He walked briskly to the stairs and up onto the stage, behind the row of empty display booths, to where the shifters sat in semi-darkness.
Costigan queued music and announced the rules and procedures for the auctions.
Arvik slowed as if unable to see well, giving him the chance to check Rayne as he passed. Jealousy stung when he saw she was holding Lerro’s hand. It eased slightly when he realized she was casting a lower-level version of the healing spell he’d used on her twenty minutes ago. He sourly hoped Lerro wasn’t enjoying it.
The first up for auction was Mondo, the berserker gorilla with the scars of a cage fighter. He sold for Costigan’s opening price, to one of the Imperium infiltrators.
Arvik stood a couple of meters in front of the stage doors, dividing his attention between the restive shifters and a series of spells he was knitting together on the spot. The Shifter Tribunal operatives, including Rayne, would never believe the wizards were buying the shifters to get them out of harm’s way. He hoped his new plan worked.
After two more slow sales, a bidding war started for the fourth captive, a crocodile shifter.
Unexpectedly, Aldenrud appeared from behind a darkened booth, headed straight for Arvik. At the last second, he veered around and opened one of the doors. “Be right back.”
The faint odor of sour fear hit Arvik’s nose as the door closed. He remembered Aldenrud’s record was littered with lucky breaks.
Arvik’s instincts said time just ran out. He touched his earring to activate the spell series and send the signal to his people.
Arvik-as-Arturo ambled to the end of the shifter line and around it, headed for a look at who’d just won the bidding war.
As he passed Rayne and Lerro, he whispered just for their sensitive shifter ears. “The power of three. Stairs at the end of A Wing. I made a tunnel. Run human, and don’t touch the walls. Endgame starts now.”
6
Ever since Rayne realized what Díaz was doing for the shifters as he walked down the line, she’d been surreptitiously scheming with Lerro how to take advantage of the gift and communicating the plan to their fellow captives. Thank the moon goddess the guards weren’t paying any attention to them and Díaz was on their side.
Lerro wasn’t trembling any more, but he’d been beaten and starved for the last year, and the knockout spell hadn’t helped. She used a little healing spell to share her energy. If they managed to liberate the shifters, she planned to ask him what the “karma” deal had been about, but not today.
They’d rejected the hidden fairy portal as the way out. She could operate portals, but couldn’t change the destination. The other end could be a leap into fire instead of freedom. And the hidden emergency exit in the former shifter wing was underwater.
They’d have to go for the stairs at the end of the intake branch of the administration wing. The staff and contractor hunters preferred the elevators, but the secured and spell-protected stairway led to the same camouflage-covered parking lot and a narrow dirt road that connected to a winding paved road.
Just the thought of being outside again set her inner wolf to baying. Like most shifters, she didn’t do well in underground cages. Everyone had coping mechanisms. Hers was to focus on her mission objectives and dream of the full moon on a silent, snowy landscape.
She told Lerro what she’d noticed in her two recent trips to the admin wing. They agreed they could ignore the cameras, but not the broad-spectrum life-sign suppression spells. None of the shifters had the charmed staff badges that would let them come and go. Information she’d elicited from previous cellmates said the spells wouldn’t kill; they’d just knock any magical species cold, even humans with shifter-mate potential.
As much as she wished she had the magical power of her sister or Díaz, she didn’t, so she’d have to deal with the spells once they got closer.
The auction out front got louder as a bidding war started for the crocodile shifter. Lerro used it for cover to tell Olivia, the capybara shifter next to him, to get ready to run and to pass it on. He mimed tapping his shackles together three times.
Rayne was watching the progress of the message when Díaz walked slowly around her, whispering his own message about the endgame.
Adrenaline rushed through her. Díaz’s rising magic made her want to writhe in pleasure. She’d deal with that later. He was headed toward the front of the stage.
She tapped her wrists together three times and caught the shackles. She did the same with her ankle restraints, leaving them half on so they’d fool a casual glance.
The winning bidder number was announced with a fanfare of music. The audience applauded.
Lerro mimicked her actions. Like a chain reaction, the movements spread up the line. Fortunately, the guards were busy leading the crocodile shifter out of the booth and setting up the next one.
Magic exploded from the direction of the audience, buffeting her senses. The temperature dropped twenty degrees. Icy-cold howling winds and blowing snowflakes followed.
Endgame, indeed.
She leaped to her feet. “Exit! Stay human!” She urged Lerro toward the doors, knowing the shifters would follow. Lerro was a legend.
The shifter closest to the guard Perry head-punched her unconscious before she could twitch. McReady reached for his gun, then crumpled from a blow to the head from a swinging shackle.
Rayne used the technique she’d learned from watching Díaz to unlock and open wide the double doors in front of Lerro. He shouted and ran out. The captives swarmed after him.
She could feel where Díaz was without seeing him. His magic pulled at her senses.
Alarms sounded. Bright lights in the ceiling strobed.
The winds picked up, making it harder to get to Foster, the third guard, who was on his knees.
She shoved Ndelo, the hyena shifter, away from him, toward the door. “Go! He’s mine!” She snarled possessively, allowing some of her true dire wolf to show.
Ndelo’s eyes went wide with fear as he stumbled away, then ran after the other shifters.
Foster, blinded by blood and pain, took a wild swing at her.
She evaded, then put him in a controlling headlock. “It’s me. I’ve got you. Shift!” She added alpha power to her order. “Now!”
His body obeyed her command faster than he’d have been able to do it on his own. His guard uniform shredded. She held on to him until she was sure he’d found his lean red wolf.
She picked up two of his weapons and gave him a final hug. “Go find your aunt.” His nose would lead him to the woman called Gray, even if her board member glamour fooled his wolf's eyes in the terrible winds of battle.
Foster had gone undercover before she had. She owed him her life several times over.
A hammer of an attack spell split her head wide open with pain. Her own magic made her more vulnerable than most shifters to such spells.
She shook it off as she fought the wind and snow to make her way to where Díaz’s life energy burned bright. She couldn’t go after her primary objective until she knew he was safe.
Or as safe as he could be, in a magical war zone.
Arvik’s Arctic-winter spell was burning through his magical power reserves, but he couldn’t stop now. The captives needed time to escape, buyers outnumbered the Imperium agents two to one, and Balton was cornered and dangerous.
Two running witches frantically threw spells at the lobby doors. The guard crumpled. Arvik sent a gust of wind to knock them back into the arms of the pursuing Imperium agents.
Across the stage, Balton and Costigan stood with their backs to the wall, surrounded by four Imperium wizards. Balton unleashed a tremendous power bolt. Two Imperium wizards fell back, stunned. Costigan slumped to the floor.
Balton pushed off from the wall toward the back exit. His shield protected him from the force of Arvik’s wind, but not from kinetic force of the leaping Bengal tiger that bowled him over sideways.
Below Arvik in the audience, three disguised b
uyers huddled together, working on a spell. Fairies, he concluded from the fact that he could only feel the shape of their magic, not the substance. He sent more wind to overwhelm their words, but he wasn’t sure it helped.
The sensation of summer sun warmed his back. He didn’t need to look to know it came from Rayne. His inner animals leaned in toward the light.
He glanced at her as she stepped up beside him. “You should be running.”
“Says the man about to be taken on a fairy-ring thrill ride.” She pointed and triggered the lightning rod in her hand at a white-haired man. He jolted back into the others. Their illusions blinked out, revealing long-limbed blue mountain fairies. Plasma danced over them all as they slumped in a daze.
“Thanks. I can’t see fairy magic.” He usually didn’t admit his weaknesses, but he felt he could trust her.
Balton release another power bolt, sending the tiger flying. A large red wolf bit into his meaty calf. Balton screamed in pain and swung a fist at the wolf’s head. The scarred gorilla named Mondo blocked the punch, then pulled the wolf out of reach. Two Imperium wizards stepped in to shoot Balton with a charmed web.
The web expanded to cover struggling Balton, then glowed bright pink and made him disappear with an ear-popping air rush. The Imperium’s holding dungeon just got a new customer.
With the Imperium and Tribunal teams finally working together, the buyers knew they were losing. Several of them just sat down and held up their hands in surrender.
Beside him, Rayne shivered and put her arms across her chest.
He pulled back on his magic. With no more power, the Arctic winds would soon die on their own. “Want to go someplace quieter? Like, say, the cash room where they keep the backup sales records? Maybe check to be sure that no shifter got left behind?”
She laughed. “Best pick-up line I’ve heard in a year.” She gestured toward the back exit with a graceful flourish. “Lead on.”
He headed toward the exit, giving her a smart-ass smile instead of the kiss he’d been fantasizing about. Best not to start something he couldn’t finish. She might want to kiss him, too, but he doubted she’d consent to mate with a monster.
7
Rayne opened the third file drawer. This one contained folders marked with employee names. She wanted them all, but she pulled the ones for Aldenrud, Balton, Díaz, Costigan, Foster, and a handful of others.
The room-sized vault stank of acidic sweat. Someone, and her guess was Aldenrud, had cleaned out most of the actual cash. A few bills littered the floor, suggesting haste.
Díaz swore in Spanish and pointed to empty shelves in the tall cabinet he’d just opened. “Backups are gone.”
“If I were skimming, I wouldn’t leave a backtrail, either.” She closed the file drawer and opened the bottom one. Instead of files, it had a lid with a combination. “Bring your criminally good lock-pick spell over here and open this.”
She picked up the files and the confiscated lightning rod, then stepped back to give him room. She hugged the files to her chest to hide her hard nipples and to keep from putting her hands on him like she wanted. Simple skin-to-skin contact sent her hormones singing. If they ever made love, she’d probably spontaneously combust.
While he knelt, she quickly shifted to her wolf with its maned-wolf illusion, then back into human, without the files and weapon, and with better clothes. After six weeks of wearing nothing but flimsy flats or going barefoot on filthy concrete floors, sturdy boots had never felt so good. If only her trick worked with food.
He stood and crossed his arms. “Impressive talent.”
“Thanks.” Her wolf urged her to tell him all about it and find out all about him, but dire wolves didn’t understand about time and place, or bells that couldn’t be unrung. Not all true mates were destined to be together.
She glanced down at the opened lid and frowned. “Why leave all this cash?” She leaned closer, but a frisson of magic had her backing up. “Illusion trap. We just triggered something.”
At the other end of the room, the heavy vault door was swinging shut.
Díaz leaped over the counting table and grabbed the handle. The door slowed but didn’t stop.
Borrowing strength and speed from her wolf, she pushed the table into the opening. It delayed the door long enough for them both to scramble over it and out into the hallway. The table bent and broke as the vault door inexorably closed and locked.
She grinned at him. “That was a blast. Want to see if Aldenrud’s office measures up?”
His answering grin lit up his face. The surly wizard persona hid a sinfully enticing man. “Maybe for a second date.” He pointed down the hall. “We should get back before we’re missed.”
That sobered her. Real life was never as much fun as it was cracked up to be.
They trotted together back to the main admin hall and the ruined hub. As they approached the auction wing, the straw-in-a-tornado feel of wild magic scraped her senses. Battlefield magic took days to dissipate in the open air. Who knew how long it would take in an underground facility?
As they slowed to walk through the doors to the auction stage, she fought a strong impulse to grab Díaz’s hand and never let go. Inner wolves lived for the moment, so it was up to the human side to consider consequences and make the tough choices. She forced herself to politely nod to him once, then cross left to the Tribunal team.
Gray, whose real name was Celia Wong, stood with her nephew Donovan, formerly known as the guard Foster. Nearby, the gorilla shifter called Mondo stood, arms crossed, looking grumpy. He sported a couple of fading bruises on his thighs, a puffy eye, and a healing split lip. The capybara shifter and the crocodile shifter sat on the floor looking exhausted. None of them wore clothes. Rayne felt over-dressed.
She looked around for familiar faces and scents. “Where are the others?”
Celia put her hands on her hips. “Mr. Brooker canceled our strike team.” From her tone, she didn’t agree.
Rayne nodded, glad her boss had decided to let the Imperium team handle the fight and the aftermath. Too easy to incur friendly-fire casualties if you don’t know who your friends are.
Celia waved toward a circular ring of dust on the wall. “Brooker and Myelle ordered the medical emergency portal and took Lingram with them. Kilisha is investigating the real portal in the boardroom.” She cast a dark glance toward the four remaining Wizard Imperium agents on the other side of the stage, where Díaz stood with them. “The wizards created their own portal and took the staff and the buyers.” The Shifter Tribunal usually contracted with fairies for creating portals.
Rayne wondered if the Imperium would share the intelligence they gained from their prisoners. The Tribunal had a right to know, since shifter victims had outnumbered the other races by ten to one, but the exchange would probably take months to negotiate.
Celia’s frown deepened. “Who was that feral shifter who attacked Lingram? We’ll want him for questioning. And the enemy wizard who you claim helped you.”
Rayne’s temper spiked. “Lingram shot first. That shifter and that wizard saved my life. The wizard freed the captives and cleared the way out.”
Donovan cleared his throat. “Díaz did save her life. The shifter-wing guards nearly beat her to death.” A haunted expression crossed his face. They’d planned the risky maneuver together, but he’d had to pretend he liked watching a shifter get hurt.
Rayne wanted to hug him. Undercover work sometimes required making terrible choices for a successful mission. Only another field agent could understand.
Celia’s face twisted in a sour frown. “How very convenient for a slave market run by wizards to be ‘cleaned up’ by wizards.”
Rayne thinned her lips. “How very convenient for the Tribunal to deny auction house rumors for four years without investigating.”
Celia’s jaw tightened and her eyes went cold. “The Tribunal thanks you for your service. We’ll take it from here.” She exerted alpha dominance to quell Rayne’s at
titude.
Rayne let it roll on by. Ice Age dire wolves did not take orders from modern alphas, regardless of species.
Celia frowned, just like every alpha who had ever tried to get Rayne to submit. Her nostrils wrinkled. “You need a shower.”
Behind her, Donovan rolled his eyes. “Chill. She’s on our side.”
Celia had the grace to look abashed. “Myelle is coming back with the main portal in a few minutes.”
Rayne turned and walked away before she said something else she’d have to apologize for later. Politicians and alphas made her crazy, and Celia was both in spades. They’d recruited and trained her for the “executive board” operation because no one would doubt her in that role.
Rayne’s sly inner wolf and her willful feet wanted to take her closer to Díaz, who was talking to the wizards and pointing toward the closed lobby doors. She compromised by detouring to the auctioneer’s station. Costigan had been a cold, money-motivated asshole, but she’d been highly skilled at her job.
The array of controls made the podium look like a jumbo jet’s flight deck. The top half featured buttons marked for audience and stage lighting, lobby lights, sound, multiple microphones, and eight computer micro-ports. The bottom buttons and sliders apparently controlled the display booths and the security measures that included magic melded with technology. Skyla, magic prodigy and already almost a magister, would have loved taking it apart.
Rayne sent a prayer to the moon goddess for the safety and health of her beloved sister, who she’d treated abominably by faking her own death, even cutting her off from the family tracking spell to make it convincing. For that, she would owe penance for as long as she lived.
Agents weren’t supposed to cry. She knelt to check deep into the shelves below. Her questing fingers found and latched onto a familiar shape.
Dire Wolf Wanted Page 5
