by A J Jarrett
“Leo?” he asked hesitantly.
Leo never looked back at him just turned the knob and walked out the door. It was like Leo didn’t hear him. Hell, his friend didn’t even acknowledge his presence.
What’s going on here?
“Leo.” He followed close behind his friend as he headed toward the wooded area that bordered the house. “Leo, answer me.” Still nothing.
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Logan jogged ahead of his friend and ran backwards to look into Leo’s face. It was lifeless. The crisp, clear blue eyes of his friend looked dead inside. Something wasn’t right, and Logan started to get scared.
“Leo!” Logan screamed at the top of his lungs, but still no reaction from the man. Leo started to run and Logan followed close behind him, not sure what else to do.
They were in the heart of the woods when Leo finally stopped.
Still no signs of life came from his friend, just nothingness.
“Leo, please talk to me.” Logan braced his hands on either side of Leo’s face. “Say something, please.”
A crack rang out, and Leo stumbled forward. Logan caught him as he fell toward him. He gently laid his friend on the ground. At the sight of crimson leaking through Leo’s shirt, Logan began to scream for help.
“No!” He pushed on the bleeding hole in Leo’s chest, trying to stop the flow. But it was no use. The blood bubbled up around his fingers, warm and thick. Vomit started to rise in the back of Logan’s throat. His best friend was dying.
“You know?” Logan looked up at the sound of breaking twigs and crunching grass heading his way. “I’ve never really liked him.” Rhett snarled down at Leo.
Logan wanted to run for help but couldn’t move. It was as if his legs had grown roots and he was planted in that very spot. Tears ran down his face. He sat watching his best friend die on the cold hard ground, and he knew whatever Rhett had planned for him, Logan wasn’t far behind Leo.
“Oh, darling, don’t look so sad.” Rhett knelt in front of him.
Logan cringed when the man rubbed his fingers down Logan’s cheek.
“I’m here now. We can be together again. Isn’t that what you want?”
“No,” Logan croaked out. He tried to crawl backwards at the hardened appearance Rhett’s face took on. “I’m with Finn. I can’t be with you. I don’t love you that way.” Logan was grasping at straws,
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and he knew it. Nothing he said would calm or deflect Rhett’s attention. The man wanted him for some reason, and Logan didn’t even know where to begin to guess the meaning behind the reason. He was fucked.
“In time you will come to love me, and if you don’t”—Rhett let out a bitter laugh, no humor in his tone—“we’ll die together like it should have been the last time.”
“What?” Logan started to shake at the lunacy in what Rhett had just said. Die together like it should have been before? Rhett had lost his mind, and Logan was stuck in his clutches with no way of escape.
“Don’t worry, Lindsay. It’ll all work out like it’s supposed to,”
Rhett said softly as he neared Logan.
He was just about to ask who Lindsay was when Rhett hit him with the butt of his rifle.
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Chapter Fifteen
“What the fuck is going on?” Ben asked as he jumped from the car.
Finn threw open the door and started running toward the crowd in the front yard. Trevor was carrying someone in his arms. His back was to Finn, and he couldn’t make out who it was. His heart raced as he drew closer.
“He’s been shot,” Trevor said as he laid Leo down on the ground.
Finn started to choke on the air rushing into his lungs. He was relieved it wasn’t Logan. He felt like an ass for thinking that since his mate’s friend lay bleeding on the ground.
“What happened?” Ben shouted above the commotion in the yard.
“We were in the kitchen laughing and having a good time. Then Leo got a call on his cell. When he didn’t come back, Logan went to check on him.” Miles’s words flew from his mouth. “And when Logan didn’t come back, we radioed Lawson and Quinn to see if they saw anything weird going on outside, but they didn’t answer.”
“Why didn’t you answer, Quinn?” Ben grabbed the front of his next in command’s shirt.
Quinn brushed Ben’s hands off his shirt. “We got a package.” He darted his eyes to where the men surrounded Leo on the ground. “I’ll tell you later, in private.”
“What happened to Leo?” Finn went to his knees. The man’s shirt had been ripped open, and rust-colored blood was drying on his chest.
“Someone answer me!” he screamed at no one in particular.
“He’s been shot,” Trevor answered him. He still clutched Leo’s hand tight in his grasp. “When Logan didn’t come back and we
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couldn’t reach the guys outside, we”—Trevor looked at his cousin and Astrid—“decided to see what was up. Miles and I could smell the blood and followed the trail. When we were deep in the woods we spotted Leo’s body lying on the ground.”
“What did you do, Trevor?” Ben asked as he knelt down beside his mate at Leo’s side.
“I turned him.” Trevor never looked up as he spoke. “He was dying, and we didn’t know what else to do. And I couldn’t stand by and let Logan’s best friend die.” Trevor looked up and searched with his eyes until he found Quinn. “I had no choice.”
“Where’s Logan?” Finn looked around in a panic.
“Finn.” Lawson stepped forward. “He’s not here.”
His eyes opened so wide, Finn thought he tore the skin at the corners of his eyes. What did he mean Logan wasn’t there? Where could he be?
Lawson fell to his knees next to him. Finn felt his lungs tighten up. His head ached with the need to breathe, but he couldn’t get his lungs to work. The worry he saw on his friend’s face spoke volumes.
“He’s gone.” Lawson whispered the dreadful words as if that would deaden the blow. “When Quinn and I reached Trevor and Miles, they had already turned Leo. And there weren’t any signs of Logan. But I smelt Rhett’s scent. He took Logan.”
Finn had two options as he replayed what Lawson just told him.
One, he could fall apart and get nothing accomplished. Or he could man up and get to his feet and help devise a plan to get Logan back.
Option one was the easier of the two, but it wouldn’t bring his mate back.
“What do we do now?” Finn asked as he climbed to his feet.
Ben was just about to answer him when a chirping sound went off.
“What the fuck is that?” Ben looked around, trying to place where the sound was coming from.
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“It’s Leo’s phone,” Astrid said as he dug it out of the other man’s pocket. He hit the send button and held it to his ear. “Hello.” Astrid’s face paled in the afternoon light. “It’s for you.”
Finn reached out and took the phone from Astrid. His hands shook as he brought it up to his ear. “Yes.”
“I’m guessing by now you’ve realized he’s gone and I killed his annoying little sidekick.”
“Rhett, what are you doing? And where’s Logan?” Finn didn’t expect the man to answer. He just wanted to keep him on the phone for as long as possible. Maybe a sound would give away his location.
The man’s evil laugh was loud in the ear piece, and Finn pulled it away from his ear. “This is how it’s going to go down. At elven o’clock I want you to meet me in the clearing in the woods where you first stole my mate away from me. Come alone or you will never see him again.”
Before Finn could respond, the phone went dead in his hand. He looked up at Ben. “He wants me to meet him in the woods at eleven o’clock. If I don’t show alone he will take off with Logan.”
“Fuck,” Ben shouted as he
ran his hands through his hair. “I can’t let you go by yourself. I just can’t, Finn.” Finn could see the war raging in his leader’s eyes, but he had no say in this and the man knew it.
“I have to, and you can’t stop me.” Finn bent down and picked Leo up. He carried the man back toward the house. No one said anything. They just followed in silence. Once inside, Logan carried Leo into the front seating area and laid him on the couch. If he didn’t know better he would think Leo was sleeping, but he did know, and he dreaded what would happen when the man woke up. Leo was okay knowing about the paranormal world but never indicated he actually wanted to become a part of it permanently.
Finn gave one last look to Leo and prayed the man understood what Trevor had done. It was either death or become a vampire. In Finn’s opinion, living was always the winning choice. But he wasn’t
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Leo and didn’t know how the man would react when he opened his eyes.
The warriors convened in the back office. Finn knew Ben was going to try and talk him out of going alone, but this one time it wasn’t his boss’s decision to make. He had no control over what Finn did when it involved his mate. Finn would sell his soul if it got Logan back unharmed.
“Finn, it’s a trap, and you know it.” Ben started right in on him. “I wouldn’t be a good leader if I didn’t say something.”
“I know this, Ben, but Logan is my mate. If I die saving him then so be it.” Finn’s chest tightened at the thought. “Just promise you will keep him safe.” He turned to look at Klaus. “And that you will help teach him how to be a witch.”
“I promise, but it doesn’t have to be this way, Finn.” Ben’s voice softened as he pleaded with Finn.
“No, seriously, guys, it doesn’t have to be this way.” Carter spoke up. “You ladies need to really get over the dramatics.” The young witch huffed out an aspirated sigh. “I gather this Rhett guy isn’t firing on all engines, if you know what I mean. He probably wouldn’t even realize he’s surrounded until it’s too late.”
“Hang on a second.” Klaus drew their attention toward him. “The little freak has a point.”
“Hey!” Carter whined, and Abner’s low growl didn’t go unnoticed.
Klaus only shrugged in response to Carter’s outcry. “We’re Warriors of the Light for god sakes, we can move unseen. We’ve been doing it for centuries.”
Ben pointed at Klaus. “He has a point. Rhett’s mate died over a hundred years ago. That man can’t be entirely sane. I say we try it.”
Ben nudged Finn in the arm. “What do you say, old friend? Can we assist you in trying to save your mate?”
Finn looked over at Klaus and Carter and could see the reassurance in their faces. They truly believed this would work. And
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truth be told, he wanted backup. Finn didn’t trust Rhett to not have Dark Warriors helping him.
“Let’s do it.” Finn slapped his hand on the hardwood surface of the table.
“Now that we have that problem solved, what the fuck happened to you two today? You were supposed to be watching the house and the occupants inside it. Your lack of protection may have caused this whole mess.” Ben narrowed his eyes at Lawson and Quinn. “I expected more from the both of you.”
“Before you go and tear us down to shreds, there was something that did come up,” Quinn said, defending himself and Lawson. “It’s still no excuse for what happened, but once I tell you what we found, you’ll see why our attention got deterred.”
“Tell me what was more important than keeping watch.” Ben balled up his fist, and Finn feared the two men were going to come to blows.
He could relate to Ben’s ire, but Finn didn’t want the two longtime friends to fight over it. They had a plan in motion. Yes, he was frightened, but they needed to work together to help get Logan back.
“We were circling the property from opposite ends.” Quinn nodded toward Lawson. “Everything seemed normal then a smell fell across the land.”
“A smell?” Ben asked.
“Yes. A smell,” Quinn answered. “Lawson and I both recognized it instantly. I took off toward the scent and so did Lawson. We met in the middle at the far back end of the woods. There, sitting neatly nestled in a pile of leaves, was a box.”
“What was in the box?” Finn asked this time. He was frightened to know what the contents were because it had to be something pretty alluring to send both warriors racing toward it.
“It was a box of hair.” Quinn met Ben’s eyes and didn’t break the contact. Not even to blink. “Sayer’s hair, to be exact.”
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The room went dead quiet. It was like everyone one was frozen in place at the news. Sayer was a fellow warrior who had gone missing a little over three weeks prior. It happened when Ben met his mate, and protecting Miles had taken precedence over finding Sayer.
The suspicion was that Sayer’s maker had taken him. But Finn couldn’t figure out what exactly the connection between Sayer and Rhett abducting Logan was. Because that box being left for them to find at the exact time Logan was taken wasn’t a coincidence.
“Was there anything else with the hair? A note? A clue?
Anything?” Ben spat out he words, and spittle sprayed across the table.
“Yeah, there was.” Quinn pushed a small box across the table toward Ben. “A note that said, Gotcha! It was written in blood. It smelled of Sayer.”
“I don’t understand. What does Sayer have to do with Logan?”
Heat flooded Finn’s face. His anger was on a quick-pull trigger.
Hadn’t they all suffered enough? Just once, Finn wanted a break from the sick bastards of the world.
Ben shook his head, and he pulled the lid from the top of the box.
Finn leaned closer toward his boss and looked inside. Sayer had long light-brown hair. It was lush and gorgeous. And in the box were clumps of hair. Some had blood matted to the strands.
“Maybe it’s all connected.” Ben looked up, still fingering the loose hair in the box. “Maybe this ‘coming’ that Astrid’s family talked about is an uprising of sorts, and all the members of the Warriors of the Dark are working together to bring us down.”
“But where does Logan fit in?” Sweat started to trickle down the sides of Finn’s face. Nothing about this made sense.
“I don’t know, but we will in a few hours.” He carefully put the lid back on the box.
Finn turned toward Ben and grabbed his hand, squeezing his fingers tightly. “Thank you, friend.”
“No thanks needed. You’d do the same for me.”
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It was true. Ben was not only his boss but his friend. Finn had to be strong and believe in the man and his fellow warriors because, in the end, it was up to all of them to get Logan back. Once that mission was accomplished, the next one would be finding their missing comrade.
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Chapter Sixteen
Logan came to. His body ached, and he couldn’t move his arms.
He slowly opened his eyes and peeked out the small slits. A fire burned to his left, lighting up his surroundings. What he saw almost caused his lungs to cease their movement. Logan started to gasp as panic soared through his body, causing his chest to push against the rope binding him to a tree.
He was back in the woods. The exact spot Rhett had taken him star gazing the night his life changed forever. Whatever Rhett’s intentions were they couldn’t be good.
Logan started to struggle against the rope holding him prisoner. If he could just get free, he could run for help.
Yeah right like I can outrun a werewolf. I’m so fucked. I should just concede defeat and give up.
He cursed his own inner voice causing him to doubt himself. The thought of being Rhett’s prisoner for any amount of time caused a chill to run down his spine. Death would almost
be the better option because no telling what the crazed man had in store for Logan.
“You’re awake.” The low drawl of Rhett’s voice came from behind him. Logan tensed as the man approached. As Rhett rounded the tree to stand in front of him, Logan had to swallow down the bile that threatened to rush past his lips.
“Wh–wh–what do you want from me?” Logan stuttered out. He hated hearing the fear in his own voice, but Rhett wasn’t the same man he met a few weeks ago. No, this was a monster capable of anything. He shot Leo in cold blood right in front of him. What would Rhett do if Logan angered him?
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The thought of Leo caused his eyes to burn. This man took the only constant in his life away. For what? Logan would laugh in his face if he said it was for love. Whatever Rhett felt for him wasn’t love. This bordered on obsession.
Rhett reached out his fingers to caress them down Logan’s cheek.
Logan flinched at the first touch. It was gentle, but it didn’t stomp the fear building in his stomach.
Oh, my love. After all this time we will finally be together again, Lindsay.
Huh? Logan mentally questioned what the hell Rhett was talking about. Who was Lindsay? He could feel the love rolling off of Rhett.
So who ever Lindsay was, he meant a great deal to Rhett.
“Who’s Lindsay, Rhett?” Logan kept his voice calm as if he was talking to a wild animal. Because in all essence that was what Rhett was, a vicious, crazed animal.
“You are, my love.” Rhett ran his hands through Logan’s hair in a loving manner, still with a goofy grin on his face. “I know right now you don’t remember me, but I have friends who will help get your memory back. We can be together again, isn’t that great?”
Logan shook his head no on instinct. Everything the man just said was crazy talk. He wasn’t whoever the hell this Lindsay person was.
