by Dianna Love
In fact, if he didn’t need her, she wouldn’t be on this field trip.
He stopped so quickly she had to slap her hands on his back to keep from ramming into him.
She mumbled, “Sorry.”
Backing up a step was out of the question, because she’d repeat whatever noise she’d just made that only he could hear. Doing it twice would be illogical.
They’d hiked in from where he’d left his Hummer near a lake, then walked north toward a mining ravine geographically between them and the city of Blairsville. Hiking she could take, but this climbed down a muddy, waterlogged descent had strained her team spirit. She’d suggested they take the nice wide paths left from some machine that had cleared away trees.
He’d dismissed that suggestion without a second thought and told her to stick to the wooded areas. So much for team spirit on his part.
Isak took a step forward and turned, smooth as butter, blast his sexy hide.
She looked up at him through the water drizzling off the brim of her floppy rain cap. Also all in black, he looked like Rambo on steroids. He flipped up the monocular that gave him a cyborg appearance.
When he spoke, he kept his voice low, but the anger from an hour ago was still there. “If they hear us first, we’re dead. That’s how it works in my world.”
And there it was again.
He just had to poke at her for not being human. She’d avoided using any overt majik around him to avoid setting him off, but she was tired of tiptoeing around the giant issue that sat between them. The one she’d warned him about and he’d declared they could get past.
Her heart had pulled in on itself, trying to heal the wound he’d caused the minute he discovered what had happened to his mother. He’d started shouting obscenities about nonhumans and how he’d kill them all if anything happened to Kit.
Traveling after that had been awkward. Adrianna had attempted to calm him and he’d ducked away from her hands. Cold had settled in her chest.
She reminded him, “I said I could cloak us.”
“Don’t use that shit on me.”
She didn’t flinch, but that stung. “Fine. I’ll use it on me. Will that make you happy?”
“Getting my mother safely out of this crapfest is the only thing that’s going to make me anywhere close to happy.”
She would not allow him to see how much his attitude cut her to the bone. She hadn’t been behind the kidnapping, but that didn’t matter in Isak’s mind.
He saw anyone who had any nonhuman ability as the other team. Not his team.
Why had she let him convince her they could be together?
Because deep down she’d wanted to believe she could have one normal thing in her life. That she could date a man who saw only her and had no interest in her power. Well, she’d gotten the no interest in her power part right.
He wiped a rough hand over his face, removing a layer of water.
If the supernatural quality of this incessant rain continued after tonight, she’d spend time researching how to stop it. Even better if she could figure out how to use Witchlock to send it west for the people in drought-stricken states who were desperate for any rain.
Lighting sparked in the sky. That was different.
Looking around, anywhere but at her, Isak asked, “How am I going to find you if you go invisible?”
“I won’t be invisible. I’ll be cloaking myself from view.”
He rolled his hand in a “whatever” motion for her to finish explaining.
“I’ll be able to see you. All you have to do is lift your hand to motion me to you, or speak. I can hear everything.”
He dug into his vest and pulled out a comm unit, which he handed her. “If I have to speak to you, I can’t raise my voice.”
If I have to speak to you.
She would not think too hard on that or it would punch her heart again. Taking the comm unit, she slid it into place and called up her cloaking.
He took a step back in surprise at her disappearance, but said nothing.
You hardheaded man. Drawing a calming breath so that she sounded in control, she said, “This is me talking to you.”
Isak might have tried to hide it, but she caught how he tensed at her softly spoken words. She held her breath, waiting to see if there was a crack in that granite expression.
Nope. He said, “Copy that. Let’s move out.” He turned and started making tracks again.
After covering another fifty yards, they entered a smoky fog, where the rain stopped. No rain broke through. How could the fog be blocking rain? Humming filled the trees and air. Different from the buzzing that had cloaked a few men in Midtown, and this was a much larger area.
Isak lifted a hand, signaling her to stop. Since she was the queen of quiet right now, she moved up close to see what had caught his attention.
It took a moment to catch the sliver of light dancing through a break in the trees.
That hadn’t been obvious from the cliff above the ravine.
In spite of his anger and issues with nonhumans, at least Isak had listened to her warning that the fog hanging over the ravine had an odd quality. She’d suggested scouting the area before he brought in his men and he’d surprised her by agreeing.
Isak’s men had contacted him as soon as they’d received a call about someone holding his mother hostage. He’d roared orders rapid fire, telling his men to triangulate Kit’s mobile phone and find her.
By the time Adrianna had straightened her clothes and climbed into his truck, his men had triangulated the location of Kit’s campsite. They’d found it intact but empty of people, and a note explaining that the kidnappers would negotiate only with an Alterant-gryphon who could unseal a tomb from Oakland Cemetery. Adrianna had withheld as much as she could about Quinn’s private situation with Kizira’s body, which that tomb had to hold, but she did tell Isak there was a missing body of a witch involved. The kidnappers stipulated that Isak had until three in the morning to contact them or they’d start killing hostages.
One of the twin male witches would be first.
The minute Isak realized this was not a human kidnapper, he’d flat refused to contact anyone with the Beladors except Evalle.
Adrianna hadn’t been able to raise Evalle by phone and Isak’s men couldn’t find her anywhere. Isak wouldn’t budge on bringing any of the others in and warned Adrianna against going behind his back.
In his shoes, she’d feel the same way since she trusted few nonhumans, but she would have enough faith in her supernatural friends to figure a way to rescue the hostages.
Isak lacked that faith.
She knew without asking that he believed any nonhumans would put their own interests ahead of humans.
Since Adrianna had no idea where Kit and the twins were being held, she had nothing to share with Quinn. The minute she knew for sure what they were facing, she was calling the Belador leader.
How much more pissed could Isak be with her at that point?
He’d allowed Adrianna to join him only after she’d reminded him that his massive firepower could end up getting Kit and the boys killed, where a spell might be safer.
Oh, he’d wanted to refuse her help, but they both knew he couldn’t allow his prejudice and mistrust of all things preternatural to color his decision.
Isak had finally located Kit by a secondary tracking system he’d put in her favorite hiking boots, but the signal stopped at the edge of this ravine. His mother would probably rip him a new one for daring to tag her with a tracking device, but as Isak had said, “She’ll be alive to do it.”
His men remained half a mile out in a perimeter circling the ravine. Isak headed into what could be a supernatural conflict with the same single-minded determination he’d used against walls Adrianna had tried to keep in place between them.
Those walls had changed now. With every action and comment, he was building them taller and stronger than hers had ever been.
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She allowed her senses to roam as she walked, sweeping the area for any scouts the kidnappers might have planted out here to intercept someone who tried to sneak past them.
If the kidnappers were expecting Beladors, their scouts might kill all others.
But did that stop Isak from striding straight into a majik war zone? No.
Adrianna sighed and asked, “What now?”
“We move in slowly and survey the situation,” he said, his deep voice barely registering in her ear. The sound raised a longing for something that she should never have allowed herself to believe could happen.
Isak’s temper burned fast and hot, but generally dissipated just as quickly. If they managed to get Kit and the boys back to safety, Isak would probably settle down and realize the damage he’d done.
One could hope.
But this changed things for her. He’d disappoint her when he did the same thing again, and he would do the same thing again, the next time an issue arose involving nonhumans.
Adrianna stayed even with his progress, but off to the side.
A shadow moved right to left across her vision between where she stood and the light peeking through the woods.
Isak must have seen it too, because he stilled, his only movement a subtle change in position of his demon blaster.
She warned him, “If you shoot anything out here, you’ll alert the camp.”
He nodded and headed in the direction the shadow had been heading. What did he think he’d do when he faced one of the kidnapper’s scouts?
She suggested, “If you’ll let me take the lead, I might be able to contain whatever that being is.”
His reply was a sharp, “No.”
Stupid alpha male.
He wouldn’t speak to her during the long drive here, but he still had to play the protector.
She needed her head examined for trying to keep him alive, but Adrianna swept past Isak without him realizing it. She hurried ahead to find out what else was out here.
When she estimated herself to be fifty feet ahead of him, only because she’d practically run and he was gliding slowly in black-ops mode, a sound on her left pulled her up short.
She turned that way.
There were two figures and they’d stopped moving.
What were they doing? Setting a trap?
Following them had drawn her closer to the camp. She took a moment to assess her surroundings. Off to her right, she caught a glimpse of what might be the backside of a tomb positioned next to a tent.
Would that be Kizira’s tomb? Evalle had mentioned it when she called Adrianna to update her on the meeting at Treoir. Why had the kidnapper’s message referenced a Belador bringing an Alterant?
Or did the kidnappers think just any Belador could open the tomb?
They really needed Quinn here if the negotiation required freeing Kizira’s body, which is what Adrianna would bet on if she were one to risk money.
Somehow, she had to convince Isak to rethink this plan or he was going to lose all the hostages, and possibly die at the same time.
She hadn’t realized how quickly Isak could move.
He passed her with his blaster raised to eye level, preparing to discharge it.
Adrianna looked at where the two figures were standing and caught the flash of bright green glowing spots. At eye level. Like the eyes of an Alterant.
She ran forward, breaking out of her cloaking as she reached Isak, which startled him.
He swung the weapon on her and she held her hands up. “It’s me.”
“What the hell, Adrianna?”
“I’m stopping you from killing my friends,” Adrianna hissed at him just loud enough to be heard by Tristan and Evalle, who stepped into view.
Isak cursed low but it came through Adrianna’s comm unit. He lowered his blaster, letting it hang from the cord on his vest. Flipping up his monocular, he glared at everyone.
Before his control snapped completely, Adrianna whispered a quick spell that cloaked all four of them. She told Isak, “I’ve cloaked us so we can talk. If you start complaining about majik, I’ll boot you out of here and talk to Evalle and Tristan by myself.”
His cold eyes could cut her in half, but he nodded.
Evalle gave her a what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-you-two look that Adrianna answered with a brief headshake and mouthed, “Later.”
Evalle said, “Isak, this is Tristan. Tristan, this is Isak.”
Adrianna had thought they all knew each other, then remembered what Evalle had once told her. Back when Evalle hadn’t known Isak long, he’d turned his demon blaster on her, Tristan and two of Tristan’s friends.
Isak wouldn’t recall that incident because Sen had wiped his memory.
Adrianna would thank Evalle later for not sharing that and saving Isak an aneurysm.
Evalle asked Isak and Adrianna, “Who told you about this?”
Adrianna grimaced. That was not going to help.
Isak’s voice turned harder than she’d ever heard it. “You knew about Kit being kidnapped and said nothing?”
“No. One of our people heard about hostages that sounded like the twins who stay at my place. We came out to investigate,” Evalle explained. “I saw Kit less than five minutes ago, after we got here.”
“Kit took them camping. Didn’t it occur to you that she might be a hostage, too?”
“No one told me about the camping trip,” Evalle snapped right back at him. “So no, I didn’t consider that possibility. But I’ll bet there’s a note at home.”
When Isak didn’t seem placated, Tristan quickly explained, “We just got down here, found the location and determined they do have three hostages, but there’s no way to get a message out telepathically or electronically. We can argue over who knew what or we can act.”
Adrianna gave Evalle a return look of who-is-this-guy-and-what-happened-to-Tristan.
Evalle muttered, “Later.”
A conversation about what was going on with these two men would require copious amounts of wine.
It wasn’t clear if Isak agreed with anyone, but he did start talking logistics. “I have a team circling this area. One call and they’ll converge.”
Adrianna started to argue, but Tristan stepped in again. “Bad idea.”
“This is my mission,” Isak stated with no room for argument.
Tristan shifted toward Isak and Evalle stepped between them. “I am not standing by and allowing his mother and my boys to be harmed because you two are having a testosterone battle.”
“His mother?” Tristan questioned.
“Yes. Kit is Isak’s mother, which is why he’s close to losing his mind over this.”
“I am not,” Isak grumbled.
“Yes you are, and I understand,” she told him. “But when it comes to battling nonhumans, you’re in our territory, Isak. If you go in there balls to the wall, you’ll get all of them killed.”
That failed to break the tension.
Adrianna commented, “Why try to stop him, Evalle? I’ve always wondered what balls-to-the-wall would look like. It sounds chaotic and disorganized, but hey, I’m not the black-ops, expert soldier here. I’m just one of those nonhumans he’s ready to mow down.”
Evalle hit Adrianna with an impatient look. “Not helping.”
“That’s the point. He doesn’t want us to help. He doesn’t accept that saving Kit and those boys is just as important to us as it is to him. Or maybe he only cares about saving Kit since in his eyes she’s the only pure human at risk.”
Evalle stepped back, face rocked with disappointment. “Isak?”
Chapter 26
Isak glared at Adrianna, but he didn’t have supersonic eyes or whatever the hell this bunch had. How was it that she could make him feel lower than a slug when all he wanted to do was get his mother to safety?
He took in Evalle and Tristan.
The looks those two were giving him drop
ped him down another notch on the food chain. Catching Adrianna’s eye first, he said for everyone’s benefit, “I want to save all three of them. I’m not putting anyone’s life above the others.”
Even if he was the kind of asshole who would leave two young boys in danger, which he wasn’t, Kit would disown him for allowing any harm to come to the pair of street teens she’d taken under her wing.
Adrianna picked a hell of a time to drag their argument out in the open.
“Okay, we’re all on the same team,” Evalle announced. “Let’s form a plan.”
Breaking away from Adrianna’s frigid gaze, Isak said, “Agreed. I have an idea.”
Tristan piped up, “You haven’t heard ours yet.”
“But I have the ransom note.”
“What ransom note?” Evalle asked.
Isak pulled it out for her to read since she had the equivalent of night vision even with her sunglasses on. She told Tristan, “They’re demanding a gryphon to open the tomb in exchange for the hostages.” Then Evalle turned to Adrianna. “You knew about this?”
Adrianna said, “Before you get upset, I tried to call you but you probably aren’t getting cell reception out here.”
“Did you call Quinn?”
“No.” Adrianna pushed up a hand to stall any further discussion on this. “I agreed not to tell anyone except you when I joined Isak and his team to rescue the hostages. He asked me not to and I would not betray his trust.”
Isak heard her unspoken words rattle in his head. Even though you betrayed mine.
Damn. Knife right through the gut with that one.
Isak looked at Adrianna, who ignored him. If she’d just risk a peek his way, she’d see the apology sitting on his face.
Not happening. She was doing a great job of pretending he didn’t exist.
They’d talk later.
Obviously, his head had climbed up his ass the minute his mother landed in danger, but she was all he had. Protecting her was his job and he’d gotten lax by letting her interact with the supernatural community. He’d let her go off with two witches to camp in the woods and she ended up a hostage of some crazy person with powers that Isak couldn’t begin to imagine.
