Ambushed

by Dean Murray

  Carson frowned. "You're right, that's not enough, not nearly enough. Do you have any other prospects besides me?"

  "I've got one other wolf that I expect to be joining me soon, but other than that it's just you and Shawn. I'll be reaching out to some of the independents who've been fighting on the border with Brandon, but I'm not very hopeful that any of them will rock the boat right now. They're all too worried that if they step wrong it will bring down reprisals against everyone else still down there, that or their families back in their home packs."

  "That makes sense. You're not planning on getting much out of Jaclyn or the others because they are being watched?"

  "Yeah. How many people do you think you can come up with?"

  Carson was silent for a moment as he considered the question. I'd expected him to look off into space while he was thinking, but he didn't. Instead he looked at Brindi and his expression changed slightly. It was almost imperceptible, but his face softened a little.

  "From the standpoint of raw numbers it's not going to be good. I think I have three or four hybrids that I can depend on, maybe a few more than that, but not many."

  He held a hand up before I could despair. "I'm going to have to eat some crow, but I think I've got something better than a dozen hybrids though."

  He didn't have to tell me what would be better than a dozen hybrids. The answer was obvious. He had access to a hybrid with some kind of extreme power. Someone like Brandon or Puppeteer, someone who could tip the balance of the fight all by himself.

  "Do you think this…friend will agree to help?"

  Carson was still looking at Brindi as he answered. It was almost like he knew her, that or maybe she reminded him of someone else, someone important to him.

  "I think so, but there's no guarantee. The last time we saw each other…well, things were said. Even if he does agree to help he may not be able to make the difference. He's not always the most dependable in a fight."

  "Then I guess I'd better keep trying to come up with more help. Saving Agony is too important to leave anything to chance."

  Chapter 16

  Alec Graves

  Perfect Sleep Hotel

  Omaha, Nebraska

  I was disoriented and struggling to remember how I'd gotten here. I remembered talking to Carson, remembered walking back to our SUV with Brindi still in my arms, but I didn't remember coming back to Rio Rico.

  Even odder, I couldn't think of any reason for Brindi to be here with me, but she was. Not only that, she wasn't injured anymore. It wasn't just the fact that she was moving around without wincing every time she breathed. Somehow she'd put back on the black club wear that she'd been wearing the first time I'd seen her in Chicago and her bare stomach was as unblemished and whole as it had been before she'd stumbled into my fight with the Chicago hybrid.

  Except that was impossible. Her clothes had been little more than bloody ribbons when we'd left Chicago. She would have had to have purchased new clothes, but more club wear wasn't the kind of thing we should be wasting money on right now.

  I tried to get Brindi's attention, but she ignored me, choosing instead to continue to rub her face against my arm like some kind of blonde housecat. That was when I finally realized I had to be dreaming.

  I tried to make her disappear. We were never apart for more than a few minutes while I was awake. It seemed unfair that I couldn't at least have some privacy inside my own dreams, but apparently my subconscious was firmly of the opinion that she belonged here with me. Brindi flickered a little, growing slightly translucent before becoming solid again and returning to clinging to me.

  I would have tried harder to remove her from my dream, but being here, aware I was dreaming, was awakening memories that were demanding my full attention. The last time I'd had a lucid dream there had been another girl, the one Brindi reminded me of…a girl named Adri.

  It all came back to me in a rush. Her situation, our kiss, my fight against dream werewolves at the end. That was the kiss that I'd been on the point of remembering at the club before Brindi had distracted me.

  The realization of what I'd forgotten rocked my world in completely unexpected ways. I staggered over to a bench that had appeared just a second before, apparently summoned by my need, and sat down. Dream-Brindi trailed along behind me, never losing contact with my skin, and sat down next to me. The bench hadn't been large enough to accommodate both of us when I'd sat down, but it stretched as Brindi lowered herself onto it, growing so that there was room for us.

  I wanted to scream. There was no reason to believe that my dream had been anything more than just another dream, but I lived in a world that contained vampires and werewolves, a world where people could shift into terrible, fearsome beasts. Not only that, there was at least one instance of an individual who could travel to other people's dreams.

  Besides, my dream with Adri had been too real, too detailed to be just another dream, which meant that she was really out there. She'd been in danger when I'd talked to her last, but I'd been so wrapped up in my worries about Rachel, Brandon and Kaleb that I had told her I couldn't help her.

  That wasn't true anymore. I could help her now—I wanted to help her—but I didn't have any way of getting in contact with her. She was the girl I'd been dreaming about since even before I'd made my first transformation to a wolf, and I couldn't do a single damn thing to help her.

  It was infuriating in the way that only complete powerlessness could be. I had resources now that I hadn't had before, but that still wasn't any kind of guarantee. I could find a sketch artist and pay millions plastering her face on every television in America, but that still might not be enough and it might even put her in more danger.

  I started making plans, subtle plans to try and find her anyway. I'd hire private investigators. She'd had a hint of an accent, Minnesota or maybe Canadian. It was hard to tell for sure which it had been, but it was at least something to go on.

  Even as my mind was picking and choosing amongst all of the different possibilities I knew it wasn't where I should be spending my time. I should be thinking about ways to find more hybrids and wolves rather than trying to find a girl who might not even exist, but I couldn't help myself.

  My mind stopped thinking about her mid-thought and it took me nearly a full second to understand why. We weren't…I wasn't alone. Dream-Brindi vanished as I jumped to my feet and spun in a quick circle. Apparently my subconscious felt like she belonged with me even in the middle of my dreams but the urge to protect her, to get her out of danger was even stronger still.

  I completed the scan of my surroundings, but there wasn't anyone out there…only there was. Visually there wasn't anything out of the ordinary and I couldn't hear or smell anything, but I could feel someone nearby.

  It was a little like the feeling you get when someone is staring at you, but magnified a thousand times. As I forced myself to control my breathing and clear my mind, the sensation grew until I could have closed my eyes and pointed at whomever it was.

  They were moving, not quickly, but they were orbiting me. I could tell direction, but not distance, but the simple fact that I knew they were there had robbed them of their biggest weapon. Except that it had to be one of only two people. I couldn't believe that Adri would have come to me like this, not after our last encounter, which meant this had to be Dream Stealer.

  I tracked him with my eyes for several seconds so that he would know I really did know where he was.

  "I know you're there. Show yourself."

  The air shimmered slightly and then he appeared in front of me, only he looked nothing at all like Adri had described him. He was huge, easily the most imposing man I'd ever seen, and he looked like he wasn't a day past thirty.

  "How did you know I was present in your dream, Alec?"

  "I don't know, Dream Stealer, I just did. Since when have you started spying on other members of the resistance?"

  He shot me a look that awoke my beast with an accompanying surge of anger, bu
t even here inside of my dream I ruled my beast, not the other way around.

  "You're awfully quick to claim that title. Most spend years just trying to keep their head down. It's only once the Coun'hij has backed us into a corner that most of us choose to actively fight them."

  "I don't believe in halfway measures. I spent the first two decades of my life trying to live in the gray and all it bought me was several brushes with death and nearly losing my sister. Once I decided to rescue her from Vincent I knew there wasn't any going back."

  "The timing of that strikes me as being awfully suspicious."

  My beast didn't like that, didn't appreciate being called a liar. This time I wasn't fully able to suppress the power that exploded out of me at the accusation.

  "You can't honestly believe that I'm still working with Kaleb."

  Dream Stealer responded to my burst of power with a stinging, lashing metaphysical wind of his own.

  "By all accounts you'd finally started acting like a proper heir in the weeks leading up to your disappearance. You killed vampires in St. Louis and then flew down to the border and started volunteering for missions. You were even instrumental in killing an Ancient. I think that you found the power and acclaim addictive."

  My lips pulled back from my teeth. It wasn't a smile, it was the human equivalent to showing my hackles.

  "While I was down there, I rescued Jaclyn Annikov from a bunch of werewolves and told her that I wanted to know the truth about what was going on down there. She sent me to a small town called Naco where I saw Brandon's people slaughter nearly a hundred people and then stage the scene to make it look like it was the work of jaguars."

  I needed Dream Stealer. We didn't have to like each other, but I needed him to trust me. I was still on the outside when it came to the real core of the resistance. If I could convince him to vouch for me it would help get me access to the people I needed for operations like the one to rescue Agony.

  Dream Stealer shot me a sardonic smile as he continued to slowly orbit me.

  "Ah yes, I've heard reports of your 'shocking' revelation, but it wasn't anything that most of us didn't already suspect. You breaking that particular story may have scared off a few independents who otherwise would have gone down to help fight the cats, but it's made no difference other than that. Brandon's little army hasn't shrunk appreciably and all of the sympathizer packs are still just as much in bed with Kaleb and the rest as they ever were."

  "What are you saying? That Kaleb used me to intentionally break that story as a way of getting me enough street cred to set up the resistance for some kind of massive takedown?"

  "You said it, not me."

  I wanted to scream, but I knew that wouldn't accomplish anything. Dream Stealer seemed determined not to trust me.

  "My friends and I nearly died getting my sister out of Sanctuary and we've nearly died several times since then. There was a hit squad of Coun'hij enforcers waiting for us the last time we got off of a plane."

  "All that proves is that your friends are either in on it or spectacularly stupid. The kind of near defeats you're describing are less important than the fact that you've so far managed to come out on top. You can't honestly expect me to believe that you beat Brandon of all people."

  Dream Stealer couldn't have done a better job hitting all of my hot-button issues if he'd had a script to read from.

  "I stole Kaleb's sword before I left and I used it during the fight with Brandon, but even that almost wasn't enough. I dived to the side at the last moment during the end of our fight and he was swept off of the train by a metal girder."

  "I stand by my original statement; that is highly unlikely."

  His tone had gone from doubting to downright scathing and it was finally too much for me. Maybe it was the fact that Carson had pushed me to the edge such a short time before, but I lost control of my beast.

  My transformation exploded out from me with a blast of energy that knocked Dream Stealer back a full step and then he likewise shifted into his hybrid form with a roar of power that came very close to equaling what I'd just unleashed. For the briefest of seconds everything balanced on the edge of a knife and then I forced myself to take a step backwards.

  "What is it going to take to convince you that we're on the same side?"

  "Your death at the hands of Kaleb or Puppeteer seems like a good starting place."

  I gritted my teeth and forced myself to take another step backwards instead of springing forward and trying to rip his throat out.

  "I'm going to rescue Agony, but I could use your help."

  That got his attention. "What do you know?"

  "That he's been captured, but little else. My contacts are still trying to figure out where he's being kept."

  Dream Stealer shook his head at me. "You don't know where he's currently located or when and how they are moving him?"

  "No, do you?"

  "If I did then I certainly wouldn't tell you. Kaleb must really think I'm an idiot."

  My lips pulled back again, but this time they exposed hybrid fangs that were capable of snapping the neck of a rhinoceros.

  "How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not working with him?"

  "Fine, I'll bite. I think that Kaleb tracked Agony down months ago but decided to hold off going after him until he could set up the biggest trap imaginable. I think you were sent out to try and rally as much support as you can behind the cause of freeing Agony, but really you'll just be leading everyone who joins you into a massive ambush. With a single stroke Kaleb and the rest will gut the resistance and position themselves for another century or two of uncontested rule."

  "Believe what you want, but I will save Agony even if it costs me my life."

  "Brave words, but that's all they are, just words. Your actions tell another story."

  He'd finally succeeded in confusing me, but the addition of another emotion into the mix didn't do anything to dilute the rage I was feeling towards him. My beast didn't like being outsmarted any more than it liked being made fun of.

  "I shouldn't give you the satisfaction, but I'll go ahead and ask. How have any of my actions done anything but support the fact that I'm prepared to risk my life to better the situation of our race?"

  "The girl you were dreaming about. I'm not an idiot, I can recognize the signs of a skin addiction as well as anyone else. No honorable shape shifter would choose to addict someone like that. That was the first sign that Kaleb wasn't what he seemed, the first sign that he was going to have to be stopped along with the rest of the murderers and thieves on the Coun'hij. It's one more indication that you're just like your father."

  I wanted to argue with him, wanted to explain that it hadn't been my choice, that it had been a freak series of events, but I already knew he wouldn't believe me. I'd been convicted since the first moment that Dream Stealer had seen Dream-Brindi.

  "I won't even dignify that with a response. Get out of my dream now and don't come back or we'll see just how deadly inside of the dream you actually are."

  Chapter 17

  Adriana Paige

  Marauder's Gas Station

  Central Wyoming

  Sometime in the last day or two Taggart and I had gotten our schedules mixed up. I would have suspected him of doing it on purpose so that we'd be back to twenty-four-hour coverage up at the store, but that would have broken his primary rule.

  In order to make dream contact with someone Taggart had to be asleep at the same time as they were, so moving his schedule forward would make it even harder to link up with anyone on the West Coast.

  It was possible that he had some operatives on the East Coast, but even if that had been the case he wouldn't have needed to advance his schedule forward more than a couple of hours to sync up with them. The only other explanation was that he was trying to get ahold of someone on another continent, but given all of the time I was still spending up at the store, I hadn't had a good chance to ask him yet.

  I came back down a few
minutes after sunset as he was cooking up dinner. Taggart had been right about how quickly he'd bounce back from his wounds. He wasn't quite a hundred percent yet, his movements were still a little stiff, but he was up and moving around enough that he'd started repairing some of the damage to the bunker.

  I arrived at a kitchen that had functional lighting for the first time since I'd come down into the bunker.

  "Wow, how did you get the lights working again?"

  Taggart shrugged. "I scavenged some of the wire from elsewhere in the bunker and ran new circuits."

  "Where did you learn how to do that?"

  "I worked as an electrician for a little while. You'd be surprised at how much you can pick up over the course of a couple hundred years, especially when you're around when something is invented."

  His words were polite, but there was something about his tone that told me he wasn't a particularly happy camper.

  "What's wrong?"

  Taggart put a lid on the stew he'd been putting together and then looked up at me.

  "I've spent most of the last day hitting up all of the contacts that I could safely go to while still not at full strength. I haven't managed to find a single person who's both able and willing to help break Agony out of wherever it is the Coun'hij has him locked up.

  "Everything has become too static. That's part of how Agony and I have been able to stay out of sight for so long, but now it's working against us. All of the major players are too well known and the Coun'hij is keeping too close of an eye on them."

  Once again I felt like I was swimming in waters that were too deep for my level of skill and understanding.

  "I don't understand what you mean."

  "I originally thought Kaleb was being stupid to wait this long to move Agony. If it had been me I would have moved him to one of the Coun'hij's secret bases immediately so that it would be that much harder for everyone to find him."

  "Right, that makes sense to me."

  "Yeah, it makes sense because you and I are both used to operating from a position of weakness. We have to move quickly and keep a low profile because if we don't we're unlikely to last for long. Kaleb doesn't have that problem and it was a stroke of brilliance to wait like he has. It means that he's got his people stationed at or near all of the big packs that would otherwise be willing to help me out.