Legend of the White Wolf

Chapter 21

HOW IN THE HELL HAD LEIDOLF UNLOCKED THE DOOR? Cameron's lock picks wouldn't work on key card slots. And how long had he been standing in the room listening? The guy moved like a phantom.

But he got the Dark Angel's attention.

"Do it, tough guy," the man sassed back as if he didn't really have the faintest idea how dangerous Leidolf could be.

Maybe it was Cameron's heightened senses that clued him in, besides the threatening tone Leidolf used, or the look of aggression on Leidolf's darkened face. But a scent of a coming battle hung in the air. Of murderous intent. An alpha who would show the beta he wasn't one to be messed with.

"Gavin's not one of us," Leidolf smoothly said, his voice still deep and dark, his fierce gaze locked on the man's eyes. "Can't do it in front of him."

The man studied Gavin, who was looking every bit as menacing. "He said he was one."

Leidolf smiled, but the look was pure evil. "He might wish he was, but he isn't. Trust me."

"Whatever. Have the dude leave then."

"You won't like what you see when I shift."

"It's the only way I'll feel intimidated enough to tell you where they are."

"Fine." Leidolf glanced Gavin's way. "Leave, before it's too late." The way Leidolf said it wasn't as much of an order, as more of a challenge.

"Sorry, I'm staying for the show."

Hoping to encourage him to leave before his partner lived to regret it, Cameron said, "Gavin."

Gavin shook his head. "We're all on the same team, no matter the circumstances."

Cameron knew his friend would not believe this one iota, but Leidolf wasn't waiting, wasn't about to try to talk any sense into him, and began stripping out of his clothes. Faith looked like she was going to be sick. She caught Cameron's eye. He knew what she was thinking. If Leidolf went through with this, Gavin had to be changed. And the man who tried to sound so brave, would die once they located the house where their partners were being held hostage.

She left to put on her boots, not bothering to watch Leidolf get naked and shift.

Cameron watched the man, saw the stupid smirk on his face. Gavin observed the Dark Angel's expression, too, probably wondering how Leidolf's stripping out of his clothes was going to force this man to reveal anything to them.

But as soon as Leidolf growled, baring his teeth, his nose and face wrinkling, his eyes narrowed with dangerous contempt, and his hackles raised as a highly pissed-off red wolf, he garnered everyone's attention. For a moment. Cameron quickly glanced at Gavin to see his take. Faith was watching him, too. But Gavin was still observing the man's posture, seeing if Leidolf's threats were working, as if he didn't need to see what Leidolf had become. As if he already knew.

The man had quit smiling, and he was trembling again, but even so, Cameron didn't feel as though he was ready to spill his secrets. That's when he released his hold on him. That's when the man started to sit up, and that's when Leidolf lunged at him with a fierce snarl that made Cameron both respectful and proud to be one of them.

Faith quickly turned on the television to help drown out the sounds in the room.

The so-called Dark Angel threw up his hands to instinctively block his face. Leidolf clamped down on one of his hands, and the man screamed out in pain.

He looked like he was about ready to faint, his skin turning ashen, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Leidolf quickly released him, then stepped aside, shifted, and dressed. "He's one of us now," he said with menacing conviction. He glanced at Gavin. "You should have left the room when you had the chance."

"I wouldn't have dreamed of being left out of this little adventure."

That's when Cameron suspected Gavin had seen Faith shapeshift on the trail. So his partner had truly already known.

Leidolf gave Gavin an evil smile. "He'll make a good pack member." Then he turned his attention to the Dark Angel passed out on the floor. His hand was bleeding, but Leidolf hadn't crushed the bone like he could have.

"Are you sure he's one of us now?" Faith asked, pausing to pull on her parka. "What if he isn't?"

"He's one of my kind, I should say," Leidolf said in that arrogant way of his. "Which means I'll either have to eliminate his sorry ass if he causes me any grief, or take him back with me and make him part of my pack. Although there is a slight chance I didn't change him. He still won't be sure either way. So he's ours, pliable once we revive him."

"I'll get some ice," Faith said, but Gavin stopped her.

"I'll get it."

Faith looked at Cameron as if she feared Gavin was getting ready to run. But Cameron knew his partner better than that. He handed him the ice bucket. "Fill it to the top."

Kintail knew they were getting closer to finding Lila, Elizabeth, and Cameron's partners. He smiled at Trevor, unable to hide his own deviousness. He still had it in mind that Faith would be his if Lila wouldn't change her tune and David and Owen would remain with the pack, although he couldn't stop thinking about Lila and how his taking Faith would affect her. Some distant niggling kept warning him he couldn't do it to her, that he had to give Lila more time.

But as far as Leidolf went, he didn't believe the red would interfere in his plans, being that this wasn't his territory, he was a red, and he wouldn't want to mess in Kintail's pack business.

Cameron and Gavin were another story. He didn't believe he could let them live if he wanted to keep Faith and their partners.

"So we've found six leads, but this looks like the best one yet?" Kintail asked Trevor, raising the list of leads he'd scratched off.

"Yeah. Just waiting for your go ahead."

"Let's go."

"What about letting Cameron and the others know?"

Kintail smiled again and Trevor shook his head.

"Kenneth O'Malley saw Lila shift, didn't he?" Kintail asked Trevor for the hundredth time.

"At the time, I didn't think he had."

Finally, his pack member was being honest with him. "That's just what I thought."

They climbed into his truck, and Kintail glanced into the backseat of the King Cab. Hilson was sound asleep. Whitson was dozing and snapped his head up. "We got a lead?"

"Yeah, this time, it's got to be the right place." But how to kill the bastards without the residents of Millinocket believing Kintail's wolves had done the deed?

Owen figured if they could maintain their wolf form, he and David would be a hell of a lot more intimidating than as naked humans if the men tried to come into the basement. Armed with guns though, the werewolf killers would be a hell of a lot more menacing. Still, they had to chance rushing them, if nothing else. Somehow, they had to get upstairs and out of this place. Once they did, he figured they could hightail it back to Charles's cabin resort, meet up with Cameron and Gavin, and take it from there.

Lila was standing at the top of the steps, her ear to the door again listening. She looked back at them and shook her head. "But Kintail will be here soon to rescue us," she said, her voice hushed and more hopeful than trusting.

For the first time, she seemed vulnerable, and Owen thought a little bit frightened. He knew this could all go badly for them in a split second. He didn't have any illusions. The werewolf killers were trigger-happy nutcases and if he and David didn't do what they needed to do to make the outcome right… they could all be dead.

"Someone's coming," she whispered, her voice half excited, half worried.

Showtime.

Sarge, so named because he'd been in the army before he had been dishonorably discharged for illegal drug use, held his injured hand, now wrapped in a hotel hand towel, the blood spotting the white terrycloth. His face wore a scowl, but he was trembling hard as he climbed into the SUV seat between Leidolf and Gavin.

"You didn't have to bite me, damn it," Sarge said to Leidolf. "You were only supposed to growl."

"I growled, and you weren't talking," Leidolf said, his voice darkly amused.

"Yeah, but hell, now I'm one of you."

"Yeah, you are. So now your buddies will want you dead," Gavin said. "So start talking. Where'd they take them?"

"If I tell you, they'll kill me."

"You're alive with us, so far. It's the only chance you've got," Cameron said, glowering at him from the front seat. "Either start talking, or Leidolf will bite you again."

Sarge looked at Leidolf, probably figuring he wouldn't dare change in the vehicle.

"Windows are darkly tinted, Sarge. Better do as everyone says," Faith warned.

Sarge tightened his wounded hand against his chest. "Two-hundred East Dover. I can't guarantee that they're there. I told you that already. Chris said they'd move them after a time."

"Which way?" Cameron asked.

"Take a right at the next light. Head straight for six blocks, then turn right on Amy."

Cameron roared off, then made the six blocks in record time. Faith wanted to tell him to slow down or they'd get picked up by the cops, and then what? But they reached Amy without incident and after turning right on the street of little brick homes, Sarge said, "Next street is East Dover. Seventh house on the right."

"Whose home is it?" Faith asked.

"Matt's. He lives with his girlfriend, but she's working late at a hamburger joint tonight."

They pulled up six houses down from the brown brick house. Then, with Sarge in tow, although Cameron wanted Gavin to wait in the vehicle with Faith—she opted to stick with the group—and they headed for the house. Gavin had a gun, and they might need all the firepower they could get. She didn't need to be protected in the SUV.

Cameron didn't argue with her, although he didn't seem to like it that she'd go along. Gavin did argue with her, but he wanted Cameron to stay and protect her. Leidolf didn't say a word. And Sarge started to say something about staying behind with her, but all three men cut him a glare and he shut up.

Cameron and Faith went around the back where birdbaths were covered in ice, and bird feeders filled with snow were hanging in a number of trees. Gavin went to one side of the house. Leidolf took Sarge to the front door and knocked.

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."

She didn't move an inch in his direction. He seemed so wobbly she didn't think he could walk, he was having such a difficult time even standing against the wall.

"Come here!" he snapped.

But she wasn't going anywhere with him, no matter how much he commanded her. And then without warning, a wolf snarled and snapped behind her. Where Lila had been, only the cane and her clothes were left behind and a wolf now stood, with light brown almond shaped eyes narrowed in contempt. At Faith.

But then she realized what the woman, wolf, wanted. Faith moved out of the path of Chris's gun, and Lila leapt. The bastard got a shot off and Lila yelped, but she still managed to tear at his throat. Chris slid to the floor and let out his last breath. Her heart pummeling her ribs, Faith closed her eyes. What would they do now? Wolves would be accused of killing a man. Even if in self-defense. And Lila and the other wolf were dead—which one was he? David or Owen?

Then she saw the first wolf stir. He wasn't dead? She rushed to him and ran her hand over his body, leaned over and listened to his heartbeat, steady, tired, but he wasn't dead. She searched the wolf's body again and found a dart. A tranquilizer dart. Thank God.

She reached over and ran her hand over Lila's head. "Thank you, Lila." The wolf that was Lila stared at her for a moment, closed her eyes, and growled sleepily.

Then the gray pickup roared back in front of the house, its front grille crumpled some. Had the werewolf killer gotten away? Kintail stalked out of the truck, up the walk, and into the house, while Trevor rushed to keep up with him.

"Lila," Faith said, stroking the wolf's head, although after she said who the wolf was, she figured Kintail would have already known and thought she was an idiot for telling him. But hell, most of the wolves all still looked the same to her.

Kintail's hard face looked sick with grief, but Faith quickly explained, "They've been shot with tranquilizers."

"Owen, too?" Kintail said, crouching down to lift Lila into his arms, and Faith thought his tenderness toward the woman indicated he'd had a change of heart concerning taking Faith into the pack. "That's Owen?" Somehow she figured he'd have been bigger, taller. Less furry. She wondered what Gavin's take would be on all this, when she suddenly realized there was no sign of David or the other woman who was supposed to have been taken hostage.

"Where are Elizabeth and David?" Kintail asked.

"Cameron and our friends are with them." She hoped.

Kintail grunted, then he headed out to the truck with Lila. Trevor opened the truck's door for Kintail. But then Faith worried that Kintail may just still try to take both her and Owen with them. She slammed the front door closed and locked it. Kintail glanced back at the house, his look treacherous.

He could look mad all he wanted, but she wasn't going to go with him while Cameron and the others were chasing down the killers. Still, she wanted to see if David was all right. Then Kintail stormed up the walk, his expression still furious, and she figured he'd huff and puff and threaten to blow the house down.

"Open… up… Faith," Kintail growled, and he sounded as if he could knock the house down with his fierceness.