by Lynn Graeme
“Saba?” asked Richards. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be under lockdown.”
“What are you talking about? Where are Rex and Jamal? Are they all right?”
“They’re fine. Safe. Don’t look at me like that. They were moved to a more secure location, which is more than I can say for you. What the hell? Supe was supposed to get a hold of you.”
“I got his text. Was planning to call later.” Distantly, Isobel realized Malcolm had picked up the other line and was hollering in her ear. “Malcolm, I’m at the hospital with Richards. Rex and Jamal have been moved.”
“Of course they have,” Malcolm exploded. “We’re all in this damn safe house. Where the hell are you? Didn’t you get my message? Let the others find Ogden and haul your ass in here.”
A chill slithered down Isobel’s spine. “Pierry Ogden? What’s he got to do with this?”
“I’ll explain when you get here. Tell Richards to drive you over now!”
“Is that Saba?” Jamal suddenly came on the line, ignoring Malcolm’s indignant bellow at losing possession of his phone. “Saba, you’re out there. Good. Nail the bastard to the wall.”
Malcolm shouted again, and the line went dead.
Isobel turned to Richards, who had thanked and dismissed the hospital security guard. “What’s going on? What’s this about Ogden? Last I heard, he was on his way out of Bloodhaven.”
Richards shook his head and urged her toward the elevators. “That’s what we thought until half an hour ago.”
“What happened half an hour ago?”
He gazed down at her somberly. “They found Lewski’s body.”
She sucked in a stunned breath.
“He didn’t show up for his shift. When comm-central couldn’t get a response, they sent an agent to his basement apartment.” Richards’s eyes turned bleak. “The kid had clearly put up a fight.”
Isobel closed her eyes. Lewski had been young and inexperienced, but he hadn’t deserved this.
“His upstairs neighbor is out of town, which was why nobody saw or heard what happened.”
“The Council was supposed to have sent a team after Ogden!” she snapped. “What the hell have they been doing, sitting on their tails whistling in the wind?”
“For God’s sake, Isobel! You don’t think they’re plagued by guilt as it is?”
“Fat load of good guilt is if it makes them this careless!”
Isobel had to force herself to take several deep breaths to calm down. Richards was right; the news was bound to have hit the active team hard. Rationally, she knew Pierry Ogden had gotten a head start on his escape in the first place. Not to mention both Ogdens had been adept in evading the Council’s clutches when they were being hunted down. If there was one thing Pierry Ogden had surely learned from his father, it was how to escape capture.
That knowledge was no comfort now, not when it came to yet another dead agent at the hands of this bastard.
Richards glanced around them, then quickly ushered Isobel into an empty elevator where they couldn’t be overheard.
“We never expected Ogden to backtrack instead of fleeing Bloodhaven outright,” he muttered. “I don’t know how he managed to locate Lewski.”
“He must’ve taken note of Lewski’s scent that first day,” Isobel said grimly. “When Lewski was fumbling with his restraints.” The one that had led to Ogden’s own escape.
“He could’ve run. Instead, he’s returned to seek revenge for what happened to his damn father.”
“How do you know that?”
Richards grimaced. “He left a message on Lewski’s wall.”
Isobel didn’t ask what Ogden had used to write that message. She could guess well enough.
The elevator doors opened, and they stepped out onto the ground floor. They were silent as they left the multitude of people milling around the lobby and emerged from the building.
“That’s not all,” Richards continued once they’d gained distance. “Ogden used Lewski’s prints to pull up certain files on the kid’s phone. Our techs discovered which ones.”
Isobel now understood why Rex, Jamal, and Malcolm were in the safe house. “He looked up the agents involved in the carnage in the woodlands that day. Rex, Jamal, Malcolm, and me. We’re the ones who survived.”
And I was the one who killed his father.
“Ogden didn’t get your full personnel files,” Richards quickly assured her. “Lewski’s clearance level doesn’t—didn’t—go that high. Ogden doesn’t know where you live, how to reach you, none of that.”
“Our system’s been compromised all the same.”
“I know. Look, let me get you to the safe house and we’ll figure the rest out. My ride’s this way.”
Isobel looked at Richards in disbelief. “I’m not going to the safe house. My niece and mate are with me.”
He appeared temporarily flummoxed by the news that Isobel had acquired a mate, but said, “They’ll understand. You’ve gone incommunicado before.”
“I’m not deserting them, and I’m damn sure not going to leave them out in the open with Ogden on the loose!”
“Ogden wouldn’t know how to find them! I told you, Ogden doesn’t have your address.”
Isobel suddenly stiffened. “Lewski’s clearance level. It allows you to look up next-of-kin’s contact info.”
Richards frowned. “Yes, in the event we have to deliver unfortunate news. So?”
“My mate and niece are at my sister’s apartment right now.” For the first time in her life, Isobel felt the true ice-cold clutches of fear.
Beside her, realization dawned on Richards’s horrified face. “Ogden’s revenge… .”
Isobel grabbed her phone and broke into in a run. Twelve blocks away. Kaya’s apartment was twelve blocks away.
“Saba, wait!”
“Get protection detail for the others’ next-of-kin!” she yelled over her shoulder. “And send a unit to my sister’s apartment now!”
Panic threatened to choke her alive. She struggled to steady her hands as she began to dial.
Pick up, Liam. Pick up.
Chapter Twelve
Naley was adamant as they rode the elevator up to the apartment where she used to live with her mother. “Jeremy’s just my study partner. I don’t even like him that way.”
Liam folded his arms skeptically. “So you don’t mind if I pick you up from school and glare daggers at the kid?”
“I thought glaring daggers is your natural state of being?”
He glowered, and Naley laughed in return. “See?”
“Just for that, I’m going to personally introduce myself to this Jeremy.”
“Seriously, there’s nothing going on between us. We’re just friends.” She cast Liam a withering look over her shoulder. “My mom had me when she was only a little older than I am right now. Boys can suck it, far as I’m concerned. I have no intention of turning out like her.”
Liam opened his mouth, then closed it. After a pause he asked, “So why did you look so upset the other day when this Jeremy was talking to you?”
“I wasn’t upset. Jeez, Aunt Iz was right about wolves being uber-protective. He was just asking me out for the umpteenth time, and I was tired of it. I told you boys can suck it.”
“Hmm.” Liam mulled this over. “I’m definitely going to speak to him now.”
Naley nudged him, but her cheek dimpled.
He cleared his throat gruffly. “For the record, I think you’ve turned out very well as you are.”
She looked both embarrassed and pleased by the statement. “C’mon,” she said as the elevator doors opened. “We have tons to pack.”
Liam’s phone rang as Naley loped on ahead. The second he stepped out of the elevator, however, he caught the stench of musty swamp swirled with blood.
The odor was faint, as evidenced by Naley’s lack of notice, but he would’ve caught it a mile away. The phone in his back pocket continued to ring, but his gaze fixa
ted on the door to the fire escape on his left. To his right, he could hear Naley further ahead in the hallway, digging into her shorts pocket for her keycard.
The metallic scent of blood was far too thick to mean anything but all things wrong.
Wartime instincts immediately roared to life. Liam could sense the other shifter’s presence on the other side of that closed door. An adult male tiger, who had tried to clean the blood off if the underlying scent of soap was anything to go by. But Liam had spent too long embedded in battle, tracking down humans using nothing more than the bark of a tree they’d brushed up against, to miss anything that reeked this heavily of death and decay.
The blood clinging to that man’s skin didn’t belong to him.
Liam could feel the subtle shift in weight on the other side of that door. He could hear the subtle change in breath, lungs expanding to take in more oxygen, an anticipatory move by a fighter in preparation for combat. The voices in Liam’s head coalesced into one unified ear-piercing scream.
Liam’s phone continued to ring, but he didn’t take his eye off that door.
“Naley,” he murmured.
“I know, I know,” she said, fumbling as she shoved her keycard into the lock.
“Run.”
“What?”
Liam looked at her. She was frowning in confusion, but froze on seeing the expression on his face. He mouthed the word this time: Run.
He heard a sliver of movement, half a second before he lunged forward and grabbed Naley by the shoulders. He shoved her toward the emergency exit stairwell on the opposite end of the hallway just as he heard the door behind him fly open.
The tiger-shifter had scratch-marks on his grizzled features, square jaw bearing stubble as red as the hair on his head. He wasn’t as tall as Liam, but he had bulk. Perspiration added an unhealthy luster to his skin, which appeared even more pallid due to the dark circles ringing his glittering, feverish eyes. Blood spatter littered his collar and the edge of his shirt.
This was a man hanging on to his last legs with deadly purpose.
His eyes flicked to Naley’s disappearing form on the other end of the hallway, then returned to Liam. He bared yellow gritted teeth.
“You just cost me a tiny cheetah cub.”
Liam calmly met his manic gaze. “Good.”
Without warning, the man launched himself at Liam. Long-ingrained instincts came to life full-force; Liam met him head-on, grabbing on to his collar and twisting him back. They smashed against the floor in a flurry of fists and claws, the impact loud enough to shake the walls.
His opponent pinned Liam underneath him. Liam’s forearm pressed back on the other man’s throat, holding him at bay. The man’s fangs elongated, saliva dripping onto Liam’s cheek.
“You reek of her,” he snarled.
There was only one her Liam could think of who applied to this situation. Ah. So that was what this was about.
His mouth curved. “Good.”
He punched a fist into the tiger-shifter’s gut, unleashing his claws. A quick twist and rip upwards, and the pungent smell of fresh blood hit the air. The other man yanked away and tumbled to his back with a roar. He clutched the gaping wound in his belly. Liam vaulted to his feet and planted his foot on the man’s neck.
Nobody threatened his pack.
The shifter grabbed Liam’s knee and twisted, sending him crashing to the floor. Liam rolled, expecting the man to make a grab for him, but to his horror he saw the shifter bolting for the exit through which Naley had disappeared.
He ran after him, ignoring the pain shooting up his left knee. An enraged howl turned his blood ice-cold. Liam burst into the stairwell, relief coursing through him when he saw it was empty but for the pacing man on the landing below. Naley had escaped.
The sound of rending clothes cut through the air. Liam saw his opponent pounding down the stairs mid-shift, face broadening as striped fur sprouted along his body. The cement steps shook beneath his massive feet. His roar echoed through the stairwell.
He was going after Naley.
Liam leapt over the iron railing, unable to hold back his enraged snarl. That cat wasn’t touching his cub. He ignored the pain shooting up his leg when he landed. He took three steps at a time, rapidly discarding his clothes as he shifted. He leapt over the iron railing again in wolf-form, crashing onto the tiger’s back. The impact knocked the tiger off-balance, and both of them rolled in a wild, clawing ball to crash against the third-level landing.
Liam clamped his jaws around the big cat’s haunches, right as the tiger sank its own massive teeth into his shoulder.
*
Isobel swerved in between bystanders as she ran, pushing aside those who weren’t quick enough to get out of her way. It was only by sheer force of will that she managed not to go to pieces. She had to maintain focus. Losing control would mean becoming utterly useless to the people she loved and needed most, and she refused to let them down.
Her calm held her through until she neared Kaya’s apartment. Out of nowhere, Naley tumbled forward and flung herself into Isobel’s arms.
“Aunt Iz!” She was sobbing, fear and confusion radiating throughout her quaking body. “Liam’s inside—he told me—told me to run—he hasn’t come out—”
“It’s all right. Shh. It’s okay.” Isobel quickly, desperately ran her hands over Naley, making sure the girl was safe and unharmed.
Naley was still speaking, but wasn’t able to tell her more than that a shifter who’d smelled rank had charged into the hallway just as Liam had pushed her out. Isobel knew at once that it was Ogden. She cupped her niece’s face between her hands and lowered herself to Naley’s eye-level, drawing the girl’s frantic babbles to a stop.
“Cub, listen to me.” Isobel spoke rapidly, aware that precious time was slipping away. “I want you to run three blocks down and hide in the most populated store. When you see Council SUVs arriving on-scene, I want you to grab the nearest agent and identify yourself. They will take you somewhere safe. Do you understand me?”
“But what about you and Liam?”
“Do you understand me?”
Naley gulped and nodded. Isobel quickly kissed her forehead and pushed her on her way before racing into the building.
She immediately heard the deafening crashes and roars emanating from the north stairwell. She ran for its entrance door. Around her, residents nervously peeked out of their apartments.
“Get back inside!” she bellowed, and they hastily slammed their doors shut.
She burst into the stairwell and flew up the steps. Her heart nearly lodged in her throat. On the landing above her, a silver wolf growled viciously as he backed into a corner, favoring his hind leg. Blood ran down his shoulder in viscous rivulets.
Liam.
Pierry Ogden was in tiger form, stalking toward him. Isobel would recognize the bastard anywhere. Deep gouges were scattered across his furred flesh. His white underbelly was stained red, blood dripping from a wide gash onto the cold cement floor.
Ogden’s head suddenly whipped up and turned to look over his shoulder. A gruesome growl escaped him as he zeroed in on Isobel. His eyes were glazed with a volatile madness that had previously only lurked by the faintest degree the day she’d rounded him and his fellow faction members up in the swale. That day seemed like a lifetime ago.
Isobel willed herself to remain calm. She forced herself not to look at Liam and his injuries. Instead, she kept her eyes pinned on Ogden. She refused to give this monster the pleasure of comprehending her terror.
“Hello, Pierry,” she said, her tone reflecting a steady calm she didn’t feel. “Coward as ever, I see.”
He growled and half-turned in her direction. Her upper lip curled in deliberate insult.
“Did you know I killed your father? I think you do. I’ll draw you a picture, if you’d like. I put the gun to his head and blew his fucking brains out.”
The tiger emitted a deafening, ungodly roar, heavy with rage. It was all the w
arning Isobel needed before he shoved away from Liam and lunged down toward her.
Isobel was already leaping up the stairs. Her foot hit the wall on her right, pushing her off so that she spun in mid-air, barely missing the snap of his jaws. Even as she landed on the landing above, she kept an ear out for Liam. His breathing was heavy but not labored. A quick glance allayed her concerns. He could still run.
Damn wolf should’ve run.
“Get out of here, Liam!”
His glare of rebuke told her what he thought of her suggestion. Instead, the damn wolf tried to nudge her aside. Overprotective idiot.
And then there was no time to argue. Ogden spun around and launched himself back up the steps toward them.
Isobel and Liam exploded into action. Isobel went high, using her elevated height to leap into the air and smash her heel against Ogden’s upturned nose. The crunch of bone echoed sharply in the stairwell.
Ogden shrieked, his spine arching up in a painful curve. Isobel landed on his back at the same time that Liam, the stubborn wolf, slid low. He ducked in between Ogden’s thrashing legs. Dodging the sharp claws around him, he sank his teeth into the open gash in the tiger’s gut. Ogden’s flesh gave an audible rip.
Isobel barely held on as Ogden howled and tumbled on the steps. She hissed as her shoulder slammed into the wall, but dug her fingers harder into Ogden’s scruff. She grabbed the blade that was tucked behind her waist and sliced it clean across the tiger’s throat. An arc of blood flew across the air in a fountain of scarlet.
She ignored the sick, wet gurgle emanating from the tiger. She stumbled down the stairs to where Liam lay panting on the landing below. He dragged in a deep breath before starting to shift.
“Liam! Are you all right?” Below, she heard a door open. Then Council agents in uniform surged in.
“Agent Saba! Are you unharmed?”
“The suspect—”
The agents shut up on sighting Ogden’s body, which continued to twitch before finally slumping still. A circle of red expanded around him, matting his fur and dripping down the steps.
Isobel moved Liam and herself out of the path of blood flow.
