Cold Moon Rising (18 page)

“I’m thinking you’ve got the wrong wolf, gentlemen.”

Ahmad’s voice was a smooth hiss that made the hairs on my arms stand at attention. He’s never liked being told no. Fortunately, though, whatever Charles had done to the room made it so that he couldn’t sting me with magic. “It’sss not as though you have a choiccce in the matter.”

I shook my head once, firmly. “There are always choices.”

“Not if you want to live.” He wasn’t backing down, but I wasn’t either.

I smiled grimly. “That’s one of the choices.”

Lucas cut in. “Tony doesn’t respond to threats well, Ahmad. He’s got a similar background to your own, and reacts to pain and death about like you did with your father.”

That stopped him cold and it told me more about him than I really wanted to know. “I see. How attached is he to the woman we saved?”

The growl that erupted from me at the threat to Sue made him raise his brows, realizing he’d hit a nerve. But before I could do much more than lean forward, Charles let out a sigh. “That’s quite enough. We’re not going to threaten him, Ahmad. There’s no need. All Tony requires to cooperate is for us to make it worth his while.”

I had to shake my head. “Not this time, I’m afraid. I can’t think of any amount of money that would convince me to be bound to him.” I jerked my thumb toward the snake king. I was pretty sure from his expression that if Charles hadn’t locked down the room to prevent magic, he’d have sliced and diced me without ever leaving his chair.

“Money’s not the only thing we have to offer.” Lucas apparently still had some cards up his sleeve, because his tone was enough for me to turn to him with interest. He had his hands clasped on the desk in front of him, with that absolute poker face that good attorneys can manage. “We also have permission to put on the table.”

That piqued my interest. “To do what?”

Charles also leaned forward slightly and rested an elbow on the desk. “To find out what happened to your old boss. Carte blanche to investigate where the trail leads.”

I let my body drop back into the chair and tapped a finger on the armrest. It wouldn’t do any good to try to hide what I was thinking. All of them could smell where the emotions led and it was even money that one of them could probably read thoughts—though I’d probably never find out which one. “And when I find the person or persons responsible?”

Lucas blinked first, so the permission didn’t extend as far as I needed it to go. “Then we’ll talk.”

Now I shook my head, but not so much that it said an absolute no. Just enough so they knew that there had to be more in the pot. “Not enough. I have to finish it. I owe Carmine at least that, a dozen times over.”

The old wolf merely shrugged. “Then I guess you’ll need to turn in a compelling report, with all the I’s dotted, so I can justify any finishing to the council.”

There it was then. I was being offered a sanctioned kill of the men who put Carmine on life support, provided I could make the reason sound legitimate enough for Lucas—the former trial lawyer—to sign off on. And all I had to do was be a tape recorder for Ahmad while he went undercover for—“For how long? How long is this undercover thing going to last?”

“Unknown.” That from Ahmad, who wasn’t liking this any more than I. “I would prefer to have it over in a week or so, but it’s impossible to judge. Obviously, my goal is to only involve you when something critical is occurring . . . a meeting or event that’s worth the council knowing. My mental shields are formidable, so I can’t imagine either of us will be inconvenienced very often or very long.”

So, he didn’t want me attached to him any more than I wanted to be attached, and I didn’t doubt he had good shields. He’s had centuries to practice up. Now it wasn’t sounding like such a bad thing. “And if . . . if I agree to this, when would this ceremony happen? I’ve been on four assignments in a row, and could use a day or two break before I start anything. You know, meet and greet with the wife, have a dinner that’s not out of a can or wrapper—that sort of thing.”

Ahmad shook his head. I was afraid of that. “I must return tomorrow evening at the latest and it’s a long flight. If we’re to do the ritual at all before I leave, it will have to be no later than tomorrow morning. But tonight is the full moon, and while any ritual would have considerably more power, it would also hold a greater risk, for both me and the healers.”

No mention of concern for me. Gee, what a surprise. I just knew this was going to be another one of those things I was going to regret, but—“Okay, I guess I don’t have much choice. I don’t much like the idea, but so far it hasn’t been worse than a hindsight, and I’ve gotten used to those. Just let me go hunt and I guess we’ll do this tomorrow.”

He nodded once, about the only acknowledgment or thanks I was probably going to get. “Until then.”

Before I could even reply, his face was buried back in the file, leaving Lucas to shake his head and Charles to roll his eyes before speaking.

“We appreciate this, Tony. It’s vital that we learn what Sargon was up to in the jungle. This might be our best chance to find out without sending in a strike force and risking them scattering for months or years.”

Since I’d spent the better part of six months moving from state to state, trying to track these guys down, I wasn’t going to argue it was time to find out their plan. “Yeah, he has some real sickos working for him. Glad I never had the displeasure to meet him in person.”

Ahmad spoke without ever looking my way. “It would have been a very short meeting. My father loathed wolves.”

“And cats, and bears, birds and humans . . . pretty much everything other than snakes was beneath his notice,” Lucas added. “But one thing nice about Sargon was that his goal was always simple—snakes should rule the earth, and he should rule the snakes.”

Ahmad looked up then and let out a little sigh of frustration, which didn’t seem like him. “But as simple as the goal was, the plan to get there was intricate beyond belief, and could easily survive his death. That’s why we have to learn what we can, while we can. Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I need to finish reading this report if Charles is to take it back with him.”

That was my cue. It was time to go find Sue and spend some quality time getting to know her again.

“And you and I should talk, Lucas, about this bounty hunter business.” Charles half stood from his seat and Lucas did the same. He reached for the doorknob to what I presumed was an adjoining office. I didn’t think I was invited, so it was time to make my exit out the main door. I only hoped that it wasn’t going to be another frantic series of people grabbing at me.

Chapter Nine

PFFT! NO WORRIES about that. There wasn’t a soul in the place. I wasn’t sure what Charles had done to the room, but when I walked out the door into the darkened, deserted hallway, it was nearly a dozen steps before I could hear again. It was like a vacuum seal popping and then sound returned in a crash of thunder and staccato phone rings behind the nurse station—so loud it made me jump.

Where in the hell was everyone?

The steady drumbeat of rain on the metal roof, combined with a second immense boom made me realize the weather had gone to hell. I shouldn’t be surprised. I remember someone in Chicago being amazed that the skies were clear because having too many powerful Sazi in one place tended to wreak havoc with the weather.

I got a general sense of joy and contentment from Sue, so I was assuming she was still with Linda and Babs somewhere in the clinic. I started poking my head into doorways but there were no people. What had happened while I was in the room with the others? Another crash through the pounding rain hurt my ears. It occurred to me that the power had probably gone out. Everyone likely retreated to somewhere in the clinic with lights. Most every hospital I’ve encountered has some sort of generator to keep vital equipment going in critical areas, so I just had to find that place.

The easiest way was probably just to ask, since this was Lucas’s stomping grounds. I turned around to go back and check with the others, but the way was barred. I raised my hands and felt around, but all I found was a smooth wall of nothing—like a bird trying to find a way through a plate-glass window. Even when I took off the gloves and tucked them in my pocket, there was nothing to feel. I could see, but there was no walking through it. I was also betting they wouldn’t hear me knocking even if I did, since I hadn’t noticed the storm while inside.

When I reached the nurse station, I stepped behind the desk and looked around on the counter and work area for a note or message for one of us about the situation. But there was nothing. At least, there was nothing until I turned around to the computer station. That’s when I saw the smear of red on the keyboard during a lightning flash. My Taurus five–shot sort of appeared in my hand without my conscious recollection of pulling it from the holster at the small of my back. Even as I was reaching to check whether the blood was fresh or old I was scanning the area, looking for a target. Yep, it was still wet, slick, and warm between my thumb and forefinger. I searched around, now looking under the desk, inside cabinets, and behind doors. But there were no bodies, and no other bloodstains.

I moved to the pale cream wall and flattened, moving sideways smoothly. I slid through the shadows where the flashes of lightning didn’t reach and used the moments of light to keep watch around me. It might be that nothing was wrong and I’d wind up scaring the shit out of the nurse, bandaging her own nasty paper cut. But better safe than sorry.

Room after room was deserted. It wasn’t until I reached the next hallway that I realized just how far Charles’s power bubble extended, because the moon struck me with the force of a speeding bus. I dropped to my knees as pinpoints of too-bright magic erupted from my pores. That had never happened before and I could only hope that I was the only one who could see it. The gun clattered to the tile seconds later and my scream became a howl of pain as bone after bone broke and re-formed.

So much for low-key.

It’s hard to describe pain that intense. Your mind tries to block it and when that fails, you’re pretty much helpless until it ends. Thankfully, it didn’t last long, but even a few seconds can seem an eternity. I came back to my senses on my side on the floor. My breathing was labored and I was still seeing stars.

The world became a kaleidoscope of black, white, and a thousand shades of gray. The only colors were the scents that hung in the air like twinkling fireflies. I got to my feet and pulled off the tattered remains of my clothing with my teeth. They would eventually fall off my furred form, but there were still enough seams to prevent easy movement right now, and I needed to be able to move quickly. The ankle holster I’d been wearing slipped right off my leg and I couldn’t help but sniff at the gun, taking in the intense chemical scent of oil and residual cleaner. It made me stop to think. It used to be that I’d just move on and not even worry about the mess I left behind, but I really didn’t want someone to happen along and find my billfold, keys, and guns. Especially the guns.

It only took a few seconds to find a hidey-hole in a nearby patient room, but it took three trips to get the stuff there. No hands occasionally sucks.

Then it was back to the nurse station. I couldn’t seem to remember why I hadn’t sniffed around before now. I was a little surprised I hadn’t noticed the scent of the blood in human form. In fact, I hadn’t noticed any scents at all. Maybe there had been some sort of aversion magic tied in with the bubble around the room. But why would that be different now that I’d changed forms?

Weird.

Still, now that I could sense smells more strongly, I was able to find a trail that led away from the keyboard—tiny droplets that blended in with the red specks in the floor tiles. I could also pick up the lingering scents of the people who’d been here, and the particles of algae and dirty metal made all my senses go to full alert. How the hell could Ricky and Stuart have managed to track me to a private clinic in Boulder—especially when I’ve been traveling with my appearance altered?

I didn’t have any time to mull, though, because the sound of screaming and frantic splashing outside managed to catch my ear over the pounding rain and thunder.

It took only seconds before I was resting my front paws on a window ledge on the west side of the building. I could hear, but it took another flash of lightning before I could see the situation. There was a body lying in the mud. It was hard to tell, but it looked like about the right shape for the nurse, Sarah. But my eyes were drawn toward movement on my right, before I could make a positive ID. Ricky was running like mad away from something, his body moving in that sort of stumbling, sloppy gait that only life-or-death brings. Blood splattered his clothing, which was ripped enough to show skin at thigh and chest. I also noticed he was dragging one leg. Then I spotted what he was running from and I couldn’t say that I wouldn’t be doing the same thing in his place.

The beast following him was broad and low-slung, but at least thigh-high. It was chasing with a sort of loping motion like a ferret. Each leap forward showed off front claws probably eight inches long and bared teeth to match, if the light wasn’t playing tricks on my eyes. But it was the brilliant white stripe of fur that ran up the side of one eye that told the tale.

Liz was loose and she wasn’t happy.

In a sudden movement, she leapt into the air and I fully expected that she was going to pounce down on him. But instead she dove downward, her claws leading the way and those short little arms started moving in a blur of motion. Dirt and rocks flew into the air so high it look like a tornado had hit. She was underground quicker than I could follow. While she might be slow and clumsy on the surface, she moved like a dolphin underneath the ground. A smooth line of dirt and rocks appeared as she started to catch up to Ricky. I could tell he was trying to reach something to climb up on, like you would from a pack of dogs. But she was going to catch up with him before he could reach the nearest tree with a limb low enough to swing up on.