"It was the dogs, sir!" Sasha yelled quickly, as Hunter slowly got up. "Tell them to put down their weapons and hold their fire. As long as you"re threatening me, he will use deadly force! Look at me, I"m unarmed!"
"Stand down," Colonel Madison said slowly, his tone unsure and grudging as he brushed himself off. His eyes never left Hunter"s.
Sasha held Hunter"s arm. "Call off the dogs," she yelled to the surrounding soldiers, who stood mesmerized, clutching their weapons. "We are the property of the U.S. government, the ultimate fighting machines created and designed to combat this enemy threat. We are not the enemy!"
"We, h.e.l.l. . ." Hunter muttered.
Hunter spit on the ground, his furious gaze following Colonel Madison. When none of the soldiers moved he turned and growled at the pack of dogs; they yelped and scurried back toward their masters.
"She said to call the animals off!" Hunter shouted, eyes blazing. He lolled his neck and then sent an angry gaze back toward Colonel Madison. "You abducted her from her apartment and put her in a cage!"
"Noa""
"I smelled him there, Sasha! Do not protect this b.a.s.t.a.r.d any longer!"
"Okay, he was there, but it was all a big misunderstanding. True, he trashed my apartment and there was a little dispute at the base," Sasha said quickly, coming between Hunter and Madison with her eye constantly on the snipers" positions. She flat-palmed Hunter"s bare chest. "But, baby, can we talk about all of this after we both put on some clothes?"
CHAPTER 12.
"Risky ... unorthodox," Sasha said, teasing Hunter as they walked through the burned-out Bayou House, "but effective. Done with a certain theatrical flair." She didn"t want to razz the man too badly, but he had to know that the stunt he"d just pulled could have cost him his life. Maybe it was sheer relief that was now making her giddy.
"I said I was sorry," he rumbled in a sullen tone, walking past her.
"Hey," she replied, putting both hands up in front of her chest and trying hard not to laugh. "It got a response, so who"s mad?"
"I thought they were after you," he said, growing more peevish. "It was an honest mistake."
Sasha jogged to catch up to Hunter, and she held his arm for a second. "Battlefield humor, I"m sorry. You could have been shota"a single sh.e.l.l to the head." She touched his face and gentled her tone. "Those boys out there are quick and accurate, Hunter. The only reason we"re both still standing is because Madison was in the way and they"d never seen anything like that before. That gave us maybe five seconds."
"I thought..."
"I know. That was my faulta"I couldn"t get in touch with you, though. When I got back and saw my apartment, it was only minutes before MPs came and said that the bra.s.s back at the base wanted to have a word with me." She blew out a hard breath. "And yeah, it was f.u.c.ked up, but I wasn"t in mortal danger... so from here on out, you"ve gotta trust me, okay? Our human politics are as messy as supernatural politicsa" but I"m not a damsel in distress. I"m not going to stand around and let them put me in front of a firing squad or something equally archaic, that I promise you."
When he sent his gaze out of one of the shattered windows, she leaned in and kissed his cheek. "It was kinda sweet, really . . . it"s not often that a girl who carries a sidearm gets to have somebody go Old World for her, ya know."
He cut her a glare and she smiled.
"I"m not teasing you or being sarcastic. I meant that."
"I will trust you in the future, but it"s hard not to follow my instincts around you." Hunter sent his gaze toward the window again. "They"re just standing there, staring at the building. What do they want? The colonel said that we could collect our clothes and dress, and could come in here to see if we could gain intel from any scent trail that might be lingering."
"They"re probably trying to decide whether to hit the building with a rocket-propelled grenade or call in a frickin" missile air strike or something," she said. chuckling, but then held Hunter"s arm when he growled. "Just joking." She shook her head. "It"s freaked-out humana"that"s what you"re witnessing. First we were people in their minds... but you did a Houdini and Same out of a shadow. Then, presto-chango, we trans-formed into wolvesa"always a good thing to get the human heart and adrenaline pumping. Not to mention sou being a three-hundred-pounder on four legs that moved like black lightning and probably ruined every dog out there. Then we turned into naked people right in front of everybody, embarra.s.sing, but I digress. However, the upside of that is, if the colonel had any questions about whose d.i.c.k was bigger in a p.i.s.sing contest... uh ... I"d say he"s now been thoroughly briefed."
Staring at Hunter"s profile, Sasha placed a finger to her lips with a wide smile behind it for a moment, watching a sly half smile finally come out of hiding on Hunter"s face. "The boys in uniform back there are just a little worse for the wear emotionally. Plus, don"t forget, this was the scene of a mauling, and whatever did it came out of this building. So, yeah, they"re watching the building really, really hard."
She tugged Hunter"s arm so he"d follow her. "I wouldn"t stand too close to the windows right now while they"re jumpy."
Although the building yielded nothing, the afternoon wasn"t a complete loss. Something remotely close to respect had been established now that Madison finally got to see with his own eyes, along with about fifty other specialized personnel, what had always been kept on a need-to-know basis. Reading it in a report was definitely a different experience from seeing it live. Another real plus was that Colonel Madison now saw her and Hunter as true experts and was giving some ground, allowing them to suss out any evidence leads and no longer barring them from crime scenes.
The only thing was that the man insisted on a private debrief in his Humvee, which meant she had to leave Hunter out there waiting for her with extremely jumpy soldiers giving him wide berth. This little impromptu meeting was burning valuable daylight, but if it got Madison to stop acting like an a.s.shole, she"d endure it.
"I, uh, had a few questions, Captain," Madison said nervously as they both climbed into the vehicle and shut the doors. He glanced at the two soldiers who stood not far off at the ready.
She glanced at Hunter and gave him a nod that it was all right.
"Sir?" she said, turning to the colonel.
"They"re personal in nature, some of my questions ... off the record, just as one soldier to another."
"Sure, sir," Sasha said, relaxing, finally beginning to see the man behind the bl.u.s.ter.
"What does it feel like?"
"Sir?"
Colonel Madison chewed his bottom lip. "To be able to change into something that powerful at will."
"Oh, the wolf thing," she said with a weary sigh. "At first, it scared mea"sorta like being a new driver and somebody sits you behind the wheel of a Porsche on the Autobahn. The first time I changed . .. man ... I freaked out, sir."
"Your partnera"or contacta"had to stand three feet at the shoulders . .." Colonel Madison rubbed his palms down his face. "Jesus H. Christ."
"Yeah, well, Hunter is a little special, sir."
Colonel Madison glanced out the window. "Are they all that huge? There"s more?"
"No, and yes. No, they aren"t all that hugea"Hunter is a pack alpha, sir. Until there"s one who can take him, he rules North America. And yes, sir, there are a lot of them. Hundreds."
"How did we survive, as humans?" Colonel Madison"s eyes were wide as he glanced from Sasha to Hunter, standing off in the distance. "They could have eaten us all by now, right?"
"No," she said, shaking her head, becoming annoyed. The bra.s.s were as bad as Congress; n.o.body read the full reports. "Normal Werewolves and Shadow Wolves, just like regular wolves, have a complete aversion to human flesh. Yeah, they"ll give cattle ranchers a run for their money, but they don"t go after human beings unless those wolves that attack are demon-infected."
The colonel nodded, but she could tell by his stricken expression that her comment hadn"t made him feel better.
"And .. . along with demons, then, there"s Vampires, right?"
"Affirmative, sir." Sasha gently touched his arm to steady him. "And there are Unicorns and Elves, Dragons, and pretty much everything else that you heard about as a child in so-called mythology and fairy tales."
She watched sweat bead on the colonel"s brow. He nervously wiped at it with his forearm. She removed her hand after feeling dozens of questions br.i.m.m.i.n.g under his skin; some he"d ask her now, some would come out over time and a beer, if things ever got that relaxed between them. But it was nothing she hadn"t heard before. h.e.l.l, Winters had asked her if she-Shadows had litters of puppies versus one human-looking baby, and even a swift kick from Clarissa hadn"t dissuaded him.
"I read most of your reports and initially thought a lot of it was bulls.h.i.t..." Colonel Madison finally stammered. "I thoughta"I don"t know."
"It is a lot to take in at one time, sir."
"I"ll never be able to sleep at night without meds after thisa"after knowing."
"If it"s any consolation, sir, General Westford said the same thing when he first took over our unit. It is a mental paradigm shift that takes some getting used to."
Colonel Madison stared at her for a moment with a pained expression. "But how do we win against this, Captain?"
"You coexist with it, you can"t wipe it out. It"s been around too long. What I"ve been trying to get across to the Joint Chiefs is that, if we elect to go to war, go into direct confrontation . . . well, the. ramifications could be catastrophic. Each group of ent.i.tiesa"which prefer to be called beings, if you want to be politically correcta" considers itself a sovereign nation that was here on this land first, just like the Native Americans were, and they will fight to the last being to protect their boundaries, populations, cultures, and borders. So rather than behaving like exterminators, we have to be in the mindset that we"re supernatural cops . . . patrol officers or, better yet, peace officers that kinda keep the lid on things when one of the species gets out of handa"and eating us is getting out of hand. No one from the supernatural community is going to blame us for retaliating against what just happened back there with you and your men. They"d do no less."
"But how do we guard against such attacks ... I mean, I saw what a wolf can do. Captain, no offense, but I saw you and Hunter, and I"m glad you"re on our side. I"ve gotta tell you, though, my men are freaked out. . . I"m trying to be sure not to make any sudden moves while talking to you in this vehicle so I don"t seem like I"m threatening you in any way. I don"t know how to read this. How in the h.e.l.l do we keep the human population safe if the supernaturals pick us off like cattle to eat us whenever they want?"
"Generally, that doesn"t happen, unless something is going wrong. But they have their serial killers from time to time just like we have oursa"and the supernaturals hate their nut jobs just as much as we hate ours, because letting them roam loose causes chaos and draws undue attention to their otherwise quiet, off-the-human-grid existence."
"You keep saying "us" and "we" when referring to humans, Captain ... and I mean no disrespect, but how can you say "us" when you"re technically not human?"
For a moment Sasha just stared at him, but then nodded to make him know that no offense had been taken. The last thing she wanted to do was scare the poor man by delaying her reply, but his statement had taken her aback. He was right. Until he"d pointed that out to her, she hadn"t thought of it that way.
"I.. . sir . .. you"re right," she said, now looking out of the window. "I"m a hybrid .. . half human." She returned her conflicted gaze to his. "I was raised as a human, conditioned as a soldier, and love the uniform I wear and represent. But you"re right. I walk a fine line. When I speak of humans, my mind says "we" and "us." But when I"m with my wolf pack and the den leaders, the Shadows, I also say "we" and "us." I guess that"s something anyone who is half of one thing and half of another goes through? You claim, and are claimed by, both. But rest a.s.sured, Shadow Wolves don"t eat people and I"ve never, ever in my life fed on a person. Nor has Hunter."
The colonel nodded, seeming to understand and seeming equally relieved by her a.s.surance. "But what about the Vampires?" he asked after a moment, new strain lacing his voice. "Okay, I can see how the wolves and whatever can eat other things besides people, but the ent.i.ties that survive on human blooda"what do they do, go to blood banks?"
"Well, there"s the rub, sir," she said, trying not to smile. "Vampires prefer their blood warm from the vein with a little adrenaline fear kick mixed with some s.e.xual desire in a c.o.c.ktail served right off the necka" but there are enough kinky donors to keep down the attacks on humans who don"t want to play."
"Who in the h.e.l.l would knowingly give their neck up to a bloodsucker?" Colonel Madison leaned forward, eyes bulging.
"They tell me those beings are really good in bed. I can"t give you perspective from direct contact... but they definitely have a cult following of humansa"plus they"re rich as all get-out. Then, of course, they have their own private-label bottles, hideaway blood banks for emergencies, et cetera."
Colonel Madison sat back as though he"d been sucker-punched. He stared out the window toward Hunter and spoke to Sasha without looking at her. "Can I ask you something, Captain, that"s really personal.. . you don"t have to answer, but I"m trying to wrap my mind around so much in the last twenty-four hours that..."
"It"s okay, Colonel."
"Hunter, as you call him ... he"s not just a subject-matter guide, he"s a paramour, right?"
She swallowed a smile. "Uh, yeah . . . sir. . . and he"s also a head of state in the wolf world, like I am."
She waited until he looked at her full-on. "Trashing my apartment, locking me up, pointing weapons at me, stuff like that, sir, would be like going into the White House and treating the POTUS"s wife like that... it would cause Secret Service to come running from fifteen directions to put you down hard, sir. Not a threat, just a fact that you should know, sir."
"Okay," Colonel Madison said, glancing from where Hunter stood outside then back to Sasha. "I hadn"t really put all that together in quite that way before."
"Not a problem, sir. .. just know that we have a vested interest in keeping a lid on this current problem and finding out who did it."
"That"s good to know, Captain," Colonel Madison said with a genuine nod of respect. "Thank you for that."
"I may have been made in a lab, but we wear the same uniform, sir. I know your men meant a lot to you ... I know they meant a lot to their families. We"ll find who did it. . . but you have to let me work unenc.u.mbered, sir. You have to get our people to stop shooting at me and Hunter and stop delaying us during the investigation." She nodded toward the crime scene. "The scent trail is worthless to us now, just like your dogs out there are walking in circles because there"s been so much human contamination to the site."
Colonel Madison nodded. "We"ll stand down and just keep a scene containment squad. We can be at your ready."
"Sir," she said glancing at the late-afternoon sky. "Please take my advice when I tell you that in all honesty, since it"ll be getting dark soon, the safest place for all your men is back at the base. You leave a unit of young soldiers out here in the bayou at night to protect a crime scene that"s as good as worthless, and you"ll just be asking for their funerals."
She"d gotten out of the Humvee mentally drained. The colonel"s innocent questions had given her a lot to think about regarding her personal life. How did she identify, human or wolf? And that a.n.a.logy to the POTUS"s wife? Sheesh!
However, the nature of her ident.i.tya"wolf or humana"was a truly haunting question that would linger at the back of her mind for a long time to come. It was the crux of the issue that Hunter wanted resolved within her once and for all. She was just glad that Hunter was completely ready to get out of there. Sir Rodney and Shogun were waiting on his return in town, and they were all losing precious daylight.
It was odd to see everyone gather around her and Hunter with curious gazes. But it was good that as long as she announced how they were going to leave by way of shadowa"with everyone looking on in awe at the spectaclea"thankfully no one would get nervous and shoot.
CHAPTER 13.
Diner patrons craned their necks to watch the television on the wall as the waitress turned up the volume with the remote. Even the fry chef leaned through the kitchen part.i.tion to hear the breaking news. The cable news anchor"s voice blared through the now silent eatery before announcing Colonel Madison.
"The U.S. military is calling off its investigation of paranormal activity in the New Orleans area, citing insufficient evidence. In a news conference expected to take place in the next few minutes, West Point graduate Colonel Keith J. Madison, who had been appointed to a special investigatory unit by the Pentagon"s Joint Chiefs in Washington, will take the podium."
Russell Conway stared at the screen in disbelief as the diner began to murmur with disgruntled comments. But a hush fell over the establishment once again as soon as the images on the screen cut away to a live shot at the NAS base.
"Good afternoon," Colonel Madison said, reading from a prepared statement. "We have combed the area with the best forensics teams and technology, as well as employing some more traditional techniques such as tracking dogs. Based upon what we"ve been able to view with boots on the ground, we believe at this time that the incidents that have occurred and have unfortunately taken human lives were the result of catastrophic drug wars that played out on American streets. As you are aware, the Mexican drug cartels are brutal, using heavy body armor and a.s.sault weapons like AK-47s, et cetra. When seeking revenge, it is also characteristic of those illegal organizations to take hostages and dismember victims of their kidnappings in order to strike terror into the hearts of those they seek to leverage. Therefore, our units will reinforce the border and place additional pressure on these cartels by a.s.sisting the efforts of American law enforcement, which has been stretched thin."
Reporters at the press conference went wild, shouting questions toward the colonel. The governor at the podium had to regain order.
"Colonel Madison will answer a few questions only and then he must return to more pressing matters," the governor said crisply, and then waited for a nod from Colonel Madison to choose a journalist.
"What was going on in the bayou last night, Colonel? Why was there a no-fly zone over the old Bayou House? Some say there was an incident out there involving heavy gunplay? Were any military personnel or civilians hurt?"
Colonel Madison cleared his throat. "Although that was more than one question, I will be happy to answer."
Nervous laughter filtered through the television crowd, and Russell leaned forward to hear better.
Local law enforcement as well as the FBI have been doing a fine job combing the residential areas and business districts. Therefore, the military went back to the original scene of the horrific shoot-out that occurred at the location. The Bayou House was our AO, area of operationa"and we did not want news helicopters flying overhead and possibly prematurely broadcasting any potentially sensitive data that could help us in the investigation. Now that we know there was no additional evidence to be found, we have removed our restriction. However, the area is still dangerous, the building out there is unstablea"hence it is still off limits. We do not want civilians going out there scavenging or doing amateur investigations until all rubbish can be removed from the site."
"But what about the reports of gunfire, Colonel?" another reporter shouted.
"We have no knowledge of that in the area." Colonel Madison looked away. "Next question."
"Ambulances went down the road, Colonel. So you"re saying there were no fatalities or injuries out there?"
"No." Colonel Madison lifted his chin, ignoring the new barrage of questions. He gave the governor a look, who stepped in front of him at the podium.
"Martial law will continue in New Orleans for another week at least until the local law enforcement and FBI can ensure that the violent activity surrounding this most recent drug war outburst has been contained."