by Christa Wick
She brushed his hand away. Her elbow resting on the map, she let the string holding a crystal pendant at its end unspool from her palm. "I told you, it might just be an echo."
"A latent's echo?" When Camille did nothing but swallow, he wrapped his fingers around the unmoving pendant. "A cub's?"
"Their signatures are almost the same," Camille answered.
Dana released the pendant, motioning impatiently for her to continue casting. She closed her eyes and he felt a little pull of power as she siphoned off some of his energy to feed her magic. The pendant didn't respond, not even the slightest vibration trembled through its string.
"Walland, that's all you got?" Dana pulled the armory keys from his pocket. He had his gun and holster in the glove box of his truck and a deer rifle on the window rack, but. if he was heading into town, he wanted one of the Bushmaster Carbon 15s.
Camille rose from the desk, trying to block him. "You can't go alone."
He pushed past her into the hallway, growling as he unlocked the armory's door. "Even if Ash is buried balls deep," he stopped and gave a sniff, "in that little redhead we pulled in this weekend, he has to stay here to protect the other latents if anything happens."
"There are plenty of people at the shower, you can--"
He shook his head, rejecting the idea as he freed one of the Bushmasters from the rack, his big hand popping a thirty-round magazine into it before grabbing two more magazines. "You said it's probably an echo."
"Or a trap," she argued. "Or a latent with half a dozen hunters on her trail--"
"Or a cub." He pushed past her again, grabbing one of the two-way radios. "Don't pretend like you suddenly care, witch."
"I don't," Camille snapped. "Not about you. Esme would be devastated."
Dana shook his head, the memory of Esme's last words fresh in his head. "She made it more than clear that's not true."
Herding Camille back into the office, he pressed the radio into her hand and pointed at the map. "Keep casting and keep your mouth shut unless you find anything useful. I'll be back before the party is over."
**********
Three hours later, with no contact from Dana, Camille entered the hall, her gaze searching for her daughter and Seth. She wanted to avoid Esme seeing her while she talked to Dana's pack leader. There was no reason for the girl to start mourning the lone wolf before anyone was certain he was dead. She’d had enough heartache this last month.
She spotted Esme in a far corner, the young witch wearing a scowl as she tried to touch Jack Cooper's head. The old wolf tried to move out of reach but his wife firmly propelled him back toward Esme. Something to do with that headache he'd had, no doubt.
Good. Esme would be too distracted to notice anyone but Jack for a few minutes. Camille ducked behind a very tall, broad-shouldered wolf, her mind so absorbed in picking Seth out from the crowd that she didn't recognize the man sheltering her.
He turned around, his warm, mid-Western accent immediately giving him away. "Good evening, Camille."
"Cade." She acknowledged him with a quick upward glance. "Where is Seth?"
"I hear I have you to thank for almost getting me shredded limb from limb." There was no menace in his voice, just mild curiosity.
"She certainly couldn't have picked her friend's mate." Camille's nose twitched, the magic in her still strong enough to send a little spark of annoyance along its tip. "Not my fault you're the only wolf she's comfortable around besides Seth."
"Actually, it is your fault." His tone flattened, but he didn't press any harder. Extending one finger from the hand wrapped around his glass, he pointed across the hall. "Seth is over there, at the head table. If you ever attended any of these events, you'd know that."
Her fingers flexed, more energy dancing at their ends. She swallowed a knot of pride, wanting to get rid of the wolf next to her but knowing Dana and, by extension, her daughter, would need Cade's help. "Come with me, please."
She walked away, her legs briskly carrying her through the crowd. She expended a small amount of energy on a look-away spell, not enough to prick Esme's radar -- or so she hoped. Not looking behind her to see if Cade followed, she approached the table. Catching Leah's attention first, she offered an apologetic smile before bending down to whisper at Seth.
"Dana is missing."
Seth's brows knitted together for a second before he shook the idea off. "He's somewhere licking his wounds."
"Or letting someone else lick them for him," Cade joked as he reached the table.
Leah's gaze cut through the crowd to land on Esme before flicking back to Cade. The slow burn of green ringing her irises erased Cade's smile. He nudged Camille. "What's this about, then?"
"I was casting for more signatures," she started, her hands coiling and uncoiling around each other. "And I thought I detected something--"
Leah's gasp interrupted the older witch. "Why didn't you notify us?"
Ignoring his plump little mate, Camille kept her gaze on Seth. "It was faint...and fleeting. I could only catch it the one time--somewhere this side of Walland."
Leah interrupted once more. "Esme or I could have casted again. You should have--"
Camille rapped a bony knuckle on the table top. "I was certain it was just an echo, someone having passed through and gone, maybe one of the very latents we're sheltering now or little Oscar."
Seth nodded. "But?"
"The minute I said it could be a cub, Dana left."
"Tell me you didn't let him leave alone?"
Camille straightened like a spring rod at the sound of her daughter's voice. She swiveled her head, not far enough to face Esme, but enough to acknowledge her daughter. "You think he listens to me? To anyone?"
Camille turned back to Seth. "It's been three hours."
Next to her, she heard Esme step to a side table, ordering the couple casually eavesdropping away as she stripped the linen table cloth to expose the wood. She slopped a hand into the cranberries on one plate, squeezing until her fingers were red with their juice. Marking a compass on the table, she chanted. Still chanting, Esme grabbed a nearby candle and spilled the melted wax in the center.
Her words growing in volume, Esme's eyes glazed and then her lips stopped moving. She stumbled backwards, Cade catching her before she hit the ground.
"Ems, where is he?" He hoisted her up, her soft pleading moans as she caught glimpses of her mate being tortured unnerving everyone around her. "Come on, baby girl. Tell me where he is before you pass out."
She tossed her curls, her hands clawing at Cade so he would release her. "He's at the Laurel Mill."
Everyone who heard Esme voice the location froze. Laurel Mill was an unmarked battlefield in the Hunters war on the clan. A former enclave of shifters, the hunters had attacked the location en masse, not a single member of the thirty families surviving.
Camille broke the silence. "There would be plenty of echoes there. Plenty of..."
She trailed off. No one needed a reminder of the cubs who had been herded like sheep into the old building and slaughtered. "I'll go--"
"No." Esme's hand chopped through the air. She pointed at Seth. "I'm going. With or without your permission."
Seth nodded, kissing Leah's cheek as he rose and signaled to the gathered members of his pack. "Let's roll."
**********
Three black vans traveled winding country roads, the Great Smokey Mountains that sheltered the clan's land at their back. Packed into the middle van, Esme continued casting for Dana's location.
There were five male shifters in the van, four in each of the others. Only the drivers were fully clothed. The others wore nothing but loose spandex briefs, their bodies in varying degrees of transformation. Seth sat next to Esme, human enough but for a heavier than usual dusting of body hair and a wolfish point on his ears.
Fidgeting with his rifle's modified stock, Seth growled lightly "If you weren't his mate, you wouldn't be able to locate him this easily."
Esme's h
ands stopped moving over the map as she glared at Seth. She didn't need the reminder that Dana was her mate. The hard knock of her heart inside her rib cage had reminded her every second of the last hour. She also didn't want to remember that the last words her mate had heard out of her mouth was that she hated him. He'd been reckless to leave the safety of the clan all alone. Guilt that she'd triggered that recklessness weighed her shoulders down.
The driver turned a sharp corner too fast and sent her bouncing. Her head hit against the side of the van, its metal wall ringing with the impact. At the same time, a fist plowed into her face. Her head snapped forward, her vision dancing until she realized she wasn't looking at the van, wasn't even inside her own head.
Her body still traveling inside the van, her lips moved. "No please don't hurt him."
A syringe appeared in front of her face, a man's head just beyond it.
Quentin - the Hunter who had kidnapped her and Leah.
Blood smeared his mouth, but there was no sign of injury. He looked more like he had been snacking on barbecue ribs. The impression was confirmed when he licked the blood from his lips to reveal unmarked skin. "I know your taste, wolf."
His tongue darted out again to catch a stray drop and his eyes rolled back in his head. "That little hint of honey. Now where was that from?"
A leer stretched across his face, turning it into a Halloween mask of sadistic hate. "Oh yes, those two! Quite a set of fighters - an alpha's alpha. What a treat to find them as outliers."
Quentin pressed the plunger just a fraction, something that looked like quicksilver squirting from the tip. "Hunted your little ass for days after I found that tunnel they'd popped you in."
Quentin pulled back for a second, almost as if he admired the wolf sagging in front of him. "What were you, five?"
Hearing no answer from Dana, he pushed against the wolf's chest. A network of black veins stood stark against Dana's flesh. Quentin trailed the needle's tip down Dana's belly, the metal scraping a trail of blood as it moved. "We've still got a clean spot here," he laughed as he tugged the waist of Dana's jeans down to reveal the wolf's lower abdominal muscles.
Quentin pushed the needle in. His thumb lightly caressed the plunger, the pressure too faint to inject the liquid into Dana. When the Hunter lifted his head, Esme felt like he could see her.
A curl of his lip told her she was right. "Better hurry, witch, or you'll miss watching him die."
Another lurch of the van and Esme lost the vision -- or Quentin cut the signal. She couldn't be sure which it was. She turned to Seth, one hand clutching at his arm. "They know we're coming."
Peeling her hand away, Seth shoved an electronic tablet at her. The screen showed a satellite capture of the mill.
"Where, Esme?"
She pointed to the center of the building. Her finger tracked right, to the east end. She tapped the screen. "Guards here." She tracked back across the screen to the opposite end of the building. "And here. Two each."
She drew a circle where she had first indicated Dana's position. "Quentin is with him." Along the south wall, she traced another line. "Two more behind Dana, along the wall."
Seth gave a grim nod and radioed the lead van. "Take out the west corner -- smash it to motherfucking pieces."
Another press on the radio and he told the driver of the third van to take out the east corner. Constructed of wood and over two hundred years old, the mill's walls wouldn't stand up to the reinforced vans. Reaching up, Seth switched off the interior light and then he leaned forward and opened the panel separating the van's cargo area from the driver.
"Hit it just enough to break the wall. Dana's about six feet beyond that." Before moving to the van's side door, Seth pushed Esme into Cade's arms. "Keep her safe."
"Brace yourself," Cade whispered into her ear. One arm circled her waist to hold her tight, his form no longer human. His other hand curled around one of the inside support bars.
Esme had half a second to let the warning sink in before she saw the south wall of the mill coming up fast. Her hand flew to join Cade's along the bar as her other hand shot up to press against the roof of the van, her mouth voicing her surprise as the wall disintegrated in front of them.
"Holy shit!"
Seth was out of the van before the dust settled, rifle up and firing. Unslinging his rifle, Cade pushed Esme behind him. The impact or one of the Hunters had taken out the mill’s lights, preventing her from seeing anything other than muzzle flashes beyond the van's interior. Her ears told her men were dying -- human males pleading and screaming in pain. She wanted them torn limb from limb for what they'd done -- to Dana, most of all, but also to Leah and the other latents, Quentin's murder of Leah's sister Amanda.
The cries were extinguished with quick snaps, the broken necks too merciful in Esme's mind. To her right, the van's back doors were thrown open, the interior light automatically turning on. Seeing Seth carrying Dana's limp body in his arms, Esme pushed out from behind Cade. The back doors slammed shut and then the side door, everyone lurching as the driver threw the vehicle into reverse.
With the van moving, Esme knelt on the floor in front of Dana. Seth and another shifter held him across their laps. His upper body bare, she could see the network of bulging black veins. They moved in an obscene writhing pattern over his stomach and chest, crawling up his neck and along his shoulders. It reminded her of the spell she'd cast to keep Dana out of her home and the way his body had reacted when he obstinately tried to enter.
"Did you get a sample?"
Seth grunted. Esme’s eyes flicked up, saw him nod at a pouch then flicked back down to her inert mate. He hovered at the edge of death. She looked at Seth, nailing him with a hard stare. "I need Camille and Leah at the closest border house, and as many of the other latents as you can bring."
Seth nodded at Cade. "Radio Ash, tell him to bring the latents to Eckels stat." He looked back to Esme. "Leah and your mother are already there."
Ignoring the grateful tear sliding down her cheek, she leaned over Dana's chest, her palm directly over his heart. She stroked his hair, using the caress to tilt his head back, his lips parting from the gentle force. Esme sucked a deep breath in, sealed her mouth against his and slowly blew.
Sometime before the van reached Eckels, she blacked out.
**********
Esme woke in a room she didn't know by sight, but her nose told her Dana had frequented it. She stretched, her muscles as sore as when she'd woken up a week after Quentin almost murdered her. Her head felt like someone had taken a hammer to it. Cautiously, she reached up and touched her scalp, her fingers gently exploring to make sure no one had actually hammered her skull.
Finding no damage, she tried to focus her thoughts. They refused to coalesce. She had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. She searched for the last memory she could grab hold of.
An eagle holding a cub.
Blood.
Black snakes writhing…
She brought her hands up to her face, trying to block the images in her mind. If she didn't know better, she'd think someone had placed a forgetting spell on her. She needed to find someone -- Leah. Leah would help her figure out what was wrong. She needed to sit up, struggled like hell to do so. Her chest felt like it had a mountain lion perched on it.
Something was wrong, very very wrong.
Should she scream?
Esme strained to hear voices or any sound that would tell her where she was at. All she heard was a slight ringing in her ears. Looking for more clues, her gaze moved around the room as she listened. It looked like a man cave. The surface beneath her was an oversized leather couch with thick layers of fur for extra padding. No television, just overflowing bookshelves.
Drawing a deep breath in, she ran through the detectible scents. Dana at the front, every surface saturated with his honey-dipped fragrance. The ghost of his presence calmed her and she inhaled again to find a trace of Leah and Seth. The most recent scent was her mother’s.<
br />
Esme released an inward sigh of relief. She was safe. Someone would return soon and tell her what was going on. Now that she was awake, she could assist in healing whatever blocked her memory. She closed her eyes, slowly starting to drift to sleep when she heard the door to her room softly open.
Footsteps crossed the carpeted floor. Someone's small body indented the cushion. Esme knew without opening her eyes it was Camille, her mother’s scent hiding beneath a fresh mix of healing herbs. She brought a cool hand to Esme's cheek, brushing the tangle of curls behind Esme's ear.
Esme thought it felt nice to have her mother do that, particularly since she couldn't remember a time when her mother had ever done it before. When Camille leaned over her and pressed a kiss to her forehead, Esme almost said something to let Camille know she was awake. Only the thought that her mother would be embarrassed and instantly turn cold stopped her.
Camille started chanting. The slow curling rhyme wrapped itself around Esme's thoughts, gently blanketing them, her mind's ability to discern their meaning suffocated one word at a time.
"Stop!" Esme's arms shot out, knocking her mother away from her. Sweat popping along her brow, Esme strained to remember the words, her tongue running them backwards as fast as they popped into memory. Everything rushed back to her at once -- Dana tortured, Dana in the van dying, her pouring all the life and magic she could into his body.
Camille tried to shush her. "Baby, shhh, you need to rest."
On her back and unable to raise her torso for any leverage, Esme struggled to keep Camille's hands from covering her mouth. Grabbing hold of the thin wrists, Esme resorted to a restraining spell. Glaring at her mother, she yanked on the woman's rest. "Undo your spell, mother. Now!"
"You're too weak to move, baby."
Esme shook her head. Her mother had placed at least three spells on her -- but only one concerned her at that moment. "Why did you put a forgetting spell on me. Were is Dana?"
At the mention of Dana, Camille glared at her. "Don't waste your energy on him. You arrived closer to death than that beast!"
Stunned by the hate in Camille's voice, Esme sank into the couch. "Is he alive?"