"Not now," Kiarra breathed and rubbed her forehead. I led her toward two empty barstools and settled her on one of them before sitting beside her. Lion produced a laptop, the flash drive was installed and we watched the video in shocked silence.
"Hello, Kiarra," Saxom said. "Did you think to hide from me? I suspected it was you all along. It is both fortunate and unfortunate that Chessman was sent—it had to be either Russell or him, so Xavier could yank their strings. I received every bit of information on you that Chessman supplied, did you know that?" He laughed. The sound scraped raw nerves.
"I hear you've learned of my presence," he went on, his eyes lighting with something close to insane glee. "You know what I want. I'll do whatever it takes to get it. This is just a taste."
My breath caught when Xavier walked into the frame, dragging someone with him—Jeff, one of the Corpus Christi vampires. The one with medical experience; the one who'd helped save my life after I was bitten by rogue werewolves.
Kiarra began to tremble beside me. I pulled her against me as tightly as I could. We watched as Xavier sliced Jeff's head from his shoulders just as easily as I might lift a pen to write. I held the stone-faced expression vampires are known for while Kiarra wept in my embrace.
Other bodies were shown to us. All drained of blood, several of them werewolf. The kapirus had been quite busy. "This will continue to happen if you refuse to come to me willingly," Saxom chuckled. "I care not for them. I have no desire for them. You know what I want. Make it soon, Kiarra, or more deaths will bloody your hands. In the meantime, as a show of good faith, bring Chessman to his sire. He has offended both of us, and we desire his death. That will buy you time for these."
My heart stopped when Rita's two small sons were jerked forward by a rogue vampire, who shoved them in front of Saxom. "We killed the werewolf guards, as you likely realize. Send Chessman along, and I'll let these two go," he said. "Chessman must come alone to the ship channel seven nights from now. His death will ensure that these two live."
The children were crying as my barstool scraped back and I stood, furious. If I could have gotten my hands on both of them then, they'd have died. "We have to evacuate Corpus Christi," Kiarra brushed tears away.
"How do you propose we do that?" Lion asked. "Dragon and I have come to the same conclusion, but aside from telling the population the truth—that a madman, a kapirus, rogue werewolves, vampires, spawn and a Ra'Ak are likely waiting to devour them, I'm not sure how to go about it."
"Let me think about this for an hour," Kiarra wiped more tears away. She sounded determined, however. I couldn't help comparing her to many women I'd known, and most of them would have succumbed to a fit of the vapors.
"Adam, come with us," Lion motioned me toward him.
* * *
"While Griffin is the best when it comes to Looking, Kee's the best at finding viable solutions," Lion informed me. We sat on the front deck in the open air on a beautiful day.
Saxom had ruined all that.
"Jeff was Merrill's third youngest child," Dragon sighed before Pulling in a bottle of Scotch and three glasses. "He is obviously upset, as is Brock, Merrill's second youngest." He handed a glass of Scotch to me. I accepted gratefully. I knew Joey was Merrill's youngest, but I had no idea how many vampire children Merrill had.
"Three now living," Lion answered my unspoken question. "When this is over, I'll teach you how to shield your thoughts."
"Didn't you hear? I have to go alone and face Xavier and Saxom," I huffed.
"Bullshit," Lion muttered. "Isn't that what they say in your language? Bullshit?"
"It's an acceptable term for idiotic circumstances," I tossed back the Scotch and held out my glass for more.
"Idiotic and deadly," Dragon nodded, tilting the bottle and splashing more Scotch in my glass.
"There's no way you're going alone to meet those bastards," Lion said, emptying his glass and asking Dragon for a refill. "We don't send one of ours into an untenable situation like that. Saxom knows it, too."
"So he's expecting others."
"He'll use it as an excuse to kill those children. We have to find them first."
"We'll have to split up," Dragon corrected. "And do this simultaneously. Yes, we must locate the children, but part of us will perform the rescue, the rest of us will go to the ship channel with Adam. If we coordinate with mindspeech, we ought to be able to pull this off."
"We're back to the problem of locating the children," Lion said. "Griffin says they're in one of those blank pockets we've encountered."
"I know where they were when that video was recorded," I said.
"Where's that?" Dragon was interested immediately.
"In Roy Cheek's old office at the refinery," I said. "Joey and I went there to hack Cheek's computer. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I ever informed Xavier that we went there instead of Cheek's house to do the hacking."
"He'd expect you to go to Cheek's house?"
"Yes. That's the standard protocol. We lay compulsion if necessary, get the information and then tell the victim to forget we were there. Kiarra pointed me toward Hartshorne Oil, so that's where Joey and I ended up. Cheek wasn't on our initial radar, either, but Xavier did know that he was involved somehow after I messaged him several times."
"I figure he knew all along that Cheek was involved, through Saxom," Lion huffed. "You heard the bastard—he said he suspected Kee was here the whole time. He's been drawing her out slowly. I'm just glad it was you and not Russell who came. Russell would likely be dead already."
"True." I shook my head before emptying my glass again. "I suppose I ought to thank Merrill for that."
"Thank Merrill and Griffin," Dragon said. "While Griffin could have been better at keeping everyone informed, at least he accomplished one thing—getting you to Corpus Christi instead of your vampire sibling."
"I think I have something," Kiarra walked through the door and headed toward us. "You're just not going to like it."
Chapter 15
"It's barely formed," Griffin shook his head.
"There's a way, it's just dangerous," Kiarra replied. "Easy enough once, but to jump from one strike to another will require skill and concentration."
"Too perilous," Pheligar said. "I do not approve."
"You'll have to hide the power expenditure in numerous strikes to speed it up," Dragon said. "Risky at best. We can't afford to lose one of us. We don't have enough as it is."
I was confused as I listened to the conversation. Pheligar had transported us back to Corpus Christi shortly after Kiarra sent mindspeech. Again, I marveled at the ability to transport anything across time and space at will.
The image of a loosely formed tropical depression was shown on Joey's laptop as the discussion continued. Currently located east of the Dominican Republic, the weather experts weren't predicting the storm to be a threat. It was early in the season, after all, and it looked to turn northward toward southern Florida, bringing rain with it.
"I understand that," Kiarra argued nearby as I studied the computer image. "I think I can do this. Tell me, do you have any other ideas?"
"Kee," Lion began, "we have six days to get it here. Six days before Adam has to go to the ship channel. If you don't make it," he shook his head.
"They won't expect this," she countered. "It'll appear completely natural. Even if they consider it, they'll realize how dangerous it is and dismiss the possibility."
"They would be right to think so—it could be suicide," Dragon sighed. "This is impossible," he flung up a hand in resignation.
Joey huddled against Bearcat, who had both arms wrapped around him. He was terrified. I didn't know enough yet to be terrified. Yes, I'd been listening, but still had no idea what Kiarra meant to do.
Merrill and Griffin sat nearby. They hadn't said anything, although Merrill looked grim. "I think," I said, "it's time somebody explained exactly what's going on."
"What?" Lion whirled to face me.
"I
admit it—I have no idea what you're talking about. Please tell me—in plain English, if you don't mind." I frowned at Kiarra as I said the words. She intended to risk her life and I was excluded from the conversation. I was her husband and had that right—to voice my informed opinion on the matter. At the moment, it was decidedly uninformed.
"There's a way to get on and off a planet where the Ra'Ak may be, if Pheligar isn't available and there's an emergency," Dragon said. "We Call lightning. The expenditure of energy in a lightning bolt can hide the power we use to get on and off a world—but when we do it, we're actually cloaked within the lightning. Our shields keep us from being fried for the brief time it takes for lightning to strike. Kiarra is planning to hop from lightning strike to lightning strike to get to this tropical storm, and then employ more lightning strikes to hide the power needed to form a hurricane and send it in this direction. There's no way to tell if her shields will hold up past the first strike—none of us has ever attempted it. And, as we've pointed out, it is likely suicide to attempt it."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I stood and shouted.
* * *
We weren't speaking. I wanted to yell. She wanted to yell back. It was a standoff between us. Neither of us intended to budge. I seethed, she sulked. I glowered, she grimaced. Lion and Dragon had given up their attempts to dissuade her.
Yes, there were questions I wanted to ask, such as when she intended to make this suicide attempt. I held back, because I knew it wouldn't stop with questions. She was playing with my heart, and I suspected she knew it.
Joey was in his bedroom with Bearcat, and he wasn't speaking to anyone, either. I hadn't realized the depth of his connection to her, through her blood, until then.
"Any healer will get that—residue from intense feelings—if they have the blood connection," Karzac settled onto a chair nearby. I'd chosen a seat in the sunroom and stared at the gulf. The sun was setting on the opposite side, leaving the island in twilight. A heavy bank of clouds lay to the east, bathed in gold, purple and blue. I turned my gaze away from the sunset to blink at the healer.
"You're telling me this because?" I growled.
"I'm telling you this because this course of action is the only one she knows to save lives. It upsets her a great deal, and we're not making it easier for her."
"I'm not making this easier for her because it's madness," I snapped.
"You see this as something that affects you. I see it as something that affects all of us. Kiarra is the heart of the Saa Thalarr. Lose her and we lose too much."
"Yet you're willing to let her engage in this foolishness."
"I've seen her overcome tremendous odds before. This isn't a rash decision, vampire. Know this, too—she'll risk herself before she'll risk any of us."
I turned back to the view through the window, and watched as lightning streaked horizontally through the cloudbank. The hair on my neck rose and I was up and racing through the house, shouting Kiarra's name as the sound of thunder boomed around the house and rattled it to the foundation.
* * *
"All we can do is wait." Lion set a cup of tea in front of me. "We should have known she'd do it this way—leave without telling us because all we do is argue with her."
"Can you tell if she's?" I began.
"No. Pheligar says no, too. Therefore, either her strongest shields are in place, or she's gone. Joey is numb, Adam. If you have any comfort to give, perhaps now is the time."
* * *
I was awake during what might prove to be the longest night of my life. I'd received no word, and there was no return. I'd held Joey for hours, so Bearcat could rest. Shortly before dawn, Bearcat took over, gently asking Joey if he wanted anything to eat or drink.
Food hadn't crossed my mind—Joey and I had clung to one another in shared grief, neither of us speaking our fears or sorrows.
Kiarra had left us both without a good-bye.
"I'll be back," I whispered, kissing Joey's forehead and leaving him with Bearcat.
Rain had come in the night, leaving the deck behind the house wet and gray while seabirds called over rough surf as the sun rose.
The clouds had gone, leaving barely a thin line far to the east. I cursed the beating heart in my chest, then, because it thumped painfully, reminding me of what I'd had for such a short time.
"Adam, come with me," Lion stepped behind me and gripped my shoulder.
"What?" I turned to face him.
"You need to see this," he said and jerked his head toward the house. I followed him inside. Dragon and Karzac sat at the kitchen island, watching the television that hung below the cabinets.
"This storm is developing quickly," the hurricane expert announced. I blinked. There it was, heading straight for the gulf—a newly formed hurricane. Not a tropical storm—it had moved beyond that stage. "Currently it is a category one, but that will likely change in the next few hours as the storm travels over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. At the moment, it is expected to hit Cuba by tomorrow, perhaps as a category two or three. Stay tuned, we'll provide more information as it becomes available."
"Then why isn't she back?" I whispered in confusion.
"I'm surprised she made it this far," Dragon muttered. "But Cuba is the problem. If the storm passes over land, it weakens. She's driving it, Adam, and that means she has to stay with it. I didn't think about this part before—hurricanes are unpredictable. It could land anywhere on the Gulf Coast if somebody isn't directing it. I have no idea what the cost to her might be in the long term."
"This is untenable," I rubbed my forehead. "Still no word?"
"Again, we don't know if she has enough energy to devote to sending a message. I imagine she is doing everything she can to maneuver this thing without it becoming obvious, and who knows how long her shields will hold?"
"Adam, as long as this thing is going around Cuba and heading in this direction, I think we can trust that she's alive," Lion said.
Yes, my shoulders sagged at that news. She's alive for now, I sent to Joey.
* * *
"The Pack is still in mourning for the four we lost, but they know what killed those four—and Sam Greene," Daniel said. "The Grand Master is sharing the information, which Shirley can corroborate, since she's seen the monsters first hand."
Kiarra had been gone three days, and still the hurricane gained strength and ground its way in our direction, missing Cuba completely and turning toward the west, taking aim at the Texas Gulf Coast.
Night had fallen and a planning session was in the works—the vampires Wlodek sent had been staying at safe houses in San Antonio, but they had arrived and moved into the beach house with the rest of us.
Joey and I had busied ourselves with making bedrooms lightproof for the visitors for the past two days. Russell had grinned sheepishly at me the night before when he and the others arrived—he was wearing jeans, boots and his cowboy hat. I wanted to laugh.
I didn't.
"Doing all right?" Russell asked, taking a seat on the sofa beside me. We'd chosen the media room as our meeting place, and the vampires filtered in, one at a time.
"For now."
"I never expected you to, well, you know."
"Russell, this is the one. I can't explain it better than that."
"Do we know whether she's all right?"
"No."
"Damnation."
"Yes."
"We're hoping that they're still holding the children at the refinery, but we have no new information on that," Dragon began once we were gathered and sitting. "I don't know whether Kiarra will be available, so we'll go with what we have, here. Since this will happen at night, we'll divide our vampire allies and attack both targets simultaneously."
"Shirley has news," Daniel said. "We know a family of shapeshifting coyotes—we have an agreement with them regarding hunting grounds. Shirley offered them rights to prime real estate in exchange for checking the refinery for us. They got in and out fast, but they said t
here's evidence that humans are being held there, still. There's garbage and other signs of habitation."
"I think we should check that house again—the one where Rita was killed," Merrill suggested. "We don't know that they haven't gone back there."
"I say we check it and the safe house," Russell agreed. I nodded at Russell—he was very good at what he did.
"What about Kyle?" I asked. "Is he safe?"
"Kyle is in San Antonio. He'll be back tomorrow. I asked him to join us," Merrill said. I blinked. Kyle was one of Merrill's three living vampire children. I knew it suddenly, without bothering to Look. Somehow, Merrill had known to place Kyle and Jeff here, in the Corpus Christi area. I wanted to shiver at the way things were falling into place.
I didn't want to say anything, but Merrill looked gray. He wore the vampire mask, but there was a tightness to his mouth and a shortness in his words that hadn't been there before. He'd lost one of his children, but that wasn't the only thing that pained and worried him.
He and I—terrified for her safety. Hiding our panic the best we knew how—behind the vampire non-expression.
"Adam, are you still prepared to meet Xavier and Saxom on the ship channel?" Dragon asked.
"More than ever," I nodded. I didn't add that if Kiarra failed to return, there was nothing for me to live for, anyway.
"Your sire's compulsion will no longer hold sway, but it may be a good idea to keep that from him—at least at first," Dragon said. "I suggest that you mist in with those who are going with you, and drop your passengers far enough away so Saxom and Xavier won't suspect. You can walk in from that point, without letting them know how quickly you can become mist. Use it as a weapon, Adam. They won't expect it."
"Good advice," I agreed. "Who's coming with me?"
"I'll come," Bearcat offered. "Dragon and Lion want to lead the group going to the refinery, or wherever we believe the children may be. We suspect the enemy may be concealed nearby, laying a trap, so it's best if they take the majority of our team there."
"I'll go with Adam and Bearcat," Joey said. Nobody made note of the fact that he stumbled over his words.
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