop it. Shoving the panic she felt down into a dark corner of her brain, she ran forward and grabbed Garron’s arm.

  “Stop it! Let him down, Garron. Now!”

  At the touch of her fingers on his bicep, the big Kindred seemed to come back to himself somewhat. Some of the rage leaked from his eyes and his big hand—which had been clenched in a death grip around the drunk’s throat—suddenly released.

  With a gasping wheezing sound, Fat Chick Wanted went sprawling into the shelf beside him. Cans of potted meat and Vienna sausages came raining down on his balding head and bounced off his round beer belly. He put a hand to his throat where Tess could see fingerprints already forming.

  Garron’s fingerprints, she thought sickly. And even though the big Kindred had done the violence for her, she couldn’t help the cold, shaky feeling she got seeing the marks of his hand appearing on flesh. Couldn’t help remembering all the times she’d seen similar marks on her own body…

  “I’m so sorry,” she said to the clerk who was kneeling by the gasping drunk, fanning him with her apron.

  “Ya’ll better go.” The woman looked up at her briefly. “I’m not gonna call the law—I can understand why your man got upset. But this…this can’t happen again. I think you’d better go up the road a piece to the Wal-Mart if you want groceries.”

  “Um, of course. Of course we will.” Tess nodded at Garron who was standing there, breathing hard as though he’d just run a race. “Come on. We need to leave.”

  * * * * *

  Garron followed her without comment, stalking stiffly out of the human food store though every bone in his body was screaming that he had to stop—had to go back and finish the male who had been menacing his female. But Tess had told him to leave. We have to go. You can’t kill him. Can’t even challenge him to a Y’grin. That isn’t how they do things on Earth, he told himself. But the tension wouldn’t dissipate.

  Nor would the dr’gin. He had felt getting closer and closer to the surface all day and now it wouldn’t be quiet. It snarled and snapped inside him, coming forward, wanting to take the lead, to take over. Grimly, Garron pushed it down.

  They got into the ancient truck and he stabbed the key into the slot and gave it a vicious twist, causing the engine to roar in protest. Then he slammed the truck into gear and took off, gripping the steering device so tightly he could feel it creaking under his fingers.

  My female—he had his hands on her—tried to hurt her. She’s mine! Mine! The dr’gin roared inside him seconding his rage. He could feel it building to a head, coming to a breaking point.

  Breathe, he ordered himself. Remember your vow. Remember Nella. But the girl he had loved was gone now—a faceless shadow in his memory. All he could see—all he could think of—was Tess.

  It’s because of Tess that you have to calm down. Have to control your emotions! If you let yourself get too angry the dr’gin is going to come out. And then she’ll die. Stop it…just stop it!

  The rage was choking him—threatening to take over. And if he let it… Garron shook his head. He had to get control!

  Desperately, he rolled down the window and took a deep breath and then another. Pure mountain air filled his lungs and the scent of leaves and rocks and dirt and somewhere far off, running water, filled his senses. This world wasn’t all asphalt and fossil fuels and exhaust. There were good things here too—growing things. He could smell them and the scent calmed him.

  It was an uphill battle but little by little, his rage began to recede. At last when they finally reached the cabin, which was in a secluded spot on the side of a mountain, he was able to unclench his fingers from the steering device and start to relax.

  Only then, when they were parked and he had rolled up the window, did he finally turn to face Tess.

  “Tess,” he began and then realized that she was huddled against the passenger door—as far from him as she could get. Her fingers were gripping the door handle and her knuckles were white. Most tel