The place looked dark and quiet. No lights, no chimney smoke, no movement, nothing.
Faith was pretty sure no one was home. Which meant that either Sarge was lying, or Chris had moved their hostages like Sarge said he would.
Within minutes, Leidolf was opening the door to the backyard. "No one here. Why don't you come in and see if you can get a clue."
Faith, Cameron, and Gavin hurried into the house and began searching the place. In the basement, she and Cameron got a whiff of Chris and his companions. And they smelled wolves. But since Faith and Cameron had not smelled David and Owen since they'd been changed, they couldn't tell for sure that it was them. Although they suspected it was.
"Wolves have been here," Faith said, lifting a couple of white hairs off the cement floor.
"Where to now?" Cameron asked Sarge, glowering at him as if he was ready to change into the wolf himself and bite him somewhere new.
"I told you—"
"Where!" Cameron snapped.
"We can check Chris's house. It's on the other side of town," Sarge rattled off really quickly.
"Let's go." Cameron grabbed Faith's arm and hurried her up the stairs.
Barely able to keep up with his long stride, she said, "Might be easier if you just tossed me over your shoulder and hauled me to the car."
Gavin chuckled.
In a deviously sexual way, Cameron smiled at Faith. "If you're asking me to do it, I'd be happy to oblige."
"No, it was a subtle way for me to say, 'Slow down,' so I could keep up."
But he didn't slow down, and she had to run to keep up, although she couldn't blame him. She didn't want him telling her she should have stayed in the vehicle.
Suddenly, the headlights of the SUV flicked on and the vehicle drove in their direction. When it stopped, she wondered how in the world Leidolf had gotten to the rental vehicle that quickly. Then she recalled he had already left the basement before Cameron began dragging her up the stairs.
"Where is Chris's house?" Cameron growled.
Sarge hesitated only a second before he began giving the directions in a hurry.
The door swung open into the basement, and at that instant, David and Owen jumped from the top steps where they were waiting in rabid anticipation and knocked down the blond-headed man who was in their direct path. He didn't have time to squeal or shout, his blue eyes round with shock when Lila came out of the opening and swung a cane at him, striking him in the head, either knocking him out cold or killing him. Owen didn't have time to check him out or even care. David made sure Elizabeth stayed behind him, protecting her as if she were his mate already.
Freedom loomed in front of them, the door to the outside just down the long hall that opened onto a living room. Before Owen could navigate it, a redheaded man stepped in front of the door, wielding a damned gun.
Owen didn't hesitate. Kill or be killed, and he leapt, farther than he ever thought he could manage. Only leaping and dodging bullets was another thing. The weapon discharged and Owen felt the damned projectile lodge in his chest at the same time he slammed into the redhead. At least Red couldn't shoot David or Elizabeth or Lila.
He grabbed the man's raised arm and bit before his mind faded into darkness, his last thought, he saved them. He'd saved his friend and the two women. Then his thoughts dissolved into oblivion.
Kintail looked at the damn list again, his blood boiling with fury that Cameron and Faith had already been here in this house, already searched every inch of it, and without sending him word. "Where the hell are they?"
Trevor jumped in the truck. "They've been at this house. All of them. That Gavin, Leidolf, Cameron, Faith, and some other man I've never smelled before. Do you think it's one of the Dark Angels? Do you think he's guiding them to the members' houses?"
"Hell, yeah. And from the blood we smelled, I'd say that one of the lupus garous resorted to pressure to convince the guy of making the right choice."
They drove off down the street and headed west. Trevor looked over the list. "Here's a house we haven't checked yet. It's on the other side of town. Supposed to be Mary's nephew's place. Maybe check there?"
Kintail drove in the direction Trevor gave him. The moon was waning, lights in the town winking out for the night, but the aurora borealis lit up the dark sky in a flashy display of greens and mauve almost as an omen. The wolves would win tonight.
"Chris's house," Sarge said, pointing at a white clap board that blended in with the snow.
As it grew darker, the aurora borealis flowed across the sky in an unbelievable array of colors from a blending of mauves and greens, dizzying and magnificent. Faith felt as though she was witnessing a dreamlike light display, as if she had fallen into a fantasy world where the sky was full of shifting, flowing, colorful lights and the ground a palette of ice-white frozen whipped cream. A world where men and women could turn into wolves. That's when she realized that she had changed when the moon was waning. So the tales of how werewolves could only shift during the full moon wasn't true. What of when the new moon was present? Or did they never get a break from the threat of shifting?
"He'll be well armed," Sarge warned, breaking into her thoughts. "He'll kill every one of you."
"He can try," Cameron said, jerking his door open. He glanced at Faith, but she was already getting out of the vehicle.
"No, Cameron. I'm not staying behind." She hurried with Leidolf and Gavin, who wedged Sarge between them in case he tried to bolt.
Cameron slipped his arm around Faith's shoulders and held her close, his touch protective and caring. "You can't blame me for wanting to keep you safe."
She smiled up at him. "I'd worry if you didn't."
That's when gunfire rang out inside the house, and Faith's blood chilled. Before anyone had time to react, a green all-terrain vehicle barreled out of the driveway and sped down the road. Cameron released Faith and rushed for the door with Gavin and Leidolf, his hand firmly on Sarge, as she caught the license plate number. Their guns drawn, Cameron and Gavin kicked the front door open, then rushed inside with Leidolf and Sarge.
But a gray pickup rumbling toward her caught Faith's attention. Kintail. She frantically waved at him to follow the green ATV, and Kintail gunned the engine and tore off after him.
Seeing Chris's fuzzy red hair sticking out the front entryway where he must have fallen, Faith hurried up the front steps. Inside, she saw Lila hiding behind a grandfather clock, a cane readied in her hands while she watched down the hall where Gavin, Cameron, and the others must have run.
A white wolf was lying motionless next to Chris, who appeared to have passed out, but was coming to. That's when Faith saw the gun lying on the floor next to Chris's injured arm.
She bolted for it, but not before he grabbed the weapon and pointed it at her, his green eyes on fire. "You're one of them, aren't you? We thought you could be one of us." He scooted himself up to a sitting position against the wall, but he was losing a lot of blood. "You're my ticket out of here."
She froze only a couple feet away from him. If he shot her, she'd be dead. He couldn't miss at this distance.
"Out the back way," Cameron shouted to the others from deeper inside the house, oblivious to her plight. The door slammed open and banged against a wall.
But she figured Lila saw what was going on with her. Lila could have helped. But then again, maybe not. She only had a cane, and from where she was standing, she couldn't easily reach the lunatic. "If you shoot me, you won't have any leverage," Faith reasoned.
He dragged himself up the wall, leaving a streak of blood in a wide stripe on the rose wallpaper. "If I don't take you hostage, I'll never make it out of here alive. Come closer."