On the Run (Wine of the Gods Book 28)

by Pam Uphoff

  Hmm. What about a wolf? A wolf would be good in snow, right?

  He heard movement and turned around to track it down. Ah, the second police lady. No glow like the first, but a pretty woman nonetheless.

  She spotted him and sucked in a breath. "Oh, aren't you magnificent! What kind of cat are you?"

  Eldon smirked, internally. Probably externally, too. Cats were good at smirks. He sent out feelers, yes, the lady was feeling horny, envious of her newly engaged friend. Hmm, the wind and windows . . . Eldon sent just a hint of desire and invitation wafting toward her, and walked off around the corner. She followed, around and out of sight of the windows, and any other watchers. Out of the wind. Too bad it was so cold out. He purred, and sniffed at her.

  "Oh, you're tame. Must be, umm, some odd hybrid." She relaxed as the dreamy spell settled in and stroked his hair. Ah! Women. Pity the inn was so packed. He had to be careful with the outdoors fun in really cold weather. He could kill someone that way if he wasn't careful. He morphed back toward human for a bit of kiss and cuddle, except that he would be bare assed naked if he morphed too far. Nice and furry, that was the ticket. He got her out of as little of her clothes as was practical for a quickie. Then he got in a few more kisses, and sent her back inside to warm up. He made a few more rounds, then changed and dressed and went inside to wake Rior.

  Chapter Eleven

  Wednesday 16 November 2015

  Dice Creek

  Ajha decided that it was time to start getting himself out of here. Best to be gone when the police arrived to capture Rior. Rior would be bound to cause a splash, and anyone else in the vicinity would be well advised to not get wet. So at the crack of dawn, he was up and shoveling snow. Of course, with a bit of levitation added to it, he was moving pretty good volumes of snow and making progress down the drive toward the street when Hob came out to spell him. Ajha lingered long enough to see that he could co-ordinate the shovel and the levitation, and headed in to defrost his toes.

  Hot cinnamon and brown sugar oatmeal today. Then he suggested that Fean and Baik pack. "Just in case we can get out of here this afternoon. When they get the roads open, I want to be ready."

  They nodded, both looking a bit wistful. I'm getting them away from the Fallen barely in time. They hadn't brought much, so packing was quick and easy. Fean went out and spelled Hob, and Eldon had to go out to show off. Then Baik challenged Heso. The drive was clear by the time they came in for a late lunch. Sandwiches and canned soup, this time. Ajha had a feeling that the roads were going to be clear just in time to avoid running out of food.

  The police were alert. They must be expecting a raid any moment . . . but to his surprise they seemed to be watching Arnold Bellemiso more than Rior. He wandered past Bellemiso and opened his shields, pried a bit. He managed to keep to the same pace as he stepped back to their room, where he upchucked his lunch.

  "Are you all right, Exploration Leader?" Fean looked worriedly through the door.

  "You know, the only thing worse than taking a peek at a complete sociopath's mind is taking a good hard look at the mind of a sociopath who's gotten away with it for decades. One! You lot are to stay completely away from Arnold Bellemiso and his people, got that? That's an order." He flushed the toilet by pouring the bucket of water into it. Fean snatched the bucket and went out to fill it herself. Ajha thanked the One that the septic system wasn't frozen, and brushed his teeth.

  "It's starting to melt out there." She plunked the bucket of slush beside the toilet, waved a hand over it to finish melting it and left him in peace.

  "Seven years ago you were as obnoxious a Withione puppy as I'd ever been told to paper train." He kept his muttering quiet enough for her to not catch. She'd actually been coming along nicely, just still bristly about, well, men. Sex. Eldon seemed to have answered all her questions and settled her uncertainties.

  He wandered around and finally buttonholed Fean. "I can't find Baik."

  Fean rolled her eyes. "You could try Heso's room, although it might be a bit embarrassing."

  Now that's the Fean I'm used to. "Heso's not the problem I'm worried about."

  Hob trotted in the front door, beaming. "I hear heavy equipment. I think the snow plow is coming."

  Everyone crowded out to listen to the sweet sound of a distant diesel engine. Bellemiso frowned and ducked back inside. The police swapped glances and followed.

  Ajha and Fean exchanged glances.

  "This could get messy. Remember the rules. Be subtle in assisting, if you absolutely must help."

  Fean scowled. "I was thinking, shields."

  "Shields are dangerous, if the person being protected doesn't understand. If the police fire from inside the shield, the ricochets could kill them."

  Fean and Hob looked shocked.

  "On the other hand, sucking kinetic energy as a round is fired would shorten their range and drop the speed of the bullets. Just make sure you are closer to Bellemiso's people than to the police. And have your personal shields up."

  That got thoughtful nods. It all sounded so pure and clean. They had no idea how messy it would all be in actuality, if it came to shooting.

  ***

  "Get away from my daughter."

  Eldon jerked around to see the Suit scooping up the nearest little redhead. Pike squawked and wiggled in protest as she was carried off. Falchion dashed across the room, left hand raised. The man was out of sight down the hallway before she got around the milling yuppies. Eldon followed more slowly, dodging people. Out of sight down the corridor he tossed a lightwarp around himself. Voices were coming from the policemen's room.

  "Right, good decision." The Suit was showing big white teeth while the police all dropped their guns. They looked liked they had been getting ready to strike, body armor lying around the room. "We wouldn't want anything to happen to Little Red, here, would we?"

  Falchion was flat on the floor, blood oozing from her scalp behind her ear. Rushed in without caution.

  One of the bodyguards had rope, and started trying the police up and together. As they finished, Eldon gave ground. The Suit still had Pike, and he couldn't see any of the other witches. Damn, what a time for everyone to be packing.

  :: Heso! Rior! Jade! Get down here! ::

  He had to jog to keep up with the Suit, power walking out to the car park. "So, let's get these generators out now." He was talking to the yuppies. All seven of them were here, their luggage strewn around their cars. They started throwing open the trunks and pulling out these cute little cases, and then some much larger crates. The sound he was hearing now wasn't a snow plow, it was a helicopter.

  "Excellent. All ready to go. I see. A wise decision. I'll be out of here and if the police come nosing around, why, you were simply here on vacation, and a very tragic one it was. Go down to the sheriff's office and cry about your lost husband, check all the hospitals. Yes indeed."

  The helicopter came straight in and hovered just above the cars in the little park. the bodyguards hastened to grab the crates as the Suit headed for the copter, still carrying Pike.

  Eldon dropped the light warp. "Drop the kid. I don't give a shit whatever else you're up to, but the kid stays here with us."

  The Suit pulled out a gun. Two shots spanged off his shield, then the gun turned toward the girl. Eldon aimed a very careful Slice, and the gun fell apart in the Suit's hand. Two fingers went with it. Men with machine guns appeared in the helicopter bay door and he slapped a fast hard Slice across it. Must have hit something important because the copter rocked and lifted, then thumped down across four cars, tilting. Eldon spun to see Bellamiso fleeing, still holding Pike. The copter . . . Eldon dropped and curled up inside his strongest kinetic shield as the rotor hit the ground. After all the flying debris had hit the ground he rolled back up to his feet. The Suit was throwing Pike into one of the SUVs. The Yuppies, all in one piece if less than immaculate, were getting up from behind their cars. Two bodyguards and a man in paramilitary gear were grabbing the crates an
d tossing them back into the Yuppies' cars. Three of them. The fourth car was having illicit congress with a rotor blade. Eldon shielded again as the bodyguards opened fire.

  ***

  Jim watched nervously as the Cook wielded a large knife around his marvelous Martha, slicing ropes like an expert. Martha staggered over to the bed, snatched her gun and headed out the door. Dirk was right behind her, then Jim was free and doing the same damn thing.

  Falchion hadn't been tied. When she recovered from being sapped, she'd staggered off without untying them. But the cook had shown up within minutes, so they weren't too far behind the Perps.

  No one was in the Lobby, the staff was outside, staring at the helicopter that was down in the parking lot. It had sat down half on cars and tipped. He ran toward it, trying to look around and see everything, not just stare at the big black thing. The bodies. Bright blood on the white snow. Must have been sliced up by the rotors when they flew off.

  Several vehicles were missing; three of the physicists' four cars and two of the Animal's SUVs. No, not missing, they were down the driveway, stopped for a fight. It looked like one SUV had nosed the other off the cleared path enough to stop it. Falchion pulled a child from the blocked SUV and retreated, while Eldon went down under a rain of blows to his head. Bellemiso said something to Falchion, who shook her head and pointed down the driveway. Bellemiso busied himself with something, then his people were back in the cars and driving off as Bellemiso placed something on the ground and leaped into the last SUV. It accelerated around the corner and out of sight.

  Eldon climbed slowly to his feet and staggered up hill.

  A hundred foot radius sphere of effect, the physicists had claimed.

  Falchion grabbed his arm and hauled him sideways into the trees.

  No! Run! Jim wanted to yell, but knew they were too far away. But Eldon glanced his way and galloped over to the thing Bellemiso had left in the road. He picked it up and threw it deep into the snowy woods. Then he ran up the driveway, urging Falchion to run faster.

  Martha frowned at the perps that were running to them instead of away. Then she looked around the parking lot. "What the hell is going on?"

  Norm and Andy slid and stumbled into the parking lot.

  Norm squinted down the driveway. "Hope to hell they have some sort of blockade up. Why the hell weren't there dozens of police right behind the plow? And why are they running this direction?"

  Andy nodded. "I'm getting a bit worried about Harwin."

  Char galloped up. "Most of the Animal gang is still inside, where's Bellemiso?"

  "And what was that in the driveway? You think it's a bomb?" Martha looked worried.

  They all turned as the sound of rapid distant shots reached them.

  "Sounds like Bellemiso has found some more police."

  A bright white light sprang up in the trees.

  His stomach flipped over and his ears carried on like he was on a roller coaster. He fell over and Martha folded up next to him, her arms around her head.

  Not a physical blast, more like, like something slowly turning him inside out.

  Norm was retching somewhere behind him and Andy was trying to crawl away. The four yuppie women screamed, although he wasn't sure he wasn't screaming along with them.

  ***

  Eldon winced away from the brilliant light. But he felt his way forward and felt a small foot. He pulled, backed up, kept pulling, bundled the child up against himself and kept going. He felt hands, searching as his were. He took the hand and put it on the child, then staggered to his feet and pulled her up. The light was so intense it beat through his shields and his brain felt like it was getting crispy around the edges.

  "Eldon, I think I'm going to need help on this." Falchion sounded frightened, and Eldon felt her hand on his back. "It's light Eldon, you're a wizard, channel the power to me."

  "That's a witch thing. Wizards don't . . ." he stopped arguing and fed her power, the pain in his head subsided a bit, so he sent more, as much as he possibly could. In fact, he could warp it right around him, and feed it to her, without having to ever hold it himself. Wonderful! Channeling for wizards.

  He relaxed enough to see that she was channeling too, sending the power into the Earth, which was absorbing it, converting it into heat, in fact. The snow was dripping and melting. He reached out and touched a patch of bare rock. It was warm, almost uncomfortably warm.

  "What is all this?"

  "The inbetween. He's found a way to break through, but he hasn't used it to form a gate, he's just letting everything leak in. And out."

  "Can you use it to make a gate?"

  "Old Gods! Of course."

  He could see her mental hand reach through the light and grab something, not a bubble, a cone shape, spinning like a top. She slowed it, aimed the top at the nearest of the big sheets of . . . Oh it was a World. The Cone stuck to it, and the tail lashed out into the light and sucked it up and jolted to a halt. The light died.

  And suddenly he was just a big lout sitting in the slush of half melted snow, a glowing circle rising up in front of him, and a child clutched in his arms. He wrapped a hand around her lower ribs and felt her breathing. Falchion was crouched against his back shivering. He shifted the child against his shoulder, climbed wearily to his feet and reached down to heave Falchion to her feet. The kid had better be okay, or he was going to have to do something nasty to Bellamiso.

  Maybe he would anyway, once he felt a little better.

  They staggered wide around the crowd in the parking lot and back inside and Eldon dropped Falchion on the couch and put Pike in her arms.

  Epee bolted down the stairs and started checking them.

  "Over extended, the both of them, I think."

  He dropped into a chair himself and shook his head to see if his shriveled up brain rattled.

  "And there's a gate out there. I dunno where it goes."

  "Eldon, do you really think that was a good idea?" Jade, of course.

  "The gate? I think that was the only way Falchion could deal with the breach."

  He leaned his head back and let the world go away for awhile. Until someone kicked him.

  Jade, of course. "Up and at 'em. The cops are after Bellemiso, so let's go while they're busy."

  Eldon staggered to his feet and aimed himself more or less downhill toward the parking lot.

  Some very familiar looking people were tied to trees.

  Rior scowled. "Who did they used to be? And why did they deserve to look like us?"

  "The Yuppies. It's just illusions, they'll stick for a few days."

  Eldon nodded his approval. "They made the thingies, gadgets. That made the breach in the World. They don't deserve any better."

  "I see. And, did they use them all?"

  "Nah, only one of the little ones. I'd hate to see what the big one would do."

  Rior walked up and frowned at him. "Let's start with, how many little ones."

  "Three. So they've got two left."

  "That little one floored us all inside the lodge. I'm impressed you two could do anything at all. And I don't want to see if you could do it again, and I don't want to see what the big one could do." Rior looked around. "Let's get out of here."

  Heso slapped Eldon's shoulder. "Sit. I've got all of our stuff in the SUV."

  Eldon winced, two of the SUVs were gone. It was going to be cramped. Maybe he'd just walk through the gate. Then he realized what else was missing. "Hey, the Cops, the Oners."

  "The Oners are packing, the cops are busy down the road. I think we'll leave them alone."

  They all turned as the sound of rapid distant shots reached them. Shrieking tires and revving engines.

  "Sounds like they're getting closer."

  "So? Let's get before they chase them all the way back here." Jade led the way to their single remaining SUV.

  They were gluing all their bubbles on the inside of the SUV, and grumbling about the loss of the other two when the missing cars and SUVs a
ll skidded back into the parking lot and slid to a sloppy halt. The others warped light, and with a moan, Eldon stepped behind a tree.

  Two men in paramilitary gear leaped out and sprayed fire down the driveway. The pursuing cars backed out of sight, and the witches threw up a shield as the bullets came their way. Four more men –the bodyguards—leaped out of the cars, and they started transferring things from the cars to the SUVs. Did they think the four wheel drives could save them? There were the logging roads, but they'd be impassable in this snow, no matter the vehicle. The Suit climbed out last and stared at the faux Animal Gang, still tied to trees. Yelling.

  "For God's sake, Bellemiso, get us out of here! The cops think we're the Animal Gang."

  "The Animal Gang?" Bellemiso'd grim expression brightened. "Just what we need. Those Invisibility Suits and the Paralysis Field may just save our bacon. Go fetch those two women and a selection of children. Try not to hurt any of them.