Pursuing Paige (12 page)

The sadness of her impending departure clung
to her, yet this morning she felt more at peace and content than
she had in a long time.

As she crossed the yard in the morning mist,
headed toward the barn, Alisa emerged from the edge of the woods,
running flat out toward her. Her hair was a tangled mess, her
clothes dirty and torn. “Paige! Paige! There’s something wrong with
Jarek, Come quick!”

Paige’s heart caught and her breathing
quickened as panic overtook her. “What’s wrong?” She dropped her
ballet shoes to the grass and ran for Alisa. “What happened?”

Alisa shook her head. “I don’t know. We were
headed to the village and Jarek just suddenly collapsed. I couldn’t
wake him up. I ran all the way back here.”

“Show me.”

Together they ran into the woods as fast as
they could go, dodging branches and jumping logs and rocks. By the
time they reached the place where Jarek had collapsed, Paige’s
heart was ready to jump out of her chest, she had long bloody
scratches all over her arms, legs and face, and her dance clothes
were ripped and dirty.

None of that mattered.

Jarek lay in dire wolf form and was slumped
over a log, motionless. Paige ran to him and saw immediately what
the problem was. A long dart stuck out of his shoulder. “What is
that?” She knelt by his side, her hands in his silky fur as she
sought a pulse.

She couldn’t feel anything.

Her gaze caught on Alisa’s bag spilled next
to Jarek’s body. Next to it was something that looked like a
gun.

Paige stood and whirled around, cold
realization splashing through her blood stream like ice water.

Alisa stood not far away…with five Magica
Hunters ranged around her. “I’m sorry, Paige.”

Paige blinked, her gaze going from Alisa
to Jarek. It had been a trap. “What did you do?” she yelled her at
her. “Did you kill him?” She paused, remembering Kaiden. “What
about Kaiden? Did you set him up too?
Alisa!
”

Alisa just stood there, not answering, tears
in her eyes, as the hunters advanced on her. Paige had no sympathy
for Alisa’s tears. Right now she wanted to tear the woman limb from
limb. Instead of running, she lunged for the betrayer.

The hunters caught her and held her back by
both arms as Paige spit and snarled like a wild thing. She tried to
grab for one of the hunter’s long wand like weapons, but he grabbed
her wrist and wrenched her arm painfully to the side.

Rage bubbled up from the depths of her. It
shot through her body like heat, tingling through her veins.
The tingling intensified, radiating through her
chest, arms and legs. Suddenly she knew this sensation had nothing
to do with her anger. For a moment, she thought she was having a
heart attack.

She let out a
surprised gasp and a flash of pain exploded through her. Her body
seemed to stretch and reform. She blacked out for a moment. When
she regained consciousness, the world looked different...odd. She
was seeing things from a height that was not normal. She opened her
mouth to speak and a low growl came out. Looking down at her body,
she saw two white paws on the ground, fur, and the shape
of.....

Oh, no. She’d
turned into a dire wolf.

The Magica began yelling and readying their weapons. One of
them
stabbed a needle
into her shoulder and the world began to swim and go dark for the
second time.

The hunters released her and her dire wolf’s
body slumped to the ground. The last thing she saw were Alisa’s
shoes.

* * * * *

Kaiden loped into the yard and changed back
into human form. The farm was quiet and he couldn’t feel the
presence of anyone else. He reached out to Jarek telepathically and
only got silence. That meant Jarek was too far to communicate with
him. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Something was
wrong, but he didn’t know what.

He’d gone to the place where Alisa had
directed him, but Torrent hadn’t been there. A growing darkness in
his heart, he’d raced home only to find the farm empty. He calmed
himself. Maybe Paige had simply decided to go into the village with
Jarek and Alisa.

He walked toward the house, trying to shake
this sensation that there was something off. That’s when he spotted
Paige’s ballet shoes laying in the grass. He walked over and picked
them up, feeling their worn, well-loved silk against his palms.
There was no way she’d just dropped them this way, unless…

His family was in danger.

Kaiden lunged forward, dropping the slippers
and immediately shifting to dire wolf form. He bounded into the
forest, headed toward the village. That’s where they’d been going
this morning. Maybe the path to the village would yield some
clues.

Blood pumping and heart pounding, he raced
through the woods until he came to a familiar form slumped on the
ground. Jarek had shifted to human form. His skin looked ashen and
his body broken. Kaiden glimpsed the dart and knew immediately what
had happened.

But he might be too late.

Before he checked for Jarek’s pulse, he
dashed into the trees looking for Harden root. It took precious
time, time he didn’t know if he had. He finally located one.
Digging with his massive paws, he yanked it from the ground with
his teeth and raced back to Jarek.

Shifting to human form, he cradled his friend
in his lap, bit off a sliver of the root and forced it into his
mouth. Jarek was heavy and cold. Kaiden could feel no pulse. He let
the sliver rest in Jarek’s mouth, letting its healing properties
dissolve on his tongue. Kaiden’s heart beat rapidly. He hoped like
hell he wasn’t too late.

Jarek didn’t move.

Despair rose like a black hole in the center
of him as the sliver melted in Jarek’s mouth, delivering the
antidote to the Magica poison he’d been injected with, but Jarek
didn’t stir. Late afternoon turned to evening and Kaiden sat there,
cradling Jarek’s head in his lap.

He understood what had happened. All the
clues lay in the clearing. Alisa’s bag, the dart gun, the area of
the grass where a scuffle had occurred. Alisa had been planning
this all along. They’d taken Paige for some reason.

Jarek stirred and groaned.

“Jarek!” Kaiden yelled it. Relief surged
through him. He’d been certain he was dead.

Jarek rolled to the side, groaning again, and
spit out the sliver of the root. “What happened?” he croaked.

“I think Alisa shot you with a Magica dart on
the way to the village.”

Jarek rolled to his back and pushed up. “All
I remember is a sharp pain, then nothing.”

“I thought you were dead.”

“Where’s Paige?”

Kaiden took a moment to answer. “My theory is
Alisa lured her out here and the Magica took her.”

“That makes no sense. The Magica want the
location of the village. They were so close. Why didn’t Alisa just
have them follow us?”

“I don’t know.” Kaiden’s voice was grim. “But
it doesn’t matter now. We’ve got to get her back, Jarek.”

Jarek nodded, still looking ashen. He pushed
to his feet and staggered to the side. “Let’s get Torrent and head
over there.”

“You’re in no shape—“

“
Let’s go.
Right now.”A muscle worked in Jarek’s jaw
and his eyes flashed dangerously. “We need her back and nothing
else matters.”

Kaiden nodded. He’d known that was exactly
what he’d say.

* * * * *

Paige opened her eyes to slits and noticed
three things immediately. One, she was lying on a very smooth, very
hard, very cold floor. Like marble. Two, her head hurt bad enough
to make her want to curl into fetal position. She fought that urge,
also fighting the desire to bolt to her feet and dash for an exit.
Three, she was no longer in dire wolf form. Someone had dressed her
in a long white gown and put slippers on her feet.

Gee, how thoughtful.

Voices murmured above her, all male. She
feigned unconsciousness, in the hopes of hearing something
interesting.

“What did you do with the Lyacon woman?”

“I’ve reunited her with her family.”

“You let her go?” Man One seemed
outraged.

Man Two snickered. “I reunited her with them
in the dungeon.”

Paige considered those words and the
implications of them. Was it possible that Alisa had done what
she’d done because these monsters were holding her family on
condition of her good behavior? If so, Alisa never should have
assumed the Magica would uphold their end of the bargain.

“
The Lyacon woman did not do as she said
she would. She did not lead us to the village. She only brought
us
this
.” He toed
Paige’s side. “Useless.”

“A mistake she and her family will die for,
all in good time.”

“Excuse me, sir,” said a third male voice. “I
don’t think this woman is as useless as you may presume. She is the
mate of two powerful Lycaon dire wolf males. The mate bond they
forge is immensely strong. They will come for her.”

“Hmmm. Yes, but only one of her mates still
lives.”

Paige’s blood turned to slush.

“One Lycaon in our control is good enough.
One that we can manage through threat to his mate.”

Man One grunted. “It will have to do. Take
her away.”

She barely registered their words. Her
mind couldn’t,
wouldn’t,
process that Jarek was dead. It just wasn’t possible. He
was alive. She could feel it in the center of her bones.

But they weren’t wrong that Kaiden and Jarek
would come for her. They would rush in like knights in shining
armor, all protectiveness and strength…and be captured. The Magica
would threaten her death if they didn’t lead them to the village.
She hoped they wouldn’t trade her life for the lives of so many
others…but she couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t.

She had to save herself before they came
busting their way in here.

Rough hands grabbed her and pulled her up.
She went limp, dead weight, as the man pulled her across the floor
toward a door on the opposite end of the room. Through her barely
slitted eyes, she could see the room was immense and
well-appointed. It appeared like an empty court room, perhaps.
Leather chairs, shiny wooden desks lined to face a dais with an
even larger, shinier desk.

The man yanked her through the door and
started down a hallway. Finally, he stopped and hefted her over his
shoulder like she was a sack of potatoes. She did her best
imitation of an unconscious woman. Opening her eyes to slits she
noted that her captor was huge. She had no hope of defeating this
guy in hand-to-hand combat.

But he had one of those long, magick-wielding
sticks holstered at his side…..

She bounced along down the corridor. They
appeared to be headed for the door at the very end. She envisioned
a long, dark stairway headed down under the earth and a cold, dank
cell meant for her. If she let that happen, she’d never escape.
Right now she had the advantage of surprise.

Lifting her head, she examined the opposite
end of the corridor. Could that be an exit? Light was shining
through. She couldn’t be sure if that was a way out, but she was
going to have to take the chance. She couldn’t allow herself to be
put in a situation where Kaiden and Jarek would have to rescue
her.

Her heart pounding so hard she could hear it
in her ears, she grasped the end of the man’s wand, yanked it out
and plunged the pointy end into his butt.

The man yelped and dropped her. She tumbled
to the floor where she lay sprawled and stunned. The man stumbled
around the corridor looking dazed. He was dressed in all black and
had a huge handlebar mustache. He came to a wobbly stop, his eyes
focusing on her. Raising his finger, he pointed at her. “You,
you….” Then he pitched forward and landed on his face.

Paige bolted to her feet and ran flat-out
toward the possible exit. She reached the door, hearing sounds
behind her, and fumbled with the strange doorknob for a terrifying
moment before she figured out how to work it. Plunging through the
opening, she found herself on a busy, alien street.

Her brain popped for a moment, trying to take
in the angular, hard architecture and all the people dressed in
head-to-toe puritan looking clothing, all the garments in drab,
muted colors. For a moment she felt transported into The Scarlet
Letter, yet the buildings were ultra-tech. The whole fleeting
impression shot through her, disorientating her for a dangerous
moment. Then she regained her senses and fled into a nearby
darkened alley. She knew that moment of hesitation could mean her
death. She was dressed in this weird, flowing white dress, like a
nightgown, and wore flimsy slippers. She didn’t blend in and she’d
noticed more than one head turning her way as she stood frozen on
the sidewalk.

Hearing movement and shouting behind her, she
raced down the alley, nearly blind. Her slippers pounded on the
pavement toward the light at the other end. Then she realized that
light was not her friend. She needed darkness, needed to hide.
Fortunately, there were plenty of both shadows and hiding places
down this alley. She just needed to find the best one.

Voices echoed from the mouth of the alley.
She whirled around, looking for a place to go to ground. There,
against the brick outer wall of the courthouse was one of many huge
metal containers, ostensibly for trash. She dove behind one of them
and wiggled down, trying not to think about what she might be
touching, and worked her way as quickly and silently as she could
under it.

Pounding footsteps approached and Paige
held her breath, wanting to shut her eyes like a child.
If she couldn’t see
the monster, the monster couldn’t see her.
The footsteps slowed and she went
completely still, though her heart pounded so hard she could hear
it in her throat and ears. Low conversation followed. The footsteps
proceeded down the alley faster, moving past her.