The Curse (44 page)

She slowed her breathing to listen, but everything was quiet. Silent, in fact.

No chirping or croaking.

Should she say something to the others? No way. Not until she determined what she’d seen was more than just a turkey.

Bending her arms at the elbows, she slid them close to her body and pushed back on her knees, staying low, but prepared to move the minute anything tried to attack one of the cows.

She scanned the tree line filled with pine trees and old hardwoods. Wouldn’t something in search of a meal come out and maybe even circle one time to scope out his attack point?

If that was the case, the team should be able to intervene before—

All at once a huge black shape with wings burst from the top of a massive oak tree thirty yards beyond the men hunkered down between her and the tree.

Fifteen feet of wingspan flapped in a mad rush toward the cows.

It’s coming!
she yelled telepathically and shot up first, rushing to reach the cow closest to her in time to shield it.

Based on the angle the creature was heading down at a fast clip, it was going to overshoot most of the others and land near the edge of the herd.

On the cow closest to Evalle.

Just peachy. How lucky was she?

When moonlight brushed across the creature’s body, she could make out human arms and legs with fingers and toes sporting claws Satan would envy. Mangy-looking skin covered its body, a thin sheath over bone and muscle.

Everything happened in a matter of seconds.

The men had gone into motion at the same time as her, but none were going to reach the cow that creature wanted before Evalle.

Claws extended and curved into attack mode as the creature’s wings folded to land on top of its prey.

Evalle realized she wasn’t going to make it in time to cover the cow with a protective kinetic field of energy either. She took two long strides and lunged into the air at the creature. Just before they collided, she tossed a kinetic blast forward, hoping to knock the beast away.

Which sort of worked.

The creature was blown sideways, hitting the ground face down and sliding away from the cow that started mooing and kicking, scrambling to get up.

Evalle’s momentum took her over the cow and down in an angle that had her going straight for the creature. At least the blast of energy seemed to have stunned it … until Evalle landed on its back.

The thing heaved up off the ground, screeching and crying out, sounding almost like a human that had been hurt.

She reached around its neck with both arms to get a chokehold and gagged on the nasty odor she inhaled. The mottled skin smelled as if it was decaying, plus this thing had plowed through fresh cow patties.

When she felt the body lift up and the wings unfold, Evalle kicked her legs out to each side to stop it from flapping.

Tzader yelled in her head,
Get off before it kills you! We can’t throw any power at it without risking you.

She could feel the fury raging through the half-human thing. Her own budding empathic abilities were a new discovery these past few weeks—one she hadn’t had a chance to explore—and they picked a fine time to manifest. If she let go, the creature would probably turn on her or one of the others. Tzader would be forced to kill it, defeating the whole point of this operation.

He’d never risk an agent’s life to capture this thing.

But allowing it to escape could have deadly consequences if the national security guys were right.

She was in the best position to stop it from flying and protect the team.

She told Tzader,
I’ve got a good hold on it and I don’t think it can bite me. Give me a minute to see if it settles down and we might just catch it.

Sprigs of hair stuck off the deformed head that spun sideways trying to get at her. Yellow eyes glared at her—so human in shape they stole her ability to think, until the lipless mouth opened and a double row of pointed teeth snapped at her.

What the heck was this thing?

Tzader was foregoing telepathy for Casper’s sake, and was yelling orders for the Beladors to form a kinetic net above the creature. Trey, Tzader and Quinn would overlap an invisible covering to prevent it from flying off, but if the creature made a sudden move straight up it would crush Evalle between it and the solid layer of power they were holding overhead.

She kept her head out of biting range and felt relatively safe until its tongue came out and slapped at the skin on her arms. Instead of soft tongue flesh this felt like a flexible serrated blade that slashed her forearms.

Its freakin’ tongue was a foot long and sharp enough to slice her throat, which seemed to be the creature’s intent, as it swiveled its head back and forth.

Evalle was so busy keeping out of range of that tongue she almost forgot about the kinetic net when the creature arched and bucked again, trying to get her off … then it shoved off the ground trying to get lift.

She yelled out loud, “Forget the net. Grab the wings.
Now!
”

The creature made a super-strong push straight up and flapped its wings half way, catching air. The movement forced her outstretched legs further apart, her thigh muscles screaming in pain.

She couldn’t see the men, but could feel them struggling to stop the wings by the way she was jerking from side to side.

Now was the time to jump if she wanted to dismount before it flew off with her.

The bottom fell out from under her.

She dropped then bounced against the creature when it—and she along with it—were jerked to the ground.

Tzader and Trey wrestled one of the wings down and climbed on it while Quinn and Casper struggled to get the other wing contained.

The creature’s muscles quivered with strain. It kept snapping its teeth and tossing its head back.

Tzader spoke between ragged breaths. “Quinn … can you do … anything?”

Quinn had a rare gift of being able to mind lock, which allowed him to maneuver inside a person’s brain and, if necessary, control or crush a mind.

Evalle had never seen him use that power on an animal, but was this thing animal, human, demon or what? It was making garbled distress noises, much like an insane person off their meds.

The extra second Quinn took to answer worried her when he said, “I’ll try.”

What if this creature could harm Quinn’s mind? In the next few seconds, the body stopped jerking and kicking. No more insane noises. If it hadn’t still moved with each labored breath, Evalle would have thought it was dead.

Speaking softly, Quinn said, “I’ve never seen anything like this bloody thing. It’s not
entirely
human, but parts of that brain appear human.”

Trey asked, “What’d you do to shut it down?”

“I’ve taken control of its mind for the moment, but I can’t promise that will last long. I basically put it into a comatose state so I could search its memories for something that will explain its origins. I found images of a house, an antebellum looking place … and images of other creatures.”

“More creatures like this?” Trey asked, also breathing hard after the fight.

“Possibly, but there is a being there that this one actually fears.”

Evalle unwound her arms from its neck and sat up, grimacing at the ache of pulling her legs over its back as she dismounted. “That’s not promising. A house with other creatures. Good thing we caught it, eh, Z?”

When Tzader scowled at her she winked at him.

His worried voice came into her head.
Next time, don’t take the place of the bait.

She shrugged.
I couldn’t stand by and watch a mama cow and her baby get sacrificed.

Better them than you. Your arms are cut to hell.

I’ll live.
Her wounds weren’t deep. Beladors healed faster than humans so her arms would probably heal in a few days. She used the edge of her shirt to wipe blood off her skin, telling Tzader,
You were right. Sounds like someone is creating these things. We have to find that person.

He met her eyes and nodded before asking Quinn, “Any chance you can figure out where the house is located?”

Quinn pondered a moment, stopping long enough to quiet the creature again when it stirred. “I don’t think this thing comprehends words verbally or written so I don’t believe there’s information of that nature to retrieve.”

Casper had pulled off his headgear, scratched his head and put the gear back on. “The house must be where this thing lives, or
lived
if he escaped.”

“Probably,” Quinn agreed.

“If that’s the case,” Casper went on, thinking out loud. “Maybe he would go back there. Like a homing pigeon.”

Tzader interjected, “You want me to just turn this thing loose and hope it goes home?”

“Hell, I don’t know,” Casper said. “Just trying to come up with an idea. Can’t sit on the damn thing all night long.”

Quinn stared off as if thinking through possible options, “That actually might work if I knew how to tell it to go home.”

Evalle took in what everyone had said and snapped her fingers. “Did you see other images, Quinn?”

“Like what?” “Maybe food, like the cows it killed?” Which was an icky visual to bring to mind.

“Yes, I did.” “Can you flood this thing’s mind with images of the house then maybe add the suggestion that pregnant cows would be there, sort of like home is where the food is?”

Quinn thought for a moment, his collar-length blond hair disheveled from the battle to ground this thing. “That might work, but I’m not sure how long it would hold in his mind once he flew away.”

Deep frown lines carved Tzader’s forehead while he thought on something. He asked Quinn, “Think you could hold control of its mind and keep feeding those home and food images if we followed it close enough while it flew?”

No hesitation when Quinn answered, “Yes. I feel certain I can hold the mind lock as long as I have it within sight.”

She hated to be the one to throw a logic bomb into their planning but Evalle pointed out, “One flaw with this plan, boys.”

“What’s that, sunshine?” Casper asked.

Ignoring his usual jab at her nocturnal lifestyle, she turned to Tzader. “How do we follow something that flies if I’m on a motorcycle and you all came in vehicles?”

Tzader flipped out his cell phone, punched in several keys then closed it. “Not a problem.”

“Why? Who’d you call?” “Got a bird waiting in the next pasture.”

Tzader was wrong. A helicopter might be a huge problem.

Her palms got sweaty any time she faced being over twenty feet off the ground.

C
HAPTER
T
WO

It was amazing what a person would do when confronted with peer pressure and humiliation.

Evalle gripped the edge of the leather seat in the back of the helicopter. She couldn’t appreciate the way the men had talked about how quiet an MD-902 could be.

She didn’t care about the noise level. Flying closer to the ground would have rated higher on her value scale.

One look at her face when they’d taken off and Tzader had asked silently,
Are you afraid of flying?

She’d answered,
I don’t know. Never done it.

When he’d paused then said he’d have the pilot let her off if she wanted, she’d refused. There was no time to bring in another agent and she wouldn’t abandon any team in the middle of an op.

She’d survived much worse.

But she doubted she’d have lasted much longer than the eighteen minutes and twelve seconds it took for the flying human-like creature to find home. Sweat had trickled down the back of her neck while the helicopter half flew, half hovered along behind the flapping creature, keeping just within visual sight for Quinn. Finally it glided down toward an antebellum house with a long driveway that tucked the mansion back from the road and casual observation.

She watched Quinn who sat in the copilot’s seat, holding her breath until he said, “This looks like the place I saw in its mind.”

Through sheer force of will, Evalle shoved the contents of her stomach back down her throat. She fumbled with her seatbelt, ready to get out the minute the chopper touched ground, asking, “Where are we?”

Tzader turned to answer her. “Close to Social Circle, east of where the cows were attacked. Trey’s downloading intel now.”

The VIPER pilot landed less than a quarter mile from the house and just outside the regal wrought iron fence surrounding what had to be ten acres of lush landscaping that gave way to miles of pecan orchard. Someone with deep pockets had purchased this isolated residence.

Evalle jumped down into the wash from the props that were slowing and ducked her head along with the others as they moved away from the helicopter. Holding hair off her face, she took a deep breath of fresh air and commented, “Doesn’t look like the home of a mad scientist, does it?”

Trey had exited the chopper with his smart phone in hand. “Might not be. You’re not going to like this, Z.”

Tzader stepped closer. “What’s wrong?”

“This property is listed under the name of Wenton, Beaker and Associates, Sar Bendelen’s personal legal counsel.” Trey lifted his gaze from his smart phone.

Tzader sounded tired when he said, “So this could be one of Bendelen’s properties.”

Evalle kept up with the news as much as she could with her erratic schedule, but she couldn’t place this name. “Who’s he?”

Leave it to Quinn to know a person insulated by a legal fortress. “Highly respected trauma reconstruction specialist who has donated a billion dollars over the years to programs for burned children. He’s a recluse. Rumored to be the only surviving member of a fire that destroyed his family, but little is known about him personally. Only that he inherited a fortune as a child and grew up in Poland.”

Shaking his head, Trey offered, “That thing might have flown to this place the first time on its way to the cows. We may have just sent a predator to this guy’s house.”

Besides the fact that Evalle didn’t like doctors, donating money to good causes did not mean this man hadn’t created a flying monster. “Maybe this doctor’s been experimenting with genetics.”