Mortal Temptations Read Online Free PDF Page A

refused to lower them. If he was anything like Nico and Andreas, his energy would knock her over.
    “Where is the ostracon?” He spoke in a thin voice, almost hissing, nothing like Nico’s warm baritone or Andreas’s gravelly growl.
    “The one from the museum in Cairo?” she asked as though unconcerned. “I’m afraid I sold it, but I can take your name in case I come across another one—”
    How he got to her so fast, she never knew. One moment he was by the jewelry display, the next he had lifted her high and slammed her back onto the counter. His breath was foul, his slits of eyes terrifying.
    “Retrieve it. Destroy it.”
    “Destroy it?” she gasped. “An artifact? I don’t think so.”
    “You will.” He shook her, and her head jounced painfully against the glass. “You must not interfere.”
    “Interfere with what?”
    “She will punish you. Her wrath can reach across centuries.”
    “Who is she ?”
    Her heart pounded in fear. She couldn’t reach the phone or the alarm button behind the cash register. This man was strong enough to kill her with his bare hands, and there was nothing she could do about it.
    A low growl rumbled through the store. The sound went on and on, building in intensity, like a wild beast barely containing itself. In the back, her two cats started to howl.
    Something blurred on her right, and the blond man dropped Patricia as a huge wild cat barreled at him. Patricia screamed and dove aside as the man and cat tumbled across the counter, everything left on it slamming to the floor in a heartbreaking crash.
    Patricia got to her feet, wondering what the hell to do. Call the police? Animal control? Hose the cat down with the fire extinguisher? But the big cat had just saved her life, and she knew it. Police would shoot the beautiful thing dead or haul it away God knew where.
    Red Kitty and Isis came bounding out of the back room, still howling. They danced around the fight, watching avidly, for all the world like they were cheering the big cat on.
    The blond man managed to roll away from the cat. His clothes were in tatters, his shredded skin bloody. He hissed like a snake, then suddenly he became a thin column of smoke and disappeared altogether.
    Patricia blinked in shock. But she didn’t have much time to relax, because the wild cat halted in front of her, fixing his gaze on her from three paces away.
    He was a snow leopard. His fur was white with mottled black spots, his eyes ice blue. His body was heavy, shoulders and haunches rippling with muscle, paws sporting razor-sharp claws.
    “Nice kitty,” Patricia tried.
    Isis stalked around her and walked right underneath the leopard, rubbing her head against him as she went. The leopard glanced once at the cat, then back at Patricia. They faced off, woman to leopard, then the leopard yawned. His huge red mouth was lined with pointed teeth, his lips peeling back to reveal every one of them.
    The leopard lay on her carpet with a whuff of breath. Isis butted his shoulder, and he butted her gently back before starting to groom his blood-smeared paws.
    “Don’t be afraid, Patricia.”
    Patricia bit back a shriek as Nico’s black wings came around her. “Damn it. Don’t you use doors like the rest of us?”
    “Are you all right?”
    “I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but there’s a leopard licking its toes three feet in front of me.”
    Nico skimmed his warm lips over her ear, and she started to calm in spite of everything. “I asked him to come,” he murmured. “We sensed the danger.”
    The leopard gazed up at her with cool blue eyes, and Patricia realized in shock where she’d seen that look before.
    “He’s Andreas.”
    Nico’s hot breath touched her neck. “It is. You’re the only human I’ve met who’s been able to make the connection.”
    Patricia let a tiny part of her psi ability touch the leopard and saw the same purple-hued aura she’d seen at the club.
    “He’s a . . .” She groped for words.