by Bonnie Vanak
She stared at the sugar maples and hemlock trees. This estate had been the only home she’d ever truly known. “I kept hoping she’d invite me to the party, treat me as a...daughter, not a servant.” Her voice cracked. “My mom died giving birth to me. I never had a mom. Guess I hoped your mom might fill the role. Stupid. All she did was treat me like a servant.”
Sam tucked the rope around his waist and crooked a finger at her. “C’mere.”
With a soft sigh, Kelly slid into his embrace.
“I’m not my mother.” He kissed the top of her head and rested his cheek against her hair. “I’d never act like that.”
“That’s a relief. If you paraded around in a kimono and started sipping tea instead of beer, I’d really worry.”
Sam laughed and then focused his attention on the barn in the distance. “You ready for this?”
Ready to watch you confront old ghosts, or ready to rescue the children? Acid churned in her stomach. She nodded. Two miles down the road in a dark van, Sam’s teammates J.T. and Dallas waited for his signal to storm the castle.
Soft grass silenced their footsteps as they passed the stone pagoda with its tattered Chinese lanterns swinging from the rafters. Kelly felt like a ninja, moving as Sam had taught her, darting from tree to tree.
Whoever broke into the estate knew not only its location but also the entrance to the underground bunker.
“Curt knows all about this place,” Sam said as they hunkered behind a thick magnolia trunk.
He removed a pair of binoculars from his vest and scanned the stretch of open lawn. “When he became my CO, he wormed it out of me about how I had no family. Then he asked me all these questions about the estate. He loves reading history. I told him about how the bunker used to hide slaves during the days of the Underground Railroad.”
“He wasn’t interested in history. Only you,” Kelly guessed.
“Yeah.” Sam watched the grounds. “In getting me to talk about the place’s history, he made me realize how important my heritage is. The estate had fallen into disrepair. I’d let it go. After, he helped me find a contractor to fix up the burned wing, gardeners to tend the grounds.”
“He sounds like a good man.”
“None better. Damn good fighter and sniper. Scored twenty kills in Desert Storm.” Sam lowered the glasses, voice remote and cold. “If they did kill him, he wouldn’t have gone easily.”
Insects hummed in the trees. The stillness in the air felt heavy and unnatural. Impatient for action, Kelly wanted to race across the lawn.
Sam closed his eyes. “Nothing’s been by this way in months. No trace scents. Wish Dakota were here. His sense of smell could pick out a pebble in a stream.”
“The wolf can, you mean. Any wolf.”
“Not going there. We do this the old-fashioned way, on two legs, not four.”
Knee-high meadow grass brushed against their legs as they headed toward the picturesque split-rail fence dividing the estate’s grounds from the adjoining farm. Kelly followed Sam to the barn. Inside the air was moist and still. A slightly foul stench made her wrinkle her nose.
“Someone’s been here. I smell something dark and evil.”
Sam dropped to a crouch and pointed to patterns in the dust. “Someone who didn’t bother erasing prints, meaning they’re either careless or arrogant.”
Kelly’s heart squeezed painfully as Sam lifted the round iron ring on the floor. He drew out a pistol from his backpack. “Stay here.”
“They’re probably being guarded. Sam, let me go with you.” Panic lodged in her throat.
“If something happens to me, get word to J.T. and Dallas. You’re more important, Kelly. You’re the only one who can tell a real Elemental from an Arcane who killed him and stole his identity.”
“I’m not going to lose you, Sam,” she whispered.
She did not recognize the intense, determined look on his face. “Let me do my job.”
Every cell cried out to join him, but he was right. Should he run into trouble, Sam possessed the needed skills.
“Be careful.”
He vanished into the black hole that gave way to a small airless room holding rusted farm equipment. But another door, hidden and opened by only a spring mechanism, gave access to a tunnel that led to the estate’s wine cellar. Kelly sat on the floor, hugging her knees as she waited.
Waiting. How did Sam and his team do it? Sometimes they remained motionless for hours as they waited for a target to move out, he’d told her.
Sam’s selfless devotion to duty opened her eyes to her lover’s other side. She’d thought bravery and honor as mere words.
Sam had shown her those words in action.
Muscles cramping, she stretched out. A crow flew inside and perched on the overhead rafters, scolding her. Kelly leaned down and drew a heart and initials in the dust.
K.D. loves S.S.
Smiling, she let her fingers trail over the letters.
The cellar door creaked open. Hastily, she dusted away her impromptu drawing as Sam climbed the steps, his expression remote.
“They’re not there. They were, and not long ago, but they’ve been moved.” Ice coated his next words. “They wouldn’t risk hurting the kids now until they stole the last one needed for the rite.”
Disappointment stabbed her. Kelly gazed around the barn. “Do you think they’re off the estate?”
“Hard to tell, but maybe somewhere around here. Moving that many kids is difficult, even if they’re drugged. Curt is a whole other challenge. He’s like me. Won’t give up the fight, and if he goes down, takes someone with him.”
His merciless tone told her exactly how challenging.
Kelly couldn’t fathom the risks Sam and his team took. Every time he went on a mission, he knew he might not return home.
Sam was cool and collected, even now when their search efforts failed. His calmness gave her strength.
I can do the same.
“We need to track them.” Kelly pointed to her pack. “The bear has their scent.”
A guarded look dropped over Sam. “It’d be difficult to trace from here.”
“Not if you shifted into a wolf.”
“I’m a good operator, Kel. I’ve tracked targets through snow and sand as a man, not a wolf.”
He stood, dusting off his hands. “Let’s head downstream, follow the bank. If they moved them off the estate, the splashing water would disguise their movements.”
At the stream, they walked along the bank until Sam squatted down and shook his head.
“Nothing. I doubt they came here.”
Kelly hugged herself, studying the current. “You taught me how to swim here.”
“I always took Pete tubing in this place. Spring rains and runoff from the mountains would push up the creek. Made sure to stay behind so I could keep my eyes on him, just in case.”
“I watched you once, from this tree.” She pointed at an overhanging sugar maple.
Sam looked up. “Why didn’t you join us?”
“I told you, I couldn’t swim.”
“I’d have taught you.”
And Pete, in his cherubic innocence, would run home and tell his parents. It’d been safer to watch in silence.
“Sam, there’s only one way to find them. You have to shift into a wolf.”
His gaze grew haunted. “I don’t want to risk turning feral and hurting you.”
She took his face between her hands. “You’d never hurt me, Sam. All this time, you’ve endangered yourself to keep me safe. The wolf will do the same.”
Kelly kissed his mouth, feeling the strong line of his lips, the responding warmth. “Do it for Curt. He’d trust you to find him, and use any means at your disposal.”
“No, he’d trust me to do anything I could to find the kids. He’d die trying to keep them safe. Maybe he already has.” Sam stood, stretching out his hands. “We can’t talk when I shift, so listen.”
He went over a series of signals used to co
mmunicate. “And if I nudge you to follow me, and you balk, I’ll give you a nip.”
Demonstrating, he took her hand and closed his teeth gently around her wrist, the pressure light. “Like this. Not hard enough to break the skin, but to get your attention.”
She nodded, her pulse beating hard.
“Stand back, Kel. And don’t get too close.”
The look in his eyes warned her.
Backing off a few feet, she watched as a golden glow surrounded him. Sam closed his eyes, drawing his magick from the earth, wind, sky and water.
The change came over him instantly. The broad-shouldered, handsome man vanished. A gray wolf, thick with muscle, its fur sleek, watched her in silence. The wolf seemed big as a tank. He bared his teeth in a low growl as he looked over the acres of pasture.
Shaken, she took a step back, her gaze never shifting away from those teeth. Fear oozed through her pores. The wolf lifted his muzzle, and she knew he scented it.
She drew the battered, well-loved teddy bear out of his pack and held it out.
“Find them, Sam.”
Instead of sniffing the toy, the wolf loped over to Kelly and sniffed her, and then he gave her hand a gentle lick. Large brown eyes swimming with intelligence regarded her.
With a hesitant stroke, she caressed the wolf’s head, rubbing between his ears. The wolf licked her hand again and then sniffed the bear. His head dropped to the ground, and then he raised his muzzle.
Then he took off, loping across the field.
Kelly sprinted, trying to keep up, lungs bellowing with each breath. Stunned, she watched him zig and zag, following the scent trail. Then the wolf bounded down a path cut through the tall grass.
A path she remembered well. Sam had cut it years ago so she could access the barn without notice. It led from their weeping willow tree, wound around the lush, jewel-toned gardens cascading down the pristine lawn...
Straight to the mansion’s formal, and locked, west wing.
The wolf ducked behind a huge magnolia tree, hiding as he gazed up at the second-story windows overlooking the fields.
Kelly joined him, squatting down, her fingers curling into his thick fur as a snarl drew his lips back.
“Easy, Sam. They’re still alive. I have to believe it, and you do, as well.”
They moved from tree to tree, the gardens’ decor and the assorted shrubs providing cover. Then the wolf snuck away, toward the same path they’d just left.
Frustrated, she tried to hold him back, but Sam kept nudging her. When she refused to move, he gently nipped her bottom.
“Hey,” she whispered, rubbing the back of her jeans.
She swore his gaze twinkled with mischief.
Keeping low, Kelly followed the wolf back down the path, until they reached the barn.
Inside, Sam shifted back. “Thanks,” she told him, rubbing her bottom.
“I warned you, disobey my commands and I bite.”
“You said a nip on the wrist.”
He grinned. “Your ass is so pretty, I changed the target zone.”
Then he shifted his attention to the trapdoor. “This is why I turned back. The passageway leads to the house, and I can access the west wing without being seen.”
“I’m coming with you.”
Sam drew out his pistol from his pack. “No, you’re not.”
“Don’t leave me behind like this. You need my help.”
“I need you safe.”
“And I’ll be fine. We’re together in this, Sam. They’re my people, remember?”
Sam went still, muscles tensed, body coiled for action. He blew out a deep breath, nodded and gave her his cell phone. “Follow me and if there’s trouble, run. Call Dallas. He’ll pick you up.”
The yawning blackness of the passageway stretched before them. Unease rippled through Kelly as they traversed the tunnel, aided by the thin pencil beam of Sam’s flashlight.
A few hundred feet ahead, the tunnel forked. Sam flipped a switch, turning on a meager bulb that barely cut the darkness. Sam flicked his light downward and spotted a small footprint.
Hope sprang to life. He moved faster.
Sensing a disturbance in the air, Kelly crept backward toward the fork and turned around.
An arm hooked around her neck, jerking her back as a palm slapped over her mouth. She struggled against the powerful grip, feeling hot breath at her ear.
“Don’t scream.”
Okay. Instead, she bit his hand. She heard a hiss of pain, and then the fingers around her throat tightened, cutting off air.
“They wanted me to kill you, but you are one of us,” the whisper came. “We are your people. Join us, Kelly Denning. Your father embraced the darkness. It is in your blood.”
Shocked grief filled her. She drew in a breath and gasped with relief as the pressure against her throat eased. “My father was not. I have no darkness inside me.”
“Liar,” the voice whispered. “You feel it growing. You hate the Elementals as we do. Kill Sam Shaymore and become one of us.”
She struggled. “Where are the children?”
Hands around her throat squeezed tighter against her windpipe. “Join us or die.”
Elbowing him hard, she dropped, rolled out of reach and reacted. Summoning her magick, she flung out her hands, directing currents of white-hot energy at her attacker. He threw his hands to block the blow and screamed. Flesh sizzled and sparks crackled, lighting the tunnel.
In the glow, she saw the man lying on the ground, skin shriveled by the heat.
I killed him, she thought, stunned. Without a chant, with Elemental powers.
Was he right? Had the darkness been inside her all along? How else could she have eliminated the Arcane with magick not her own?
Bringing her hands up before her, she staggered backward, stricken with horror.
Maybe she was the enemy, not those she hunted.
The unmistakable sound of a wolf growling echoed through the tunnel.
Sam had shifted. And he’d gone feral.
Chapter 21
The dull glow of the single bulb cast the wolf’s face into shadow.
Then he stepped into the light, directly in front of Kelly. Glowing eyes filled with rage stared. The wolf advanced, lips pulled back into a snarl.
“It’s me, Sam. It’s me. Kelly. I know you’re in there. You won’t hurt me. You’d never hurt me.”
Crouching down to his level, Kelly spoke quietly. “Sam, I’m okay. The bad guy’s dead. He’s down. Come back to me, Sam. Come back.”
The wolf swung its massive head toward the corpse.
He attacked. Kelly shrank back against the terrible sounds of tearing flesh.
“Sam, please, come back to me.”
Her voice dropped to a painful whisper. “I’m scared. And I need you.”
The wolf lifted his head and loped over to her. Blood dripped down his muzzle, staining the sleek fur.
Kelly held out a hand in absolute trust. “You’re Samuel J. Shaymore, Mage and navy SEAL. And I know you won’t hurt me.”
* * *
“You won’t hurt me.”
The words cut through the red fury hazing Shay’s mind. Rage roared through his blood, the urge to rip and shred and tear overriding all else. Muscles and tendons shuddered with the effort to check that rage, to keep from springing forward with animal instinct.
An avalanche of emotions tumbled through him. Fear for Kelly, hatred of the one who’d dared touch her.
Feral and uncontrollable. He’d lost so much, and the rage and grief engorged him as the smell of terror cut into his wolf’s brain.
Samuel J. Shaymore, U.S. Navy SEAL.
Elemental Mage, with an Arcane lover.
Sam shook his head to clear the blinding need to attack. This was his Kelly quivering before him, his lover.
The urge to protect overrode the instinct to kill. She was scared, and someone had threatened to hurt her.
“Come back to me.”
Kelly. Her name sang through the wolf’s mind, a calm and soothing chant. She needed him.
Lifting his head, he looked at Kelly.
He looked down. Sam blinked, realizing he now stood on two legs. He’d shifted back into a man.
Voice hoarse, he reached out to pull her upright. “You’re okay? He didn’t hurt you?”
Sweat glistened on her forehead and trickled down her too-pale face. “I killed him, Sam. With these.”
He kissed the digits she flexed. “Too good for him.”
“You didn’t turn feral.”
“You kept me grounded,” he said quietly, brushing his mouth over her knuckles.
Shay clothed himself by magick. Kneeling by the dead body, he studied the look of frozen horror on the man’s face.
“I killed him with thoughts, not chants. He wanted me to kill you, said I was one of them, filled with darkness.” Horror tinged her faint voice. “Am I, Sam? How else could I summon power enough to do this?”
The terror on her face wrenched his heart. “No. I don’t know how you did this, but you’re not evil, Kelly. All this time, you’ve thought nothing for yourself, only those you want to free. Your intentions were honorable and your heart is good. Evil seeks only to seize power for itself and cares nothing for others. Evil has no compassion. It can’t love.”
They forged ahead. The tunnel ended at a stone wall with a heavy steel door set into it. The door opened noiselessly. Someone had entered the house through this corridor, wanting to keep their passage secret.
They stepped onto a landing and mounted the steps.
A faint scream sounded in the distance. Kelly froze. Sam squeezed her hand. “Steady.”
Anything could be on the door’s other side. He pulled the handle.
It opened to a cavernous room. Once it had housed a grand piano on a dais and a gleaming parquet floor. Guests had danced beneath the light of hundreds of crystals shimmering in the cut-glass chandelier.
Now it lay empty and still, the shine on the floor dulled, the chandelier dusty.
The children were here. She felt it. And beneath the sweet scent of innocence, vanilla and spring, he scented something stronger and deeper, more forceful.
Curt.
Sam drew out his weapon as they cut through the ballroom. The gilded double doors were open to the hallway. He sneaked a peek.