by Bianca D'Arc
“A woman. A boy. Me,” Jesse said casually. “My men are on my heels, but we can’t wait. The storm is already too intense, and that tells me the bears don’t have much time.”
“Three then. Safe passage through the maze and a guard at your back in here until your team arrives. When the Wraiths show up, we disappear.”
“Agreed.” Jesse stuck out his hand and Seth shook it. They had a deal.
“You know,” Jesse felt the need to say one thing more. “If you ever get tired of mercing around on your own, you can find me and my men through the Wyoming wolf Pack. For what you’ll do this day, you will be welcome among us.”
Seth seemed to swallow hard before he could reply, and Jesse was glad he’d offered the olive branch. “Thank you, Alpha. I’ll keep the offer in mind.”
Jesse gave the signal to Zach and Maria, glad to see Zach take the lead in getting Maria across the ten yards or so of open ground between the woods and the maze. She reached him, relief written plainly in her expression as she slid into the cover of the shrub-enclosed path.
The jackal had slipped away, but Jesse knew he was still around somewhere.
The maze was ornamental in nature, so it wasn’t hard to navigate. Many paths led to the center and just as many led out. The path wasn’t the hard part. The magical traps were.
They hadn’t gone twenty yards yet when Zach’s hand gripped Jesse’s shoulder. He froze immediately. Maria was a bit behind, but she understood quickly enough and stopped in place next to Jesse. Zach eased around, using hand signals most shifters learned as children playing in the woods. He was able to get his point across. Danger ahead. Magic. Zach was going to recon.
Jesse wanted to argue, but he didn’t even feel a tingle. Whatever it was, you had to be more magical than an Alpha wolf to feel it. He turned to Maria.
“Sense anything?” His voice was the barest whisper that wouldn’t carry beyond the two of them.
Maria closed her eyes. After a moment, she reached out her fingers to brush the leaves of the nearest hedge. It was some kind of boxwood. The smell of it invaded his nose, but that was normal for this variety of shrub. Even humans could smell boxwoods. The only thing abnormal about these bushes that Jesse could see was their size. They were very old, very tall and clipped back at regular intervals to train them into the shape of the path the gardeners wanted to keep.
“Disturbances. Subtle. Bad feeling. Foul,” she whispered, her eyes still shut. “Evil stone. Manmade. Not natural. Blasphemy.”
Jesse’s eyebrows rose at her words. It sounded like she was channeling the bushes or something, and he wondered if she realized what she was doing. She blinked, coming back to herself and looked at him.
“There appear to be concrete statues placed at intervals along the maze. They are magic. Somehow blood and…other things, were mixed in the concrete, then poured into gargoyle shapes. I think they can animate.”
A yelp from just around the corner made Jesse move fast. He turned the corner to find Zach being pinned down by a stone gargoyle twice his size. Damn.
The boy was shifting shape even as Jesse started forward. He pulled the stone giant off the kid who was now much larger and more powerful in his bear form. Bullets wouldn’t do any good against concrete, so Jesse tried walloping the thing. If he could break board with his bare hands, he could at least put a dent in concrete.
Sure enough, a fracture showed at the arm joint and it crumbled, falling to the ground. Seeing his success, Zach piled on, pummeling the creature until it was nothing but dust and a little bit of rebar at their feet. It took only minutes, but Jesse knew he was going to be sore the next day. Beating on concrete wasn’t easy work.
What he needed was some sort of tool. The rebar caught his eye and he picked up a few pieces, letting the bear sniff them first in case there was some kind of magical residue. Zach shook his head in the negative and Jesse handed Maria two arm-length pieces of metal, arming himself with two more. The kid would stay in bear form for now. He was better off with his claws if it came to more fighting.
And it would. Jesse was fairly certain of that.
Swinging the rebar, they fought their way through two more creatures, much like the first. Jesse sniffed one big cat along their path, but true to Seth’s word, his men didn’t impede their progress. They didn’t help either, but they didn’t interfere, which was enough for Jesse at the moment.
They were near the center of the maze now and two of the creatures waited for them around the next bend. Jesse went out swinging, but one of the things had wings. It was going to fly away and raise the alarm, but suddenly it was grounded by…vines. Thick, fast-growing, green vines with big white flowers blooming at intervals as he watched.
Jesse spared a glance for Maria, seeing her crouched to the ground, her hands in the dirt, her eyes on the winged thing that was now tightly held in a net of thick vines. It looked like the dryad part of her was coming to the fore. She was following her instincts as danger came upon them and he couldn’t be prouder of her.
“The flowers are a nice touch,” he joked as the other creature fell to dust at his feet with one final blow. He’d hit it so hard, the rebar was bent.
Crude but effective, he was able to dispatch the things much faster using the rebar like a baseball bat or a broadsword, swiping off the heads of the hideous cement creatures with one stroke, then finishing them off with a few more well-aimed blows.
They had a rhythm going. Zach would sniff out the creatures, Jesse would smash them and Maria and Zach pummeled anything that Jesse missed. Little bits of the concrete would continue to wriggle until it was completely smashed and they were helping get those small pieces, so that none of this evil magic escaped.
Chapter Ten
“With all the noise we’re making, don’t you think they know we’re here?” Maria wondered aloud. They’d smashed their way to the center of the maze and were starting to make their way through to the other side and their objective—the pavilion.
“They probably know something is going on, but they’re counting on their hired mercs and these…unpleasant statues to handle it,” Jesse said quietly, still on the move.
He paused just enough in his description to make her think he’d intended to use a very different word to describe the statues but had censored himself at the last minute. She didn’t blame him for what he was thinking. These effing statues were freaking her out, though she didn’t dare mention it in front of the men.
She was so impressed by Jesse and Zach. They were working as a team, as if they’d done this a hundred times before. She wondered idly if all shifters were born with the same skills and knowledge of how to work together.
She’d also followed her instincts and found some unexpected skills of her own. Making the flower vines grow had been sheer luck at first. It was something she had never done before, but now that she knew she could coax plants into doing her bidding, she’d be sure to keep that weapon at the ready. There were plenty of growing things in the maze that didn’t like the people who clipped, pruned and cut at them all the time. They responded well to her though. They seemed to welcome her influence.
The hedges were old. Old enough to have built up a seething resentment of the way they were constantly cut back and allowed only to grow in the directions the humans wanted. The hedges didn’t like the evil statues either. She could use that to their advantage.
The men moved silently ahead of her, leaving the center of the maze and heading for the side of the maze closest to the pavilion. She expected things to get harder from here. As if animated concrete monsters wasn’t enough of a problem already.
Another winged gargoyle was just poised to fly when she rounded the corner of shrubbery behind Jesse and Zach. Crouching low, she touched the ground, reaching out to the vines, but there weren’t any close enough to the gargoyle. In a panic, she redoubled her efforts, calling on the boxwood hedge behind the creature’s pedestal for help.
What she got was more than she ever
expected. The hedge all around the grouping of three statues exploded outward in a burst of growth. Zach and Jesse had just begun to engage the two ground-based gargoyles while the middle one on the pedestal was probably set to fly, raising the alarm. The boxwood tendrils wrapped around the raised arms of the fighting gargoyles before they could even strike at Jesse or Zach. And the winged one’s limbs and wings were caught in looping branches that grew thicker and more powerful with each second.
The boxwoods really didn’t like those statues. Within thirty seconds, all three evil gargoyles had been pulverized by the squeezing, suffocating branches. Both Zach and Jesse turned to look at her with varying degrees of pride and amazement in their expressions.
“Nicely done,” Jesse whispered quietly as she straightened and joined them.
She looked at movement just past his shoulder and gasped. For the first time, she saw one of the mercenary shifters. Jesse followed the direction of her gaze and seemed to gauge the situation before nodding once, warily, at the man who stood about fifteen feet away, a gleaming black rifle casually draped across his body. He wore it much the way Jesse did. As if it were an old friend. A companion he was seldom without.
Zach, in bear form, moved toward the man who stood to one side of the path first. When the man made no move to stop him, Zach walked past him and stopped, waiting for Jesse and Maria to join him. Zach was playing the role of point man and doing it rather well, she noted.
Jesse escorted her past the mercenary whose golden hair gleamed in the rays of the setting sun. The eye of the storm was eerily calm with little sound other than their breathing and the occasional rustle of the boxwoods.
“Major Moore?” The merc spoke very softly as Jesse drew even with the man. Jesse kept himself between Maria and the merc at all times.
“And you are?” Jesse replied just as quietly. Nobody would hear beyond two feet away.
“Paxton. Arizona Jaguar Clan. U.S. Navy SEAL, Retired.” Maria half-expected him to give his serial number next. “Reports are that whatever your lady just did, it took out all the remaining statues. Only the occasional pedestal is left and a lot of rubble and overgrown bushes.” The man cracked a smile and looked around Jesse’s bulk to meet her eyes. “Nice going, ma’am.” He leaned back just as quickly to talk to Jesse again. “The jackal says he’s sorry about the statues. He didn’t know. None of us did.”
Jesse nodded. “Understood. Tell him thanks.”
The man nodded, and as she leaned over to look at him, Maria could just make out the tiny transmitter in his ear and small microphone along his jaw. No doubt all the mercs were connected, keeping tabs on what happened on their patch. She really hoped the mercenaries weren’t going to double-cross Jesse and rat them out to the folks who’d paid them to guard this maze. It would be so easy to do with those little radios. One stray transmission and there could be an armored battalion waiting for them at the end of this journey through the shrubs.
“I will. And, sir?” The man had an earnest look in his weary eyes. Jesse remained attentive so the soldier continued. “The jackal told us about your offer. I’d like to look you up after this op is over, if that’s all right. It’s time for me to find a home.”
“If we make it through this, look me up in Wyoming. If I don’t make it, talk to my brother, Jason. He’ll put you in touch with my men. It’ll be up to them, but we don’t turn many away.”
Jason held out his hand and the man shook it, an expression of relief on his handsome, slightly scarred face. His was a face that had seen a lot and experienced more. Maria’s heart went out to him, as it often did to her wounded patients. The animals’ wounds were on the outside where she could see them and treat them. This man looked like his wounds were on the inside. Those were probably much harder to heal but just as important.
Once again, Maria was proud of the man she’d fallen in love with so incredibly fast. But who wouldn’t love Jesse Moore? He was such a good man. A strong man who led strong men. He’d earned their respect through his actions and deeds. He was a man of honor, and that single facet of his personality touched every part of his life.
Honor was something she valued as well. On a very basic level, they were well matched. The Lady really did know what She was doing when She’d brought them together.
They left Paxton standing to one side of the hedges and moved on. When she looked back a moment later, the jaguar was gone. These shifters were amazingly stealthy.
They rounded another turn in the maze and, as advertised, only an empty pedestal remained. The statue that had been on it was already crumbled to dust beneath a portion of overgrown boxwood hedge. The small tendrils on the ends of the branches reached out to Maria as they passed.
Jesse pulled her back away from the greenery as she gasped at the contact, but she wasn’t in danger.
“Sorry. The bushes are…um…grateful, I think. They really didn’t like the statues.” That was an understatement judging by the silent impressions that boxwood had left with her. “The bushes were just confirming that the path ahead is clear and thanking me for giving them the power to do what they wanted to do all along.” She marveled at the idea of communicating with a shrub. She’d never known such a thing was possible.
“You really pack a wallop when you’re motivated.” Jesse chuckled as he toed through the remains of what had been a statue and then looked up at her with admiration in his gaze.
“I was just following my instincts. You said to do that,” she replied almost defensively. “Honestly, I didn’t know I could do any of this.”
He faced her, his expression full of confidence. “Your instincts probably just saved us a lot of time and hassle. Let’s keep going.” He looked at the young bear still slightly in front of them. “Zach, you’re still on point, just in case there’s something else in here we haven’t encountered yet.”
Maria could clearly see the tent-like slope of the pavilion’s white roof over the tops of the tall hedges. They were getting very close now.
They moved through the rest of the maze without further incident. All the statues they passed had been reduced to piles of rubble and Maria felt again the satisfaction of the old boxwoods as she passed each one. A few of the bolder, more powerful bushes reached out leafy stems to her as she passed and their silent communication didn’t startle her now that she knew what to expect.
Jesse had kept telling everyone she was descended from some kind of forest dryad. After what she’d been doing the past day and especially here in the maze, she had to believe it now. She’d always thought her affinity for living in the woods was due to the creatures that lived there. She would have to rethink that. Maybe her comfort had really come from the trees and greenery all along, rather than the furry folk.
But those thoughts would wait for another time as they reached the edge of the maze. Jesse moved forward, telling her and Zach with a single look to hang back behind the last of the giant hedges. Maria pressed herself against the lushly growing boxwood, holding her hands out behind her at her sides, palms connecting with the leaves that stirred slightly at her touch.
She motioned to Jesse before he stuck his nose around the edge of the bushes. He came close enough for her to whisper in his ear.
“There are guards facing outward toward the maze at every pillar along the edge of the pavilion,” she said urgently. “There’s one just on the other side of this hedge. He’s got a handgun tucked into his waistband.”
Jesse looked upward, where he could probably just see the tops of the pillars over the tops of the hedges. Luckily, they were spaced reasonably far apart and on a disappearing, convex curve. While the guards could probably see each other if they leaned outward from their positions, it might still be possible to take one out without the others noticing. Or so the boxwoods led her to believe.
“I can probably coax a little plant growth to obscure the view of the guys on either side,” she offered.
Jesse looked back at her sharply, clearly considering her offer.
Finally, he seemed to make a decision.
“Nothing too obvious or they’ll come looking. I hesitate to use magic of any kind around this place, but they didn’t seem to be prepared for your particular brand of magic. Do it. And if you can trip up the dude I’m going to take out, so much the better.”
She smiled at him. “You knock him out. I’ll tie him up. There’s a friendly clematis trained to grow up the side of each pillar. I can have it attach him to the inside of the pillar where nobody will see him unless they come looking.”
“Perfect.” He leaned in to place a smacking kiss on her lips before moving to the edge of the bushes once more.
He moved slowly at first. She watched him stalk his prey, scoping out as much as he could of the position of his target while she urged the boxwoods, grass and flowers to grow a bit, obscuring the view of the two men at the pillars on either side. She did her best to make it look natural, not asking any one plant to grow too much. She hoped.
When Jesse struck it was almost too fast for her to see. One minute he was there on this side of the hedges with her and the young bear. The next, he was gone, leaping in an instant to pounce on his prey.
Maria’s connection with the boxwood told her what was going on just on the other side of the wide hedge. Jesse clobbered the guard, knocking him out with one quick blow to the temple. It was neat, efficient and barely made a sound.
Jesse propped the unconscious man against the inside of the pillar and Maria knew what to do. She sent a little suggestion through the ground where all things were connected by their roots, to the clematis vine that was struggling to survive in a spot with too little sunlight.
It’s positioning didn’t matter to Maria. She infused it with the energy of the earth and of her own newfound inner power. The vine sprang to life, twining around the unconscious man with vicious strength. Multiple shoots from the bottom of the plant formed new vines that, while thin, held an unnatural, magical strength.
As a last finishing touch, she let the flowers bloom as Jesse stepped away. The grey-suited man faded into near obscurity, bound by flourishing green leaves to a gray pillar, his unmoving body was festooned with showy white flowers.
