Wanted: Undead or Alive

Chapter Seventeen

“Be safe, sweetheart,” Phineas whispered as he watched Brynley trot into the woods.

Her father and ex-fiancé didn’t know she had returned to Wyoming, so she should be safe roaming about for a few hours. The national forest was over a million acres and filled with animals, so finding her would be like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. Hopefully, Rhett Bleddyn would remain in the vicinity of his ranch. As for her father and his minions, they would be miles away at his ranch in Montana, busy celebrating their big monthly hunt.

Still, Phineas tensed with worry when Brynley disappeared from view. You have to trust her, he chided himself. She’d been shifting since she was a teenager. She knew how to handle herself in the woods. And it was important for her to have this last night at home.

He strode into the stable and found Zoltan whispering to Molly as he filled her manger with hay. “What’s up?”

Zoltan glanced at him with the hint of a smile. “It appears you are not the only one here in love.”

“What? Who?”

Zoltan tilted his head toward Molly. “The mare. She is smitten with a wild white stallion.”

Phineas’s eyes widened. “You can communicate with her?”

“Yes. By the way, she approves of you and Brynley. The gelding does as well.”

“Oh, that’s a relief. I’d hate to leave them off the invitation list.”

“Then you plan to marry soon?”

“I was joking.” He winced. Not really.

Zoltan gave him a knowing look.

“Well.” Phineas headed back out the stable door. “Let’s get some work done, okay?” The sooner they completed their mission, the sooner he could get back here for Brynley.

Zoltan accompanied him to the cabin. “You believe Corky is hiding at the ranch owned by Rhett Bleddyn?”

“It’s possible. We know for sure he’s a werewolf. An Alpha.” And the one Brynley’s father had wanted her to marry. Phineas gritted his teeth. Bleddyn was probably still hoping to marry her. He might have bought a nearby ranch so he’d have a reason to stay in the area and pursue her if she ever returned.

“He’ll be shifting tonight.”

“Yeah.” Phineas mounted the steps to the front porch. “He and his pack will be off hunting, so we should be able to sneak into his house. Hopefully, we’ll find Corky there.”

Zoltan smiled as he followed Phineas inside the cabin. “While the wolves are away, the Vamps will play. I like it.”

“Bleddyn’s ranch is next to Nate Carson’s place,” Phineas continued. “We’ll teleport to Nate’s house and ask him to call Bleddyn’s ranch. Then we listen in and teleport straight into Bleddyn’s house.”

“Excellent. Corky will never know we’re coming.”

“We need the element of surprise.” Phineas checked his sidearm. “She may not be alone. Dimitri could be with her.”

Zoltan tucked a pistol under his belt, close to his sheathed sword. “We should knock her unconscious to make sure she doesn’t escape. Then we can teleport her straight to Romatech and put her in the silver room.”

“Got it.” Phineas checked the knives concealed in his boots. “I teleported on Nate’s driveway before, so that’s probably where we’ll land.”

“Let’s do it.” Zoltan looped an arm around Phineas’s shoulders to hitch a ride.

They arrived and quickly looked about. The full moon gleamed off the smooth white concrete of the circular driveway. It was quiet, except for the howl of a wolf far in the distance. A werewolf most probably. Phineas tensed. He should have stayed by Brynley’s side.

But it was the perfect night to hunt for Corky. Her werewolf allies would all be busy.

“Nice house,” Zoltan murmured.

“Yeah.” Phineas strode to the entrance and rang the doorbell.

Footsteps ran toward them and the door jerked open.

“Thank God!” John Brighton shouted. His hopeful expression quickly crumpled into one of confusion and disappointment. “I thought you were the paramedics.” He pushed past them and ran into the driveway. “Where’s the blasted ambulance? I called ten minutes ago.”

“What’s wrong?” Phineas asked.

“It’s Nathan! Dear Lord, if they don’t hurry, he could die!” John dashed back into the house, headed for Nate’s office.

“What happened?” Phineas followed with Zoltan close behind.

“That damned brother of his. He brought a monster into the house.” John stopped by the office doorway, where a maid stood, crying into a handkerchief. “Bring more towels. Hurry!”

She scurried away, and John ran into the office.

Phineas paused at the doorway, surprised by the level of destruction. The floor was littered with papers. Chairs overturned and broken. Holes punched in the walls. Nate’s mangled wheelchair was resting on its side. And Nate lay in a bloody heap on the floor.

“You have to apply pressure.” John grabbed the bloody towel from Nate’s limp hand and pressed it against the gaping wounds across his chest and abdomen.

“Too . . . weak,” Nate whispered.

“What happened?” Phineas zoomed toward them at vampire speed and knelt beside Nate.

John was too focused on Nate to notice. “Kyle and Mr. Bleddyn came to see him. I heard them shouting and crashing furniture. I rushed inside and . . .”

“What?” Phineas asked.

John grimaced. “Bleddyn had turned into a monster! His head was human and he was shouting, but his arms were like a wolf, and he was clawing at Nathan.”

“He’s an Alpha werewolf,” Phineas explained. “Capable of a partial shift.”

John’s eyes widened. “Werewolf?”

“Kyle is one, too,” Phineas said. “Most probably, Bleddyn is the one who changed him.”

“I wouldn’t tell them about Brynley,” Nate whispered. “Is she all right?”

Phineas swallowed hard. “Yes.” He hoped that wasn’t a lie. “Your brother remembered seeing her?”

“No,” Nate whispered. “But he knew something was wrong, so he checked the security tape. Saw you both at the front door.”

“Shit,” Phineas muttered. He’d forgotten about that damned camera.

“That’s enough, Nathan,” John ordered. “Save your strength.”

“He is bleeding out,” Zoltan said quietly. “We must move quickly.”

John glanced up at him. “Who the hell are you?”

“Zoltan,” he replied. “A friend.”

“We both are,” Phineas said. “And we could have Nate at a clinic in two seconds.”

John scoffed. “Impossible.”

“You will have to change your mind about what is possible,” Zoltan told him. “A werewolf just attacked your friend.”

“And we can teleport him to the clinic.” Phineas leaned over to gather Nate into his arms.

“What?” John scrambled to his feet. “You’re not taking him anywhere without me. Who are you?”

“Vampires,” Zoltan replied.

John stumbled back. “No.”

“I have more towels!” The maid rushed into the room.

Zoltan whipped around to stare at her, and she halted with a jerk. Her face went blank, then she turned and left the room.

“What was that?” John demanded. “What did you do to her?”

“Mind control.” Zoltan gave him a stern look. “Do I need to use it on you, or will you come along quietly?”

“I—I—” John gasped when Zoltan latched on to him at vampire speed. “What—?”

They vanished.

Phineas teleported Nate straight into the security office at Romatech. The alarm went off, and Freemont leaped to his feet, grabbing his automatic.

“Holy crap, Phin.” He lowered his gun and turned off the alarm. “You scared the shit out of me!”

“I’m taking this man to the clinic. Hurry, get the door!”

Freemont opened the door, and Phineas dashed into the hallway, carrying Nate. Zoltan was coming in the side entrance dragging John.

“Where are we?” John demanded. “This is kidnapping!”

“Get Roman and Laszlo to the clinic now,” Phineas told his brother.

Freemont winced. “Roman’s not here. He’s at the school, helping with Caitlyn’s delivery.”

“Send Laszlo then!” Phineas zoomed toward the clinic at vampire speed.

He set Nate on a gurney and turned on the overhead lights. Zoltan zoomed in and set John on his feet.

“Get away from me!” John reeled back. “You—you’re some kind of monsters!”

Zoltan looked annoyed. “Have we harmed you?”

“You kidnapped me and Nathan!”

“We took you to a clinic to save his life,” Zoltan argued.

John looked frantically about. “Where is this place?”

“Romatech Ind—” Phineas stopped when Laszlo rushed in.

“Oh dear.” Laszlo’s eyes widened at the sight of Nate. He zoomed over to the sink and washed his hands with vampire speed. “He’s fading fast. We’ll need at least four bags of”—he sniffed—“Type A positive.”

“I’m on it.” Zoltan rushed toward the refrigerator.

Laszlo snapped on some gloves and zoomed over to the gurney. He inserted a needle into Nate’s arm and motioned with his head toward the tray. “Phineas, take the scissors and cut the shirt off him.”

“Right.” Phineas lifted the blood-soaked shirt away from Nate’s torso and began cutting.

Nate moaned.

John approached the gurney. “What can I do?”

“Pray,” Laszlo answered. He grimaced as Phineas peeled back the shirt. “He has a lot of internal damage. I’m not a doctor. I can sew up a cut, but this is too much.”

“What if we give him vampire blood?” Zoltan suggested as he stacked bags of blood on the work tray. “Won’t that heal him internally?”

“Or we could transform him,” Phineas said quietly.

Zoltan and Laszlo stopped and exchanged looks.

“What?” John asked. “What are you talking about?”

“If we turn him into a vampire, it will heal his wounds,” Phineas explained.

“No.” John shook his head. “Then he would be dead. He would be a monster.”

Laszlo frowned. “Do we look like monsters?”

John studied the short man with the innocent, round face. “I’m not sure. Do you bite people?”

“I’m a chemist.” Laszlo lifted a bag of blood. “And this is synthetic blood we manufacture here at Romatech. We make our food, we don’t steal it.”

“Nate?” Phineas leaned over him. “Can you hear me? We can heal you if we turn you into a vampire. You’ll be dead during the day, but alive at night. And you could live for centuries.”

Nate blinked at him. “Legs?”

Phineas glanced at Laszlo. “He has a spinal cord injury. Will it heal?”

Laszlo twisted a button on his lab coat as he considered. “Possibly. He has such severe injuries across his abdomen, the transformation might trigger all sorts of healing.”

“Then it’s possible?” John asked. “He could walk?”

“Possibly,” Laszlo answered. “For certain, it will save his life.”

“Do it,” Nate whispered.

Phineas exchanged looks with Laszlo and Zoltan. “I’m not sure I know how.” His own transformation had been brutal and violent. He didn’t want to repeat that.

“I can do it.” Zoltan rested a hand on Nate’s brow. “When I give you my blood to drink, you must accept it.”

Nate licked his cut and swollen lips. “Okay.”

Zoltan peeled the shirt collar away from Nate’s throat.

Phineas grabbed John’s arm and led him across the room. “Did Kyle attack him, too?”

“Yes. That bastard.”

“Was he in wolf form?” Phineas asked. “Did he bite Nate?”

“No. He was still human.” John’s mouth twisted with disgust. “He was punching and kicking his own brother.” He glanced back at the gurney where Zoltan had sunk his fangs into Nate. “What is he doing? Is he hurting Nathan?”

“He’s transforming him. John, look at me. Nate will be alive and strong at night, but completely vulnerable during the day. He needs someone who will guard him and protect him from his brother.”

“I can do that.” John nodded. “And I’ll have my son help, too. We won’t let anyone harm Nathan. He—” John’s eyes filled with tears. “My son was a photojournalist, traveling with Nathan’s unit during the war. When Nathan was injured, he saved my son’s life.”

Phineas rested a hand on John’s shoulder. “He’s fortunate to have you now.”

John nodded and glanced back at the gurney. “Will he be all right? Will he still be . . . Nathan?”

“Yes. His personality won’t change. Will you stay here with him till he wakes tomorrow night?” When John nodded, Phineas continued, “I need to go back to Wyoming and make sure Brynley is all right.”

“Is she a vampire, too?”

“No, she’s a werewolf, but a good one. She would never hurt anyone.”

John gave him a curious look. “You’re a vampire with a werewolf girlfriend? How does that work?”

“Good question,” Phineas muttered. He just hoped she was all right and he could find her.

As he dashed back to the security office, he spotted Jack coming in the side entrance. Great. Jack and Lara could help him look for Brynley. “Is Lara with you?”

Jack shook his head. “She stayed at the school. Caitlyn’s been shifting back and forth, scaring the shit out of Dr. Lee, so Carlos is the only one allowed in the delivery room with her now.”

“No babies yet?” Phineas asked.

“Yeah!” Freemont opened the security office door and peered outside. “Did she have kittens?”

“Not yet,” Jack replied. “I came back to see if you guys had captured Corky.”

“We have another problem now,” Phineas said. “Brynley could be in danger. Rhett Bleddyn knows she’s back, and he’s a vicious bastard. Nearly killed a mortal. Zoltan is in the clinic right now transforming the guy. And Brynley—she’s alone.”

Freemont winced. “Wolfie-Girl’s in trouble.”

Jack nodded. “Let’s go.”

Phineas zipped through the trees for another half a mile, then paused to listen. Nothing.

This wasn’t working. He and Jack had teleported back to the cabin and split up to cover more ground. So far, no sign of Brynley. No word from Jack. And they’d been searching for almost an hour.

Bleddyn was one nasty character. Attacking a guy in a wheelchair? Sheesh, he’d nearly killed Nate. And Kyle, that creep deserved to die. The thought that those two bastards could have shifted and gone hunting for Brynley, it made his heart clench in his chest.

She’d been hunted down once before. And raped. He couldn’t let that happen to her again.

He needed a new strategy. He gazed up a tall pine tree and zeroed in on a strong branch. A second later, he materialized there and grabbed hold of the trunk. This was better. He had a bird’s-eye view. And eyes as good as a bird. He scanned the area and listened carefully.

A small herd of elk at twelve o’clock. At one o’clock, a small lake glimmered in the moonlight. Farther off to the right, Jack was searching. He turned to the left. Bushes thrashed far ahead at ten o’clock. Something was being chased.

He focused on a treetop and teleported there. The chase was just ahead of him. He teleported to another tree.

There. A mule deer darted into a small clearing, and a wolf charged from behind. A large wolf, moving at an incredible speed. It had to be a werewolf.

He teleported closer and materialized on a tree branch just as the wolf pounced on the deer. Within seconds the deer was down and its neck broken with a mighty wrenching of the wolf’s jaws.

Damn. If that was Brynley, she was amazing. He whistled softly to see if the wolf would look up.

It did. Sky-blue eyes.

He grinned. He’d found her, and she was fine. More than fine. She was freaking powerful.

A loud growl emanated from the forest.

Phineas tensed, his fingers digging into pine bark. Was it Bleddyn?

Brynley froze, her ears flattening, the fur on her back bristling.

Out of the woods lumbered a huge black bear. It reared up on its hind legs and roared.

Brynley stood her ground.

“Back off,” Phineas whispered. Don’t argue with a bear. Let it have the deer.

The bear roared again, and moved toward the deer. Brynley bared her teeth and growled back.

“Damn.” What was she thinking? Phineas took out his automatic and fired a warning shot to scare off the bear.

The bear shifted into a large, hairy man. He lifted his hands in surrender and looked frantically about. “Don’t shoot!”

Phineas’s mouth fell open. Digger?

Brynley shifted into human form. “You’re a were-bear?”

He stared at her. “You’re a werewolf?”

Phineas teleported down, and with vampire speed, he whipped off his jacket and covered Brynley.

Digger gasped. “You’re one of them damned aliens!” He shifted back into a bear, and with a growl, he charged.