by Abigail Owen
George shifted. He plucked her knives out of the tree and the dead wolf’s back. Shane’s captive’s eyes widened as he watched George wipe the blood off the one knife and hand them back to her as they made their way to where he was pinned on the ground.
“If you want to live, I suggest you help us. Lead us to where they’re holding our friends. Get us inside and to them, and we’ll let you go.”
The wolf looked at all three of them. Shane bit down a little harder.
“This is a limited time offer, friend,” George said.
The wolf whimpered, then jerked his head in a nod of agreement. Shane released him and shifted. So did the wolf, who turned out to be a lanky man with a scar running down the side of his face. He looked at Sarai with particular interest that made her wary. She had a feeling he knew exactly who she was.
Sarai realized she was standing there with three naked men and turned her back to let them dress. Once he was clothed—his garments torn from his earlier quick shift—she gave Shane a brief hug.
Then, aware of her previous vision about him, she said, “Where’s Corrie?”
He compressed his lips into a thin, white line. “Ran off. Night of the attack on the Timik.”
“With whom?”
He frowned. “I’m not sure.”
Sarai patted his shoulder but said nothing. She wasn’t sure herself what Corrie was up to or what she was.
“Let’s go,” George said.
They all fell silent as they followed their new guide. It didn’t take very long, only about an hour’s hike from where they were. He stopped beside a bush.
“Pull this aside, there’s a secret entrance. Follow it all the way up, then take the first tunnel on your right. It will angle down into the caves. The next two lefts will get you to the cells where they’re held.”
“Where will we find guards stationed?” Shane asked.
The young wolf hunched his shoulders. “We were the outside patrol. You’ll find two somewhere in this tunnel. They don’t stay in the same place. Another posted at the end of the tunnel. Another two at the entrance to the cells, and whoever else you find roaming the halls.”
He pulled his lips back over his teeth in a nasty imitation of a smile. “Good luck.”
“Our luck will depend on your luck, my friend,” George said.
His words wiped the sneer off their guide’s face. “You said I show you the way and you let me go.”
“I said you get us to where they’re holding our people. If any part of that goes wrong, I won’t hesitate to finish what Shane here didn’t.”
He was dead serious. Even Sarai swallowed. Mental note to never get on George’s shit list.
Their guide swore, but seeing he had no choice, nodded. He pulled back the bush.
“Wait,” Sarai said. She pulled out the satellite phone and relayed their coordinates to Andie. She slipped one of her knives out of its pocket and embedded it into the trunk of a small tree right beside the bush the shifter had pulled back. A signal to Andie of where to go.
“Okay.”
Looking extremely pissed and not a little afraid, their helper stepped into the entrance of the small cave. George followed, then Sarai, with Shane bringing up the rear.
CHAPTER 37
They managed to get through the passage into the main tunnel. Periodic lights hung on the rock walls broke the darkness. A musty smell of water everywhere accompanied a constant dripping noise. When Sarai put her hand out, she discovered walls damp to the touch.
Their guide distracted each guard they encountered allowing Shane or George to take them down. They dragged their bodies out of the way, though the basic tunnels didn’t offer many options. If anyone came down the tunnel entrance they’d used, the unconscious men would be discovered.
As they made their way down the main tunnel they passed a door that made Sarai pull up. She didn’t have a vision exactly—just a feeling she needed to wait in there. Sarai had learned to listen to those little moments of gut instinct.
She looked at George and Shane. “I have to stay here. You go on without me.”
“No way,” Shane bit out.
“I agree. Zac would kill me if I left you alone in this place.”
“Zac doesn’t have a choice. This vision is telling me you need to keep going, and I need to be right here. You want to argue with that?”
So she’d fibbed. She’d found over the years that people argued less with a vision than a feeling. Stupid, really, since she knew they came from the same place inside her.
George and Shane both looked at each other, but they had no choice. Sarai tried the handle and found it unlocked. The door creaked as she cracked it to poke her head inside. Seeing the chamber empty, she stepped inside.
“I’ll be fine.” She waved George and Shane on as she closed the door.
However, once she was alone, she wasn’t quite sure what to do. Wait? Explore?
Just sitting there twiddling her thumbs didn’t sit well, so she started to snoop around. The small room, which housed a single desk, was otherwise empty. She checked for a phone or some way she could get more information to Andie, but came up with bupkis. Her satellite phone was worse than useless this far underground.
She couldn’t see anything else of note in the room. In desperation, she followed the walls, looking for anything she might be missing. She had to be here for a reason. She’d almost circled the entire space when she passed a point where the wall looked a little odd. Backing up, she eased by the spot more slowly.
Huh.
She ran her hands over the rock only to realize the wall curved back in on itself. Using her hand as a guide, she slipped around the corner into a pitch black, claustrophobic area. She was about to pull a flashlight from her bag when she was jerked further inside. A hand covered her mouth to smother her scream.
“Shhh…Be quiet or they’ll hear you,” a fierce voice whispered in her ear.
Sarai’s thundering heart quieted. She recognized the owner of that voice, so she nodded.
“You’re not going to scream?”
She shook her head and the hand left her mouth. Sarai took a deep breath. “Corrie?” She still couldn’t see a thing.
“Yeah.”
“How’d you get in here?”
“I followed them when they took Zac and the others.”
“You’ve been in here the entire time? Why didn’t you release them?”
Corrie’s soft snort of derision reached her ears. “It’s not that easy. All the cells are electrified. I haven’t found a way to turn it off or get them out of there.”
A small flash, an image of Corrie inside the system of caves and tunnels, pierced her thoughts. “You’ve been waiting to make your move. What did you see?”
She felt rather than saw Corrie’s shock in the dark. “How’d you know?”
Sarai lifted a wry eyebrow, even though Corrie couldn’t see her face. “Speaking directly to me in a vision was a pretty good clue that you’re also a Seer. I’d never encountered one in my visions before, so I wasn’t sure. Until now.”
“Huh. Must not be a very good Seer then.”
“Maybe not. What did you see?” she repeated.
Corrie was silent long enough that Sarai thought about knocking a little sense into her. She spoke before Sarai could take a step toward her, almost as if she’d waited out Sarai’s patience threshold.
“This little passage leads to a much larger chamber. They’re going to take all of the captives there.”
“Do you know when?”
“Within the next few minutes they’ll discover George and Shane. After that.”
Sarai tried to force any of those images into a vision now that she had an idea of what was coming. Nothing came to her except gray fuzz, as though she were watching an old TV tuned to static. She must be involved in what happened next somehow.
“What happens after that?”
Corrie growled her frustration. “I don’t know. I can’t see it.
”
“Has that ever happened before?”
“No.” By the sound of it, Corrie said the word through clenched teeth.
Sarai had to wonder if she had caused Corrie’s inability to see further, or if Corrie had the same issue she did and had difficulty seeing anything which directly involved her. Either way, they were about to operate with no help from their gifts.
Damn.
“Okay. Then we wait.”
“Duh.”
Sarai sighed. Had she ever been that snotty? Probably not. The Carstairses would have beaten it out of her by this age.
“I may be on the quiet side, but I don’t handle rude well. If you can’t not be rude, then don’t speak.”
“Like you could do anything about it.”
Sarai rolled her eyes. “Do you have any weapons on you?”
“No.”
“I do. Want me to test them out on you?”
She wasn’t winning Corrie over as a friend, but she suspected the younger woman already had it in for her. She didn’t have time or patience to deal with behavior issues.
Silence greeted her question. “Good. Let’s get in position outside the larger room.”
“Why there?”
“Because I think that’s where they’ll take the captives.” If it was what she thought it was, then she was about to see the location of her original vision, only in person. A reality she’d tried with such desperation to avoid was about to happen.
Corrie led. Both girls carefully felt their way down the narrow passage. More than once, Sarai bumped into a sharp outcropping of rock, but didn’t react with so much as a muffled oath. They only slowed as light started to filter into the darkness, an indication they’d were neared the end.
Finally, Corrie stopped. She plastered herself against the wall and then stuck her head around a similar lip in the rock which hid the entrance to their hiding place, to check the room beyond. She waved Sarai forward. They swapped places in order for Sarai to take a look. She held in a gasp. This was the room she’d seen, which stood empty for the moment. She was even positioned at the angle she’d see it from. Hopefully, that meant she was in the right place.
CHAPTER 38
They didn’t have to wait long in their little hiding spot between the rooms. The thick stone walls had to muffle sound because they had no clue anyone was close until the first person entered the room. The first of many.
They led the polar bear shifters in last, all with iron shackles around their necks connected to a set around their wrists by a thick chain running down their backs and through their legs. Even George and Shane were chained. Sarai knew it was to keep them from shifting. The tight bindings would cut into their necks, choke them, possibly crush their windpipes. Zac was the last captive to enter the room.
Sarai held in a silent gasp at the condition of the men who’d clearly been beaten and starved. Her cougar’s senses picked up the scents of blood and sweat. They looked drenched. A flash of a vision told her fire hoses had been involved.
Then there was Zac. As often as she’d seen this in her mind, she was still shaken by his appearance. He was almost gaunt as he’d lost a reckless amount weight in just a few days, his cheeks hollowed out, his skin sallow. Old wounds crisscrossed new ones. Blood poured from a particularly ugly gash at his temple and another just under his ribs. She could taste the blood in the air, the copper penny bite of it strong on her tongue. He swayed on his feet, his eyes unfocused. They led him to the center of the room, where, thanks to a well-placed kick, he fell to his knees.
Kyle Carstairs stepped out of the shadows to stand in front of Zac. Just behind him, she could see Scott. Only Scott wasn’t wearing any chains.
This was the image that had burned into her mind with such indelible horror. The vision that would not change no matter what she did, said, thought, tried.
She knew what was supposed to happen next—Kyle’s order to kill. Damned if she was going to let it go down like that.
“What do you want?” Zac asked through cracked, swollen lips. His voice sounded weak, thready.
Sarai’s heart broke to see him beaten down, broken. But, she thought, just maybe, she detected a fire in his dark brown eyes that gave her hope.
“I want your Timik, and I want her.”
“No.”
“You don’t get a choice in the matter. When Scott returns to the rest of your people, after all of you here are dead, of course, he’ll take over from you as the Alpha. It will only be a matter of time before he brings me Sarai. Soon after that a new alliance will be made.”
Sarai sensed Corrie tense behind her. Scott’s betrayal, though Sarai felt it like a blow, went much deeper with the shifter behind her. She hoped they hadn’t been close friends.
She looked back to Zac and realized his stare was directed straight at her. Her eyes widened as he snuck a wink. Pride and hope surged. He wasn’t completely beaten. He was going to fight. Then, soft as Zac’s caresses, a new vision replaced the old in her mind. Zac breaking free of his chains. Zac pulling the key from around Kyle’s neck.
Sarai smiled. With slow, deliberate movements, she pulled out her MP3 player and put on the headphones. She slipped a knife out of its pocket on her arm. No way was she letting Zac have all the fun. She owed Kyle Carstairs for a lifetime of terror.
Careful that the dark of the passageway hid her motions, she stepped sideways to get in a better position. She realized she couldn’t hit her mark because the lip of the tunnel got in her way. Which meant she’d have to step out into the room, exposing her presence.
She glanced at Corrie, who shook her head, but Sarai was set on her course now. “Stay here,” she mouthed.
Before she could change her mind, she spoke. “You don’t have to send Scott for me. I’m right here.”
She stepped out into the wide room to face her worst nightmare head on. Kyle whipped around, then froze at the sight of her. He started to smile. Sarai closed her eyes on the skin-crawling sight.
Solid in her stance, she took a deep breath. In and out. In. Hold. Wham. She released her knife, putting all the force she could into the throw…but Kyle’s henchman, Mick, jumped into the path of her knife. He took the hit directly in the chest and slumped to the ground. Damn!
The room erupted into chaos, many of the coyotes and wolves headed her way, some shifted, some pulled out guns and started firing. Meanwhile, with a mighty yell, Zac managed to snap the chain binding his wrists to his neck. Quick as a striking snake, he snapped the key off the chain around Kyle’s neck.
Sarai was occupied with protecting herself until Zac and the others could fight. Not that most of them waited to be released, instead charging their captors while still bound. One after another, she threw her knives with unerring accuracy.
There were still way too many of them. Only about fifteen of Zac’s men were pitted against a good forty or more adversaries. Kyle, that lowdown rat, was working his way to the door. She’d never be free of him if he got away. Sarai followed as best she could, her focus on the man who’d tormented her since childhood.
Suddenly, in her mind’s eye, a wolf shifter she hadn’t noticed leapt at her. She swiveled to face it, and only just had her knife in hand when a massive polar bear jumped between them. She watched, stunned as, with a speed that belied his size, Zac plucked the animal out of the air, and shook it like a rag doll. He spat it out on the floor before he turned to face her.
She knew exactly what he was communicating with that look. Without conscious thought or plan, Sarai resumed her trek through the fray. She could feel Zac right there with her, keeping their attackers off her. They worked together in tandem, like a dance. She’d step. He’d move. She’d clear a path with a well-placed knife. He’d defend her backside.
The beat of the music got into her blood, pounded a rhythm that matched the pace of the fight, every move almost choreographed to the sounds in her head. Every move calculated to bring her closer to her target—Kyle.
A fis
t flew, aimed at her face, only to be stopped as Zac’s jaw snapped closed around it like a steel trap. She heard the scream of pain even over the music. Sarai ignored it, kept moving. She mentally searched for Kyle until she found him across the room. With a curse, she moved fast—pulled a knife from her belt and hurled it at him, but he ducked in time. Her weapon pinged harmlessly off the wall.
Zac was in the middle of dealing with two wolves at once when she noticed a third behind him.
“Drop,” she called.
He didn’t hesitate. He threw one wolf at the other, smashing them both into the wall with a force that had to have injured if not killed, and then flattened to the floor. Just in time. Her knife found its mark and dropped the third wolf to the ground.
Seeing a coyote headed at her from behind, Sarai pivoted around Zac in a move like a ballerina. He swiped a mighty paw, slammed into the chest of the charging animal mid-leap, to send it flying. It smashed into the wall with a yelp of pain.
Yet again, Sarai searched for Kyle amid the turmoil. In her mind she saw him make a break for the door, but he wasn’t there yet. She didn’t pay attention to anything else, focused solely on the fight before her. Sarai moved from man to beast, anticipating every move, every counter move, every moment as she made her way through the room, with Zac’s continued protection, on a trajectory to cut him off.
Unexpectedly, there seemed to be more people in the room. People and…cougars. Even Sarai heard the cacophony of sound over her pounding music. It wasn’t until Jaxon flew by in cougar form that she realized what was happening.
The cavalry had arrived.
But she didn’t stop. She couldn’t. Not until Kyle was dead. She kept moving. Luckily, the arrival of her friends cleared a path. Sarai stopped where she was in the room, set her stance, and took a deep breath. Pulling her arm back, she waited, waited, then, like a tightly coiled spring, released. Her knife flew true. She’d timed it to strike just as he pivoted through the door, trying to escape like the coward he was.
But, instead, she hit her mark with supreme accuracy. Kyle stumbled and fell to the floor, her knife jutting out of the base of his skull.
