“Be waiting at my place for me to reappear, or…dear God…he’d be more likely to really get his hands on my sister, give me irrefutable proof of it, and make me come to him. Something that would make me pay with my soul. We need to really hurry.” She picked up her pace.
He swooped her up. “I can hurry better than you can.” She didn’t argue as he broke into a run. “In realizing the true nature of Pathos, you are already halfway toward defeating him. You’d make a good warrior,” he said, only partially winded.
“What makes you say that?” she asked, pulling her hair off the nape of her neck so that the breeze his speed generated could cool her skin. The rising of the sun had caused the forest about them to emit a steamy air, one that seemed to be dampening the spirits about her, for barely a bird chirped or a bee buzzed.
“Your selfless courage and dedication. Your instinct to put another’s needs before your own.”
“It’s not true,” she said, shaking her head. “You have no idea how much my selfishness has cost those that I love.”
“Because you chose to be a doctor over—”
“Over loving, over giving anyone I cared about priority over my own goals.”
“Are you a doctor for glory and prestige, or are you a doctor to save the lives of those in need?”
“No one in her right mind goes through what I went through to have a wall trophy.”
“Then I suggest you rethink who you are. No battle is waged without cost.”
“Only if the same rule applies to you as well,” she said.
“There’s no comparison. Anger didn’t spur your actions.”
“There’s no way to convince me the hero’s heart that has done nothing but protect and defend mortals you didn’t even know two days ago, at extreme cost to yourself, hasn’t always beaten within you. So maybe neither of us is as bad as we think. But it doesn’t matter. The consequences of our actions were too high a price, and now we have to do what we can to fix it.”
He looked as if he was about to argue, and she pressed her finger to his lips to stop him. “It’s true,” she insisted, but before she could say more, the whop of an approaching copter thrummed in the air. Pathos had not only let the dogs out, he’d called in the heavy equipment as well.
Aragon darted beneath the covering of trees and kept to the shadows as he rushed down the mountain. Annette tried to make herself as unburdensome as possible. If there was any way she could have ditched the me-Tarzan-you-Jane routine without jeopardizing their safety, she would have. Instead she had to rely upon him again, which chafed a bit, and kept her looking for a way to help.
He reached a clearing and, instead of running directly across it, began skirting the edge. Just as he bent to escape the circling copter, she caught sight of it, instantly recognizing the LifeFlight blue cross emblazoned on its side.
“It’s Nick,” she told Aragon. “Hurry into the clearing and try and get his attention.”
Aragon dashed into the open just as the helicopter swooped over. Annette waved her arms, struggling quickly out of Aragon’s embrace so that she could run too. That’s when she saw Sam nearly hanging out of the door with a pair of binoculars. He signaled that he’d seen them, and the helicopter swung around.
“Let’s give them some landing room.” Annette grabbed Aragon’s hand, pulling him to the side of the clearing. By the time Nick brought the copter down, she and Aragon were almost already to its side, their heads ducked low against the punishing blasts of wind from the blades. She had to hold her sheet in place, or it would have been whipped right off her body.
Nobody tried to speak above the roar of the engine and slicing blades. Nick took off the moment Sam slammed the door shut. Had it been anyone but Pathos after them, she would have closed her eyes in relief as Nick circled around. The helipad was next to the ranger’s station near the Smoky Mountain National Forest, about twenty miles north of Twilight, and didn’t seem far enough to escape Pathos’s rage. Then again, was there anywhere in the universe that was possible? She kept waiting for claws to grab her and the deep chill of his touch to burn her soul.
“Do we need an ambulance?” Sam asked, his blue gaze grave.
She shook her head no, forcing a reassuring grimace. If Pathos had gotten to her, she didn’t think there was much modern medicine could have done to help her.
Sam looked as if he’d spent every hour of the night in an agony of anxiety. It made her feel guilty for the time she and Aragon had shared. But given the ferocity of the storm and their unprotected state, they’d had no choice but to seek shelter.
Sam picked up the radio, and Annette grabbed his shoulder.
“Everyone safe?” she shouted.
He nodded this time.
“Where?” After everything that had happened, she doubted any of them would be safe in their homes again. But considering Rankin’s part in this, she realized safety was nothing but a relative deception anywhere.
“You’ll see.”
Annette shrugged and leaned back into the seat next to Aragon. She’d find out soon enough. If Sam wanted to be cryptic, then she’d let him. Aragon wrapped his arm around her shoulders and drew her closer to him. Then she felt him stiffen.
“Are you hurt?” she asked, getting close to his ear to be heard.
“Scratch on my shoulder,” he said. “It will heal.”
Thinking a tree limb must have harmed him during the run down the mountain, she nodded and closed her eyes to rest for a moment. She would look at Aragon’s shoulder once they reached safety.
It was good to see both Sam and Nick. She still needed to talk to Nick about Stef, but now that she knew Rankin was behind Stef’s disappearance, she decided her sister’s night with Nick wasn’t exactly her business anymore. The conversation she’d had with the son of a bitch was still hot in her mind.
“What did you do to Stefanie and Abe Bennett?”
“Why, I simply sent them way south of the border into the heart of the research project she was so doggedly investigating.”
Annette had a sick feeling that she might know where “way south of the border” was.
Sooner than Annette expected, Nick circled and began to descend. She leaned to the side, peering out the copter’s window. They weren’t anywhere near the LifeFlight helipad. And the horizon tilted sickeningly as the sight of the Sacred Stones grabbed her insides and twisted.
“What are we doing here?” she shouted at Sam, hardly able to make herself heard over the copter’s noise.
“It’s safer. Em and Jared will explain.”
Annette widened her eyes but didn’t voice her opinion as she looked out over the mountaintop. To her it was the least safe place for miles.
Seeing the ancient stones from the air made her realize that there was a pattern to the placement of the pillars and lines of the flower beds. She grabbed Aragon’s amulet from where it rested upon her chest, glanced at the twelve-point star, and compared it to the Sacred Stones.
Either her imagination was working overtime, or there was a strong similarity. She made a mental note to ask Aragon what the symbol meant and how the Sacred Stones tied into the spirit realm. She hadn’t asked before, and she should have.
Past the stones, a thick grove of trees in a green almost too vibrant to be real gave way to a lush clearing. In the center of it sat a faded cement pad edged in tall dark grass lashed by the force of the driving blades.
Annette didn’t know exactly why the forest surroundings seemed Hollywood odd to her, but they did. It was as if they weren’t quite the way they were supposed to be, and she blinked several times as Nick zeroed in on the pad. Shielding their faces from the wind, Emerald, Erin, and Jared were a welcome sight. After landing, Nick began shutting down the engine, and Sam popped out of his side of the copter, motioning for her hand to help her out.
Aragon steadied her from behind with a hot hand on her shoulder and hip as she wobbled a moment before stepping down into the bright of the morning sun. Exiting t
he helicopter and trying to stay decent in her half of the red satin sheet became a cover-up scramble brilliant enough to make a politician’s day.
Emerald grabbed her the moment they met, just past the worst of the pummeling copter wind. “Bloody fooking hell, are you okay?” she shouted, trying to hug and shake the daylights out of her at the same time. Tears fell from Emerald’s red-rimmed eyes, their green depths stark with emotion, and Annette’s own eyes watered in response. She felt awful that her friends had worried so much.
“You shouldna have gone with the bastard. No matter what he said. We could have doon somethin’ to save Stef.” Emerald dashed at her tears with a rough hand and glanced back at the copter. “The bastard dinna have Stef, did he?”
Annette hugged Emerald back. “No, he didn’t, and I’m sorry.” Emerald cried harder, and Annette hugged her tighter. “I’m really okay. Aragon has great timing.” Glancing to her right, she saw that Aragon was with Jared and Sam.
Emerald pulled back and gave a wobbly grimace. “I know. What has me so fooking wrung out now is that if it had been my daughter, if someone said they had Meggie, I would’ve doon the same.”
“Where is Megan?”
“Here,” Emerald said, urging everyone to follow her even farther away from the whip of the slowing copter blades. “For now.”
When they were free of the wind, Erin slid her arm about Annette’s shoulder and gave a welcoming squeeze as they walked. “I’m so glad you’re all right. I kept thinking about what I went through with Cinatas.”
“You and Jared had it worse. Aragon found me before Pathos did anything bad. Pathos is different from Cinatas. Not as sadistic, but more chilling. He’ll find a way to make you do what he wants rather than use pain or force. Somehow that makes it worse.”
Erin shivered.
Annette sucked in a bracing breath. Even the air smelt sweeter and fresher here. They were headed for a cluster of concrete block buildings at the end of the pebbled dirt path. Nothing about the buildings’ bark-brown paint or brown tin roofs was surreal. The drab colors blended into the pine-straw-strewn earth, which only made the unrealistic shades of green coloring the trees, bushes, and grass even more odd. She blinked several more times at the forest surrounding them. Was there something wrong with her eyes? She shook her head and focused on the dirt beneath her feet. While it was a normal brown color with a smattering of pebbles dotting its surface, the earth felt unusually soft to the soles of her bare feet. It was solid ground, though, and she shoved the oddity to the back of her mind, wondering if something about her experiences during the past twenty-four hours had her seeing things differently.
“What exactly happened at the Rankins’ house?” Erin asked.
She explained what happened. “He had Stefanie’s laptop, and he’s been e-mailing Abe’s mother.”
“We know, luv. I found the laptop, and there are records and dates on there about the X-files that are going to go a long way in helping to bring some of the doctors at Sno-Med down. Sam has it locked up in safekeeping.”
Annette hoped it wasn’t on a dusty shelf at the station house where sticky fingers could easily nab it. She made a note to ask him later. She wanted to see it, touch it, find some connection to her sister. But for now it was good enough to hear that Stefanie had collected evidence that would help bring down the evil she’d uncovered.
“Sam says Rob killed his wife,” Erin said.
Annette shuddered. “Yes, and he would have gone after me, except Pathos and Cinatas showed up and eliminated him. Rob had Stef and Abe Bennett sent somewhere because they discovered he was using Sno-Med experimental treatments to kill his wife for the insurance money. I think I may know where he sent them.”
“Whoa there!” Sam grabbed Annette’s shoulder, swinging her around to face him.
She told them all about what happened with Rob and his comment about sending Stef and Abe way south of the border into the heart of the research project. “Couple that with the fact that all of Sno-Med’s blood supplies and samples went—”
“Corazon de Rojo,” Sam said gravely.
“Yes,” Annette whispered.
“She’s as good as dead,” he said harshly.
Though she’d considered that in the very back of her mind, Annette still felt her heart sink with despair. Aragon must have been completely attuned to her, because his arm wrapped around her shoulders, helping her to stay upright.
“DOONA SAY THAT!” Emerald shouted. “She’s not. And we’ve got to get her out.”
“We’ll go,” Sam said. “We’ll go fast. As in today. But don’t be wearing any Pollyanna glasses about what we’ll find.”
“Pathos may be after Stefanie as well,” Aragon said. “He will use or harm whoever he can to get to Annette.”
“He already tried,” said Jared. “Last night the red demons were out in force, determined to get to us. Before sunrise nearly one hundred had gathered.”
Annette shuddered, looking at all of her dear friends. It would kill her inside if something happened to them because of her. “What did you do?” she whispered.
“Not we,” said Erin. “Emerald. We had almost made it to the Sacred Stones before they attacked. Emerald stopped them with some sort of magical power, but it wasn’t until we got closer to the Sacred Stones that she kicked supernatural ass. Her power blasted the demons back a hundred yards and kept them back until sunrise.”
“Doona make it more than it was. We’re needin’ to get to Stef.”
“I will get her,” Aragon whispered.
Annette slid her hand over Aragon’s to let him know they were in this together. “How are we going to get to Belize? A flight from Atlanta with a major airline would take too much time, even if we could get seats at the last minute. Besides, Aragon and Jared don’t have a passport or any identification yet. And what are we going to do when we get there?”
“Not a problem,” Sam and Nick said at the same time.
“I’ve got friends in high places,” added Sam. “They can fly you anywhere you want to go.”
“And I’ve got ’em in low,” replied Nick. “I’ll get the passports, and you get the transpo.”
“What’s this?” Sam narrowed his gaze at Nick.
“Geeky low,” Nick clarified. “They can do anything with computers, though they usually don’t, but I think this falls under necessary. Jared and Aragon need identities.”
“I’ll be stayin’ here feedin’ the magic,” said Emerald. “Until the concentration in the atmosphere is stronger, I canna leave, and I canna leave Meggie, either.”
“There’s no reason for any of you to go,” Sam said, pointedly looking Annette and Erin’s way.
Annette narrowed her gaze. “Are you so sexist that you will leave a qualified doctor and nurse behind so that your he-man machismo can exercise its muscle? From what you’ve said about Corazon de Rojo, Erin and I are essential.”
“They have to be a-goin’, Sam,” Emerald said. “So you best not waste precious time arguin’ aboot it.”
“What do you mean?” Sam demanded.
Emerald shook her head. “I can’t say more because I don’t know more. Now let’s be giving them some food, and you put your mind to getting to Belize.”
“It’s entirely too convenient for you to mutter, ‘They have to be a-goin’, Sam,’ and expect that to be law. Corazon is a death camp that I don’t want any of you getting near.”
Emerald’s eyes sparked with fire. She planted her finger in the middle of Sam’s chest and backed him up with each of her points. “Convenient?” she said. “Do ya think it’s easy knowin’ evil is a-comin’ and bad things are goina happen and not be able to do a thing aboot it, now? Do ya think I like only seein’ a piece of the trouble, and never knowin’ exactly what it is? And what about Meggie? Do ya think she wanted the burden of a vision no child could even hope to understand and shouldna ever have to face? Do ya think that’s convenient?” Emerald’s last words were choked with heavy emotion
and wrung Annette’s heart.
“Em,” Sam whispered, looking as if his eyes had just opened for the first time.
“Doona speak to me,” Emerald said and swung around, marching to the first building on the right.
Annette followed on Emerald’s heels, with Erin right beside her. Annette glanced at the dormlike living quarters—bedrooms and a bathroom shooting off from a central living room—then focused her attention on Emerald. “What happened with Megan?”
Emerald put her fingers to her lips and tiptoed to a closed door, cracked it open, peeked inside. “Meggie’s sleeping,” she said, shutting the door softly. Crossing the room, she spoke low. “She didn’t sleep at all last night. Remember the phone call from the school yesterday on our way to the Rankins’?”
Annette nodded.
“She didn’t have a stomachache, but pretending to be sick was the only way she could get the school to call me. She had a vision. Of you and me. Of Rankin and what he did to his wife. Of Pathos and of black creatures with wings eating me alive while you had to watch it all so that you could see what would happen to your sister if you weren’t good. She told me that no matter what, I could not go to where I was going. That I had to go right home.”
“But you didn’t.” Annette shuddered. “You followed me.”
“I couldn’t just leave you, but I couldn’t stop them from taking you either.”
Annette shook her head. “I pray to God that there is never a next time, but you have to promise to do what Meggie says next time. Pathos knew you were hiding in the woods. He could smell you. I have no doubt that had you been with me, and Pathos had captured you, he would have done exactly what Meggie dreamed, but slowly, a piece at a time, whenever he wanted me to do something ‘willingly’ for him. The black creatures are called Underlings. There were hundreds of them flying around the place where Pathos took me. Thank God, according to Aragon, the Underlings can only exist in a limited area under special conditions.”
The Lure of the Wolf Page 26