The Change (Unbounded) (40 page)

I
SWALLOWED AT THE SUDDEN
dryness in my mouth. Besides his beefy arms, I could see no weapon, though he might have one stashed somewhere. Not in the pocket of those ridiculously tight jeans, or I’d see the bulge. If I was properly trained, I’d laugh in his face, wrap him up in his own silly shirt, and give him as a present to Ava. As it was, I was shaking violently inside. Could I shoot another mortal? Tom’s death already weighed heavily upon me.

I risked a glance at the Indian clerk, who was busying himself with paperwork but was probably listening to every word. Surely the Hunter wouldn’t try anything in front of this witness.

Play along.
“Yes, I’m Erin.” Through the space between us I could feel relief pouring off the cowboy. I moved closer, trying to sense more detailed images. I caught a glimpse of Stella’s face, but his fear blotted out almost everything else.

“Good.” His voice lowered to a whisper. “I have that package for you. Ready for disposal.”

Package? I had to know more, or I was going to blow my cover. How did he know who I was and why was he waiting for me? Only one way to find out for sure. Pulling my hand from the duffel, I took a few steps and offered my hand to the Hunter.

He hesitated only a second and then shook. Images burst into my mind. A warehouse, the cowboy crouching behind a Dumpster with three other men. Unbounded blowing each other to pieces. Satisfaction. Great gig for a relatively new Hunter. The woman from the picture approaching with a companion. He wasn’t to let them go inside, according to his instructions. He needed to take them before they joined the fighting.

His hand dropped from mine.
Crap.
I wished I was better at this. I really didn’t know what I’d seen, except that he and his partners had been waiting for Stella outside the warehouse. I hoped the motel clerk had been correct when he said some of the men had left.

“Come with me,” the cowboy said, opening the door. “I’ll show you where they are.”

By “they” he must mean Stella and Gaven. If I wanted to learn more, I’d have to go with him. Ritter had better be watching.

As we traversed a dimly lit sidewalk, the cowboy looked me over. “Are you sure you can handle them alone? These Unbounded are very dangerous.”

“What makes you think I’m alone? Anyway, of course I can handle them.” I drew my gun from the duffel. “You have only one Unbounded anyway. The man is mortal. Easy to deal with.”

His eyes widened. “How did you know that?”

“I keep informed.”

“So you talked to Keene.”

Keene. Now this whole situation was beginning to make sense. He’d told me he’d worked undercover with the Hunters, and somehow he must be behind this man’s identification of me and his willingness to turn Stella and Gaven over. “We’ve been in touch,” I said. “But why don’t you tell me exactly what happened?”

The cowboy nodded. “Okay. Keene wasn’t sure if we’d find anyone at the warehouse, but he thought his tip was good. When we got there, the place was loaded with Unbounded. You should have seen the creatures, still fighting when any normal man would have dropped dead.” He shivered and crossed himself. “We almost left when the shooting started, but it got too dangerous so we hunkered down outside to wait it out. Just as things were winding down, these two come along. We recognized them from one of the pictures Keene sent us to keep watch for, so we jumped them. Black guy went down with one shot—got him in the stomach—but it took four of us to get the woman, even after we shot her. I sent Keene a picture from my phone, and he said to hold them until you got here.”

I allowed myself a tight smile. So Keene had sent help through the Hunters, using the connections he’d formed when he’d been with them as an Emporium spy. That meant he had irreversibly chosen sides. Like his brother. Like me. Yet according to Ritter, Keene had still been inside Emporium headquarters after getting Chris out. What would the Triad do to him once they learned of his betrayal? Would he be able to get away?

I couldn’t waste time thinking about that now, but I wished I had a way to contact him. Maybe he could help Cort before he fled.

I felt Ritter long before I saw him, murder in his heart. I reached out and shoved the Hunter against the wall. “Stay behind me,” I ordered. To my surprise he obeyed, his eyes huge in his blocky face.

Ritter emerged from the shadows. “Ah, there you are,” I said feigning calm. “I’d introduce everyone, but we all know it’s better not to name names. At least not any more than we have already.” To Ritter I said, “Cowboy here has the package Keene wants us to pick up. All ready for disposal.” I hoped the Hunter was new enough that he didn’t recognize Ritter. If not, we had a problem.

Ritter hesitated, his black look calculating. I willed him not to screw things up. “Good,” he growled, sounding every bit the part of a man who was willing to dissect another man. Or a woman.

“I told you I wasn’t alone,” I added to the Hunter, who was eying Ritter, a worried crease in his brow. I sensed no recognition, only fear. “Show us where they are.”

“This way.” Cowboy hurried on ahead.

“Sensed you a mile away,” I muttered at Ritter, who scowled. “Thought you’d want to know.” I couldn’t sense anything now. Good, he needed to be more careful. The Emporium had at least two sensing Unbounded that I knew of—and were out to breed more.

Cowboy led us up one flight of stairs to a door he opened with his key card. I started to follow him, but Ritter’s arm flew out and stopped me. “I’ll go first.”

Inside the room lay two figures, one on each of the queen beds: Stella and Gaven. Both were trussed up like sacrificial lambs and were bleeding from at least one gunshot wound each. Someone had made only a half-hearted effort to wrap Stella’s arm, but her color was good. Gaven looked worse. Blood seeped from a stomach wound despite the rags someone had tied around his middle.

“You should have been more careful,” I told Cowboy. “We wanted to question them.”

A man stepped out of the shadows behind us, a weapon in his hand. “They had to be convinced to come along.”

Stella struggled to speak past the gag in her mouth. Her dark hair was messy, her clothes ripped and stained with blood, but she was as striking as ever. Cowboy couldn’t drag his eyes away from her, and I was glad we’d come as soon as we did, or she might have had more to fear than a gunshot wound.

The second Hunter moved closer, his eyes fixing on Ritter. A sense of recognition flooded him—and me. Before I could call out a warning, he whipped his gun toward us. Ritter was faster, his hand blurred by rapid movement. A soft whoosh of a silenced gun. The Hunter fell dead, a stain spreading over his heart.

Cowboy swore and went for his own gun, tucked in the back of his waistband and hidden by his shirt.

“Don’t,” Ritter said, his voice flat and dangerous. “Leave it alone. Your friend got trigger happy.”

“I don’t know why he did that. We weren’t supposed to—”

I reached out and touched him, an almost instinctive reaction. Fear oozed from his body like a sickness. “It’s okay,” I said softly. “We’re not going to hurt you. We only came for them. Your friend made a mistake. Everything is fine. Just be calm.” To my amazement, his fear drained away, and the effort hadn’t even made my head ache. I hadn’t realized this was part of my sensing ability, though I should have suspected from what Delia tried to do to me. Maybe I was getting better at this.

“They’re all yours,” Cowboy said. “But what about him?” He gestured to his fallen companion.

“Leave him.” Ritter dragged the body to the wall. “We’ll call headquarters.”

That seemed to satisfy Cowboy. “Then if you don’t mind, I’d like to get out of here.”

Ritter and I exchanged a glance. Letting him leave would be to our advantage, unless he suspected something and called for backup. I touched him again, straining to sense his intentions. An image of a bus came to me.

I nodded. “Good idea.”
Hurry to your bus,
I added silently.

I had no idea if the suggestion reached him, but he grabbed a backpack by the dresser and started for the door. “Good luck and be careful. These people are dangerous.”

That was when Ritter hit him over the head with his gun. Cowboy crumpled instantly.

“What did you do that for?” I demanded, checking to make sure he was still breathing.

“Too dangerous to let him go right now.”

He was probably right. I set my gun on the table and hurried to loosen Stella’s gag. “You took your sweet time getting here,” she growled as I untied her hands.

Ritter laughed. “Same old Stella.”

“Bronson know I was missing?”

“No,” Ritter said. “No one told him.”

“Good.” Stella was untying her own feet, so I helped Ritter with Gaven. The man was conscious, but barely. He wouldn’t be sitting up on his own anytime soon.

Ritter took a peek at his wound. “We have to get him to one of our doctors immediately. I wish we didn’t have to move him, but it’s not safe here.”

“I’m fine,” Gaven mumbled.

“Shut up.” There was worry and affection in Stella’s voice. “You’re going to the doctor and that’s that.” She walked to the table, picked up my gun, and peeked out the blinds. “So why were they turning us over to you guys anyway?”

I explained to Stella as Ritter examined Gaven and retied his makeshift bandages. “I guess Keene felt bad enough about the Emporium attack that he sent someone to see if he could prevent you from falling into the trap. He gave them my description and told them I would be coming to pick you up. Probably told him I was another Hunter.” I glanced at the unconscious cowboy. “Seems kind of risky. I mean, it could have been any of us following your tracking device.”

Ritter snorted. “There were only two Hunters. Any of us would have been able to take them out. Keene only used your name to get our attention.”

“He saved Stella’s and Gaven’s lives. That means he doesn’t agree with the Emporium’s slaughter any more than we do.” Thinking of Keene staying at Emporium headquarters to call in favors on Stella’s behalf made a hard knot form in my chest. I hoped he was all right, and that someday I could repay him.

Stella groaned. “Crappy way to save someone’s life—have them shot.”

“At least you’re alive.” Ritter handed me his gun and lifted Gaven carefully from the bed. “The New York group wasn’t so lucky.”

Stella sighed. “We heard. We were about to help when these bozos interrupted us.”

“Good thing you didn’t make it inside,” Ritter said. “If you’d been captured by the Emporium, we might never get Halden’s program.”

She didn’t reply to that. Instead, she scooped up a laptop case from the dresser and opened the door. “All clear.”

“What about Cowboy?” I asked.

“He’s seen you, and it’s far too early for you to be in their database. You don’t need to be looking over your shoulder for Hunters until you’re fully trained.” Ritter used a few extra rags to tie the unconscious man’s hands. “There, that ought to hold him.”

“Until when?” I didn’t know why, but I felt sort of protective for this unsophisticated man, who looked like he’d be more at home on a farm than hunting Unbounded in the Big Apple.

Ritter sighed. “Don’t worry. He won’t be killed, if that’s what you’re asking. Though keep in mind, he intended just that for Stella and Gaven.”

“We’ll turn him over to our friends here in New York,” Stella said. “There are ways to make him forget he ever wanted to be a Hunter.”

“How?” I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to know.

“Amnesia drugs usually work.” Stella was checking outside again and the words came from over her shoulder. “Or if Ava has time, she can try to change the memory in his mind so he won’t remember you.”

“She can do that?” I remembered how she’d knelt by the Hunters outside the mansion. Is that what she had been doing there—changing their memories?

“Depends on the person. Some are easier than others. Unbounded are harder than mortals.”

I don’t know why I felt so amazed. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to discover Delia might be able to do such things. With only a glimpse of my thoughts, the woman had been able to pinpoint my location in Emporium headquarters and send Tom in my direction.

The memory reopened the barely healing wound of Tom’s death. Maybe on some unconscious level I’d wanted him to die for his betrayal. Maybe my so-called talent had aided that secret intent and made the bullet fly true.

No. I couldn’t believe that. For all that I detested Tom for what he’d done, I didn’t want him dead. I was not the monster Delia was.

Not yet.
I pushed the thought away.

“Ritter, we’d better hurry,” Stella said.

“Wait here while I get the car. I want to make sure no one’s watching.”

Less than five minutes passed before Ritter pulled the car closer to the motel room. When he flipped off the headlights, our predetermined signal, Stella and I helped Gaven down the steps. We made it without attracting unwanted attention, but Gaven passed out near the end, and Ritter had to help us get him inside the front passenger bucket seat, now lying back almost completely flat. Ritter and I made a second trip with the cowboy Hunter, dumping him rather unceremoniously in the trunk.