Lost

by Dean Murray

  "I'm sorry to cut things short, but there is this party that I'm supposed to go to."

  "No worries, Jessica. I'll catch up with you later—I'm glad that things are going so well for the two of you and that I turned out to be wrong about Wyatt."

  Chapter 31

  Isaac Nazir

  The Lamia Enclave

  As I hung up I felt bad about lying to Jessica, but there wasn't any other way that conversation could have really gone down. If I'd told her that I wasn't planning on ever seeing her again, it would have sounded like some kind of massive sympathy play.

  This had been much better. She knew that I was happy and that I wanted her to be happy.

  There weren't any more valid reasons to put off my call to Alec, so I dialed him and held my breath until his phone started ringing.

  "Isaac, is that you?"

  "Adri? Where is Alec? I'm sorry, but I don't have much time and I really need to talk to him."

  "I'm sorry, Isaac. Alec isn't available, but he made me promise that I'd pick up no matter what the next time you called."

  She sounded worn out in a way that I'd never heard out of her. Adri tended more towards the serious side of things than Jessica, but this was something else entirely. She sounded like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.

  "How long will it be before Alec can call me himself and talk to me?"

  "I don't have an answer for you on that one, Isaac. Why don't you just tell me what you need and we'll see what we can pull together for you?"

  "What's going on, Adri?"

  "The Chicago pack is in ruins. Nobody has heard from Shawn or Ulrich in days. The Coun'hij has kill teams scouring the country for our people and they are scary good at finding people they shouldn't be able to find. My two best weapons are Jaclyn who refuses to pick up her phone, and Grayson who told me directly the last time I called him that he can't help me with any of my problems."

  "That's not what I was talking about and you know it."

  "Sorry, Isaac, that's all you're going to get unless you're ready to come meet up with us so that I can tell you in person. I'm not saying any more over a phone line regardless of how secure you or anyone else tell me it is."

  What she was implying was enough to make my stomach drop away. I could feel a black hole trying to swallow my determination and leave me nothing but a hollow shell, but I refused to give in before I had confirmation for what she was implying.

  "Where is Alec?"

  "Not another word, Isaac, or I'll hang up on you right now and Alec can just deal with the fact that I broke my promise to him."

  "He's not dead."

  "No, he's not dead. What do you need? I've got problems here that need to be dealt with."

  She wasn't lying, at least I didn't think she was. I would have said that Adri was incapable of keeping a secret from anyone longer than five minutes, but this new Adri was as cold as they came. Still, if Alec wasn't dead then that meant we all still had a chance.

  "I'm in Louisiana. Those kill teams chased us here and then Onyx backed us into a corner. I'm about to go fight Onyx, but I know that I can't win. I was hoping that Alec could come put him down for me."

  "That's not going to happen, not with everything else that's going on right now, but I might be able to get some hybrids down there to help you out. I think that there are two from the Tucson pack I could shake loose along with four or five wolves."

  "No, that isn't going to do the trick. You can't just throw bodies at this guy. He's got an ability that drops people from a dozen yards away. Sending a dozen hybrids wouldn't be enough, you'd just end up with more corpses on our side when all was said and done. I need Alec, he's the only one who can positively neutralize Onyx."

  She was silent for a couple of seconds before sighing. "I'm sorry, Isaac, I really wish there was more that we could do, but there isn't. Are you sure that there isn't some way to get the three of you out of there?"

  "Not one that would let me live with myself afterwards. What about if I stall for a day or two?"

  I wasn't sure that I could live with that; I knew that Celeste wouldn't be able to, but I needed to know what I was up against.

  "It wouldn't make any difference. I wish it would, but there's just no way. Can you think of anything else that we could do from here that would give you a chance of getting out of there?"

  I closed my eyes and rested my head in my hand. "Crap. No, there isn't any other way."

  "Are you sure, Isaac? I…we could really use your help back here. There aren't very many people I can trust right now."

  There it was, the perfect reason to abandon my plan and retreat back to wherever Adri, Alec and the others happened to be. You could even argue that retreating would be doing the most good for the greatest number.

  The only problem was that I knew exactly what that would cost me. Celeste wasn't going to walk away from her people, not for a second time, not after knowing just how terrible she'd felt when she'd stayed in the enclave to keep me alive and thought that her people were all dead.

  She would stay, and if she stayed, she was going to end up dead. That wasn't a price that I was willing to pay.

  "No, Adri, I just can't do that. I'm sorry, but you'll be okay. You seem like you're keeping the wheels on, just don't let on to anyone else the true extent of our problems. I'm not going to tell anyone, but if word gets out we're all going to find ourselves pretty much screwed."

  "Go teach your grandma to suck eggs, Isaac. You caught me in a weak moment or I wouldn't have even told you as much as I did."

  This time the silence stretched out, but in the end I was the one who broke it.

  "Just make sure that you tell Alec that I'm sorry. Oh, and if Ash doesn't manage to bring Onyx down, promise me that you guys will find a way to take him down soon. He needs to be stopped before he can do more damage down here."

  "Alec already knows. He wanted to tell you that he's already forgiven anything that needed forgiving. He hopes that you know how sorry he was that he couldn't have done more to save Jess. He still considers you one of his closest friends."

  My voice came out rough despite my best efforts.

  "I feel the same way. Do I have your promise that you'll see to Onyx?"

  "Yeah, even if I have to pull the trigger myself. We're going to bring the Coun'hij and everyone who's been supporting them down or we'll die trying."

  "The old Adri wouldn't have approved of assassination."

  "Yeah, well, I swore a promise back in Chicago. Besides, it's been a rough couple of weeks. There are worse things than putting a bullet in the head of the kind of people we are fighting. Take care of yourself, Isaac. I'll pass on your message."

  "You too, Adri."

  Chapter 32

  Isaac Nazir

  The Lamia Enclave

  Everyone was waiting for me at the entrance to the tunnel that led back to our world. Kristin wasn't in any shape to ask me any questions, and Jax was too submissive to pry, but I could see that Ash and Celeste both wanted to know who I'd been talking to.

  I motioned everyone into the tunnel without volunteering any information. Apparently I was currently dominant enough to get away with that. Nobody argued, and a few minutes later we exited the tunnel and started our way out onto a series of progressively smaller islands.

  They were all close enough together that we were able to step from one to another without getting our feet wet, and then a few minutes after that Set led us around to the other side of a familiar-looking tree that it turned out had been hiding our boat.

  Our bags all went into the bottom of the vessel, followed by Kristin with an appropriate amount of fussing on Ash's part as Set gently lowered her onto one of the chairs. The lamias then reached down and picked the boat up so that they could walk it down into the water.

  Ash, Jax and Celeste all piled into the boat as soon as it was in the water, but I stopped and turned back to Set before getting in.

  "Take care, my friend. I'm sor
ry for the damage I did to your enclave while I was there. I hope you're able to quickly rebuild and come out stronger in the near future."

  "You took the path that honor demanded, Isaac Nazir. I'm glad to have known you. I wish you honor and faith sufficient to accomplish your task."

  A minute later we were all on the boat and skimming across the water. I looked back just before we started around a big island that would have cut Set and the others off from view, but they were already gone.

  We were moving much faster than we had on the way in, and the drone of the engine and propeller precluded casual conversation, but I managed to communicate well enough with Celeste to convince her to stop when we were still five minutes from our destination.

  Satisfied that I would have time to explain my plan before we arrived back in civilization, I leaned back in my chair and enjoyed zipping across the murky green water. It was over all too soon.

  Celeste cut the engine and then turned to me. "Okay, what did you want to tell everyone?"

  "I'm going in to New Orleans with you and Jax. We'll drop Ash and Kristin off far enough outside of town that they won't get picked up by Onyx's guys, but close enough that they can buy a car and get to a hospital somewhere out of state."

  Ash shook his head. "What are you talking about? Why would we need to go to a hospital?"

  "I guess that wasn't one of the things that you and Celeste talked about while I was unconscious. When you got hurt I sewed you up, but one of your stitches popped open after I closed you up. Set slowed the bleeding down, but there is a hole in your right renal artery. You need to get to a doctor and have them open you back up or there is a chance that you'll bleed to death."

  He looked over at Celeste for confirmation and received a nod. "Okay, I need to get to a hospital, but that isn't any kind of reason for the three of you to go back to the house in New Orleans."

  Celeste cleared her throat. "I'm going back. Jax and Isaac should go with you two, but I have to go back or Onyx will start killing the pack's submissives. I'm not going to let that happen."

  Jax jumped into the conversation with an uncharacteristic burst of assertiveness. "I'm going back too. Those are my friends back there. I'm not going to abandon them."

  I gave Ash a tired smile. "If Celeste is going back, then I'm going with her."

  "That's crazy, Isaac. Just because you have the hots for my sister isn't any reason to throw your life away. You're good, maybe even better than good, but Onyx eats guys like you for breakfast. You can't win."

  "I know. My chances aren't spectacular, but by going in there I can put him on notice. I'll tell him that if he hurts Celeste or the others then he'll get a visit from Alec, and once that happens, New Orleans will be under new management."

  Celeste shook her head and grabbed my arm. "Isaac, you don't have to do this. It's an incredible gesture, but it won't make any difference. Onyx isn't going to kill me, not as long as he still thinks he can get his hands on my family's money."

  She hadn't quite come out and said that there wasn't any money left, but she'd come too close just now. It was one more bit of proof that she wasn't ready to go back to New Orleans on her own.

  The old Celeste, the one that had been hardened by decades of high-stakes intrigue against Onyx, might have been able to withstand what she was headed into, but even then I wasn't sure. This new, softer Celeste I'd helped to create wasn't ready to go back into that kind of hell. Onyx would chew her up in a matter of days.

  If she did survive, she'd be so scarred that there wouldn't be any coming back this time around. I couldn't let that happen, but I also couldn't tell her that. She was already going to blame herself for my death. If I made her think I'd died because she'd been too weak, that would change her for the worse forever.

  "You're still thinking of things like they used to be, Celeste. Onyx knows that Ash is alive now. Not only that, he's going to be smarting from having just lost half of his hybrids to the ambush Set and I put together. If you don't give him exactly what he wants he'll just kill you and go back to looking for Ash."

  I had her there, but Ash jumped back in the conversation. "Let's not be stupid about this. I'm not as good from extreme long distances, but it's the obvious solution. Let me get hold of some guys I know. It will take me a couple of days to set it up, but Onyx will go down to a fifty-caliber round just like anyone else."

  Celeste looked truly torn now. Ash had just turned this into a choice between some of her people and me. I wasn't going to spend the rest of my life with her wondering if she'd made the right choice each time she looked at me.

  "You can't guarantee a timeframe on something like that, Ash. Your contacts may not even be in this country. They may have commitments on another job, or Onyx may be so busy killing the submissives that he doesn't stick his head outside of the house until they are all dead. You might be able to put him down within the next twenty-four hours, or it might take a week and a half for all of the pieces to fall into place."

  "Fine, but we should at least explore the possibility. I've got a lot of contacts, maybe one of them is already in this state. We don't lose anything by at least checking."

  "Yes, we do. The longer Celeste is gone, the more furious Onyx is going to be when she gets back. His reputation is on the line. She needs to be back at the house as soon as possible to defuse the situation."

  "Fine, I'll take the shot myself then. I'm not the best out there, but I should be able to hit him from far enough away to make sure that he doesn't see the shot coming."

  I shook my head. "This is too important to blow, Ash. You're only going to get one chance to bring him down with snipers. Once that genie is out of the bottle then Onyx and every other piece of garbage that's been sheltering behind the Coun'hij is going to start taking precautions."

  "It's worth it to give you a shot at making it out of there alive."

  "What about the rest of the hybrids in the pack? If you kill Onyx with a slug from five hundred yards away then the rest of his guys will tear through half of the submissives and then use the rest as hostages."

  "Acceptable losses."

  Celeste looked like she was going to rip her brother's head off, but I grabbed her hand so that I could hold her back if necessary.

  "And what happens if you bleed out while you're sitting there waiting for Onyx to show himself? You'd never buy off on such a hit-and-miss plan if our roles were reversed, Ash. You need to go get fixed up. Go to a hospital, or at least get your hands on enough blood to survive if you start bleeding again. Once you're not at risk anymore you can reach out to your contacts and start putting a plan together, one that will let you take down Onyx and his guys at the same time that you get Celeste and her people out."

  "You're making this an either-or choice, Isaac. Isn't there any way we can get them and you all out?"

  "Yeah, I go in and win my fight. It's not a guarantee, but I honestly believe that I have a chance of accomplishing my mission. I learned some things while I was with Set, things that Onyx doesn't understand, things that he won't see coming."

  I'd very carefully not said that I had a chance of winning. I wasn't that good a liar. Ash and Celeste both should have seen through my attempt at deception, but desperate people are naturally prone to believe that there is a way out, a magic bullet that will solve all of their problems. They bought it and first Ash and then Celeste finally nodded.

  "Okay. If this is really what you want to do, then I won't keep trying to stop you."

  I gripped Ash's arm and smiled. "This is definitely what I want to do."

  No lie needed there.

  Celeste got the boat moving again, and less than five minutes later I was helping offload Kristin and Ash's bags onto an old wooden dock. I unzipped Ash's duffle and slipped my tablet into it.

  "Everything you need to get started is in here, but give Jasmin a call before you get started, she might have a plan that will work even better for finding Dream Stealer."

  "Thanks, Isaac."
<
br />   "You're welcome. Are you going to be okay with all of this stuff and Kristin at the same time?"

  "Yeah, I'll call a cab and take her over to a motel so she's safe while I go out and secure transportation."

  Ash turned to Celeste and looked at her for several seconds before shrugging. "I'm sorry about the way that I left all of those years ago. I couldn't stay there and be everyone's punching bag, but I shouldn't have involved Bennet like I did."

  Celeste stepped out of the boat and walked over to where she could give Ash a hug. "I'm not going to lie and say that I didn't hate you for leaving, but it makes it easier to know that you weren't off sipping drinks on a beach somewhere. You've turned yourself into someone who has a chance of taking down an entire pack with the right help and some planning, and that counts for something in my book. I hope that Isaac wins and there's no need for you to put your plan into motion, but it will make things a little easier knowing that you're out there ready to back me up if it comes to it."

  Ash watched as we motored off, and then just before the shoreline hid him from view, reached down and picked Kristin back up from the bench where she'd been resting.

  The rest of the trip went by in a flash and then we were pulling up to an artificial shoreline of earth behind a retaining wall of rocks. I recognized one of the guys waiting at the floating wooden dock. His scent was the same, even now when he was in human form.

  The house was remarkably secluded, which was about what I'd expected to find. It meant that there were fewer nosey neighbors around to notice if someone slipped up and transformed out in plain view. It also meant that Ash would have plenty of spots to pick from when it came to stationing snipers around the perimeter of the property.

  I turned to Celeste as she cut the engine and let us coast the rest of the way in.

  "Do you trust me?"

  "Yeah, more than I should, probably, but so far you've always managed to come through."

  I gave her a smile, but maintained my distance. It wouldn't do to give Onyx any idea that we had feelings for each other. He'd be quick to exploit that kind of weakness.