by Unknown
AS the two dragons flew toward the mountain, Renata raised her hand toward the sky. At this distance, it was impossible to tell which was which. But her voice held the conviction of the righteous. “Your master cannot survive.”
“He always survives,” the adept spokesman answered.
They all watched as one of the dragons caught up with the other, spewing out fire.
Was Vandar fleeing? Or had Gallagher found out he was no match for the other beast?
When the two dragons had disappeared from view, Talon turned his attention back to the adepts at the mouth of the cave.
The Marshall women were strong, but there were more of Vandar’s people, and they must have practiced for an attack. Or they were more desperate because they feared that if they failed, their master would kill them in his horrible way.
Talon had thought he was prepared for this conflict, but he hadn’t really been able to imagine the reality of a battle that was fought with bolts of energy rather than tooth and claw—or guns.
His whole body felt as though it had turned to boiling lead. At the same time, a terrible hopelessness gripped him. Even as it wrapped him in its embrace, he knew that the adepts were sending it toward him.
Fighting the sensation, he bent his head, maneuvered the whistle into his mouth, and blew a long blast. Then he broke away from the group, staggering toward the slaves, thinking that he could take some of them down and weaken the attack.
Lance caught up with him, and they both struggled toward the cave where the defenders looked at him with alarm.
“Go after the wolves,” the spokesman shouted.
The adepts changed the focus of their attack, aiming for him and Lance. Somehow the two of them kept staggering toward Vandar’s people, who were now advancing on them, sending out a steady wave of energy. The pain was almost too much to bear, yet Talon knew that at least he and Logan were taking the focus off the women, who might be able to do something if they weren’t under the worst of the attack.
Before he reached the adepts, he went down on his front paws.
Behind him, someone shouted, “No,” and he was sure that Kenna had tried to break away from the group and get to him, but he knew that she had to stay with the others. Together, the women had a chance. If they lost contact with Kenna, their strength would diminish.
The defenders gave Talon and Logan one more blast, and he rolled to his side, unable to move.
Then they must have turned their attention back to the women and their mates, because he heard groans and cries from the Marshalls.
They’d thought they could conquer Vandar’s adepts, but they’d been wrong.
Talon struggled to turn his head. When he did, he saw the other invaders going down. Across the blackened land, his eyes met Kenna’s. Her lips moved, but he couldn’t catch what she was saying. He thought it might be “good-bye.”
He wanted to howl in sorrow, but even that was beyond him now.
ON the other side of the portal, Mitch Sutton crept closer to the place where the group of people and a couple of the dangerous big dogs had disappeared. It looked like they’d used a magic trick. Making a piece of rock wall vanish. Or maybe it hadn’t actually been rock.
He’d stayed way back until they disappeared. But he’d been watching everything with high-powered binoculars.
The men and women had been in a hell of a hurry. Like somebody was after them.
Was one of the guys Talon Marshall? It was hard to tell, because there was a whole bunch of men, and all of them could have been his brother or his cousin. But he saw someone he recognized for sure. The woman who should have burned up in the lodge. She’d screwed him up, and she was on his shit list, just like Marshall.
Jeez! Maybe Marshall hadn’t turned the money over to the cops after all. Maybe he’d hidden it, and now he was going to get it.
But how had they gone through the wall? As far as he could see, it had something to do with the woman pressing her palm against a spot on the rock.
He hefted the Glock in his hand. They had to come back, hopefully with the money. And when they did, he could cut them down before they knew what had hit them. He was about to head for a screen of brambles when he heard something rustling to his right. Peeking out from behind the tree where he was standing, he saw gray-clad figures coming up the hill at a good clip.
Jesus! The fuzz.
So that’s why Marshall’s friends had been in a hurry. They were dodging the cops, and Mitch had come back at the damn wrong time. Again.
Christ! Was he never going to get a break?
He looked wildly around. Could he get the hell out of here before the guy spotted him? Or was it already too late?
The officer stopped and looked down the hill, and Mitch thought he had a chance for a getaway. Then he saw another cop coming from the other direction, cutting him off.
Shit.
He waited with his heart pounding. When they drew abreast of each other, he ran toward the rock, hoping against hope he was doing the right thing.
Shifting his gun to his left hand, he pressed his right hand to the same place where the woman had pressed, flattening his palm against the stone the way she had. When nothing happened, he clenched his teeth and moved his hand a little to the right, feeling a tingling sensation. Seconds later, the rock in front of him began to change.
It was going away! Just like before. Just like magic!
He stared in wonder at the solid wall that suddenly wasn’t so solid. There was a dark cave beyond. As far as he could tell, it was empty. And farther on, the tunnel seemed to bend. But he could see some light filtering in.
This is spooky. Should he go in? Or what?
Behind him, someone shouted, “Police. Stop.”
Not likely. With no choice now, he stepped through the opening. It closed behind him, and he smiled. He’d been looking through the binoculars and seen the woman press the rock. The cops weren’t close enough to have seen him do it, and they were at the wrong angle to figure out where he’d gone.
Could he be sure of that? Maybe he’d better get out of the cave in case they came through.
When he started down the dark tunnel, he almost tripped over a limp body lying on the ground.
Shit! Something had happened here. Something bad.
Moving more cautiously, he took a few more steps and kicked another body.
Cursing again, he stopped, staring toward the light ahead of him. He wanted to go back, but the cops were probably right outside now. Maybe they’d even figure out how to get in here.
The only way to go was forward. Slowly, Mitch crept to the mouth of the cave where he stared out at a scene that robbed him of breath.
What the hell?
He’d been in the Pennsylvania woods. Now he was staring at a blackened plain, with a bunch of dead guys lying on the ground. They looked like they were actors in a costume drama, only he had the sinking feeling that what he was looking at was horribly real.
Making a desperate decision, he turned and ran back the way he’d come. But the wall had closed behind him, and when he pressed his hand against the vertical surface, nothing happened.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
ECKERT AND MILNER ran forward.
When they reached the granite wall, they searched for some crevice where the guy could be hiding.
“Where the hell did he go?”
“The sun was in my eyes, but there was something funny about the way he just vanished.”
When they failed to find a hiding place in the rock, they looked for a tunnel but found nothing.
“Could he have gotten around the other side?”
“If he did, he’s probably long gone.”
“I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Marshall,” Eckert said. “Too short and thick.”
“Yeah.”
They split up, one moving to the right, the other to the left, searching the woods.
TALON could see Vandar’s adepts advancing on them, confidence on their faces
now, even when the outcome of the battle in the sky was unknown.
With every fiber of his being, he tried to reach out to Kenna’s mind. Then, in that charged moment, he heard her voice inside his head.
Talon, I love you.
I love you.
Making a superhuman effort, he struggled to face her. They had shared paradise on Earth together, and he wanted her to be the last thing he saw. But as he fought to turn, he realized that the ground below him was vibrating.
What?
To the south, he saw a cloud of dust rising. The vibrations grew, and he wondered what was happening. An earthquake?
As he stared at the dust cloud, he made out a group of horses and riders galloping toward them. He didn’t know who it was. Had Vandar stationed reinforcements out of sight?
The slaves turned toward the riders, and the expressions on their faces told Talon that it wasn’t anyone they were expecting.
When he saw who it was, hope leaped inside him. In the lead were Rinna and Logan along with a dark-haired man and a woman with long golden hair. They must be Rinna’s friends, Griffin and Zarah.
As the reinforcements approached, the people around him straightened. The women stretched out their hands toward the cave, and Talon was shocked to see streams of energy flowing from them toward Vandar’s slaves.
The dragon-shifter’s adepts crowded closer together, sending back a wave of power, but it wasn’t as strong as what they’d previously mustered.
As the horsemen drew up, Talon saw that some of them were soldiers, dressed much like Vandar’s troops.
The civilians stepped quickly into the circle, clasping hands with the Marshalls. There were moments of confusion when Talon felt the energy shifting around him as the newcomers got acclimated to the group. He could feel power jumping and coiling in the air.
Vandar’s adepts took advantage of the disconnection, hurling a new blast that sent agony screeching along his nerve endings.
Even as he fought the pain, the energy from the Marshall group stabilized. He felt it expand and shoot outward toward Vandar’s adepts.
The effect was almost instantaneous. They went down on their knees, gasping, some of them trying to crawl away to escape the punishment that their rivals had inflicted.
But the Marshall women and their new allies kept up the pressure until Vandar’s minions were immobilized. Most of them lay on their backs, gasping for breath. Some had gone absolutely still, and Talon wondered if they had survived the attack.
While the others hurried toward the slaves, he trotted to a spot behind a low outcropping of rock, where he slipped out of his backpack and quickly said the chant that changed him from wolf to man. After pulling on his shirt, pants, and shoes, he stepped back into the open and hurried toward his mate.
Kenna rushed forward, and he hugged her to him with a surge of gladness. She held him just as tightly as she asked, “Are you all right?”
“Yes. Are you?”
“Yes.”
They embraced for a long moment, and his hands ran over her as he assured himself that she was unharmed, but he knew they shouldn’t stand out here in the open. Looking up, he shaded his eyes with his hand as he scanned the sky, but he couldn’t spot the dragons. Had they killed each other, or were they simply out of sight?
“What now?” he asked.
The others had already closed in on Vandar’s adepts, but Kenna had waited for him. She gestured toward the slaves.
“They’re still dangerous. They will be, until we know Vandar is dead.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t—” She stopped suddenly and whirled toward the portal. Talon followed her gaze and went still. A man wearing a dark T-shirt and jeans stood at the entrance to the parallel universe with a gun in his hand.
“It’s him,” Kenna gasped. “The man with the gas can.”
The newcomer’s gaze snapped to her. “You! There’s something weird about you. Where are we?” he asked in a gravelly voice. “And why the fuck can’t I get out the way I came in?”
Talon and Kenna exchanged a glance. The portal was blocked? Probably by Vandar’s adepts—to keep anyone from getting out until he was ready.
Talon kept his focus on the gun. From the brief conversation, he knew this was the man who had been stalking him for weeks. Ross had said his name was Mitch Sutton. Talon wasn’t going to let him know he’d pegged him.
Instead, he simply asked, “What are you doing here?”
Sutton pointed the weapon at Talon’s chest. “I’ll ask the questions.” He gestured with his free hand. “Answer me, you bastard. What the fuck kind of place is this?”
“We’re in another universe.”
“Do you expect me to believe that?”
Talon turned his hands palms up. “Does this look like Pennsylvania?”
“Get me out of here. With the swag you stole from me.”
Talon processed that. The guy thought the box with the cash was here? Okay. Good.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the fixed expression on Kenna’s face. It was the look she got when she was doing something—mental.
“It was your money?” he asked, stalling for time.
“Fuckin’ right.”
“I’ll get you the cash, and I’ll open the doorway, if you let us go.”
“Deal. Where’s the dough?”
“In the cave.”
“Then get it!”
“Sure.”
Talon and Kenna passed the robber, heading for the cave. Just as they reached the entrance, Sutton cried out in surprise, scrabbling to keep his balance. Talon turned to see him lifting off the ground. Grabbing Kenna, Talon pushed her down, out of the line of fire.
But instead of shooting at them, the man flew backwards, his arms wheeling, then folding inward.
“No,” he screamed. “Stop.”
The gun discharged as he hit the ground, and he made a wheezing sound.
Talon rushed forward, crouching over Sutton.
Blood spread from a hole in the center of his shirt.
Kenna came up beside him.
“It looks like he’s been shot in the heart. Did you do that?” Talon asked.
She dragged in a breath and let it out. “I directed it, but I felt Rinna and Renata in the background, sending enough energy to me.”
The other two women approached them.
“Thank you,” Talon said.
“We saw you were in danger,” Rinna answered. “Is he one of Vandar’s slaves? Where did he get the gun?” she asked, pointing to the man lying dead on the ground.
“He’s from the other universe. He robbed a bank and buried the money,” Talon answered. “When I was out for a run in the woods, I found the stash and turned it in to the cops. Unfortunately, he’s been making trouble for me ever since.”
Talon gave a harsh laugh. “His mistake, stepping into Vandar’s territory.” He looked at Kenna. “You understand that’s why the soldiers were in there? Vandar had the adepts close the portal on this side, so no one could escape.”
She stared at him. “I didn’t think of that.”
“We’ll open it later,” Rinna said.
After a final look at Sutton, they turned away and walked back to the rest of the group.
Kenna lagged back. When they were alone again, she turned to Talon. “I . . . never killed before.”
“But you had the strength to do it.”
“It’s wrong.”
“Not when somebody is trying to kill you. Like the adepts.”
She nodded.
“Thanks to you, we’re rid of him. But there’s still work to do here.”
She nodded again, and they returned to the group.
Vandar’s adepts were lying on the ground. A few were dead. Most looked frightened.
The three leaders gave Kenna a murderous look. “You can’t win,” one of them growled.
“You’re wrong, Swee,” she answered, but Talon heard the edge of doubt
in her voice.
“We’re holding them immobile,” Renata said. “Until we find out about the dragons.”
Talon looked up, shading his eyes. But he couldn’t see either of the beasts. “I’d like to know about them myself.” He turned to Kenna. “You’ve been in contact with Gallagher. Is he still alive?”
