She fumbled for the radio in her pocket and depressed the call button. “Dinah, are you there?” A second later she heard her sister’s voice over the noise of helicopter rotors.
“I’m here, did you find it?”
“Yes, there’s a cabin here. I can smell Lee. Relay the coordinates on the radio’s GPS to Macke and the hunters. I’m going to check things out.”
“Jamison, you wait for backup!”
Jamison heard, but had no intention of waiting. Even now, Brenda could be killing Lee. She refused to contemplate the thought that she already had. Jamison switched off the radio so that an unexpected communiqué wouldn’t alert Brenda to her presence. She placed Cleo on the ground and headed for the cabin. Cleo led the way, her tail wagging. The little dog was in such a hurry to return to her master that she started to run.
“Cleo, wait.” The order did no good.
Jamison didn’t waste time calling after her again. Cleo was a loyal friend who had lost patience and gone to help Lee on her own. Jamison couldn’t fault that loyalty but she approached the structure more cautiously, straining to listen for any signs that another was nearby. There was no sign of a vehicle and she couldn’t hear anything coming from inside. Cleo stood on her hind legs, scratching at the closed door before casting a look over her shoulder to Jamison. Jamison got the clear projection from Cleo demanding that she clear the way. Putting her ear against the door, Jamison listened intently. There was no sound. She could tell Lee was inside because her scent was stronger here, but Brenda’s mark wasn’t as intense. Jamison put her hand on the knob and hesitated when it turned easily. This could be a trap.
She pushed the door open enough to peer around the frame. When she didn’t see Brenda and didn’t trigger a booby trap, she edged inside. Lee was alone and sat tied to a chair. She lifted her head when she heard the door, a look of wariness in her eyes that faded when she identified the newcomer. Jamison rushed across the room and dropped onto her knees beside Lee. She checked quickly for signs of injury but found nothing.
“I’m all right,” she mumbled.
Lee’s words slurred a little and Jamison noticed her dilated pupils. A rope held Lee tightly to a chair and Jamison realized Lee would never be able to break her bonds. Jamison gagged a little from the heavy stench of rot coming from under the floor. She shook her head and tried not to think what Brenda had been doing in the cabin. Jamison made a mental note to have a forensics team sweep the cabin and surrounding area for bodies. Trying to ignore the offensive odor, she tugged at the bindings around Lee’s wrists. Judging by the thickness of the braiding, it would take a while to untie them. Brenda could return before she finished.
“You have to get me loose.” Lee sounded desperate, just at the verge of starting to panic.
“I can’t get it. My hands are too cold,” Jamison admitted, her teeth beginning to chatter. The cabin wasn’t exactly airtight and the dwindling fire in the hearth did little more than take off the worst of the chill.
“My front pocket, I still have Dinah’s knife. She loaned it to me to open something and I never gave it back.”
Jamison reached for the top of her pocket while Lee leaned back as far as she could. It wasn’t much room to work with. Jamison slid her finger tips into the narrow opening and pinched the end of the knife between her thumb and index finger, pushing at the object from the outside with her other hand.
“Where’s Brenda?” she asked as she worked.
“She went looking for Cleo. We got into an argument and the cabin door was open. Cleo escaped and then Brenda got worried someone might find her and lead her back here.”
“She was right.” Jamison finally freed the knife and began sawing through the heavy rope. “Cleo led me straight to you.”
“Good girl,” Lee whispered. Her eyes closed and she swallowed heavily.
“Are you okay?”
Lee shook her head. “I kept trying to change into my jaguar, but I couldn’t. Why can’t I change like you can? I should have been able to free myself.”
She sounded so miserable that Jamison felt bad for her. “It’s not your fault, it’s the ketamine.”
“Keta what?”
“You’ve been drugged. I noticed your eyes are dilated and there’s a dart still sticking out of your chest.”
Lee’s eyes fixed on the orange feathers at the tip of the now empty tranquilizer dart. “Brenda shot me with a sedative, I know, but if I could just change I could get the drugs out of my system. Isn’t that right?”
“It’s not that easy.” One of the loops finally let go. “Ketamine is a paralytic. I’m not so sure anyone could change after being shot with that stuff.”
Cleo suddenly started barking. Jamison knew there weren’t any roads nearby and she hadn’t heard a vehicle. If anyone was approaching, they had to be coming in on foot. Jamison didn’t know if it was Macke, the Panthera hunters or Brenda returning. She did know that odds weren’t in her favor.
“Is it her?” Lee asked fearfully.
Jamison unwound the rope as far as she could, freeing Lee’s body from the chair, but her hands remained tied. Jamison gripped Lee by the upper arm and encouraged her to stand. She was worried that Brenda would shoot them both with another tranquilizer before they could react. Jamison was pretty confident her quick reflexes could evade the dart, but Lee wasn’t quite herself. From what Jamison could piece together, Lee had already been hit twice. She didn’t know if even a jaguar could shake off a third dose of ketamine in less than twenty-four hours.
“I don’t know, it might be nothing, but unless our luck undergoes a serious change I’d guess it is her. I can’t pick up a scent from inside the cabin. Let’s get out of here.”
Cleo whimpered and Jamison scooped her off the floor. Lee leaned forward and briefly buried her face in the fur at Cleo’s neck.
“I’m not letting you out of my sight ever again.”
Jamison wanted to give Lee time, but she didn’t know how much they had. She placed a hand at the small of Lee’s back, encouraging her to move. “Come on, baby. I’ll untie your hands once we get under some cover.”
The crunch of ice under her boots helped Jamison feel more centered. Although not fond of the cold, it was far more preferable to the stench of death permeating the inside of the cabin. At the moment, Jamison had experienced enough death over the last several weeks and wanted to concentrate on life. Specifically, she wanted to ensure that Lee stayed alive.
She kept a grip on Lee’s upper arm to prevent her from slipping on the ice. Halfway to the woods, Cleo began to squirm and Jamison had no choice but to set the dog on the ground. Tongue lolling out of the left side of her mouth, Cleo happily trotted toward the trees. She vanished into the shadows. At almost the same instant, Jamison heard a hissing sound. The sound abruptly stopped as something slammed into the ground at their feet. Jamison stared at a small, smoking hole in the ice.
Lee hunched over and started for the place where Cleo had disappeared. “Jamison, hurry, she’s shooting at us.”
Jamison followed Lee into the brush, grabbing her around the waist when she tripped and almost fell. Strength flowed into Jamison from the adrenaline pumping through her veins and she felt her cat throwing itself at the cage door in her mind. Jamison grabbed the ropes around Lee’s wrists and ripped them asunder, the muscles in her forearms bunching. Bullets continued to tear into the trees where they crouched and it was only a matter of time until their luck ran out.
“We can’t stay here,” Lee pointed out.
“No, but if we leave the woods she’ll have a clean shot.”
Jamison looked around frantically. The place where they hid was an oasis of trees and high brush surrounded by tall grass. Once they left this spot, they would not stand a chance. If they would survive this, they had to act quickly. “Stay here.”
Lee placed a restraining hand on her arm. “What are you going to do?”
“The only thing I can.”
Jamison reached
for the top button of her coat, but Lee quickly stopped her. “She’ll shoot you before you get within two feet of her. You may be strong Jamison, but a bullet is just as deadly for us as it is for any human.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Jamison asked in frustration. “I don’t want to die, but I won’t sit here and let her kill you.”
Brenda let off another round of shots and they dove toward the frozen ground. Jamison could hear the crunch of ice as she approached their location. She approached from their left and the hiking trail. The cabin lay off to their right. That only left straight ahead or toward the rear. Brenda would easily spot whoever moved forward. Time was running out and Jamison couldn’t think of an alternative plan.
“Fine, but I go first. Head back through the shrubs and make your way around to the main road. Dinah has already called for reinforcements and you should run into either Sheriff Macke or the Panthera.”
“They’re together?”
Jamison didn’t really think that was important at the moment, but answered anyway. “No, of course not. Macke doesn’t know they’re out here and they’re smart enough to avoid her. Especially considering that Hex is probably with her.”
Jamison watched Brenda raise the rifle to her shoulder and aim in their direction.
“Go now.” She didn’t give Lee time to talk her out of her next move. She planted her feet and quickly eyed the best route to distract Brenda.
She jumped to her feet and ran at an angle between Brenda and the M22 loop. The loop was far from here, but she thought Brenda must have taken it until she got close to the cabin. At any rate, Jamison counted on forcing the woman to turn her back to the old logging structure so that Lee could get away unseen.
Jamison watched Brenda as she ran. From the corner of her eye she caught a flash of color as Lee darted from beneath the branches. She assumed Cleo followed her master, but shifted her attention back to the threat. Drawn by her movement, Brenda’s head swiveled in Jamison’s direction and she automatically raised the rifle. When she caught sight of Jamison, Brenda’s eyes widened and she froze, the weapon dangling uselessly in her hands. Jamison took advantage of her shock by sprinting away toward the dense forest undergrowth.
Heart thumping in her ears, Jamison cast a look back over her shoulder. She expected to see Brenda either hot on her trail or aiming at her with the rifle. To her surprise, Brenda had turned away from Jamison and headed toward the cabin. Clearly, she had no intention of shooting the object of her affection. Instead, she was looking for Lee.
What the hell was she thinking? Jamison wondered. Did Brenda honestly think that if she killed Lee she would have a chance with Jamison? Was she truly that delusional? If so, how could Jamison have missed the signs? She was supposed to be a trained observer. Jamison watched Brenda spin around and bring the rifle to her shoulder. At first she couldn’t understand why Ranger Thomas had turned toward the mountain range when Lee had headed in the opposite direction. Then she caught sight of Lee’s blonde head bobbing as she climbed the lower escarpment. She followed a small trail that wound around the base of Devil’s Peak, leading toward the summit.
Jamison couldn’t help wonder why Lee had headed toward the mountain. She flinched when the echo from the gunshot rang throughout the valley. Brenda stood much closer to Lee, but Jamison had been running toward the forest. Now she was too far away to be of much help to her partner. She expected Lee to stiffen and fall from the modest height, but she didn’t. Lee raised her arms to cover her head and ducked, slipping back a little in the small accumulation of ice.
Brenda started up the trail about a hundred and fifty yards behind Lee and Jamison quickly changed direction. She briefly hoped the weapon would be out of rounds soon and then noticed the magazine extending from the bottom of the rifle. Even if the magazine ran dry, Brenda probably had another tucked into her coat.
Too far away to prevent Brenda from shooting at her partner, Jamison released her beast all at once, throwing off the shackles of humanity. Blood sang in her veins, heating her core temperature as muscles bulged and rippled. Midnight pelt erupted from her pores all at once, leaping into existence. Endorphins flooded her system as bones reformed and a lashing tail extended from the base of her spine. Her sense of smell expanded, as did her vision, and she no longer felt the cold.
Jamison roared in challenge to anyone who would threaten them. As the sound echoed throughout the canyon, bouncing off the three sides of mountain walls, Jamison leapt from the tree line and raced toward Brenda, intent on ripping out the human’s throat.
Chapter Twenty
PAT SHIVERED AND huddled into her thick down parka. It felt like they’d been walking forever and she was chilled to the bone. The silence stretching between Sam and her served only to compound her misery. As fascinating as she found the rural sheriff, Pat couldn’t argue with Sam’s reasons for not wanting to get involved. Pat was stationed in Lake Placid and while that wasn’t exactly the far side of the moon, it was still a respectable distance. In Pat’s experience, long-distance relationships never worked. She didn’t know if she liked Sam enough to become entangled in an actual relationship, but that was the point of dating. Not that it mattered. Sam had apparently already made up her mind and Pat had no idea how to counter her logic.
“I think we’re getting close. Here, hold this.”
Pat realized Sam had stopped walking and held out the compass. She took the device while Sam unfolded her map. Sheriff Macke gave the map a half turn to reorient the terrain and then studied the lines. She looked up and stared toward the mountain range for a moment.
“Yeah, I think it’s just up ahead.”
The bark of a shot being fired punctuated Sheriff Macke’s comment. Both women jerked at the noise before sprinting toward the bang. From the proximity of the shot, Pat knew they weren’t far away. Pat pulled her Glock from her hip holster as she ran, careful to keep her finger off the trigger since the weapon wasn’t equipped with a safety. Her breath plumed around her in sharp counterpoint to the frigid mountain air. Pat’s heart thundered in excitement at what they might find and she forgot about the temperature and sidelined romantic thoughts concerning Samantha Macke.
Pat rounded a small copse of maples and skidded to a halt, quickly taking in every detail. She spotted Ranger Brenda Thomas high up on a trail. Pat’s expertise in weapons assisted her in identifying the AR15 equipped with a high-powered scope. For all that the weapon seemed rigged for deadly accuracy, Thomas didn’t bother to utilize the scope. She merely threw the weapon to her shoulder and fired off another round from an extended clip. Pat brought her Glock to bear when she saw Thomas aim at Lee Grayson’s fleeing back.
“You’ll never hit her from this distance,” Sam said quickly.
“I have to try.”
Pat took aim as the shot from Brenda’s rifle ricocheted harmlessly from a large boulder. Pat trained the front sight of her handgun on Ranger Thomas’s torso and began slowly squeezing the trigger. Before she could fire, Ranger Kessler raced into her line of sight and Pat quickly released the trigger. She started to shout for Jamison to get out of the way when the most confusing, bewildering and frightening thing happened.
The expression on Jamison’s face froze the blood in Pat’s veins. To call it feral would not have done the anger and sheer ferocity justice. Pat was sure she didn’t blink, but everything happened so fast she must have. Jamison’s clothing seemed to fall from her body, accompanied by an intense ripping sound. Since Kessler ran as it happened, clothing trailed behind her on the frozen ground. Her black boots also split up the sides and went flying, but Kessler wasn’t naked. In fact, Kessler wasn’t Kessler. Suddenly, a jet-black jungle cat raced up the base of the mountain toward Ranger Thomas.
The animal was huge. Muscles rippled and weak sunlight shimmered off the ink-black pelt. Massive paws boasted claws that dug furrows into the hard ground as she moved, throwing up bits of frozen dirt. Wicked fangs as white as new-fallen snow curved from the beast’s
upper and lower jaws as she issued a growl of challenge. The sound bounced off the mountain walls and echoed throughout the canyon, sending a shiver down Pat’s spine that had nothing to do with the cold. A part of her mind seemed to curl up in a dark corner, gibbering in insane panic. This could not be real, she argued internally.
Something grabbed at her arm and Pat pulled desperately away, convinced another creature was about to have her for lunch. For a moment she didn’t recognize Sam and she tried to raise her pistol. Sam batted the Glock aside with the back of her hand before she shook Pat by the lapels of her jacket.
“It’s just me, stop it.”
“You knew?” Pat found it difficult to recognize the harsh sound of her own voice.
“Now isn’t the time. Thomas is about to kill someone.”
Sam pushed Pat back on her heels before she turned and ran toward the confrontation. Pat thought it far more likely that Brenda Thomas would meet a grisly end, but she pushed the thought aside and chased after Sam. Thomas had murdered two women and was actively attempting to kill another. Pat focused on that fact. Less than a hundred yards from the base of the elevated, windy trail, Pat saw Brenda raise the rifle for another shot. Automatically, she raised her Glock into position.
“Stop, U. S. Park Police. Put the rifle down,” Pat shouted.
Brenda looked around in surprise and briefly glanced at Macke and Hex. A determined expression settled on her face. Thomas turned back to Lee who had apparently run out of room on the mountain trek. A small rock fall sometime in the past had left the path impassable. Far from sporting defeat, Grayson faced the ranger proudly, with her chin held high. If she was afraid, Lee did a fantastic job hiding it.
Under Devil's Snare (Under Series Book 2) Page 23
