Trapped (21 page)

"Yeah,
basically, but I'm not sure how that plays into all of this."

"This
tracking ability, it probably seems like magic, but it is constrained
with rules the same as anything else. Anton can't just pick out
one individual from the sea of humanity and hunt them down. It
requires a kind of link for him to track someone. Those cats with the
ability to track have always been tight-lipped about it, especially
in my homeland where the ability is part of how they foster the fear
that keeps younger shape shifters in line. Still, the wolves have
been fighting with my kind for long enough to have learned some of
the rules, the limitations if you will, that such an ability operates
under."

She
paused to see if I was following, if I needed to ask a question, but
I found myself paralyzed. I didn't know where she was headed,
not exactly, but somehow I knew it was important. Maybe it was an
echo of the precognition that I'd shown before with the dream
of Anton attacking us. Maybe it was nothing, but I couldn't
escape the feeling that there wasn't any going back from what
she was about to tell me.

"In
order for this ability to work, for this link to be established,
Anton would have had to have met them previously, to have physically
touched them, and to have a few seconds of relative calm while he
touched them in which he established the link."

I
felt my throat trying to close up, but I forced the words out despite
the effort it took.

"Anton
never had that kind of time with Ash. Every time they have been around
each other, they've been fighting. There was never a chance for
him to create the link with Ash, which means it's just me that
he's tracking. Everything makes sense now. That's why
Alec demanded that I come out here with everyone. My gosh, Ash could
have cut me loose at any point and saved himself all kinds of
trouble."

Dom
nodded. "Instead he's signed up for a fight to the death
that nobody is really quite sure whether or not we'll win, and
in so doing agreed to join our pack which is something he obviously
isn't very happy about."

My
mind was reeling; it took me a couple of tries to continue.

"If
you'd asked me a week ago, I would have told you that he'd
die before he'd let himself be sucked back into a pack. I
thought staying out on his own was the most important thing for him."

Dom
reached over and patted my hand. "It probably was at one point,
but it obviously isn't any more. Alec and Ash have more in
common than either of them probably would ever admit. Imagine that
Ash, the Ash who is now willing to lay his life down to save you,
lost you. Worse yet, imagine that it was because of something he did
or didn't do, something that would have bothered him even if it
hadn't meant he lost you. What do you think that would do to
him?"

I
opened my mouth to respond, but a flash of movement caught my
attention instead. Anton had just arrived.

Ash
was at my side seconds after Dom and I raised the alarm, assault
rifle cradled in one arm. Dom had raced back to the rest of the pack,
so we had a second alone.

"Don't
forget that you promised. If Alec doesn't drop him in the first
few seconds of the fight then we're probably not going to win.
If that happens, then get to a vehicle and get out of here."

In
all of the craziness of the last few seconds, I'd forgotten my
promise. I opened my mouth to tell him that I knew now that he hadn't
had to go down this path, but he pulled me in for a kiss.

"I'm
serious. You promised and I'm holding you to it. Now let's
drift back to the others."

I
wanted to just blurt it all out, but it wasn't the
time. If I started into that discussion, I'd come apart.
Instead, I just nodded and let him guide me back towards the RV's.

Alec
and the others reached us a few seconds later, all still wearing
their normal forms and everyone looked down the canyon towards Anton.
James was the first to break the silence.

"Somehow
I'd expected him to come in hard and fast, avoid giving us time
to assemble and meet him rather than strolling in like this."

Alec
shrugged. "Could have gone either way. He knows just how good
he is. No pack our size could possibly hope to stop him on a purely
physical level. I'm sure he's acknowledged to himself
that there's a possibility that one of us has manifested an
ability, but even so, how many hybrids are there out there that could
compete with a monster like him?"

Ash
smiled grimly. "Agony couldn't do it. Puppeteer
definitely given the right set of circumstances, Brandon possibly
could have with the rest of his pack thrown in. Other than that,
Jaclyn comes to mind and Oblivion probably could bring him down if
the stars aligned just right. There might be one or two others out
there that would have a shot in a direct confrontation and a few
others like Dream Stealer that might be able to bring him down
through indirect means given enough time."

Jasmin's
smile was the kind of feral thing that usually made me slightly
uncomfortable around her. Today it just made me glad she was on our
side and willing to go up against someone like Anton.

"It's
a pretty short list, but if we can bring this S.O.B. down it should
buy us a little breathing room with the dispossessed."

Alec
took a deep breath and then nodded. "We're committed now.
Everyone put your game faces on, and stick to the plan as much as
possible."

One
second I was standing next to a bunch of gorgeous but otherwise
normal teenagers, the next I was surrounded by wolves, a black
jaguar, and three hulking wolf-man hybrids. The same odd, tingling
energy I'd noticed around the pack before was back, stronger
than I'd ever previously felt it. Ash was the only one who
didn't shift, instead taking several steps off to the side and
then dropping down to his stomach and sighting down the canyon.

"I'm
engaging…now."

Ash's
first shot was followed up by three more in rapid succession as Anton
dropped to all fours, shifting to a large jaguar on the fly as he
sprinted towards us.

I
heard Ash mutter an oath as he missed again; Anton was just too fast
and unpredictable. Additional shots tore away from the assault rifle
and I was pretty sure at least one of them creased Anton, but he
didn't noticeably slow.

I
looked down and found that my pistol had somehow made its way into my
hands, but I didn't open fire myself, the range was too far
still for me to have any hope of hitting him. Alec's pack
spread out slightly, the hybrids in the center, the three weaker
members out on the wings.

I'd
only thought the adrenaline was flowing before; as the range
continued to drop, I really felt my heart start to race. Ash fired
again and then swore as his slide locked back and he grabbed one of
the spare magazines he'd laid out nearby.

Anton
took advantage of the interruption in Ash's carefully aimed
fire to really close the distance between him and us. I'd
thought he was running fast before, but it was nothing compared to
how much ground he was covering now that he didn't have to
dodge at the same time. What had seemed like plenty of room for Ash
to get reloaded and resume firing, suddenly didn't feel like
enough space at all.

I
opened up with my pistol, not because I thought I had any chance of
tagging Anton when Ash wasn't having any luck, but because I
wanted to buy Ash more time to finish reloading. I got one shot off,
causing Anton to dodge slightly to one side, and then Ash opened up
on full auto.

The
shots stitched across Anton's side and back leg and then we
were out of time. The pack braced for impact, the two hybrids on
either side of Alec stepping forward and managing to get a claw each
into Anton's flank as he sailed past and crashed into Alec.

Alec
had been moving to the side, trying to buy himself some space, but
Anton was just too fast. The force of the impact knocked Alec down,
carrying the fight to exactly the position that favored a cat the
most.

Anton's
limbs thrashed about, ripping long, deep gouges in Alec's
hybrid body, and then he sprang away again before the rest of the
pack could close and pin him down. I feared the worst for just a
second, but then Alec was back on his feet, bloodied but living.

The
power radiating off of the pack crested and then dropped a step and I
suddenly felt like all my strength was being sucked away. It was like
someone had opened up some kind of energy vortex and as nearly as I
could tell, Alec was the exact center of things.

Even
as I was still trying to process the fact that my limbs had become
leaden, I was registering the effects of what I assumed was Alec's
ability on everyone else. Alec was on his knees while the rest of the
pack seemed to have slowed down and Ash had dropped his heavy rifle
and was staggering towards Anton with a knife in his hand.

I
could tell that Alec was affecting Anton as well. His feline form
still darted in and out, clinching with one or more of the pack and
then springing away before the rest could help, but he was moving
slower than before.

The
lightning-fast melee had turned into a brutal slugging match and the
odds still favored Anton. If Alec's ability had been able to
just impact Anton things would have been different, but as it was,
the rest of the pack was too slow and weak to take advantage of what
Alec was doing to him.

The
pack, including Ash, consolidated around Alec either out of loyalty
or the hope that Alec would figure out how to fine-tune his ability.
Now was exactly the time Ash had in mind when he'd made me
promise to run. Anton didn't seem interested in me, I was a
little ways away from everyone else, all I needed to do was move my
tired limbs into a run and I could make it to Ash's SUV.

It
was the smart thing to do, the thing most likely to get me out of
here alive, but all I could think about was the fact that none of
these other people had to be here. They had agreed to try and stop
Anton to save me, and they were all about to die. I knew I should
feel bad, and I did feel bad, but I felt the worst about Ash. He'd
agreed to a life of little more than slavery to try and save me when
he hadn't even been sure that the agreement would buy my life
in the end.

Instead
of running away, I found myself taking one slow, laborious step after
another towards the fight. There wasn't much time left, even I
could see that. Ash had his pistol out, and any time Anton got too
close Ash opened up on him, but he never quite managed to connect and
he had to be close to running out of ammo. As soon as he had to
change magazines, Anton would pounce and we all knew it.

Ash
fired two shots so close together it was almost like a single report
and then I saw the slide on his pistol lock back. Anton moved almost
faster than I could follow. One instant he was twenty feet away from
everyone, the next he was right in the middle of the pack.

It
looked like Isaac got a claw in. I thought that Jasmin managed to
grab ahold of Anton's neck for a split second before being
shaken off. Things were moving too fast, it almost seemed like one or
two of the others got a piece of him, but somehow everyone was on the
ground bleeding. Anton was on top of Alec again ripping into him with
all four feet as his fangs were seeking Alec's throat.

My
arm brought my pistol up and I squeezed off a shot almost without
meaning to. It took Anton in the chest and as the sights dropped back
over Anton I fired again, taking him higher up closer to where I
expected his heart was probably located.

Alec
managed to get a hand up, raking Anton deeply enough that I could see
flashes of white through the wounds. Anton jumped away, but now Ash
was on his feet, bleeding profusely but with his pistol at the ready.
Once again, the shots came much closer together than I could have
managed. Ash emptied half of his pistol into Anton before being
knocked away as Anton sailed past.

Jasmin
was there when Anton landed, and this time I was positive that she
got her jaws around the back of his neck, but he changed direction so
quickly that she lost her hold on him and went sprawling across the
ground.

Anton
followed her, but James and Isaac managed to close to within attack
range and instead of engaging them, Anton bounded away again. It
seemed like there was blood everywhere, and a lot of it was Anton's,
but he was still moving faster than anyone else, and his scuffle with
Jasmin and the two hybrids had pulled all three of them out of
position.

As
Anton streaked towards Alec, Ash, Dom and Jess, I got my pistol back
up and opened up again. I almost thought that I hit with another
shot, but his course was so erratic that it was still hard to tell.
Once again, all I could hope to do would be to slow him down, to buy
a split second for the rest of the pack to brace for the impact that
we all knew was coming.

Ash
had been saving his ammo, but now he resumed firing with a staccato
machinegun-like tempo. Every time his sights dropped onto Anton he
squeezed the trigger, and I was positive that at least some of his
shots were hitting. Alec was up on his feet again, but it was obvious
that just standing was almost more than he could handle. Ash came up
dry again, and Anton suddenly changed direction again, streaking
straight towards Alec. Rather than sidestepping the attack and
reloading, Ash produced another knife and stuck it into Anton's
chest as the jaguar hit him hard enough to send both of them rolling
towards Alec.

Dom
was suddenly there, her cat form much smaller than Anton's, but
still tearing away at him in an effort to buy Ash a chance to escape.
Jess jumped into the writhing ball of fangs, steel and claws, but her
timing must have been off because she crumpled to the ground with a
whine only a split second after impacting into Anton.