Seizing Darkness (Fur, Fangs, and Fairies)

by Mariana Thorn

  “Not that we can tell. They know that we’ve captured a couple of their people. It doesn’t seem they’re too worried about it. From what we heard, they only believe that Nat and I are after them. It doesn’t look like they know you or Val are in the area. ”

  “That can work in our favor. Anything else?”

  “They also don’t know that Gregory and Madon are involved, although I’m sure they suspect it. Most of Joshua’s pack is there with a few extra wolves that Jenna says are part of Madon’s pack. Richard has some vamps there. I’m not sure how many, but you will probably have to count on his whole seethe.”

  “That’s not surprising. Do you have any idea how many we are up against?”

  “If Josh’s whole pack is around, that makes about fifteen wolves. Thane is the only cat there that I could sense. Gregory said he smelled him on the last body that we found the other day. Thane shouldn’t be much of a problem. I think there are maybe a half-dozen vamps. Plus there are about ten or so humans. No sign of Andrei. Gregory will send two of his people to help us. That’s all I have for now.”

  “That’s enough. We can take care of everything else. Go rest. Thanks for checking it out.” Radek hung up.

  Everyone in the room had heard the conversation, so there was no need for him to repeat it. I wondered how normal humans could stand to have to repeat everything all the time.

  “So that’s that then. Radek, do you have any ideas?” Val asked.

  “A few. Madon, how many wolves do you think you can provide that are loyal without question?”

  I could almost see Madon’s thoughts as he went through his wolves in his head before he answered. “I’m not sure who is loyal right now, but I can think of a couple. Trent and Jake. I won’t force them, but I’ll ask. You can have me of course.”

  “I’m in too,” Carly said.

  The look Madon sent her would’ve cowed a lesser wolf. Not her though. She glared right back at him. “Don’t even think about mentioning that I’m female in your argument. I’m just as good as Trent and Jake, so don’t even think about it, Madon.”

  Madon stared at her for a moment. He didn’t like sending his females into battle; I could see it plainly on his face. “Fine, you’re in. Call in Randy and Chester. They can watch over Tain. You’re not to say a word to anyone about anything. Valdimir, Radek and Natalya, you go ahead and leave. It’ll be best if they don’t see you here. I’ll brief Jake and Trent. I’m sure that they’ll be in as well.”

  “That should work. Call when you’re ready. Until then everyone should get some rest,” Val said. “Come along, Natalya and Radek. We’ll let Madon get his wolves in order. After this is all over, we will take care of your pack, Madon.”

  “Thank you, Val. Some of them need a little cooling off time anyway. I’ll see you this evening,” Madon said.

  Radek and I packed up the computers and followed Val from the house. Val drove off in his car. I went to the driver’s side door and held my hand out. Radek stopped in front of me and raised an eyebrow. I was hoping he wasn’t going to ask me about earlier. So far he’d acted like nothing unusual had happened.

  “You think I’m going to let you drive my car?” His eyes burned into mine, his lips turned up in a sexy half-grin. If he was teasing me, it couldn’t be that bad. I’d only let out a little of my inner assassin, after all. He’d known what I was. Maybe he hadn’t heard my other name. I couldn’t believe I’d actually used it. That had been stupid. There were too many witnesses. One of the rules we lived by was not letting anyone know our real names. Most of us had several identities.

  “Yes I do. Come on. I promise I won’t scratch it. You know you want to let me,” I said, holding his gaze. He had a predatory look. He stepped closer. He was close and he smelled so good.

  “Is this what I have to do for losing our bet earlier?” He backed me against the car. Our faces were only a few inches apart. He put a hand on either side of my body. The car was cold against my back. His heat warmed me. I gazed up into his golden eyes. I saw something that had my gut clenching. I had to fight the urge to cover the distance between us and kiss him. He was so close his breath was caressing my cheek. I wanted him, but I knew it was a bad idea.

  I swallowed and gathered my nerve. My voice came out harsher than I’d expected. “Nope, you’re going to let me because you like me.”

  “Who says I like you?” he asked in a whisper against my ear, sending shivers down my spine.

  “Your eyes say that you do. Otherwise you wouldn’t tease me so much.” I slipped my hand into his front pocket, retrieving the keys. His eyes darkened with lust. That was something that I would always recognize. “See? You let me get the keys. Now if you would kindly move back, we can head to the house.” I put my hand on his chest, pushing against him.

  “As you wish, Princess,” he whispered. He brushed his lips against mine. Then pushing from the car he made his way over to the passenger side. I let out the breath I’d been holding. Just that brush of a kiss had started a fire deep in my belly. I got in and started the engine. The car roared to life. He glanced at me and I gave him the biggest smile I could muster. I was glad he didn’t say anything on the way there.

  It didn’t take us long to get there with me driving. Dante’s other car was there. I figured the sun was about an hour from coming up. We went into the house together.

  “I can’t believe you actually let her drive your car.” Dante greeted us at the door with an amused smile. I tried to block him out of my head.

  “Just shut up, Dante. Why don’t you just go play dead? We can discuss everything tonight. I’m not in the mood. We only have maybe twelve against at least thirty,” Radek snapped at him.

  “That’s about three apiece – that’s no big deal. You’re right though, I need to get some sleep. So do you, for that matter. You sure are a grumpy fur ball.” Dante dodged as Radek took a playful swing at him.

  “I think we all need to rest. I’m beginning to rethink letting the three of you work together,” Val interrupted them.

  I tossed Radek his keys as I passed him. He caught them and winked at me when he caught my eye. I went to the back of the house to the room with the eight beds and collapsed onto one of them. Man, I was tired. Jenna followed me in and did the same.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I glanced at my watch; it’d been six hours since we pulled in. I listened to everyone sleeping, Radek’s breathing coming from the bed next to me. I turned my head in his direction. He was laying on his back with one arm over his torso and one on the bed. He hadn’t bothered with a blanket or a shirt. His chest and abdominal muscles were well defined. His pants had ridden down a little to reveal the muscles just above his hip. I really needed to get a grip. What was I, a teenage girl with a crush?

  Coffee. The craving hit me. I pushed myself up and left the room, heading to the kitchen. That was better than the other thoughts going through my mind. If I hadn’t gotten out of there I would have ended up in his bed.

  After hunting through the cupboards for a few minutes, I came up with what I wanted. Soon I had coffee brewing and bacon sizzling. I was humming away, cooking up French toast when Radek came in. I could feel his eyes on me. He leaned his hip against the doorframe and folded his arms over his still shirtless chest. It was distracting, but I tried to ignore him. He didn’t notice his father approach behind him.

  “Having fun?” Val said, making Radek jump. Val chuckled.

  “You really shouldn’t sneak up on people,” Radek said moodily.

  “Hey guys, why don’t you come and help?” I was unexplainably happy. It was like the calm just before the storm. I knew it wouldn’t last.

  “And what would you like us to do, Princess?” Radek said.

  “First off stop calling me that, and second you can go set the table.” I handed him a stack of plates. “Val you could get Jenna? The food is almost done.” I finished up the last few pieces of bread and added them to the plate that was already overloaded.
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  “As you wish.” Val smiled and turned to leave.

  Radek went and put the plates on the table. “So what’s with all the food and stuff?”

  I shrugged as I brought the plates of French toast and bacon over. “I was hungry and figured you guys would be too.”

  “We have about four hours until Dante wakes up,” Val said as he and Jenna returned. “This looks amazing, Natalya. Thank you.” He pulled out a chair and sat down. I brought the carafe of coffee over once everyone was seated.

  “You have a plan yet, Dek?” I asked in between bites.

  “We’ll have about a dozen people, so I’m thinking groups of two. We surround it, then go in. When Dante gets up, we should have a few minutes to go over what he saw of the layout. Really this isn’t too bad. There are about three of them to every one of us. That’s pretty decent odds.” He sounded like this was an everyday occurrence.

  “As long as you think so,” I said sarcastically. “How are we going to divide the teams?”

  “We’ll see the layout, then decide,” Val said.

  “Dante drew it all up. He and Gregory disappeared for a while, and when they came back they had the blue prints of the buildings,” Jenna said.

  “That’s wonderful news. Do you know where he put them?” Val asked.

  “I’m not sure what he did with them.” Jenna shrugged.

  “So he got the blueprints and forgot to give them to us.” Val shook his head. “Anyway, I have some more interesting news. I talked with my military human contacts last night before I went to bed. They say they’re not giving us any support other than satellite, and equipment. Also, we have a capture and no kill order for all humans present. There will be a team nearby to take all humans into custody. Just to make our lives more fun.”

  I rarely heard Val being sarcastic so I was a little surprised to hear it now.

  “Well I’m done so I’ll go look through his stuff.” Radek got up and disappeared into the back room.

  “Since you so kindly fixed this wonderful breakfast, why don’t Jenna and I clean up? You can have the showers first, my dear.” Val’s irritation with the humans was still there behind his smile.

  I didn’t envy him his job. He had to walk a very fine line keeping the non-human and human worlds from colliding. It was a violent world we lived in. He was one of those that kept the fragile humans from experiencing it.

  “Thanks, Val and Jenna.”

  I retrieved my bag and stepped into the shower room. It had three shower stalls. I went to the nearest stall and turned on the hot water. I really wanted to use my vanilla scented soap, but knew that I couldn’t because that would give me away later tonight. The hot water was relaxing though. I wrapped a towel around myself and stepped out of the shower just as Radek walked in.

  “Hey, I found the blueprints. You want to go over them with me when I get done in here?” He was looking at me intensely.

  I turned from him before answering. Call me a coward, but I didn’t think I could handle looking at him right then. “Of course I’ll look them over with you.” I went over to the mirrors and pulled out a hair dryer.

  He got in the shower while I did my hair.

  Tension filled the room as I tried to ignore how easy it would be to join him in there. I was relieved when Jenna came in. I was done so I rushed out, almost running into Val. He must have known the direction my thoughts were going because he laughed when he saw my face.

  It was about an hour before everyone was cleaned and dressed. Val and Jenna left to meet up with his military contacts to retrieve the gear we were being allotted.

  Radek spread the blueprints on the kitchen table with notepads and pens everywhere. The point of attack was a fifteen acre wooded residence between Puyallup and Tacoma. There was a two-story house with a basement and a large barn on the property. Jenna had said that the wolves were in the barn and the rest were in the house. They hadn’t been able to get much on the house, but Dante had been able to enter the barn undetected.

  “If we break off into groups of two we can come at this from different angles,” I suggested, pointing to areas of the map that I thought would be good entry points.

  “That’s as good an idea as any. How about you and I go in from here with Madon and his wolves as back up? If we take on the wolves, we can leave the rest up to everyone else,” he suggested.

  “You want to partner with me?” I was surprised he didn’t want Dante with him.

  “Wouldn’t want anyone else watching my tail. Besides, Father and Dante are better at dealing with vamps.”

  “Thanks.” I guess, I added in my head.

  “We’ll see the most action. The six of us against around fifteen wolves. We can divide their forces – that will leave better odds for everyone else.”

  “What about Thane?”

  “He shouldn’t be a problem. Never was a good fighter. Any one of us should be able to take him out.”

  “How should they get to the house? And how do we keep their forces separated?” I asked.

  “I’m thinking that if we can get someone in the house beforehand to have a sniff around it might be helpful. That will be tricky though. I would feel better about this if we had more information on who and what is in the house.”

  “Isn’t Val getting us a military satellite with thermal imagery?” I asked.

  “Yeah, Father will probably have Gidget step in on that front.” Radek was deep in thought, staring at the papers spread across the table.

  “Gidget? I’ve only worked with her once. Have you ever met her?” I was curious about the communications expert that was reportedly never seen.

  “Nope. I’m not sure what she is either. I think she’s a shifter of some sort. Not sure though.” He smiled.

  “I would’ve thought you would know,” I teased.

  “Anyway, she’ll most likely be the one yelling in our ears. Father will have briefed her by now. That’s the only way I see this playing out. Once we have the teams figured out and where we’re all starting, we can relay the info to Gidget and then she can confirm our plans. She will be our eyes in the sky.”

  “I think it’s all set then. The two teams should come from here and here,” I said, pointing to the opposite sides of the house. “There are a few windows on both sides of the house. How many vamps are coming with Gregory?”

  “I think just two. I agree with you on that. I still want someone on the inside before this starts.”

  “We could have Val and Jenna walk up to the front door,” I suggested.

  “It’s risky,” Radek said, but he seemed to be considering it.

  “If it’s the humans that answer then it shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

  “True, but how do we assure that it will be humans that answer the door?” He raised an eyebrow at me like he was wondering about the chances of that happening. It was strange how I could tell what he was thinking sometimes.

  “When the thermal imagery is up, Gidget can tell us where everyone is on the property. We can go from there. They wouldn’t be suspecting us to just walk up to the front door and knock,” I insisted. It may be risky, but I felt like it would work.

  “Okay, let’s say we do it that way.” Radek started drawing on the plans. “This is you and me. We come from this way. Then Madon and the other wolves come from here. You and I attack first. Once we’ve drawn the wolves out, Madon’s pack arrives.”

  “That could work.” I chewed on my lip and leaned over the plans. He was close to me and I could smell his spicy scent. I breathed him in. I couldn’t tell if he was being affected like I was.

  “Before we attack, Father and Jenna approach the house from the front while the others are making their way to the sides of the house. They can come in through the back. We will have to draw out the wolves before the other two teams break the cover of the trees,” Radek went on.

  “This has to be timed just right.”

  “Yes. There are too many humans involved, but I don’t think we
will get away with not shifting. It might be best if we and the wolves go in shifted.”

  “That just makes this more fun then. I don’t think we will be able to get away with it this time either. I’m sure that the wolves will attack as wolves.” I had to admit I was kind of looking forward to this. It would feel good to expend some energy in a fight.

  “Well, there isn’t much else we can do with this. What would you like to do?” he asked suggestively.

  I was so not going there with him right now, so I suggested something tame. “Want to watch some movies? I think I have a couple in my bag still. Or we can play cards.”

  “Popcorn?” He gave me the evil sexy grin again.

  “You make it and I’ll grab the movies.” I jumped up and went to retrieve the movies.

  Radek went into the kitchen and I heard his phone ring.

  “Hey Gidget,” he answered.

  I could just make out what she was saying while I dug through my bag.

  “I pulled up the schematics for the property. Val said you were working on a plan.” Her voice sounded young.

  “Well hello to you too. Yes, we have a working idea,” Radek said with a laugh.

  “Sorry. Good afternoon Radek, how are you doing? Are you and Natalya getting along well?” she said sarcastically.

  I laughed.

  “I’m doing well. Whatever gave you the idea that we wouldn’t get along?”

  “Oh, just something Val said. Now that we have that over with, I sent you what I have. Would you please take time out of your busy schedule to draw up what you are planning and send it back to me? The satellite link will be up in a couple of hours. They’re scrambling the satellites now,” she said with veiled impatience.

  “Why, I would love to do that for you,” he responded in a mocking voice.

  “Thank you. I’ll call you after I look it over.” She was muttering under her breath when she hung up.

  So I wasn’t the only one that he annoyed. That was good to know. “What was that about?” I passed him carrying a small stack of DVDs to the living room.