by M. J. Scott
“Pity you haven’t learned to guard your rear though, Pretty. And it’s such a nice rear.” The silky voice came out of the darkness behind me.
I swiveled, just in time to see Kyra dropping out of the sky and her fist swinging toward my head. I ducked but not quite quickly enough. The blow connected with my temple and I stumbled to the ground, pain blooming across my skull. I dropped the gun, heard it land softly somewhere ahead of me, and forced myself to open my eyes to look for it. The moonlight made my head hurt. I winced, eyes snapping shut reflexively. Big mistake.
Four hands grabbed my arms and waist and, even though I struggled, I knew they had me.
“You know, you’re making this way too easy,” Kyra said as she and Rio hauled me to my feet, laughing as I kicked and spat. The two knives strapped to my waist were tossed into the grass to join my gun, though they didn’t search me any further. So I still had the silver dagger strapped to my ankle. But this wasn’t the time to go for it, not while they were expecting me to fight.
“Boss’s waiting, Pretty,” Rio said. Moonlight glinted off his teeth as he smirked at me. I lashed out with my foot, connected solidly with his knee. He howled then his fist ploughed into my stomach. It felt like being hit by a lump of concrete. I bent over, retching and fighting for breath.
“Easy, Rio. Boss wants her in one piece.”
“She’s in one piece.” He grabbed my hair and jerked my head up. “She’s just bruised a little.”
As the pain receded a bit, I felt the wolf prowling under my skin, fiercer than ever, snarling and wanting to be let free to fight the enemy in front of us.
I fought her back. It was tempting to call on all that power and fury but while I still had some choice, I was going to stick to the plan.
I sucked in deep breaths as Kyra marched me back onto the gravel, having cuffed my hands behind my back. My stomach hurt, as did my head but it wasn’t the same level of pain as it had been when I was human. I could wall it off and still function. Could still think. Though I was careful to act more hurt than I was.
We rounded another bend in the path and the house suddenly appeared. It was a big old colonial style farmhouse on a grand scale. It was so not the image I had of Tate that a laugh bubbled up in my throat.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t find this particularly amusing,” Kyra said.
I turned my head around and bared my teeth at her. “She who laughs last. . . .”
Her grip on my arms tightened painfully and I shut up as we climbed the front steps.
Rio pressed something on the wall near the door and a panel in the wood lifted. He pressed his palm to it and there was a click and hum as the front door swung open.
Okay, so that bit wasn’t so much your average country farmhouse.
As the hall light hit my eyes and made them water, I looked around for a clock. Anything to let me know exactly how much time had passed and how much time I had to keep things going until the cavalry arrived.
“Admiring the décor?” Kyra asked sweetly as she shoved me forward.
There wasn’t much to admire. The walls were bare and white and there was no furniture. There were, however, security cameras near the roof on either side of the hall way and they moved, tracking us as we passed by.
I shivered. Tate was watching me. I knew it.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The room they took me to was, at least, furnished. With chairs, a table, and chains that glinted silver in the firelight along the wall. Tate, stood by an open fireplace, warming his hands.
“Ms. Keenan, how nice of you to join me.”
Dan was nowhere to be seen. And if he wasn’t still alive then my game plan consisted of fight like hell right now and get out if I could. “Where’s Agent Gibson?”
Tate smiled slowly. “No hello?”
“Where’s Agent Gibson?” I repeated, standing my ground.
“Fetch the wolf,” Tate said. Rio’s scent retreated behind me.
His ready acquiescence made me nervous. More nervous. If that was possible. I wanted to leap for Tate and tear his flesh with my fingers. Which would be suicide. Instead I curled them into fists, staying where I was with an effort of will that left me shaking.
“Let her go.”
Kyra undid the cuffs and I pulled my hands free, rubbing at my wrists. The watch said 10:25. Still thirty five minutes before I had any chance of help.
Jase, I thought desperately. If you can hear me now, hurry up.
“Search her,” Tate said and I froze.
Shit. If Kyra found the other knife or my cross, I was really screwed. I backed away from her until my back was against the wall with the chains. Metal brushed my hand and it burned like acid. Silver. Fuck.
I leaped away. Kyra watched me like a cat watching a mouse. An amusing mouse who was only providing her with more entertainment.
“Stay still, Pretty,” she said.
I quickly pulled off my watch and reached behind my ear for the wire, holding both out to her. “Here. That’s all I have.”
Except for my cross and the knife, that was.
Kyra tossed them to Tate who threw both into the fire, which spat and sizzled, spewing acrid smelling smoke into the room.
“I’m sure you’d like us to believe that,” he said. “Search her.”
Kyra stepped closer and I slumped. She patted me down, hands lingering on my breasts and butt. All too soon she found the knife and pulled it free.
“It’s not nice to lie, Pretty” she said as she straightened. She pointed the blade toward my face and I flinched backward. “My guess is silver, boss.”
She reversed the knife and flicked it over her shoulder. It stuck in the table top, quivering.
Tate smiled at me and firelight glinted off his fangs. “Interesting. I’m sure we can find some way to use it later on.”
“What do you want?” I asked as my mind raced. I needed to keep them talking. I had no good weapons left except my brain. Kyra had missed the cross but while it would hurt the vampires briefly, it wouldn’t kill them. Here, in this room with three against one (once Rio returned,) it would be no help at all.
“You and your wolf have made life hard for me,” Tate said. He crooked a finger. Kyra grabbed my wrist and dragged me over to the table, pushing me down into a chair. I tried not to look at the knife but the flames reflected in the silver blade, taunting me with how close it was.
“He’s not my wolf,” I said and Tate frowned slightly. Good. Let him think he’d misjudged what lay between Dan and I.
“He’d like to be but. . . .” I shrugged. Tate would know I was scared but he had no way of knowing whether that fear was due to Dan or just being here. So he might just buy me lying about Dan. “I’m hardly going to date the person who turned me, am I? So, what do you mean hard?”
Tate bared his fangs at me. “Well, for one thing, you’ve delayed our plans for the vaccine. And now, I seem to have hostile vampires, police and the Taskforce—” the word was almost a hiss “—wherever I turn. I don’t like being bothered.”
Our plans. Not mine. Maybe I was right. There were others involved in this. Smith. And whoever was funding this. Research was expensive. And what Tate had said about wanting more vampires to kill didn’t seem to warrant spending that sort of cash. Tate’s accounts hadn’t been accessed until recently so there was other money somewhere. I shrugged again. “Maybe you should take a vacation.”
He smiled his dead smile, and then walked closer to me, closing his hand around my throat and squeezing. “Don’t push me, Ashley. I have plans for you.”
Spots danced in front of my eyes as I fought for breath. Tate let me go as the door swung open and Rio appeared, dragging Dan behind him. Rio wore black gloves and held chains that dangled from the bonds around Dan’s wrists. Dan wore only black trousers, torn in several places. Half dried blood stained his neck, drawing attention to several bite marks. Someone had fed from him. He swayed on his feet, but his gaze sharpened when he saw me.
I forced my face to remain blank. Dan sported a huge black eye and bruises bloomed along his bare chest and stomach. My gut twisted. They’d had him less than eight hours. How hard and how had they beaten him to bruise a wolf so badly?
Worst of all were the chains around his wrists. The skin around them looked burned, bubbled and peeling, with dried and not-so-dried blood smeared down his hands and up his forearms.
Silver then. Which explained Rio’s gloves. Fuck. I really had to do this myself. Dan couldn’t change while bound by silver. And the pain of it would be sapping his strength.
“I take orders from my Alpha, not you,” I said coldly. I turned back to Tate before the confused hurt on Dan’s face fractured my rapidly slipping control.
“Special Agent Gibson goes free,” I said.
Tate looked from me to Dan. “I don’t think so.”
My heart plunged further. I’d let part of myself hope that Tate wanted me in particular and might be willing to let Dan go. If this had anything to do with my dad then it should definitely be me they wanted—why, I had no idea—but it seemed logical. But we’d planned for the fact that Tate wouldn’t be reasonable. “Your argument is with me, not him.”
“No, it’s with both of you. He saved you. It was his bite that stopped you from turning.”
“I think I have the bigger claim on that issue,” I said. “I’m the one he turned into a half-crippled werewolf.”
Tate’s brows rose. “What do you mean?”
“Your stupid vaccine hindered the lycanthropy somehow,” I lied, hoping Dan was at least conscious enough to understand what I was doing and not react. “I’m not as strong as the other wolves.”
His lips curved. You couldn’t really call the expression a smile though. “How unfortunate for you. You’d have been better off if I’d succeeded. I’ll have to speak to Smith about the vaccine. We hadn’t considered that particular side effect.”
You can speak to him in hell, I thought. I clenched my jaw, trying to stop the retort. I had to stay calm. Not easy when the wolf was snarling deep within me.
“My killing you, really will be doing you a favor then,” Tate said, sounding almost conversational.
I had to take a few breaths before I could answer as fear flooded me. He really meant to kill me. I heard Dan snarl, felt the wolf snarl again in my head as well. “Maybe it would be. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you do it.”
His hand smashed into the side of my face, knocking me off the chair. Dan’s growl—nothing human in it at all—seemed to fill the air as my head and hip hit the floor with painful force. Luckily it was carpeted, which cushioned the fall slightly. Only slightly, though. I lay there, winded, trying to think.
I’d barely seen Tate’s movement. My face burned but adrenalin flooded through me blurring the pain into the background. I blinked back the tears in my eyes, saw Dan straining against his chains, fresh blood flowing down his wrists as the silver cut deeper into his flesh.
He could cripple himself with wounds from silver. If he didn’t change in a few hours, they might not heal at all. The longer the silver touched him, the harder it would be to change once he was freed.
I had to do something. I pushed myself to a sitting position, watching Tate. When he didn’t move, I stood. “I thought you liked a challenge?” I said to Tate, as I fought dizziness. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rio force Dan to his knees, using the chains to pull his arms behind him.
“A challenge?” Tate sounded amused.
“You told me you liked to hunt supernaturals rather than humans.”
He nodded and I licked my lips. “Maybe you didn’t really mean it.”
Anger rose in Tate’s eyes, turning them to dark pools of malice. “What do you mean?”
“You locking us up here. Killing us here. Three against one. It’s hardly a challenge.”
“There are two of you.”
I looked down at Dan, let my face twist into an expression of disgust. “He’s in no position to do anything much. He’s braver when he’s with his Taskforce cronies anyway.”
Tate moved to the chair at the far end of the table and sat, resting his chin on one hand. “Interesting, though, that you still seem to be here, trying to save him.”
I raised my own eyebrows. “Like I said, I’m following orders. He’s pack, the Alpha wants him saved. God knows why when there are plenty of other males but I need the pack. I wouldn’t survive as a lone wolf, not with less strength than the others.”
“So you are buying your place in their affections?” Tate seemed almost amused by the thought. “That is very . . . calculated of you.”
“I’m an accountant. I make my living by minimizing risk. I don’t like what he did to me,” I jerked my head in Dan’s direction. ”But I have to live with it. The pack is my best option.” I watched Tate’s face. I had him, I could almost feel it. He was intrigued again.
“What exactly are you proposing?”
I made a vague gesture. “You like to hunt. So hunt us. Outside. Let us free, give us a head start then come after us. There’s all that wood out there, we’re not going to get away. Anyway you have the advantage.”
“How so?”
I nodded at Dan again. “He’s wounded. And you know the area.” I wanted to appeal to the predator in Tate. Hoping that his sick enjoyment of the game would make my offer irresistible. He could still be confident of catching and killing us; he thought he had us at a disadvantage. And outside, Dan and I had a slightly higher chance of survival. “Two vampires, against two werewolves.”
“There are three of us,” Tate pointed out.
“Rio stays out of it,” I said.
“Why should I even the odds?”
I didn’t know if he would and I remembered, all of a sudden, that my silver knife was still stuck in the table.
Closer to me than Tate.
Maybe I could just about even the odds myself. I didn’t give myself time to think about it, I lunged for the knife, grabbed it and just had time to send it arcing—putting all my strength into the throw—in Rio’s direction before Tate grabbed me from behind.
Almost in slow motion I watched the knife travel through the air. Rio started to dodge but Dan threw himself backward, tugging the other man off balance and the blade buried itself deep in Rio’s ribs. Rio fell back, clawing at his chest, letting go of Dan’s chains.
Dan lunged for him, only to have Kyra bring him up short as she caught the chains and held on. Rio made a few gurgling noises then went silent and I realized I could only hear four heartbeats. Rio was dead. I must have hit his heart. Silver to the heart was enough to kill a wolf if you hit the right spot.
Vicious satisfaction swept through me. I’d only meant to wound him, disable him somehow. I couldn’t have hit his heart on purpose if I’d tried. So somebody up there was smiling down on me.
Tate’s arm clamped around my throat, tightening. “You killed him.”
I laughed, half-hysterical. “Sorry, it was an accident, I swear.” More laughter bubbled up. I tried to stop it, without success.
Tate’s answering snarl turned my spine to ice water. I bit back the rising hysteria. Had I pushed him too far?
“Tell me why I shouldn’t just kill you now.” The pressure against my throat grew stronger and I struggled to breathe.
“You wanted worthy prey. I guess I just proved myself worthy.”
He snarled again and shoved me away from him. I stumbled into the table but managed to stay upright. Really, adrenalin was a wonderful thing when you were a werewolf.
“Rio was useful.” Tate said softly.
“I’m sure you can find other henchmen. So do we have a deal?”
He hesitated.
“What? Do you have to wait for permission? Do you want to go ask Smith? Or your other masters?” The taunt was a long shot but I was gambling on the fact that Tate liked the illusion of control. Would hate anyone he saw
as lesser knowing he didn’t have it. He was a psycho and everything the Taskforce had told me about his profile told me his pride in his superiority was paramount. Being leashed for years—if indeed he wasn’t running things—had to be wearing pretty thin.
Apparently, the profilers were right. Rage flashed over his face. More than rage . . . something closer to madness.
“I have no masters,” he snarled.
I didn’t believe him but I didn’t care. My ploy was working. He might have been sent to kill me but he wanted to do it his way. Prove he was better. “Prove it,” I said, trying hard to make my voice sound scornful, not terrified.
“If I catch you, I will kill you slowly.” His voice was flat.
I nodded. “If you catch me.”
“Kyra, fetch another manacle.”
She obeyed and I watched in horror as she approached me with a silver cuff like the ones on Dan’s wrists. Tate meant to bind me to human form.
I tried not to panic. It had worked. Tate was going to let us go free. We had a chance. We could do this. The Taskforce would be here soon. Outside we could hide and then they’d arrive and we’d be fine.
I took a deep breath as Kyra locked the manacle around my right wrist, locking her scent in my memory as she slipped the key into her pocket. The silver burned my wrist like I’d dipped my hand into molten metal. I wanted to scream but choked it back, gritting my teeth as I focused on Tate. I nodded toward Dan.
“Take the chains off him. The manacles are enough to hold him to human form.” I said, holding my shackled wrist away from my body in case I brushed the silver against any other bare flesh.
Tate nodded at Kyra and she obeyed, using the same key, I was happy to see. Dan didn’t resist her, which sent renewed fear through me. Just how far gone was he?
Maybe I couldn’t count on him at all. So. New plan. Before either of us could fight properly, we needed the manacles off. Once we were free, we had to find Kyra, get the key and then get the hell out of there before Tate found us. I didn’t want to try and kill Tate. That was what the Taskforce was there for. Fighting him by myself would be suicidal.