Talon/Xavier (Bayou Heat) Read Free Page A

sensing he wasn’t going to see his bed anytime soon. “What did I miss?”
    Raphael turned to meet his worried gaze. “You were already on the hunt when Jean-Baptiste returned with the female voodoun.”
    Talon nodded. He’d known the male Healer had gone to fetch the human female, but he’d been headed out of the Wildlands before Jean-Baptiste returned.
    “Did she help Ashe?”
    “I believe so.”
    “Thank the goddess,” Talon breathed, relief shuddering through him.
    Raphael’s mate carried the future of the Pantera within her fragile womb. The knowledge that they’d allowed their enemies close enough to put her and the babe in danger laid heavily on all of them.
    “Don’t give thanks yet,” Raphael warned.
    “Why?”
    The leader of the Suits scrubbed his hands over his face. Talon wondered when he’d last slept.
    Probably not since Ashe had been attacked and infected with some potent toxin.
    “I need to start at the beginning,” Raphael growled.
    “Here.” Talon pulled out his silver flask filled with Don Julio tequila and tossed it toward his friend. “Tell me.”
    Raphael took a drink, grimacing as the expensive tequila slid down his throat. “As I said, Jean-Baptiste brought Isi to the Wildlands.” Another grimace. “Much against her will.”
    Talon arched a brow. “She’s prejudiced against the Pantera?”
    “No. For some reason the Wildlands make her ill.”
    The Wildlands making someone ill? That was weird.
    “I’ve never heard of that before,” Talon said. “Of course, I don’t have enough interest in humans to know what makes them sick.”
    “None of us have.”
    Talon shrugged. He didn’t really care if she was sick or not. Nothing mattered but Ashe and the baby.
    “Did she have a potion for Ashe?”
    Raphael turned to glance at the heavy layers of moss that kept them hidden from the rest of the swamp, sending a chill of fear down Talon’s spine.
    Was he afraid someone was trying to spy on them?
    Were there more traitors?
    Shit.
    “Actually her mere presence seems to give Ashe strength,” he at last said, his voice low.
    Okay. That seemed a good thing.
    So why wasn’t Raphael happier?
    “I don’t understand,” Talon admitted.
    Raphael returned to his pacing. “The Healers suspect that the toxin in Ashe’s blood is targeted to attack the babe. It’s taking every ounce of her strength to protect her child.”
    “That makes sense,” Talon said. He’d already heard the poison was manifesting itself like a possession, with an intelligent design to destroy the baby. “What does the female have to do with it?”
    “Having her near appears to…” Raphael searched for the word to describe the female’s effect on his mate. “Steady Ashe.”
    “Steady?”
    “It’s almost as if she gives Ashe more strength.”
    Talon frowned. He didn’t doubt the power of the voodoun. The spiritual world was a powerful force. But he’d always thought they needed potions and spells and rituals to weave their magic.
    “She helps by being in the same room?” he demanded.
    “She helps just being in the Wildlands.”
    Talon shook his head. He didn’t like the thought that the female could somehow tamper with Ashe by her mere presence.
    It was one thing to stir up a potion. Or even do one of those mysterious rituals they seemed to love.
    But this…it was strange.
    And he didn’t trust strange.
    “Do the Healers know why?”
    Raphael’s expression tightened, his eyes glowing gold with the power of his cat. “They’re divided.”
    “Why do I sense I’m not going to like this?”
    “Because you won’t,” Raphael said bluntly, halting his pacing to meet Talon’s wary gaze. “Isi is Ashe’s sister.”
    Talon blinked, his brain struggling to process the words.
    “Sister?”
    “Her twin sister.”
    Twin sister. God almighty.
    “I thought you said Ashe’s only relative was a drunkard mother,” Talon said.
    “That’s what Ashe had always been told.”
    Talon narrowed his