Touch the Sky

by Kari Cole

  Hannah moaned. Legs suddenly weak, she staggered back, bumping into the wall. For eight months she’d tried to block it out of her mind. But bits and pieces snuck in here or there, like shadow claws ripping at her heart, or at least tried to.

  “No. Don’t,” she whispered. She didn’t want to think about it, didn’t want to remember what she’d seen.

  Frost lost his cool. Jumping in front of her, he snarled at the males, hackles raised, his whole body vibrating with menace. She grabbed him by the ruff. “No, Frost. He’ll kill you.”

  Diego cocked his head in an avian way that set her teeth on edge, like he was assessing the best place to slice them with his razor-sharp talons. “I’d be much kinder to your familiar than you were to your little brother.”

  “Scott?” Jessie cried. “What’s happened to Scott? What—”

  Her voice cut off with a squeak. He held a nine-by-eleven photo up for all of them to see. At first Hannah couldn’t make out what she was looking at. It was like one of those hidden image things where everything was a jumble, until it somehow rectified itself in your brain and turned into a monkey or boat. If only that picture was so benign.

  Scott, her wry, clever brother. His blond hair stuck up everywhere, matted with bright red blood, and his mouth was a cavernous ruin of broken teeth.

  There were more pictures.

  Vaughn swore. Jessie gagged.

  Hannah fell to her knees and buried her face in Frost’s neck, clutching his collar. She refused to burn new versions of that night into her brain. Diego’s pictures were so much worse than the black-and-white images on the security monitor.

  “Go, Frost,” she breathed into his ear. “Run.”

  She didn’t care if she’d made him her familiar, like Diego and Jessie thought. All that mattered was for once he obey her and get out of danger. He did, racing full tilt out the back door. Everyone let him. What did they care? He wasn’t wanted for murder.

  “What’s the matter? Can’t stand to look at your handiwork?” Diego asked over Jessie’s quiet sobs. “Who helped you?”

  “No one. I didn’t—”

  “Come on. Was it one of your boyfriends? Or did you gut dear ol’ Dad by yourself?”

  “No!” Her heart stuttered. Damn it, no. She couldn’t have a panic attack now.

  “That’s enough,” Vaughn said, stepping between them.

  “We know you had help,” Diego said. “You may be a sick bitch, but you couldn’t rape your mother yourself.”

  “I said that’s enough!” Vaughn grabbed the other male and shoved him into the wall. Picture frames fell to the floor in a clatter. Bile rose in her throat, but she refused to break down. Vaughn would want her to be strong. He needed her to keep it together so she could explain what happened after she discovered the memory card. He’d help her break the password, and then he’d figure out a way to save those kids and get justice for her family. It’s who he was.

  But they shouldn’t wait. It’d been too long already. She pulled off her gloves.

  Diego righted himself and snarled. “Do you know what will happen to you if—”

  “Shut up.” Vaughn looked at her. His eyes were as cold and gray as the winter sky. “Come here.” She shivered and walked toward him. “Don’t make this any harder.”

  “What?” she whispered. “I didn’t do this. I was coming to find you. To tell you...”

  He nodded like his head weighed three hundred pounds. “Rissa’s a lawyer. You protected Sarah and Dean’s kids. She’ll represent you.”

  There was no air in the room. None maybe in the whole county. It was just gone and her lungs had decided not to pretend anymore.

  Lightheaded, she looked around. Jessie stared at her, frozen and horrified, her hands over her mouth as if to contain a scream.

  It was exactly like she feared. She’d known Vaughn would believe his fellow law officers and choose to take her in. Still, like a fool she’d let hope grow. Just that morning, Vaughn had wanted to be Hannah’s mate. Now, he looked at her like a stranger.

  “You think I did it,” she said. Oh, goddess, the pain was unimaginable.

  “Cassandra—

  Diego’s predatory gleam focused on her. “Where’s the memory card?”

  On wooden legs, she walked toward them. The IA agent and her lover, side by side. “I’ll show you,” she said. She reached out and grabbed their hands. Startled, Vaughn looked at her bare hand grasping his. “Here. Look.”

  Both males cried out as she dropped her shields and shared her visions: Macon Crawford sitting behind a lavish desk, watching videos of young males, half-shifted, fighting in a cage; freezing rooms, hard hands, sharp needles and knives; two misshapen wolves caught in midchange, writhing in agony; males and females, shifters of every kind crying, screaming, begging, sick and dying.

  Vaughn and Diego bucked and thrashed, but she held on, even when they fell to the floor. She shared every vision she had of Apex, Genysis Labs, and the abused teens.

  “Hannah!” Jessie shoved her, breaking contact between her and the males.

  Fingers curled into her palms, Hannah rose to her feet.

  “What did you do?” Jessie shrieked.

  Carefully, Hannah fished the gloves out of her back pocket and looked at her cousin. “Showed them the truth.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Hannah knelt down next to Vaughn and laid a hand on his chest. He was unconscious, but his heartbeat and breathing seemed okay. He smelled of anger, pain, and loss. A tiny bit of blood trickled out of his nose and she wiped it away with the hem of her shirt. “I’m very mad at you,” she whispered.

  The door burst open, just missing his head. Hannah jumped to her feet growling as Jessie’s girlfriend, Becca, breezed in, calm as you please.

  She looked at the two males. “Have to say, I thought I was going to have a lot more cleanup to do, but this’ll work.”

  “Becca? What the hell are you doing here?” Poor Jessie sounded so confused. Hannah couldn’t blame her. She didn’t understand anything either.

  “Where’s the memory card, Hannah?” Becca asked, ignoring Jessie.

  Hannah’s stomach dropped to the soles of her feet. “Who are you?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Jessie said. For someone who didn’t have a drop of lycanthrope blood, she managed a respectable growl.

  “Sorry, darling,” Becca said. “If it’s any consolation, I thoroughly enjoyed our time together.”

  “You used me to get to my cousin?”

  “We all use each other. Way of the world.”

  “Not mine.” Fists clenched, Jessie shook with rage, but then she turned away from her lover and the scent of grief, heavy and dark, overwhelmed everything else. “Are they really dead, Hannah?” she asked. “Please tell me this is all some horrible, elaborate joke.”

  Tears burning the back of her throat, Hannah could only shake her head.

  Jessie choked back a sob. “Did you—how—what—”

  “I didn’t do it.” Though she might as well have. Apex had only gone after her family because she’d taken the card. “I took the card from Daddy’s safe and brought it to some friends to try to get past the password. When I came home I knew something was wrong. The landscaping lights were off. I snuck into the garage and looked at the security monitors. I... I saw...” She pointed to the pictures lying all over the floor.

  “Oh, God,” Jessie said.

  “Sorry to break up this moment of family mourning,” Becca said, “but we’re on the clock.”

  “Screw you,” Jessie snarled.

  Becca ignored her. “Now, Hannah. Move it. Apex has sent two of its best hunters. Where’s the card?”

  Oh God. If they caught her... “Who are you?” she asked again.

  Becca smiled at her. Such a beautiful woman shouldn’t have such dead
eyes. “Smart girl. Always make sure you know who you’re dealing with. Our mutual friend sent me. You can call me Arachne.”

  Hannah bent down and picked up one of the pictures that had fallen out of Diego’s folder. It was a color picture taken through the window of Jessie’s kitchen. The lights were on, casting a golden glow on Hannah’s face as she faced a blurry but easily recognizable Becca.

  “Don’t you mean I can call you Sharon?” She flipped the picture to the female. “The IA agent came in here all hot and bothered, saying I’d been seen with someone named Sharon. Now, the only woman I know by that name is the lady who did my nails back in Atlanta. You, bless your heart, are the only shady female I’ve had the displeasure of meeting here.”

  Becca/Arachne/Sharon’s eyes narrowed. “You have a smart mouth.”

  “Oh? You’ll have to excuse me. I’ve found that being lied to and accused of murdering my own family makes me a bit cranky.”

  Vaughn moaned, and before she had a chance to check on him, Sharon—or whatever the hell her name was—pulled a gun and pointed it at him.

  “No!”

  “After all that drama, you still want to protect him? It’s the Thunder Moon, dear. Good lays come and go.”

  “Hey!” Jessie said.

  Sharon shrugged. “Are their brains scrambled permanently?”

  “No.” Please let that be true. Please, let that be true.

  The gun came up again. Hannah shifted into a crouch over Vaughn and bared her teeth. Her fangs lengthened and she growled. “Mine.”

  “That’s unfortunate. Can’t have them following us, too.”

  “If you harm one hair on his head, I will end you.”

  Sharon glared at her. “I admire your spunk, but that other one is Apex, or at least works for them. IA is totally infiltrated.”

  “Does he know that? That he’s working for them?” Diego was such a jerk, but that wasn’t grounds to kill him.

  “What the hell is Apex?” Jessie asked.

  “Bad guys. Like to torture and kill innocents to get their way,” Sharon said.

  “Oh, and you’re a pillar of virtue?”

  “I didn’t kill your cousin Catherine because her daughter stole something of mine. Apex did, and they’ve been hunting Hannah ever since. All caught up now?” Sharon moved to the side to get a better angle on Diego and gestured with the gun. “Move, Hannah.”

  “No.” Hannah shifted a step, putting herself back in the line of fire. “Could Apex be using him?”

  “For the love of—I don’t know. All right?” Sharon said. “He’s relentless. We can’t afford to take that chance.”

  “No, damn it. He believed every word he said about me. I could smell it. When he wakes up, he’ll know the truth.” She didn’t know if it would move him, but she had to hope.

  She glanced down at Vaughn. His eyelids were fluttering. He’d wake soon. “There’s been enough death, Sharon. If Diego is in league with Apex, Vaughn will deal with him. Besides, I know this is Montana, but we’re in the middle of town. Gunfire will attract attention.”

  “Fine. I’ll use my hands.”

  Hannah let the wolf flow to the surface. “No.”

  “You are so naive.”

  Not anymore she wasn’t. Sharon and Raze still needed her. He’d taken all those risks to get her help. They wouldn’t kill her. Yet. She had no illusions anymore about what would happen to her once she was no longer useful. “We can fight or we can go. But I’m not letting you murder an IA agent—or anyone else—in cold blood.”

  Sharon looked like she wanted to wipe the floor with Hannah’s face—she could probably do it with ease—but she said, “Fine. Where’s the card? We’ve wasted enough time. We need to go.”

  “So let’s go.” Hannah dug in her back pocket and pulled out a small case. Through the clear plastic, a micro SD, 256 GB memory card was visible.

  “Give it to me.”

  “Do I look stupid to you? It stays with me. Or do you and Raze want to figure out the password all on your own?”

  The other female’s irises flashed gold, then morphed into a strange amber color. “Fine. Let’s go already.”

  Jessie took a half step forward. “Hannah, don’t go with her. You can’t—”

  “I have to. I made promises. I’m so sorry for bringing this to your doorstep. I love you. Take care of Vaughn. Please.” Not waiting for a response, she grabbed Sharon’s arm and ushered her out the door.

  A white Toyota pickup sat in the driveway.

  “Where’s your pet?” Sharon asked.

  Hopefully somewhere far away from here. “I told him to run. He ran.”

  They got in and soon were flying down bumpy country roads. “Where are we going?” Hannah asked.

  “I have another car waiting, one not connected to either of us. Once we’re well away from here, I’ll contact Raze and we’ll go from there.”

  Hannah nodded. It didn’t matter one way or another. She just needed to think about something other than where Frost was, or how pale Vaughn had looked lying on the floor, or worse, the emptiness in his eyes when he’d looked at her.

  “Who are you guys really?” Hannah asked.

  “Let’s just say that we’re an interested party.”

  “Oh, come on. You have to give me more than that.”

  Sharon sighed. “We want Apex destroyed, too.”

  “Why?”

  “Do we need reasons beyond what you’ve already seen they’re capable of?”

  “Guess not.” Kidnapping, torture, murder: all good reasons to hate someone.

  Hannah rubbed her temples. Her head was throbbing from using her ability the way she had. “How did Raze find me? How did he even know I existed?”

  “Are you going to hound me with questions the whole trip?”

  “Yes.”

  The grade of the road grew steeper. Mountains rose up for hundreds of feet on Sharon’s side. On Hannah’s side, the ground dropped away into a forested slope.

  A low growl rumbled in Sharon’s chest. “He’s tracking you, you little idiot. Did you really think that Raze wouldn’t have a way to keep tabs on you? He went to all that trouble to ensure you could help us by giving your psychometry a boost.”

  “A boost? Are you insane? I can’t even blow my nose without falling on the floor.”

  Sharon shrugged. “Love and war, little girl. Love and war. We knew that twisted bastard Crawford was dropping off his little insurance policy to your father’s law firm. We needed a way in that couldn’t be traced back to us. We didn’t think you’d help if we just explained the situation to you. You’re such a self-absorbed princess. No, we made sure you’d work with us because your ability wouldn’t let you do anything else.” Claws pricked the ends of Hannah’s fingertips and she bared her teeth.

  Sharon gave her such a pitying look, as if Hannah was a total non-threat. “Don’t worry. It wasn’t the same version of the serum that disgusting bear or Foy got.”

  A frightening kind of numbness spread over Hannah. She hadn’t even contemplated the possibility that she could end up like... As gongs rang in her ears, everything became clear. The awkward collision with the cute guy in the café eight months ago. The sharp pain in her hip. The sudden illness and out of control ability.

  “That was Raze,” she whispered. “The good-looking guy in the coffee shop. He injected me.”

  “Ah, not so dumb after all.”

  “You bitch! You two ruined my life. My family is dead because of you.” Every muscle in Hannah’s body tensed for battle. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but her wolf thought that shredding Sharon would be a good place to start.

  Before she could move, Sharon swore and Hannah was thrown hard against her seat belt. The truck skidded, the backend fishtailing around counterclockwise. Then Sharon said somethin
g that sent ice running through Hannah’s veins.

  “They’ve found us!”

  * * *

  Vaughn came awake with a gasp, his beasts screaming in fury. He jumped to his feet...and fell right back to his ass. “Fuck,” he groaned.

  “Well, that was amusing,” a woman’s voice said. “Now get up!”

  He didn’t think twice. He vaulted to his feet again, landing in a fighting stance. He took in his surroundings and—

  “Whoa, easy, dumbass.”

  He swayed and his stomach roiled.

  “If you puke on me, I’m going to turn you into a chicken and let Frost eat you.”

  Vaughn opened one eye and peered at Jessie Mills. She had a viselike grip on his left arm and she was glaring at him.

  “Got your sea legs yet?” she asked. What the hell was she talking about?

  “Yeah—” Talking was bad. Bile rose in throat.

  Jessie shoved something into his hands. “Here.” A wastebasket.

  He gagged, and he wasn’t the only one.

  “Motherfucker.” A few feet away, Diego was sitting on the floor, his head in his hands. “What the hell happened?”

  All at once, everything came back to Vaughn, like a tsunami sweeping him under. Cassandra, Diego, the lies, and...the truth. Holy hell, the truth.

  Image after image of shifters of all stripes, mostly young, in cages, suffering. Suffering at the hands of Apex. The slithering evil of it all slammed him to his knees and he had to use the wastebasket.

  Diego’s voice sounded very small. “Wh-what is in my head?”

  “My guess, whatever is on that memory card you’re all so hyped-up about,” Jessie said.

  “What? No. That’s not possible. What did that bitch do to me?”

  Vaughn snarled, but Jessie got to him first. She slammed a fireplace poker into the floor right between Diego’s legs, dangerously close to his balls. He made a noise like urp! and scooted away from her on his ass.

  “Don’t ever call her that again,” she said.