“Oh, God,” Kresley whispered, cringing as she took in the sight before her. Jacob and Jared were kissing the two voluptuous blond beauties. “We don’t belong here!” she hissed at Blake, irritated she’d been reduced to a Peeping Tom.
Blake blinked at the scene and leaned closer. “Something isn’t right. Who are those women?” he asked. “And where’s Carol? I know I saw her.”
Kresley’s eyes caught on the scene beyond the rock with a jolt of fear, terror racing through her body. Jared and Jacob were now on the ground, unmoving. She blinked as the two women seemed to shift and change.
Blake grabbed her arm. “What is this? What’s happening?”
She didn’t know, but whatever it was, it wasn’t good. She cast Blake an urgent look and said, “Disappear and get help.”
He gasped and pointed at the scene before them, and Kresley whipped her head around. The women were gone, and two silver snakes were in their place. And thanks to Blake’s big mouth, the snakes had turned and were staring at the rock where they were hiding. “Go, damn it,” she yelled at Blake.
“I can’t leave you.”
She grabbed his arms and stared at him. “I can fight, you can’t. Not those things. Go now, and get help.” He didn’t move. “Do it!”
Blake disappeared, and Kresley stood to face the snakes as they slithered toward her.
“Kresley, run!” It was Lucan’s voice—she knew it anywhere. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw him to her right, darting toward her. Running wasn’t an option, not with one of the snakes fast approaching the rock. Besides, she wouldn’t leave Lucan or the twins to these creatures. She had a gift, and today, at this moment, it had a purpose.
Kresley steeled herself for what would follow, ready to use her firestarting for the first time ever to save the lives of people she cared about.
Chapter 16
The water crashed against the nearby shore; the stars twinkled in the sky. Laura sat at the picnic table beside Rinehart and finished off the last bite of her barbecue sandwich.
“That was good,” she said, dusting off her hands. They’d spent the entire meal talking about the discovery she’d made with the twins, and she knew Rinehart was trying to give her an escape, if only for a few minutes. Not the act of an enemy. The act of a friend. Her gaze drifted over the dark water. If not for the tingling, warning sensation inching along her nerve endings, she might have actually relaxed a few minutes.
“You’ve been living on mess-hall food too long if you think that was good,” Rinehart quipped, tossing their bags in a metal trash can beside the table.
His mood turned serious. “You’ll have a taste of the real world again soon, Laura.”
“The real world,” she repeated. “For me that means hiding. Secrets. Lies.”
“And making a difference,” he pointed out. “Making discoveries like the one you made with the twins’ blood. That makes you special. Someone to protect and keep safe.”
Her lips thinned, a growing sense of discomfort setting her nerves on edge, a discomfort that had nothing to do with the conversation, though. Her uncertain future was enough to twist her in knots. “Someone to lock away.”
He took her hand. His thumb stroked the sensitive flesh of her wrist, and heat darted up her arm. Pleasurable as it might be, it did nothing to defuse the thrum of unease building inside her. “Protecting you isn’t locking you away,” he promised.
A rush of warning crashed over Laura. She traced the surf with her eyes and tugged at her hand, suddenly needing her freedom. Rinehart misread her intentions as rejection and tried to pull it back.
“Something is wrong.” She pushed to her feet, with Rinehart following, adrenaline lighting a charge in her body. “You can’t feel it, can you? That horrible sense of evil intent filling the air.”
His gaze lifted, scanned. “I sense only one kind of evil. Whatever you are sensing now isn’t that kind.”
Laura’s eyes caught on the horizon, and she sucked in a breath. Blake was running toward them. “Laura! Laura!”
Her heart pounded like a drum in her chest. “Oh, God.”
Blake was under the parking lot lights now, his face filled with absolute terror, his voice blasting her name over and over.
Laura’s gaze briefly touched Rinehart’s a second before as they both started off running.
Even so, it felt as if a lifetime passed before they came face-to-face with Blake, though it must have been mere seconds. “Jacob and Jared,” Blake said, heaving out the words in heavy breaths. “The women.” He sucked in air, struggling for words, hyperventilating.
Laura ran her hands down his arms, desperate to calm him down and find out what was wrong. She was trying to be collected when fear was eating her up inside. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” But she wasn’t sure it really was; the warning in her stomach told a different tale. She forced Blake to take several slow breaths. Rinehart’s presence by her side comforted her for reasons she couldn’t explain.
When Blake seemed semicomposed, she pressed him again. He choked on the words, and she felt the rise of desperation. She needed to know what was happening. “Calm down and tell us,” she encouraged Blake. “What women? Has something happened to Jacob and Jared?”
He sucked in air and let it out. “Can’t…can’t calm down. The snakes, the snakes are killing Jacob and Jared.”
Killing. That was the word she latched on to. “Where? Where!”
“Kresley,” Blake said, his voice shaking. “Kresley is there, too.”
Kresley. Her knees wobbled and Rinehart was suddenly behind her, steadying her. She cursed her weakness, but her recovery was fast—her adrenaline was over the top, blasting her with yet another rush. She was desperate for answers, and she found herself lightly shaking Blake—she’d never done that before. “Where Blake? Where!”
“The woods,” he gasped out. “The woods at the other side of the building.”
Rinehart grabbed Blake and turned him toward the woods. “Take us to the exact spot, Blake,” he ordered. Blake obeyed instantly, launching into a run.
Suddenly Laura’s hand was in Rinehart’s, and they were in fast pursuit, the wind whipping against her face, fear beating at her mind.
She turned her face to the stars and did the only thing she knew to do. She prayed. Please let them be okay. A prayer she continued over and over across the parking lot, until finally Blake turned to them again. “Here!” he said, as they reached the edge of the woods. “We went in here.”
And now, they had to go in, too.
Lucan called for backup, but couldn’t wait for help. He’d let Carol and the twins out of his sight for all of three minutes, and trouble had spiraled out of control. Jacob and Jared were spread out on their backs in the middle of the clearing, unmoving, with moonlight streaming down on them as if they were some sort of sacrifices. Two long, silver snakes circled them. Suddenly, Kresley was there, too. The snakes whipped around, their focus now on her.
Lucan sprang into action, heart thundering in his chest. He had to get to Kresley before the snake—no, two snakes, now—reached her. He tore through the clearing, jumped over one of the twins, desperate to get to Kresley before it was too late, more desperate than he’d ever felt in his life. And he was going to fail. One of the snakes was close, too damn close.
Kresley wasn’t moving, either. “Run!” he screamed. But she didn’t run.
As the snake approached, she stood her ground, and abruptly fire shot from her hands, lancing the skin of the snake. Lucan froze in his steps at the same moment that the snake screeched. A moment later, it disappeared into thin air. The second snake retreated, disappearing into the brush—out of sight, but not gone, Lucan was certain. Regardless, relief and wonder washed over Lucan. Kresley was safe and by her own brave doing. He’d known she could start fires; he had no idea she could call it up at will, or direct them like that.
“Jacob! Jared!” she yelled, stumbling toward them. “Are they okay? Are they okay?”
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Uneasy about the remaining snake, Lucan pivoted around to check the area. Scanned. Pivoted again. Kresley screamed, a second before he brought her back into view. One of the snakes was flying through the air, in a way no ordinary snake could do; it struck her wrist before she could react. Lucan felt as if someone had ripped a knife through his gut, but that did nothing to delay his reaction. He tore through the space separating him from Kresley, lunging forward. His hands closed down on the slimy width of the snake, and, thankfully, it released Kresley and fell to the ground. Kresley shot fire at it, sizzling Lucan’s pant leg in the process. He quickly patted out the flames. The snake screeched and disappeared.
Barely able to breathe, he raced toward Kresley, who was pushing herself to a sitting position. “Are you okay?” he asked, kneeling by her side. His hands went to her face, to her wrist.
“Yes. I…your leg.” She was patting his leg. “How bad is it?”
With his peripheral vision, Lucan saw Max and Des rush into the clearing, toward the twins. But he didn’t care about them right now; he didn’t care about his leg. He grabbed Kresley’s wrist and stared down at it, blinked. Stared some more. She stopped patting his leg and gasped at the sight of her wrist. There was no blood, no bite marks. Just two small, connected circles that looked like a tattoo. She looked up at him. “That wasn’t there before.”
“Does it hurt?” he asked, a sick feeling in his stomach. If it were a simple wound, then their healer, Marisol, could have dealt with it, but this—this was the act of a Demon and something far more complicated. Something that reached between worlds.
She shook her head. “No, Lucan. I know this sounds insane, but there were two women here who turned into those snakes.” She offered him a pleading look. “Please. I have to know you believe me. Blake saw, too. I’m not delirious.”
He considered denial and quickly dismissed it. She was too smart for that and Blake too outspoken. “I saw them, too,” he said. Relief washed over her features. Before she could begin to ask the questions he saw floating in the depths of her green eyes, he forced himself to think calmly, though he felt wildly unbalanced. They had a lot of people to consider and a lot of potential panic to control. “I know this is scary, and you have been very brave today, Kresley. Amazingly so. I need you to keep doing that. Just keep the mark on your wrist quiet for now. I’d rather tell everyone when we know what it is and how to fix it.”
“You’re afraid I’m going to die,” she said, searching his face. Her bottom lip quivered, but her chin was steady, strong.
“No,” he said, and that was the truth. There were things worse than death, but he didn’t say that. He touched her cheek. “You aren’t going to die. I won’t let you. Which means there is no reason to scare yourself or anyone else into thinking so.”
He glanced up as Max approached. “Give me a minute,” he said, pushing to his feet. He was praying the other Knight could reach someone, anyone, who could get him answers.
Because protecting Kresley had suddenly become everything to him.
Standing on the edge of the woods, Rinehart had a choice to make. Leave Laura alone and exposed, or take her into the woods with him where danger obviously lurked. Neither was a good option, but taking her with him seemed the worst of the two.
Decision made, he faced her, his hands going to her shoulders. The ominous darkness of the woods was only a few feet away; the well-lit parking lot allowed her to see the determination in his expression. “Stay with Blake.” He released her, already on the move.
“Not a chance,” she said between her teeth, and started for the woods. He shackled her wrist, not as shocked at her actions as he was frustrated.
“Stay here!” he blasted back at her. “I’m trying to keep you safe, Laura. Help me.”
“I can’t,” she yelled. “I can’t stand here and pray they’re okay when I could be helping.”
The sounds of movement in the woods drew their attention, and Rinehart instinctively moved to shield Laura. But before he could, Lucan called out. “Everyone is fine!”
Laura heaved out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank you.” She looked skyward. “Thank you, Lord.”
Slowly, the light illuminated Lucan and Kresley. The twins followed, with Max and Des framing their positions. Rinehart released Laura as she darted toward her patients, Blake on her heels. His Knights converged with him and the exchange of information began.
The next few minutes passed quickly, filled with action from all directions. The relief Rinehart had felt as he’d seen Lucan lead Kresley and the others out of the woods faded as Lucan explained what had happened.
As soon as Rinehart had processed the details, he tracked down Rock and sent him and Des to scout the woods for signs of Carol and the snake Demons. Max had immediately gone to contact Jag, and try to find out something about the snakes.
Rinehart hovered protectively near Laura as she listened to everyone relay their stories. Lucan was by his side, both of them impatiently waiting for Max’s return with some answers. Kresley, Blake and the twins were all sitting down beneath a tree not far from the parking lot; Laura was in the middle of them all, working to calm everyone down. With Carol missing and the snake attacks, there was a lot of fear over her fate and a lot of effort to make logical events that seemed illogical.
“All I remember is hooking up with Carol to go to some club she’d convinced us to go to,” Jacob said, having the sense to look guilty over the choice. “She said she’d been sneaking out for months now, and we wouldn’t get caught. She convinced us to go, too.”
“Convinced me,” Jared confessed. “I convinced Jacob. I should never have talked him into going out.” He cast Laura an apologetic look. “I know your rules.”
“We can’t go back in time,” Laura said. “Focus on remembering what happened to Carol.”
“She’s still out there,” Blake said. “She has to be.”
“The last thing I remember is being in the parking lot when Carol showed up,” Jacob said.
“With her two hot friends,” Jared added.
“She went to the woods, too,” Blake volunteered, shivering from his fever despite the muggy night.
“I saw her, too,” Kresley said, leaning against the tree for support.
Max approached from their right. Rinehart and Lucan met him several feet from the group so they could talk freely. “Anything?” Rinehart asked, hoping for some news.
“Jag and the rest of the team back at the ranch are researching snake Demons,” he reported. “But no one knew anything off the top of his head.”
“We need to know before extraction,” Lucan insisted.
“I’m sure answers will be forthcoming,” Max assured him. “But we have to move forward. We can’t wait.”
“I recognize that,” Lucan snapped. “But we need to look at the potential backlash from what happened back there. What if this is some sort of ticking bomb meant to ensure they can’t leave the island?”
Max snorted. “You think her head is going to turn in circles and explode if she gets too far from the island. I don’t think so.”
Lucan lunged at Max, who sidestepped him. “Whoa,” Max said, hands up protectively. “It was a joke.”
Before things could get out of control, Rinehart stepped in front of Lucan, his hands going to Lucan’s chest. He kept his voice low. “Easy, man. Easy.” Lucan inhaled slowly, and Rinehart’s gaze went to Laura, whose concern was etched on her face. He inclined his chin to tell her everything was okay, and then immediately spoke to Lucan. “I don’t know what is up with you, but it’s not helping us or Kresley.”
Lucan eased back a step and focused on Max. “What if the mark allows her to be tracked?” he suggested, the easy quality of his voice suggesting their confrontation hadn’t happened, the fury still livid in his eyes saying otherwise.
Insurance, Rinehart thought, remembering Walch saying that word. He replayed the conversation. “Walch planned to use the patients against Laura in a meeting tomo
rrow morning. This has to be part of his plan.”
Max held nothing back, unfazed by Lucan’s attack, speaking his mind. “Which means we need to face facts here. I don’t care if that mark simply tracks her location or eventually turns her into a Demon, she has to be considered a risk to the others. Secluded with precautions taken, before we decide to take her to the ranch. We don’t want an army of those snake Demons led right to us.”
“I agree she has to be kept separated,” Lucan agreed. “But we can’t be sure the others weren’t marked in some way, too. Just because it’s not obvious, doesn’t mean it’s not the case. Any one of them could be a danger to everyone at the ranch. They all had some form of contact with the snakes.”
Rinehart listened to the grim exchange as it whittled away at their options. “Okay. Here’s the deal. We can’t risk whatever happened to Kresley happening to anyone else, but we can’t assume it hasn’t already. So orbing them out without knowing where the hell we are taking them isn’t an option. Furthermore, we have to assume that if they haven’t already been marked in some way, the Demons will be back for them. So they can’t be here when the Demons come for them.”
“Stay the line until extraction and keep everyone inside, well guarded,” Lucan argued. “Have Laura go to that meeting tomorrow morning and find out what he did to Kresley.”
Was he nuts? “You evidently have forgotten how dangerous Laura could be in enemy hands. Obviously, whatever was planned tonight didn’t go as expected. We have no idea how they will respond to that. None.”
“He’s right,” Max said. “We have to move and we have to move tonight. Get these people into hiding.”
“You’re forgetting something critical here,” Lucan reminded them. “These kids can’t travel without medication in hand.”
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