Moon's Fury

by C. T. Adams

  Yo shrugged and then shook her head. “Well, when Cara told me you guys heal really quick, I was sort of thinking days, not minutes. I mean, I couldn’t just leave her out in that field, and broken bones with blood means the hospital in my own sad experience.”

  He snorted. “You’re just damned lucky they took so long to get to you and she woke up before they started doing too many tests.” Will reached down and gripped Cara’s chin, turning her face into the light. The movement sent sharp bolts of pain through her eyes and she reached up to swat away his hand. “Fortunately, other than the cut, which is going to take some fast talking when you go into work tomorrow, the rest of it you can fake by just moving slow and wincing from time to time for a few days. And if you forget, people will just think you’re playing tough.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’ll heal. Let’s all hear it for the amazing Sazi healer. Everybody just ignore the fact I got run over by a freaking truck today.” She shook her head slightly, winced again, and moved the ice pack to another bruise. But it had warmed to room temperature so she tossed it on the coffee table with a small noise of frustration. “So, enough about me. What did you find out over there?”

  Will hooked his thumb at her while looking at Yolanda. “She always this grumpy when she’s hurt?”

  Yolanda rolled her eyes and smelled of equal parts of amusement and frustration. “Chinada! You have no idea. Ever since kindergarten, when she fell off the swing.”

  Cara nearly laughed, but kept a small amount of annoyance in her voice so she wouldn’t totally lose the battle of feeling sorry for herself. “You mean, ever since you pushed me off the swing.”

  Now Yo let out a small chuckle and pursed her lips lightly. “Eh, pushed… fell. You only got a scraped knee and still went whining to the teacher. Wuss. Besides, you were the one who said Sazi were ‘ruthless, but efficient,’ if I remember.” She raised her fingers to put imaginary quotes around the words. “Using the truck was both. I mean, it was a fricking rattlesnake the size of an anaconda about to bite you! Well, at least until you turned it human again. But it was too late to stop the truck by then. After all, I’m only human.”

  Will finally gave in and laughed and Cara did the same. She was actually really proud of her friend. It had taken a lot of guts to intentionally aim a speeding vehicle at her best friend, and superior officer, without having any idea what the result would be. She turned her eyes to Will. “Did you find any sign of him? Yo says he took off when she shot him in the shoulder as she was getting me into the truck. And what about the birds?”

  “Wish I had better news.” He leaned back into the plush, brightly colored pillows on the chair. He nodded his chin toward Yolanda but kept his eyes on her and laced his fingers together over his chest. “I found the spot where Yo shot him, but lost the trail when he made it to the rocks. He deliberately started moving through the junipers to hide his trail. Nice job on getting off a shot, by the way. That’s no easy thing with an alpha Sazi.” He raised his brows with a small smile while Yolanda preened, kissing and waving to an imaginary audience. “I got some blood samples that I’ll give to Bobby for testing when he gets here. We might be able to match him, if he’s known in our files. Same with the composite of his face and that tattoo.”

  He must have noticed Cara’s curious expression and scent, because he elaborated. “Bobby and his partner are on their way down here, according to Lucas. They’ll be here tomorrow. Oh, and they’ve been trying to reach you all day. It’s why Lucas finally called me to come check on you. I know you said your cell phone got busted up during the accident, but you might want to call Adam, so he knows you’re okay. I just talked to Lucas on my way over here. There’s all sorts of weird shit going on up there and a lot of it has to do with what’s going on down here!”

  “Such as?”

  He just shook his head. “Call Adam. He knows more than me, and I don’t want to mess it up. Anyway, the hog carcass was still there, but other than a few feathers, that’s all that was there. They broke camp and took the van, but managed to scatter the tire marks with mesquite, so I couldn’t even track them. I found evidence of six separate birds, including the two original owls and eagle, so you were right about that. But no snake, other than a few scales on the rocks. But one of the things that concerns me is I found a pair of blue jeans, girls’ size six, plus a striped T-shirt. They matched the description of that AMBER Alert that came over the wire yesterday.”

  Cara felt her heart still for a moment and Yolanda gasped. “You don’t think the birds—” She couldn’t even finish. It was one thing to kill and eat those men, but… a little girl?

  Will’s expression darkened. “I don’t know what to think. It might be coincidence, but I should at least tell you—” He glanced at Yolanda for a long moment, and Cara could tell he was trying to decide whether to trust her. Finally he let out a small trill and the metallic scent of determination rose from him, “And this information is every bit as secret as the existence of the Sazi—” She’d already proven she could keep the secret for decades, without letting even Cara’s own pack know, and she was a fellow cop. Yolanda nodded and zipped fingers across her lips. Will nodded and continued gravely. “But Lucas and Adam discovered that the pack leader up in Minneapolis was involved in some sort of child slavery ring—and it’s tied to this area.”

  Cara’s head dropped back onto the pillow wearily. “Oh fuck! So, now what do we—”

  The telephone jangled in the kitchen suddenly and she let it ring once, trying to decide whether to drag her body up to go answer it. As it started to ring a second time, she sighed and pushed herself to a sitting position.

  “Don’t I’ll bring it to you.” Yolanda touched her shoulder and stood, then quickly walked into the kitchen and answered it before it had finished ringing a third time. “Hello?” A pause, and then, “No, I’m a friend of hers. Hang on.”

  She walked out of the kitchen holding the portable and passed it to her, mouthing the word, Adam. Cara took the phone and felt a fluttering in her stomach as she put it up to her ear. But she noticed Will motioning to her for the phone, so she passed it to him first, almost relieved.

  “Adam? It’s Cloudsfall. Hey, I talked to Lucas a bit ago. Really sorry to hear what happened up there. Hang in there, bud.” He paused to listen, but the central air unit picked that moment to kick in, and the sound of the fan drowned out Adam’s reply. “No, I haven’t told her anything yet.” Another pause, this time accompanied by a slight smile. “Yeah, well… I’ll let her tell you about what happened. She’s fine… mostly. She’ll heal. Here, hang on a minute.”

  Will passed the phone back to her and then looked up at Yolanda. “How about I give you a ride back to the office so you can pick up your car? We’ll let them chat.”

  Yo nodded and picked up her soda from the table. “Yeah, I really need to get back, now that I know you’re going to be okay. We’ll talk in the morning, huh?”

  Cara nodded and waited, with her hand over the mouthpiece, until Will and Yolanda walked out. The air conditioner shut off just as the door closed and silence closed around her. She looked at the phone once and the butterflies started to churn her stomach again. But she couldn’t figure out why. Taking a deep breath, she put the phone back to her ear. She tried to decide whether to put a false note of cheerfulness into her voice, but decided against it. There was too much going on to pretend. “Hey, Adam. Cara here.” Her voice sounded like she felt, weary and frustrated.

  There was a long pause where she could hear him breathing, as though he was trying to decide what to say. “So… who’d you piss off this time?” His voice tried for teasing comradery, but a little too much concern leaked in around the edges.

  Cara let out a small, sad chuckle. His worried tone was enough to break down the tough walls she’d carefully constructed around… well, everything. He had the right to know about the pack he might be joining. Plus, if he was going to get annoyed, better it was over the phone. So, she told him—about Yolanda
and why they’d been driving on the back road to happen to see the owl. She talked about the pack, and why she hadn’t introduced him properly that night at Rosa’s. He listened to it all silently, only showing his presence by an occasional acknowledgment of okay, fer sure, or ahh. Then, of course, came the birds and the snake, and Yolanda hitting them with the truck.

  “I suppose it was good she missed the tree, and she’s right that it was probably the only way I didn’t wind up dead. I’d been doing fine up ’til then, but then just hit the wall, so to speak. Turning him back took everything I had left. You know a Sazi’s in bad shape when she can’t even get out of the way of a truck. Yo probably wasn’t doing more than thirty when she hit us.”

  She’d hoped that chuckling would lighten the conversation, but Adam went suddenly still—enough that she furrowed her brow and asked. “Adam? You still there?”

  He sounded almost breathless when he replied, as though he’d been running for hours. “Yeah. So… wha-… what time was it you said that happened?”

  She tried to figure it in her head, from leaving the restaurant to looking at the watch before she headed down to the canyon. She couldn’t remember still having her watch back when she crested the hill by the truck. Maybe it dropped off on the climb. She’d have to ask Will if he spotted it. “I’m guessing, but I’d say around one twenty, or a little later. Why?”

  Another long pause allowed her time to drag herself up to a better sitting position and take a sip of diet cola. His voice sounded stronger when he replied, almost matter of fact. “No reason. So, what did Will find?”

  She shrugged. “Not much, unfortunately. He couldn’t find a trail, but he got some blood that he’s going to give to Bobby. You know anything about that, by the way? Why’s he coming down… not that I mind. He’s a good cop and I can certainly use the help.”

  Whatever had been bothering Adam dropped away, and he started in on his own story, from getting home to seeing the… massacre site, and talking to Bobby and his partner.

  “Um, an assassin! In Wolven?” She blinked a few times, trying to process that. “Wow, things have sure changed there. Oookay, well… I suppose that’s good to know. I guess so long as he keeps his nose clean here.” She stopped and snorted. “Oh, who am I trying to kid? That’s going to bug the shit out of me. I’m going to have to sit on my hands not to go through the posters and find out where he was wanted so I could call them.”

  This time, Adam did chuckle. “Already did… at least as far as finding out he’s presumed dead—big shoot-out at an airport between two mob factions that was caught on film by a television crew. I’ll show you the clip I found on the web when I get back there. But since all the bodies, including the reporters, disappeared, everything is still an open file. My fingers are turning blue from denim dye as we speak.”

  Cara let out a laugh and it felt good after everything today. The thing she noticed that lifted her mood more than anything was hearing the words when I get back there. It shouldn’t matter. But she suspected Yolanda was right. She was toast.

  Then Adam told her about the room they’d found, and all her humor dropped away. “Oh my God! Will mentioned this, but he didn’t give any details. You found how many pictures?”

  “Over two dozen.” Adam paused and she could almost see him shake his head in angry frustration.

  “Have you matched them in with any missing persons’ reports yet?” Asking that reminded her about the AMBER Alert, and the clothes Will had found. “We might have something down here on that to help tie things together. Will found a pair of jeans and a shirt in the canyon that matched an AMBER Alert out of Oklahoma yesterday. If you can get a copy of that somehow, you might see if there’s a picture of that girl on the wall. We might find out if the girls were being targeted specifically, or if the photos were taken after the abductions.”

  There was a trace of pride in his voice that made her feel like preening as Yo had done. “Wow! Great idea! Josef had to have been too preoccupied yesterday morning to do much in the way of adding new things to the wall. He easily could have hidden the photos or transferred the files we’ve found to a CD or flash drive if he really believed he was in danger. So, if her picture’s there, we’ll at least know there was intenta.” He paused and then muttered a swear. “Shit! I completely forgot to tell you. One of the pictures Josef had was of Zivi. But we don’t know yet how long she was a captive before we found her, so that photo could have been taken anytime. You need to keep her under wraps, though. She seems to be a key to a bunch of stuff. That’s the main reason why Bobby is coming down. Tony has hindsight, and he’s been instructed to use it on Ziri to find out what she saw.”

  Cara opened her mouth to protest—there was no way she was letting a known killer get anywhere close to the girl, or her family. But Adam cut her off. “I know what you’re going to say, but give it up. Tony was ordered there by the Chief Justice. That part is going to happen whether or not you like it. But from what Bobby says, Tony can actually be a nice guy. He likes kids and Bobby promised he’d keep things low-key. Nobody wants to traumatize Ziri any more than she is. The only thing Lucas wants you to do is keep the peace and make sure she stays safe.”

  “I don’t like this—” A small growl escaped her and it was probably a good thing Adam couldn’t catch her scent. She was getting damned tired of being told what she would or wouldn’t do.

  “None of us do, Carita. But think about it—if Ziri saw something vital that she doesn’t remember, and it can save other girls—”

  She grumbled a small acceptance of the fact and started to pick tiny pieces of lint from the pillow under one leg in annoyance, letting the silence grow as she contemplated him calling her by the same pet name as her sister for the second time now. Part of her liked it… maybe a little too much. Once she had gathered the lint into a small, furry ball, she deposited it in the empty soda can on the table.

  Adam sighed, in probably what he believed was understanding and shared resignation. “Well, anyway, they’ll probably be there in the morning. Oh, and they’ll be in my truck. Again, low-key… no rental cars to trace. They’ll be driving it down to Mexico after they stop in Santa Helena, to talk with Ziri’s family. So, I’ll probably need a ride from the airport when I get down there.” He let the statement hang as a request, and she struggled not to leap forward with an answer too eagerly,

  “Oh. Sure, no problem. When do you think you’ll be here?”

  “Dunno. I should at least stay here for the hunt next week. It’ll be the first time for my people without a pack leader.”

  My people. Sure. Of course he had to consider his own pack first. But did that mean he was staying up there? Forever? A knot of… something began to form in her stomach and she struggled to keep it from showing in her voice. “Absolutely. You do what you need to do for your pack.”

  This time he paused. “Things are happening… well, really fast… for both of us, Cara.”

  She let out a short snort of air and shifted her hips, hissing in a breath as pain radiated through her back. “No shit.”

  “I mean, with everything going on… I don’t know that anyone is certain how it’ll play out. The whole damned world is in flux. So, I figured I’d toss one other thing in the air, just to keep in the back of your mind.”

  His voice sounded serious, but unsure, so she responded cautiously. “Yeah? What’s that?”

  She never could have expected what the next words out of his mouth would be. They made her heart race and a thick, wet buzzing form in her ears.

  “Minnesota’s never had an Alpha Female. But we sure could use one.”

  Chapter 21

  WAS THAT THE doorbell? Adam turned off the shower and listened. When it sounded a second time, he turned the water back on for a quick second to finish getting the soap out of his hair and then grabbed a towel.

  “Hang on a second! I’ll be right there.” He called the words out into the hallway and took a sniff of the air that flowed in around the pan
eled door. Ah. It was David. He must just be off his shift. No problem—he’d wait for a few minutes. He probably wanted to talk about how Vivian was chasing after him. Adam had noticed it all day yesterday. Yeah, she might have lost a sister, but nothing would keep that bitch from her goal of running a pack. And if she couldn’t have Adam, what better way to stay close to the family than with his brother? Thankfully, she was no match for Bonnie in his brother’s heart.

  Quickly pulling on a pair of underwear and clean jeans, he ran his fingers through his hair and headed to the door barefoot, using the towel to finish drying his arms and neck. He opened the door and was surprised to see not only David, but Lucas and Tommy waiting.

  “Hey guys. Afraid you caught me in the shower. I was just getting ready to head down to the club. But I could have grabbed a cab. You didn’t have to come get me.”

  Lucas looked serious, possibly even more so than he did the night before, and all three of the men had such a mixture of scents—none of them good—that Adam was a little taken aback.

  “Can we come in? Something’s come up.” The elder wolf’s voice was flat and his eyes were filled with furious intensity.

  “Jesus! Something else?” He stepped back quickly, adjusting his balance as one damp foot slid a little on the polished linoleum entry. “Sure. Of course, come on in.” He glanced into the living room and winced a little at the mess. The suitcases were still strewn on the couches from where he’d dumped them after David brought him home, and a stack of mail and newspapers was spilling off the coffee table. “Sorry the house is such a pit. I haven’t really had time to do much other than sleep since I got in.”

  They walked past him without comment and stepped down into the small living room. Adam closed the door and followed them with the towel around his neck, picking up the suitcases so they could sit. As he put them on the floor next to the hall closet, he motioned with his chin toward the open doorway behind them. “Hey, I’ve got a pot of coffee in the kitchen that’s probably finished brewing by now. Why don’t you guys grab a cup while I finish getting dressed.”