Wolf Quest (22 page)

The oak was claiming this place, taking on the task of cleansing it. Purifying it. Though it would take a great deal of time. Maria heard all this information in a nonverbal way she couldn’t actually explain or adequately describe, but she knew it for the truth. The oak would do what it had been created to do. It would stand sentinel while the dark places were cleansed of evil over the generations of man.

When Maria was satisfied the woman was well and truly trapped and the tree as large as she could get it at the moment, she let go of the power and came back to herself. She wasn’t surprised to find Jesse standing over her. What did surprise her was the ring of armed men who surrounded her, protecting her.

They had to be some of Jesse’s men. More were all around the pavilion, mopping up the chaotic scene. Prisoners were being secured. Wounded were being segregated for eventual medical attention.

Which reminded her…

“How are Zach’s parents?” She stood, addressing Jesse in a rough, weary voice.

He grabbed her arm when she swayed on her feet, dismissing his men to other duties now that Maria was out of danger. Jesse hugged her quickly and then drew her over to where the bears stood vigil over the man and woman still chained to the chairs.

“Silver is poison to many magical races. Marco can’t help and even we can’t handle it for long periods of time. We’re taking turns trying to break the links.”

“Hold on.” Maria had an idea. Sending a mental request to the nearby tree, she asked it a favor and it complied.

Two branches swayed near enough to work their way into the links. Maria moved to touch the little branches and give them her power. They quickly grew wide enough to pop the links from the inside. She used a piece of torn fabric she found on the floor to shield her hand as she unwrapped the chains holding the adult bear couple in place. They had awful burns on their skin where the chains had held them and Maria felt more than just silver in the links. The chains had been enchanted, but with the witch held prisoner the spell had been weakened enough to break at the touch of Maria’s magic.

She stepped back as the couple were freed. Some of Jesse’s men had first aid supplies and appeared to have medical training suited to emergency medicine. Maria was a vet. She didn’t deal well with human patients, but would have tried to help if there wasn’t anyone else equipped to do so.

“Good job, sweetheart,” Jesse complimented her as she moved back. Using so much magic had drained her, but the result was worth every effort. They’d freed Zach’s parents and captured some seriously bad people to boot.

“What are you going to do with her?” Maria pointed to the witch being held so efficiently aloft in the tree.

“Good question.” Jesse turned to face the vampire who’d stayed well clear of the silver. He had blood all over him and a few dead bodies littered the area where he’d been fighting in the VIP section. “Marco, what are your plans for the mop up? You are the highest authority in these parts. My men stand ready to help and we can transport prisoners back to Wyoming or to the Lords, if you prefer.”

“No,” Marco said, moving forward with strangely fluid movements. “I have planned this action for many years. The bears’ involvement drew you into it and moved up my timetable, but I would have taken action against this group regardless. The owner of this estate is now dead at my hands. I will move in and buy it at the earliest opportunity, then tear it apart, cleansing this area of the evil taint.”

Maria swallowed, realizing exactly where some of that blood on his hands and clothing had come from. She wondered if he’d bitten anyone, but his mouth looked clean. If he had noshed on any of his victims, he was a neat eater.

“I have a dungeon prepared and already the Masters are gathering. We intend to question the witch and her minions until we have learned all we can from them,” he went on. “The
Venifucus
threat is real, and this will prove it once and for all to some of my brethren who still doubt.” His eyes glowed with anger for a moment before he quelled the show of emotion. “I would, however, welcome assistance in transporting the prisoners to my dungeon. It’s not far. I built it especially with these people in mind. I also welcome your Lords or a selection of Alphas to observe the questioning, if you will pass along the message. I am of the opinion that all would-be Guardians of the Light must work together again if we are to thwart Elspeth as we did once before.”

“I share your opinion,” Jesse said in a grim tone. “My men will deliver the prisoners to your facility at your convenience. I will leave my lieutenant in charge here while I escort the bears to safety. I hope you understand.”

At that the vampire cracked a smile. It was a sad smile, but a smile all the same.

“I do understand the need to take them away from this cursed place so they can heal. Go with my blessing. I will work with your junior and look forward to the day our paths cross again.”

He held out his hand and Jesse shook it warmly. If she wasn’t much mistaken, Maria thought maybe a new friendship had just been forged. At the very least, a new ally had been made. And if evil people really wanted to bring this Elspeth back, Jesse and his folk would need all the allies they could get.

Then the vampire turned to his full attention to her. Maria tried not to gulp.

“Lady, you have begun the work I always intended to do, bringing forth the guardian oak to dispel the evil of this place. Thank you for sharing your gift so freely. You are indeed a true daughter of the woodland.” He took her hand and lifted it to his lips, making her skin tingle in a scary sort of way, though she wasn’t really afraid of him. “I once knew one of your talents, many centuries ago. It is clear you are mated to the wolf.” Marco’s expression turned mischievous and his smile was decidedly inviting. “But if you ever tire of him, I hope you’ll look me up.”

Was he serious? Maria didn’t know how to take his teasing. She’d never been teased by a vampire before. Hell, she’d never even
met
a vampire before.

“Sorry, Master Marco.” She wasn’t even sure if she was using his title correctly, but she didn’t dare call him by his first name alone. It seemed too presumptuous with such an ancient being. “I’m a one-man woman, but thanks for the compliment.” She smiled to soften her rejection, but she wanted to be clear. If nothing else, she didn’t want Jesse growling at the guy. Not after they’d just formed an alliance. Maria wasn’t about to play the Helen of Troy role here.

Thankfully, Marco laughed. “Good to know. Frankly, I always enjoyed baiting werewolves. They’re so easy to get a reaction from, but your Alpha is stronger than most. He didn’t even growl at me…much.” The vampire laughed again and moved away.

Jesse held tight to Maria’s hand while he issued orders to his men. Marco himself took possession of the witch when they got her down from the tree. He wasn’t taking any chances with her in particular, and he bound her with rune-studded cloths he had secreted in his pockets. Bespelled, no doubt, so that she couldn’t use her magic to get away or to cause further harm to anyone.

Jesse’s men processed through the prisoners quickly enough. There weren’t that many when push came to shove. Many of the outliers had fled early on in the action. The only ones who had stuck around until the end were the diehards. Maria noticed that almost all of them had the tattoos on their wrists and elsewhere. Some even had tattoos on their foreheads.

“You can see those markings, right?” she asked Jesse, remembering his earlier claims about how the tattoos weren’t visible to everyone.

“What markings?”

“That guy over there with the bald head, for example. Do you see the band of runes that are tattooed around the perimeter of his head?” She pointed to the man and jumped a bit when he stared directly at her. He knew she was talking about him.

He’d been standing with the other prisoners but moved quickly when Jesse gazed at him thoughtfully and then turned to get one of his men to deal with it. Before Maria knew what was happening, the man with the circle of runes on his head had formed a malevolent yellow fireball in his hands and lobbed it at Jesse’s back.

Maria didn’t think, she just acted. She held up her hands, palms outward and threw herself in front of Jesse’s back, shielding him, though she’d never done such a thing before. The fireball hit her palms and reflected back out, amplified, reacting to anything—or anyone—magical left in the room.

Several of the prisoners dropped where they stood, including the guy with the runes on his head. Maria looked around and realized that everyone who’d fallen unconscious had a mark on his forehead of one kind or another. She tried to tell Jesse as he hugged her close to him in reaction.

He’d been pretty good all night about letting her do her thing, but he’d turned around in the nick of time to see the fireball coming for them, and judging by his reaction, it had worried him.

“You took ten years off my life just then, Maria. Don’t do that again!” He shook her once, but not hard, and then hugged her again. “Wolves are resilient. I can take a hit of magic and the majority of it will bounce off. Most of the time,” he added grudgingly. “How did you deflect that much power?”

“I don’t know. Still running on instinct here,” she reminded him, pushing back away from him, needing some space to breathe. “But I’m glad I did it now, considering the results. All the ones who fell are tattooed on their heads. And did you notice that none of our people were affected? Only the bad guys.”

She smiled brightly at him, trying to make him see the good points of what she’d done instead of the danger that had him so worked up. He rolled his shoulders once, as if trying to get rid of muscle tension, and started barking orders to his men. Two heavily armed soldier-types rushed over.

“This is Maria,” he explained succinctly. “She is my mate. Her life is more important to me than any other.” Maria tried her best not to blush at his statement or the way his men looked at her, but she was sure she failed. “She sees the
Venifucus
markings. I want you to go with her and examine each of the fallen prisoners. One of you will write down her observations and keep good notes on each prisoner who has the markings while the other stands guard. No harm is to come to her, or it will mean your lives. Do you understand?”

Maria thought that last bit was a little harsh, but she didn’t dare interfere with the way Jesse ran his group. He was the Alpha here, not her.

Jesse hugged her again and gave her some instructions as well. He really seemed to like giving orders, which was fine with her in this situation, but they’d probably butt heads a bit when the situation wasn’t so dire. She looked forward to it.

“Go with them, but stay alert,” he counseled. “There could still be danger here. Tell them what you see in as much detail as you can manage. Draw pictures if you can. Every little bit of information we can get on these people could help our cause.”

“I understand,” she replied just as seriously. If she really was the only one who could see the marks, she had better record them as faithfully as possible for those who couldn’t.

“Work fast. I’m going to help the bears and arrange transport. I want to get them to Wyoming as soon as possible.”

Chapter Eleven

In the end, it didn’t take too long to catalog all the markings each of the prisoners were adorned with. Jesse arranged escort vehicles for the trip back to Pack territory. Rocky insisted on driving Zach and his parents in his own large luxury SUV. Jesse and Maria would be in front of them with escort vehicles loaded with his men, front and back. A little convoy of four vehicles to drive through the night and get them back to the safest place he knew.

They got underway in the wee small hours of the night and made good time traveling steadily west. The storm was beginning to dissipate and move off to the east. Some of the cities along the east coast would get clobbered by rain, but eventually the magically induced storm would blow itself out naturally. Thank goodness.

They drove out of the worst of the residual rain bands by daybreak and started to make even better time. The winds continued to gust at high rates of speed, so flying was still not an option. By the time the storm conditions lessened to where they’d be able to travel normally again, they’d be almost to their destination, so the decision was made to continue over land.

Maria was exhausted by the ordeal of using so much magic in ways she’d never done before. She also hadn’t slept in quite a while, so when she started to yawn, Jesse scooted the seat back a little more and encouraged her to lie down, using him as a pillow if she wanted.

Jesse reflected on the outcome of events. They’d done well in rescuing the bears, though both of Zach’s parents seemed traumatized by their ordeal. They’d need a lot of time to heal, but Zach was a good kid and he’d protect them—as would Rocky and the Lords. They would spend a little time as guests of Jason and their Pack, but they’d be moving on to the north and Rocky’s territory as soon as was practical.

For one thing, the priestesses were there and might be able to do something to heal them of their magical and spiritual wounds. And the Lords had to know everything they could tell them about their abductors and what had been done to them.

That process was going to be emotionally painful for them, Jesse had no doubt. He was glad in a way that he didn’t have to be part of that. Better the bears talk to Rocky and the Lords—the former a member of their family and the latter the highest authority over all shifters in this land. They loved Rocky and they respected the Lords. Both would help them through the trauma in ways others simply could not.