Beneath a Darkening Moon (39 page)

No
, she thought sternly.
It won’t. Have faith
.

She slammed the door shut and headed toward the pitch-black trail, following the tracker signal with the small device Anton had given her. Ronan, Anton, and Trista were working their way through the forest, intending to attack downwind and, hopefully, unexpectedly. They had a second tracker to guide them, so with any luck they wouldn’t be too far behind.

Not that any of them could afford to rely on luck. She headed through the forest, wasting no time. She didn’t want time to think, and she followed the path as quickly as she dared, seeing no point in trying to approach quietly. It wasn’t as if they weren’t expecting her. The trail became steeper, rockier as she climbed, and the air was chill with the promise of the oncoming storm. Yet despite that, sweat trickled down her spine. Fear, not exertion.

Soon the trees began to recede and the stretches of barren ground became longer. She slowed, knowing she was drawing close to the clearing where the first victim had been found. Ahead, light danced, sending flickering shadows of yellow and orange across the clumps of snow hunkering near the remaining trees or behind the shelter of the rocks. Two women stood close to the fire, one wearing clothes, one not. Anni and Candy, having a grand old time by the look of it. Her gaze scooted past them and found Cade. Relief surged through her. Her instincts hadn’t been wrong.
He might be tied up, but he was alive and appeared unhurt. He was also very naked, and that wasn’t a good sign. It meant Anni was very sure of the outcome.

But what about René? Where was he?

She swept her gaze around the clearing and found him on the ground, as naked as Cade and just as trussed up, although there was enough blood on the ropes to suggest he’d been attempting to get free for some time.

Her gaze went back to the two women. They were talking, but the wind snatched their words and flung them away before she could make out what they were saying. She shifted around until she was downwind and the words carried to her.

“Trust a man to take the fun out of things.” Anni’s voice was contemptuous, cold. She glanced at Candy and waved a hand toward René. “He’s all yours, my dear.”

Even before she’d finished speaking, the golden shifting haze shimmered over Candy’s naked form, moving her from human to wolf. Then she was snarling and leaping, arrowing straight toward the helpless René.

Savannah didn’t pause to think. She just grabbed the gun from the waist of her pants and fired that one precious silver bullet. Her shot was on target, hitting Candy in the middle and flinging her backward as blood and fur sprayed. Her deep-seated, hungry growl became a sharp sound of pain, but even that was cut off as she hit the ground. She wasn’t dead—the twitching in her limbs and her soft whimpering attested to that—but if she didn’t get help
soon, she would be. Very few wolves could survive a silver bullet for long.

Savannah shifted the barrel and centered it on Anni—and discovered that Anni was also armed. Only
her
weapon was aimed at Cade.

“Drop it,” she warned softly, “or I’ll shoot his fucking dick off.”

Something hit Savannah’s shields—a furious rapping that had a definite male feel. Cade. She lowered a shield and let him in.

Don’t you dare drop that weapon
. His mind-voice was furious, and yet it was tinged with fear—for her.
She intends to kill us anyway, and dropping that weapon only makes her job easier
.

If I don’t drop it, she’ll follow through with her threat
. She held up one hand and let the weapon slide around her finger.
And I am not unprotected without the gun. Anni just thinks I am
.

And if you do drop it, what’s to stop her from shooting me anyway? She wants us to pay, Vannah, and that sure as hell would be one painful way to go
.

He was right in
that
respect. Anni was just as likely to shoot as not.

“Drop it,” Anni warned softly. “Or I
will
fire.”

“You’ll fire anyway,” she said. To Cade, she added,
Shield René. I wouldn’t put it past her to try and use him to attack me
.

Will do. Just be careful she doesn’t try to attack you telepathically
.

The vicious grin that stretched Anni’s thin lips suggested that Cade’s guess about Anni’s intent had been correct.

“Maybe I will shoot,” Anni said, “and maybe I won’t. Either way, you have no choice.”

“There’s always a choice, Jina.”

“Like you and that bastard gave Jontee a choice?”

“Jontee
had
a choice. He could have walked away from Rosehall or given up Nelle if she was the force behind the murders.”

“He
believed
in Rosehall. In what it stood for.”

“And what did it really stand for?” She carefully shifted her grip so that she was once again holding the gun at the ready. “It was all a lie. A big fat lie designed to do nothing more than gather fresh fodder for the next bloodletting.”

“Rosehall was an
ideal
. It was a celebration of life and love and freedom.” She eyed Savannah darkly. “But you didn’t see that. You chose the destroyer over Jontee, over everything he stood for.”

“He stood for death. He
celebrated
death.”

“That was never part of the original idea. Nelle was the one who brought in the darkness, not Jontee. At least when you two are dead, he can rest in peace.”

“He can never be at peace and he’ll never be free, Jina. Not then, and not now. Especially now that you’ve ensured his infamy lives on.”

“But that’s where you’re wrong—he
can
rest, knowing that the people who caused his downfall will finally join him in hell. Now drop the damn weapon.”

She didn’t drop it. She squeezed the trigger and fired, aiming for Jina’s hand rather than the safer option of a body shot. The gun’s report echoed across the brief silence, followed quickly by Jina’s yelp as the bullet tore through her hand. Blood, bone, and weapon flew. Jina’s face contorted with pain and
fury as the shimmer of shapechanging swept over her body. In wolf form, she launched herself across the fire, teeth bared and the bloody need to rend and tear gleaming in her eyes.

Savannah braced and aimed the gun, but before she could fire, another shot rang out. Jina flopped to the ground, blood and God knows what else leaking out from the gaping hole in her head.

Anton rose from behind the boulders downwind from Jina and gave her a grim smile. “That’s one fewer murderer for the courts to worry about.”

Trista came out of the shadows and, a second later, so did Ronan. Savannah met his gaze, saw the relief there, and gave him a smile before she looked at Cade. The depth of feeling in his navy blue eyes echoed right through her. Tension slithered from her limbs, leaving her suddenly weak and shaky. They were all right. All the people she cared about were all right.

And in the end, it had been almost too easy to stop Jina’s mad plot for revenge.

Savannah wiped the sweat from her brow, clicked the safety back on the gun, and shoved it away.

“I think Candy’s still alive,” she said.

Anton nodded. “We’ll take care of her, since I’m sure you’ll want to take care of the boss.” A grin touched his lips as he glanced at Ronan. “Which leaves René to you.”

“I always get the best jobs,” Ronan muttered.

She walked over to Cade and lightly touched his cheek. “As if I’d let her shoot you anywhere, let alone somewhere so vital to our future.”

He grinned. “So you love me only for my skills in the sack?”

“Well, at this stage, I’m not sure what more there is.” She kissed him softly and sweetly, but with all the relief and love that was welling up inside her. Emotions she could feel in the warm glow of his thoughts, and in the caress of his lips. When she finally pulled away, she added, “I guess it’s up to you to show me what remains.”

“Hard thing to do when I’m tied up,” he said wryly.

“Ah. Well, I guess I’d better untie you, then.”

“It would be a good start.”

She grinned and walked around the stump. His wrists were rubbed raw, and the rope was blood-soaked. “You’ve made a mess back here,” she said, getting out her knife.

“Well, I was hardly going to stand back and watch you walk into a trap …”

“I can defend myself.” The first strand of the rope snapped away. Two more to go. She frowned in concentration, trying to avoid cutting his flesh along with the rope.

“I know. I just didn’t want you to
have
to defend yourself. A wolf likes to protect his own.”

Another strand gone. “You know, Neva and I swore long ago never to fall for alphas. You guys are far too much trouble.”

Amusement touched his voice. “And how old were you when you decided this?”

“Five.”

“A very wise age,” he commented, the amusement deeper this time.

The last strand fell away. He stepped away from the post, rubbing his wrists as she shoved the knife back in its sheath. Then she met his gaze, and she realized
that the amusement in his voice didn’t touch his face. That his eyes were, in fact, curiously blank.

Anni had him. Controlled him. From the grave.

Her stomach bottomed out, but before she could react, his fist smashed into her face and she was flying backward. Her yelp of surprise was drowned in the haze of pain and the rush of blood. She hit the ground with a grunt, the gun at her back digging painfully into her spine. Then he was on her, his weight pinning her body and arms, his fists pummeling her hard and fast, until all she could feel was pain.

Then, suddenly Neva was there, in her mind, frantically wanting to know what was going on.

She ignored her sister, and screamed both verbally and mentally, “Cade! It’s me, Vannah!” But there was no response from him. His mind was locked, overridden by Anni’s vicious last wishes, and he wasn’t hearing anything else.

As she twisted from side to side, desperately trying to avoid his blows, she dropped her shields and arrowed into his mind—only to rebound off a shield similar to Candy’s. Anni had protected her handiwork, which meant she had never intended to shoot her or Cade.
You chose the destroyer over Jontee
, Anni had said. Which meant she’d planned all along to let them destroy each other.

The blows kept coming and blackness washed through her, threatening to sweep her into unconsciousness. From a distance she heard Ronan shout. The pummeling stopped, and there was a click and several shots. Then she heard a cry of pain. Female. Trista.

God help her, she had to stop Cade before he killed everyone. And there was only one way to do it.

She reached out to Neva, gathering her sister’s talents and strength, then flung it all—every bit of pain, hurt, fear, and love she felt—straight at Cade. The force seemed to explode into the air, and it crashed through the barriers in his mind as easily as a hurricane tore through trees, shattering not only the barrier but any hold Anni had on his mind. Awareness surged briefly between them, along with dawning horror.

The effort left her drained and weak, and she had no idea what happened next. She simply let the blackness take her to a place free of pain.

S
AVANNAH GLANCED AWAY
from the mirror as Neva waddled into the small hospital room, and she couldn’t help grinning. “Sis, you’re looking fatter every time I see you.”

Neva grimaced as she tossed a bag on a nearby chair and eased herself onto the end of the bed. “That’s because I am fatter. I swear I’m having triplets, even if the doc insists there are only two.”

Savannah grinned. “Doctors and machines are not infallible. Triplets or even quads are always a remote possibility.”

“Bite your tongue. Two mini Duncans are more than enough.” Her smile faded a little. “Have you heard from Cade yet?”

Savannah sighed and looked back at the mirror. Her reflection wasn’t a pretty sight—rainbow-colored bruises, a swollen, cut nose, fat lip, and cut chin. Her torso had fared little better, and right now she looked and felt like a punching bag. In fact, she’d seen punching bags that actually looked
better
than she did right now. But while she might be bruised, nothing had been broken. Even in the midst of a nightmare, Cade
had somehow managed to have some control over his punches—enough to merely batter and not break.

But in the end, it had all been worth it. Anni was dead. Candy had survived the silver bullet, but she and Lonny were currently in custody, and weren’t likely to feel the free air against their coats again. Humans
really
didn’t like wolves who attacked humans, and both women would pay for their crimes with their lives.

And Alf Reeson had gotten one hell of an exclusive.

“No,” she said eventually. “I haven’t.”

“You want me to go find him and drag him here by the scruff of his neck?”

Savannah grinned. “I’d love to see you try. But no, I don’t.”

“Damn it, he should be here with you!”

“I can understand why he isn’t.”

Neva harrumphed. “If he tries to leave town, he’ll have a posse on his tail.”