Twice Cursed (46 page)

He walked to the door once more and
returned with a white cloth. Draping it over the top of the bottle,
he wiggled the cork until they both heard the loud pop. “May this
be the first of many celebrations,” he offered with a tender
look.

Skepticism ricocheted straight into
full blown alarm, and Lily pasted a smile on her face. This was no
ploy. Parr had slipped a cog. He truly believed everything he
said.

The flutes were on a small round table
between the two chairs he’d placed by the window, and he filled the
glasses, reaching into his pocket for sugar cubes. At Lily’s raised
eyebrow, he dropped one each into the glasses. “Sweets to mask the
bitter bubbles.” He smiled, handing her one of the flutes. Raising
one high, he winked. “To us.”

***

Sean slammed the car door behind him.
He was tired of using a four year old as his intermediary. He
wanted to hear Lily’s voice himself, even if it was just in his
head.

The police had been all over Bradford
Farms Dairy. They found the rope and the razor, and the broken
window, but still wouldn’t offer the evidence as anything but
suspicious, possibly coincidental. The only evidence they
considered to be hard, were the accounts given by eye witnesses,
and those pointed toward an animal attack in the road, or at least
that’s what the police were leaning toward.

His hunter’s had her scent, but they
lost it not far up the road, finding it impossible to track the
scent of a single vehicle for more than a mile. There were just too
many on the road.

Lily was okay; at least that’s what
her last communiqué through Stephanie had said. Parr was acting
crazy, and she was playing along until they found her. If he could
only find Jack, then he’d have what he wanted in spades. Sean’s
hands itched to rip his former hunter’s throat out. He was a dead
man, regardless of the story he spun.

Sean’s phone buzzed. “Leighton.” He
was in no mood, and his clipped tone spoke volumes.

“
Sean, we’ve got Jack. He’s
been spotted in wolf form in the woods outside Bradford. He’s been
covering his tracks well. We must have been through that area three
times. It appears he’s been following the stream to camouflage his
scent. Do you want us to move in?

Sean smiled. “No, Mitch, have one of
the men send him a message along the Hunter’s path. Tell him that
Lily is still missing and we have no leads other than that the
plates on the car that took her were from Maine. Say that I’m
rallying the Weres for a full out search, and that I need my best
officers by my side. Play it up, tell him that I’m distraught and
that you’re worried about my state of mind. That’ll bring the cocky
bastard in. If I know him, he’ll think I’m easy pickings and lead
me right where I want to go. Have one of guys do it now. We’ll hold
a fake strategy meeting in the library tonight. Tell him I want him
there. No questions.”

Mitch nodded. “You got it, boss. What
if he says no?”

Sean’s anger boiled just below the
surface. “No refusals. Tell him it’s mandatory or he faces
abnegation.”

***

Jack snickered as he walked up the
main path leading to the front door of the manor. “Like taking
candy from a baby” he muttered to himself, pushing the heavy oak
door aside and walking straight into the library.

“
Hey,” he said giving an
offhand salute to the men standing around the room as he entered.
He walked straight toward the table where Mitch and Sean were
huddled over a map. Near the alpha’s hand was a yellow legal pad
with the names of hunter’s listed alongside different regions from
the State of Maine. “Am I late?”

Sean looked up and shook his head.
“Right on time, as usual. Look, I’ve divided the map among the best
hunter’s we have, from there I’ve made teams of the lower personal,
plus Ross Stanton has graciously offered to give us aerial coverage
through his Avians.”

“
Great. What can I do to
help,” Jack asked, the picture of compassion and friendship. He had
to make this look believable, and overstated opinions or excessive
enthusiasm were the quickest way to raise suspicion. This was the
moment he’d been waiting for.

Sean looked at Mitch. My
second-in-command here doesn’t agree, but I want you both with me.
He thinks I should have you managing the hunters and their regions,
but this has shaken me up pretty bad, and I’ll need you both to
stop me from doing something I’ll regret later.”

Mitch gave Jack a knowing look. “He
means he’s afraid he’ll go crazy and kill Parr before we have a
chance to bring him before a tribunal. We want to handle this in a
civilized manner. No bloodshed, just diplomacy.”

“
Of course. You can count
on me. What’s our plan of attack? Do we have a region of our
own?”

Mitch shook his head. “No. We’re
heading back to Bradford. The police just got in the way when we
were there, and we didn’t really find anything. It looked on the
surface as though the place had been sanitized, but if the three of
us head out, we should be able to find something the others
missed.”

“
Great idea. When do we
leave? Jack asked, not wanting to sound too eager.

Sean just looked at him. “We leave
now.”

“
Okay. Do I have time to
grab a change of clothes? I’m feeling a little grubby.”

Sean nodded. “Yeah. We’ll meet down by
the car in fifteen minutes.”

Mitch and the others walked out,
leaving just Sean and Jack in the library. Jack stood at the door,
his hand on the oiled bronze handle. “Sean, I’m so sorry about
this. I had no idea that Parr was working with the vamps. It’s the
only thing that makes sense, or else he wouldn’t have gotten
through me. I can’t help but feel responsible.”

Sean sighed. “I know, Jack. I know
exactly on whose shoulders this lies, and believe me—they’re going
to pay dearly.”

Jack closed the door behind him,
Sean’s expression at his last statement giving him chills. He’d
never seen the alpha so focused, not even when they were hunting
Jerard. Could he suspect it was him who was truly responsible? Nah.
He had all bases covered. The common Were path was bugged, as was
the Hunter’s path, plus he had wiretaps on all the phones. He’d
know the minute they doubted him.

He turned the corner and took the
stairs up to his room two at a time. He’d grab a five minute shower
and put on his camo. Really look the part. On the landing he ran
into Clotilde, one of the old housekeepers, and they shared a look.
She was one of Parr’s moles. Why he felt it necessary to blackmail
women was beyond him, but who was he to questions Parr’s methods,
when they seemed to get the job done?

“
Hey,” he said. “How’s the
boss doing?” He gestured down the stairs so she knew he meant Sean
and not Edward.

She clucked. “He’s a mess. Yelling one
minute, and apologizing the next. You better find his lady soon or
he’s going to snap.” She nodded then headed the rest of the way
down the stairs.

A full grin spread across Jack’s face.
So, Mitch wasn’t bullshitting. Sean was more pussy whipped than
he’d thought. Edward would get a hardy chuckle out of
this.

***

Mitch sat in the back of
the SUV as it cruised north, with Jack occupying the passenger seat
next to Sean. They were quiet, with no one really saying much on
the long drive. That suited Sean perfectly. With his hands on the
steering wheel, he kept tabs on Jack from the corner of his eye,
the scene from
Godfather II,
where Carlo Rizzi is garroted from the backseat
by one of Michael Corleone’s captains, playing over and over again
in his mind as he drove. If only.

Truth be told, Mitch would strangle
Jack in a heartbeat, but first they needed to find Lily. On the
other hand, Sean wanted the pleasure of ripping Jack’s heart out
himself.

The silence grew, and there was a
palpable tension in the car as the headlights marked the entrance
to the farm, and its long gravel drive. Sean turned wide, bumping
the side wheels into a large divot in the road. Jack’s head smacked
against the inside roof of the SUV.

“
What the fuck, Sean? If
you keep this up, I’m driving home,” he complained, his fingers
massaging the top of his head.

You’ll be going home
alright. In the trunk.

“
Sorry, Jack. I guess I
missed that one,” he said, his face contrite, but chuckling inside.
Sean glanced in the rearview and Mitch wore a wide smirk. Tearing
this traitor to shreds was going to feel so good.

They pulled up to the ramshackle farm
house and parked out front. The minute Sean stepped foot on the
grounds, he knew they were in the right place. He could sense Lily,
and this time it wasn’t the old, faded scent they’d picked up when
the police were here. This was new. She must be walking around. He
inhaled again, and Parr’s scent hit him as well. He didn’t say
anything, but he knew both Mitch and Jack sensed it too. Now he
just needed to wait for Jack to make his move.

Smoke rose from the back behind the
house, and Sean took off with Mitch and Jack on his heels. The barn
was on fire, but the flames had already imploded the structure and
were dying out. The wind had calmed, so the chance of the fire
spreading was small, and even if it did, the buildings were
abandoned and the property so far off the road, there was no danger
of it spreading anywhere significant.If Sean knew Parr, he was well
insulated from any danger from the fire, and if Lily was with him,
then so was she.

“
Well, so much for getting
a better look at the barn,” Mitch said, throwing a random stick
into the embers.

“
Bad luck, really,” Jack
interjected. “This whole thing has been nothing but a series of bad
luck.”

Sean’s head snapped around. “Luck? Is
that what you think this is? If anything this whole situation
smacks of precision planning,” he said, stalking off toward the
car.

Jack looked at Mitch. “I see what you
mean about him walking a fine line. This isn’t good.”

Mitch just shook his head. “No shit
Sherlock. Any other brilliant summaries or suggestions?”

Jack picked his way through the debris
near the house to peer through one of the cracked windows. He
smiled. “As a matter of fact, I do. Go get lover boy. I think I
found something.”

Sean came back around the house with
Mitch. This was it. Bingo. Jack was going to make the second
biggest mistake of his short life. The first, of course, betraying
him and taking Lily.

“
Mitch says you sense
something. What is it? We went through all this
earlier.”

Jack snorted, and the familiarity of
the sound made Sean want to shove his fist in his face. “Yeah. You
went through this with a bunch of human cops trampling around like
a herd of elephants, not to mention mucking up the scents. If you
don’t believe me, take a look for yourself,” he offered, stepping
to the side, a broad grin on his face.

Sean peered through the glass, and
sure enough, on the mud floor inside were boot tracks leading to
the front of a bookcase, Lily’s boot tracks.

Sean looked at Jack. “Come on,” he
said, but then glanced over at Mitch. “Call the team; tell them to
meet us here. Lord knows who or what we’re going to find around
this place.”

Jack led the way inside, with Sean
following close behind. He sidestepped the ruined household items
strewn about the floor, and went straight for the bookcase. He
knocked on one of the back panels like he was looking for a hollow
sound.

“
What are you doing? Trying
to announce that we’re here?” Sean whispered harshly.

Jack shook his head. “The bookcase is
obviously the way in to some sort of secret entrance. Lily’s boot
prints end right in front, they don’t turn around anywhere. Just
get on the other side and help me lift it out of the
way.”

The shelves slide to one side,
clattering in the silence like a bomb going off, but they managed
to move the piece of furniture away from the bunker entrance,
revealing a stairwell heading straight down.

“
I’ll go first,” Jack
volunteered, and he pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and
flicked it on.

Sean bit the inside of his cheek. You
got that right. See you in hell, asshole.

The staircase was metal, and they
climbed down as quietly as they could, Jack flashing the light
ahead and to the sides.

“
Lily?”
Sean tried their shared link, knowing better than to try the
common path, but not hoping for much.

“
Oh my God, Sean! I can
hear you! Is Jack with you? He’s been blocking me the whole
time.”

“
Yeah he’s here. I’m in the
bunker. Are you anywhere near here, or have I just walked into a
trap?”

“
No, I’m here, somewhere.
Edward has a secret lab here as well. He’s behind the whole
thing…the virus, the vamps, everything. If Jack’s not blocking me
anymore, then he must be hoping you’ll follow my lead. Maybe you
should pretend you still can’t hear me.”