Black diamond heart, p.1
Black Diamond Heart, page 1
Black Diamond Heart
Raised in a clan of evil werecats who valued power over everything, Felix Kennedy didn’t know what love was. Not until he did the unthinkable to save a hurt female. Now his life is spiraling out of control as he fights both his inner demons and his destiny. Duty stands in his way when new players want to claim Memphis as their turf. He can’t let his clan fall prey to another sociopath like his father. And he can’t risk his mate’s safety by trying to love her.
Skye Langford came from nothing. Sold by her drug addicted mother to a Memphis mob boss, she’s never known love. Not until a brutal werecat did the unthinkable to ensure her freedom. Now she wants to get to know the only man who ever thought she was worthy of saving. If she can breach his diamond-hard heart, maybe she can prove that happily-ever-after really is possible for the bruised and broken.
Black Diamond Heart
FIRECATS
Book Five
By P. Jameson
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Black Diamond Heart
Copyright © 2020 by P. Jameson
First electronic publication: November 2020
United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, redistributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in any database, without prior written permission from the author, with the exception of brief quotations contained in critical reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this work may be scanned, uploaded, or otherwise distributed via the internet or any other means, including electronic or print without the author’s written permission.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Cover Design/Formatting: Agent X
Cover Photography: DepositPhotos
P. Jameson
www.pjamesonbooks.com
Other books by P. Jameson
Firecats (Alley Cats)
All is Bright (Prequel)
Series
Ouachita Mountain Shifters
Series
Dirt Track Dogs
Series
Dirt Track Dogs: The Second Lap
Series
Ozark Mountain Shifters
Series
Sci-fi Fantasy Romance
Starwalker (Amazon)
Breaking the Skin (Amazon)
***
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Prologue
A sharp sound split the smoky air. A whistling that made most people shiver in fear. It was the sound of death.
Felix Kennedy bent to pick up the cane that belonged to Bastian Marx. The Lord of Memphis. The greedy, filthy bastard who had been a stain upon the earth for far too long. The thing was hard, probably hickory with a steel core, and topped with a heavy polished metal skull. Two diamonds made up the eyes of the head.
Felix swung the cane back and forth in one hand as he watched Bastian attempting to crawl away.
Like a worm. The man deserved what he was about to get.
Felix whistled once more just to see the man squirm. As if the flames and the room filling with smoke wasn’t enough to do that on its own.
His father taught him the whistle. Taught him to use it to intimidate. Often times, it was the last sound an enemy heard. This was the last time Felix would ever use it.
Because tonight he was going to die.
He stood over Bastian, watching while the man struggled. The air was so thick with soot, it made his lungs burn. The hot smoke made his chest feel raw, and he gloried in the fact that Bastian felt the same pain.
“Please…” The man’s desperate words were another kind of glory. Felix soaked it up like a wet sponge.
“You would have killed them,” he snarled, referring to Bastian’s Dolls. The Dolls he used and abused. The ones Felix and his clan of werecat shifters saved. “Whether we took them out of here or not, you would’ve killed them all eventually.”
“Worthless…” Bastian choked. “They’re worthless.”
“You tortured Nyla. Sold Janet and Skye.” Skye. My Skye. My heart. “Like goods, you sold them.” Fury burned Felix just as hot as the actual flames around them.
“Just… business.”
Felix shook his head. “No. Not business. A mistake. The biggest fucking mistake of your life.”
Bastian’s eyes narrowed. “Why the fuck do you care?”
Felix lowered to squat beside him, looking into his red-rimmed eyes. “You are a danger to my mate.” His voice shot from his parched throat like a weapon, and Bastian felt the force of it. The timbre, the growl… was familiar. Animalistic, in a way Felix hadn’t been in so long. “You are a danger to my clan. My people.” He stood, towering over Bastian once again. “So you must die.”
Swiftly, he jerked the cane back and swung it forward, watching with satisfaction as the heavy skull top smashed Bastian’s kneecap. His scream split the air, louder than the roar of the flames. Another hit crippled his other leg and for good measure, Felix kept swinging until both knees were busted up beyond hope.
Breathing heavy with the effort, he dropped the cane and stumbled backward.
Bastian deserved to die. And tonight, he would. Right next to Felix in this burning inferno that once held the Dolls captive.
Why he didn’t just kill the crime boss outright, he didn’t know. Maybe it was because of the new inner beast that lived behind his sternum. The one that had fallen for Skye. Maybe it was because the beast he’d once been wanted to see the man suffer. It didn’t matter. He’d made sure Bastian would never walk out of here. The fire would do the rest.
Coughing, Felix went to his knees, soaking in the sound of the other man’s cries. Broken. Bastian was broken. The way he had broken others. The way Felix was broken as a child. Everything was coming full circle.
Justice was done. The clan was safe. The Dolls were safe. It was over.
Felix fell to his back as the flames encroached on them. There was no way out. Beams of burning wood fell from the ceiling. The place was so hot, he was nearly boiling.
Staring at the fire above him and the black smoke dancing overhead, he felt something he’d never experienced.
Peace.
The closest he’d ever come to it was watching Skye sleep. She was so beautiful.
Felix laughed, delirious, as Bastian finally went silent.
There was no getting out of this inferno even if he wanted to. And he didn’t want to.
Oh, he wished he could have spent a lifetime protecting his female. Would have made it his mission to see her safe. Now, he had to believe the clan would do it in his absence.
They were good. Most of them.
They’d care for her. Skittles and Ratchet and Monster would see to it. Yeah.
He closed his eyes, wanting to see her face instead of the red flames. Golden hair, so soft it almost hurt to touch. Blue eyes that searched him out time and time again. Full lips he never got to taste. Round cheeks. Lush cheeks. He remembered the feel of her skin when he’d touched them that once. Indescribable.
Mine.
For a few more moments she was his. Until he was finished, she was his. And he was going to love her until his last fucking breath simply because he could. Because now, he was free to do so.
Felix held the vision of his sweet Skye as he felt his clothes catch fire. Felt his skin begin to sizzle. Felt the pain of the fire on his insides where he never expected it. Didn’t people burn from the outside in?
Don’t think about it. Think about her.
Her, her, her.
She was safe. It was all that mattered. His life wasn’t worth shit if he couldn’t lose it saving her. Giving the world her. Because she was a gift.
Burning, burning. So much heat. So much pain.
Skye behind his eyelids, the red-hot blaze moving up his body. The scalding in his middle. It was a perfect storm of torment and pleasure.
Goodbye, horrid past. Goodbye, my brothers.
A final growl rumbled from his chest.
Goodbye, mine. “Be hap… py.”
The last thing Felix felt was the inferno consuming him.
The last thing he saw was the image of his mate’s face morphing into a soft smile.
The last thing he heard was a ferocious roar.
And then he was gone.
Chapter One
Stay inside, stay inside. Please stay inside.
Felix took lash after lash of his father’s leather strap as he silently begged his tiny inner beast to remain in his body. Don’t shift. Do not shift. Just take it.
He grunted as another slap of the tool hit the bare skin of his back and the circle of Fathers nodded their approval of his old man’s beating. They were making him strong, they said. Teaching him control. Making him tough so he could live the life he was born into.
But inside, his animal was doing what it was meant to do.
It had always been a part of him, ever since birth. He was part boy, part jaguar. For as long as he remembered, he could hear the beast talking, feel his animal instincts growing and evolving. He liked the werecat side of him. Was proud to know that when he was old enough, the animal would find its way out of his body in a first shift, and from then on
If he could only make it through his training.
His stomach heaved with another brutal hit, and this one drew blood. He knew by the cheer that filtered through his ringing ears and the wet squelch of the leather leaving his skin. Across the training circle he found the eyes of another young like himself. Black hair hung over a dark gaze full of shadows. Smokes was only a few years older than Felix but he’d been through the training already, and came away stronger for it. He was so hard now that it seemed like nothing could permeate him. Especially his feelings. He was dead behind those eyes and not for the first time, Felix wished he could be just like him.
Dead. At least a little.
No, his cat roared inside. Can’t die. Felix felt the thing press at his skin again, wanting out so it could protect him from the Fathers. The animal was supposed to be dormant until puberty unless it was needed to keep its human side safe from danger.
Now that his was awake and ready to protect, Pops had amped up the beatings to make his beast conform. What used to be a little—or a lot of—pain, had become a full-on struggle within Felix’s small body.
Before, being hit only hurt his skin. Being hit now, hurt his heart and soul in a way he didn’t understand and could hardly stomach. But he had to take it. He had to, or he would never be strong. Never be respected. He’d seen what happened to a werecat who failed to live up to Alley Cat standards. He wouldn’t become like Reaper, even if he had to die trying.
No. His cat clawed the word into his chest from the inside. Can’t die.
Pain. So much pain.
Pain in his skin and pain in his chest. Pain, liquid and hot, leaked from his eyes, silently. Luckily, it was silent. He remembered the last time his little brother, Gash, was beaten. He’d cried after only two lashes and Pops had repaid the embarrassment brutally.
“Stand up,” his Pops snarled now, and Felix realized he’d fallen to his knees.
He tried to obey but the cement floor of the warehouse was slick with blood and he slipped, landing hard on his elbow. More pain shot up his arm and he clamped his lips on a cry, feeling grateful when it only came out as a whimper. Inside, his cat echoed the same sound as it continued to push at his skin, wanting out.
“Get up,” another of the males brutally growled.
Mama! Felix’s mind cried out even as his lips stayed sealed. Mama Kitty was here somewhere. Maybe this time, she could help him somehow. Please, please. He wouldn’t last much longer. His cat would emerge and—
“I said…” Heavy boots thundered against the hard floor, coming closer as Felix struggled to find his footing. “… fucking get up.” The rest of the demand was shut out when a boot connected with Felix’s ribs, sending his animal into a frenzy as pain ricocheted through his body. A strangled cry escaped his throat, followed by a vicious hiss.
No, no, no. Stay inside. Please, dear god—
But the hiss wasn’t his own.
The kicking stopped and the male backed away. It seemed like the entire room froze. Felix blinked through his tears, trying to find the source of the interruption, and his father whistled, a low, eerie sound that could only mean someone was about to be in a lot of trouble. Dread like a boulder settled in the pit of Felix’s stomach, and he silently prayed it wasn’t who he thought it was.
Please don’t be brother.
But his animal already knew it was Gash who hissed at the males so much older than him. Gash who he would find when he scrambled back to his feet. Gash whose much too young beast had shifted to try and protect Felix from the beating.
“Well, well. What the fuck do we have here?” his father rumbled. His voice sounded louder than thunder to Felix’s ears as he strolled closer to the hissing, growling fluff of spotted fur that Gash had transformed into.
No, little brother. Felix knew the horror that was coming next.
Father knelt down, getting close to the little jag-lion. He was deceptively slow as he moved. Almost gentle. But the fury was coming, no doubt about it. Gash made the mistake of shifting. There was nothing anyone could do to stop what was coming next.
Felix swallowed back his horror as his father grabbed the kitten by the scruff and yanked him forward.
Your brother, your responsibility. Mama Kitty’s words echoed through his mind, as they did so many times when Gash got in trouble. She wasn’t their real mother. That female left before he ever knew her. Mama was all he knew, and Felix listened to her. My brother, my responsibility. It was his job to look out for Gash. To protect him. Make him stronger.
But there was no way to stop what Pops was going to do.
New tears streamed down Felix’s cheeks as he prepared to witness what he’d already seen too many times. He would be forced to stand still and listen to the cries as his father forced Gash’s cat back into its human form.
Felix felt heat in the center of his chest. It grew and grew with every one of his brother’s cries, every snarl from his father’s lips. Every cheer from the older males who took up space in the training room. It grew until it was a burning ball in his middle, as if it would burst from his chest just like his little animal could. He pressed a palm to his sternum, feeling the heat that radiated from him.
What was happening?
He opened his mouth and his breath left it like a flame. Your brother, your responsibility, his inner beast growled. But this time it didn’t sound like a kitten. It was older and powerful and pressing its way out whether he wanted it to or not.
Oh, no. No, please.
The beast didn’t listen to him this time. Instead, it roared inside him, and suddenly his body was contorting in a shift. While his skin transformed, the newly sprouted fur caught fire until his entire surface was covered in flames. Fire ringed his feline face in a flickering mane that somehow didn’t burn him.
His father turned, then the others, their eyes narrowing with something Felix had never seen before.
Fear.
Felix tried to back away, but the beast had full control.
Firecat.
He was a Firecat.
The scene around him swirled until everything was a blur. The Fathers, Gash, the sheet metal walls.
Firecat… Firecat…
Something wasn’t right. None of this was real. The training, Gash shifting, the horror that came afterward. It had happened, but it wasn’t happening now.
It was the Firecat that made him realize he was dreaming an awful memory. Because that day long ago when Gash shifted to protect him, Felix didn’t have a Firecat to come to their rescue. No, he’d stood there helpless, as his brother was brutalized.
Firecat… Firecat…
Felix came awake on a gasp, his eyes going wide to scan his surroundings for danger. The only sounds greeting him were the beep beep beep of hospital machines. He followed the tubes and cords sprouting from them until he saw they ended at this arm.
“Shit.” His voice wasn’t normal. It was raspy and thin. How long had he been out? And why the fuck was he in a hospital and not the Alley Cat warehouse he called home?
My brother, my responsibility. Gash.
Felix looked around, but quickly realized his brother wasn’t in danger. No, the asshole had left the clan years ago and joined a group of werecats in the Ouachita Mountains. In a way, he was responsible for Felix’s current state… which was…
Which was?
He closed his eyes to keep the room from spinning. Focus, asshole. The last thing he remembered was the raid on Bastian’s mansion. Taking that bastard down was supposed to be his last big fuck-you. It was supposed to save his clan, and most of all… his mate.
Skye.
Sweet, fucking Skye who had fully broken him. The woman he said goodbye to so he could die taking down her former captor. The evil man who used her and hurt her for his own gain.
He’s dead, a voice inside him said. It belonged to the new beast that emerged when Felix decided to give his life to save the others that night… yes, more memories were emerging. Little by little, the blank spots in his mind were filling in.
