Sabotaged (The Sundance Series Book 3)

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Sabotaged (The Sundance Series Book 3) Page 23

by C. P. Rider


  I shrieked, a cry of pain and fury, vaguely registering that Julio had turned tail and run through the door with Garrett Harris, leaping over the dead bodies of the guards in their haste to escape. The rest of the guards had already fled while my attention was on their boss.

  Blood from my lacerated scalp sheeted over half my face as I attempted to lock onto the warden's and Julio's brains. It was no use. My concentration was shot, and they were too far away. Alpha Juan's energy whipped and churned inside me. I cradled my head in my arms, willing my ability to work, because I was now stuck in a room with a massively powerful enemy and I would need it.

  "Kill me or let me live, but either way, get off me." Alpha Gold shifted further into hybrid form, becoming more animal than human and making it difficult for me to lock onto her brain. Shifter brains were notoriously slippery when it came to spiking. "I'm taking the spiker down while she's weak and I have the chance."

  "No." Alpha Juan had shifted enough to speak but was still entirely wolf in appearance. He truly was something powerful and unusual.

  "Why are you helping her?" Alpha Gold clawed at the red wolf alpha. "She'll kill us all."

  Alpha Juan backed up to where I was crouched on the floor, facing me while keeping the other alpha in his line of vision. Nestled in the fur on his chest was the starred charm necklace that had dug into my back.

  I'd recognize that charm anywhere. It was a special-order item from Dolores and Dottie's supplier, Bill Bill, and it held their spells inside.

  "Tell me where you got that."

  "I'll give you two guesses, and the first one doesn't count." I'd heard of a wolfish grin, but I'd never actually seen one on a wolf before. The sides of Alpha Juan's mouth drew up, his wolf's eyes sparkled with humor.

  "I read your mind." I continued reaching for Alpha Gold's brain as we spoke. I could feel her readying to attack and I would not be caught unawares again.

  "You read thoughts, but they weren't my thoughts." The red wolf paced between Alpha Gold and me. "We didn't know your state of mind and thought it best to keep the plan secret—even from you. Sorry about that."

  "Well, at least I got a cool shirt out of the deal." I smiled weakly.

  "My favorite one, too. Be still, now. You're bleeding badl—"

  BOOM!

  An explosion jolted the building.

  Alpha Gold looked to the left and right as the floor beneath us shook as if from an earthquake. "What's that noise?"

  "You mean the sound of cowards fleeing?" Alpha Juan drawled.

  BOOM!

  The sound was closer now, and it wasn't alone. It was accompanied by ear-splitting, rumbling roars. Footfalls that sounded like thunder when lightning is only a mile away. The screech of metal being torn apart. Human screams. Gunshots.

  "That's not the sound a coward makes." Alpha Gold yanked her clothes off and shifted to her regular coyote form—not her prehistoric.

  Drawing power from both alphas, I again reached for her brain, determined to lock on. She must have felt me trying, because she lunged.

  Alpha Juan backhanded her with his forepaw, and she skidded across the floor.

  As the numbness trickled out of me, pain encroached. I pushed my agony into a box in my mind and focused. My exhausted, blood-deprived brain finally locked onto hers.

  I spiked.

  The alpha shrieked, flopping around like a fish in a boat. Even as she flailed against the tile floor, she fought my spike, pushing back with everything she had. Ordinarily, it wouldn't have mattered, but today I was just weak enough for her to get in a foothold.

  She let out an ever-deepening howl as she shifted into her prehistoric beast, the biggest coyote I'd ever seen, three times as large as a coyote shifter, five times as large as the animal, with paws like baseball mitts and canines the length of my fingers.

  BOOM!

  The next explosion we heard was followed by a roar loud enough to shake the spines from every cactus in the desert. It stirred up the air in the room, turning it from a gas to a liquid, making it difficult to breathe.

  As I pushed harder into Alpha Gold's head, I caught one stray thought: My God, her power.

  And for the first time, the arrogant alpha sounded afraid.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  If I were ever asked to describe what I thought it would sound like if the entire world were ripped in half, I would say, "An explosion to gouge out your eardrums, which would put it at around thirty decibels below a Smilodon roar."

  Screaming metal screeched through the room as the door the now-dead guards had tried to leave through was ripped off its hinges, the entire frame torn out of the wall.

  A giant of a creature, built entirely of rage and bone and teeth, burst into the room through the hole, snorting and panting, blood drooling from his maw, chest rising and falling in irregular bursts. The Smilodon was four feet from paws to shoulders, eight feet from muzzle to tail. He was a beautiful and ferocious beast, eight-hundred pounds of thickly banded muscle, claws like sickles, and dense sandy fur.

  "Lucas," I whispered.

  Triangular peaked ears flattened against a skull the size of a man's torso and pale amber eyes focused on me. I was huddled on the cold floor drenched in my own blood, trying to spike an alpha leader to death. So, nothing he hadn't seen before.

  He spat something out of his mouth that looked disturbingly like a human arm encased in a green khaki sleeve and roared.

  Alpha Gold screamed inside her head, What in God's name is that?

  "Saber-toothed tiger," I replied. "My boyfriend."

  I spiked the alpha with renewed energy, drawing upon Lucas's power to finish the job. As strong as Alpha Juan was, I resonated with Lucas's energy on a whole other level. I drove into Alpha Gold's head, boring straight through to the core, drinking in her pain, and luxuriating in the power that enveloped me as I snuffed out every light in her head, one by one.

  The prehistoric coyote alpha slumped to the floor in a pile of silvery-brown fur and I was violently ejected from her head. The force was like a hard slap to the face, but it was a good thing. It meant she was dead.

  The man I loved threw back his enormous Smilodon head, massive jaw yawning open, and let out the loudest roar yet. When he was finished, I had a muffled ringing in my ears, as if I'd sat too close to a speaker at a rock concert.

  "I knew you'd come," I said, as I smiled up at him. "I dreamed about you."

  Lucas roared again, and with racing footfalls that rocked the floor, headed straight for Alpha Gold's body. He raised an enormous forepaw and brought it down upon the wolf's skull. The crunch it made was unsettling.

  Alpha Juan yipped and howled his approval.

  The Smilodon let out another roar in response, nodded at the red wolf, and then stomped toward me.

  Mine.

  I didn't know if the word had been thought or spoken aloud, had come from him or from me, but the sentiment behind it flowed from one of us to the other, into my heart, wrapping around my soul, joining with the sinews that knitted together my bones.

  Warmth and joy intertwined within me. I wanted to run into his arms and hold him forever. A feeling of affection, stronger than anything I had ever felt before, filled me to the top.

  My home was here. My heart. The other half of me. Mi alma gemela. My soulmate.

  "I missed you, Lucas," I whispered.

  Pain carved into me. It was so severe I lost the ability to breathe for a few seconds. The last vestiges of the numbness that had haunted me since arriving at the sanctuary drained away, and emotion crushed me, crumpled me from the inside out. I felt everything at once—pleasure and pain, both physical and psychological—and the gravity of it all, the sorrow and the guilt, and the regret.

  What have I done?

  The gasp of air escaping my constricted lungs was pitched as high as a soprano's scream. Something jangled wrongly in my brain. Even the claw wounds in my neck played like white noise to my pain receptors compared to the onslaught of mental ang
uish that dropped on my head like a Smilodon paw.

  I glanced over at the bodies of the two guards I'd killed, then squeezed my eyes shut and rocked back and forth. Who am I? What am I? The words raced round in my brain like a rocket-fueled merry-go-round. Who am I? What am I? Human? Paranormal?

  Monster?

  My answer arrived in Lucas's voice. Survivor.

  Lucas?

  It's me. He was back inside my head, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world.

  I killed those guards, and the worst part is, I don't even feel remorseful about it. I'm only sorry that I don't feel bad, and if that's not screwed up, I don't know what is.

  Against your will, you were put in an impossible situation, and you did what was necessary to live through it. You fought, and you did it well. You're not just a survivor. You're a warrior.

  I'm a killer.

  It occurred to me then that I wouldn't have admitted that to anyone but him. I'd have felt ashamed. It also occurred to me that he was not only talking to me in my head, he was hearing my responses in his head.

  Lucas was a Bengal tiger shifter and he was a Smilodon prehistoric shifter, but he wasn't a telepath. At least, I didn't think so.

  Warrior, he repeated.

  Thank you for saying that, but I don't know if it's true.

  Yes, you do. You know damn well that it's true, you just don't like that it's true. Now, cut the pity party short and get out of your own head, because I need you.

  I opened my eyes and found myself nose-to-snout with an annoyed saber-toothed tiger.

  My hands, bloodied and trembling, lifted to brush against his furred cheek before falling to the floor where they dripped blood on the ugly gray linoleum.

  "Need me? You're twenty times stronger than I am when I'm in good shape, and we can see I'm far from that. What can I do for you?"

  You can hold on to me, because I'm fully shifted. You know what that means.

  My heart sank. "The berserker rage is back?"

  Yes.

  One of the drawbacks to Lucas's prehistoric form was a peculiar sort of rage that overtook him when fully shifted. He became an uncontrollable killing machine with no conscience and no loyalty. Like a crossbreed.

  I can feel it pulling me under. I can't help it. Ever since you disappeared, my animal has been on the edge. If you see me sinking—"

  "I'll pull you up." I smiled a little. "Not like Rose on the Titanic, either."

  Not again. You repeatedly talk about that movie as if it were a true story. The raft scene was all about dramatic license. Jack had to die.

  "There was plenty of room for him on that raft, Lucas," I croaked. My throat was dry and sore. "Jack didn't have to die. Rose was a goddamn murderer."

  We'll argue about it later. Are you all right?

  "No. I'm in so much pain I'm not even sure how I'm upright. I'm scared and freaked out. I thought you would never find me." I sniffed, dug my fingers deeper into his fur. I didn't ever want to let go of him. He felt like the only important thing in the world. "Didn't you miss me?"

  Miss you? Sugar cookie, that's not a big enough word for what I've felt. His fur tickled my cheek as he nuzzled my face. His entire body rippled, and I realized he was trembling. I was ready to claw this entire fucking planet in half looking for you. You're going to have a hard time believing this, but I've been a real pain in the ass since you disappeared. Ask Chandra. He sniffed the top of my head, lightly resting his chin there. Thank God we found you.

  "They tried to change me, but they keep saying they can't schange me because I'm already schanged. How can that be? Do you know what that meansh?"

  You're dropping your hard s's the way you do after margarita night with the tower witches.

  "It comes and goesh," I said, flipping my hand at him to wave away his concern. My blood flicked onto his fur. "I'm fine."

  Lucas lifted his head and gently set a paw on my back. Hold still. Let me heal you.

  "Won't work, remember? We're immune to each other." I coughed, and my throat and chest caught on fire. Blood sprayed out of my mouth in a mist.

  You're hearing me in your head again, aren't you? And I'm communicating with you as a human while in my prehistoric form. If that's possible, then maybe other things have changed. Hold tight, I'm going to try.

  "Holding," I whispered.

  When nothing happened, he threw back his head and roared in frustration. He tried again. Nothing.

  Stars appeared in the corners of my vision. "Lucas, I need to lie down."

  "Someone's coming down the corridor," Alpha Juan called out. I'd almost forgotten he was in the room with us.

  "For heaven's sake, the tiger tore a hole in the g-darn wall," a shrill voice yelled. "I'm telling you, he's lost it, Dot."

  "Sister, you know Alpha Blacke has been very worried. His reaction is perfectly understandable."

  Lucas plopped onto his furry hindquarters and groaned. Why me?

  "No need to worry, Alpha tiger, all is saved." Dolores bustled into the room, Dottie right behind her. "The Fairfield witches have arrived. Don't fret about a thing, Dot and me have this under control."

  The witches fast-walked over to us, huffing and puffing. They were dressed in white running shoes and navy-blue crystal-studded tracksuits zipped to the chin. I was so happy to see them I let out a sob.

  You owe me big for this. We drove here together. You have no idea what I've put up with, Neely.

  I laughed until I coughed.

  Dolores's deep voice boomed, "Good gravy, could they have put this murder room any farther from the front entrance? I'm not as young as I used to be." She lowered her voice and added, "Although, I am more fit than most folks my age."

  "It's the wine," Dottie said. "Scientists say it's good for you."

  "Don't know that I trust human science, but they got that one right, sis. Plus, we keep in fighting shape with all our chanting. "Did that telepathy-blocking charm work for you, Alpha Handsome?" she yelled to Alpha Juan.

  The wolf nodded.

  "Good to hear. It was a quickie, that one. Probably already expired." Dolores crouched down beside me and looped two different silver-starred charms around my neck. Instantly, the pain receded until it was bearable. "Pain and accelerated healing. Won't be as fast as what the tiger could do if his mojo was working, but it'll keep you from bleeding out."

  "Thanksh, Doloresh."

  "It should take care of those s's for you, too." The sarcastic witch's eyebrows drew together as she examined my wounds. Her mouth went slack and all color fell out of her face. "We want to heal you, but we're too far from the tower to do much. So, we brought the charms."

  "Thanks." I touched one of the silver globes with bloody, trembling fingers. There was a small pink chunk of crystallized salt inside.

  "As you know, the salt will fade to white when the spell fizzles out." Dolores glanced at Lucas and then at me. The lines in her forehead were deeper than usual, a sure sign she was worried. "You scared us, kiddo."

  "I scared myself." Tears clouded my gaze, but I didn't let them fall. "I'm still scared."

  Dolores took my hands in hers, and she and Dottie helped me sit up. I was so dazed I hadn't realized I'd been lying down. "I know. But we'll get through this. We're tough broads, the three of us. Four, counting the hyena."

  "Chandra is here?"

  "Where's Harris? The bastard must have snuck past us in the hall. Don't worry, he can't get far. We've got the place surrounded." Chandra tapped her cell phone screen as she jogged into the room in her hybrid form. She tapped it again and shot an irritated look at Lucas. "You said on the count of three. You have to say three. It's not one, two—go."

  Lucas lifted and lowered one mighty shoulder. Smilodon shrug. I got impatient.

  "He says he got impatient."

  "I bet." She gave me a worried once-over. "Neely?"

  "I'm okay." I teared up again, and this time the tears trickled down my cheeks. "I'm glad you're here."

  "Wou
ldn't miss it." She winked. "You look a little rough. You sure everything is okay?"

  "Yeah. I mean, I feel like I got run over by a car after being run over by a bus."

  "But other than that, you're good?" One side of her mouth quirked.

  My bracelet jingled as I gave her a bloody thumbs up.

  "Unbelievable. Look at this." Chandra thrust out her cell phone. On the screen was a map with a blinking green dot. "First signal in ten days."

  Dolores pointed at Lucas. "Told you. Should have let Dot and me put a spell on it."

  I shook the wrist with my birthday bracelet on it and squinted up at Lucas, who had the grace to look ashamed—as ashamed as a Smilodon was capable of looking, anyway.

  "I knew you put a tracker in the lock."

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Lucas settled on the floor behind me, one enormous paw on either side of my thighs. He snuffled my hair, his body heat seeping through my clothes. Until he drew me close, I'd had no idea how cold I was.

  "The shifters." I turned to look at him, breathing through the discomfort that would have been fiery pain had I not been wearing the witch charms. "We have to go."

  "You shouldn't be going anywhere, kiddo. What you need to do is relax and let those charms work their magic." Dolores thrust her hands on her hips. "It's a spell, not a miracle. Takes time."

  Lucas spoke inside my head. What's wrong?

  "The shifters are in danger. They're being held on the other side of the building in cells. We have to get them out of here before Harris kills them." I struggled to my feet, leaning heavily on him. "Tellis was close to death, and the children need their parents, and—"

  "We've got them all, Neely," Chandra said, her voice gentle. "They're safe."

  "The warden—we have to find Garrett Harris. He's got these thick files that contain the names of all the paranormals he's killed." I sniffed, buried my face in the fur on Lucas's chest. "We have to find him."

  Neely, your panic … it's upsetting my tiger.

 

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