Freya's Inferno (Winging It Book 1)

by Sonja Bair

  Chapter 29

  It turned out that the earliest flight that Alrik could get was at four that afternoon. He would have to connect through San Francisco, then to Newark, then finally onto Stockholm. It would take about twenty hours to get there, which seemed like an eternity. But on the other hand, San Luis Obispo and Sweden were practically on the exact opposite sides of the world. In the meantime, we had about seven hours to kill. After returning Alrik’s rental car, I decided to take him on a tour of San Luis, as we hadn’t had the chance to walk around yet. We visited the Mission, which was built in 1772 by the Spanish. We strolled down by the creek which cuts through town, hopping from boulder to boulder, from one side to the other. We ventured into Bubblegum Alley, a small alley where every square inch of the walls is covered in more than fifty years of chewed-up and spit-out gum. Alrik looked nauseated after exiting.

  We had lunch in one of my favorite restaurants, which featured produce from the local farms. It had been a surprisingly pleasant day so far. We both managed to avoid the topic of werewolves, David, and last night. During lunch, Alrik received a text from the airline saying that the 4 p.m. flight had been delayed until 9 p.m. The delay would cause him to miss his flight from San Francisco to Newark, so he spent about twenty minutes on the phone, rearranging his flights.

  Normally, Alrik would have been exasperated at the delay, but today, it appeared to roll off his back. When he got all the details figured out, he hung up and immediately suggested we head out for some wine tasting at the vineyards within quick driving distance. We headed back to my house to grab my car.

  We were arguing about whether the Three Stoogies were actually funny (they aren’t) as I unlocked and opened the back door. Both of us stopped the moment the door swung open. The scent of werewolves permeated the house. In less than a heartbeat, Alrik pushed me behind him and pulled out a gun from a hidden holster in his jacket.

  “Huh,” I whispered around his side. “I didn’t know you packed the heat.”

  Alrik glanced over his shoulder with a glare and whispered back, “It’s packed heat. Even I know that, and I’m not a native English speaker.”

  “There may be two extremely hostile werewolves hiding in my house, waiting to attack us, and you choose to correct my terminology?” I asked, more curious than upset.

  “If you are so concerned about the two extremely hostile werewolves hiding in your house, why are you asking about me ‘packing the heat’ in the first place?” He asked with more than a hint of annoyance in his voice.

  I snickered. I couldn’t help myself. “If you are so concerned about the two extremely hostile werewolves hiding in my house that you showed your ‘packed heat,’ then why did you berate me about asking you about correcting my terminology?” I could do this all day; I found it funny, but I think Alrik was just annoyed.

  “If there were two extremely hostile werewolves hiding in your house, I think you irritated them away.” He slid the gun back into the holster and stepped inside. The open door and the breeze following us from outside had flushed the werewolf scent out of my small house. Whatever they had been doing, it was over and they were gone.

  We did a quick visual search of the house. Nothing seemed to be out of place. If we weren’t supernaturals, we would never have known that they had visited. As Alrik continued to look around for any disturbances, I reached into my purse for my cell phone. I dialed David but was immediately put to voicemail. I left a quick message and hung up. I looked at Alrik, but he held up a hand and interrupted me. “Yes, I agree. We should try to track David down. Let’s go.”

  I stood motionless for a second, filled with the odd feeling that a bunch of unused words were trying to fall out of my mouth. Alrik had read my mind and beaten me to the punch. It was unsettling, but I shook it off and followed him out to the car.

  On the way to David’s house, I tried Philip’s number with no luck. I didn’t have Pedro’s number. My stomach felt like it was trying to tie itself in a knot.

  The car was barely stopped when I jumped out and ran to David’s front door. The house was dark, but I knocked anyway. No answer. I peeked in the window. The house had a lived-in look, much more so than the first time I visited, when David was living by himself. There was a compact weight set in one corner of the main room and a large flat screen television in another. I could see a couple sports magazines lying on the coffee table. The orchids that had surprised me so much the first time were still there, but now were pushed into a group on a high shelf. It looked almost if the potted plants had huddled together in fear of the invasion of testosterone-laden objects.

  There was no sign of any werewolf, good or bad. I tried the door handle, hoping that they trusted the neighborhood enough to leave the door unlocked. No luck. I turned to Alrik, but he wasn’t behind me. A spike of fear drove through me and I started to run back toward the car.

  Alrik called out to me, “He’s in the back.”

  Relief poured through me as I joined Alrik to walk around the back of the house. We followed the sounds of Brazilian Samba music to an SUV, under which David’s legs poked out. He was hard at work, elbow deep in car guts

  “Hi, David,” I practically yelled under the car. If I were as caught up in a project as much as he was and someone magically appeared and yelled my name, I would have jumped at least three feet, bonked my head against something hard, and dropped the one crucial thing to my project, which would have then shattered to a million pieces. David merely turned his head toward me while his hands continued to work.

  “Freya,” he said with a pleased smile. “You certainly are a better sight than this shattered u-joint.” He untangled his hands from the guts, placed a wrench carefully down on a towel next to him, then scooted out from under the car. “Alrik,” he added. He wiped some grease and dirt off his hands and stood up. “Good to see you as well. What brings you over here?”

  “I had some visitors at my house; two werewolves that broke into my house and then left but didn’t have the common courtesy to say hello,” I said.

  The smile on David’s face disappeared. His glaze shifted to Alrik. “Were you with Freya?”

  Alrik nodded. “They had been there only a few minutes before we arrived but left everything untouched.”

  “I don’t know if they knew this or not,” I added, “but Alrik was scheduled to be on a plane back to Sweden this afternoon. Something urgent came up.”

  “You think this was Robert and Maria?” David asked.

  “I think so. Where are Philip and Pedro?”

  “They are at the movies. As soon as I asked if they wanted to help with the car repair, they decided they had to see some movie that came out a few weeks ago.” David leaned back against the side of his SUV. “I haven’t noticed anything in the pack links. I would have thought that if Robert and Maria had come back to town, I would have felt something.”

  “So you think that Robert and Maria actually left town for awhile?” Alrik asked.

  “I do. I couldn’t get a hold of any of the Santa Fe pack members; I think they had been threatened against talking to me. But based on the sudden decrease in awareness of them, I assumed that they had left town. Both have regular jobs back in New Mexico, plus they had the rest of the pack that they had to keep under their control. I have a feeling this thing that is going on between me and the leaders is causing even more trouble back in their own territory. Robert and Maria are facing a very unstable leadership right now.”

  “But based on your link with them, can you tell if they are back right now?” I asked.

  “That’s the weird thing. I can’t feel them here. I can’t feel the presences of any werewolf except Pedro and Philip.” David closed his eyes and looked inward. He was quiet for a second and then opened his eyes again. “No, nothing.”

  “Do you think that they can feel your presence?” Alrik asked.

  “I have no idea. I don’t know of any situation like this before. But let’s go see if we can track them down. We’l
l have to take your car; mine is out of commission at the moment.”

  We piled into the Eagle. There was a moment of tension as Alrik and David tried to sort out who was going to ride shotgun. Rather than waiting for the fight to break out, I ordered David to sit in the front seat so he could better direct us if he had an idea of where to go. I rolled my eyes at them; their little chat while I was being shot at in an alley hadn’t cleared things up between them. Not entirely.

  “Where to?” I asked David.

  “Let’s start at your house,” he said. “Maybe I can pick something up there.”

  As we were driving back to my house, the back of my skull started to ache. The headache started small, almost unnoticeable, but it was a particular pain I was very familiar with. By the time we were walking up to my front door, the ache had bloomed into a throb. I turned to look at both Alrik and David. “My head is hurting. It’s the same pain I get when I plant false memories. Could this have something to do with Robert and Maria trying to influence me?” I asked.

  David drummed his fingers against his legs. “I don’t know. Werewolves don’t get headaches when we communicate with each other through the pack. Do you feel like they are trying to influence you?”

  I did a mental check. There didn’t seem to be anyone else besides me in my head. “Nope. Does it seem like I’m being influenced?”

  Both men stared at me as if they expected me to start speaking gibberish at any moment. I squirmed under their attention. After about thirty seconds, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I jerked my arms straight up in front of me and went slack jawed.

  “Braaaainnnnsssss… Must eat your braaaaaiiiinnssss…” I took a stiff-legged step toward both of them.

  David laughed. Alrik knocked my arms down. “Stop it. This is serious,” he said, but I started to laugh along.

  I abruptly stopped laughing and spoke in a loud voice. “I think we should go back to the woods where Robert first attacked me.” The words came out of nowhere. I went still. “Wow. Where did that idea come from? I didn’t mean to say that.”

  Alrik and David looked at each other. David was the first to speak. “I’d say that idea came from Robert and Maria.”

  “So do we go?” I asked him. “It seems like it’s a trap.”

  “I believe we have one advantage.” Alrik said. “Robert and Maria have been in Freya’s house and saw my personal belongings were gone. My rental car has been returned. They may believe that I have left, which would account for the timing of their reappearance. If David and I go out against them, it will be a two-against-two fight.”

  “Do your math again, Alrik. It will be a three-against-two fight,” I said in annoyance.

  “You aren’t going, Freya,” Alrik said, not even honoring my statement enough to look at me.

  “Of course I’m going. There is zero way that I will be left behind for this fight. Don’t even think about arguing that one,” I said defensively.

  “I agree with both of you,” David said in a surprisingly calm voice. “Freya is who they are after right now. My guess is that they know they can draw me out by threatening her. They are expecting her, so therefore, she needs to go. But Alrik, you are right about the advantage of numbers. There shouldn’t be any reason why we can’t overcome the two of them, especially if we have the element of surprise.” David paused and then continued, “Of course, by saying that it should be an easy fight, I am inviting all sorts of trouble, aren’t I?”

  “Probably,” I said with a shrug and then continued on as if I were just finishing a thought. “If I notify authorities or bring anyone besides David, they will hurt Elin. They have Elin.” I went still and my heart stopped. Then my heart started to beat at triple time. “They have Elin.” I looked from David to Alrik, panic-stricken. “We have to go now. Get in the car. Get in the car.” I ran to the Eagle’s driver’s side, not waiting for the men. I dug my keys out of my purse, fumbling badly, trying to get the door unlocked. David took the keys out of my hands.

  “The door’s already unlocked and you are in no condition to drive. I’ll do it,” David said as he put his hand on my back and guided me to the other side.

  I jumped in the passenger seat, then looked behind me. Alrik was in the backseat, ignoring Robert and Maria’s order to stay away. I was relieved. I always got irritated in movies when the main character was warned not to bring backup and they listened. There were so many ways to work around that silly demand that it was ridiculous to not have support.

  “Drop me off five minutes from the site. I’ll make an aerial approach that they will never suspect,” Alrik said. I nodded.

  “What’s the other part of the plan?” I asked, turning to David.

  “I’m fairly confident that I can take down Robert and Maria. According to Pedro, last time, they had to drug me to win the fight. As soon as we get there, you take to the sky and stay out of the battle. Alrik will provide any help I need.”

  I nodded again. My hands twisted in my lap and I spun a silver decorative ring that I wore on my left ring finger.

  Although it was probably only a few minutes, it felt like an eternity before we dropped Alrik off in a secluded part of woods about a half mile from the site where Robert had attacked me before. Alrik was all business as he got out of the car.

  “Freya, as part of my job as Arbitrator, I handle sticky situations like this. We’ll be fine. Elin will be fine. I’ll see you in a few minutes.” He slammed the door and took off his shirt. Two enormous wings immediately appeared and stretched out to their full glory behind him. He flexed them a few times, getting a feel for them again, and then he was off.

  I felt better knowing that Alrik was on our side. Just the sight of him was impressive, and I knew that he had the skills to back it up as well. I turned to David with a feeling that he, too, would be an impressive fighter. I certainly was praying that he would be. Elin depended on it.

  “So Freya, let me tell you a little more about Robert and Maria on the way. We have a few minutes and I want to arm you with as much knowledge as possible,” David said as he moved the car out of park and into drive. “Maria was born into a powerful werewolf family on the border of Texas and Mexico. She had an uncle who was a werewolf Alpha and an aunt on the other side that was as well. From the beginning, it was clear that Maria was destined to be another Alpha, and so they trained her accordingly. Robert, on the other hand, came from a hardscrabble background and fought tooth and claw to achieve Alpha status. At first, people were doubtful that Robert and Maria could tolerate, yet alone like, each other as Alpha mates. But werewolf magic succeeded yet again and opposites attracted. One thing that they both shared was a love of power, Maria from growing up basking in it, and Robert from having to fight so hard for it.” David drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, thinking for a moment. “Robert fights like you would on the street. He’ll tear your throat out as soon as he can and howl in pleasure. Maria, on the other hand, is the trickier one. She’ll toy with you until she has you backed into a corner and then will do a sly underhanded attack. She’s the one that you never want to turn your back on.” He turned and looked at me. “But listen, I think I can handle them, especially with Alrik in the fight. As soon as we see Robert and Maria, take off, okay? I know your heart is in the right place, but I’m guessing you have limited fighting skills, and I don’t want to worry about you.”

  I held my hands up in surrender. “I’ll do anything I can to save Elin. And I think that in this situation, that means staying out of the way of you guys. I’m more of a lover than a fighter.”

  I saw the corner of David’s mouth turn up, but he kept his eyes on the road. “You are both a lover and a fighter. You fight in better ways than with your fists.”

  We were approaching where we had parked when we were searching for Jia. I pointed out the direction we should go. David was silent for a moment, concentrating internally, and then whispered to me. “I am not getting a sense of where they are through pack links. I don’t know, but I
think they have fully removed me from the pack. That means they can’t read me at all, either.”

  I scanned for Elin but couldn’t see anything out of place. I jumped out of the car, slammed the door, and started running toward the clearing where I had first seen Robert. David caught me by the arm after a few strides.

  “I know you are worried about Elin, but we have to be smart about this. We can’t run into the woods; we could easily run straight into a trap,” David said in a low voice. “Besides, I need to lose some layers before we go after them.” He grabbed the bottom of his t-shirt and pulled it over his head in one swift motion. It took a second for my brain to decode what in the world he was doing. I guess I should have turned to let him have some privacy as he stripped off his bottom layer, but at the moment, I couldn’t make myself care. I only wanted to find Elin. David soon was standing barefoot next to me, wearing only a pair of black boxer briefs. He should have looked silly standing there almost naked, but he looked like a warrior. His shoulders were squared back and the muscles across his chest rippled as he tossed his clothes back toward the car.

  “Would it be better if you took off your t-shirt as well, so you could easily release your wings and go airborne?” David asked, looking down at me.

  There was wisdom in his words, but then realized that I didn’t have my special halter top on under my t-shirt. I was wearing my distinctly not-sexy Saturday comfortable bra. I stripped off the shirt and tossed the shirt on the ground. My sister was worth a little embarrassment.

  We were both ready to go, and my feet just wanted to take off tearing through the woods, looking for Robert and Maria. David seemed to understand and grabbed my hand to steady me. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. It worked. Slightly. David didn’t let go of my hand, though, and I was grateful. .