Taken in the Night

by Tara Fox Hall

  “Sar, marry me?” he said suddenly.

  My breath caught in my throat. I stayed motionless for a full minute, gazing into his hopeful grey-blue eyes.

  I’d wondered when Theo was going to ask. Despite his talk several months ago that we weren’t ready, it had been obvious he had been thinking about it. It was in the way he watched me, the way he’d held me. So what the hell was I waiting for? I had a man who loved me, and he was going to give up his dangerous life to be with me. I already loved his daughter. How much better did things need to get for me before I decided I was ready?

  “Yes,” I said. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  Theo hugged me tightly. “I’ll make you happy, Sarelle. I swear I will,” he said tenderly. “Now...again?”

  I was tired, completely exhausted. Yet I didn’t want the night to end. “Say it once more,” I whispered. “Please.”

  “Again,” Theo said arduously, slipping my hand down to touch his stiffening member.

  I bit my lip at his misunderstanding me. “Of course,” I said, kissing him.

  * * * *

  I was sore when I got up the next night. Make that I could barely walk. Theo was still sleeping. We’d only gotten about a few hours of sleep. He had gone on all night until I was nearly numb. We’d made it a night to remember, which was what mattered most to me.

  I got up and went to check on Elle. She had made a mess in her crate, so I cleaned her up, cleaned it out, and then gave her some food. This time after eating, she went to the litter box on her own. I was grateful for that. She was picking up what I wanted of her so fast. I cleaned up after her when she was done and played with her a little. I needed to shower, but I was too content sitting here, contemplating my upcoming nuptials.

  I’d said yes. I was getting married to Theo.

  I thought about calling my mother and telling her, but I wanted to wait until I got back to the states. Then I thought about Danial in the next room and dreaded telling him. This would hurt him deeply, no matter that he'd be happy for us...

  On cue again, Danial came out of his room and saw me sitting with Elle. He watched us for a while, silent and unmoving.

  Finally, I said, “Theo’s still sleeping.”

  “I think he probably should be, Sar. He was up most of the night making love to you,” Danial said sardonically. “Ah, the energy of the young.”

  I cringed at his tone, but felt worse knowing how he must have felt to hear us all night. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him the reason why. “I’m sorry we kept you awake.”

  He sighed and came over to sit beside me. “Don’t be. I want you to be happy. Theo has been unhappy most of his life. I can’t begrudge him being happy now, even knowing you are his and not mine.”

  He looked at me as if he wanted to say something more, but instead he got up and went back to his room.

  I played with Elle for a little while until she slept again. Then I showered quickly and packed up everything. We’d be leaving as soon as they got back from the last meeting tonight.

  Theo got up about eight p.m. We called down for room service, had breakfast, and then he showered, leaving quickly afterwards, his hair still wet.

  With one eye on Elle, who seemed content destroying a rubber toy, I used Danial’s laptop, logging on to the Internet to discover everything I could about baby cougars. I’d read only a paragraph when I heard Theo’s angry voice outside the hotel room door.

  They’d been gone only an hour, not the three I’d anticipated. Something was very wrong. I closed the computer and hurried toward their angry voices.

  “Something’s not right,” Danial argued, closing the door behind them.

  “Danial, let it go!” Theo said loudly. “So they didn’t want us to find this missing person. What does it matter?”

  “The client, Peterson, contacted us two weeks ago. This is the only meeting that was crucial, the one we had to be here for at this particular time. They said it was dire and they’d pay extra if we would be here at this time. The rest of the meetings I had this week could have waited for another month. Now we’re here, on time, and they tell us not to bother?”

  “Peterson said they think the guy, Frank Feren, left Europe, right?” Theo replied. “That’s what he told us, anyway. Maybe they think they can find him themselves. Peterson only wants him found because he stole that software program, anyway.”

  “That’s odd, too. He wouldn’t say what the software did.”

  “It’s proprietary, Danial. We hear that all the time.”

  “This company makes weapons, specifically guns for use in special situations,” Danial retorted. “You know they’re thinking of making guns for handling people like us.”

  “That's only something they are starting to do. Fenris, the company that makes our weapons, has a much bigger share of that business, and they do it much better. They recently sent me a new gun, a prototype, to try out and give my opinion on. It’s supposed to make a larger hole, with more stopping power—”

  “We should leave at once,” Danial was waiting at the door. “I’ll make the call to the airport.”

  Theo turned to me, suddenly uneasy. “Danial’s right, Sar. We shouldn’t take any chances, especially with you or Elle. Can you be ready to go in a half hour?”

  “We are both ready now,” I said worriedly, gathering up Elle and putting her in her crate. “I think we should leave right now.”

  Danial went into his room and got his bag. Theo grabbed our bags, handed them to Lander, and hefted Elle’s crate. We went to the elevator and down to the lobby, where Lander and Danial went to check us out of the room, leaving Theo, Elle and I to stand near the front doors.

  To my shock, Samuel appeared beside me suddenly. “Sarelle, you and Danial are leaving?” he said, disappointed.

  “Yes,” I said, reaching my fingers up to touch my choker involuntarily. Samuel reached for my other hand and took it, giving it a chaste kiss.

  “You must come back soon,” Samuel said charmingly. “I enjoyed seeing you and Danial dance. Perhaps I and my current Lady could join you for an evening next time.”

  I cast a look at Theo, even as I nodded. “That would be nice.”

  “Love tends to elude those in power,” Samuel said wistfully, his eyes still on me. “Not that Devlin didn’t exacerbate Danial’s misery this past century—”

  “Step back,” Theo growled. “Only one man touches this lady, Sir.”

  “I’m glad to see your guard is more attentive tonight,” Samuel chuckled, dropping my hand and moving back a step. “It’s hard to find good help among the inferior races.”

  My eyes remained locked with Samuel’s, yet I felt the rage pouring off Theo. Please, God, let him keep quiet. If he did anything more, he’d betray the lie of Danial and I. Then I’d be fair game, to say nothing of Elle.

  Samuel turned to Theo suddenly. When his kind blue eyes fell on Theo, they went frosty and chill as the North Sea. “Who are you?” he said gratingly, offering his hand to Theo.

  “I’m Danial’s chief of security, Theo,” Theo said, taking his hand.

  “You must have a last name?” Samuel said sarcastically.

  “It’s McGarran,” Theo said without blinking, his blue eyes cold.

  I stopped breathing for a moment, but managed not to gasp.

  “Are you taking good care of your master’s lover?” Samuel said darkly in double meaning. “I assume that’s your job, keeping her safe from other men—”

  Oh, shit.

  “I try my best,” Theo said, his smile not reaching his eyes, which were livid. “So far I’ve had no complaints, Sir, from—”

  “I’m sorry, but we must be going,” I interrupted. “The night is waning, and we have a long way to travel. Lord, I thank you again for all your hospitality, on behalf of Danial and myself.”

  “You’re most welcome, Lady,” Samuel said mildly and then turned to meet Danial returning with Lander. “Adieu, Racklan. It was good to meet you.”


  “And you,” Danial replied pleasantly. “Farewell. Come, Sar.”

  He led me away to the waiting limo. Theo got Elle’s crate in first, and then we embarked. Theo growled to himself the whole way, holding my hand so tight he almost bruised me.

  As we walked from the limo to the waiting aircraft, shots rang out. Theo immediately dropped the crate and fell to the ground, covering me with his body. Lander, who’d been last, threw himself down on Danial. Poor Elle in her crate began to yowl. Theo drew out his specially made weapon from his back and fired over me. Someone screamed, and then more bullets thwacked the pavement by our bodies, making large smoking craters.

  The men firing at us had guns like ours.

  Chapter Three

  Theo yelled to Lander “We have to make a break for it. We’re sitting ducks out here!” He turned to me frantically. “Stay down. If I don’t make it, take care of Elle. I love you.”

  Then he stood up and bolted, roaring as he shifted, his clothes falling in shreds on the ground as he ran off on all fours. Shots fired, but they missed him. Lander and Danial returned fire, their bodies flattened to the ground. Then a loud cougar scream of rage rang out as Theo tore into someone.

  “Everyone’s got a gun but me,” I gasped, crawling toward Elle.

  Elle’s crate was hit. She squirmed though the still smoking hole, trying to get free, screaming. I grabbed her and pulled her down as another round thwacked into the crate, just missing her. In her panic, she clawed me up, writhing hard. Hissing in pain, I grabbed her hard by the back of the neck to hold her still. She tried to bite me. I twisted the back of her neck hard. She was still against me, her tiny heart beating fast.

  There were human screams, and Theo roaring and screaming in rage, though I couldn’t see anyone. Lander and Danial had also disappeared.

  Silence descended. I lay still, too afraid to move. Arms were suddenly around me, lifting me.

  “C’mon. Where is—?” It was Theo, naked. He lifted me to my feet, saw I had Elle, and gripped us both, dragging us with him. “We’ve got to go!”

  We ran as fast as possible back to the limo as Danial ran up with Lander. The driver was dead, a regular gunshot wound in his temple. Theo pulled him out of the driver’s seat and got in while Danial, Elle, Lander, and I got in back.

  “We’re stuck here another night,” Theo muttered, looking in the rearview mirror at Danial. “I saw a bed and breakfast on the way here—”

  “No,” Danial replied. “Back to the hotel. We need as many people around us as possible—”

  A gunshot rocked the limo, as the left rear window blew apart. I screamed.

  “Go!” Danial yelled.

  Theo drove back to our hotel, and we decamped from the limo, running inside. Everyone in the lobby freaked out, seeing us running to the elevators with guns at the ready. Theo’s nakedness didn’t help. We cleared a path quickly through the normally crowded lobby as everyone ran to get away from us. We got upstairs in another few minutes and back to our rooms, which hadn’t been cleaned yet. I sat with Elle on the bed, holding her tightly and crying. She licked my tears away.

  Theo came in the room a second later. “You’re safe, Sar,” he said, kissing me. “We all are. Calm down and breathe.”

  Danial came in, his gun still in his hand, looking murderous. “I’m going after them tonight, Theo. Will you stay here with Sar?”

  “I’m going with you,” Theo said, the anger in his tone a living thing. “You go alone, you’ll end up dead.”

  “Come on then,” Danial said impatiently. “I’m only going to have a few hours as it is before dawn.”

  “Don’t go, either of you,” I yelled at them. “We were all almost killed. I don’t want to lose anyone else.”

  Danial looked at me and then looked at Theo, as if telling him to handle me. Theo took me by the shoulders, composed yet angry.

  “Sar, if we let this slide, we might as well hang bulls-eyes on our heads. Peterson is making weapons designed to kill weres and maybe vampires, too. They didn’t call us here to do a job for them. They wanted to see how their prototypes would hold up against the real things. We were here to use as practice. This is straight intel right from one of the shooters tonight.”

  I had suspected that, but to hear it said aloud was horrifying. Deep rage built inside me. “Give me a weapon,” I said in fury. “I’ll go, too.”

  “No way, Sar,” Theo said immediately. “You’re staying here, where you’re safe.”

  “Why the hell did I practice so hard with you all that time?” I yelled at him. “Give me a gun and let me go with you. I want my pound of flesh.”

  Danial turned and left, calling over his shoulder “Five minutes, Theo.”

  Theo hugged me to him. “I wouldn’t let you go in any case, even if I had to go alone.”

  “I want to go,” I said loudly. Elle cried in my arms, my resentment scaring her.

  “You need to stay here with Elle. You need to protect her.”

  I looked at the scared little cub lying in my arms and hugged her to me. He was right.

  Theo handed me his gun and two extra full clips. “Take these. This is one of the guns used against us tonight. It should stop anyone, and it’s got most of the silencer left.”

  I picked up the weapon. It was similar enough to mine that I could guess where the safety and the clip release were. “Okay.”

  “Stay here. Don’t leave this room,” Theo said. He threw on some clothes and grabbed an extra gun from his duffel bag. He’d had the foresight to grab it from the ground when we were running back to the limo. He put about ten full clips in his pockets and then came back to me to kneel beside the bed.

  “Sar, I’m coming back to you, I swear it,” Theo said, looking into my eyes. “I love you, and I’m going to marry you.”

  He kissed me once, a long lingering kiss. Then he picked up Elle and cradled her in his arms. “I love you, too,” he said to her, as she purred back at him and licked his nose.

  He handed her back to me and left. The hotel room door slammed, and all was quiet.

  * * * *

  The minutes seemed to last as long as hours. I didn’t know what to do. Elle began crying because she was hungry, and I had nothing to feed her. I was afraid to call room service, not knowing if Danial had registered us with the hotel again. If Peterson and his men had found us on the tarmac between our limo and the plane, they’d find us here, too. We’d be safer if no one knew we were here.

  I finally gave Elle some water, as I had nothing else to give her. She made a mess in a corner of the room, and I cleaned it up with towels, crying, because she didn’t have even her box to use. She’d been trying so hard for me.

  Another hour passed, making the urge to eat more than an annoyance. I debated looking for a vending machine, but, while it might have been possible in a motel, it wasn’t in a four-star hotel. There was nothing but coffee packets in the tiny bathroom. I drank some water, and tried to ignore my hunger.

  Finally, I lay down. Elle slept beside me, and I had the gun in my hand, safety off.

  I was uneasy about that, but I didn’t want to wake up to a nasty surprise and not be able to fire. Naturally, when I woke up, my hand tightened on the gun, and I fired.

  Looking at the smoking hole in the interior wall and the blown apart dresser in Danial’s room, I was supremely thankful the gun was silenced and I’d not fired out into the corridor instead. We didn’t need to face police, on top of everything else. I clicked the safety on, calling myself an idiot for not thinking it through. I might have hurt Elle or myself with what I’d done. I had to protect us both, until Theo and Danial—

  A noise came from the adjoining room. I eased out from under Elle and crept toward the door. The noise came again, a scuffling sound. I peeked out the door. Danial was there lying just inside the door, moving with effort, covered in blood. I kept hold of the gun and moved out to him. He saw me, but didn’t speak, his eyes pain-filled. I moved around him to the door, cl
osing and locking it. After I wedged a chair under the handle for good measure, I put down the gun and pulled Danial into my arms.

  His eyes were closed, his body motionless and limp. He looked like he had been dipped in blood. It coated him nearly from head to toe, even in his hair. There were big holes in his clothes: one in his arm, two in his right leg, and four in his torso. The skin underneath was healed. Some of the blood covering him was his own; the rest had likely come from the several persons he’d had to kill to heal that much damage. The gun he’d taken with him was gone. He looked exhausted. That was too bad, because I needed him.

  “Danial,” I said softly. He didn’t stir.

  “Danial!” I yelled in his ear.

  “Sar?” he said weakly, opening his eyes. “I so glad I made it back to you.”

  “God damn you both, I told you not to go!” I screamed, almost hysterical.

  “Where is Theo?” Danial said weakly.

  My blood ran cold. “Where is Lander?” I said, sounding dead, devoid of life.

  “He’s dead. He didn’t have any real experience in this kind of work, and took a round in the heart a few seconds into the fight.”

  I remembered Lander glaring at me when I borrowed his phone and being embarrassed by Suri when he’d flirted with me. I blinked back tears. I hadn’t liked him, but he was dead now and wherever his spirit was, he was never going to be angry, or laugh, or run through a sunlit field again with his fellow foxes.

  I wiped my eyes angrily. We weren’t in the clear yet. “Danial, do you need blood?”

  He lay still again in my arms, unresponsive. Elle began crying in the bedroom.

  I lost it. Quickly opening Danial’s mouth with one hand, I sliced open my wrist on his upper fangs, letting out a shriek at the pain. Then I pressed my wrist to his mouth. As he had that fateful night we’d first met, Danial’s hand clamped onto my wrist like iron, as he sliced my wrist deeper with his fangs to get at more blood. I gritted my teeth, whimpering with the pain.