by Bianca D'Arc
“Fast but not very maneuverable. If they had to follow me off road they wouldn’t have a prayer. Stealing that vehicle was a pure vanity play. Foolish,” Jesse scoffed.
“Stealing?” Maria repeated. “You think they stole that car?”
“You probably can’t see it, but there are small scratches on the door where they popped the lock. Careless.” Jesse shook his head as he moved the SUV out of the drive-thru lane. He parked behind a tree as if he were simply stopping to sort through the bags. A common enough task. He even busied his hands with some of the sandwiches in case anyone looked in their direction.
They sat watching as two men exited the shiny black sports car. One went into the office and came out a moment later, gesturing to the other. The men went unerringly to the room Maria and company had been in the night before. One faced outward, watching the surroundings while the other broke into the room.
“Those two are a joke,” Jesse said in a disgusted tone. “There’s got to be something else.” He began to scan the area again while the two men disappeared into the motel room.
Maria felt chills creep down her spine and turned her attention to the woods on either side of the motel. She extended her senses, hoping that whatever it was that let her know things from time to time would kick in and allow her to help in some small way.
She opened the window a crack, following her instincts and needing a bit of fresh air. Information began to flow on the breeze and she reached out blindly to grab Jesse’s arm.
“There are men in the woods. A lot of them,” she whispered.
“How can she know that?” Zach groused in a low voice from the back seat.
“She’s part dryad, kid.” Jesse didn’t look back as he answered, continuing to scan the woods. “The trees talk to her. Notice how she opened the window?”
“That’s not why,” Maria objected, not really sure why she was arguing the point. “I just wanted some fresh air.”
“Anything you say, sweetheart,” Jesse agreed in a tone that made her want to roll her eyes. He was humoring her. “What more can you tell me about the men in the woods?” Jesse’s tone turned serious again and she let it go, focusing instead on the matter at hand.
“They’re all on the other side of the road so far. Shadows. Men in black clothing. The metallic tang of weapons.” She shut her eyes to better focus on the impressions she received—from exactly where she didn’t know. “Oh, sweet Mother,” she shook as she encountered something in the woods that made her skin crawl.
Her eyes shot open as she disconnected from whatever it was that had nearly caught her snooping.
“What?” Jesse turned to her, concerned, his hand covering hers on his arm.
She’d clutched him so hard she felt the tension in his arm under her hand. She released him, fearing she’d hurt him with her nails, but he didn’t let her go far. He took her hand in both of his.
“There’s…uh…someone magical in the woods with those men. Someone…evil.” She tried not to think how ridiculous she sounded. “They don’t like him.”
“Who doesn’t like him? His men?” Jesse asked.
“Them too,” she agreed. “But whatever is telling me about this stuff. It doesn’t like him.”
“The forest then,” Jesse said confidently. “He’s got to be pretty bad for the trees to dislike him.”
She shut her eyes and focused again, listening to the information that was there when she allowed herself to hear it. She stepped more carefully this time, wary of the malevolent presence in the woods. She could almost see…
“He’s hanging back, but he’s in authority over the rest of the men. They defer to him. They’re…afraid of him,” she whispered as she received the impressions. “He wears a suit and fancy shoes. The others are all in black fatigues and boots. He’s not armed, but he’s even more dangerous than the fighters.”
“Where is he?” Jesse asked. “Can you tell?”
“He’s on the left side of the motel, near the back. The men in black boots have surrounded the motel, but they’re waiting for something.” She opened her eyes, looking to the spot where she knew the man in question was hiding, but she couldn’t see anything out of place in the woods around the motel from this far away.
“They’re probably waiting for a report from the dirtbags who went inside,” Zach supplied from the back seat.
“Do you see anything?” Maria asked Jesse in a quiet voice.
“Moving shadows. Men in black fatigues, just like you said,” he replied, concentrating on his observations. Maria felt reassured. She wasn’t imagining things. “They’re good, but not good enough for me not to see them when they move positions.”
As she watched, the men who’d gone inside the motel room came out, holding a pillowcase that bulged. They’d taken something from the room, but she couldn’t imagine what. They’d only left trash behind. One of the men was on his cell phone. Maria shut her eyes again to concentrate on the information that was there if she really listened.
“The man in the suit in the woods is on the phone. He’s talking to the guy in front of the motel. He’s yelling at him and cursing,” she reported. Where she was getting this information from, she had no idea. She hoped she wasn’t making it up, but she didn’t think she was.
“That makes sense,” Zach whispered with a trace of humor in his voice. “The dude on the phone is wincing and looking kind of pale.”
“Suit man is not happy. He just threw his phone against a tree. It smashed. He’s stomping away, seething. He’s heading away from the motel. He’s going to a side road behind the motel. He left his car on the side of the road. It’s shiny. Silver. Sleek. It’s a cat. A Jaguar.” Maria opened her eyes, amazed at the detail of the information she was able to pick up. It had never been quite like this before.
“Figures,” Jesse said with a trace of humor. “Damn felines.”
Zach chuckled from the back seat. “Says the canine.”
“The team is pulling back,” Jesse reported, scanning the woods. Maria saw the two men who’d broken into the motel room get back into their car. The pillowcase went into the back seat of their stolen black sports car.
Jesse bit into one of the breakfast sandwiches, looking for all the world like a guy who’d just stopped for a snack. He handed one to Maria casually.
“Eat up,” he said with a friendly smile. “Just in case anybody’s looking. It also couldn’t hurt to feed the beast.” He grinned at her as her stomach growled again.
She leaned forward playfully and took a big bite of the sandwich in his hand, holding his gaze. She licked her lips and things went from playful to sinful in a heartbeat. She chewed, held captive by his gaze, starving for his touch.
“Jeez, guys. Get a room already,” Zach groused from behind them, startling Maria out of the dreamlike state she’d been in.
The teenager stuck his hand over the seat, right between Maria and Jesse to grab another of the bags that held food. He dumped it out on the back seat and began munching on whatever came to hand. Maria was surprised at how fast the kid could pack it away. Even more so than other teenage boys she’d been around.
Maria turned back to her study of the motel. The black sports car was gone. Closing her eyes, she knew the silver Jaguar was gone as well. The team of soldiers was almost gone. One paused—the last one out—to scratch something into a tree and drop something white on the ground, which he then kicked debris over hastily before running to catch up with his group. They too had left large black SUVs parked on that back road. They all piled into the vehicles and followed after the Jaguar at a less speedy pace.
“One of the soldiers left something,” Maria reported, opening her eyes. “Under the largest oak on the left side of the motel. He scratched a mark into the bark and kicked a note or something under the leaves at its base.”
Jesse didn’t say anything right away, though one of his eyebrows rose at her statement. He looked…intrigued.
Chapter Eight
; “It could be a trap, of course,” she stated the obvious.
“Hell, I was already thinking of trying to retrieve that smashed cell phone.” He rubbed one hand over his hair in an absent gesture. “We might be able to learn something from it, even if it’s a burn phone.”
“A what?” She’d never heard that term before.
“A prepaid, disposable phone, activated under an alias, probably today, and meant for short-term use,” Zach supplied between bites of his third breakfast sandwich. His words earned him a startled look from Maria and an expression on Jesse’s face that looked like he was impressed.
“Do you think it’s worth the risk?” Maria gestured with her eyes only toward the back seat. For her part, she was willing to take the risk, but did they dare put Zach in further danger?
“How far can you track the vehicles those guys left in?” Jesse asked her, making her tilt her head and think about it. She hadn’t even considered…
“Gimme a sec.” She closed her eyes and sent her thoughts outward to where that information waited.
She heard the sounds that painted pictures in her mind of three big, black SUVs following a silver Jaguar down a wooded lane. They went for miles down that road behind the motel before she caught up with them.
“All three big SUVs are still following the Jag. No stops. Nobody hopped out. Just driving at high speed. They’re coming up on a cross road.” She felt the car she was in start and begin to move, but she kept her eyes shut, focusing on the SUVs and the Jag. “They turned right, heading toward the highway. I can just barely see them now.” She scrunched up her face, straining to follow, but for some reason, she lost their trail a few minutes later. “I can’t see them anymore. They’re a long way away, though. If we make this fast, they’ll never make it back here in time to catch us.”
She opened her eyes to realize the vehicle she was in had stopped on a road she recognized only from her inner visions. It was the road the bad guys had parked on.
“Close your eyes, sweetheart,” Jesse growled in that low, sexy voice. “Tell me what waits in this forest.”
Startled by the wording of his request, she nevertheless did as he asked. Shutting her eyes once more, she reached out her senses. The information came quicker and more easily each time she did this, she discovered. It was an ability she’d never really tried to use much before. Maria tried to see what was going on in the woods in the immediate vicinity and as far out as she could stretch her senses.
“I don’t see anybody. Just the regular folk of the woodland. Squirrels, birds, a skunk off by the edge of the road. The men who were here before scared off anything bigger. The deer probably won’t return for a while. That man’s magic was foul and left a sort of gray miasma in his wake.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Zach said in a small voice. “Could he have left some kind of magical trap?”
“I don’t think he had the time,” Jesse answered calmly. Maria heard the confidence in his voice but wondered if he wasn’t just projecting that for her sake.
“I could probably sense it better than you if he did,” Zach observed in a brave voice. “I should probably go with you.”
Jesse’s eyes narrowed in thought before he turned his head to look at Zach. He just looked for a bit and then seemed to come to some kind of decision.
“Yeah, I think we should all go. The two of you together probably have more magic sensing abilities than any Pack of wolves, but we’ve got to make this quick.” Jesse began taking off his clothes. “I’m going furry. I can track better that way. Zach, you probably shouldn’t shift yet. Maria, if you’d be kind enough to carry my clothes?”
Maria was surprised he’d want her along, but she sure didn’t want to be left all alone in the truck waiting. She thought it was smart to involve Zach in this, to make him feel as if he were participating more fully in the rescue of his parents. The woods were clear. She knew that for a fact. And she had a sort of early warning system that always seemed to tell her if trouble was on the way. If something changed about their safety status, she’d rather be with the guys to tell them right away so they could all get out safely.
Jesse moved behind the door of the SUV, well hidden by the woods and the vehicle itself. He was there one moment, then a burst of magic stroked over Maria’s skin like a caress and Jesse disappeared.
The wolf that bounded out from behind the door of the SUV was huge and brown and furry…and really fierce. Maria’s heart rate sped up. He had the handles of a small, camo tote bag in his teeth as he walked up to her. She realized it was filled with his clothing. A T-shirt and pants, so he could shift back to human form while still under cover of the forest.
Maria took it from him and knew she was staring. She’d just never seen a wolf this big before. She’d worked with a few wolves during her veterinary career, but never one like this. He was gorgeous, and as he moved closer and stroked his face along her hand, inviting her touch, she felt the tingle of magic. He was amazing.
With a yip, he bounded away, clearly beckoning Zach and her to follow. The SUV was parked in the shade of a small grove of trees, well hidden from the road. It would be safe enough there, Maria thought.
When they entered the woods, Jesse went first, his nose to the ground. Zach and Maria followed, her senses wide open to the sounds, sights and smells of the woodlands. It was quiet but returning slowly to normal after the shock of that suited man’s evil power. It was interesting to watch the creatures of the forest and their reaction to the magical wolf and werebear.
The squirrels definitely noticed when Jesse and Zach passed, but they weren’t panicked. It was more a silent respect as each little head lifted, watched the progress of the shifters for a moment and then went back to foraging. That’s not what she would have expected, but it sort of made sense. The shifters, while they probably smelled different to the animals of the forest, they weren’t hunting squirrels. One was tracking and one walked on two feet, hunting the trail of other two-footed predators.
Jesse stopped suddenly and Zach halted immediately. The wolf nodded to Zach and they were off again at a slower pace, Zach treading carefully. Jesse seemed to know exactly where he was going, following what Maria now recognized as the misty-gray trail of foul-feeling magic left behind by the suited man. It wasn’t active magic, merely a sort of oily residue left by the man’s presence. It wouldn’t harm anything or anyone, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant either. Which was probably why the forest creatures were waiting for it to dissipate more before they returned to their woodland homes.
Again, Jesse stopped Zach and went forward this time to meet him. Maria stopped a little behind them, looking around. She didn’t sense any trouble, but as she looked more carefully, she recognized the tree. The one where the phone had smashed. She could see where the bark had been disturbed by the impact. Absently, she reached out to touch the tree and felt an immediate welcome from it like nothing she’d ever experienced before.
She gasped, but nobody seemed to notice. Zach was busy retrieving parts of the cell phone that Jesse uncovered for him. He stuffed the little bits of plastic and metal in a plastic bag he’d brought with him. Good thinking.
When Zach’s little bag was full and Jesse’s nose no doubt told him he’d found every last bit of the phone, they set off again, following the wolf. He paused again a minute later and the tingle of magic was all that warned Maria he was about to change back into his human form. She watched, awestruck at the sight. The amazing wolf shimmered and shifted, going to a half form that looked like something out of a horror movie—only worse—then to Jesse’s familiar human form.
Human and completely naked. He smiled that devilish smile that charmed her so easily as he stalked forward, one hand held out to her. All Maria could do was stand there. She was frozen in place by the man and his magic.
She was more than a little disappointed when all he did was take the tote bag from her hands. She wanted so much more. Then she remembered where they were and why they were sta
nding in the middle of a forest. And the teenager who stood by, waiting on them.
Horrified, she looked at Zach, but the kid wasn’t paying any attention to her. He was studying a mark on a tree trunk that looked very familiar. It was the old oak that guarded the message.
Jesse, dressed now, moved in front of Zach and touched the subtle scratches in the bark. He then turned his gaze downward and kicked at some of the dead leaves near the base of the oak tree, uncovering the square of white, now stained with dirt. Rather than pick it up right away, Jesse paused to sniff at the air around the tree and a sort of grim smile came over his face. He bent and retrieved the square of paper, pocketing it so quickly, she barely saw it.
He didn’t examine the note or speak again, merely led them away back toward the SUV. They’d accomplished their mission with minimum fuss and were back on the road before anyone spoke.
Jesse stuck to the back roads. Maria was pretty sure the man in the Jag and his followers had headed for the interstate. She couldn’t be one hundred percent certain, of course, but she knew they’d at least headed in that direction for quite some ways before she lost track of them. They could have doubled back, but she trusted Jesse’s skills to keep them as safe as possible. There were no guarantees. Their lives were on the line. But she knew Jesse would do his utmost to take care of them all.
“What kind of shifter was that who left you the note?” Zach asked Jesse after a while. When Maria looked back at him, he seemed truly puzzled.
“Never smelled jackal before, have you?” The ghost of a smile crossed Jesse’s mouth. “They’re not that common here in the States,” he continued. “I met this particular guy overseas. His Pack origin was somewhere in Turkey, I believe, but he’s a loner. A drifter. I’d heard he’d hired out as a merc, and that’s probably how he ended up working with the Venifucus. He’s a soldier. One of the best at covert ops. I knew his loyalties were questionable, but I never thought he’d go over to the dark side. He left his Pack to avoid that sort of thing, from what I understand.”