Cooper stumbled, just managing to catch himself on a young spruce and prevent himself from falling headfirst into a patch of thorns. He looked up at them in dismay. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
Maura shook her head regretfully. “Unfortunately, we’re not. Dr. Shane Carter is trying to rebuild the Pack with himself as Alpha. Only he doesn’t want to stick in the shadows like the previous Alpha did, he wants to have full immunity to be out and open in society, to recruit others to join the Pack as well.”
“Well, that’s just fucking terrific,” Cooper moaned. “After all the people we lost to take those bastards down. I thought Carter was arrested!”
“He was,” Stephen said grimly, waiting several meters ahead of them and looking back with a concerned expression. “But he got away. I’m a little fuzzy on the details. I know Adam was worried.”
Cooper nodded, then frowned suddenly. “Wait. You said you got Adam, Evan, and Sly out. Where are they?”
Maura flinched. “Sly took off. Adam got Karey and left because he didn’t want to risk anything happening to her. Evan… Evan was recaptured. He’s back in jail by now. But the thing is, it’s not going to stay this way. The three of us can stick together from here on out and we’ll figure this out.”
She desperately hoped that Cooper wouldn’t do as Adam and Sly had done and leave. She would understand if he did, of course, but that didn’t mean she wanted to go through that disappointment again. If they were together, they stood a chance. The moment they were separated, though…
“Yeah,” Cooper moaned. “Yeah, we’ll figure it out. It’s a real kick in the pants, though. Sly… I never trusted that guy, but Adam? I thought you Blaze Ops stuck together no matter what.”
“So did I,” Stephen mumbled.
Cooper grimaced. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—Gah!”
His leg buckled and he went down. Maura rushed to his side, helping him up. Cooper wrapped both hands around his knee, his face a mask of pain. He let out a series of curses that at any other time, Maura would have found offensive. Now, she brushed them off as she tried to take a look at his knee.
“No, no.” Cooper brushed her hands away. “Don’t touch it. God! I thought I’d have healed by now.”
Stephen returned, kneeling beside him. “What’s wrong?”
“Wrenched my knee in my escape.” Cooper panted with pain as he leaned against a tree. “I thought… Guess either there are too many blockers still in me or the walking just aggravated it. I just need to rest for a minute.”
Maura handed him her water bottle, which he emptied. Cooper leaned his head back against the tree. There was such despair in his eyes that Maura gripped his shoulder, desperate to try to make him feel better somehow. It wasn’t his fault that he’d injured his knee, after all. She could see what was going on in his mind—that he was slowing them down, that the bounty hunters were still after them. Stephen’s wings hadn’t healed enough to start flying, and they had no idea how far behind them the bounty hunters were.
“I’m going to scout ahead, see if I can find some more water,” Stephen said as he picked up the empty water bottle. “You just rest. I’ll be back soon.”
Maura nodded once toward him, even though she didn’t like the idea of him leaving. She watched him go, wishing she could rush after him and bury herself in his strong arms once more. With Cooper here, she hadn’t dared ask him why he was suddenly so cold toward her. Not that it mattered—they had plenty of other things to be worried about right now; her insecurities were something that had to wait.
Still, she chewed her lip as she waited next to Cooper, watching the forest closely to decern any approaching enemies.
“Maura?”
She turned her attention back to Cooper.
“Please tell Stephen to stop touching me.”
Her eyes widened. “What? Why?”
“Because after what happened to me in prison, I don’t want any man touching me. Especially not a bisexual.” Cooper spat out the word like it was a curse. “I don’t care what he’s playing at, I don’t want him touching me.”
“Cooper…” Maura’s stomach twisted as she realized what he meant by what happened to him in prison. She wanted to confront him about what he was suggesting of Stephen’s sexuality. She was well enough aware of the objections to anybody who wasn’t straight to understand what Cooper was driving at. The situation though, the implications of what had happened to him, it didn’t seem like the time. Finally, she mumbled, “I’ll tell him. He doesn’t want to make you uncomfortable, I know that. He’s the same Stephen we’ve always known, though. So please don’t think badly of him just because—”
“Sorry.” Cooper ducked his head. “It’s just… I’m finding it hard to trust right now. And I don’t see how we’re going to get out of this. I’d rather die than go back, Maura. Maybe it’s better if the two of you leave me, save yourselves.”
“No.” Maura gripped his shoulder tightly. “No, don’t even talk like that. You’re not going back to jail. I have… information. Profiles I’ve been building for years. I can use it to protect us all. I just need to get back to the Academy.”
“Why the Academy?”
“Because the information I have is… well, it’s in a spot I can’t get to without some help.”
Cooper still looked confused, still looked scared. Maura’s heartstrings tugged. She’d known the lion for years and he never showed any shred of vulnerability before. To see him so lost and afraid now, it was like if Stephen or any of the Blaze Ops was looking at her with that same expression.
She lowered her voice, just in case, and told him, “I have material I can use to blackmail not only the governor but several people on the Supreme Court. I’ve been trying to play it safe, but it’s time to pull out all the stops. And I need to get the Academy because the flash drive that the information is on—”
She jerked as a twig cracked. Her heart leapt to her throat as she looked around rapidly. A pinecone fell to the forest floor and when she looked up, she saw a squirrel rushing for another one. She watched it, heart still pounding, terrified that this was a spy from Shane Carter. But the squirrel was regular-sized, not larger as it would be if it was really a shifter.
“The flash drive is at the Academy?” Cooper asked, reaching for her sleeve.
“Not exactly. I swallowed it and it’s caught in my stomach. I need someone I trust to get it out, and Erica is still at the Academy.”
“Erica,” Cooper breathed. He nodded rapidly. “Yes, yes, she’ll know what to do.”
Maura smiled at him, but before she could further reassure him, a roar echoed from the forest. She turned, a cry in her throat. Stephen!
She started toward the sound when suddenly something smashed into her ankles. She went down hard, and Cooper grabbed her arm, twisting it behind her back. He pinned her there, chuckling under his breath as her mind spun. What was happening?
“She swallowed it, Shane. Clever, don’t you think?”
Maura’s blood ran cold as she looked up to see Shane Carter sauntering up the trail. “Not clever enough to question your miraculous escape, though.”
“Well, there’s a reason why we always knew the Academy would fail.” Cooper laughed as he yanked her to her feet. Shane stood several feet away, with such a smug smile on his face she wanted to rip it off. Cooper held her fast as he pushed her forward. “Women are too weak to make real leaders and no real man would ever take his commands from one, either. Where are your precious Blaze Ops now, Maura? Or should I say, Alice? Where are all the men you surround yourself with? Where is your power now that they’re all in jail?”
There was a cruelty to his voice that Maura had never heard before. And it was all she needed to know what was happening. All of this, the breaking up of the Academy’s teams, the arrest of the Blaze Ops and the others, it all was because of Cooper. She glared at him, hate welling up in her as the sounds of roars still rang through the forest.
“So you’re the t
raitor,” she breathed. “You’re the one who set this all up. How?”
“You’re not the only one gathering information, Alice. And in case you forgot, that’s why you hired me. Because I am so very good at getting information.” He shoved her into the waiting, grasping hands of the wolves with Shane. “Too bad you aren’t as good a judge of character as you thought. I was on the Alpha’s payroll before the Blaze Ops was even formed and now?” He stretched his hand out for a knife carried by another wolf. “May I do the honors, doctor? I’ve been waiting to put this bitch in her place for years.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
A wolf leapt at him, but Stephen flipped over, greeting the wolf with his claws. He tossed the animal into another one, then rolled over, crushing them both beneath his bulk. Two more wolves came at him from either side, and Stephen waited until the last moment to shift back to his human form. He ducked under them, resulting in them comically crashing into each other and stabbed another wolf through the skull as its jaws snapped at his throat.
He shifted once more into his dragon form, grabbing another wolf. There were so many of them! His previous injuries tugged and bled, his breath coming in quick gasps.
When he got his hands on Shane Carter, he was a dead wolf. It was bad enough that they had bounty hunters coming after them but to deal with this resurgence of the Pack as well? His lips curled over his sharp teeth. His fires were flickering low, nearly emptied. He held them in reserve as he whipped his tail into another wolf, throwing it hard enough into a tree that the wolf and the tree both cracked.
He had to get back to Cooper and Maura. With Cooper in the state he was in, he’d be nearly helpless. The blockers weren’t out of his system enough yet.
Stephen wasn’t going to lose anybody else. He ground his teeth together, charging through the trees, letting them break, grunting as the thicker ones prevented quick flight. He kept his tender wings tucked in close to his body, but when several wolves jumped on his back, it did little good. They tore at the already throbbing membranes while several others chomped at his neck.
Letting out a roar of rage, Stephen threw himself to one side. Wolves scrambled out of the way, but not all of them were so lucky. Yelps and cries of pain sounded as he crushed three of them against the forest floor. He shifted to human form, using a branch to club one over the head. One of the crushed ones scrambled with its front legs, its whole back end twisted at a wrong angle.
Stephen did not have the luxury of caring. He took off on two legs, dodging through the thicker brush where he in his bipedal form would move quicker than the wolves.
Several of them shifted to their human forms as well, shouting to each other and at him. He ignored them until the sounds of their pursuit were too close, then flung himself around. He shifted to his dragon form once more, swiping at them with his claws.
Moments later, he was through the trees and to the clearing where he’d left Maura and Cooper. His heart plummeted as he stumbled, falling to his knees in human form as his fires went out. Maura lay on the ground, blood everywhere. Her head was back, her eyes glassy. Everything in the world disappeared. There was no sound, no taste, nothing. He couldn’t even feel his own body as the sight of Maura’s dead body loomed in his vision.
“Look who’s come to join the party.”
Stephen’s eyes roved to one side. Cooper knelt beside Maura, trying to help her. His eyes locked with Stephen’s and he grinned.
A flame flickered in Stephen’s chest. No. Not helping Maura. Holding her down. Everything hit him in half a second. Cooper was the traitor. So many things made sense now—he’d been targeting them for years now. Stephen had never considered Cooper might be a traitor, he always seemed to be so against the Pack. But that was all a ruse, wasn’t it?
“You’re very good at what you do,” he rasped, the world expanded from Maura’s body to include Cooper now—a lion who would very soon be very dead.
Maura’s head moved. Her eyes shifted back and forth in their sockets, seeking him out. His flames roared to life, thawing his frozen blood, sweeping through him with so much power that smoke poured from every pore. She was alive. He still had time. Fuck Cooper and fuck Shane Carter. His world narrowed again, encompassed in a pair of pleading eyes.
“What are you waiting for?” a voice spoke somewhere to his left, where Shane Carter stood, clutching something covered in Maura’s blood. “Kill him already.”
Stephen lunged forward, flames bursting from his mouth. They spewed all around him, tendrils lashing out like living things. Trees burst into flames, bushes set ablaze, black smoke filled the air. Cooper shifted, jumping at him with claws unsheathed. Stephen seized him by the scruff of the neck and tossed him over his shoulder. Several yelps told him there were other wolves behind him. His hands reached out, carefully cradling Maura into his chest even as Cooper leapt on his back again.
Pain flashed through his back, running up his spine to jar against his brain as Cooper crushed the joint of one wing between his teeth. Stephen twisted round, flames white-hot in his mouth. He set out a blast, melting his own scales as he blasted Cooper off his back.
The scent of burning fur overwhelmed his nostrils as Cooper yowled and cried, rolling around in a desperate attempt to put out the fires clinging to his mane. Stephen kept the fires up, burning several more wolves. Carter had disappeared, and the remaining wolves yelped and took off.
Stephen held Maura closer to his chest, feeling a weak heartbeat pushing the remaining blood from her body. He took to the air, agony washing his vision white.
He pushed on, tucking conscious thought away as he headed for the one place he knew could save Maura’s life.
***
Stephen fell with a grunt, rolling several times as his fires finally gave out. The world was so cold around him that he wondered if he would ever be warm again. His hand reached out blindly, patting the ground as he searched for some sign that Maura was still with him. His fingers brushed against something cold and rubbery. Bile rose in his throat as he realized it was her arm.
He dragged himself up, hardly able to move as his wounds pumped more blood from his body, as agony darkened his vision. His hand grasped Maura’s wrist. He couldn’t feel her pulse anymore. Trying desperately to keep going, he pulled her into his arms.
But he didn’t have the strength to do more.
Something loomed in the darkness. A person. Stephen growled in warning, but he couldn’t even produce a puff of smoke. All he could do was pull Maura a little closer.
The person held out both hands as he approached. Stephen thought he recognized him—a nighttime janitor, maybe? The person spoke, but the words seemed to be coming from a great distance and Stephen couldn’t quite make them out. His head pounded as he dropped to one elbow, unable to hold himself up any longer.
“Get Erica Bennet,” he mumbled. “She’s the only one who can… Maura’s dying. She needs…”
The man bent beside them, easily taking Maura from his arms. Stephen focused on his face—and his heart dropped once more. Distinctive fangs flashed in the man’s mouth. Another vampire. The last ones tried to kill them; they wanted to kill Maura.
He lunged, howling with agony as the vampire stood. But the last burst of effort was too much. The world tilted beneath him and everything went black, spiraling into a pool of darkness from which Stephen could not pull himself free.
***
The first thing Stephen became aware of was a scent that made him feel safe. The darkness was so much easier than whatever the light had to bring, so he wrapped himself in that scent and tried to let himself fade back into nothingness. Being awake wasn’t worth it, not when it brought so much pain with it.
“I don’t get it,” a voice murmured from somewhere near his feet. “He should be awake by now.”
Another voice, this one closer to his left, this one weaker, more filled with pain, “He gave more than he had to get me away from there. And he’s been going through a lot lately…”
/> That voice. It was one that made his heart thump, skip a beat and thump again. Stephen struggled against the lull of the darkness, pushing himself toward that voice. The scent became sharper, with a bitter note to it. Maura’s scent. Maura’s voice.
It took more effort than it should, but he managed to push his eyes open. Nothing made sense at first, but as Stephen lifted his head, looking for Maura, things slowly became clear. He lay in a narrow hospital bed, with dim lights shining from just beyond the curtains hanging to the right of his bed. And to his left, also laying in a bed, was Maura.
Her skin was pale grey, roughly the texture of oatmeal. Her eyes were slightly glazed, even her hair looking dull. But she was there, and the smile that broke over her face when their eyes met was radiant beyond belief.
Stephen tried to reach for her, but a hand laid on his shoulder, keeping him from moving too much. “Whoa, there.”
He looked up to see the janitor staring down at him. Stephen blinked several times. Had he been imagining seeing fangs in the man’s mouth?
“You need to stay still,” the janitor said. “The two of you don’t have a lot of time to stay here to heal. If the others found out I brought a couple of shifters in, they’d stake me for sure. So just stay still and try to heal, okay?”
Stephen nodded once, still uncertain what was happening.
The janitor released him and strode over to Maura, handing her a pudding cup. “Eat. You need a lot of calories to rebuild your strength. Look at this as an excuse to pig out on desserts.”
Maura nodded once. “Thank you, Derek.”
“After what you’ve done for me and my family?” Derek patted her shoulder. “Anything for you, Alice.”
Maura shuddered. “That’s not my name anymore.”
“Right. Sorry. Just… try to heal.”
This was the second time someone had referred to her as Alice. Stephen frowned but didn’t comment. Now wasn’t the time. He’d have time enough to ask her about that later, when their lives weren’t at stake. Right now, there were more important things to concentrate on.
Dragon's Challenge Page 14
