"She did not abandon you," Silver Hawk said, reading his expression.
Hunter closed his eyes. He didn"t want to suffer a lecture. He just thought she"d be there when he woke up.
"Sasha is doing what she must to protect her pack, no less than what you would do if a demon incursion were eating members of the Shadow Wolf Clan. She did not sleep all night. I could see the fatigue in her eyes. She sat vigil for you until the dawn and then came in search of me."
"Sasha will always do what duty demands," Hunter said in a raspy voice.
"No," his grandfather said, touching the dual amulets Hunter wore. "She gave you a part of her spirit... duty never demanded that." He stared down at Hunter, his wise eyes speaking volumes beyond his Spartan comments. "It is an immeasurable gift. Do not let your temporary disappointment or ego squander it."
Russell Conway clicked off the television remote and flung it across the room. Rage held back the tears in his eyes as he jumped up, rushed to the bathroom, and searched through his toiletries bag with shaking hands. He laughed out loud when he saw the plastic razor and then stared into the mirror for a moment before dashing out of the bathroom to the small kitchenette to locate a knife.
Holding his wrist out over the sink he pressed down on the blade. They didn"t believe him; they thought he was a fraud. He"d seen what he"d seen. He had proof! A Werewolf had butchered his mother and little sister right before his eyes. He could see it as though it were yesterday. And now they were calling everything a hoax? He hadn"t dedicated his life to a hoax... he hadn"t!
"I"m not crazy," he said in a trembling voice, pressing down harder on the blade. "I"m not!"
Esmeralda touched the corridor walls lightly, taking her time as she moved timidly without her natural sight. She had to find Sir Rodney, had to let him know about her vision. Fort Shannon of Inverness, the House of Clerka"his rule would soon be under attack. Only her third-eye vision guided her past coats of armor and tapestries, and then she stopped when she heard familiar footfalls.
"Milady! My goodness! You should be recovering," Rupert said, rushing to take her elbow.
Esmeralda brought a graceful hand up to her eyes, touching the swirling colored miasma of sparkles that covered them. "Do I look horrible now?"
"Oh, no, milady ... do not disturb the healing. It is beautiful, just like you . . . like a thousand tiny lights of the Faeries garden." Rupert soothed her with a hug. "You will forever be beautiful to all of us. You tried to help our sovereign and he will not abandon you."
She wiped at a tear that hadn"t fallen and the sight of that made Rupert swallow hard.
"I"ve had a vision, a horrible vision that I must convey to Sir Rodney right away. I want to still be useful to him while I"m here, not just thought of as an invalid to be tucked away."
"He will keep you here in the sidhe, I"m sure ... as, maybe, his seer. Sometimes when we lose one gift, another comes in its place. I know that Garth would try with all his might to do that for you, if it was in his powers," Rupert said delicately. "Come, let me guide you back to your room. The Pixies will help you robe while I fetch the king."
There was no explanation about why the bureaucratic side of all things government took so long. Fatigue and frustration weighed on her heavily as she double-checked rounds with Woods and Fisher to be sure that everyone on the mission had silver-dust-filled sh.e.l.ls, understood supernatural protocols, and had a chance to get out of the bayou alive.
Late-afternoon sun took a dip behind the trees, and just seeing that made her crazy. All morning she"d been at the base, readying men, talking by VTC to the Joint Chiefs with Colonel Madison, and fact-checking demon-hunting protocols with Bradley and the NORAD team. Shogun and Crow Shadow had thankfully hit her cell with messages that they were headed back to the sidhe. That was the only way she could get a message back to Hunter, by way of a third partya"and that made her stomach clench.
"Captain, we"ve got a problem that Lieutenant Campbell pointed outa"and it"s a valid concern."
Sasha briefly closed her eyes. "Give it to me with both barrels, Woods." She had to get back to the sidhe, and had to get to Russell Conway to give the man a ray of hope. She felt like she was stuck in mola.s.ses, walking through the day in it. Everything seemed to be conspiring to keep her from getting back to where she wanted to be most, back at Hunter"s side.
"These guys are going into a firefight with night-vision goggles ... but the goggles don"t register color, just the gleam. Everything in the sight line of the goggles is a weird green tint. So they can"t tell at a split-second glance if the eyes of something coming at them are red, green, or gold. That"s a problem."
Sasha kicked the jeep tire hard. "Oh, just kiss my a.s.s!"
CHAPTER 24.
Functioning on hour thirty-six with no sleep, battle fatigue, worry, and delay after delay at the base, Sasha felt the Louisiana heat beginning to take its toll. Her sidearm was like an anvil, adding to the weight of everything else. It was almost dusk and there wasn"t even enough time for her to grab a bite to eat; she"d been living off whatever munchies she could scavenge from vending machines. Pathetic.
She held herself up by the second-floor railing of the motel, intermittently lifting her sweat-soaked T-shirt off her back as she waited for Russell Conway to open the door. "C"mon, Mister Conway. Open up. I know you"re in there. I can hear you," Sasha called out, quickly losing patience.
This was a courtesy call, one she really didn"t have time for. But something moved her to do it. The poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d seemed like the type who might put a bullet in his skull if people didn"t believe him, and she so did not need to have that on her conscience along with everything else.
"Finally," she muttered as she heard movement coming toward the door.
A bleary-eyed Russell Conway opened the door a crack. "What"s this? You all coming to take me to the crazy house to keep me quiet?"
"No," Sasha said, lifting her damp hair off her neck. "I came to apologize to you for what had to be done." Sasha let out an exasperated breath. "Look, I went to a lot of trouble to find you, sir. You"ve moved from the hotel in town where you"d been staying to way out here in this motel. If I could just have a minute of your time, I"ll be on my way."
Frowning, he peered around the door a little farther. "This is a trick, isn"t ita"to lure me out so you all can grab me."
Sasha stood back from the door and held her hands up in front of her chest. "n.o.body wants to take you into custody, sir. In fact, I"m not even supposed to be here. But I felt bad that your story had to be discredited to keep down public panic."
"Really?" he said, opening the door wider.
Sasha"s eyes went to his bloodied wrists and the gasp came out before she could stop it.
"I just gave up," he said, dropping the knife onto the motel carpet. "But I couldn"t make the knife cut all the waya"I need something sharper."
"Oh, G.o.d, sir," Sasha said in a rush. "Please let me in. I can help you, if you"ll let me explain."
"Okay," Russell Conway said in a tone that sounded like that of a frightened child.
This was exactly what Sasha was afraid of, and she hurried in behind Russell and shut the door.
"Listen," she said. "We know you aren"t crazy. There are definitely things out there that kill humansa"things that aren"t human."
"Oh . . . I know," he said and nodded, then calmly walked back toward the small kitchenette.
"But. . . sometimes we have to make deals, make compromises for the greater good."
"I understand that, too," Russell said. "I learned that as a young boy."
"I know this has been awfully difficult for you, sir ... I"m sorry."
"Me, too," he said, picking up a backpack and extracting a nine-millimeter. He quickly put it under his chin.
"Please don"t do that, Russell," Sasha said, walking toward him slowly. "It"s going to be all right. Please give me the gun . .. please."
"I understand about making deals," he said with a peaceful smile. "I made a deal as a boy with something in that woods that night. It told me to take off the charm and it would keep the monsters, all of them, from coming back. Werewolves wouldn"t be able to hurt me, Vampires wouldn"t. I would be safe, so I took that deal. But when I wanted people to know, it kept saying, "Feed me. That was not a part of our deal." So I tried to cut my wrists and they just healed up. I was about to try this when you came."
Before she could move, he pulled the trigger. Horror consumed her as the back of his head hit the cabinets in a wet thud. Sasha backed away, her mind on a crash course to call 911, but Russell"s body never dropped, nor did it lose the sardonic smile on his face.
"See," he said. "Some deals are permanent."
Her back slammed against the door and then a force blew her through it. Sasha went over the rail backward, but flipped to land on all fours. A green serpent-like body bullwhipped at her over the railing, still wearing Russell Conway"s disfigured head.
Sasha dove for the nearest shadow. She had to get this thing away from civilians and into the bayou. But the moment she entered the shadow lands, something sucked her into a hard spiral at breathtaking velocity, She clutched at her chest, searching for her amulet that wasn"t there. A scream left her lungs. She"d given Hunter the only thing that could keep her from the wrong side of a demon door.
Tumbling, falling, she blindly reached for her side-arm and began firing. The shadows belched her out in a ground slam in the swamp, and she was up in a flash and running.
Tree limbs s.n.a.t.c.hed at her, yanking at her clothes and hair as she weaved and bobbed through the treacherous maze. Leaves became razor-sharp projectiles flying at her as she dodged behind trees, and then had to flee them as they came alive. Green slime was on the move, like a high-speed serpent, twisting and turning Russell"s bloodied skull in search of her.
Unable to take to the shadows, she had to opt for wolf speed, but calling her wolf was a dangerous prospect. That would leave her unarmed; there was no way her wolf could take this thing that was chasing her.
Releasing a howl to call for backup, she hoped she was in range of the sidhe as the thing chasing her thundered behind her, ripping up tree roots and swamp flooring.
Hunter got up slowly, holding his side, pushing past Silver Hawk"s protests. "Something is not right."
"You are healing and allowing your worries toa""
"No, Grandfather! She is in mortal danger."
"You promised her," Silver Hawk said, holding Hunter by both arms. "You told her you wouldn"t inter-fere with the human maneuvers, except to help. You could put her in harm"s way by causing them to accidentally fire on you or her."
Hunter held on to a bedpost and leaned against it with a wince.
"You are in no condition to act on an impulse that isn"t real. Rest."
"I just can"t seem to, Grandfather," Hunter said, moving toward the chair to find his pants. "I cannot."
Woods had heard the howl first and relayed it to Fisher.
"Showtime, peoplea"incoming!" Fisher yelled as Marines took their positions.
Colonel Madison watched through binoculars from a fallback position in an armored vehicle. "Hold your position," he said into a walkie-talkie. "Fire only after Captain Trudeau is on the right side of the firefight."
Sasha whizzed past Woods, grabbing him by the arm. "Go, go, go! Fall back!"
Fisher lifted a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and fired into the green slime, blowing Russell"s head off the end of it.
"Fall back!" Colonel Madison shouted.
But panicked troops released hot bursts of machine-gun fire that only seemed to make the creature angrier. Sending out tentacles, it bullwhipped a jeep into the trees, sending soldiers running for cover.
Fae archers dropped down behind the demon and began a rain of silver torment that made the creature loop back and lash out at them. Before a Fae archer could be grabbed, a Marine sharpshooter hit a quick-moving tentacle with a silver-loaded bazooka sh.e.l.l. The archer fell; another Marine dragged him to safety as the hit tentacle burst into flames, then withered, screeching. Respect flashed between the two beings, one Fae, one human, but there wasn"t time for it to mature.
Fisher pulled up the Marine, who then got the Fae archer to his feet.
"Good looking out, mate," the archer said, and then ran for the tree line.
"They"ve got Brits out here with us?" the young soldier asked, running for cover behind another tree.
"Something like that," Fisher said, yanking the young man out of the way of another tentacle slash.
A special forces unit was pinned down in black water as Sasha made another pa.s.s. She sprayed the tentacles behind them with a handheld Uzi burst and yelled for them to reverse their direction.
"Get out of the water!" she shouted, trying to give the men cover.
Hunter came out of a shadow holding on to a tree, then jumped out of the way when the branches tried to take his head off.
"Sasha!"
She turned to the sound of his voice. It all felt like it was happening so slowly, but time had no meaning as she dove to push Hunter out of the way of a thick root that would gore him through his back. He caught her going down into the spill of a shadow"s edge. She screamed "No" as the demon left the swamp and followed behind her.
Spiraling wildly, she"d expected them to come out on the wrong side of a demon door, and clearly so had the demon. But instead they came out in the courtyard of the sidhea"apparently her lack of an amulet, combined with Hunter"s having two on, had screwed up his trajectory, and now a demon was inside the garrison.
Sir Rodney was on the front line with his men as chaos broke loose. "Battle stations!"
Wolves transformed to chase the ent.i.ty into the courtyard, containing the lashing tentacles with their ferocious jaws as Gnomes rushed around the perimeter with silver, sealing off its ability to gain purchase on any being. Wizard wands came out, sending hard arcs of magic discharges with lightning-bolt accuracy.
The demon burst into a cold green flame, attempting to run, and then hit the silver-dust circle and screamed a horrifying wail. Dragons from the castle turrets swooped down and kept the nemesis from an airborne escape, and it could not penetrate the groupa"the circle had done its job.
Garth stepped forward, his wand poised. "I command you back to h.e.l.l from whence you camea"a creature lured by Vampires and conjured by covens to wreak havoc among our alliancea"never to inhabit another being, never to be able to escape the dark cauldron again!"
An explosion rocked the castle, toppling Fae infantrymen and leaving a smoking black hole in the ground. Sasha transformed back slowly and touched Hunter"s cheek, inspecting his wounds that had begun to bleed again.
"You shouldn"t have come for me ... but I"m glad you did."
CHAPTER 25.
"You sure I can"t convince you otherwise, Captain?" Colonel Madison said in a wistful tone. "That was some serious firefighting back there, Trudeau, and we could definitely use a soldier like you in uniform."
"Thank you, sir . . . but this is it for me." She smiled and glanced out the window. "As soon as my resignation papers go through, I"m gonna take a trip to China ... my brother-in-law is thinking seriously about getting married. We need a little R and R; Hunter"s ribs are still pretty banged up. Our Fae allies are in tense negotiations .. . Vampires are still an unstable regional element. Plus, I"m gonna be an aunt." She looked at him with a big smile. "You know, sir. Life."
"I hear you, Captain. I can"t argue with that. But I admit that I"m glad that you won"t be too far away from us. We"re getting your contracts drawn up to have your firm be our sole source consultant on paranormal activity. Mark Winters is your primary contact while you"re gone?"