CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
WITH HIS CHOICES suddenly limited, Logan let go of his brother and turned toward the attackers. Probably they'd been sent here to wait for a shape-shifter. But maybe they hadn't actually fought any before. And they certainly hadn't been expecting more than one wolf.
Praying that Lance wouldn't head for the trap, Logan backed up, hoping that one of the men would follow him.
He did, moving in a crouch, his knife at the ready.
Silently, Logan continued his retreat, drawing the soldier away from Lance. From the corner of his eye, he could see that Ross was doing the same with the other man.
When they were ten feet from Lance, Ross howled—the signal for an attack. He and Logan both leaped at the soldiers who had come after them, ducking under their weapons and going for the legs, then the hands, snapping and snarling to make the attack seem more vicious.
The men tried to fight. But they were no match for two angry wolves. Or maybe they had nothing invested in the conflict. They were just hired help, and the wolves were defending one of their own.
They gave up after a few minutes, limping back into the trees, but Logan didn't take anything for granted. They could be going for reinforcements.
He looked around, then growled. While he and Ross had been busy, Lance had started crawling toward the trap again.
He was stretching out a paw toward the snare when Logan reached him.
Logan was so close to the damn thing that his vision turned instantly blurry, and a thousand hornets set up a buzzing in his brain. In some part of his mind he was reliving the horrible feeling of the iron-jawed trap closing around his leg and digging into his flesh.
Fear made him want to jump back. But he pushed the terror to the side and kept his focus on one objective—rescuing Lance from the same fate. Rinna had saved him by joining her mind with his and getting him to change. But he couldn't do the same thing for Lance because he didn't possess that ability.
There was no way he could have gotten Lance out of danger by himself.
He spared a glance at Ross. His cousin didn't look too good either. But he didn't head for the lure, and Logan figured he must be exercising his famous iron control.
Instinctively, they knew they had to cooperate to free Lance. Working as a team, they pushed him away, but they couldn't move him far—not as wolves because they simply didn't have a good way of holding him.
Which left them no alternative. Making a decision he didn't much like, Logan mentally began chanting the ancient words that would transform him from wolf to man.
As he made the transformation, he felt a searing pain in his shoulder. Once he had morphed, he turned his head and saw a bloody slash that he hadn't noticed through his fur. The soldier had cut him with the knife, but the wound wasn't deep. Just long and painful.
He saw Ross also making the transformation. They were both naked and vulnerable. And if the soldiers caught them like this, they were dog meat.
"Let's get the hell out of here," Ross muttered.
They turned toward Lance and grabbed his legs. He snapped at them, but he was weak, and Ross was able to wrap one hand around his muzzle as they dragged him away from the snare that had captured his mind. It was probably a rough ride through the woods, but there was nothing they could do about that.
When they were a hundred yards from the trap, Ross bent to Lance. "If I let go of your muzzle, will you promise not to bite me?"
To Logan's relief, his brother's eyes seemed to have cleared. He nodded.
Ross undamped his fingers and stepped back. "Can you change?"
They waited for a long moment before they saw any results. Then Lance's body shape began to flow. But as Logan focused on his brother, he heard shouts in the woods.
"Son of a bitch," Ross growled. "They're coming back—with reinforcements."
Lance had barely transformed from wolf to man when they grabbed his shoulders and pulled him to his feet.
As best they could, they hustled him through the woods. Now they were three naked men on the run. They pounded across the stretch of trees and into the park.
With every yard they ran, the soldiers gained on them. And Logan only gave them fifty-fifty odds of making it to the car.
When they reached the parking lot, they dashed past a man and a woman just spreading out a meal at a picnic table.
The woman screamed.
"Damn queers," the man muttered, standing up and rounding the table, just as the soldiers burst from the woods in hot pursuit.
Logan had left the keys under a rock near the curb. For a terrible moment, he didn't see them. Then he realized he was a few feet from the right spot.
He snatched up the keys and pressed the remote as the soldiers pounded out of the woods. The three Marshalls leaped toward the car and jumped in as the soldiers dashed past the startled couple.
Logan gunned the engine and roared away, and the pursuers were left standing at the edge of the parking lot staring after the car.
"Thank God," he breathed.
"You need to get that cut disinfected."
"Yeah." He glanced over his shoulder and saw his brother sprawled across the back seat.
"How do you feel?" he asked.
"Logy, but better." Lance sat up and pulled on a shirt, then looked toward the front seat. "Thanks for saving my ass."
"Anytime," Ross answered.
THE soldiers marched Rinna along the gravel strip at the edge of the smooth road. It was hard to walk because she had an iron cuff on one leg and another on her wrist, both of which were attached to one of the soldiers, so she couldn't escape.
Men in back of them carried the tent and the other supplies from the camp. Avery and Brusco were at the back of the column, since the old man was having trouble keeping up.
As they walked, she watched the drivers of cars slow to gawk. So much for Falcone's fitting into this environment. He didn't have a clue how much she and the warriors stood out.
They passed several driveways, and finally the soldier named Kenner stopped. "This is it."
The one named Shafter, who had also gone with Falcone, started up the narrow lane. The man who was chained to her gave a tug, and she followed him.
Behind her tires squealed, and she jerked around to see that a car had stopped in the middle of the road. And another one had almost smashed into the back of it.
"You stupid dickhead," somebody shouted.
"Fuck you!"
The wheels on the car in front spun on the road, and the vehicle shot forward. The other driver stayed where he was for a moment, staring at her and the men. Then he also sped away.
They proceeded up the driveway and rounded a curve, where she saw a house even bigger than the one she and Logan had borrowed a few nights earlier.
The front door opened, and Falcone stepped onto the porch. It looked like he'd gone upstairs in the house and found clothing that belonged to the owner. He was wearing a leather jacket over a white T-shirt and a pair of very tight pants.
He walked down a couple of steps to a bricked-in area in front of the structure and gave Rinna a satisfied look.
"I'm settling in here nicely."
She met his eye squarely. "On the contrary, I think you've made a mistake," she said.
"How?" he challenged. "You weren't even here."
"Not at the house. On the road. There are no slaves here. They don't walk women around in chains. A lot of people who were passing by stopped to look at us."
Falcone's gaze shot to Kenner. "Is that true?"
"Yes, sir."
"Did anybody see you come up this lane?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then perhaps we'd better move to a new location."
In the distance, Rinna heard a siren. "I think it's too late," she murmured.
"Too late for what?"
"The police are already on the way."
"Carfolian Hell." Falcone looked around at the group. "Everybody in the house. Hurry."
LANCE tossed a shirt and pants to Ross, who wiggled into them.
Logan turned onto a side road so he could climb into his clothing.
"What the hell was that thing that grabbed my mind?" Lance asked.
"A trap for a shape-shifter. I guess Falcone figured I'd come after Rinna. Like I told you, I stepped into a trap meant for her, and she came along and got me out of it. She could have run in the other direction," he added. "But she didn't."
"It clamped hold of my mind, and it was reeling me in," Lance muttered. "I still feel like my head is full of steel wool."
"Yeah. I know the sensation. Only, believe me, it's worse if the damn thing actually catches you. I gather from what Rinna said that if it grabs you, you can't get out by yourself. And she couldn't touch it."
"Then how did she get you out?"
"She got me to change, and while my cells were… were in flux, she pulled my leg away."
"A brave and resourceful woman," Ross said.
"Yeah. After that, it took me a couple of days to put coherent thoughts together."
"Is there anything we can use as a shield? In case we run into another one?"
"Maybe Rinna knows."
"And they have her in their damn camp. The only good news is that the trap is probably close to where they're holding her. But we'll have to be careful when we go back."
They were debating what to do, when a police siren interrupted the conversation.
One patrol car sped by on the highway. Then another.
The three men exchanged glances.
"It sounds like something big is going down."
"Yeah," Logan muttered as he turned on the radio to an all-news station.
"Breaking news," an announcer said. "A militia group has taken over a house in the Huntington Woods section of Mount Airy. Eyewitness reports say they've taken a woman hostage."
Logan felt an electric shock travel along his nerve endings. "Rinna," he breathed.
"You don't know that for sure," Ross cautioned.
"What else could it be?"
Another patrol car sped by and he turned on the engine, then lurched away from the curb. He was on the road and heading for the highway before anyone else could speak. Whipping onto the blacktop, he followed the red and blue flashing lights.
Ross and Lance sat back, apparently smart enough not to question his judgment.
In about a mile, he came to a roadblock. Cops were turning motorists back.
Craning his neck, Logan could see the driveway to one of the houses was blocked by a police cruiser.
"It's up there," Ross murmured.
"Yeah. Time for some big dogs to go prowling through the woods."
"Let's hope the cops aren't shooting at anything that moves," Ross said.
"I'll take my chances that they're focused on the house," Logan answered. He turned the car around and headed in the direction from which they'd come. But at the first opportunity, he turned off the road again and into a rural area with custom homes on large wooded lots. He kept going to the end of the road, which ended in a circle, where he saw prep work for new construction. But no building had taken place yet, so he was able to pull past a cleared area and into the woods.
"This should do," he said, then looked back at Lance. "Maybe you'd better stay here if you're still feeling sick."
"I'm well enough," Lance snapped.
JAKE Cooper pulled into the driveway at 1235 Picket Road. He'd asked to be informed if anything unusual was going on in the neighborhood, and this certainly qualified. Motorists had seen a troop of men and one woman tramping along the shoulder, and the group had turned in here.
The woman was chained up.
He'd asked for her description, and it pretty well matched Mrs. Rinna Marshall.
So what the hell was going on now?
Logan Marshall had said his wife had disappeared. So had these guys captured her? And if they had, what damn fool would march her up a public road in chains?
What was this—an S & M club gone berserk? Or was this some kind of performance art? Checking with the station, he found that a burglar alarm had also gone off at the location. Only the monitoring station had pegged it as a false alarm, since the homeowners were notorious for screwing up the system.
He drove toward the house, then stopped in back of the three patrol cars that already had entered the driveway.
The officers conferred, then one of them stepped from cover.
Not a good move
, Jake thought. "Get back here," he shouted.
In the next second, shots erupted from one of the front windows, and the officer fell to the ground.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
THE THREE WOLVES were already heading through the woods when Logan heard gunfire.
His heart leaped into his throat, and he sped up, tearing through the trees in the direction from which the shots had come. Lance and Ross were right behind him.
All of them screeched to a halt when he saw three police cars. An officer was lying on the ground, dead or wounded.
Other officers were using the cruisers for cover as they faced the house, guns drawn.
And behind the cars, Jake Cooper was yelling into a cell phone, calling for an ambulance. He must have caught a flash of movement from the corner of his eye because he looked up and spotted the three wolves.
The detective's mouth dropped open as he stared at them.
"You," he said.
Logan was too far away to hear the words, but he saw the man's lips form the syllable.
Then the person on the other end of the line must have asked something because he returned his attention to the phone.
The three wolves moved back into the trees, hidden by the lengthening shadows, but they were still able to see what was going on.
Logan saw two officers bring out a large metal shield. Holding it between themselves and the house, they rushed forward and crouched over the man on the ground.
Lance saw him moving. He was wounded.
The others pulled him to safety in back of the cars, as another siren sounded in the distance.
The medics were on their way.
INSIDE the house, Falcone turned in fury on the soldier who had fired the shot. "You idiot," he cried out, then sent a wave of psychic energy into the man's brain. He went down on his knees, cradling his head in his hands.
"I told you to hold your fire," Falcone bellowed, then turned to Avery. "You have to get us out of here."
"I can't."
"Make us invisible."
"I need preparation for that."
Falcone's face contorted in rage. "We'll have to negotiate with them," he muttered.
"What do we have to offer?" Brusco asked.
"The idiot who injured one of their men."
COOPER grabbed a bullhorn and turned toward the house.
"Come out with your hands up," he boomed.
"We can negotiate," a voice inside called out.
Then another shot sounded, and Logan felt his guts wrench.
Rinna. Oh God, Rinna.
He would have dashed forward, but the two other wolves blocked him, one in front of him and one in back.
Ross growled low in his throat.
Logan prepared to lunge at him, but in the next second, the door opened again. Logan stopped in his tracks as something came flying out. It was a limp human figure.
Not Rinna. One of Falcone's soldiers, and he landed in a heap in the circular drive. It was immediately apparent that he'd been shot in the head.
The cops stood in stunned silence. Then one of them spoke.
"Jesus Christ!"
"What the hell was that for?" Cooper boomed over the bullhorn.
"That's the man who fired the weapon," the voice from inside called. "I've given him to you. Now we can negotiate."
"I don't think so," Cooper answered. "Come out with your hands up."
INSIDE, Falcone turned to Rinna. "Why won't he talk terms?"
She tried not to look smug. "Because you just broke one of their laws. They have laws."
"Laws!" he snarled. "I don't give a rat's ass for their laws."
"But they do," she answered. "In this society, you don't just kill people."
"Not even to appease the authorities?"
"No. Tell your men to put down their guns, so nobody else gets shot. And close the blinds so they can't see in."
"Close the blinds," Falcone ordered, and men snapped to obey. "We have to get home."
She took a deep breath. "Maybe I can help you get out of here."
"How?"
She thought about getting him to stick a fork in an electric socket. Too bad that would only hurt him. She needed something more permanent.
"I can open a portal."
"You said you couldn't," he growled.
"I said I was too weak. I'm still weak for something like that. But I'm willing to try."
"You'll get us out of here?"
"If you let me stay behind."
He nodded tightly, and she knew that he was only agreeing because he thought he had no choice.
"You have to buy us some time," she said.
"How?"
"With a story they'll believe. Tell them that you are from the Middle East and you are holding a woman hostage. Tell them that you will kill me unless they guarantee an airplane for you and your men."
"An airplane? A thing that flies in the sky?"
"You don't have to really do it. You'll be leaving through the portal. But you'll stall them with that story."
"But… how can they get me an airplane?"
"They'll tell you they're trying. And while they are negotiating—talking to you and trying to get you to free me—I can work on the portal. But I can't do it alone. When the time comes, I will need your power. She looked from Falcone to Avery and Brusco."
"All right," Falcone muttered.
"Tell your men to put down their guns."
He gave the order, and weapons clanked to tables or onto the floor.
Just then a jangling noise made the men jump. Frantically they looked around.
"I heard that before. What the hell is it?" Falcone growled.
Rinna answered with confidence. "The telephone."
"Which is?"
"A talking device. Maybe the man outside wants to talk to you." Confidently she picked up the receiver and looked at the readout. It said, "Frederick County Police."
"Hello? Hello?" a voice said.
"Put it to your ear," Rinna whispered. "And talk into this part."
"Hello?" Falcone said.
"This is Jake Cooper of the Frederick County Police."
Falcone glanced at Rinna, then said. "I am from the Middle East, and I am holding a woman hostage. I want an airplane to the Middle East."
"Let's talk about it," Jake Cooper said.
"We can talk," Falcone answered. "But stay away from the house, or I will shoot her. Like the policeman."
"Just stay cool," the man on the other end of the line said. "We can work this out."
"Yes. But I need some time." Falcone turned to Rinna. "How do I make the voice go away?"
She took the receiver from him and set it back in the cradle. Then she pointed to the television set where a woman was breathlessly describing the hostage situation.
THE wolves withdrew into the woods. Not being able to speak was too much of a disadvantage. So they ran back to where they'd left their clothes, then changed.
"Did you hear that?" Logan growled as they moved toward the house again where they could get a better view.
"Yeah. Lucky wolves have good hearing. It has to be Falcone. He says he wants a plane to the Middle East." Logan stopped short. "A plane to the Middle East. Jesus!"
"What?"
"He got that from Rinna. She was watching a cop show on TV the other night. And a guy was holding people hostage. That was the demand the guy made, and Rinna fed the line to Falcone. And she probably told him how to work the phone."
"So she's got some kind of plan."
"Yeah, but what?"
"Stalling. It's got to involve stalling."
"Why?"
"Because we know that bastard Falcone isn't going to the Middle East. That's her idea."
Logan looked toward the back of the house. It was dark, and there was a fair amount of cover. Maybe enough for a wolf to get close without getting shot by the guys inside or the cops.
He turned back to Ross. "I have an idea, but it's risky."
"Let's hear it," his cousin said without hesitation.
"WE should sit down where we can talk." Rinna led the way into another room. As she passed one of the tables, she picked up a gun and shoved it into her waistband, under her shirt. She knew one of the soldiers had seen her.
Hoping he wouldn't tell Falcone, she sat down on the couch.
Falcone looked at one of his men. "Go back to the television thing. Tell me if they say anything that we don't know."
"Yes sir." The man hurried back to the kitchen, and Falcon leaned casually against the wall. He was acting like he was perfectly comfortable here. Fine with her. The more he pretended, the more he was likely to mess up.
"Sit," she said to Avery and Brusco.
They sat.
"Have you ever opened a portal?" she asked.
"I was part of a group that did it," Avery answered. "And we closed the other one."
"I saw you."
Avery nodded.
Rinna asked, "But you couldn't open another one before Falcone came to this world, that was why you used the one in the Easy Shopper?"
"Yes," Brusco snapped.
"Have
you
opened a portal?" Avery asked her.
"Yes," she lied. Of course she had never done it. But she'd been secretly studying the process since she'd first discovered that Boralas had broken through to this world. Haig had scoffed at her attempts. But he had been wrong to discourage her.
Haig. Her heart squeezed when she thought of him. He had been like a father to her. And she had lost him to Falcone's cruelty. She knew he was dead because she felt his total absence from the world. Now she must punish his killer.
She dragged in a deep breath and let it out slowly before looking at Avery and Brusco. "I have to meditate. I have to look for the… plates between the world. They can slip and slide. And I have to find a way to push one aside."
The older man nodded. "That's the way Tinus described it to us. And that's the way we snapped the other one shut."
She gave him a grateful look. Then she swung her gaze toward Falcone and the soldiers. "I must have quiet. And I must be alone."
"Not alone!"
"Avery can watch me. But he has to give me… space. He can call you when I have found something."
"How do I know you won't slip through the portal when you have it open?"
"Because I can't open it by myself." She looked toward Avery. "Tell him how difficult it is. If I can do it at all, I need additional power."
"She's telling the truth," Avery said.
Her gaze shot to Falcone. "Figure out how to hold off the police, while I work on the portal."
Falcone glared at her, then turned away.
RINNA found a quiet room where heavy drapes were drawn across the windows. She sat down in a chair that was covered with soft leather and closed her eyes.
She had said she was trying to open a portal, but it was hard to get the right focus. Her mind drifted toward Logan. She wanted to reach out to him, to feel his comforting presence near her. But she ruthlessly stayed away from that. She would come back to him, if she could. And the only way she could do that was to get rid of Falcone.
So she closed Logan out of her thoughts and let her mind drift, first in a kind of free-floating state so that she could calm herself and focus on the difficult job she had to do.
When she had centered herself, she began searching for the plates that walled off this world from the ones that rested beside it. She couldn't have described the process to anyone. She only knew that she could sense the barriers between the timelines. She let her mind stroke over them, feel their shape, look for chinks that she could open wider and use to her advantage.
She wasn't sure how long she searched and evaluated. But finally she knew that she was as ready as she would ever be.
When she looked up, she saw Avery's tense face.
"I have it," she whispered.
"What should I do?"
"Get Falcone. And Brusco. Have all the men standing by."
The old man hurried off and was back moments later with Falcone and the others.
Rinna stayed in the chair, feeling all the men watching her.
"Link hands," she murmured. "All of you. I need as much energy as I can get."
OUTSIDE, Jake Cooper studied the house. He'd seen shadows moving behind the blinds. More than one man and one woman. So how many people were in there, and how were they armed?
He didn't want to make any mistakes. The guy inside had already killed a man. He could kill the woman, too.
But what was the best way to get her out of there in one piece?
The SWAT team wasn't going to work, because now the drapes were drawn.
The man on the phone had said he wanted an airplane to the Middle East. Did he really think he was going to get it? Or was he completely out of his mind? He didn't sound like he came from the Middle East. He had the same vaguely Scandinavian accent as Rinna Marshall. So was that a coincidence? What if the woman in there really was Mrs. Marshall?
Jake picked up the phone and dialed the number of the house again.
THE communications thing rang, and Falcone looked at Rinna.
"Don't answer it," she whispered. "I need your focus on me."
The phone continued to ring, and she wanted to throw it out the window.
Avery sent it a mental jolt, and the distracting noise stopped.
"Thank you," she said.
He nodded.
"We have to hurry now," Rinna told him. "The policeman outside is going to wonder what you did." She looked around at the faces turned toward her. "All of you, open your minds so I can use your power."
"Even the men who aren't adepts?" Falcone challenged.
"Yes."
She waited with her heart pounding while he brought all the men into the room. Finding a chink in the plates hadn't been easy. But the hard part was still ahead of her.
"Just open yourself up. Let me draw your energy."
"Where will the portal be?" Falcone asked in a strained voice, and she knew he was as tense as she was herself.
She had picked a spot where she would try to bring the opening into this reality. As though she knew her scheme was going to work, she pointed toward a wall with bookshelves. "There."
Falcone looked like he was preparing to spring through the opening as soon as it materialized.
"Relax," she told him. "Give me your energy."
He swallowed. "Will you be in my mind?"
"No. Just let me use your power." She looked from him to Brusco and Avery. "Let the power flow."