The Shikari Box Set

by Dora Blume

  “Tom, you know I can’t let you do that. I will be handling her from now on. Please make sure they are getting everything loaded. I will talk to the woman. Remember, we need to be ready when the others come for her. We want the tracker to come here, but we also don’t want her to be here. I want that girl who can freeze time. She is vital to our plans in Kansas City. Now go, I want my time with her.”

  “Good fucking luck,” he said. She could hear his loud footfalls down the hall.

  “Imbecile,” she heard the other man say. He had a smooth drawl almost like he came from the south. Sloane made a mental note of that.

  The door opened, and a tall dark-haired man stood before her. He had days’ worth of stubble on his chin. He wore a long black peacoat with the bill flipped up behind his neck. His dark gray suit beneath with a midnight blue tie felt out of place in this room. She studied him, looking for weakness. The stubble let her know he was stressed. Anyone who wore that designer suit, wouldn’t have gone a day without shaving. She could tell he’d gone a few. She noted that for later. She hoped that meant things were not going as he’d planned. She planned to make a few more things not go according to plan.

  “Hello, Sloane,” he said, her name rolling off his tongue in a caress. She didn’t like it.

  “Hello, asshole,” she spat back.

  “Is that any way to talk to a superior? You may call me Mr. Hall. I believe we will be good friends very soon, my dear.” He smiled, and she could see all the way back to his molars. It made her want to puke.

  “I’m not your fucking, dear. We’re not going to be friends. I’m going to kill you as soon as I’m free.” She glared at him, fire in her eyes.

  “Oh?” He pulled a chair over from the table and straightened his coat before he sat in the chair. He looked her dead in the eyes. “I believe I have the upper hand here, my dear, Sloane.” He said the words as a caress again, and it bothered Sloane. She felt a shiver as he spoke. She wondered what the headmaster's power had been. He was having an effect on her, but she wasn’t sure what it was. It reminded her of what Bryant could do. She was fighting it like she did with her father, but it was still affecting her. She didn’t like it.

  “So, it does seem you do have the upper hand, for now. I can’t imagine you want to defeat me in such a weak manner. I’d think you’d want to fight me on an equal footing, like a real man.” She smiled one of her dazzling smiles at him.

  “Oh dear,” he lifted his hand and ran the tip of his finger along her cheek. “I don’t care how I defeat you, as long as I do. Before the night is over, I will break you. I will do whatever is necessary to break you, Sloane. I promise.” He stopped a finger below her chin and raised her head so that her eyes met his. “You are such a beautiful woman. I’d hate to waste this opportunity with you.” His sardonic smile made her stomach turn. Sloane spat in his face.

  He moved back and took the handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe his face. “Now, was that necessary? I was admiring your beauty. Don’t worry; I’ll take my time with you, as soon as you’re possessed. I know you’ll feel every moment of it, just as the man inside me feel everything. I can feel him squirm inside me. You’ll be squirming, soon.” His mouth turned up into a sly smile.

  “The fuck you will. I’ll die before I let you possess me. Keep dreaming, asshole,” she spat. She knew she shouldn’t show him a weakness, but she wasn’t kidding.

  “Oh? How do you propose to stop me from doing whatever I want to you? Currently, I have you tied to a chair. I’d love to hear how you’d manage to stop me in your current state.” He moved to gaze into her eyes. She felt a chill run down her spine again, but this time it was one meant to make her feel fear. She shook her shoulders in response, and Mr. Hall’s smile widened.

  Sloane began rubbing her wrists against the restraints causing her wrists to bleed. She smiled wickedly, “I have my ways.” She knew that if she could continue cutting her wrists, she’d bleed enough to die if he didn’t notice.

  “You may think you do, but I’ll bandage your wrists before you can cause enough blood loss. You are wasting your energy, dear. You could accept the demon, and I’ll let you free.” There was a fire in his eyes as he stared at her. It was a combination of power and desire. He was getting off on having her bound and helpless. She knew she needed to show no fear.

  “Fuck you,” she glared back at him, fire in her eyes.

  He sat back, an amusing smile on his face. “Maybe, I’ll let you sit in here and think awhile before I bring in your demon. Don’t worry, I chose a very special demon for you, dear. She’s a little spitfire, and I think she’s perfect for you.” He stood and placed the chair back at the table. “Although, the anticipation to have my way with you may win out. I can’t resist seeing you squirm. We’ll have to see. I do believe you’ll be a good time.” His eyes raked over her body, and Sloane’s stomach turned again. “Yes, a very, very good time.” He licked his lips and strode out of the room.

  Sloane began frantically rubbing and pulling at her wrists. She needed to get the hell out of here. There was no way in hell she was being possessed or used by that fucker. She knew she would still be in her mind, but she’d have no control over her body. What that bastard was considering. She shook her head; she couldn’t think about that, now. She had to get the hell out of here. She kept pulling, ignoring the pain. She’d be in a lot more pain if she were possessed. The kind of pain, you didn’t recover from easily. She felt bile rise in her throat. She needed to get free. She hoped that the others knew where she was. She hated to admit it, but she hoped that Mike was on his way with reinforcements. She wasn’t the type of girl to want to be rescued, but right now, she would give anything to see his beautiful face come through that door. She could feel blood dripping down her hands. She knew it wouldn’t be long before she passed out. She was already feeling light headed. She closed her eyes and tried to call forth a vision. Maybe she would see what was going to happen next. Anything would be a comfort as long as she wasn’t possessed.

  Chapter 14

  “Do you think we’ll make it before they possess her?” Jessie asked, shifting nervously in her seat.

  “I can’t even think about that, right now. I need to get to her. We need to stop them. I can’t imagine her letting them do much to her. She’ll fight to the death before she’d let them possess her. That’s why we need to get to her. She won’t think about her own life. Only stopping them.” Mike gripped the wheel tighter and pushed the gas pedal down further. He was determined to get to Sloane before she had to fight them. Because she would, and it wouldn’t be pretty.

  “Oh yeah, you’re right. I didn’t even think about that. She’d fight them with everything she had. Shit, yeah we need to get there, now.” Jessie glanced to her phone. The screen was black. She hit the button to illuminate the screen, and nothing happened. “Shit, my phone is dead. I was going to check with Erik to see what they learned.” She looked around the car for a charger.

  Mike fished his phone out of the center counsel. He held it out to Jess. “Here, use mine.”

  “Thanks.” She pushed the button. “Ah, you have five missed calls.”

  “Oh yeah, who called?” He looked over at the phone.

  “Erik and Caroline. A few times. I should call them back. It seems like it might be important.”

  “They probably got info from the demon you grabbed.” Mike focused back on the road.

  “Yeah,” Jessie hit the send button on the phone. The screen went black. “What the hell?” Jess hit the power button on the phone. “Mike your phone died, too. Do you have a charger in here?”

  “Shit, I grabbed a different car from Magnus. I don’t think there’s one in here.”

  “Seriously, so we have no way of getting in touch with the others. What the hell are we going to do?” She set the phone in the counsel.

  “We’re going to go get Sloane. We can find out what they learned after we have her with us.”

  “Okay,” she tucked her h
air behind her ear and sat up. She was nervous. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she wasn’t sure why. She laid her hand against her stomach. Something wasn’t right. She wanted to be able to talk to Erik. She wanted to know what they found out from the demon. She hadn’t even thought about how she was using her phone when they were at the school in the car. Now, she could kick herself for not thinking ahead. She didn’t even grab any weapons before she left. She felt largely under prepared for the challenge they were charging toward. “Are you sure we should be rushing in like this?” She looked over at Mike.

  “What? Yes, we need to get Sloane away from the demons. Why?”

  “I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling that’s all.” She gripped her hands together in her lap.

  “It’ll be fine. We’ll get Sloane, and everything will be fine.” Mike said it like he needed to convince himself as much as her.

  “Are you sure? You sound like you need convincing as much as I do.” She studied Mike.

  “Yes, I know we have to get Sloane. She can see the future. If they can access her power, we’ll all be fucked. They will use her to tell them when we’re coming, and how many will be there. Not only that, but she can see every detail of any future battles. If they can see the future, we’ll never be able to fight them without them knowing. We have to get to her. We have to.” Mike gripped the wheel; his voice shook as he spoke.

  “We will.” She placed her hand on her stomach, worried. She knew something wasn’t right. She wanted to talk to Erik but had no way to. She took a deep breath. “How far behind them are we?” she asked.

  “Not far, but there’s no way we’re stopping them before Denver. They’re too fast. They have a destination. We won’t be able to stop them before they get there. We’ll have to confront them wherever they’re going. Are you ready for that?” Mike asked.

  “I’ll have to be. We don’t have much of choice, do we? They can’t possess Sloane, which is what they intend to do. We have to get her back before they have a chance. You know they’ll try right away. I wish I had a power boost, but between the two of us, we’ll have to make it work.

  “Good, cause we’re getting close to wherever they took her. The pull to her is getting stronger. We’re going in blind, so we have no idea how many will be there. You freeze and we’ll both fight. We don’t have time to dispossess them. I’m hoping there are only a few taking her hostage. If we make it there while they’re still transporting her to the building, we’ll have a better shot at getting to her before we have to fight. But again, we have no idea what we’re walking in to.”

  “That’s what has me nervous. We can’t even call for back-up. We have no way to communicate with anyone where we are. What if we get into trouble? Mike, they can’t get all three of us. What do you know about their plan? Aren’t they trying to get Shikari members with powers they can use? Could you imagine the advantage they’d have with all of us? Mike, I think we need to think this through before we charge in blind. At least with Erik or another mind-reader, we’d know what we were walking into.” She bit her lip and peeked over at Mike. She hoped he would listen to her. What if this whole thing was a trap?

  “I can still sense them. I’ll be able to identify how many are in there. If it’s too much for us, we’ll get help. I want to know where she is and try to get to her before they possess her. We need to at least try, Jess, for Sloane. You know she’d charge in there for us, no matter how many demons she had to fight.” Mike glanced over to Jess. She could see the fear in his gaze.

  “I know, but I think that’s because she has some crazy death wish. She’s been careless with her own life since she lost her mother. We need to be smarter than that if we want to get out with her. Otherwise, the demons win, we lose. We can’t let that happen, either.”

  “Okay, okay, we’ll make the decision when we get there. If we get in over our heads in there, you run and get help. I will stay with Sloane until you bring reinforcements.” Mike nodded his head.

  “If you think I’m leaving you with the demons, you’re crazier than Sloane is. I’m not going to leave you behind.”

  “Well, if you won’t leave me, why would you leave, Sloane?” He questioned.

  “They already have her. We need you to get her back. Come on Mike be rational. If there’s too many, we get help, agreed?” She studied his face. The muscle in his jaw twitched, and he gripped the wheel until his knuckles turned white.

  “Fine, if there’s too many, we’ll get help. But I don’t like abandoning her to them. We need to get her out of there as soon as possible. She’s reckless with her life, and she’ll get herself killed to stop from being possessed.”

  “Well, let’s just hope this works out for us, then.”

  Mike exited the highway and turned down a side street. “We’re getting close. I can feel her.”

  “Okay, what do you have in here for weapons? I didn’t grab anything before I left the house.”

  “Look through the duffle in the backseat. I don’t have much, but it’s better than nothing. They must be in one of these factories.” He drove by a brick warehouse. He slowed and took a left at the next street. She’s in the brick warehouse back there. He took another left at the end of the street followed by another to bring them back to the factory. He slowed a few buildings down and parked on the side of the street. “She’s in the one right up there.” He pointed to the brick building with a few windows that were covered.

  Jessie glance around. There were four other cars on the street, but there was a small parking lot on the other side of the building. “Is there a good way to get into the building without being noticed? The windows on this side are covered, but we can probably get around that. We need to get eyes on how many are in there. Should we scope out around the building to find the best way in?” She tucked a gun in the back of her waist band and continued to lean forward in the seat observing the building.

  “Yeah, we can go around the back of the building to try to get a view of the inside. We’ll start on this side and move to the back-parking lot. If we can get inside without being noticed, we do it. Once inside, we find Sloane. Hopefully, you can freeze any demons we spot.” Jessie observed Mike as he spoke. Jessie could see the worry lines around his eyes. She could tell he hadn’t gotten much sleep over the last few weeks. He had dark circles under her eyes, and they were bloodshot. She figured she probably didn’t look much better. They both could use a good night's sleep.

  “Sounds like a plan. What if they have the building warded against my power as they did in Minneapolis?” She took a deep breath.

  “If they don’t freeze, we fight. If we get in over our heads, we fight our way out and run. Our priority is to get Sloane without being noticed. If we don’t have our powers, we leave and get back-up. I’ll know right away because I won’t feel the pull toward Sloane I’m feeling now. If you give me a minute, I’ll gauge how many are in there before we go in. I should be able to get a pretty accurate number for us.” He closed his eyes and lowered his head concentrating his power on the building. “Shit, there’s around fifteen of them in the building, and two in the parking lot. Sloane is in the back room, which we may be able to enter closer to the back to get her. I can’t tell if it’s warded from out here. There’s another Shikari in the back next to Sloane. They haven’t been possessed, yet. We may be able to get them both out.” His eyes met Jessie’s, and she nodded.

  “Okay, let’s go around back and see if we can get to them, trouble free.” She raised a brow.

  “Love, you know that’s not going to happen. We’ve never been that lucky,” he accentuated the last word.

  “Maybe you haven’t.” She cracked a playful smile and wiggled her brows. She was still worried, but she also loved the rush a battle brought her. She was scared for Sloane, but at the same time, she was relieved she hadn’t been possessed. If the other Shikari hadn’t, maybe they were waiting for someone. They still had time to get to her.

  “Ready?” Mike s
tudied Jessie.

  “As I’ll ever be,” she responded.

  “Alright then, let’s do this thing.” His smile was playful. She knew he was trying to lighten the mood for what they were about to do.

  “Mike, I love you.” She smiled as she eased out of the car.

  “Ah love, now you tell me. We could have been together years ago. I guess I have something to live for.” He bit his bottom lip and quirked up the side of his mouth trying to hold in his laugh.

  She stepped beside him and elbowed him in the side. “You are so, not funny. Come on we need to focus and get the real love of your life out of here before she does something monumentally stupid like take on all the demons in there at once. You know she’d try to lose.” She shook her head as they made their way to the back of the building.

  “I know no such thing. I mean, she could win. She’s certainly got the fire within her to put up one hell of a fight. I know that fire all too well.” He winked. Jessie moved her finger to her lips to quiet him, so they could try to see into one of the windows. She stopped next to a window that didn’t look like it had been covered entirely. She peeked through the tear in the plastic and could see three guys sitting around a card table. There were cards in front of them. Jessie suppressed her urge to laugh. Demons were in there playing cards. She could see through the doorway into the hall. She saw one dark-haired man walk to the back of the building. She took a deep breath. There wasn’t much to see here.

  She turned to look at Mike. “There’s not much to see, here. Three guys are in there playing cards, and one dark-haired guy just walked toward the back.” She shrugged.

  “Okay, let’s head further back. See if anyone is guarding, Sloane.” He walked in front of her, ducking under the next window and stopping on the other side. Jessie stopped to see what she could. Being a head shorter than Mike, she had to stand on tiptoe to see through the small hole in the bottom of the window. She observed two men standing near a cork board with pictures and lines drawn between the pictures. There were maps of different buildings; one looked like the school they’d been scouting. She glanced to Mike, who was looking through on the other side of her.