Pricolici (16 page)

The betas needed to coordinate with Grecia, so he waited until they neared the house. He took off his seatbelt and stripped out of Stelian’s sweatshirt and his t-shirt. He undid his pants and shoved them down, kicking them off in the limited room in the backseat.

As soon as they began to slow to a stop, Tucker jumped out of the car. Marevin and Calos yelled at him, but he ignored them. He dropped to his knees and grounded himself, digging down through the gravel at the edge of the driveway until he felt wet mud squelch between his fingers. Tucker opened himself, already pulling for energy.

A flood of power filled him to the brim in seconds, expanding inside him until Tucker almost felt like he could float. He opened his eyes. Tucker was glowing again, burning from the inside so he didn’t even feel the cold on his naked body. Members of the haitas crowded around him, but he ignored them.

Demetrios and Gunther hushed the others, giving Tucker the quiet he needed to focus. He trusted them to make sure no on touched him. Sinking inside the power, letting it wash over him, Tucker felt for the thread binding him to Stelian. There was no sense of movement, but Tucker was suddenly beside Stelian’s prone form. He was on a concrete floor, soft red light surrounding him.

What the hell? Tucker looked around. He could sense they were close; he didn’t need to use much power to find Stelian this time. Tucker greedily examined every inch of Stelian he could see, desperate to know he was all right. He was breathing, and nothing looked broken or bloody. Was he still unconscious? He wasn’t moving. He was probably on the property—but the room wasn’t one Tucker had ever seen before. It wasn’t the control room; Grecia wasn’t there, and if they’d found Stelian someone would’ve called Calos.

A secret room?

That would be typical of the secretive lupe—and way too paranoid for words. Tucker took in the stockpiles of stacked supplies, bed and table… Stelian was a doomsday prepper. A rack full of weapons, from swords to guns, increased Tucker’s anxiety to nearly unbearable levels. Stelian didn’t look physically harmed, but Tucker needed to touch him. He hovered there, knowing he needed to warn someone about the possibility his brother could have guns.

He couldn’t see his twin anywhere, so he could be loose on the property—hiding in plain sight, just waiting for a chance to kill someone, even… Tucker. But Tucker didn’t want to leave Stelian, either.

A choice had to be made, and Tucker hated it, but he willed himself back to his body.

“I found him,” he gasped when he returned to kneeling on the ground near the house. Tucker looked up. “He’s here.”

Chapter Fifteen

“Where?” Marevin asked. He had cord coming from his ear. He must have come back after coordinating with Grecia.

Tucker shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s a room, like a fallout shelter, and I’ve never seen it before. It had red lights. There were boxes stacked all over, and weapons. Marevin, my brother could be armed. There were weapons there, too. A shit ton of them.”

“We’ve been operating with the assumption he could be armed with more than magic from the beginning, since Stelian was darted.” Still, Marevin spoke into the transmitter around his wrist, warning the guards.

“Do you know where Stelian’s fallout shelter is?” Tucker asked.

“I didn’t know he had one either. Grecia,” Marevin said into his transmitter, “can you search the house plans for a fallout room?”

Waiting was killing him. Tucker pushed himself to his feet. If Stelian was in the house, he’d start there. He was almost to the front door, Gunther practically stepping on his heels, when Marevin started cursing. Tucker spun. “What?”

“There’s nothing Grecia can see on the plans that could’ve been made into a shelter. She’s certain it’s not in the house, which would make sense because no one has sensed anything.” Marevin ran a hand through his hair. “Shit! We’re never going to find him.”

Was he a beta or a fucking coward? Tucker snapped. He snarled at Marevin. “We sure as hell won’t with an attitude like yours. You’re in charge of the Hunters with Stelian missing. Would you allow one of them to act like they were defeated already, or would you tell them to man the fuck up and keep looking until they found their alpha? You’re a beta, a Hunter—one of the most fearsome lupes ever trained. Fucking act like it!”

“How do we hunt what we can’t sense?”

Tucker shoved past Marevin and Gunther, heading for the yard again. “What
you
can’t sense.” Something he’d read in the book came back to him. Not any of the powers or spells he’d read on the way back, desperate for any advantage he could find, but a footnote on the scrying page he’d been studying before news of his brother had sent his world into a tailspin.

He hunted around on the ground. The book made a ritual out of everything, but fuck if Tucker was going to waste any more time. He’d scried the bracelet around his forearm in a smudged refrigerator. Snatching up the first long branch he found, Tucker grabbed it with both hands, ignoring the crowd still watching him. He was frustrated, angry, and scared still. It was a bad combination that had his emotions all over the place and his patience with everyone else essentially gone.

“What are you doing?”

“This”—Tucker waved the stick—“is my divining rod. I don’t travel to Stelian along the physical world when I focus on him, I project my astral form directly to him. If I scry for him instead, I can use this like a compass finding true north. We’ll be to trace him in person.”

Demetrios raised one eyebrow. “Will that work?”

“Do you have a better idea?” Tucker narrowed his eyes at him. “I’d love to hear it.”

The beta lifted his hands up and took a step back. “Sorry. I just don’t understand this magic crap.”

“This magic crap is our best option to find Stelian before it’s too late, so why don’t you let me focus while you focus on following behind me.” He pointed at the crowd of haitas members. “They stay here. I just want the Hunters. They can guard the house, since Grecia doesn’t believe it was infiltrated.”

“Yes, Tucker.” Demetrios ushered the crowd to disperse while Calos and Marevin called for the Hunters to assemble and organized them into teams of shifted and human forms. Gunther stood just behind Tucker with one hand on the gun strapped to his thigh.

“What are you doing?” His proximity and silence was making Tucker nervous. The old Viking was built like a brick shithouse and had an air of barely restrained berserker rage tainting his aura.

“Guarding you. Stelian asked me to, if you were ever separated. It’s my only responsibility.”

Tucker frowned. “Then why weren’t you in the car with me earlier?”

“Sometimes a little distance is best when you’re guarding someone.”

That didn’t make much sense to Tucker, but Gunther’s aura was distracting him. “Well, then how about you take a few steps back? I need some space now.”

The lupe didn’t seem happy about it, but he did move back. By then Marevin let Tucker know the Hunters were ready. He nodded and took a deep breath. For all his attitude and confidence in front of Marevin and Demetrios, Tucker had never tried divining before. But it all had to do with how strong his will was—how much he wanted whatever he was trying to do—and Tucker wanted Stelian with every fiber of his being.

And that was no small thing, either.

Tucker closed his eyes and focused. He was still touching the earth with his bare feet, allowing a trickle of energy, keeping his well of power full. He focused on his desire to find Stelian, sinking into his need for the ancient lupe who’d taught him so much about himself in such a short time. Like a tug on the binding connecting Tucker to Stelian, Tucker felt a pull from the stick to his hands. He let it guide his body, rotating slowly until he was facing the right direction.

There!

Lost in the trance, focusing on what he was feeling, Tucker walked with his eyes closed. It was a miracle he didn’t run into anything. Every time he stumbled, he righted himself and kept going. He could’ve been walking for minutes or hours—time meant nothing as long as the pull between them continued to grow stronger.

Then Tucker ran smack into a rock hidden by shrubs. He grunted, opening his eyes. Chills rose up his spine and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. Rot tainted the air.

“They were here.”

“We can smell it.” Marevin growled. The eyes of the lupes in human shape gleamed yellow in the lowering light. If Stelian had been there, he would’ve been partially shifted in his hybrid form. Night was falling—they needed to move fast.

The land had been scarred here. Tucker could feel the damage. Some of the branches on one of the bushes were broken, but there was nothing but natural ground behind them when Tucker pushed through. He leaned against the rock, desperately thinking. He was sure they were right on top of Stelian, but where had he hidden the entrance to his secret hideout?

How had his brother known about it or gotten them in if Stelian was still out? It made no sense! Tucker slapped the rock, then nearly slapped himself on the forehead.

His brother had been able to pick Stelian up while at least fifty yards away and float him through the air.

What else could he move?

“This rock. Push it out of the way!” That’s why his power stopped him at this point, running into the rock. It shouldn’t have been there!

Several lupes crowded on one side of the rock and shoved. They grunted, their muscles bulging. For a minute, Tucker thought he’d have to try to use his power, even at the risk of another earthquake that could damage the underground bunker, but then the rock fell over with crashing thud, breaking one of the woody bushes in half, leaving behind sharp spears of branches. Tucker ignored them as he rushed for the door they’d uncovered under the squat rock.

Handles embedded in the hatch opened up on stairs leading down like a storm cellar. “Stelian!” Ignoring the Hunters trying to stop him, evading Gunther’s grasp as he tried to yank Tucker back, Tucker ran down the stairs. He wasn’t stupid. He’d already pushed his power outward along his skin; if Gunther had grabbed him, he’d have gotten a wicked shock.

The inside of the bunker was just like Tucker had seen it. Stelian was still sprawled on his back along one wall. Pulling back his power, Tucker rushed over to him,
finally
able to touch Stelian. The other Hunters spread out through the underground room, searching it.

“Weapons all appear accounted for.”

“There’s a locked cabinet that’s open,” Calos said quietly, just a few feet away. “Looks like it has a biometric lock. That could explain why he needed Stelian—he wanted something in this cabinet and no one else had access.”

“No one even knew Stelian had this built! How did Tucker’s brother want something that was locked up here?” Marevin looked upset.

“Can we worry about the why and how later? I want someone trying to track that fucker by his scent, and then we need to get Stelian out of here.” Tucker was on his knees next to Stelian. “I need to heal him.” He’d already checked, and he couldn’t feel anything broken and Stelian was breathing fine, but his pupils were fixed.

“He’s definitely been drugged.”

Two of the Hunters came over and grabbed Stelian under his arms and legs, lifting him off the floor. They carefully hauled him up the stairs. Tucker followed behind them, barely able to stand not touching him skin-to-skin.

“I already have one of the pairs tracking. They’re keeping in touch over the radio. Just in case there’s more here, I’ll leave four guards here overnight. The rest will do perimeter and house runs.”

Tucker nodded his agreement, focused on Stelian. “Just set him down on the ground.” He dropped to his knees, ignoring the twigs and wet leaves littering the ground. Stelian had been shot in the neck, so Tucker placed one hand over the red dot on his neck, and one over his heart. Opening himself to the power inside, Tucker focused it in his hands, feeling them warm and begin to glow. He willed healing into Stelian. It wasn’t right for the strong alpha to be so diminished.

Stelian groaned, his eyes moving below his eyelids as he woke. Tucker couldn’t look away as Stelian finally opened his eyes and looked back at him. “Oh, thank fucking god.” Tucker slumped over, resting their foreheads together. “You scared the crap outta me,” he whispered.

“Not”—Stelian cleared his throat—“my intention, I assure you.”

Tucker laughed weakly. He took a deep breath and sat up. “How do you feel?”

“Surprisingly fine. I was darted, and floating through the air at Phell’s den. Now we’re… here?” He eased up on his hands, looking around. “At my bunker. Why are we here, Tucker?”

“We’re here because we followed you. I had to watch as you were floated off the balcony and grabbed by a disembodied arm. There was nothing I could do, and then, as I watched, you both disappeared. It was awful; this has been the worst day, ever.”

“Why here? This is a secret. No one is supposed to know it’s here.”

“We didn’t know it was here. I projected to where you were, when you were in a trunk, right before you were towed inside the gates, but we were too far behind you. I had to use a divining rod to find you once we were here, because Grecia couldn’t find any information on your bunker.

“As far as we can tell, the damn arsenal to outfit your own army hasn’t been touched. There’s a cabinet in there that was opened. Calos said something about a math lock.”

Stelian looked up sharply. “Math?”

“Biometrics, I said.” Calos snorted.

“Oh no.” Stelian leapt to his feet.

“Be careful!” Tucker jumped up and braced Stelian. “You’ve been out most of the day. I have no idea what he gave you, or how my healing really works. You have to take it easy.”

“I have to make a phone call if he took what I think he took,” Stelian said. “It can’t wait.”

Tucker slipped under one of Stelian’s shoulders and wrapped his arm around Stelian’s waist. “Fine. But we go down the stairs together. The last thing I need to do is try to fix a broken arm or leg if you stumble and fall.”

“Everyone stays out here,” Stelian ordered.

“But—”

Stelian cut Marevin off. “Just do it.”

It was a tight fit, but they made it down one stair at a time. Stelian groaned and shook his head when he saw the open cabinet, the shelf inside it bare. “Centuries. Son of a fucking bitch!” He lapsed into another language, but it was pretty clear he was still cursing.

“I’m sorry my brother did this to you.” Tucker couldn’t hide his shame. It didn’t make sense; he didn’t even know the man his brother was, much less bear any responsibility for his actions, but that someone who carried the same blood that ran in his veins could do such things… he hated the thought.

Stelian turned to him, cupping Tucker’s cheek, making sure their gazes met. “He’s not your brother,” Stelian said fiercely. “I don’t know who he is, but when I was grabbed, the man’s face I saw did not match that in the picture. We made assumptions, and I think we were all played for the fool.”

Shock silenced Tucker, his mouth hanging open. He shook his head.

“I swear it to you.” Stelian leaned forward, pulling Tucker into his arms and nuzzling their cheeks together. “I was wrong.”

Tucker was swamped by relief so overwhelming his knees almost gave out. At that point, he and Stelian were holding each other up equally.

“Oh thank, god.” There was a small part of him that had hoped his brother wasn’t evil, that there was some sort of misunderstanding that would be cleared up and then he’d have a family… but he knew that had been a fool’s hope, even as he’d been unable to let it go. He’d rather have no one than face a twin brother, knowing he has to be destroyed and living with the fact he’d helped do it—no matter how right it was.

The stranger who’d hurt his mate? Him Tucker could kill without a regret in the world.