Night's Captive (14 page)

Alec looked away then back at Rider. After a moment he said, “A small team is all we’ll take for now to do some recon. We can’t afford to take more than a few Enforcers out of the city at this time and leave the Phoenix area unprotected.”

“I’m sure Petra will want to come along and I’ll grab Erick, too.” Rider nodded toward the house. “I’ll let them know we’re leaving.”

“I’ll bring around my SUV.” Alec put his hand on Rider’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

“We’re in this together,” Rider said. “And don’t you forget it.” He turned and headed back toward the house.

Blue and red flashing lights made patterns on the ground and threw shadows at the night. Alec walked away from the task force team and headed a ways down the street toward where he’d parked his SUV. The air was clean and cool from the rain and a flicker of moonlight made it through a gap in the clouds.

His mind worked over everything that had happened then turned toward making plans for infiltrating what amounted to a fortress according to Max. He reached his SUV, climbed in, and started the big vehicle. The engine roared as he drove it then pulled up in front of the drug dealer’s house.

Rider opened the passenger door and hopped in. “Erick’s riding in Petra’s car. I filled them in and gave them directions.”

Alec nodded, spun the SUV around and headed back towards the highway. Alec flipped on the blue and red strobes that would allow humans to think he was with one of the local police departments as he raced through town. What should have taken him an hour, he made in thirty minutes.

When he was in the vicinity of Dawson’s place, Alec switched off the strobes. It was darker in the desert just out of the Phoenix metro area and they ran the risk of drawing attention if they drove closer to the house. He found a place to park off the dirt road cutoff to the sorcerer’s. The glitter of lights not too far from where they’d parked probably came from his fortress.

Alec and Rider climbed out of the SUV, stepping onto the muddy ground, then opened the back as they waited for Petra and Erick. Alec revealed the secret compartment under the seat and displayed the host of weapons at their disposal. It was likely going to take more than a sword to get to Dawson.

Rider picked up a handgun as Alec holstered a Glock in his weapons belt. He glanced up at the dark clouds that threatened more rain.

Was Loni all right? Had the sorcerer done anything to her? He gritted his teeth. He’d slice Dawson into little pieces if anything happened to her.

The purr of an engine came closer and in moments Petra and Erick pulled up in her Mustang. They parked off the road, beside Alec’s SUV.

“Nice stash, Alec.” Petra came up beside them and looked over Alec’s collection of weapons.

“Help yourself.” Alec stepped back.

Petra nodded. “You bet I will.”

When they were armed and had secured the vehicles, and each had their earpiece in place, they started down the road toward the lights. The earpieces wouldn’t do any good for Erick and Alec when they were in animal form, but when they shifted back into human form they would work.

Erick shifted into a hawk, one of his many forms, and he soared up and toward the house. Rider, a winged marauder, spread his wings and vanished behind his own glamour as he took to the sky to do some recon, too.

Alec gave Petra a nod before he transformed into a wolf form and loped along at the witch’s side as she jogged along the dirt road and then among mesquite bushes and cacti. She would pull a glamour, so that no one could see her, once they were closer.

It didn’t take long to reach Dawson’s fortress. His house blended into the desert and was surrounded by a fence that was difficult to see in the dark. It wasn’t an ordinary fence even though it had the appearance of one. Virtually invisible beams of black light traveled in between the barbed wires of the fence. The beams continued high above the fence line.

“Might as well be a solid wall.” Petra studied the fence and followed the black light beams that went well over her head. Something about it tells me it would be very dangerous to try to transport through this. “But I think I know how to do it another way.”

Alec shifted back into his human form, rising up to stand beside Petra. “Are you certain?” he asked.

“Yes.” She looked at him. “More or less.”

“It’s the less I’m worried about.” He turned his gaze to the fence. “I’m not sure what this could do to you.”

She picked up a dead branch from a mesquite bush that was lying a couple of feet away. “Let’s find out,” she said as she cleaned off twigs and broke the branch in half so that she was left with two sticks of about a foot long each.

An iridescent bubble shimmered around her and the sticks as she moved toward the fence.

Alec almost told her to stop, he didn’t want to take any chances, but Petra was an Enforcer. She knew what she was getting herself into.

She took one stick and reached out with it. The silver shimmer that was around her extended to coat the stick she stretched out. She touched one of the black light beams with it.

The beam made a sizzling sound, but nothing else. She pressed down on the beam and it lowered with the stick to the barbed wire below it. Alec tensed, concerned that the black light beam might have a reaction with the barbed wire, but nothing happened. She pressed down on both the beam and the wire so that there was a gap in the fence.

She then used the other stick to raise the strand of barbed wire and black light beam above the first set. When it was wide enough, she looked at Alec then turned back to the fence and slowly stepped through the opening.

He didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath until she was all the way through. He let it out on a slow exhale. “Hold it open,” he said.

She didn’t move her arms, still holding the wires and beams apart with the sticks, but shook her head. “I can’t extend my magic to you unless I’m touching you.”

“You won’t need to.” Alec focused on shifting into a bobcat. He gritted his teeth as he transformed into the animal. He was large for a bobcat, but smaller than his tiger form. As a bobcat, his tail was short and stubby so he didn’t have to worry about it touching one of the beams.

“All right,” Petra said, holding the wires and beams as far apart as she was able to. “Be careful, please.”

He crouched, eyeing the opening then sprang and easily leapt through it.

This time Petra let out a loud exhale as she carefully lowered the wires and beams. “Thank goodness.” She let the silver shimmer of magic fall away from her and set the sticks beside the fence.

They started forward, through the mesquite trees surrounding the sorcerer’s place and Alec padded beside Petra in his bobcat form.

Rider and Erick had arranged to meet at the south side of Dawson’s house and see what they could learn. Petra and Alec were taking the north. Petra pulled a glamour as they closed in on the house. Only the other Enforcers would be able to see her.

They paused several yards from the house, where the line of mesquite trees ended.

Guards wielding HK submachine guns stood outside the front door on the west side of the house. Cameras were situated around the place.

Petra and Alec eased through the darkness, continuing to the north side. She was invisible to the cameras, but he was not. However, in his bobcat form, he was less likely to be seen.

When they were in a dead zone, outside the range of any cameras, Petra and Alec paused and he shifted back into his human form and settled on one knee. She knelt beside him.

He touched his earpiece. “Rider. Erick. Check in.”

“In place.” Rider’s voice sounded low and cool. “Two guards at the back entrance loaded with hardware and there are a hell of a lot of cameras.”

“Got a couple of guards in the front with HKs,” Alec said. “With this many cameras, Dawson must have a paranoid streak.”

“I’d have to say he’s earned that,” Erick said.

Petra nodded. “No kidding.”

“Now we need to find a way in.” Alec shifted. “Any ideas on your side?”

“When I flew over the rooftop I didn’t see any cameras,” Rider said. “That might be a good location to go in.”

A shriek of pain came from inside the house and Alec’s heart dropped.

Loni.

Chapter 17

“Make it stop.” Loni fought against the straps holding her in the chair as pain ripped through her. Tears flooded her eyes. “Please make it stop!”

Dawson reclined against one of the tables in the room. “You will be fine.”

She’d never be fine again. She felt as though her head was going to explode. As if her whole body was going to tear apart.

And then suddenly her body went limp as the excruciating pain vanished. Her body ached and she felt sore and weak, so weak that she could barely hold her head up.

The sorcerer called over his shoulder. “Richmond. Carter.”

The man who’d taken her from the drug dealer’s house came forward beside another man she had never seen before. They stood at one end of the lab while she was at the opposite side.

“Let’s see what you can do.” Dawson unstrapped the bindings on her arms and legs and she was free. “Now get up.”

She didn’t think she was going to make it, but as she rose she found a new and different strength overtaking her.

He gestured to Richmond and Carter. “The witch and his star apprentice are here to neutralize any powers you will have developed as a result of the drug. There is nothing they can’t handle.”

“Except me,”
came a voice from inside her head.
“They can’t handle me.”

That was crazy. She had no idea where the thought came from but the feelings that it gave her were strong and sure. Suddenly she felt giddy, yet at peace with what was happening—she had no idea why she was feeling this way.

Like she’d thought, the drug had fundamentally changed her. She just wasn’t sure how—not yet.

The sorcerer studied her. “You now feel a strong desire to please me,” he said with confidence. “The need to do as I tell you to.”

She held back a confused frown. She felt no need to please him or do what he told her, but she said nothing. Did it not affect some humans in that way? Or perhaps it was because she had already developed powers?

“Usually the subject needs something to trigger the powers he or she now has. A catalyst. Spellfire will do for you.” Dawson nodded toward Richmond.

The man that Dawson had called a witch raised a hand and a magic ball sizzled on his palm.
Spellfire
as Dawson had called it.

She could see the intentions in the witch’s eyes. He wanted to hurt her.

Her heart jumped into her throat and she started to shake. He could kill her if it was anything like the sorcerer’s magic in the alleyway.

The ball of spellfire came rushing at her, and terror ripped through her. Where was the sudden confidence now?

She started to dodge out of the way and everything became motionless—except her.

It was like what had happened in the street when the wolf had tried to chase her while Petra and Alec fought the humans who were on Propara.

Only this time, everything was completely still where before everything had moved in slow motion but her.

As soon as she came to a stop, everything went back to normal speed. The spellfire shot straight past where she was standing, only a few feet away, and exploded against the concrete wall behind her.

Surprise, then anger twisted Richmond’s features. The witch threw another ball and then another and the same thing happened. Time stood still long enough for her to get out of the way.

The sorcerer had said that the drug he had injected her with was from a paranorm who had the ability to use telekinesis. If she remembered correctly, that gave a person the power to move objects with their minds. She had never believed in that…before. Now that her world had been turned upside down, everything had changed.

When Richmond gathered a fourth spellfire, she raised her palm. She focused her thoughts on the ball as he flung it. The ball was only halfway across the room to her when it came to an abrupt stop. She gave a push with her mind and the spellfire shot back toward Richmond.

The witch’s eyes widened in surprise. He raised his arm and a shield made of shimmering orange magic appeared around him, like what Petra had used to protect herself in the battle against the human witch who had been high on Propara. Like Petra’s, this witch’s shield seemed to absorb the power as the spellfire slammed into it.

“Excellent.” Dawson gave her a nod of approval, but she sensed a little concern. Perhaps he’d never seen someone react as quickly as she had, and she was certain he’d never seen a human throw the witch’s own spellfire back at him. That truth had been obvious on the witch’s face when she’d done it.

“Carter.” Dawson nodded to the star apprentice.

Almost faster than she could see, a magic rope whipped out of Carter’s hand.

Everything around her went completely motionless, the magic rope hanging in midair.

She reached up and grabbed the rope. It burned her hand but she ignored the burn and flung the rope back in the witches’ direction. She focused on the rope, imagining it circling the witches. It followed her thoughts, doing her bidding. Manipulating the witch’s rope like she had must be related to the telekinetic power.