Rebirth - Book 1 Rogues Shifter Series

by Gayle Parness

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Around noon, Carly arrived with homemade fried chicken, mashed potatoes, string beans, corn, and biscuits. We were in culinary heaven. This time she didn’t stay more than thirty minutes and she didn’t bring Samson.

  Ethan and I ate lightly, planning to work out. We sparred for an hour and Ethan took it easy on me. After that we went for a run and I set a pace he could match without too much trouble. After showering, we watched the old horror movie, “The Wolf Man” and laughed our asses off. We attacked Carly’s chicken one more time, managing to devour every delicious scrap. By the time Sinc arrived with Kyle, we were ready for whatever Rob or Garrett threw at us.

  Rob walked in around six, his face sober. “Garrett is meeting with some of his werewolf allies. The Western Pack Council reported some flak about what happened last night. He’ll try to join us as soon as he can.”

  “His cousin Aaron?” Rob nodded. “Is his pack like the werewolves we met last night?” I cringed to think all wolf packs were as violent as that one.

  “Werewolves are as different as any group. Those three you met were from the Pine Ridge Pack. That pack and the Brownlow Pack are causing all kinds of problems for shifters in our area. Both pack lands are located near Gasquet, a town not far from here. There’s always tension between the races, but these particular packs are out for shifter blood. They feel we don’t show them the proper respect. In other words, we don’t pay them off or send them our young women or treat them like they’re the lords of the manor.

  “Garrett’s cousin Aaron is the pack leader of the Greenway Pack from southern Oregon. Garrett also has close ties to Tony, the pack leader of the Danielson Pack from the Sacramento area. Those two alphas help us out when we need them. We’ve reciprocated a few times, too. Most shifters may not be as strong, but rogue wolves tend to rely only on their strength to win a fight. They don’t use their most important weapon like we’ve been trained to do.” He tapped his forehead. “We can outsmart most of them before a fight even starts.”

  Rob’s cell phone rang, so he excused himself and walked outside to take the call privately. We could still hear Rob’s side of the conversation. Perfect privacy was pretty much non-existent for a group of supernaturals, unless you put some real distance between you.

  “Hey Aaron, what’s up? He should have been there an hour ago … no I watched him get in the car and drive off ... I really have no idea … I think we have to … Okay, we’ll work on that from this end. Call you in thirty.” He shut down his phone and turned to us, frowning. “Garrett never made it to the meeting. We’re tracking him from his start-off point, so get your stuff together. We’re leaving in five.”

  I ran into the bedroom and threw on loose sweats, thinking Rob might want me to shift to track Garrett. The shirt Garrett had dressed me in was in my top drawer, so I pulled it out and buried my nose in it, stuffing it in my backpack along with two water bottles. Ethan knocked and opened the door.

  He must have seen the fear painted into my expression. “We’ll find him. He’s a big bad vampire. He’ll be fine. Top of the food chain, remember?” I nodded and managed a grateful half-smile.

  Ethan and I piled into Rob’s SUV while Kyle and Sinc followed in Sinc’s convertible. We drove to a lovely home set back from the road, nestled among maple trees and wildflower gardens. This was Garrett’s house. This was where he spent his days, resting, and his nights when he wasn’t with us. As we headed off from there, Rob told me the property had been owned by Garrett’s shifter family and that he’d had this house built on it over one hundred years ago.

  We drove the road he would have taken to Aaron’s meeting. While Rob and Ethan kept their gazes focused on the sides of the road, looking for clues, I reached down and tapped into the lines, stretching my mental fingers in an attempt to touch his mind, unique and now intimately familiar. As we passed a narrow turnoff, I felt a distant twitch, so I directed Rob to follow that road, telling him to please trust my instincts. He didn’t hesitate. We found the Saab on a narrow side road almost hidden from the secondary road by thick brush.

  I jumped out of Rob’s SUV while it was coming to a stop and ran to the car while the team went into action. Rob immediately got on the phone to alert Aaron that we’d found Garrett’s car. Sinc searched her phone’s database for nearby security cameras that may have caught something on video. Ethan was working with Kyle, pulling weapons out of two duffel bags that had been thrown into the trunk.

  I opened the driver’s side door and saw blood on the seat and the steering wheel, not a lot, but enough to scare the crap out of me. I stumbled to the other side of the car and got into the passenger’s seat, sucking in a few short breaths. The tang of Garrett’s blood was sharp, but other scents were mixed with his, disturbing scents—wolves and maybe something else. Yes, definitely something else.

  A warmth from using the ley lines was evident, and the smell of magic was strong, although it had a sour, spoiled scent. Most disturbing was the scent of burned flesh. Bile rose in my throat and I jumped out of the car in a hurry.

  Rob poked his head in the window to look around then turned to me with a questioning glance as I leaned back against the hood. "I smelled wolf, burned skin, Garrett's blood, and ley line magic. Also something else I couldn’t identify.” Shuddering, I turned to Rob. “If they wanted to kill him, how would they do it?” In my heart I felt that if he were truly dead, I would somehow know it.

  Rob walked around the car to stand next to me. “Beheading is the surest way. The sun would take a couple of hours to kill him because he’s over 200 years old. Fire is a sure but horrible death.

  “I smell some kind of metal.”

  “Silver is used to restrain vampires, weres and shifters. It burns our skin and can poison our blood, but even a silver bullet to the brain wouldn't kill him, unless he was in a horribly weakened state. A wooden stake through the heart is a Hollywood myth. Their hearts no longer beat and the wood has no effect. Neither does holy water. Vampires have souls just like the rest of us. Tell me what else you smell.”

  “The werewolves were like the ones who attacked us before. They smelled like they never washed, and that other scent reminded me of the ley lines, only not really. Their magic smelled rotten.”

  “A black witch or a sorcerer, probably using blood magic.” His shoulders slumped as he sighed.

  I reached out and touched his hand, whispering, “I know he’s still alive, I can tell.” He looked up quickly and after a few seconds, nodded.

  “Are you connected to each other?” Rob sounded hopeful.

  “Sometimes we are. I'm learning to use the lines. I’m going to find him.” I walked away and mumbled, more to myself than Rob. “Those shits are all going to pay.”

  I heard a car drive up and turned to see three people get out. The driver, Aaron, looked a lot like his cousin with the same lovely eyes and warm smile. His body was stockier and more muscular and he was probably an inch or two taller, putting him closer to Rob’s height. He was dressed casually in jeans, sneakers, and a tee shirt. Sandy blond hair poked out of his baseball cap with a stray lock blowing over his forehead in the steady breeze. Rob only introduced him to Ethan and me, since Kyle and Sinc had worked with him in the past. He held out his hand and said, “We’ll find him. I’m always bailing Garrett out of crazy messes.” He chuckled and I managed to smile, appreciating his attempt to cheer us up.

  To his right stood a taller, dark-skinned man, his muscles bulging unnaturally—maybe the result of lifting heavy weights for many years. His dark eyes glared at us, his mouth turned down in a frown. Aaron introduced him as Franklin, his beta or second in the pack, and explained that Garrett had saved Franklin’s life and the lives of his entire family long ago. Franklin was extremely protective of “young Garrett” and had insisted on coming along.

  The last wolf was a petite woman, slim yet curvy, with thick dark red hair falling past her shoulders. Her green eyes, lighter than mine, looked me over as
she strolled past us to put a possessive arm around Aaron’s waist. He introduced her as his mate, Catherine. She smiled and nodded like a queen greeting her subjects.

  I told them what I’d come up with, omitting my ability to pull up magic. Sinc opened her laptop, showing us a video from a gas station security camera of a green van following closely behind Garrett’s car, and also some data tracking Garrett’s cell phone signal north of us. Ethan and Rob had already discussed my changing to cheetah to track more efficiently, so I transitioned and headed off ahead of everyone. They’d wanted to send Ethan or Kyle with me but I’d convinced them that they would just slow me down. I’d mark the trail with scratches so they could follow as quickly as possible.

  My keen eyesight allowed me to make out the tire tracks way ahead of my position, so I was able to race down the path ahead of the breeze. I kept to the side road for about two miles until I came to a small clearing. The van was parked here, leafy tree branches piled on top of it in a hasty attempt at camouflage. The smell of unwashed werewolf was overpowering, but I could also smell Garrett and the other magic user. I crept forward hesitantly. The van was empty and more of Garrett’s blood was pooled in the back where the seats had been removed. The odor of burned flesh was prevalent and I remembered what Rob had said about the effects of being restrained with silver.

  I paced and tried to decide what to do. I could wait for the others, who were still a distance away, or head off on my own. I sensed that I was near him and didn’t know how weak he was or if he could feel my presence at all. My wall was up for protection, but I could still feel the energy of the lines buzzing through my body. I toyed with the idea of reaching out to him mentally.

  I was terribly afraid. Afraid of being overpowered by the lines if I tried to use them untrained. Afraid of what the violent weres who’d kidnapped Garrett had done to him or may do to me if they caught me. Mostly I was afraid that I might fail him when he needed me. I decided I wouldn’t wait.

  I sat on the ground and forced myself to recall my song, beginning to breathe in and out the way Garrett had taught me. I thinned out my mental wall rather than tearing it down, allowing only the smallest chink to appear near my heart. With a surge of will, I opened myself to more of the magic than I ever had before, having reasoned it out that larger amounts of power would be necessary. It cut into me sharply at first, like several small daggers, causing me to hiss in pain, but as I slowly regained my balance, the pain eased up. My senses extended out like a web, tendrils spreading, searching for Garrett’s unique mind.

  Suddenly he was there, connected to me so strongly I could feel his intense agony. I worried that it would be impossible for me to communicate with him since I was in cheetah form and he wasn’t, but I tried anyway, sending him a picture of the team and our wolf allies coming to get him. “Where?” When I felt his answer I was overwhelmed with relief.

  The message “Old park lodge basement,” was accompanied by a picture of a beat-up sign welcoming visitors to Redwood State Park. “Blood magic. Dark witch. Can’t use lines.” He was cut off abruptly and I couldn’t get through to him again.

  Blood magic. A dark witch. He needed me now. I scratched a mark on a tree, crouched down and followed the tracks left by his captors.