The Wolf Within (35 page)

I pressed the tiny switch to light the screen of the heavy watch on my wrist and it read ten p.m. Pretty much right on schedule. I pressed another button to activate the tracking device in the watch and let the Taskforce know I’d arrived, took a final deep breath and climbed over the gates.

As I dropped onto the gravel on the other side, I crouched and sniffed the air, searching for any trace of Dan.

I couldn’t smell him but I could smell cars and grass and, as the wind gusted against my face, the strange smell of blood and dirt I knew as Tate’s.

He was here.

“You wanted round three,” I muttered to myself as I started up the drive. “Well, here I am.”

The gravel path wound almost as much as the road. I couldn’t see a house through the dark shadows and the trunks of the oaks lining the path. As I rounded a third curve, the wind shifted, bringing another scent to me.

Wolf. Not Dan. Not pack. A stranger. The hairs on the back of my neck bristled and I felt the wolf snarl within at the thought of an outsider. But this wolf wasn’t really a stranger. I knew his scent. Rio.

I slowed my pace, stepping off the gravel and into the trees, keeping to the deeper shadows. He’d probably already heard or smelled me by now, but no point giving him the complete advantage.

I eased my gun from its holster, listening intently. When twigs cracked somewhere off to my right, I whirled and fired.

The gun had a silencer but the soft whine was clearly audible to my wolf hearing. Unfortunately I didn’t hear an answering grunt of pain.

“Now, now, Pretty, is that any way to greet an old friend?” Rio’s voice came out of the darkness, further to the right than I’d aimed.

I fired off another round. “Depends how badly they pissed me off the last time I saw them.” I called, sprinting for the next tree. I didn’t think Rio would shoot me—I figured Tate wanted to see
me
, not just my corpse—but I wasn’t taking any chances.

“
You
stabbed
me
, as I recall.” He sounded closer.

“My aim’s improved since then.” I didn’t fire again. I didn’t want to miss again. Until I actually had eyes on him, firing would just be wasting bullets and giving away my location.

Another twig snapped from the direction of his voice. I strained toward the sound, trying to get a better sense of where he was. His scent grew stronger, his animosity toward me as easy to detect as the leafy smell of the grass beneath my feet.

“Pity you haven’t learned to guard your rear though, Pretty. And it’s such a nice rear.” The silky voice came out of the darkness behind me.

I swiveled, just in time to see Kyra dropping out of the sky and her fist swinging toward my head. I ducked but not quite quickly enough. The blow connected with my temple and I stumbled to the ground, pain blooming across my skull. I dropped the gun, heard it land softly somewhere ahead of me, and forced myself to open my eyes to look for it. The moonlight made my head hurt. I winced, eyes snapping shut reflexively. Big mistake.

Four hands grabbed my arms and waist and, even though I struggled, I knew they had me.

“You know, you’re making this way too easy,” Kyra said as she and Rio hauled me to my feet, laughing as I kicked and spat. The two knives strapped to my waist were tossed into the grass to join my gun, though they didn’t search me any further. So I still had the silver dagger strapped to my ankle. But this wasn’t the time to go for it, not while they were expecting me to fight.

“Boss’s waiting, Pretty,” Rio said. Moonlight glinted off his teeth as he smirked at me. I lashed out with my foot, connected solidly with his knee. He howled then his fist ploughed into my stomach. It felt like being hit by a lump of concrete. I bent over, retching and fighting for breath.

“Easy, Rio. Boss wants her in one piece.”

“She’s in one piece.” He grabbed my hair and jerked my head up. “She’s just bruised a little.”

As the pain receded a bit, I felt the wolf prowling under my skin, fiercer than ever, snarling and wanting to be let free to fight the enemy in front of us.

I fought her back. It was tempting to call on all that power and fury but while I still had some choice, I was going to stick to the plan.

I sucked in deep breaths as Kyra marched me back onto the gravel, having cuffed my hands behind my back. My stomach hurt, as did my head but it wasn’t the same level of pain as it had been when I was human. I could wall it off and still function. Could still think. Though I was careful to act more hurt than I was.

We rounded another bend in the path and the house suddenly appeared. It was a big old colonial style farmhouse on a grand scale. It was so not the image I had of Tate that a laugh bubbled up in my throat.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t find this particularly amusing,” Kyra said.

I turned my head around and bared my teeth at her. “She who laughs last. . . .”

Her grip on my arms tightened painfully and I shut up as we climbed the front steps.

Rio pressed something on the wall near the door and a panel in the wood lifted. He pressed his palm to it and there was a click and hum as the front door swung open.

Okay, so that bit wasn’t so much your average country farmhouse.

As the hall light hit my eyes and made them water, I looked around for a clock. Anything to let me know exactly how much time had passed and how much time I had to keep things going until the cavalry arrived.

“Admiring the décor?” Kyra asked sweetly as she shoved me forward.

There wasn’t much to admire. The walls were bare and white and there was no furniture. There were, however, security cameras near the roof on either side of the hall way and they moved, tracking us as we passed by.

I shivered. Tate was watching me. I knew it.

Chapter Twenty-Six

The room they took me to was, at least, furnished. With chairs, a table, and chains that glinted silver in the firelight along the wall. Tate, stood by an open fireplace, warming his hands.

“Ms. Keenan, how nice of you to join me.”

Dan was nowhere to be seen. And if he wasn’t still alive then my game plan consisted of fight like hell right now and get out if I could. “Where’s Agent Gibson?”

Tate smiled slowly. “No hello?”

“Where’s Agent Gibson?” I repeated, standing my ground.

“Fetch the wolf,” Tate said. Rio’s scent retreated behind me.

His ready acquiescence made me nervous. More nervous. If that was possible. I wanted to leap for Tate and tear his flesh with my fingers. Which would be suicide. Instead I curled them into fists, staying where I was with an effort of will that left me shaking.

“Let her go.”

Kyra undid the cuffs and I pulled my hands free, rubbing at my wrists. The watch said 10:25. Still thirty five minutes before I had any chance of help.

Jase
, I thought desperately.
If you can hear me now, hurry up.

“Search her,” Tate said and I froze.

Shit. If Kyra found the other knife or my cross, I was really screwed. I backed away from her until my back was against the wall with the chains. Metal brushed my hand and it burned like acid. Silver. Fuck.

I leaped away. Kyra watched me like a cat watching a mouse. An amusing mouse who was only providing her with more entertainment.

“Stay still, Pretty,” she said.

I quickly pulled off my watch and reached behind my ear for the wire, holding both out to her. “Here. That’s all I have.”

Except for my cross and the knife, that was.

Kyra tossed them to Tate who threw both into the fire, which spat and sizzled, spewing acrid smelling smoke into the room.

“I’m sure you’d like us to believe that,” he said. “Search her.”

Kyra stepped closer and I slumped. She patted me down, hands lingering on my breasts and butt. All too soon she found the knife and pulled it free.

“It’s not nice to lie, Pretty” she said as she straightened. She pointed the blade toward my face and I flinched backward. “My guess is silver, boss.”

She reversed the knife and flicked it over her shoulder. It stuck in the table top, quivering.

Tate smiled at me and firelight glinted off his fangs. “Interesting. I’m sure we can find some way to use it later on.”

“What do you want?” I asked as my mind raced. I needed to keep them talking. I had no good weapons left except my brain. Kyra had missed the cross but while it would hurt the vampires briefly, it wouldn’t kill them. Here, in this room with three against one (once Rio returned,) it would be no help at all.

“You and your wolf have made life hard for me,” Tate said. He crooked a finger. Kyra grabbed my wrist and dragged me over to the table, pushing me down into a chair. I tried not to look at the knife but the flames reflected in the silver blade, taunting me with how close it was.

“He’s not my wolf,” I said and Tate frowned slightly. Good. Let him think he’d misjudged what lay between Dan and I.

“He’d like to be but. . . .” I shrugged. Tate would know I was scared but he had no way of knowing whether that fear was due to Dan or just being here. So he might just buy me lying about Dan. “I’m hardly going to date the person who turned me, am I? So, what do you mean hard?”

Tate bared his fangs at me. “Well, for one thing, you’ve delayed our plans for the vaccine. And now, I seem to have hostile vampires, police and the Taskforce—” the word was almost a hiss “—wherever I turn. I don’t like being bothered.”

Our
plans. Not mine. Maybe I was right. There were others involved in this. Smith. And whoever was funding this. Research was expensive. And what Tate had said about wanting more vampires to kill didn’t seem to warrant spending that sort of cash. Tate’s accounts hadn’t been accessed until recently so there was other money somewhere. I shrugged again. “Maybe you should take a vacation.”

He smiled his dead smile, and then walked closer to me, closing his hand around my throat and squeezing. “Don’t push me, Ashley. I have plans for you.”

Spots danced in front of my eyes as I fought for breath. Tate let me go as the door swung open and Rio appeared, dragging Dan behind him. Rio wore black gloves and held chains that dangled from the bonds around Dan’s wrists. Dan wore only black trousers, torn in several places. Half dried blood stained his neck, drawing attention to several bite marks. Someone had fed from him. He swayed on his feet, but his gaze sharpened when he saw me.

“Ashley! I told you to stay away.”

I forced my face to remain blank. Dan sported a huge black eye and bruises bloomed along his bare chest and stomach. My gut twisted. They’d had him less than eight hours. How hard and how had they beaten him to bruise a wolf so badly?

Worst of all were the chains around his wrists. The skin around them looked burned, bubbled and peeling, with dried and not-so-dried blood smeared down his hands and up his forearms.

Silver then. Which explained Rio’s gloves. Fuck. I really had to do this myself. Dan couldn’t change while bound by silver. And the pain of it would be sapping his strength.

“I take orders from my Alpha, not you,” I said coldly. I turned back to Tate before the confused hurt on Dan’s face fractured my rapidly slipping control.

“Special Agent Gibson goes free,” I said.

Tate looked from me to Dan. “I don’t think so.”

My heart plunged further. I’d let part of myself hope that Tate wanted me in particular and might be willing to let Dan go. If this had anything to do with my dad then it should definitely be me they wanted—why, I had no idea—but it seemed logical. But we’d planned for the fact that Tate wouldn’t be reasonable. “Your argument is with me, not him.”

“No, it’s with both of you. He saved you. It was his bite that stopped you from turning.”

“I think I have the bigger claim on that issue,” I said. “I’m the one he turned into a half-crippled werewolf.”

Tate’s brows rose. “What do you mean?”

“Your stupid vaccine hindered the lycanthropy somehow,” I lied, hoping Dan was at least conscious enough to understand what I was doing and not react. “I’m not as strong as the other wolves.”

His lips curved. You couldn’t really call the expression a smile though. “How unfortunate for you. You’d have been better off if I’d succeeded. I’ll have to speak to Smith about the vaccine. We hadn’t considered that particular side effect.”

You can speak to him in hell
, I thought. I clenched my jaw, trying to stop the retort. I had to stay calm. Not easy when the wolf was snarling deep within me.

“My killing you, really will be doing you a favor then,” Tate said, sounding almost conversational.

I had to take a few breaths before I could answer as fear flooded me. He really meant to kill me. I heard Dan snarl, felt the wolf snarl again in my head as well. “Maybe it would be. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you do it.”

His hand smashed into the side of my face, knocking me off the chair. Dan’s growl—nothing human in it at all—seemed to fill the air as my head and hip hit the floor with painful force. Luckily it was carpeted, which cushioned the fall slightly. Only slightly, though. I lay there, winded, trying to think.

I’d barely seen Tate’s movement. My face burned but adrenalin flooded through me blurring the pain into the background. I blinked back the tears in my eyes, saw Dan straining against his chains, fresh blood flowing down his wrists as the silver cut deeper into his flesh.

He could cripple himself with wounds from silver. If he didn’t change in a few hours, they might not heal at all. The longer the silver touched him, the harder it would be to change once he was freed.

I had to do something. I pushed myself to a sitting position, watching Tate. When he didn’t move, I stood. “I thought you liked a challenge?” I said to Tate, as I fought dizziness. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rio force Dan to his knees, using the chains to pull his arms behind him.

“A challenge?” Tate sounded amused.

“You told me you liked to hunt supernaturals rather than humans.”

He nodded and I licked my lips. “Maybe you didn’t really mean it.”

Anger rose in Tate’s eyes, turning them to dark pools of malice. “What do you mean?”