by L. A. Banks
Hunter had said that he and Shogun had scented Lady Jung Suk on the scene, and it was true she’d never been caught. It made sense that it would be her. But trying to catch a being as old and crafty as that Were Leopard was, in Sasha’s opinion, futile. It would take longer than the two weeks they had, that was for sure. And if the Vampires were behind all this, it was clear that everything had been strategically made to look like a wolf attack. Not to mention, the Vamps had made sure humans and the military got involved so they’d screw up any tracking ability the wolf Federations had on the ground.
Sasha rubbed her chin, deep in thought. But there was more than one way to skin a cat. This old chick now had a body, and she had to have gotten that from somewhere. So the only way to out her would be to backtrack to missing persons—and she was pretty sure that Lady Jung Suk was vain enough to want a young, nubile body, not one from some old homeless hag who might not be missed. But given all the focus on deaths in the area, and the mysterious military activities in the bayou, it would be days before the missing girl showed up in the news, if she made it to the headlines at all.
It was all a giant jigsaw puzzle in her brain. The right approach to solving this new crisis in New Orleans was becoming clearer as she sat waiting for release. The entity that had snatched some young girl to get a body would no doubt lead her to whoever had an agenda, just as the movement of the half-eaten civilians from the bayou floor to an alley in town had to be done by someone other than the feeding Were. Generally when demon-infected Weres went in for a kill, there was plenty of blood, and they normally didn’t pick up entire carcasses to deposit by a Dumpster. They just weren’t that environmentally concerned.
An absence of blood at the original abduction scenes would tell her something, too—just as when the missing person had gone missing would bear critical clues. Hopefully the human authorities hadn’t screwed up that evidence trail as well.
One thing was for sure: putting Lady Jung Suk into a body required two elements. First, a body; second, someone who had a soul that could deliver a serious spell. A little digging in the sorcery community might shed light on the process, which would give her more direction about where to look for additional evidence. Plus, someone had fed Lady Jung Suk at least two people, if there was no blood at the abduction scenes for the first two civilian victims.
The door opened and Sasha’s attention snapped toward it. She and her team stood. Colonel Madison entered, seeming much worse for the wear. General Westford and Doc had dour expressions but didn’t seem cowed in the least.
“Captain,” Colonel Madison said. “Your team is free to go, but you have been reassigned to the mission as the unit expert.”
The last place she wanted to be was on a military flight to New Orleans seated across from Colonel Madison. Not only was the mode of transportation slow, but she’d only been able to send Hunter a quick text that said: I’m OK, will talk later. That would go over big after all these hours.
The only upside was that Madison was going to take her to the scene of the military killings in the bayou. If there was any shred of evidence left, she could also get her team involved in doing some of the analysis. They’d grumbled about being left behind in Denver but felt a little better when she’d told them that they’d be in the labs on this one and still a part of the mission.
Sasha just stared out of the window, wishing she could time-jump as well as she could shadow-jump.
Hunter just stared at his cell phone and stood. If Sasha had been abducted by the human military, they would have stripped her of her cell phone. Anyone could have answered his texts by simply hitting REPLY and texting him back. Until he had actual voice confirmation, as far as he was concerned, she was in mortal jeopardy.
“What are you going to do, brother?” Shogun slowly rose from his seat with Sir Rodney.
Hunter placed his palm over his amulet. “She is not in the shadow lands. I cannot sense her on the ground.”
“Then maybe they’ve taken her down into that place . . . that fortress,” Sir Rodney said with a frown.
“NORAD,” Hunter muttered, looking out the window.
“Brother, promise me you will not try to go into a military citadel like that alone,” Shogun warned. “If she sent you a text, send her another requesting voice confirmation that she is all right. Do that before you act.”
He knew it was insane before he even did it, but if they had harmed her, it was all over. Hunter came out of the shadows inside Sasha’s apartment and looked around in disbelief. There had been a struggle of this magnitude? Madison’s scent was there? He’d done this?
Gone in an instant, Hunter emerged in a long corridor beneath the ground and then followed his nose, slipping past NORAD guards and then dead-ending in a jail cell.
They’d caged her? They had caged his woman?
Incredulous, he slipped into another shadow, now on the hunt and losing more of his human as his wolf-self took over. He could feel the electricity of Sasha’s outrage. An argument had taken place on the other side of the bars. Doc’s scent was there, Westford’s, and Madison’s.
A low growl rumbled in Hunter’s throat as he followed Sasha’s scent, and then tracked her to the airfield. Turning in circles, he was claimed by frustration. Hunter briefly closed his eyes and held his amulet in his fist.
“Tell me where you are, baby . . . I won’t let them do this to you. I’ll find you.”
It was good to be back on the ground and back on the move, but the hair at the nape of her neck was standing up. Sasha pulled out her cell phone as Colonel Madison drove.
“What are you doing, Captain?”
She glanced at him. “Making sure that my on-the-ground contact is aware of—”
“Put it away, Captain,” he said, almost swerving the vehicle into another lane. “This is a classified mission. Only those with top military clearance are to be communicated with. Do you read me, Captain?”
“Yes, sir, but—”
“No buts, Captain. That is a direct order!”
“Yes, sir.” Sasha sat back in her seat, frustration making her ears ring. This guy hadn’t learned yet.
The moment he stopped the vehicle, she was out. She had to get away from him and view the scene, lest she turn around and lose her career over rank insubordination. But the stench of rotting flesh and blood mixed with the faint hint of sulfur ratcheted her fury down a notch. It was awful.
The humid air held the reek of broken bowels, old blood, and carnage. Human authorities were combing every inch of the area. She strode quickly to keep ahead of Colonel Madison, who was heading for the yellow caution tape line. That’s when she saw them . . . the dogs.
Initially she’d been downwind from them, but a change in direction caused immediate canine panic. Forensics German shepherds, bloodhounds, and black search Labradors turned toward her and went nuts. Straining at their leads, the dogs instantly bonded against a perceived wolf threat and became a hunting pack, dragging their human masters along in an attack frenzy until their leashes popped. Military personnel lowered weapons in her direction, only hesitating to avoid shooting the colonel behind her. Fear was resident in every pair of eyes that stared at her, and now she’d probably have to show them some shadow-disappearing shit that was really gonna freak them out.
The moment Sasha’s feet hit the ground, he felt her in his soul. Hunter moved through the shadow lands at full velocity, his human shedding and giving way to his wolf. Panic echoed from her spirit into his; she was under attack! He bounded out of the shadows, jaws open to land between her and baying hounds.
They’d set dogs upon his mate—his wife! Insanity blurred his vision. Her voice was a bleating refrain in the distance. He heard her shout no, saw the dogs skid to a stop as he lunged to take a shepherd down. In the back of his mind there was a burst of machine-gun fire . . . and her wolf emerged to make sure that a dog was out of harm’s way?
The small animal’s yelp confused him. Sasha hadn’t killed it, but had allowe
d the dog to scurry to safety. Why? He didn’t understand her fighting strategy. His gorgeous silver wolf had sailed over the dogs and flattened him on the ground—that didn’t make sense. In the next moment she was in her human form, naked and trying to grasp the thick fur at his neck. Guns were drawn, Madison was on the ground. He didn’t understand and shifted back into his human form to shove Sasha behind him, eyes glowing.
“Hold your fire!” a soldier yelled over the din of agitated but frightened dogs. “You’ll hit the colonel—snipers on your mark!”
“No, stand down! Stand down!” Sasha shouted. “Hold your fire!”
Colonel Madison got up slowly and backed away from Hunter and Sasha. She turned quickly as she watched marksmen get in position to deliver single shots to take her and Hunter out.
“It was the dogs, sir!” Sasha yelled quickly, as Hunter slowly got up. “Tell them to put down their weapons and hold their fire. As long as you’re threatening me, he will use deadly force! Look at me, I’m unarmed!”
“Stand down,” Colonel Madison said slowly, his tone unsure and grudging as he brushed himself off. His eyes never left Hunter’s.
Sasha held Hunter’s arm. “Call off the dogs,” she yelled to the surrounding soldiers, who stood mesmerized, clutching their weapons. “We are the property of the U.S. government, the ultimate fighting machines created and designed to combat this enemy threat. We are not the enemy!”
“We, hell . . .” Hunter muttered.
Hunter spit on the ground, his furious gaze following Colonel Madison. When none of the soldiers moved he turned and growled at the pack of dogs; they yelped and scurried back toward their masters.
“She said to call the animals off!” Hunter shouted, eyes blazing. He lolled his neck and then sent an angry gaze back toward Colonel Madison. “You abducted her from her apartment and put her in a cage!”
“No—”
“I smelled him there, Sasha! Do not protect this bastard any longer!”
“Okay, he was there, but it was all a big misunderstanding. True, he trashed my apartment and there was a little dispute at the base,” Sasha said quickly, coming between Hunter and Madison with her eye constantly on the snipers’ positions. She flat-palmed Hunter’s bare chest. “But, baby, can we talk about all of this after we both put on some clothes?”
CHAPTER 12
“Risky . . . unorthodox,” Sasha said, teasing Hunter as they walked through the burned-out Bayou House, “but effective. Done with a certain theatrical flair.” She didn’t want to razz the man too badly, but he had to know that the stunt he’d just pulled could have cost him his life. Maybe it was sheer relief that was now making her giddy.
“I said I was sorry,” he rumbled in a sullen tone, walking past her.
“Hey,” she replied, putting both hands up in front of her chest and trying hard not to laugh. “It got a response, so who’s mad?”
“I thought they were after you,” he said, growing more peevish. “It was an honest mistake.”
Sasha jogged to catch up to Hunter, and she held his arm for a second. “Battlefield humor, I’m sorry. You could have been shot—a single shell to the head.” She touched his face and gentled her tone. “Those boys out there are quick and accurate, Hunter. The only reason we’re both still standing is because Madison was in the way and they’d never seen anything like that before. That gave us maybe five seconds.”
“I thought . . .”
“I know. That was my fault—I couldn’t get in touch with you, though. When I got back and saw my apartment, it was only minutes before MPs came and said that the brass back at the base wanted to have a word with me.” She blew out a hard breath. “And yeah, it was fucked up, but I wasn’t in mortal danger . . . so from here on out, you’ve gotta trust me, okay? Our human politics are as messy as supernatural politics—but I’m not a damsel in distress. I’m not going to stand around and let them put me in front of a firing squad or something equally archaic, that I promise you.”
When he sent his gaze out of one of the shattered windows, she leaned in and kissed his cheek. “It was kinda sweet, really . . . it’s not often that a girl who carries a sidearm gets to have somebody go Old World for her, ya know.”
He cut her a glare and she smiled.
“I’m not teasing you or being sarcastic. I meant that.”
“I will trust you in the future, but it’s hard not to follow my instincts around you.” Hunter sent his gaze toward the window again. “They’re just standing there, staring at the building. What do they want? The colonel said that we could collect our clothes and dress, and could come in here to see if we could gain intel from any scent trail that might be lingering.”
“They’re probably trying to decide whether to hit the building with a rocket-propelled grenade or call in a frickin’ missile air strike or something,” she said, chuckling, but then held Hunter’s arm when he growled. “Just joking.” She shook her head. “It’s freaked-out human—that’s what you’re witnessing. First we were people in their minds . . . but you did a Houdini and came out of a shadow. Then, presto-chango, we transformed into wolves—always a good thing to get the human heart and adrenaline pumping. Not to mention you being a three-hundred-pounder on four legs that moved like black lightning and probably ruined every dog out there. Then we turned into naked people right in front of everybody, embarrassing, but I digress. However, the upside of that is, if the colonel had any questions about whose dick was bigger in a pissing contest . . . uh . . . I’d say he’s now been thoroughly briefed.”
Staring at Hunter’s profile, Sasha placed a finger to her lips with a wide smile behind it for a moment, watching a sly half smile finally come out of hiding on Hunter’s face. “The boys in uniform back there are just a little worse for the wear emotionally. Plus, don’t forget, this was the scene of a mauling, and whatever did it came out of this building. So, yeah, they’re watching the building really, really hard.”
She tugged Hunter’s arm so he’d follow her. “I wouldn’t stand too close to the windows right now while they’re jumpy.”
Although the building yielded nothing, the afternoon wasn’t a complete loss. Something remotely close to respect had been established now that Madison finally got to see with his own eyes, along with about fifty other specialized personnel, what had always been kept on a need-to-know basis. Reading it in a report was definitely a different experience from seeing it live. Another real plus was that Colonel Madison now saw her and Hunter as true experts and was giving some ground, allowing them to suss out any evidence leads and no longer barring them from crime scenes.
The only thing was that the man insisted on a private debrief in his Humvee, which meant she had to leave Hunter out there waiting for her with extremely jumpy soldiers giving him wide berth. This little impromptu meeting was burning valuable daylight, but if it got Madison to stop acting like an asshole, she’d endure it.
“I, uh, had a few questions, Captain,” Madison said nervously as they both climbed into the vehicle and shut the doors. He glanced at the two soldiers who stood not far off at the ready.
She glanced at Hunter and gave him a nod that it was all right.
“Sir?” she said, turning to the colonel.
“They’re personal in nature, some of my questions . . . off the record, just as one soldier to another.”
“Sure, sir,” Sasha said, relaxing, finally beginning to see the man behind the bluster.
“What does it feel like?”
“Sir?”
Colonel Madison chewed his bottom lip. “To be able to change into something that powerful at will.”
“Oh, the wolf thing,” she said with a weary sigh. “At first, it scared me—sorta like being a new driver and somebody sits you behind the wheel of a Porsche on the Autobahn. The first time I changed . . . man . . . I freaked out, sir.”
“Your partner—or contact—had to stand three feet at the shoulders . . .” Colonel Madison rubbed his palms down his face. “Jesus
H. Christ.”
“Yeah, well, Hunter is a little special, sir.”
Colonel Madison glanced out the window. “Are they all that huge? There’s more?”
“No, and yes. No, they aren’t all that huge—Hunter is a pack alpha, sir. Until there’s one who can take him, he rules North America. And yes, sir, there are a lot of them. Hundreds.”
“How did we survive, as humans?” Colonel Madison’s eyes were wide as he glanced from Sasha to Hunter, standing off in the distance. “They could have eaten us all by now, right?”
No,” she said, shaking her head, becoming annoyed. The brass were as bad as Congress; nobody read the full reports. “Normal Werewolves and Shadow Wolves, just like regular wolves, have a complete aversion to human flesh. Yeah, they’ll give cattle ranchers a run for their money, but they don’t go after human beings unless those wolves that attack are demon-infected.”
The colonel nodded, but she could tell by his stricken expression that her comment hadn’t made him feel better.
“And . . . along with demons, then, there’s Vampires, right?”
“Affirmative, sir.” Sasha gently touched his arm to steady him. “And there are Unicorns and Elves, Dragons, and pretty much everything else that you heard about as a child in so-called mythology and fairy tales.”
She watched sweat bead on the colonel’s brow. He nervously wiped at it with his forearm. She removed her hand after feeling dozens of questions brimming under his skin; some he’d ask her now, some would come out over time and a beer, if things ever got that relaxed between them. But it was nothing she hadn’t heard before. Hell, Winters had asked her if she-Shadows had litters of puppies versus one human-looking baby, and even a swift kick from Clarissa hadn’t dissuaded him.